8801. 'Whether it is a beast or a man, it shall not live' means that goodness and truth will lose their spiritual life. This is clear from the meaning of 'a beast' as an affection for good, dealt with in 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 714, 715, 776, 2179, 2180, 3218, 3519, 5198, 7523; from the meaning of 'a man' as truth, dealt with in 3134, 3459, 7716; and from the meaning of 'living' as spiritual life, dealt with in 5890, so that 'not living' means losing it. Goodness and truth lose their life when influx from the Lord is no longer perceived, for this is what brings them life. To outward appearance that goodness and truth may then, it is true, look like goodness and truth; but they are no different from a painting, which in itself has no life.

715. Since the most ancient people knew and when in self-abasement acknowledged that they were nothing but beasts and wild animals, and that the Lord alone enabled them to be human beings, they not only used to liken whatever resided with themselves to beasts and birds but also called them such. Things of the will they compared to beasts and called them beasts, and those of the understanding they compared to birds and called them birds. They differentiated however between good affections and evil affections. Good affections they compared to lambs, sheep, kids, he-goats, young she-goats, rams, young bulls, and oxen, because they were good and gentle creatures, and also because they had a use in life in that they could be eaten and men could clothe themselves with their skins and wool. These are chiefly the clean beasts. But the evil and savage ones, which also have no use in life, are unclean beasts.