The scientifics of the Word [“all things contained in the literal sense in which doctrine appears” (AE 345)] are denoted by the fish : those that belong to the spiritual person are signified by the fish that live in rivers, and those that belong to the natural person are signified by such as live in the sea. These are all created through man, from the goodness and the truth in him: those that are gentle and useful, through his purity; and those that are ferocious and destructive, through his corruption.
Hence it is that the world in its complex is a theatre that represents the state of the church in man, because it originates in the state of collective wills and intellects by which it is formed; and as the state of the church has undergone a change, the productions of the world have changed with it. Many birds, beasts, and fishes that were known to the ancients have ceased to exist, and others that were unknown to them have come into existence. “The heaven, even the heavens are the Lord’s, but the earth hath He given to the children of men” ( Ps. 115:16 ).
The earth or world is given to the children of men, and not to the angels of heaven, because it is an out-birth of external or natural minds, whereas the minds of angels are internal, or spiritual and celestial, and as such the earth could not be an out-birth of their minds. Well might David say:
When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers,
the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained,
what is man, that Thou art mindful of him,
and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?
For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels,
and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Thou hast made him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands;
Thou hast put all things under his feet:
all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field,
the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea,
and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea.
( Ps. 8:1-8 ).
Now, for the Lord to be mindful of man is to supply his wants, both spiritual and natural, by His Divine influx. The heavens are internal states of love and charity, they are the work of the Lord’s fingers, that is, of the Divine truth; the moon and stars which He has ordained denote states of faith and states of knowledge of goodness and truth; and for man, to be made lower than an angel, is for his mind to be external, whilst that of an angel is internal.
Man is visited by the Divine influx passing through his will, signified by man, into his intellect, signified by the son of man. This influx creates through him a representative world that “crowns him with glory and honour,” or goodness and truth, which is the mediatory cause for its existence.” To have dominion over the works of the Lord’s hands” is to cooperate in their production, and to correct the fallacies of the senses.
“Thou hast put all things under his feet” signifies that the spiritual man subdues his natural propensities and delights, and makes them subservient to higher uses. “All sheep and oxen ” denoting interior natural affections; “yea, and the beasts of the field,” representing the exterior natural affections; “the fowl of the air,” denoting spiritual or intellectual thoughts of truths; and “the fish of the sea,” scientific thoughts of truths; “and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea,” signifies that all are formed by the affections and thoughts of man from an influx of goodness and truth, through which they are created in the very act by which they are perceived. The origin of thought is the varieties of affection in the will, which attract various spheres, and their influx clothes itself in thought.
A Compendium of the Doctrines of Spiritual Christianity Collected From the Writings of the Hon. E. Swedenborg, by A. J. Le Cras; p. 17
