1. LOVE IS THE LIFE OF MAN
Man knows that love is but he does not know what love is. He knows from common speech that love is, as when it is said, he loves me, the king loves his subjects and the subjects love their king, the husband loves his wife, and the mother her children, and conversely; also, this or that man loves his country, his fellow-citizens, his neighbour; similarly, about things abstracted from person, as for example, one loves this or that thing. But although [the word] love is so generally used in speech, scarcely anyone knows what love is. Because one is unable, when he reflects upon love, to form for himself any idea of thought about it, he says either that it is not anything, or that it is merely something inflowing as a result of sight, hearing, touch and conversation, and thus affecting him. He is quite unaware that love is his very life, not only the common life of his whole body and of all his thoughts, but also the life of all their individual things. A wise man can perceive this, as for instance when it is said: “If you remove the affection which is of love, can you think anything or do anything? Do not thought, speech and action grow cold to the extent that the affection which is of love grows cold? And do they not grow warm to the extent that this affection grows warm?” But a wise man perceives these things, not from knowledge that love is the life of man, but from experience that this is what happens.
2. No-one knows what the life of man is unless he knows that it is love. If he does not know this, one person can believe that man’s life is only sensating and doing, another that it is thinking, when yet, thought is the first effect of life while the second effect of life is sensation and action. It is said that thought is the first effect of life, but there is thought [that is] more and more interior, also thought more and more exterior. The inmost thought, which is the perception of ends,* is actually the first effect of life; but these things will be treated of below, where degrees of life are considered.
* ends-here meaning purpose or final use.
3. Some idea of love as being the life of man can be had by considering the sun’s heat in the world. It is well known that this heat is a kind of common life of all forms of the earth’s vegetation. For from this heat, as happens when it goes forth in springtime, plants of every kind rise out of the ground, are adorned with leaves, afterwards with flowers, and at last, with fruits, and thus in a sense they live. But when the heat recedes, as happens in the autumn and winter, the plants are stripped of these signs of their life and they wither. It is the same with love in man, for heat and love mutually correspond. For that reason also, love is warm.
4. GOD ONLY, THUS THE LORD, IS LOVE ITSELF, BECAUSE HE IS LIFE ITSELF, AND ANGELS AND MEN ARE RECIPIENTS OF LIFE
This will be amply illustrated in the treatises concerning DIVINE PROVIDENCE and concerning LIFE. Here it is merely stated that the Lord Who is God of the universe is Uncreate and Infinite, whereas a man or an angel is created and finite. And because the Lord is Uncreate and Infinite, He is Esse (Being) Itself which is called Jehovah, and Life Itself or Life in Himself. No-one can be created directly from the Uncreate, the Infinite, Esse Itself and Life Itself, because the Divine is One and not divisible, whereas creation must be from things created and finited, and so formed that the Divine can be in them. Because men and angels are such, they are recipients of life. Wherefore, if any man allows himself to be so far led astray by the thought that he is not a recipient of life, but is life, he cannot be led away from the thought that he is God. A man’s feeling as if he were life, and hence believing himself to be so, arises from fallacy; for the principal cause is not perceived in the instrumental cause otherwise than as one with it. That the Lord is Life in Himself, He teaches in John:
As the Father hath life in Himself, so also hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself John v 26
and that He is Life Itself John xi 26; xiv 6
Now because life and love are one, as is clear from what has been said above (n. 1, 2) it follows that the Lord, because He is Life Itself, is Love Itself.
5. But, so that this may penetrate the understanding, it must be known definitely that because He is Love in its very own essence, that is, Divine Love, the Lord appears before the angels in heaven as a Sun, and that from that Sun go forth heat and light. The heat going forth hence is, in its essence, love, and the light thence going forth, in its essence, wisdom; and to the extent that the angels are recipients of that spiritual heat and light, to that extent they are loves and wisdoms. They are not loves and wisdoms from themselves, but from the Lord. This spiritual heat and light inflow, not only into angels and affect them, but also into men and affect them precisely as they become recipients. And they become recipients in accordance with their love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour. This Sun itself, or Divine Love, cannot by its heat and light create anyone directly from itself, for such a one would be Love in its essence, which is the Lord Himself. But it can create out of substances and matters so formed that they can receive the heat itself and the light itself; comparatively also, the sun of the world cannot, by heat and light, directly produce germinations in the earth, but produces them out of the matters of the ground in which it can be present by its heat and light, and cause vegetation. It may be seen in the work HEAVEN AND HELL (n. 116-140) that the Divine Love of the Lord appears as the Sun in the spiritual world and that from it goes forth the spiritual heat and light from which the angels have love and wisdom.
6. Since therefore man is not life, but is a recipient of life, it follows that the conception of a man from his father is not the conception of life, but only a conception of the first and purest forms capable of receiving life, to which, as to a nucleus of initiament in the womb, there successively accrue substances and matters in forms adapted to the reception of life in its order and degree.
7. THE DIVINE IS NOT IN SPACE
That the Divine, or God, is not in space, although He is Omnipresent and with every man in the world, with every angel in heaven, and with every spirit under heaven, cannot be comprehended by a merely natural idea, but it can by a spiritual idea. It cannot be comprehended by a natural idea because in that there is [the idea] of space. For an idea is formed out of such things as are in the world, and in each and all of these things which are seen by the eyes, there is space. In the world, everything great and small is spatial; everything long, broad, or high there, is spatial; in a word, every measure, figure and form in the world is spatial. This is why it has been said that it cannot be comprehended by a merely natural idea that Divine is not in space although it is said to be everywhere. But yet a man can comprehend this by natural thought provided he admit into it something of spiritual light (lux); therefore, something will first be said concerning the idea and the spiritual thought therefrom. The spiritual idea does not derive anything from space but it derives its all from state. State is predicated of love, of life, of wisdom, of the affections, of the joys therefrom; in general, of good and truth. A truly spiritual idea of these things has nothing in common with space; it is higher, and regards ideas of space under it as heaven regards the earth. But because angels and spirits see with eyes the same as men do in the world, and objects cannot be seen except in space, therefore in the spiritual world where angels and spirits are, there appear spaces similar to those on earth, and yet they are not spaces but appearances; for they are not fixed and constant as they are on earth. For they can be lengthened or shortened; they can be changed and varied. And so, because they cannot be determined by measure, they cannot be comprehended there by any natural idea but only by a spiritual idea. And the spiritual idea concerning distances of space is the same as that concerning distances of good or distances of truth which are affinities and likenesses in accordance with their states.
10. It has been stated that, in the spiritual world just as in the natural world, there appear to be spaces, consequently also distances, but that these are appearances in accordance with spiritual affinities which are of love and wisdom, or of good and truth. Hence it is that the Lord, although He is everywhere in the heavens with the angels, yet appears high above them as a Sun. And because the reception of love and wisdom causes affinity with Him, therefore the heavens in which the angels are in closer affinity appear nearer to Him than those where angels are in more remote affinity. It is as a result of this also that the heavens, which are three in number, are distinct from each other, and similarly the societies of each heaven; and further, that the hells under them are remote in accordance with their rejection of love and wisdom. The same is the case with men in whom and with whom the Lord is present throughout the whole earth. And this is solely for the reason that the Lord is not in space.
11. GOD IS VERY MAN
There is in all the heavens no other idea of God than the idea of a Man. The reason is that heaven as a whole and in part is in form like a Man, and the Divine which is with the angels makes heaven. For this reason it is impossible for the angels to think about God in any other way. And so it is that all those in the world who are conjoined with heaven think about God in the same way when they think interiorly in themselves or in their spirit. From the fact that God is a Man, all angels and all spirits are men in complete form. This is brought about by the form of heaven which is like itself in the greatest and least things. That heaven as a whole and in part is in form like a Man may be seen in the work HEAVEN AND HELL (n. 59-87); and that thoughts go forth in accordance with the form of heaven (n. 203, 204). It is known from Gen. I 26, 27 that men were created after the image and likeness of God; also that God was seen as a Man by Abraham and others. The ancients, from the wise even to the simple, thought about God in no other way than as a Man. And when at length they began to worship many gods, as at Athens and Rome, they worshipped them all as men. These statements can be illustrated by the [things] following, which were treated of in a certain small work* already published:
The Gentiles, especially the Africans, who acknowledge and worship One God, the Creator of the universe, have concerning God the idea of a Man. They say that no-one can have any other idea of God. When they hear that many foster the idea of God as something cloud-like in the midst, they ask wherever are they? And when it is said that they are among the Christians, they declare it is not possible. But it is answered that they have such an idea from the fact that, in the Word, God is called a Spirit, and they think of a spirit in no other way than as of particles of clouds, not knowing that every spirit and every angel is a man. But still examination has been made as to whether their spiritual idea is like their natural one, and it has been found that it is not the same with those who inwardly acknowledge the Lord as the God of heaven and earth. I heard a certain clergyman from the Christians saying that no-one can have an idea of a Divine Human, and I saw him led about to various Gentiles successively more and more interior, and from them to their heavens, and at length to the Christian heaven, and everywhere communication of their more interior perception concerning God was given him. He then noticed that they had no other idea of God than the idea of a Man, which is the same as the idea of a Divine Human.
* Quotation from the CONTINUATION OF THE LAST JUDGMENT (published in 1763), n. 74.
14. ESSE AND EXISTERE* IN GOD-MAN ARE ONE DISTINCTLY
Where there is Esse, there is Existere. There cannot be the one without the other, for Esse is by means of Existere and not apart from it. The rational mind comprehends this when it thinks whether there can be any Esse which does not Exist or whether there can be Existere except from Esse. Because the one is possible along with the other and not without the other, it follows that they are one, but one distinctly. They are one distinctly, like love and wisdom; love indeed is Esse and wisdom is Existere for love has nothing except in wisdom, nor has wisdom anything except from love. Therefore when love is in wisdom, then it exists. These two are such a one that they may be distinguished in thought but not in [their] action. And because they can be distinguished in thought and not in action, therefore it is said that they are one distinctly. Esse and Existere in God-Man are also one distinctly, like soul and body. There can be no soul without its body, nor a body without its soul. The Divine Soul of God-Man is what is understood by the Divine Esse, and the Divine Body what is understood by the Divine Existere. It is an error springing from fallacies to suppose that the soul can exist without a body and can exercise thought and wisdom; for the soul of every man is in a spiritual body after it has cast off the material coverings which it carried around in the world.
* Esse = Being, Existere = the presentation of Being or its standing forth.
15. Esse is not Esse unless it exists because before this it is not in a form, and if it is not in a form it has no quality, and that which has no quality is not anything. That which exists from Esse makes one with it by reason that it is from Esse. From this there is a uniting into one, hence it is that the one is the other’s mutually and reciprocally, and the one is the all in all of the other as in itself.
16. From these considerations it can be established that God is a Man and that thereby He is God Existing, not existing from Himself but in Himself. He Who exists in Himself is God from Whom all things are.
17. IN GOD-MAN INFINITE THINGS ARE ONE DISTINCTLY
It is well known that God is Infinite for He is called “the Infinite”; but He is called “the Infinite” because He is Infinite. He is the Infinite not from this alone that He is Esse and Existere in Himself, but because there are infinite things in Him. The Infinite without infinite things in Him is not infinite except in name only. The Infinite things in Him cannot be said to be infinitely many or infinitely all, on account of the natural idea about many and all. For the natural idea about infinitely many is limited, and about infinitely all is indeed unlimited yet it derives from limited things in the universe. For this reason, man, because of the natural idea belonging to him, cannot, by sublimation and approximation, come into a perception about the infinite things in God. Whereas an angel, being in a spiritual idea can, by sublimation and approximation, rise above the degree of a man without reaching to actual perception of the Infinite things in God.
18. Everyone who believes that God is a Man can affirm for himself that there are infinite things in God. And because He is a Man He has a body and everything pertaining to a body. Thus He has a face, breast, abdomen, loins and feet, for without these He would not be a Man. And since He has these, He also has eyes, ears, nostrils, a mouth and a tongue; so also the things within a man as the heart and lungs and the parts which depend on these, all of which taken together, make man to be man. In a created man, these parts are many, and regarded in their connections are innumerable. But in God-Man they are infinite. Nothing whatever is lacking, hence He has infinite perfection. The comparison is made between Uncreate Man Who is God and a created man, because God is Man, and it is said by Him that the man of this world was created after His image and into His likeness (Gen. I 16, 27).
19. It is more manifestly evident to the angels from the heavens in which they are that there are infinite things in God. The whole heaven consisting of myriads of myriads of angels is, in its universal form, like a man, likewise each society of heaven, be it larger or smaller. Hence also an angel is a man, for an angel is heaven in least form. That such is the case may be seen in the work HEAVEN AND HELL (n. 51-87). Heaven as a whole, in part and in the individual, is in such a form from the Divine which the angels receive; for to the extent that an angel receives from the Lord, to that extent he is a man in perfect form. Thus it is that the angels are said to be in God and God in them; also that God is their all. It cannot be described how many things there are in heaven. And because the Divine makes heaven, it is clearly evident that there are infinite things in Very Man Who is God.
20. It can be similarly inferred from the created universe when this is regarded from uses and their correspondences. But before this can be understood, some things will precede as illustrations.
21. Because in God-Man there are infinite things which, in heaven, in an angel, in a man, appear as in a mirror, and because God-Man is not in space-as was shown above (n. 7-10), it can, to some extent, be seen and comprehended how God can be Omnipresent, Omniscient, and Omniprovident, and how as Man He could create all things, and as Man can hold all the things created by Himself in their order to eternity.
22. It can also be seen from a man as in a mirror that infinite things are one distinctly in God-Man. In man there are many and innumerable things, as was said above, but yet a man feels them as one. From sense [experience] he does not know anything about his brains, his heart and lungs, his liver, spleen and pancreas, or about the innumerable things in his eyes, ears, tongue, stomach, generative organs and the rest; and because he does not know these things from sense [experience] he seems to himself a unity. The reason is that all these things are in such a form that not one can be lacking, for it is a form recipient of life from God-Man as was shown above (n. 4-6). As a result of the order and connection of all things in such a form, there is presented the sense and then the idea as if there were not many and innumerable things, but as if they were one. From these facts it can be concluded that the many and innumerable things which make, as it were, one in a man, in Very Man Who is God, are one distinctly, indeed most distinctly.
