435. All this has been said to convince the rational man that viewed in himself man is a spirit, and that the corporeal part that is added to the spirit to enable it to perform its functions in the natural and material world is not the man, but only an instrument of his spirit. But confirmations from experience are preferable, because rational things are not grasped by many, and by those who have confirmed themselves in what is contrary they are turned into matters of doubt by means of reasonings from the fallacies of the senses. Those who have confirmed themselves in what is contrary are accustomed to think that beasts likewise have life and sensations, and thus have a spiritual part, the same as man has, and yet that part dies with the body. But the spiritual of beasts is not the same quality as is the spiritual of man; for man has what beasts have not, an inmost, into which the Divine inflows, raising man up to Itself, and thereby conjoining man to Itself. Because of this, man, in contrast with beasts, can think about God and about the Divine things of heaven and the Church, and love God from these and in these, and thus be conjoined to Him; and whatever can be conjoined to the Divine cannot be dissipated, but whatever cannot be conjoined to the Divine is dissipated. The inmost that man has, in contrast with beasts, has been treated of above (n. 39), and what was there said is to be here repeated, since it is important to have dispelled the fallacies that have been engendered in the minds of many who, from lack of knowledge and an understanding not opened, are unable to form rational conclusions on the subject. The words are these:
I would mention a certain arcanum respecting the angels of the three heavens, which has not hitherto come into anyone's mind, because degrees have not been understood (concerning which n. 38). "With every single angel and with every single man there is an inmost or highest degree, or an inmost or highest something, into which the Divine of the Lord first or most closely inflows, and from which it disposes the other interior things that succeed in accordance with the degrees of order with them. This inmost or highest degree may be called the entrance of the Lord to the angel and to the man, and His very Own dwelling-place with them. It is by virtue of this inmost or highest that a man is a man, and is distinguished from the brute animals, which do not have it. It is from this that a man, unlike the animals, is capable, in respect of all his interior things which pertain to his mind (mens) and "animus", of being raised up by the Lord to Himself, of believing in the Lord, of being moved by love to the Lord, and thereby beholding Him, and of receiving intelligence and wisdom, and speaking from reason. Also it is by virtue of this that he lives to eternity. But what is arranged and provided by the Lord in this inmost does not openly fall into the perception of any angel, because it is above his thought and transcends his wisdom."
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