borg interprets the rich man as meaning the learned among the Jews, who were rich in knowledge of the Word; the poor man, as the simple among them who looked up to the learned for instruction, as Lazarus desired to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table; and the dogs doing their best in their poor way to help him, denote those out of the church who had more kindliness than those within it, though they did not know good from evil.1 Also, when the Syrophenician woman besought the Lord to cast out the devil from her daughter, He replied, "It is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs;" to which she answered, in her humility, "Truth, Lord; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table" (Matt. xv.), thus turning the representative to its good sense, by acknowledging that they were in evil, but expressing a desire to be helped and instructed. Likewise, in a sense not bad, Swedenborg says that dogs signify "the lowest in the 2 See also A. E. 455 1 A. C. 9231. Church, who prate much of such things as are of the Church, but understand little; "1 in which sense it seems to be used in the passage, “That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same." (Psa. lxviii. 24.) Such persons may be very faithful to the things they have been taught, very watchful and suspicious of every thing that does not exactly agree with it, even of familiar things dressed in different clothes.2 Ignoble dogs, because of their greediness and quarrelsomeness, and their unclean' and wanton ways, represent those whose personal attachment is simply for the sake of indulgence of appetite and for sensual enjoyment. Of these Swedenborg says: "By dogs in general are signified those who are in all kinds of lusts and indulge them, particularly they who are in pleasures merely corporeal, especially the pleasures of eating and drinking, in which alone they take delight." 3 1 7784. 8 A. R. 952. 2 That there are good dogs, see S. D. 4853. In this sense it is said, "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs;" for holy things ought not to be used for self-indulgence. And in the Revelation we read, in the same meaning, "Without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers." (Rev. xxii. 15.) From such appetites readily springs the desire to destroy the purer truth which restrains them; and such desire is meant by dogs in the passage, "They compassed me about like dogs; deliver my darling from the power of the dog." (Ps. xxii. 17, 21.) THE FOX AND THE JACKAL. THE HE Hebrew word used in the Bible for fox 'undoubtedly includes the jackal as well. Indeed, in most of the passages where it occurs, the jackal, rather than the fox, is intended. . . . The two animals are commonly confounded, or spoken of together, by the natives of Syria, though they are perfectly aware of their distinctness. . . . "The character and habits of the eastern fox no way differ from those so well known in other countries; but, from necessity probably, they are less exclusively carnivorous than in England.... The fondness of the fox for grapes is well known in the East; but not less so that of the jackal, which, going in packs, often commits great devastation in the vineyards. . . One great difference between the jackal and the fox is, that the former hunts in packs, while the latter prowls singly for his prey, which he takes by stratagem." 1 1 Tristram, in "Nat. Hist. of the Bible." The crafty, pilfering, cruel nature of the fox is made familiar by a thousand anecdotes to be found in every library. Mr. Wood gives the following account of his odor: "A very powerful scent is poured forth from the fox in consequence of some glands which are placed near the root of the tail, and furnish the odorous secretion. . . . It is by this scent that the hounds are able to follow the footsteps of a flying fox, and to run it down by their superior speed and endurance. The fox, indeed, seems to be aware that its pursuers are guided in their chase by this odor, and puts in practice every expedient that its fertile brain can produce in order to break the continuity of the scent, or to overpower it by the presence of other odors, which are more powerful, though not more agreeable. A hunted fox will make the most extraordinary leaps in order to break the line of scent, and throw the hounds on a false track. It will run for a considerable distance in a straight line, return upon its own track, and then make a powerful spring to one side, so as to induce the dogs to run forward while it quietly steals away. It will take every opportunity of perfuming, or rather of scenting, itself with any odorous substance with which it can meet, in the hope of making the hounds believe that they |