23. THERE IS ONE GOD-MAN FROM WHOM ALL THINGS ARE
All things of human reason conjoin, and as it were, centre in this that the One God is the Creator of the universe. Consequently, a man, given reason, does not and cannot think otherwise from his general understanding. Say to anyone of sound reason that there are two Creators of the universe, and you will experience in yourself his repugnance, perhaps from the mere sound of the expression in the ear. And so it is clear that all things of human reason conjoin and centre in this, that there is One God. There are two reasons for this. The first is that the very faculty of thinking rationally, considered in itself, does not belong to man but to God with him. Upon this faculty the generality of human reason depends and hence this tendency causes man to see as from himself. The second is because by that faculty man is either in the light (lux) of heaven, or derives the general nature of his thoughts therefrom; and it is a universal [idea] of the light of heaven that God is One. It is otherwise if man by that faculty has perverted the lower things of his understanding. He is indeed endowed with that faculty, but by a twisting of the lower parts, he turns it in another direction. Hence his reason becomes unsound.
24. Every man, although unaware of it, thinks of a company of men as a man. Therefore he at once perceives the meaning when it is said that a king is the head and the subjects the body, and also when it is said that this or that person is of such a quality in the general body, that is, in the kingdom. As it is with the body politic, so it is with the body spiritual. The body spiritual is the Church, its head is God-Man. From this it is clear how the Church as a man would appear in this perception if the One God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, were not thought of, but instead of one, several gods. Understood in that way, the Church would appear as one body with many heads, thus not as a man but as a monster. If it be said that these heads have one essence, by which means they together make one head, no other idea could result from this except of one head with several faces or of one face with several heads. Thus, in that perception, the Church would be presented as deformed, when yet the One God is the head and the Church is the body which acts, not from itself, but under command of the head, as is also the case in man. Hence it is also that there is only one king in one kingdom. For several kings would rend it asunder while one king can hold it together.
25. It would be the same in the Church scattered throughout the whole world which is called a communion from its being like one body under one head. It is well known that the head rules the body under it at command. For the understanding and the will reside in the head, and from the understanding and the will the body is put in motion, even to the extent that the body is only an obedience. The body can do nothing except from the understanding and the will in the head.
Similarly, the man of the Church can do nothing except from God. It appears as if the body acts from itself, thus as if the hands and feet in acting are moved from themselves, and as if the mouth and tongue in speaking vibrate from themselves, when in fact they do not a whit from themselves, but from the affection of the will and hence from the thought of the understanding in the head. Consider, then, if one body had several heads and each head were independent from its own understanding and will, whether the body could continue in existence. Among several heads there could be no unanimity such as belongs to one head. As it is in the Church, so it is in the heavens which consist of myriads of myriads of angels. Unless they, each and all, looked to one God, one would fall away from another and heaven would be dissolved. Consequently, if an angel of heaven but thinks of many gods he is at once separated, for he is cast out into the outermost boundary of the heavens, and falls down.
26. Since the whole heaven and all the things of heaven have relation to one God, so angelic speech is of such a nature that, by a certain harmony flowing from the harmony of heaven, it terminates in a unity [of expression]. This is a sign that it is impossible for angels to think otherwise of God than as One, for speech is from thought.
27. What person is there of sound reason who will not perceive that the Divine is not divisible, also that a plurality of Infinites, Uncreates, Omnipotents and Gods is not possible? If someone destitute of reason were to say that a plurality of Infinites, Uncreates, Omnipotents and Gods were possible provided they have one identical essence, and that because of this there is one Infinite, Uncreate, Omnipotent and one God, is not one identical essence one identity? And one identity is not possible to several. If it should be said that one is from the other, then he who is from the other is not God in himself, and yet God in Himself is God from Whom all things are (see above n. 16).
28. THE DIVINE ESSENCE ITSELF IS LOVE AND WISDOM
If you gather together all the things that you know, and submit them to mental reflection, and in some elevation of spirit search for the universal of them all, you cannot draw any other conclusion than that Love and Wisdom are such. For these are the two essentials of all the things of a man’s life. Everything civil, moral and spiritual of a man’s life depends upon these two, and apart from these two, they are not anything. It is the same with all the things of the life of the composite Man which is, as was stated above, a society larger or smaller, a kingdom, an empire, the Church and also the angelic heaven. Take away love and wisdom from these, and consider whether they be anything, and you will find that, without these as their origin, they are nothing.
29. It cannot be denied by anyone that Love together with Wisdom in its very essence is in God. For He loves everyone from Love in Itself and leads everyone from Wisdom in Itself. The created universe also, regarded from order, is so full of wisdom [coming forth] from love, that you may say all things in the aggregate are wisdom itself. For limitless (indefinita) things are in such order, successively and simultaneously that, taken together, they make a one. It is from this cause and no other that they can be held together and continually preserved.
30. It is from the fact that the very Divine Essence is Love and Wisdom that man has two faculties of life, from one of which he has understanding, and from the other, will. The faculty from which he has understanding derives everything it has from the influx of Wisdom from God; and the faculty from which he has will derives everything it has from the influx of Love from God. A man’s not being justly wise and not loving justly does not take away these faculties but merely closes them in, and so long as they are closed in, the understanding is indeed called understanding and the will is called will, but they are not such essentially. Wherefore if these two faculties were to be taken away, all that is human would perish; for being human is to think and speak from thought, and to will and act from will. Hence it is clear that the Divine dwells with man in these two faculties, which are the faculties of being wise and of loving, that is, in the ability to be wise and to love. That there is in man the possibility of loving and of being wise, although he is not wise as he might be and does not love as he might, has been made known to me by much experience which you will see abundantly elsewhere.
31. It is from the fact that the Divine Essence is Love and Wisdom that all things in the universe have relation to Good and Truth. For everything that proceeds from Love is called good, and what proceeds from Wisdom is called truth. But of this more below.
32. It is from the fact that the Divine Essence itself is Love and Wisdom that the universe and all things in it, whether alive or not, continue to exist from heat and light. For heat corresponds to love, and light corresponds to wisdom. Consequently also, spiritual heat is love, and spiritual light is wisdom. But of this also more below.
33. From the Divine Love and Wisdom, which make the very Essence which is God, arise all the affections and thoughts with man, affections from Divine Love, and thoughts from Divine Wisdom. And each and all things of man are nothing but affection and thought. These two are like the founts of all the things of his life. All the enjoyments and pleasures of his life are from them, enjoyments from the affection of his love and pleasures from the thought therefrom. Now since man was created to be a recipient, and is a recipient in the degree in which he loves God, and out of love to God is wise, that is, in the degree in which he is affected by those things that are from God, and in the degree that he thinks from that affection, it follows that the Divine Essence, which is the Creator, is Divine Love and Wisdom.
34. THE DIVINE LOVE IS OF DIVINE WISDOM, AND THE DIVINE WISDOM IS OF DIVINE LOVE
That the Divine Esse and the Divine Existere in God are one distinctly, may be seen above (n. 14-16). And because Divine Esse is Divine Love, and Divine Existere is Divine Wisdom, so these similarly are one distinctly. They are said to be one distinctly because love and wisdom are two distinct things, yet so united that love is of wisdom and wisdom is of love; for in wisdom love IS and in love, wisdom EXISTS. And because wisdom derives its Existere from love (as was said above n. 15), therefore Divine Wisdom also is Esse. From this it follows that Divine Love and Wisdom taken together are the Divine Esse, but taken distinctly, Love is called the Divine Esse, and Wisdom the Divine Existere. Such is the angelic idea of Divine Love and Wisdom.
35. Since there is such a union of love and wisdom, and of wisdom and love in God-Man, the Divine Essence is one. For the Divine Essence is Divine Love because it is of Divine Wisdom, and Divine Wisdom because it is of Divine Love. And since there is such a union of these, so the Divine Life is one. Life is the Divine Essence. Divine Love and Wisdom are one because the union is reciprocal, and reciprocal union causes oneness. But of reciprocal union more things will be stated elsewhere.
36. There is also a union of love and wisdom in every Divine work, from which it has its perpetuity and indeed its eternity. If there were more of Divine Love than of Divine Wisdom, or more of Divine Wisdom than of Divine Love in any created work, it would not continue in existence except in the measure in which they were equal. Whatever is in excess passes off.
37. In the reformation, regeneration and salvation of men, Divine Providence participates equally of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. Man cannot be reformed, regenerated and saved by an excess of Divine Love over Divine Wisdom, or by an excess of Divine Wisdom over Divine Love. The Divine Love wishes to save all, but it can save only by Divine Wisdom, and to the Divine Wisdom belong all the laws through which salvation is effected. Love cannot transcend these laws since Divine Love and Wisdom are one, and act in unison.
38. Divine Love and Divine Wisdom are understood in the Word by “justice and judgment”, Divine Love by “justice”, and Divine Wisdom by “judgment”. Wherefore in the Word, “justice and judgment” are mentioned concerning God; as in
David:
Justice and judgment are the support of Thy throne Ps. LXXXIX 14
and again,
Jehovah shall bring forth justice as the light and judgment as the noonday Ps. XXXVII 6
in Hosea,
I will betroth thee unto me in justice and judgment. Hosea II 19
in Jeremiah,
I will raise unto David a just branch, who shall reign as king, . . . and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth Jer. XXIII 5
in Isaiah,
He shall sit upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to establish it. . . in judgment and in justice Isa. IX 7
and again,
Jehovah shall be exalted, . . . because He hath filled the earth with judgment and justice Isa. XXXIII 5
in David,
When I shall have learned the judgments of thy justice seven times a day do I praise Thee, because of the judgments of thy justice. Ps. cxix 7, 164
The same is understood by “life” and “light”, in John:
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men John I 4
By “life” there, is understood the Lord’s Divine Love and by “light” His Divine Wisdom.
The same also is understood by “life” and “spirit”, in John:
Jesus said, the words which I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. John VI 63
40. DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM IS SUBSTANCE AND IT IS FORM
The idea of ordinary men concerning love and wisdom is as of something flying and floating in fine air or ether, or as of what exhales from something of this kind. And scarcely anyone thinks that they are really and actually substance and form. Those who do see that they are substance and form still perceive the love and wisdom outside the subject as issuing from it. Indeed, they call substance and form that which they perceive outside the subject and issuing from it, although as something flying and floating, not knowing that love and wisdom are the subject itself, and that what is perceived outside of it as flying and floating is only an appearance of the state of the subject in itself. There are several reasons that this has not hitherto been seen. One of them is that appearances are the first things out of which the human mind (mens) forms its understanding, and the mind cannot shake off these appearances except by an investigation of the cause. And if the cause lies deeply hidden, the mind cannot investigate it except by keeping the understanding for a long time in spiritual light; and it cannot do this on account of the natural light which continually draws it back. Yet the truth is that love and wisdom are the real and actual substance and form which constitute the subject itself.
41. But because this is contrary to appearance, it may seem not to merit belief unless it be proved; and since it can be proved only by such things as man can perceive from his bodily senses, it will be proved by these. Man has five external senses which are called touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight. The subject of touch is the skin by which man is enveloped. The very substance and form of the skin cause it to feel the things applied to it. The sense of touch is not in the things applied, but in the substance and form of the skin which are the subject. That sense is only an affecting of it by the things applied. It is the same with taste. This sense is only an affecting of the substance and form which belong to the tongue; the tongue is the subject. It is the same with smell. It is well known that odour affects the nostrils, and that it is in the nostrils, and smell is an affecting of them by the odoriferous things touching them. It is the same with hearing. It appears as if the hearing were in the place where the sound originates, but the hearing is in the ear, and is an affecting of its substance and form. That the hearing is at a distance from the ear is an appearance. It is the same with sight. When a man sees objects at a distance, the seeing appears to be there, but yet the seeing is in the eye which is the subject and is likewise an affecting of it. Distance is solely from the judgment inferring about space from intermediate things or from the diminution and the consequent indistinctness of the object, an image of which is produced interiorly in the eye according to the angle of incidence. From this it is evident that sight does not go out from the eye to the object, but that the image of the object enters the eye and affects its substance and form. Thus it is just the same with sight as it is with hearing. Hearing does not go out from the ear to catch the sound, but the sound enters the ear and affects it. From these considerations it can be established that the affecting of substance and form which causes the sense is not a something separate from the subject, but only causes a change in it, the subject remaining the subject as before and afterwards. Hence it follows that sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch are not a something volatile flowing out of their organs, but that they are the organs themselves, considered in their substance and form, and that when the organs are affected, sensation results.
42. It is the same with love and wisdom, with the difference only that the substances and forms which are love and wisdom are not obvious to the eyes as are the organs of the external senses. Nevertheless, no-one can deny that those things of wisdom and love which are called thoughts, perceptions and affections are substances and forms, and not entities flying and flowing out of nothing, or abstracted from real and actual substance and form which are subjects. For in the brain are innumerable substances and forms in which resides every interior sense which pertains to the understanding and the will. All the affections, perceptions and thoughts there are not exhalations from those, but are actually and really subjects, emitting nothing from themselves, but merely undergoing changes according to whatever flows towards, and affects them. This can be established from the things stated above concerning the external senses. More will be said below about the things flowing towards, and affecting them.
43. From these things it can first be seen that Divine Love and Wisdom in themselves are substance and form, for they are very Esse and Existere. And unless they were such Esse and Existere as they are substance and form, they would be merely a figment of the imagination which in itself is not anything.
44. DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM ARE SUBSTANCE AND FORM IN ITSELF, THUS THE VERY AND ONLY ONE [REALITY]
It has been confirmed just above that Divine Love and Wisdom is substance and form. It has also been stated above that Divine Esse and Existere is Being and Presentation in itself. It cannot be said to be Esse and Existere from itself because this involves a beginning, and also derivation from something in it which is Esse and Existere in itself, whereas Esse and Existere in itself is from eternity. Very Esse and Existere in itself is also uncreated, and everything created can exist only from the Uncreate. What is created is also finite, and the finite can exist only from the Infinite.
45. He who, by some thought, can become accustomed to, and can comprehend [the idea of] Esse and Existere in itself can certainly become accustomed to the idea, and can comprehend that it is the Very and One Only [Reality]; that is called the Very Reality which Alone is, and that it is called the One Only from which every other thing is. Now because the Very and One Only is substance and form, it follows that it is the Very and One Only substance and form. And because this Very substance and form is Divine Love and Wisdom, it follows that it is the Very and Only Love and the Very and Only Wisdom; consequently, that it is the Very and Only Essence, as well as the Very and Only Life, for Life is Love and Wisdom.
