270. 'Eating from the ground in great pain' means a wretched state of life. This is evident from what comes before and after this, as well as from the fact that 'eating' in the internal sense means living. It is evident also from the fact that this kind of life is the outcome of evil spirits starting to fight, and of angels present with the man who labour and do so increasingly as evil spirits begin to get the upper hand. The evil spirits in this case govern his external man, the angels his internal, of which so little is left that the angels can find scarcely anything therewith which to defend him. This is what gives rise to wretchedness and anguish. The reason 'dead' men rarely experience such wretchedness and anguish is that they are no longer human, though they imagine that they are more human than anybody else. For they no more know than an animal does what the spiritual or the celestial is, or what eternal life is. Like animals they look down towards earthly objects or out towards worldly ones. They favour only their proprium, and give in to their own inclinations and senses, with complete acquiescence of the rational. And being 'dead' men they would not endure any conflict or temptation. Were temptation to come their way, it would be too severe for their lives to bear, and so they would bring an even greater curse upon themselves and would hurl themselves into a state of condemnation even more profoundly hellish. Consequently they are spared this until they have passed into the next life when they are no longer able to 'die' as a result of any temptation and wretchedness. At that time they suffer very grievously, which is likewise meant by the statement about 'the ground being cursed and man's eating of it in great pain'.