A Present to Kings — Page 24
( 24 ) that man is, by origin, a combination of certain a animal, vegetable and mineral parts and naturally has a predominating affinity for the things of the earth. He is lifted through the grace of God and is guided by His guidance. It thus happens that if a man is cut off from heavenly guidance or, in other words, if we assume a man to know nothing of Heavenly books, such a one will lead the life of a beast, his only activity will be to eat and drink, and he will be innocent of all those moral traits which mark man's superiority to the beast; and all the faculties with which God endowed him for his advancement will remain latent and he will be powerless to make use of them. Thus we see that those people who are deprived of Heavenly books, lead a life very similar to that of the beasts. They know nothing save to eat and drink and to satisfy their lusts. It would, then, appear that because man derives his origin from matter, his predilection, unless he is guided by God, is towards things material, and unless he receives light from God, he can not discover a way for the development of his soul. Only when he receives guidance from God does he begin to progress beyond the stage of other animals, and to the extent a man advances in spirituality does he differentiate himself from other animals, and a special characteristic begins to show itself in his actions. Keeping this essential fact in view, the significance of the above tradition will appear to be that if human nature, which is a combination of animal qualities, be placed with all its animal instincts into one of the scales of a balance, and in the other scale be placed all the consequences and fruits of those. Kalemas, then the scale containing these Kalemas will sink. . And it is plain that when one of the scales of a balance sinks the other goes up. . Thus the lower the scale containing man's actions will sink, the higher will rise the scale in which is placed the nature of the man, and the higher it rises, the nearer will the nature approach to Divinity, because (by reason of being free from all defects and the centre of all excellence). God's Seat is high. Thus the fact of the scale of actions sinking or proving heavy signifies the exaltation of man which