46. From these considerations it can be established how sensually, that is, how much from the senses of the body and their darkness in spiritual things, those people think who declare that Nature is from herself. They think from the eye and cannot think from the understanding. Thought from the eye closes the understanding, but thought from the understanding opens the eye. Those men cannot think at all concerning Esse and Existere in itself, and that it is Eternal, Uncreate and Infinite. Neither can they think at all concerning life except as a volatile thing going away into nothingness, nor can they think otherwise about Love and Wisdom, and certainly not that from Love and Wisdom are all things of Nature. Neither can it be seen that from these are all things of Nature unless Nature is regarded in its series and order from uses, and not from some of its forms which are objects of the eye alone. For uses are from life alone, and their series and order from wisdom and love, while forms are containants of uses. Consequently, if forms alone are regarded, nothing of life, still less of love and wisdom, and thus nothing of God can be seen in Nature.
47. THE DIVINE LOVE AND THE DIVINE WISDOM CANNOT BE OTHER THAN ESSE AND EXISTERE IN OTHERS CREATED BY ITSELF
Love in itself is not to love self, but to love others and to be conjoined with them by love. An essential of love also is to be loved by others, for thus is conjunction effected. The essence of all love consists in conjunction, it is indeed its life which is called enjoyment, delight, sweetness, blessedness, happiness and felicity. Love consists in this that its own is another’s; and to feel another’s joy as joy in oneself, this is to love. But to feel one’s joy in another and not the other’s joy in oneself, this is not to love, for the latter is loving one’s self, the former loving the neighbour. The two kinds of love are diametrically opposed to one another. Either kind of love does indeed conjoin; and it does not appear that to love oneself, that is, to love oneself in another, disjoins. But yet it does disjoin to such a degree that, so far as anyone has loved another in this manner, so far he afterwards hates him. For such a conjunction is by itself successively dissolved, and then, in like measure, the love becomes hatred.
48. Whoever fails to see this if he can discern the essence of love? For what is it to love oneself alone, and not another outside oneself by whom one may be loved in return? This is separation rather than conjunction. Conjunction of love is by reciprocity and there is no reciprocity in self alone; if it is thought there is, it is from an imaginary reciprocation in others. From this it is clear that the Divine Love must necessarily be and exist in others whom it may love, and by whom it may be loved. For when there is such a need in all love, it must be most of all, that is, infinitely, in Love Itself.
49. With respect to God, it is impossible for Him to love others and be reciprocally loved by those in whom there is anything of infinity, or anything of the essence and life of love in itself or anything of the Divine. For if there were in them anything of infinity or of the essence and life of love in itself, that is, anything of the Divine, then He would not be loved by others but would be loving Himself, for the Infinite or the Divine is the One Only. If this [Infinity] were in others, it would be Very Reality, and would be the love of self, the least trace of which cannot be in God, for this is entirely opposed to the Divine Essence. Wherefore [loving and being loved] must be in others in whom there is nothing of the Divine in itself. That it is possible in beings created by the Divine will be seen below. But so that it may be possible, there must be Infinite Wisdom making one with Infinite Love; that is, there must be the Divine Love of Divine Wisdom, and the Divine Wisdom of Divine Love, concerning which see above (n. 34-39).
50. Upon a perception and knowledge of this arcanum depends a perception and knowledge of all things of existence or creation, also of all things of continued existence, that is, of preservation by God; in other words, of all the works of God in the created universe. This will be treated of in sections following.
51. But do not, I entreat you, confound your ideas with time and space, for in so far as anything of time and space is present in your ideas when you read what follows, you will not understand it. For the Divine is not in time and space. This will be seen clearly in the continuation of this work, and in particular, from what is said about Eternity, Infinity and Omnipresence.
52. ALL THINGS IN THE UNIVERSE HAVE BEEN CREATED BY THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM OF GOD-MAN
The universe in greatest and least things, and in first and last things is so filled with Divine Love and Wisdom that it may be said to be Divine Love and Wisdom in an image. That this is so is clearly evident from the correspondence of all things of the universe with all things of man. Each and every thing which exists in the created universe has such a correspondence with each and every thing of man, that it may be said that man also is a kind of universe. There is a correspondence of his affections and hence of his thoughts with all things of the animal kingdom; of his will and hence of his understanding with all things of the vegetable kingdom; and of his ultimate life with all things of the mineral kingdom.
It is not apparent to anyone in the natural world that there is such a correspondence; but it is apparent to everyone who gives heed to it in the spiritual world. In that world there are all the things which exist in the three kingdoms in the natural world, and they are correspondences of affections and thoughts, of affections derived from the will and of thoughts derived from the understanding, as well as of the ultimate things of the life of those who are there; and both the former and the latter appear around them in such an aspect as in the created universe, with the difference that it is a lesser effigy. From these things it is manifestly clear to the angels that the created universe is an image representative of God-Man, and that it is His Love and Wisdom which are presented in an image in the universe. Not that the created universe is God-Man, but that it is from Him. For nothing whatever in the created universe is substance and form in itself, nor love and wisdom in itself, indeed neither is man a man in himself, but all is from God, Who is Man, Wisdom and Love, and Form and Substance in Himself. That which is in itself is uncreate and infinite. But whatever is from itself, because it has within it nothing of Being-in-itself, is created and finite, and this represents an image of Him from Whom it is and from Whom it exists.
53. Esse and Existere can be predicated of things created and finite, likewise substance and form, also life and even love and wisdom, but these are all created and finite. This can be said of things created and finite, not because they possess anything Divine, but because they are in the Divine and the Divine is in them. For everything created is, in itself, inanimate and dead, but is animated and made alive by the fact that the Divine is in it and that it is in the Divine.
54. The Divine is not in one subject differently from what it is in another, but one created subject does differ from another. For no two things can be the same, and hence each thing is a different containant. On this account the Divine in its image presents a variety of appearances. The presence of the Divine in opposites will be discussed in what follows.
55. ALL THINGS IN THE CREATED UNIVERSE ARE RECIPIENTS OF THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM OF GOD-MAN
It is well known that each and all things of the universe have been created by God. Hence the universe with each and everything pertaining to it, is called in the Word the work of Jehovah’s hands. The world in its complex is said to have been created out of nothing, and from nothing an idea of absolute nothingness is fostered. Yet out of absolute nothingness, nothing is or can be made. This is an abiding truth. The universe, therefore, which is God’s image, and hence full of God, could only be created in God from God. For God is Esse itself, and from Esse must be whatever is. To create what is, from nothing which is not, is a direct contradiction. But yet, that which is created in God from God is not continuous from Him. For God is Esse in itself, and in created things there is not any Being in itself. If there were in created things any Esse in itself, this would be continuous from God and that which is continuous from God is God. The angelic idea of such a matter is that what is created in God from God is like that in a man which he had drawn from his life, but from which the life has been withdrawn. This is of such a nature that it conforms to his life, yet is not his life. The angels confirm this from many things which exist in their heaven where they say that they are in God and God in them, and yet they have in their esse nothing of God which is God. Many things from which they confirm this will be adduced in what follows. Here let the mere statement suffice as information.
56. Every created thing, by virtue of its origin, is such in its nature that it may be a recipient of God, not by continuity, but by contiguity. By the latter and not by the former there is conjunctivity. For it is in accord, because it has been created in God by God. And having been created thus, it is an analogue, and by this conjunction is like an image of God in a mirror.
57. It is from this that angels are not angels from themselves, but they are angels by virtue of this conjunction with God-Man. And this conjunction is in accordance with their reception of Divine Good and Divine Truth which are God, and seem to proceed from Him although they are in Him. The reception, however, is in accordance with their application to themselves of the laws of order which are Divine truths, as a result of the freedom of thinking and willing according to reason which they have from the Lord as their own. By this they have reception, as if from themselves, of Divine Good and Divine Truth, and through this there is reciprocity of love. For as was said above, love is not possible unless it be reciprocal. It is the same with men on earth. From what has been said it can now first be seen that all things of the created universe are recipients of the Divine Love and Wisdom of God-Man.
58. It cannot yet be intelligibly explained how other things of the universe which are unlike angels and men, such as the things below men in the animal kingdom, and the things below these in the vegetable kingdom, and below these in the mineral kingdom are also recipients of the Divine Love and Wisdom of God-Man. For many things need first to be said about degrees of life and degrees of the recipients of life. Conjunction with them is according to their uses. For all good uses derive their origin from no other source than through a similar conjunction with God, but different according to degrees. This conjunction in its descent becomes successively of such a nature that there is nothing of freedom because nothing of reason in it and therefore nothing of the appearance of life, but still they are recipients. Because they are recipients they are also reactive for in as much as they are reactive, they are containants. Conjunction with uses which are not good will be discussed after the origin of evil has been shown.
59. From these premises it can be established that the Divine is in each and every thing of the created universe, and consequently that the created universe is the work of Jehovah’s hands, as is said in the Word, that is, the work of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, for these are understood by “Jehovah’s hands”. Yet although the Divine is in each and every thing of the created universe, still there is in their esse nothing of the Divine in itself. For the created universe is not God but is from God; and because it is from God, there is in it an image of Him like the image of a man in a mirror, wherein indeed the man appears, while yet there is nothing of the man in it.
60. I have heard several around me in the spiritual world talking and saying that they were quite willing to acknowledge that the Divine is in each and every thing of the universe, because they see therein the wonderful works of God, which the more interiorly they are viewed, the more wonderful they are. Yet when they heard that the Divine is actually in each and every thing of the universe, they were indignant, a sign that although they state this they do not believe it. They were therefore asked whether this cannot be seen if only from the marvellous power which is in every seed of producing its own vegetable form in such order even to new seeds; also that in every seed there is the idea of the infinite and eternal, for there is in seeds an effort to multiply themselves and to fructify to infinity and eternity. Also in every living creature, even the smallest, this effort appears from their having organs of sense, also brains, heart, lungs and other parts, with arteries, veins, fibres, muscles, and their activities, besides the stupendous things in their instincts about which whole volumes have been written. All these wonderful things are from God, but the forms with which they are clothed are from earthy matters, from which come plants and, in their order, men. Therefore it is said of man that he was created out of the ground, and that he is the dust of the earth, and that the soul of lives was breathed into him (Gen. II 7); from which it is clear that the Divine does not belong to man but is adjoined to him.
61. ALL CREATED THINGS HAVE, IN A CERTAIN IMAGE, RELATION TO MAN
This can be established from each and every thing of the animal kingdom, from each and every thing of the vegetable kingdom, and from each and every thing of the mineral kingdom.
The relation in (in omnibus et singulis) each and every thing of the animal kingdom to man is evident from the following. Animals of every kind have limbs by which they move, organs by which they feel and viscera by which these are actuated. These things they have in common with man. They have also appetites and affections similar to man’s natural appetites and affections. And they have connate knowledges corresponding to their affections, In some of which there appears something spiritual which is more or less in evidence in the beasts of the earth, the birds of the air, and in bees, silk-worms, ants, etc. And so it is that merely natural men regard the living creatures of this kingdom as like themselves, except for speech.
The relation out of (ex omnibus et singulis) each and all things of the vegetable kingdom to man is evident from the following. They come forth out of seed, and from that proceed successively through their several stages. They have what is akin to marriage, followed by prolification, their vegetable soul (anima) is use, of which they are forms, besides many other things which have relation to men. These also have been described by various writers.
The relation by (ab omnibus et singulis) each and all things of the mineral kingdom to man is seen only in the endeavour to produce forms which do show relation, (which forms are, as was said, each and all things of the vegetable kingdom), and so to perform uses. For when a seed first sinks into the bosom of the earth, the earth cherishes it, and from herself provides it with nourishment from every source so that it may sprout forth and present itself in a form representative of man. That there is such an endeavour also in its solid parts is evident from corals at the bottom of the sea, and from flowers in mines [originating] there from minerals and also from metals. The endeavour towards vegetating and thus towards performing uses is an ultimate derived from the Divine in created things.
62. As there is an endeavour of the minerals of the earth towards vegetating, so there is an endeavour of plants to become more alive; hence insects of various kinds corresponding to odours emanating from plants. This does not arise from the heat of the world’s sun, but from life through that heat according to the recipients, as will be seen in what follows.
63. That there is a relation of all things of the created universe to man can indeed be known from the foregoing statements, though seen only obscurely, whereas in the spiritual world this is clearly seen. In that world are also all things of the three kingdoms, and in the midst of them is the angel. He sees those around him and he also knows that they are his representations. Indeed, when the inmost of his understanding is opened, he recognizes himself and sees in them his image, practically in no other way than as in a mirror.
64. From these and many other facts in agreement, which there is no space here to cite, it can be known for a certainty that God is Man, and that the created universe is an image of Him. For there is a general relation of all things to Him just as there is a particular relation of all things to man.
65. THE USES OF ALL CREATED THINGS ASCEND BY DEGREES FROM LOWEST THINGS TO MAN, AND THROUGH MAN TO GOD THE CREATOR FROM WHOM THEY ARE
Lowest things, as was stated above, are each and all things of the mineral kingdom which are matters of various kinds, of a stony, saline, oily, mineral or metallic substance covered over with soil from vegetable and animal matters broken up into the most minute tilth. In these lie concealed both the end and the beginning of all uses which are derived from life. The end of all uses is the endeavour to produce uses, the beginning is the force acting from that endeavour. These belong to the mineral kingdom.
Middle things are each and all things of the vegetable kingdom, which are grasses and herbs of every kind, plants and shrubs of every kind and trees of every kind. The uses of these are for each and all things of the animal kingdom, both imperfect and perfect. These they nourish, delight and vivify. They nourish their bodies with their own matters, delight their senses with taste, fragrance and beauty, and enliven their affections. The endeavour towards this is also in these from life.
First things are each and all things of the animal kingdom. The lowest there are called worms and insects, the middle are birds and beasts, and the highest, men. For in each kingdom are the lowest, the middle and highest, the lowest for the use of the middle, and the middle for the use of the highest. Thus the uses of all created things ascend in order from lowest things to man who is first in order.
66. There are three degrees of ascent in the natural world and three degrees of ascent in the spiritual world. All animals are recipients of life. The more perfect animals are recipients of life of the three degrees of the natural world, the less perfect are recipients of life of two degrees of that world, and the imperfect are recipients of one of its degrees. But man alone is a recipient of life not only of the three degrees of the natural world but also of the three degrees of the spiritual world. Hence it is that man can be raised above Nature, but not so any animal. He can think analytically and rationally about civil and moral things which are within Nature, and also about spiritual and heavenly things which are above Nature. Indeed, he can be raised into wisdom even to seeing God. But the six degrees through which the uses of all created things ascend in their order, even up to God the Creator, are to be treated in the appropriate place. From this summary it can be seen that there is an ascent of all created things towards the First Who alone is Life, and that the uses of all things are the very recipients of life, and hence so are the forms of uses.
