1742. Give me the soul, and take the substance to thyself. That this signifies that He should give them life, and they would not care for other things, is evident from the signification of “soul,” as being life (treated of before, n. 1000, 1005, 1040); and from the signification of the “substance,” as being the other things that are not so properly of life, of which more will be said presently.

[2] The life which evil spirits have, and which they love extremely, is the life of the cupidities of the love of self and of the world, hence a life of hatreds, revenge, and cruelties; and they suppose that there can be no delight in any other life. They are like men-for they have been men, and they retain this belief from their life when they were men-who place all life in the delights of such cupidities, not knowing but that such life is the only life, and that when they lose it they will utterly die. But of what nature is that life which they love, is plain from those of this character in the other life, where it is turned into a fetid and excrementitious life, and wonderful to say, they perceive the stench as most enjoyable; as may be seen from what is related from experience in n. 820, 954.

[3] It was the same with the demons, who, when the Lord cast them out of the maniac, fearing for their life, asked that they might be sent into the swine (Mark 5:7-13). That these demons were those who in the life of the body had been given up to filthy avarice, may be seen from the fact that such seem to themselves in the other life to pass their time among swine, for the reason that the life of swine corresponds to avarice, and is therefore delightful to them; as is evident from what is related from experience in n. 939.

1040. And every living soul that is that with you. That this signifies all things in man that have been regenerated, is evident from the signification of “living soul” shown above at verse 10. For “soul” in the Word signifies, as before said, all man’s life both internal and external, and even that of animals from their signifying what is in man. But that is properly a “living soul” which receives life from the Lord, that is, which is regenerate, because this alone is living. And because “soul” signifies man’s life both internal and external, “living soul” signifies in one complex all things in man that have been regenerated. In man there are things of the will and things of the understanding, the two being most distinct; and with a living man all of these both in general and in particular are also living; for the fact is that such as a man is, such are all things in him both in general and in particular; his general life itself is in everything.

[2] For every general is derived from all the component items, as from its own particulars; in no other way can any general come into existence, for it is called a general because it comes forth from particulars. Therefore such as is a man’s life in general, such is it in the most minute atoms of his effort and intention—that is, of his will—and in the most minute atoms of his thought; so that there cannot be the smallest bit of an idea in which the life is not the same. As for example with a haughty man; in every single effort of his will and in every single idea of his thought there is haughtiness; with him who is covetous there is in like manner covetousness, and so with him who hates his neighbor; just as with the stupid man there is stupidity in everything of his will and everything of his thought, and with him who is insane there is insanity. Since this is the nature of man, in the other life his quality is known from a single idea of his thought.

[3] When a man has been regenerated, then all things in him, both in general and in particular, have also been regenerated, that is, have life, and the life they have bears an exact proportion to the degree in which his own will—which is foul and dead—could be separated from the new will and intellectual that he has received from the Lord. Therefore as the subject here treated of is the regenerated man, the “living soul” signifies all things in the man that have been regenerated, which, in general, are all the things of his understanding and of his will, both interior and exterior, and which were expressed before, in the tenth verse (Genesis 9:10), by the “fowl, the beast, and the wild animal of the earth;” for it is said, “I establish My covenant with every living soul that is with you, the fowl, the beast, and the wild animal of the earth.”