987. The fact that on every beast of the earth means over cravings in the lower mind is established by the symbolism of a beast in the Word. There beasts symbolize passions, or cravings. Beasts that are tame, useful, and clean symbolize passions for something good. Beasts that are savage, useless, and unclean symbolize passions for evil, or cravings. 1 For more on this, see §§45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 776.
Because they symbolize cravings here, they are called beasts of the earth, not beasts of the field.
In respect to the mastery exercised by regenerate people over their cravings, everyone needs to realize the tremendous error and totally unregenerate nature of people who imagine that they can subdue evil by their own efforts. Human beings are nothing but evil. We are a mass of evils. Our whole will is unmitigated evil. That is why Genesis 8:21 said, "What human hearts fabricate is evil from their youth."
Personal experience has shown me that people and spirits — and even angels, viewed in themselves (that is, their whole selfhood) — are the most worthless excrement. It has also shown me that when left to themselves, all they meditate is hatred, vengefulness, cruelty, and the foulest adulteries. These are their own impulses; these are their will.
[2] Anyone can see the same thing simply by musing on this, that at birth we are the basest living creatures among all the wild animals and beasts. After growing up and coming into our own, we would plunge into atrocities of every kind if various restraints did not stop us — external legal restraints, and restraints we place on ourselves in seeking to grow as influential and rich as possible. We would not stop until we had overpowered every person in the universe and raked up everyone's wealth. We would spare none but those who submitted to us as lowly slaves. That is what each of us is like, although we do not perceive it when we have no opportunity or power to achieve it, and when we are under restraint, as mentioned. If opportunity and ability presented themselves and the restraints were loosened, we would run just as wild as we could.
Animals are not at all the same. They are born into a kind of preordained system of nature. The savage predators among them do hurt other animals, but only to protect themselves; and when they eat other animals, they are satisfying their hunger. Once satisfied, they inflict no more harm. Humans are completely different.
These things demonstrate what human selfhood and human will are like.
[3] Since we are such a horrible, massive heap of wickedness and dung, we obviously have no ability whatever to conquer evil on our own. It is absolutely self-contradictory to say that evil can control evil, and not only that it can control evil but that it can control hell. Each of us communicates with hell by means of evil spirits, and it is this contact that arouses the evil in us.
From this anyone can see or (if sane) come to the conclusion that only the Lord can control the evil and the hell we harbor within.
In order to subdue the evil in us — or in other words, to subdue hell, which spends every second trying to attack and destroy us forever — the Lord regenerates us and gives us the gift of a new will, which is conscience. Through it, the Lord alone achieves every positive result.
Faith teaches that we are nothing but evil and that everything good is from the Lord, so we must not only learn it but also acknowledge and believe it. If we do not acknowledge and believe it in this life, it will be vividly demonstrated to us in the other life.
Footnotes:
1. The "tame, useful, and clean" animals mentioned in the Bible, also referred to as "beasts of the field," include sheep, goats, and cattle; the "savage, useless, and unclean" animals, also referred to as "beasts of the earth," include bears, wolves, scorpions, serpents, and mice (§§2180:2, 3218). Although the application of negative terms to animals may surprise today's readers, who are more likely to assess animals with respect to their ecological function than their symbolic function, Swedenborg's human-dependent assessment of animals is consistent with his human-centric theology: animals are classed as either useful or useless depending exclusively on their direct impact on humans. Furthermore, Swedenborg states that the signification of animals in the Bible correlates with the meaning of animals as they appear in the spiritual world — that is, as spontaneous representations of the emotions and thoughts of spirits and angels. It follows from this that "every animal symbolizes a characteristic that falls into one of the categories of human qualities" (§10042:2). For a discussion of the origin of animals and plants that are harmful to humans, see in particular Divine Love and Wisdom 338-348; similarly, with less detail, True Christianity 78. For an extensive discussion of animals by Swedenborg, see his posthumously published work written in 1758-1759, Revelation Explained (Swedenborg 1994-1997a) §§1196-1202. (The discussion there is continued serially in the latter subsections of each section.) [SS, LSW]