67. It shall also be stated briefly how man ascends, that is, how he is raised from the lowest to the first degree. He is born into the lowest degree of the natural world; then, by means of knowledges, he is raised into the second degree; and as he perfects his understanding by knowledges he is raised into the third degree and then becomes rational. The three degrees of ascent in the spiritual world are in man above the three natural degrees, and do not appear until he has put off the earthly body. When he has put this off, there is opened to him the first spiritual degree, afterwards the second, and finally the third, but only with those who become angels of the third heaven. These are they who see God. Those become angels of the second and lowest heaven with whom the second and lowest degree can be opened. With man every spiritual degree is opened in accordance with his reception of Divine Love and Wisdom from the Lord. Those who receive anything of it come into the first or lowest spiritual degree, those who receive more, into the second or middle spiritual degree, those who receive much, into the third or highest degree. But those who receive nothing of these remain in the natural degrees, and derive from the spiritual degrees nothing more than the ability to think and thence to speak, and to will and thence to act, but not intelligently.
68. Concerning the elevation of man’s interiors which belong to his mind, the following should also be known. In everything created by God there is reaction. In Life alone there is action, and reaction is caused by the action of Life. This reaction appears to belong to the created thing, because it comes into being when the subject is acted upon. Thus in man it appears as if it [reaction] were his because he has no other feeling than that life is his, when yet man is only a recipient of life. It is because of this that man, by reason of his hereditary evil, reacts against God. But as he believes that all his life is from God, and that all the good of life is from the action of God, and all evil of life from the reaction of man, to that extent the reaction becomes [part] of the action and man acts with God, as if from himself. The equilibrium of all things is from action and reaction together, and everything must be in equilibrium. These things have been said lest man should believe that he himself ascends to God by himself; but he does so by [the power of] the Lord.
69. THE DIVINE, APART FROM SPACE, FILLS ALL THE SPACES OF THE UNIVERSE
There are two things proper to Nature, SPACE and TIME. It is from these that man in the natural world forms the ideas of his thought and thence of his understanding. If he remains in these ideas and does not raise his mind above them, he can never perceive anything spiritual and Divine, for he involves them in ideas derived from space and time, and in proportion as he does this, the light (lumen) of his understanding becomes merely natural. To think from this in reasoning about spiritual and Divine things is like thinking from the dense darkness of night about those things which appear only in the light of day. From this comes Naturalism. But he who knows how to raise his mind (mens) above ideas of thought derived from space and time, passes out of dense darkness into light, and discerns spiritual and Divine things, and at length sees those things which are in them and from them. And then from that light he disperses the density of natural light, relegating its fallacies from the middle to the sides. Every man who has understanding can think above things proper to Nature; and he actually does so. And then he affirms and sees that the Divine, because it is Omnipresent, is not in space. He is also able to affirm and to see the things which have been adduced above. But if he denies Divine Omnipresence and ascribes all things to Nature, then he does not wish to be raised even although he can be.
70. All who die and become angels put off those two things proper to Nature which, as was said, are space and time. For they then enter into spiritual light (lux) in which the objects of thought are truths, and the objects of sight are like those in the natural world, but correspondent to their thoughts. The objects of their thought which, as said above, are truths, derive absolutely nothing from space and time. Although the objects of their sight appear just as in space and time, still they do not think from these. The reason is that spaces and times there are not constant as in the natural world, but are subject to change in accordance with their states of life. Hence instead of these, there are in the ideas of their thought states of life, instead of spaces such things as refer to states of love, and instead of times such things as refer to states of wisdom. So it comes about that spiritual thought and therefore also spiritual speech differ from natural thought and the speech therefrom to such an extent that they have nothing in common, except as regards the interiors of things which are all spiritual. Concerning this difference more will be said elsewhere.
Now, because the angels’ thoughts derive nothing from space and time, but everything from states of life, it appears that angels do not comprehend when it is said that the Divine fills spaces, for they do not know what spaces are. But when, apart from any idea of space, it is said that the Divine fills all things, they clearly comprehend.
71. To make it clear that the merely natural man thinks of spiritual and Divine things from space, and the spiritual man [thinks] apart from space, let the following serve for illustration. The merely natural man thinks by means of ideas which he has acquired from the objects of sight, in all of which there is figure derived from length, breadth and height, and from form terminated by these, whether angular or circular. Those things are manifestly present in the ideas of his thought concerning visible things on earth; they are also present in the ideas of his thought concerning things not visible, such as civil and moral things. These indeed he does not see but yet they are present as continuous. It is not so with a spiritual man, especially with an angel of heaven. His thought has nothing in common with figure and form deriving anything from the length, breadth and height of space, but everything from the state of the thing from the state of life. Hence, instead of the length of space, he thinks of the good of a thing from the good of life, instead of the breadth of space, of the truth of a thing from the truth of life and instead of height, of degrees of these. Thus he thinks from the correspondence which there is between things spiritual and things natural. It is from this correspondence that in the Word, “length” signifies the good of a thing, “breadth” the truth of a thing, and “height” degrees of these. From this it is clear that when an angel of heaven thinks of the Divine Omnipresence, he simply cannot think otherwise than that the Divine fills all things apart from space. What an angel thinks is truth because the light (lux) which enlightens his understanding is the Divine Wisdom.
72. This is the basic thought about God. For without that, those things which will be said about the creation of the universe by God-Man, of His Providence, Omnipotence, Omnipresence and Omniscience can certainly be understood, but not so as to be retained, since the merely natural man, while he understands these things, still falls back into his life’s love which is that of his will. This love dissipates these [truths] and immerses his thought in space in which is his light (lumen), and he calls this rational, not knowing that, to the extent he denies these things, he is irrational. That this is so can be confirmed by the idea of this truth, that God is Man. Read with attention, I entreat you, the things written above (n. 11-13), and what follows after, and you will understand that it is so. But let down your thought into the natural light (lumen) which derives from space, and will you not see these things as paradoxes, and if you lower it much, will you not reject them? This is why it is said that the Divine fills all spaces of the universe, and why it is not said that God-Man fills them. For if this were said, the merely natural light (lumen) would not assent. But it does support [the idea] that the Divine fills all space because it agrees with the formula of speech of theologians, that God is Omnipresent, and hears and knows all things. (More on this subject may be seen above n. 7-10.)
73. THE DIVINE IS IN ALL TIME, APART FROM TIME
Just as the Divine is in all space apart from space, so it is in all time apart from time, for nothing which is proper to Nature can be predicated of the Divine, and space and time are proper to Nature. Space in Nature is measurable, and so is time. Time is measured by days, weeks, months, years and centuries; days are measured by hours, weeks and months by days, years by the four seasons, and centuries by years. Nature derives this measurement from the apparent revolution and rotation of the sun of the world. But it is otherwise in the spiritual world. There, the progressions of life appear in the same way to be in time; for they live there with one another as men in the world do, and this Is not possible without the appearance of time. But time there is not distinguished into times as in the world, for their Sun is constantly in the east, and never moves away. For it is the Lord’s Divine Love which appears to them as a Sun. And so they have not days, weeks, months, years, centuries but in place of these there are states of life, through which distinction is made which cannot be called a distinction into times but into states. Hence it is that the angels do not know what time is, and when it is mentioned, they perceive state in place of it. When states determine time, then time is only an appearance. For joyfulness of state makes time appear short, and joylessness of state makes time appear long. From which it is evident that time in the spiritual world is nothing but a quality of state. It is from this that in the Word, “hours”, “days”, “weeks”, “months” and “years” signify states and their progressions in series and in the aggregate. And when times are predicated of the Church, by its “morning” is understood its first state, by “mid-day” its fullness, by “evening” its decline and by “night” its end. The same states are understood by the four seasons of the year which are “spring”, “summer”, “autumn” and “winter”.
74. From these statements it can be established that time makes one with thought from affection; for from that is the quality of man’s state. Distances in progressions through spaces in the spiritual world make one with progressions of times as can be shown from many things. For actually ways there are shortened or conversely lengthened, in accordance with desires which are of thought from affection. From this also “spaces of time” are spoken of. But in such cases where thought does not conjoin itself with a man’s proprial affection, as in sleep, time is not apparent.
75. Now because times which are proper to Nature in its world are, in the spiritual world, pure states which there appear progressive because angels and spirits are finite, it can be established that in God, they are not progressive because He is Infinite, and infinite things in Him are one, according to those things shown above (n. 17-22). From these things it follows that the Divine is in all time apart from time.
76. He who has no knowledge of, and cannot think of God from any perception apart from time is completely unable to perceive Eternity in any other way than as an eternity of time. And then he inevitably becomes bewildered in the thought of God from eternity, for he thinks from a beginning, and a beginning belongs exclusively to time. His folly then becomes that God has existed from Himself, from which he falls headlong into [the idea of] the origin of Nature from herself, from which idea he can be extricated only by a spiritual or angelic idea of eternity which is apart from time. And when apart from time, the Eternal and the Divine are the same, the Divine is Divine in Itself and not from Itself. The angels say that they can indeed think of God from eternity, but by no means of Nature from eternity, still less of Nature from herself, and certainly not of Nature as Nature in herself. For that which is in itself is very Esse from which all things are. Esse in Itself is Very Life, which is the Divine Love of Divine Wisdom, and the Divine Wisdom of Divine Love. This for the angels is the Eternal, thus abstracted from time as is the Uncreate from the created, or the Infinite from the finite, between which indeed there is no ratio.
77. THE DIVINE IS THE SAME IN GREATEST AND LEAST THINGS
This follows from the two preceding sections that the Divine is in all space apart from space, and in all time apart from time. And spaces are greater and greatest, and lesser and least. And because, as stated above, spaces and times make one, it is the same with time. The Divine is the same in these because the Divine is not varying and changeable, as is everything else of space and time, that is, everything which belongs to Nature, but is unvarying and unchangeable. Consequently it is everywhere and always the same.
78. It appears as if the Divine were not the same in one person as in another, as if, for instance, it were different in the wise than in the simple, and different in an old person than in a little child. But this is a fallacy arising from appearance. It is the man that is different, but the Divine in him is not different. Man is a recipient, and the recipient or receptacle is what varies. A wise man is, more adequately, thus more fully than a simple man, a recipient of the Divine Love and Wisdom; and an old man who is also wise, more than a little child or a boy. But still the Divine is the same in the one as in the other. Similarly, it is a fallacy arising from appearance that the Divine varies with the angels of heaven and with men on earth, because the angels are in ineffable wisdom, while men are not. But the seeming variation is in the subjects in accordance with the quality of their reception of the Divine, and not in the Lord.
79. It can be shown from heaven and from an angel there that the Divine is the same in greatest and least things. The Divine in the whole heaven and the Divine in an angel is the same; wherefore even the whole heaven may appear as one Angel. It is the same with the Church and with a man of the Church. The greatest in which the Divine is, is the whole heaven and at the same time the whole Church; the least is an angel of heaven and a man of the Church. Several times an entire society of heaven has appeared to me as one angel-man. And it was said that it may appear like a man as big as a giant, or as a man as small as a little child, and this because the Divine is the same in greatest and in least things.
80. The Divine is also the same in the greatest and the least of all created things which are not alive, for it is in all the good of their use. The reason they are not alive, however, is because they are not forms of life but they are forms of uses, and the form varies according to the excellence of the use. But how the Divine is in them will be told in what follows where creation is treated of.
81. Put away space and completely deny a vacuum, and then think about Divine Love and Wisdom as being very Essence, space having been put away and a vacuum denied. Think next from space and you will perceive that the Divine in the greatest and least things of space is the same. For in Essence abstracted from space there is neither great nor small, but only the same.
83. PART II
THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM APPEAR IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD AS A SUN
There are two worlds, the spiritual and the natural. And the spiritual world does not derive anything from the natural world, nor the natural world from the spiritual world. They are quite distinct, communicating only by correspondences, the nature of which has been shown elsewhere in many places. To illustrate this, take the following example. Heat in the natural world corresponds to the good of charity in the spiritual world, and light (lux) in the natural world corresponds to the truth of faith in the spiritual world. Who cannot see that heat and the good of charity, and light and the truth of faith are quite distinct? At first glance they appear so distinct as to be two completely diverse things. They so appear if it is considered what the good of charity has in common with heat, and what the truth of faith has in common with light, when yet spiritual heat is that good and spiritual light is that truth. Although these are thus distinct in themselves, yet they make one by means of correspondence. They make one in such a way that when a man reads in the Word “heat and light”, then spirits and angels who are with the man perceive, instead of heat, charity, and instead of light, faith. This example is adduced that it may be known that the two worlds, the spiritual and the natural, are so distinct that they have nothing in common with each other. But they have been created in such a way that they may communicate, indeed may be conjoined by means of correspondences.
84. Since those two worlds are thus distinct, it can easily be seen that the spiritual world is under a Sun other than that of the natural world. For in the spiritual world there is heat and light as there is in the natural world, but the heat there is spiritual and similarly the light, and spiritual heat is the good of charity and spiritual light is the truth of faith. Now because heat and light cannot draw their origin from any other source than from a sun, it can be established that in the spiritual world there is a Sun other than that in the natural world, and further, that the Sun of the spiritual world is, in its essence, such that spiritual heat and light can come into existence from it, and that the sun of the natural world, is, in its essence, such that natural heat can come into existence from it. Everything spiritual has reference to good and truth and can arise from no other source than from the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom. For every good is of love and every truth is of wisdom. That it cannot be otherwise, every wise man can see.
85. It has hitherto been unknown that there is a Sun other than the sun of the natural world. The reason is that man’s spiritual [part] passes over into his natural to such an extent that he does not know what is spiritual nor thus that there is a spiritual world in which spirits and angels are, other and different from the natural world. Since with those who are in the natural world, the spiritual world has lain so deeply hidden, it has therefore pleased the Lord to open the sight of my spirit in order that I might see the things which are in that world, just as I see the things which are in the natural world, and then describe that world. This has been done in the work HEAVEN AND HELL in one section of which also there has been treated the Sun of that world. For it has been seen by me and has appeared in a size similar to the sun of the natural world, and also like it, fiery but with a more reddish glow. It has also been made known to me that the whole angelic heaven is under that Sun; also that angels of the third heaven see it constantly, angels of the second heaven see it quite often and angels of the first heaven see it sometimes. It will be seen in what follows that all the heat and all the light with them, also all things that appear in that world, are from that Sun.
