416. After this the two angels, seeing me near them, said to the bystanders, "We know that this man has written about God and nature; let us hear him." And they approached me and asked that what had been written respecting God and nature might be read to them. I then read therefrom* the following.
"From the innumerable things which they see in nature, those who believe in a Divine operation in every single thing of nature can equally well, nay, far more easily, confirm themselves in favor of the Divine, than those who [deny God can] confirm themselves in favor of nature. For those who confirm themselves in favor of the Divine take note of the marvels which are observed in the production both of plants and of animals--in the PRODUCTION OF PLANTS, in that from a small seed cast into the ground comes a root; by means of the root a stem, and then in succession branches, leaves, flowers, fruits, even to new seeds, exactly as though the seed knew the order of succession or the process by which it was to renew itself. What rational man can think that the sun, which is pure fire, knows this? or that it can so endow its heat and light as to produce such effects? that in those effects it can produce marvelous forms and can intend a use? Seeing such things and reflecting upon them, a man whose rational is elevated cannot think otherwise than that they are from Him who has infinite wisdom, thus from God. Moreover, those who acknowledge the Divine, do see this and think it. Not so those who do not acknowledge the Divine, for they do not wish thus to see and think. Thus, letting their rational down into the sensual, which draws all its ideas from the lumen** in which are the senses of the body, they confirm the fallacies of the senses, saying, Do you not see the sun performing these operations by its heat and light? What is that which you do not see? Is it anything?
[2] "Those who confirm themselves in favor of the Divine take note of the marvels which are observed in the PRODUCTIONS OF ANIMALS. Here I make mention merely of their production in eggs. In these, the chick is latent in its seed or initiament together with every requisite until the time of hatching, and also with every requisite during its progress after the hatching, until it becomes a bird or winged creature in the form of its genitor. And if one gives heed to their form and thinks deeply [he will see] that it is of such a nature that he cannot but come into a state of amazement. As, for example, that in the tiniest creatures as in the largest, yea, in the invisible as in the visible, that is, in little insects as in large birds or beasts, are organs of the senses, namely, sight, smell, taste, touch, and, inasmuch as they fly and walk, organs of motion, namely, muscles; also viscera surrounding their hearts and lungs, which are put in motion by their brains. That these are enjoyed by lowly insects is known from the anatomy of such insects as described by authors, especially by Swammerdam in his Biblia Naturae.
[3] "Those who ascribe all things to nature do indeed see these things, but think simply that they are, and say that nature produces them, saying this because they have turned their mind away from thinking of the Divine. When they see the marvels in nature, those who have turned away from thinking of the Divine cannot think rationally, still less spiritually, but think sensually and materially. They then think, not above nature, but from her and in her, in like manner as do those who are in hell. They differ from beasts only in this, that they enjoy rationality, that is, are able to understand, and so can think differently if they will.
[4] "Those who turn away from thinking of the Divine, when they see the marvels in nature and thereby become sensual, do not consider that the sight of the eye is so gross that it sees a number of little insects as a single dark speck; that yet each one of them is organized for sensation and motion, and is therefore furnished with fiber and vessels and also with little hearts, pulmonary tubes, viscera, and brains; that these are woven of the purest things in nature, and that the weavings correspond to some life by which their minutest parts are distinctly actuated. Since the sight of the eye is so gross that to it many such creatures, With the innumerable things within each, appear as dark specks and yet those who are sensual think and judge from that sight, the grossness of their mind and so the darkness in which they are in respect to things spiritual, becomes evident.
* That is, from DIVINE LOVE AND DIVINE WISDOM, nos. 351-57, 350.
** Lux and lumen both mean light, but in the Writings luxis used to signify the light of the spiritual sun or of the natural, while lumen is used generally to signify spiritual light in the natural mind. Thus the eye sees in natural lux; angels see in spiritual lux. The natural man, whether good or evil, sees in lumen. See ARCANA COELESTIA n. 854; DIVINE PROVIDENCE n. 166, and SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES n. 4627.