86. That Sun is not the Lord Himself but it is the Divine Love and Wisdom proceeding from the Lord, which appear as a Sun in that world. And because Love and Wisdom in the Lord are one (as was shown in Part I), it is said that that Sun is the Divine Love. For the Divine Wisdom is of Divine Love, thus it also is Love.
87. The reason why that Sun appears before the angels’ eyes as fiery is that love and fire correspond to one another; for their eyes cannot see love but, in place of it, that which corresponds to it. For angels just like men have an internal and an external, the internal [being] that which thinks and is wise, and that which wills and loves, and their external is that which feels, sees, speaks and acts. And all their external things are correspondences of the internals, but spiritual correspondences, however, not natural. The Divine Love is even felt as fire by the spiritual. Hence it is that “fire”, when it is mentioned in the Word, signifies love. In the Israelitish church sacred fire signified love and it is also because of this that in prayers to God, it is usual to ask that heavenly fire, that is, Divine Love, may kindle the heart.
88. Since there is such distinction between the spiritual and the natural as has been shown above (n. 83), therefore not a whit from the sun of the natural world can cross over into the spiritual world, that is, not a whit of its light and heat, or of any object on the earth. The light of the natural world is thick darkness there, and its heat is death there. But yet, the heat of the world can be vivified by an influx of the heat of heaven. Influx takes place by means of correspondences and cannot take place by continuity.
89. HEAT AND LIGHT WHICH COME FORTH FROM THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM PROCEED FROM THE SUN
In the spiritual world in which angels and spirits are, there are heat and light just as in the natural world in which men are. And moreover, the heat is felt as heat, and similarly light is seen as light. But yet the heat and light of the spiritual world and that of the natural world differ to such an extent that they have nothing in common, as was stated above. They differ from each other as the living and the dead. The heat of the spiritual world in itself is living and likewise the light, while the heat of the natural world in itself is dead, likewise the light. For the heat and light of the spiritual world come forth from the Sun which is pure Love, whereas the heat and light of the natural world come forth from a sun which is pure fire. Further, Love is living and Divine Love is Life Itself, and fire is dead and the fire of the sun is death itself, and so it can be called, from the reason that there is absolutely nothing of life in it.
90. Because angels are spiritual, they can live in no other heat or light than in that which is spiritual. Men, however, can live in no other heat and light than in the natural, for spiritual [heat and light] suit the spiritual, and natural [heat and light] suit the natural. If an angel were to draw the least thing from natural heat and light, he would perish, for it is entirely unsuitable to his life. Every man, as to the interiors of his mind, is a spirit. When the man dies, he goes forth from the natural world altogether, leaving everything of it, and comes into a world in which there is nothing of nature. And in that world he lives thus separated from nature so that no communication takes place by continuity, that is, as of purer and grosser but as of prior and posterior, which communication is only possible by means of correspondences. Hence it can be established that spiritual heat is not a purer natural heat, nor spiritual light a purer natural light, but that they are altogether from another essence, for spiritual heat and light derive their essence from the Sun which is pure Love and Life in Itself, and natural heat and light derive their essence from a sun which is pure fire in which there is absolutely nothing of life, as was said above.
91. Since such is the distinction between the heat and light of the one world and of the other, it is therefore clearly evident that those who are in the one world cannot see those who are in the other world. For the eyes of a man who sees from natural light, are of the substance of his world, and the eyes of an angel are of the substance of his world. Thus in each case they are formed to receive adequately his own light. From these considerations it can be seen from how much ignorance those people think who, because they do not see them with their eyes, do not admit into their faith [the belief] that angels and spirits are men.
92. It has been hitherto unknown that angels and spirits are in a light and heat completely different from men. Indeed it has been unknown that another light and heat are possible. For man has not penetrated in his thought beyond the more interior or purer things of nature. Because of this, too, many have placed the abodes of angels and spirits in the ether, and some in the stars, thus within nature and not above or outside it. But yet angels and spirits are entirely above or outside nature, and in their own world which is under another Sun. And because in that world spaces are appearances, as was shown above, therefore angels and spirits cannot be said to be in the ether or in the stars. For they are together with man, conjoined to the affection and thought of his spirit. For man is a spirit. From that, he thinks and wills. Wherefore the spiritual world is where man is, and certainly not distant from him. In a word, every man as to the interiors of his mind is in that world in the midst of. spirits and angels there; and he thinks from its light and loves from its heat.
93. THAT SUN IS NOT GOD BUT IT IS A GOING FORTH FROM THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM OF GOD-MAN; IT IS THE SAME WITH THE HEAT AND LIGHT FROM THAT SUN
By that Sun visible to the angels, from which they have heat and light, is not understood the Lord Himself, but there is understood the first proceeding from Him, which is the fulness of spiritual heat. The fulness of spiritual heat is spiritual fire, which is the Divine Love and Wisdom in its first correspondence. And so it is that that Sun appears fiery, and to the angels is also fiery, but not to men. Fire which is fire to men is not spiritual, but natural; between those fires there is a distinction like that between what is living and what is dead. Wherefore the spiritual Sun by its heat vivifies spiritual beings and renews spiritual things. But the natural sun indeed does the same for natural beings and natural things, yet not from itself, but by means of influx of spiritual heat to which it brings subsidiary power.
94. This spiritual fire, in which also there is light in its origin, becomes spiritual heat and light, which decrease in [their] going forth; and the decrease takes place by degrees which will be treated of in what follows. This was represented by the Ancients by circles glowing with fire and resplendent with light around God’s head. And this representation is also common today, when God is presented in pictures as a Man.
95. It is obvious from actual experience that love produces heat, and wisdom light. When a man loves he grows warm, and when he thinks from wisdom he sees things as it were in light; and from this it is evident that the first proceeding of love is heat, and the first proceeding of wisdom is light. That they are also correspondences is evident; for heat does not exist in love itself, but from love in the will and hence in the body; and light does not exist in wisdom, but in the thought of the understanding, and hence in speech. Wherefore love and wisdom are the essence and life of heat and light. Heat and light are what proceed, and because they are what proceed, they are also correspondences.
96. Anyone who pays attention to the thoughts of his mind can know that spiritual light is absolutely distinct from natural light. For when the mind thinks, it sees its objects in light, and those who think spiritually see truths, and this at midnight as well as in the daytime. Because of this also light is predicated of the understanding and is said to see. For one sometimes says of matters about which another is speaking, that he sees that it is so, that is, that he understands. The understanding because it is spiritual, cannot see thus from natural light, for natural light does not adhere but passes away with the sun. From this it is clear that the understanding possesses a light other than that of the eye, and that this light is from another source.
98. It is from that correspondence that in the Word the Lord is not only called a “Sun”, but also “Fire” and “Light”. And by “Sun” is understood Himself as to Divine Love and Wisdom together, by “Fire”, Himself as to Divine Love, and by “Light” Himself as to Divine Wisdom.
99. SPIRITUAL HEAT AND LIGHT, BY GOING FORTH FROM THE LORD AS A SUN, MAKE ONE JUST AS HIS DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM MAKE ONE
It has been told in Part I how the Divine Love and Wisdom in the Lord make one. Similarly, heat and light make one because they proceed [from these], and because they proceed, they make one by correspondence. For heat corresponds to love, and light to wisdom. From this it follows that as Divine Love is Divine Esse, and Divine Wisdom is Divine Existere (as shown above n. 14-16), thus spiritual heat is the Divine proceeding from the Divine Esse, and spiritual light is the Divine proceeding from the Divine Existere. Therefore, as by that union Divine Love is of Divine Wisdom, and Divine Wisdom is of Divine Love (as stated above n. 34-39), so spiritual heat is of spiritual light, and spiritual light is of spiritual heat. And because there is such a union, it follows that heat and light, in proceeding from the Lord as a Sun, are one. It will be seen, however, in what follows that they are not received as one by angels and men.
100. The heat and light which proceed from the Lord as a Sun are what are pre-eminently called spiritual; and they are called spiritual in the singular because they are one. Wherefore, when the spiritual is mentioned in what follows, there is understood both of these together. It is from that spiritual that the whole of that world is called spiritual. Through that spiritual, everything of that world derives its origin and hence also its name. That heat and that light are called spiritual because God is called a Spirit, and God as a Spirit is the spiritual going forth. God from His Own Very Essence is called Jehovah; but by means of this Proceeding, He vivifies and enlightens the angels of heaven and the man of the Church. For this reason also vivification and enlightenment are said to be effected by means of Jehovah’s Spirit.
101. That the heat and light, that is, the spiritual going forth from the Lord as a Sun, make one, may be illustrated by the heat and light which go forth from the sun of the natural world. These two also make one in their going out from that sun. That they do not make one on the earth is due not to that sun but to the earth. For the earth revolves daily round its axis, and once a year makes a circuit following the ecliptic. From this the appearance is that heat and light do not make one, for in the middle of summer there is more heat than light, and in the middle of winter there is more light than heat. It is the same in the spiritual world. There, however, there is no revolving or circuiting earth, but the angels turn themselves more towards the Lord or less towards Him. Those who turn more receive more from heat and less from light, while those who turn less towards the Lord receive more from light and less from heat. This is the reason that the heavens which consist of angels are distinguished into two kingdoms, one of which is called celestial and the other spiritual. The celestial angels receive more from heat and the spiritual angels more from light. In accordance with their reception of heat and light, so the lands on which they dwell appear. The correspondence is complete if only in place of the motion of the earth there is substituted the change of state of the angels.
102. It will be seen in what follows also that all spiritual things originating through the heat and light of their Sun similarly make one when viewed in themselves, but when regarded as proceeding from the affections of the angels they do not make one. When heat and light make one in the heavens it is with the angels as if it were spring. But when they do not make one it is either like summer or like winter-not like winter in frigid zones but like winter in torrid zones, for the reception of love and wisdom in equal proportion is the very angelic state. Wherefore an angel is an angel of heaven in accordance with the union of love and wisdom in him. It is the same with the man of the Church, if love and wisdom, or charity and faith make one in him.
103. THE SUN OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD APPEARS IN THE MIDDLE ALTITUDE DISTANT FROM THE ANGELS AS THE SUN OF THE NATURAL WORLD FROM MEN
Very many people carry with them an idea of God as being above the head on high, and of the Lord as being in heaven among the angels. They carry this idea of God as being above the head on high because in the Word God is called “The Most High” and is said to dwell “on high”. For this reason they raise the eyes and hands upwards when they pray and worship, not knowing that by “the most high” is signified the inmost. They carry the idea of the Lord as being in heaven among the angels because they do not think of Him except as of another man, and certain ones as of an angel, not knowing that the Lord is the Very and Only God Who rules the universe. And if He were among the angels in heaven He could not have the universe under His view and under His protection and government. And if He did not shine as a Sun before those who are in the spiritual world, the angels could not have any light. For angels are spiritual, and therefore no other light than spiritual light is suitable to their essence. That there is light in the heavens greatly exceeding the light on earth will be seen below where degrees are treated.
104. As regards the Sun, therefore, from which the angels have light and heat, it appears above the lands on which the angels dwell at an elevation of about forty-five degrees, which is the middle altitude; it also appears at a distance from the angels just like the sun of the world from men. That Sun appears constantly at that altitude and at that distance, and does not move. Hence it is that the angels have not times divided into days and years, nor any progression of day from morning through mid-day towards evening into night, nor any progression of a year from spring through summer to autumn into winter. But there is perpetual light and perpetual spring. Wherefore, as was stated above, in place of times with the angels there are states.
105. The Sun of the spiritual world appears in the middle altitude chiefly for the following reasons. First, the heat and light which come forth from that Sun are thus in their middle degree, and hence in equal proportion and so are rightly tempered. For if the Sun appeared above the middle altitude, more heat than light would be perceived, and if below it, more light than heat would be perceived as happens on the earth when the sun is above or below the middle of the sky. When it is above, there is an increase of heat over light, but when below, an increase of light over heat; for light remains the same in summer and in winter, but heat increases or diminishes according to the degrees of the sun’s altitude. The second reason that the Sun of the spiritual world appears in the middle altitude above the angelic heaven is that there is that perpetual spring in all the angelic heavens from which the angels are in a state of peace, for this state corresponds to springtime on earth. The third reason is that the angels are thus able to turn their faces continually towards the Lord and see Him with their eyes. For at every turn of their bodies the angels have the east, thus the Lord before their faces. This is peculiar to that world. This would not happen if the Sun of that world appeared above or below the middle, and least of all if it appeared overhead in the zenith.
106. If the Sun of the spiritual world did not appear at a distance from the angels just as the sun of the world does from men, the whole angelic heaven and hell beneath it, and below these our terraqueous globe, would not be under the attention, care, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence and providence of the Lord, in the same way as the sun of our world, if it were not at such a distance from the earth as it appears, could not be present and powerful by its heat and light in all lands, thus could not perform a subsidiary use to the Sun of the spiritual world.
107. It is most necessary for it to be known that there are two suns, one spiritual and the other natural, a spiritual Sun for those who are in the spiritual world, and a natural sun for those who are in the natural world. Unless this is known, nothing can be rightly understood about creation and about man, the subjects here treated of. Effects may indeed be seen, but unless at the same time the causes of the effects are seen, the effects can appear only as in the dark.
108. THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THE SUN AND THE ANGELS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD IS AN APPEARANCE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE RECEPTION BY THEM OF THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM
All the fallacies that hold sway with the evil and the simple arise from appearances confirmed. So long as appearances remain appearances, they are apparent truths according to which everyone can think and speak. But when they are accepted for the truths themselves, as happens when they are confirmed, then apparent truths become falsities and fallacies. For example, it is an appearance that the sun moves around the earth daily, and once a year follows the apparent path of the sun round the earth. So long as this is not confirmed, it is an apparent truth according to which everyone can think and speak. For he can say that the sun rises and sets, and thereby causes morning, mid-day, evening and night, also that the sun is now in such and such a degree of the ecliptic path or of its altitude, thereby causing spring, summer, autumn and winter. But when that appearance is confirmed as the truth itself, then he who confirms it thinks and speaks a falsity springing from a fallacy. It is the same with innumerable other appearances, not only in natural, civil and moral things but also in spiritual things.
109. It is the same with the distance of the Sun of the spiritual world, which Sun is the first going forth of the Lord’s Divine Love and Wisdom. The truth is that there is no distance, but that distance is an appearance according to the reception of the Divine Love and Wisdom in their degree by the angels. That distances in the spiritual world are appearances may be established from these things shown above (as in n. 7-9), that the Divine is not in space, and (in n. 69-72) that the Divine apart from space fills all spaces; and if there are not spaces, neither are there distances, or what is the same, if spaces are appearances, distances also are appearances, for distances are spatial.
110. The Sun of the spiritual world appears at a distance from the angels because they receive the Divine Love and Wisdom in the degree of heat and light adequate to them. For an angel, because created and finite, cannot receive the Lord in the first degree of heat and light such as is in the Sun, for he would then be entirely annihilated. Therefore the Lord is received by them in the degree of heat and light corresponding to their love and wisdom. The following can serve as illustration. An angel of the lowest heaven cannot ascend to the angels of the third heaven; if he doe so and enters their heaven, he falls as it were into a fainting condition, and his life struggles as it were with death; the reason is that the love and wisdom with him is in a lesser degree, and the heat of his love and the light of his wisdom are in the same degree as his love and wisdom. What, then, would happen if an angel were to ascend even to the sun and come into its fire? Because of the differences of reception of the Lord by the angels, the heavens also appear distinct from one another. The highest heaven, which is called the third, appears above the second, and the second above the first-not that the heavens are separated but they appear to be so. For the Lord is equally present with those who are in the lowest heaven as with those who are in the third heaven. That which causes the appearance of distance is in the subjects, that is, the angels, but not in the Lord.
111. That such is the case can scarcely be comprehended by a natural idea because in that there is [the thought of] space. But it can be comprehended by a spiritual idea because in that there is no [thought of] space. It is this idea that the angels have. But it can be comprehended even by a natural idea that love and wisdom, or what is the same, that the Lord Who is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom cannot advance through spaces, but is with everyone according to reception. That the Lord is present with all, He Himself teaches in Matthew XXVIII 20, and that He makes His abode with those who love Him, John XIV 23.
112. This, however, may seem as it were to be of superior wisdom because it has been confirmed by means of the heavens and the angels. But yet it is the same with men. As to the interior things of their mind, men are warmed and enlightened by that same Sun. They become warm from its heat and are enlightened by its light to the extent in which they receive love and wisdom from the Lord. The difference between angels and men is that angels are under the spiritual Sun only, while men are not only under that Sun but are also under the sun of the world. For men’s bodies cannot come into being and remain in being except under both suns. It is otherwise with angels’ bodies which are spiritual.
113. ANGELS ARE IN THE LORD, AND THE LORD IS IN THEM; AND BECAUSE ANGELS ARE RECIPIENTS, THE LORD ALONE IS HEAVEN
Heaven is called “the dwelling-place of God”, also “the throne of God” and from this it is believed that God is there just as a king is in his kingdom. But God, that is, the Lord is in the Sun above the heavens, and by His presence in the heat and light, is in the heavens (as has been shown in two previous sections). But although the Lord is in that manner in heaven, still He is there as in Himself, for (as shown just above n. 108-112) the distance between the Sun and heaven is not distance but an appearance of distance. And therefore since that distance is only an appearance it follows that the Lord Himself is in heaven, for He is in the love and wisdom of the angels of heaven. And because He is in the love and wisdom of all angels, and angels constitute heaven, He is in the whole heaven.
114. Not only is the Lord in heaven but He also is heaven itself, because love and wisdom make the angel, and these two with angels are the Lord’s. Hence it follows that the Lord is heaven. For angels are not angels from their proprium.* Their proprium is exactly like that of a man and this is evil. That an angel’s proprium is such is because all angels have been men, and that proprium adheres to them from birth. It is only removed, and to the extent that it is removed, to that extent they receive love and wisdom, that is, the Lord in themselves. Anyone can see if only he will raise his understanding a little that the Lord can dwell with angels only in what is His, that is, in what is His Very Own, which is Love and Wisdom, and certainly not in the angels’ proprium which is evil. Hence it is that so far as evil is removed, so far the Lord is in them, and so far they are angels. The very angelic itself of heaven is the Divine Love and Wisdom. This Divine is called the angelic when it is in angels. From this again it is clear that angels are angels from the Lord, and not from themselves; consequently, the same is true regarding heaven.
* The Latin word proprium means what is one’s own. Swedenborg uses it in a special sense involving “what is of the self”.
116. It will now be explained how it comes about that an angel perceives and feels as his own, and thus receives and retains that which yet is not his (for, as was said above, an angel is not an angel from what is his own, but from those things which are with him from the Lord). The essence of the matter is thus. Every angel has liberty and rationality. He has these two so that he may be capable of receiving love and wisdom from the Lord. Yet each of these, liberty as much as rationality, is the Lord’s with him, and not his. But because these two are intimately conjoined to his life, so intimately that they may be said to be joined into his life, therefore they appear as if they were his own. From these he is able to think and will, also to speak and act. And what he thinks, wills, speaks and does from them, appears as if it were from himself. This causes reciprocity by which there is conjunction. In so far, however, as an angel believes that love and wisdom are in him, and thus claims them to himself as his own, so far the angelic is not in Him and therefore to that extent he has no conjunction with the Lord. For he is not in the truth; and because truth makes one with the light of heaven, to that extent he cannot be in heaven. For he thereby denies that he lives from the Lord, and believes that he lives from himself, consequently that the Divine essence is his. In these two, liberty and rationality, consists the life which is called angelic and human. From these things it can be established that an angel has reciprocity for the sake of conjunction with the Lord, but that this reciprocity viewed in its own aspect, is not his, but the Lord’s. Hence it is that if he abuses this reciprocity by which he perceives and feels as his own what is the Lord’s, which is done by appropriating it to himself, he falls away from the angelic state. The Lord Himself teaches in John (XIV 20-24; XV 4-6) that conjunction is reciprocal; also that conjunction of the Lord with man, and of man with the Lord, is in those things of the Lord which are called His words, John XV 7.
117. Some are of the opinion that Adam was in such liberty and freedom of choice that he could love God and be wise from himself, and that this freedom of choice was lost in his posterity. But this is an error. For man is not Life but is a recipient of life (see above n. 4-6, n. 54-60), and he who is a recipient of life cannot love and be wise from anything of his own. Wherefore also when Adam willed to be wise and to love from himself, he fell from wisdom and love and was cast out of paradise.
118. The same as has now been said about an angel must be said about heaven which consists of angels, since the Divine is the same in greatest and in least things (as was shown above n. 77-82). The same as has been said about an angel and about heaven must be said about man and the Church. For an angel of heaven and a man of the Church act as one through conjunction. Further, a man of the Church is an angel in respect of the interiors which are of his mind. But by a man of the Church is understood a man in whom the Church is.
119. IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD THE EAST IS WHERE THE LORD APPEARS AS A SUN, AND THE REMAINING QUARTERS ARE HENCE DETERMINED
The Sun of the spiritual world and its essence, also its heat and light and the presence thereby of the Lord, have been treated of. Now also the quarters in the spiritual world will be treated of. That Sun and that world are treated of because God, and love and wisdom are dealt with. And to treat of these matters except from their very origin would be to treat from effects and not from causes. And yet effects teach nothing except effects, and when these alone are considered they reveal no cause. But causes reveal effects, and to know effects from causes is to be wise, whereas to search for causes from effects is not to be wise, because then fallacies which the investigator calls causes, present themselves, and this is to make foolishness of wisdom. For causes are prior things and effects posterior things, and prior things cannot be seen from posterior things, but posterior things can be seen from prior things. This is order. This is the reason the spiritual world is here treated of first, for all causes are there. Afterwards the natural world is treated of where all things that appear are effects.
120. The quarters in the spiritual world will now be spoken of. There are quarters there in like manner as in the natural world, but the quarters of the spiritual world, like that world itself, are spiritual, while the quarters of the natural world, like that world itself, are natural. Wherefore, they differ so much that they have nothing in common. In each world there are four quarters which are called east, west, south and north. In the natural world, these four quarters are constant, being determined by the sun on the meridian. Opposite this is north, on one side is east, on the other is west. These quarters are determined by the meridian of each place, for the sun’s station on the meridian everywhere is always the same and therefore fixed. In the spiritual world it is different. The quarters there are determined by the Sun of that world which appears constantly in its own place, and where it appears is the east. Wherefore the determination of the quarters in that world is not, as in the natural world, from the south, but is from the east. Opposite this is west, on one side is south, on the other is north. But that these quarters are not from the Sun there, but from the inhabitants of that world, who are angels and spirits, will be seen in what follows.
121. Since these quarters from their very origin, which is the Lord as a Sun, are spiritual, so the dwelling-places of angels and spirits, all of which are according to these quarters, are also spiritual. They are spiritual because angels and spirits have their dwelling-places in accordance with their reception of love and wisdom from the Lord. Those who are in a higher degree of love dwell in the east; those in a lower degree of love in the west; those in a higher degree of wisdom in the south, and those in a lower degree of wisdom, in the north. Hence it is that, in the Word, by “the east” in the highest sense, is understood the Lord, and in a relative sense, love to Him; by “the west” a decreasing love to Him, by “the south”, wisdom in light, and by “the north” wisdom in shade, or similar things relatively to the state of those treated of.
122. Since it is from the east that all the quarters in the spiritual world are determined, and by “the east” in the highest sense is understood the Lord, and also the Divine Love, it is clear that the Lord and love to Him are the source from which all things are; and that to the extent that anyone is not in that love, to that extent he is remote from Him and dwells either in the west, or in the south, or in the north, at distances there in accordance with the receptions of love.
123. Since the Lord as a Sun is constantly in the east, so the ancients, with whom all things of worship were representative of spiritual things, turned their faces towards the east when worshipping. And in order to do the same in all worship, they turned their temples also in that direction. For which reason it is that, at the present day, churches are built in like manner.
124. THE QUARTERS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD ARE NOT FROM THE LORD AS THE SUN, BUT FROM THE ANGELS ACCORDING TO RECEPTION
It has been stated that the angels dwell separately from each other, some in the eastern quarter, some in the western, some in the southern and some in the northern; and that those who dwell in the eastern quarter are in a higher degree of love, those in the western in a lower degree of love, those in the southern in the light of wisdom and those in the northern in the shade of wisdom. This diversity of dwelling-places appears as it were from the Lord as the Sun, when yet it is from the angels. The Lord is not in a greater or lesser degree of love and wisdom, that is, He as the Sun is not in a greater or lesser degree of heat and light with one than with another for He is everywhere the same. But He is not received by one in the same degree as by another. This makes them appear to themselves to be more or less distant from one another, and also variously according to the quarters. From this it follows that the quarters in the spiritual world are nothing else than varying receptions of love and wisdom, and so of heat and light from the Lord as the Sun. That this is the case is clear from the things shown above (n. 108-112) that distances in the spiritual world are appearances.
126. That the varying reception of love and wisdom determines the quarter in the spiritual world can be established from the fact that an angel changes his quarter according to the increase and decrease of love with him. From this it is clear that the quarter is not from the Lord as the Sun but from the angel according to reception. It is the same with man as to his spirit. As regards his spirit he is in a certain quarter of the spiritual world whatever quarter of the natural world he is in, for as said above, the quarters of the spiritual world have nothing in common with quarters in the natural world. Man is in the latter as regards his body, but in the former as regards his spirit.
127. In order that love and wisdom may make one with an angel and with a man, there are pairs in all things of his body. The eyes, ears and nostrils are pairs, the hands, loins and feet are pairs. The brain is divided into two hemispheres, the heart into two chambers, the lungs into two lobes, and similarly the other parts. Thus in an angel and a man there is the right and the left. And all their right parts have relation to love from which is wisdom, and all the left parts to truth from good. An angel and a man have these pairs so that love and wisdom, or good and truth may act as one, and as one, may look to the Lord. But of this matter more will be said in what follows.
128. From these considerations it can be seen in what fallacy and consequent falsity are those who suppose that the Lord arbitrarily bestows heaven, or that He arbitrarily allows one to be wiser or to love more than another, when actually, the Lord wills that one equally with another may be wise and may be saved. For He provides the means for all. Everyone is wise and is saved in proportion as he receives these means and lives in accordance with them. For the Lord is the same with one as with another. But the recipients who are angels and men are dissimilar by reason of dissimilar reception and life. That such is the case can be established from those things which have now been said about quarters and about the angels’ dwelling-places in accordance with them, namely, that the diversity is not from the Lord but from the recipients.
129. ANGELS TURN THEIR FACE CONTINUALLY TO THE LORD AS A SUN, AND THUS HAVE THE SOUTH TO THE RIGHT, THE NORTH TO THE LEFT, AND THE WEST BEHIND THEM
All that is here said about angels and about their turning to the Lord as a Sun, is also to be understood about man as to his spirit. For man as to his mind is a spirit, and if he is in love and wisdom, he is an angel. Wherefore also after death when he has put off his externals which he had derived from the natural world, he becomes a spirit or an angel. And because angels turn their face continually towards the sun-rise, thus towards the Lord, it is said also of a man who is in love and wisdom from the Lord that he sees God, that he looks to God, that he has God before his eyes, by which is also understood that he lives as an angel. Such things are spoken of in the world, because they actually exist in heaven as well as in the spirit of man. Who does not look before himself to God when he prays whatever the quarter to which his face is turned?
131. The turning of the angels to the Lord is such that, at every turn of their bodies, they look to the Lord as a Sun in front of them. An angel can turn himself round and round and thereby see the various things which surround him, but yet the Lord as a Sun continually appears before his face. This may seem wonderful but still it is the truth. It has also been granted me thus to see the Lord as a Sun. I see Him before my face. And for several years I have so seen Him, to whatever quarter of the world I turned myself.
132. Since the Lord as a Sun, thus the east, is before the faces of all the angels of heaven, it follows that to their right is the south, and to the left the north, and behind them the west, thus even in every turning of their body. For, as said before, all the quarters in the spiritual world are determined from the east. Wherefore those who have the east before their eyes, are in these very quarters, indeed, are themselves what determines the quarters. For, as was shown above (n. 124-128), the quarters are not from the Lord as a Sun, but from the angels according to reception.
133. Now because heaven is made up of angels, and angels are of such a nature, it follows that the entire heaven turns itself to the Lord, and that, by that turning, heaven is ruled by the Lord as one Man, even as heaven is in the sight of the Lord. That heaven is as one man in the sight of the Lord may be seen in the work HEAVEN AND HELL (n. 59-87). Also from this are the quarters of heaven.
134. Since the quarters are thus, as it were, inscribed on the angel, and also on the whole heaven, therefore the angel, differently from a man in the world, knows his own home and dwelling-place, wherever he goes. Man does not know his home or dwelling-place from any quarter in himself because he thinks from space, thus from the quarters of the natural world which have nothing in common with the quarters of the spiritual world. But yet birds and beasts have such knowledge, for it is implanted in them to know from themselves their homes and dwellings, as is known from much experience, a proof that such is the case in the spiritual world. For all things which exist in the natural world are effects, and all things which exist in the spiritual world are the causes of these effects. No natural thing exists which does not derive its cause from the spiritual.
135. ALL THE INTERIORS OF THE ANGELS, BOTH OF MIND AND BODY ARE TURNED TO THE LORD AS A SUN
Angels have an understanding and a will, and they have a face and a body. They also have the interior things of the understanding and will as well as of the face and body. The interiors of the understanding and the will are the things belonging to their interior affection and thought. The interiors of the face are the brains, while the interiors of the body are the viscera, the chief of which are the heart and lungs. In a word, the angels have all the things in general and particular which men on earth have. It is from these things that angels are men. Outward form apart from these internals does not make them men, but external form together with these, or rather from these [do]. Otherwise they would be merely images of men, in which there is no life, because within there is no form of life.
136. It is well known that the will and understanding rule the body at pleasure, for what the understanding thinks, the mouth speaks, and what the will wishes, the body does. From these facts it is evident that the body is a form corresponding to the understanding and the will. And because form is also predicated of the understanding and the will, it is evident that the form of tie body corresponds to the form of the understanding and the will. But this is not the place to describe the nature of one form or the other. Besides there are innumerable things in each form, and innumerable things on either side act as one, because they mutually correspond. Hence it is that the mind (mens), or the will and understanding, rule the body at pleasure, thus entirely as it rules itself. From the foregoing it follows that the interiors of the mind act as one with the interiors of the body, and the exteriors of the mind with the exteriors of the body. The interiors of the mind will be discussed below when first the degrees of life are treated of, then similarly, the interiors of the body.
137. Since the interiors of the mind make one with the interiors of the body it follows that when the interiors of the mind turn themselves to the Lord as a Sun, the interiors of the body also do likewise. And because the exteriors of both, of the mind as well as of the body depend upon their interiors, they also do likewise. For what the external does, it does from internals, the general deriving its all from the particulars from which it is. From these things it is clear that because the angel turns his face and body to the Lord as a Sun, all the interior things of his mind and body also are turned hither. It is the same with man if he has the Lord constantly before his eyes, which is the case if he is in love and wisdom. He then looks to the Lord not only with eyes and face, but even with his whole mind and heart, that is, with all the things of the will and understanding together with all the things of the body.
138. This turning to the Lord is an actual turning. It is a kind of elevation. For the man is elevated into the heat and light of heaven, which is brought about by the interiors being opened. And when these are opened, love and wisdom flow into the interiors of the mind, and heat and light into the interiors of the body. Thence the elevation, as of cloud into air, or of air into ether. Moreover, love and wisdom with their heat and light are the Lord with man, and He, as was said before, turns man to Himself. It is the reverse with those who are not in love and wisdom and more so with those who are opposed to love and wisdom. Their interiors, both of mind and body, are closed. And when closed, the exteriors re-act against the Lord, for such is their inherent nature. That is the reason they turn themselves backward from the Lord. And turning oneself backwards is to turn towards hell.
139. This actual turning to the Lord is from love together with wisdom, not from love alone, nor from wisdom alone. Love alone is like Esse without its Existere for love had its existence in wisdom; and wisdom without love is like Existere without its Esse, for wisdom has its existence from love. Love without wisdom is indeed possible, but such love is man’s and not the Lord’s. Wisdom is also possible without love, but such wisdom, although from the Lord, has not the Lord in it. For it is like the light of winter which, although from the sun, yet the sun’s essence which is heat is not in it.
140. EVERY SPIRIT, WHATEVER HIS CHARACTER, TURNS IN LIKE MANNER TOWARDS HIS RULING LOVE
It will first be stated what a spirit is and what an angel is. Every man after death comes first of all into the world of spirits, which is midway between heaven and hell, and there passes his times, that is, his states, and according to his life, is prepared either for heaven or for hell. So long as he remains in that world, he is called a spirit. He who has been raised up from that world into heaven, is called an angel, but he who has been cast down into hell is called a satan or a devil. While these are in the world of spirits, he who is being prepared for heaven is called an angelic spirit, but he who is being prepared for hell, an infernal spirit. In the meantime, the angelic spirit is conjoined with heaven, and the infernal spirit with hell. All spirits who are in the world of spirits are adjoined to men, because men as to the interiors of the mind are in like manner between heaven and hell, and through these spirits, communicate with heaven or with hell according to their life. It ought to be known that the world of spirits is one thing and the spiritual world another. The world of spirits is that which has just been spoken of; but the spiritual world includes that world as well as heaven and hell.
141. Something will also be stated concerning loves, because the turning of angels and spirits by reason of their loves, to their loves is being treated of. The whole heaven is distinguished into societies according to all the differences of loves, similarly, hell, and in like manner, the world of spirits. But heaven is distinguished into societies according to the differences of heavenly loves, whereas hell is distinguished into societies according to the differences of hellish loves, and the world of spirits according to the differences of loves both heavenly and hellish. There are two loves which are the heads of all the others, or to which all other loves are related. The love which is the head, or to which all heavenly loves are related, is love to the Lord; and the love which is the head of all hellish loves and to which they relate, is the love of domineering from the love of self. Those two loves are diametrically opposed to each other.
142. Since these two loves, love to the Lord and the love of domineering from self-love are entirely opposed to each other, and because all who are in love to the Lord turn towards the Lord as a Sun, as was shown in a previous section, it can be established that all who are in the love of domineering from self-love turn backward from the Lord. Therefore they turn in an opposite direction, because those who are in love to the Lord love nothing more than to be led by the Lord, and will that the Lord alone should rule, whereas those who are in the love of domineering from self-love, love nothing more than to be led by themselves, and will that they alone may rule. It is said the love of domineering from self-love, because there is a love of ruling from a love of performing uses, and this love, since it makes one with love towards the neighbour, is a spiritual love. Yet this love cannot be called a love of domineering but a love of performing uses.
143. Every spirit, whatever his character, turns towards his ruling love for the reason that love is the life of everyone, as was shown in Part I, nos. 1, 2, 3; and the life turns its receptacles which are called members, organs and viscera, thus the whole man, towards that society which is in a love similar to his, thus where his love is.
144. Since the love of domineering is from self-love it is absolutely opposed to love to the Lord. Therefore, the spirits who are in that love of domineering turn the face backward from the Lord, and thus with their eyes look towards the west of the spiritual world. And because they are thus as to the body in an opposite turning, the east is behind them, the north on their right and the south on their left. The east is behind them because they hold the Lord in hatred; the north is on their right because they love fallacies and the consequent falsities; and the south is on their left because they scorn the light of wisdom. They are able to turn round and round but all the things which they see about them appear similar to their love. All these are sensual-natural, and some are of such a nature as to have the opinion that they alone live, and they regard others as phantoms. They believe themselves to be wise above all others, although they are insane.
145. In the spiritual world there appear roads laid out like roads in the natural world. Some lead to heaven and some to hell. But the roads which lead to hell are not visible to those who are going to heaven, nor are the roads which lead to heaven visible to those who are going to hell. Roads of this kind are innumerable, for there are some which bend towards every society of heaven and every society of hell. Each spirit enters the road which leads towards the society of his own love, and he does not see the roads stretching in any other direction. Hence it is that each spirit, as he turns towards his ruling love, goes forward thereon.
146. THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM WHICH GO FORTH FROM THE LORD AS A SUN, AND CAUSE HEAT AND LIGHT IN HEAVEN, IS THE DIVINE PROCEEDING WHICH IS THE HOLY SPIRIT
In THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE LORD it has been shown that God is one in Person and in Essence, in Whom is a trinity, and that that God is the Lord; also that the Trinity in Him is called Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that the Divine as Source (a quo) is named the Father, the Divine Human the Son, and the Divine Proceeding, the Holy Spirit. The Divine is called the Proceeding, and yet no-one knows the reason for its being called the Proceeding. It is not known for the reason that hitherto it has been unknown that the Lord appears before the angels as a Sun, from which Sun proceeds the heat which, in its essence, is the Divine Love, together with the light which, in its essence, is the Divine Wisdom. While these things were unknown, one could not know otherwise than that the Divine Proceeding was a Divine by itself. Therefore also it is stated in the Athanasian doctrine of the Trinity that there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. Now, however, when it is known that the Lord appears as a Sun, a right idea may be had about the Divine Proceeding which is called the Holy Spirit, that it is one with the Lord but proceeds from Him as heat and light from a sun. And this is also the reason that angels are in Divine heat and Divine light to the extent in which they are in love and wisdom. Without the knowledge that the Lord appears in the spiritual world as a Sun, and that in this way His Divine proceeds, no-one can ever know what is understood by “to proceed”, as whether it is merely to communicate those things which belong to the Father and the Soil, or merely to enlighten and teach. But still it is not from enlightened reason to acknowledge the Divine Proceeding as a Divine by itself, and to call it God, and so divide God when it has been known that God is One and that He is Omnipresent.
147. It has been shown above that God is not in space, and that He is therefore Omnipresent, also that the Divine is the same everywhere but that His apparent variety is in angels and men from varying reception. Now because the Divine Proceeding from the Lord as a Sun is in light and heat, and light and heat first inflow into universal recipients, which in the world are called atmospheres, and these are the recipients of clouds, it can be established that in whatever way the interiors belonging to the understanding of a man or an angel are veiled about by such clouds, so he is a receptacle of the Divine Proceeding. By clouds are understood spiritual clouds which are thoughts which, if they are from truths, are in agreement with Divine Wisdom, but if from false things, are in disagreement. Wherefore also in the spiritual world when thoughts from truths are presented to the sight they appear as white clouds, but thoughts from false things appear as black clouds. From the foregoing it can be established that the Divine Proceeding is indeed in every man, but is variously veiled by each.
148. Since the Divine itself is present in an angel and a man by means of spiritual heat and light, therefore it is said of those who are in the truths of Divine Wisdom and in the goods of Divine Love, when affected by them, and from affection think from them and about them, that they grow warm from God. This also becomes [evident] to perception and feeling as when a preacher speaks from fervour. It is also said of those that they are enlightened by God, because the Lord, by means of His Divine Proceeding, not only kindles the will with spiritual heat, but also enlightens the understanding with spiritual light.
149. From the following passages in the Word it is clear that the Holy Spirit is the same as the Lord, and is the Truth itself from which man has enlightenment:
Jesus said, When the Spirit of Truth is come, he will guide you into all truth; he will not speak of himself; but whatsoever he will hear, that will he speak. John XVI 13
He will glorify Me; for he will receive of Mine, and will show it unto you. John XVI 14, 15
He will be with the disciples and in them. John XV 26
Jesus said, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. John vi 63
From these passages it is clear that the Truth itself which proceeds from the Lord, is called the Holy Spirit; and because it is in light, it enlightens.
150. Enlightenment, which is attributed to the Holy Spirit, is indeed in a man from the Lord, but yet it is effected by mediating spirits and angels. But the nature of that mediation cannot yet be described, only that angels and spirits cannot by any means enlighten man from themselves, because they, like man, are enlightened by the Lord. And because they are enlightened in like manner, it follows that all enlightenment is from the Lord alone. It is effected by mediating angels and spirits because the man who is in enlightenment, is then placed in the midst of such angels and spirits as receive, more than others, enlightenment from the Lord alone.
151. THE LORD CREATED THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING THEREIN BY MEANS OF THE SUN WHICH IS THE FIRST PROCEEDING OF THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM
By the Lord is understood God from eternity, or Jehovah, Who is called Father and Creator, because He is one with Him, as has been shown in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE LORD. Consequently, in the following sections where also creation is treated of, He is called the Lord.
152. It was fully shown in Part I, especially in nos. 52, 53, that all things in the universe were created by the Divine Love and Wisdom. Here now it will be shown that it was by means of the Sun which is the first proceeding of the Divine Love and Wisdom. No-one who is capable of seeing effects from causes, and afterwards, from causes seeing effects in their order and sequence, can deny that the Sun is the first of creation, for all things in its world continue in existence from it. And because they continue in existence from it, they also come into existence from it. The one involves and declares the other. For all things are under the Sun’s view because it has fixed them thus. And to hold under it, is to fix continuously, therefore it is said that continuing in existence is a perpetual coming into existence. Besides, if anything were withdrawn altogether from the Sun’s influx through the atmospheres, that thing would instantly be dissolved, for the atmospheres which are more and more pure and are made potent from the Sun, hold all things in connection. Now because the continuing in existence of the universe and everything therein is from the Sun, it is clear that the Sun is the first of creation from which all things are. It is said from the Sun, but from the Lord by means of the Sun is understood, for the Sun also was created by the Lord.
154. The universe and everything therein[was] created by the Lord by means of the Sun of the spiritual world because that Sun is the first proceeding of the Divine Love and Wisdom. And from the Divine Love and Wisdom all things are, as was shown above, n. 52-82. In every created thing, as in the greatest so in the least, there are three things-end, cause and effect. A created thing in which there are not these three is not possible. In what is the greatest, that is, in the universe, these three exist in the following order. In the Sun which is the first proceeding of the Divine Love and Wisdom, is the end of all things. In the spiritual world are the causes of all things. And in the natural world are the effects of all things. But how these three are in first and last things will be told in what follows. Now because no created thing is possible in which there are not these three, it follows that the universe and all things therein were created by the Lord through the Sun where is the end of all things.
155. Creation itself cannot be brought within the comprehension unless space and time are removed from thought, but if these are removed, it can be comprehended. Remove them, if you can, or as much as you can, and keep your mind in an idea abstracted from space and time, and you will perceive there is no difference between the maximum and the minimum of space. Then, too, you cannot but have a similar idea of the creation of the universe as of the creation of the particulars in the universe. You will also have the idea that the diversity in created things springs from this, that there are infinite things in God-Man, and hence innumerable things in the Sun which is the first proceeding from Him, and these innumerable things exist as in an image [of the Infinite things in God-Man] in the created universe. Hence it is that no one thing can be identical with another. From this comes the variety of all things which is presented to sight in the natural world together with space, and in the spiritual world in an appearance of space. And it is a variety of general and individual things. These are the things which have been pointed out in Part I, namely that in God-Man infinite things are one distinctly (n. 17-22); that all things in the universe were created by the Divine Love and Wisdom (n. 52, 53); that all things in the created universe are recipients of the Divine Love and Wisdom of God-Man (n. 54-60) that the Divine is not in space (n. 7-10); that the Divine apart from space fills all spaces (n. 69-72); that the Divine is the same in things greatest and least (n. 77-82).
156. The creation of the universe and everything therein cannot be said to have been brought about from space to space, nor from time to time, thus progressively and successively, but from Eternity and from Infinity; not from eternity of time because there is no such thing, but from eternity, not of time, for this is the same with the Divine; neither [was it] from eternity of space because again there is no such thing, but from eternity not of space, which also is the same with the Divine. I know these things transcend the ideas of thoughts which are in natural light but they do not transcend the ideas of thoughts which are in spiritual light, for in these there is nothing of space and time. Neither do they quite transcend ideas in natural light, for when it is said that there is no infinity of space, this everyone grants from reason. It is the same with eternity for this is infinity of time. If it is said to eternity this is comprehended from time; but from eternity is not comprehended unless time is removed.
157. THE SUN OF THE NATURAL WORLD IS PURE FIRE, AND THEREFORE DEAD; AND NATURE, BECAUSE IT DERIVES ITS ORIGIN FROM THAT SUN, IS DEAD
Creation itself cannot be ascribed in the least to the sun of the natural world, but entirely to the Sun of the spiritual world, because the sun of the natural world is quite dead, but the Sun of the spiritual world is living. For it is the first Proceeding of the Divine Love and Wisdom. And that which is dead does not act at all from itself, but is acted upon. Wherefore to ascribe to it anything of creation, would be like ascribing the work that a craftsman makes to the implement which he works with his hands. The sun of the natural world is pure fire, from which everything of life has been withdrawn; whereas the Sun of the spiritual world is fire in which is Divine Life. The angelic idea of the fire of the sun of the natural world, and of the fire of the Sun of the spiritual world is this; in the fire of the Sun of the spiritual world the Divine Life is within, but in the sun of the natural world it is without. From this it can be seen that the actuality of the natural sun is not from itself, but from a living force proceeding from the Sun of the spiritual world. Wherefore if the living force of that Sun were withdrawn or taken away, the natural sun would collapse. Hence it is that the worship of the sun is the lowest of all forms of worship of God, for it is utterly dead as the sun itself is, and so that worship is called in the Word an abomination.
158. Since the sun of the natural world is pure fire and thus dead, therefore the heat proceeding from it is also dead, as the light proceeding from it is dead. Similarly the atmospheres which are called ether and air, and receive in their bosom and carry down the heat and light of that sun, are dead. Since these are dead, so each and all things of the earth which lie beneath and are called soils are dead. But yet each and all of these things are encompassed by spiritual things which proceed and flow forth from the Sun of the spiritual world. Unless they were so encompassed, the soils could not have been actuated and have produced forms of uses, which are vegetables, nor forms of life which are animals; nor could they have furnished matters by which man comes into, and remains in existence.
159. Now because nature begins from that sun and everything that comes into, and remains in existence from it, is called natural, it follows that nature, with each and everything of it, is dead. Nature appears in man and in the animal as if living because of the life which accompanies and actuates it.
160. Since the lowest things of nature which make soils are dead, and are not changeable, varying according to states of affections and thoughts as in the spiritual world, but unchangeable and fixed, so in the natural world there are spaces and distances of spaces. There are such because there creation has terminated and remains in its inactivity. Hence it is clear that spaces are proper to nature, and because spaces there are not appearances of spaces according to states of life as they are in the spiritual world, they may also be called dead.
161. Since times in like manner are settled and constant, they are also proper to nature, for the duration of a day is constantly of twenty-four hours, and the period of a year is constantly of three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter days. The very states of light and shade, and of heat and cold which make these periods vary, are also constant in their recurrence. The states which recur daily are morning, noon, evening and night, and those which recur yearly are spring, summer, autumn and winter. The states of the year also constantly vary the states of the days. All these states are also dead, because they are not states of life as in the spiritual world. For in the spiritual world there is continuous light and continuous heat, the light corresponding to states of wisdom, and the heat to states of love with the angels; wherefore the states of these are living.
162. From these considerations can be seen the idiocy of those who ascribe all things to nature. Those who have confirmed themselves as pro-nature have induced upon themselves the state that they no longer wish to raise their mind above nature. Wherefore their mind is closed above and opened below, and so the man becomes natural-sensual which spiritually is dead. And because he then thinks only from such things as he has drawn from bodily senses, or through those senses from the world, at heart he even denies God. Then because conjunction with heaven has been broken, there comes about a conjunction with hell, there remaining only the capacity of thinking and willing. The capacity of thinking from rationality and the capacity of willing from freedom which two faculties every man has from the Lord, are not taken away. Devils equally with angels have these two faculties, but devils apply them to becoming insane and to evil-doing, while angels apply them to becoming wise and doing good.
163. WITHOUT TWO SUNS, THE ONE LIVING AND THE OTHER DEAD, CREATION IS NOT POSSIBLE
The universe in general is divided into two worlds, the spiritual and the natural. In the spiritual world are angels and spirits. In the natural world are men. These two worlds are entirely alike as to the external appearance, so alike that they cannot be distinguished; but as to internal appearance they are entirely unlike. The men themselves in the spiritual world, who, as said above, are called angels and spirits are spiritual. And because they are spiritual, they think spiritually and they speak spiritually. But men who are in the natural world are natural, and therefore they think naturally and speak naturally. And spiritual thought and speech have nothing in common with natural thought and speech. From this it is plain that these two worlds, the spiritual and the natural, are entirely distinct from each other, so that in no way can they be together.
166. That all things have been created by the Lord by means of the living Sun, and nothing by the dead sun, may be established from this, that a living thing disposes a dead thing to compliance with it, and forms it for uses which are its ends, but not the other way round. Only a man devoid of reason can think that all things are from nature, and that life even is from nature; he does not know what life is. Nature cannot dispose life to anything, for nature in itself is quite inert. For a dead thing to act upon a living thing, or a dead force upon a living force, or what is the same, for the natural to act on the spiritual, is entirely contrary to order, and therefore to think so is contrary to the light of sound reason. What is dead, that is, natural, may indeed, in many ways, be perverted and changed by external happenings, but yet it cannot act into life. But life acts into it, according to the change of form induced. It is the same with physical influx into the spiritual operations of the soul, which, it is known, does not occur for it is not possible.
167. THE END OF CREATION EXISTS IN ULTIMATES, WHICH END IS THAT ALL THINGS MAY RETURN TO THE CREATOR, AND THAT THERE MAY BE CONJUNCTION
First something will be said about ends. There are three things which follow in order and are called first end, middle end and last end. They are also called end, cause and effect. Those three must be together in everything in order that they may be anything. For a first end without a middle end and, at the same time, a last end, is not possible. Or what is the same, there cannot be end alone without cause and effect. Similarly, there cannot be cause alone without the end from which, and without the effect in which, it is; or an effect alone, that is, an effect without its cause and end. That this is so maybe comprehended if it be thought that an end without an effect, that is, separated from an affect, is not an existing thing, and so is nothing but a word. For in order that an end may actually be an end, it must be terminated, and it is terminated in an effect in which it is first called end because it is an end. It appears as if the agent or formative principle exists by itself, but this is an appearance from its being in the effect, but if it is separated from the effect, it is instantly sundered. From the foregoing it is clear that those three, end, cause and effect must be in every thing to make it anything.
168. It must be known besides that the end is the everything in the cause and the everything, too, in the effect. Hence it is that end, cause and effect are called first, middle and last end. But for the end to be everything in the cause, there must be something from the end in the cause wherein it must be. But so that the end may be everything in the effect, there must be something out of the end through the cause wherein the end must be. For the end cannot be in itself alone, but must be in something existing from it, in which it can indwell as to its entirety, and by acting, be effective even until it has a permanent existence. That in which it permanently exists is the last end, and this is called the effect.
169. In the created universe, both in its greatest and least things, there are those three, namely, end, cause and effect. They are in greatest and least things of the created universe, because in God the Creator Who is the Lord from eternity, there are those three. But because He is Infinite and infinite things in the Infinite are one distinctly as was shown above, n. 17-22, therefore also those three in Him, and the three in His infinite things are one distinctly. Hence it is that the universe which has been created from His Being and which, regarded as to uses, is in His image, must possess those three in all its things in general and particular.
171. Towards this ultimate end creation progresses continually through those three, which are end, cause and effect, because those three are in the Lord the Creator, as was said just above; and the Divine is in all space apart from space, n. 69-72; and is the same in things greatest and least n. 77-82; from which it is clear that the created universe in its general progression towards its ultimate end, is relatively the middle end. For out of the earth, forms of uses are continually raised by the Lord the Creator, in their order up to man, who as to his body, is also from the earth. Thereafter man is raised by the reception of love and wisdom from the Lord, and that he may receive love and wisdom, all the means have been provided, and he has been so made as to be able to receive, provided that he so wills. From what has now been said it can be seen, although so far in only a general way, that the end of creation exists in ultimates, and this end is that all things may return to the Creator and there may be conjunction.
172. That those three, end, cause and effect are in each and all things that have been created, can also be established from this, that all effects which are called ultimate ends, become anew first ends in continuous series from the First, Who is the Lord the Creator, even to the ultimate which is the conjunction of man with Him. That all last ends become anew first ends is evident from this, that there can be nothing so inert and dead as to have no efficient power in it. Even out of sand there is such an exhalation as gives power to produce, and therefore to effect something.
173. PART III
IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD THERE ARE ATMOSPHERES, WATERS AND EARTHS, JUST AS IN THE NATURAL WORLD; BUT THE FORMER ARE SPIRITUAL, WHILE THE LATTER ARE NATURAL
It has been shown in preceding pages and in the work HEAVEN AND HELL, that the spiritual world and the natural world are alike, with the difference only that each and all things of the spiritual world are spiritual, whereas each and all things of the natural world are natural. Since those two Worlds are alike, therefore in both there are atmospheres, waters and earths, which are the general things through and from which each and all things exist with infinite variety.
174. As regards the atmospheres which are called ethers and airs, they are alike in both worlds, the spiritual and the natural, with the difference that those in the spiritual world are spiritual, and those in the natural world are natural. The former are spiritual because they come into existence from the Sun which is the first proceeding of the Lord’s Divine Love and Wisdom, and from Him receive in them the Divine fire which is love, and the Divine light which is wisdom, carrying both down to the heavens where the angels are; and they cause the presence there of that Sun in things greatest and least. The spiritual atmospheres are discrete substances, or least forms, originating from the Sun. And because they receive the Sun singly therefore the Sun’s fire, divided into so many substances and forms, and being as it were enveloped by them, and tempered by the envelopings, becomes heat adapted finally to the love of angels in heaven and of spirits under heaven. Similarly with the light of the Sun. In this the natural atmospheres are like the spiritual atmospheres, that they are also discrete substances and least forms, originating from the sun of the natural world. And these also receive the sun singly and store up its fire in themselves, and temper it, carrying it down as heat to the earth where men are. The same is true of the light.
175. The difference between spiritual and natural atmospheres is this, that spiritual atmospheres are receptacles of Divine fire and Divine light, thus of love and wisdom, for they contain these within themselves, while natural atmospheres are not receptacles of Divine fire and Divine light, but they are receptacles of the fire and light of their own sun, which in itself is dead, as has been shown above. Consequently there is nothing interiorly within them from the Sun of the spiritual world, although they are surrounded by the spiritual atmospheres which are from that Sun. That this is the difference between spiritual and natural atmospheres has been learned from angelic wisdom.
176. That there are atmospheres in the spiritual world just as in the natural world can be established from this, that angels and spirits breathe, and also speak and hear just as men do in the natural world. And respiration is effected by means of the lowest atmosphere which is called air, just as speech and hearing are effected; it can also be seen from this, that angels and spirits see as do men in the natural world, and sight is only possible by means of an atmosphere purer than air. It can also be established from this, that angels and spirits think and have affection like men in the natural world, and thought and affection are only possible by means of still purer atmospheres; and finally from this that all things of the bodies of angels and spirits, external as well as internal, are held in connection, external things by the aerial atmosphere, and internal things by the ethereal atmospheres. It is obvious that, without the surrounding pressure and action of those atmospheres, the interior and exterior forms of the body would dissolve. Since angels are spiritual, and each and all things of their bodies are held together in connection, form and order by means of atmospheres, it fellows that those atmospheres are spiritual. Indeed they are spiritual because they arise from the spiritual Sun which is the first proceeding of the Lord’s Divine Love and Wisdom.
177. It has been said above and also shown in the work HEAVEN AND HELL, that in the spiritual world there are also waters as well as earths, with the difference that the waters and earths of the spiritual world are spiritual. And because they are spiritual, they are actuated and modified by the heat and light of the spiritual Sun by means of the atmospheres from it, just as waters and earths in the natural world are, by the heat and light of the sun of their world by means of its atmospheres.
178. Atmospheres, waters and earths are here mentioned, because those three are the generals through and from which each and all things have existence with infinite variety. The atmospheres are the active forces, the waters are the middle forces and the lands are the passive forces from which all effects have existence. That those three forces are such in their series is solely from the life which proceeds from the Lord as a Sun, and which makes them active.
179. THERE ARE DEGREES OF LOVE AND WISDOM, AND HENCE DEGREES OF HEAT AND LIGHT, ALSO DEGREES OF ATMOSPHERES
Unless it is known that there are degrees, what they are, and what their nature is, the things that follow cannot be comprehended, since in every created thing, thus in every form, there are degrees. Wherefore in this Part of THE ANGELIC WISDOM degrees will be treated. That there are degrees of love and wisdom, can be clearly established from the angels of the three heavens. The angels of the third heaven so far surpass the angels of the second heaven in love and wisdom, and these, the angels of the lowest heaven, that they cannot be together. The degrees of love and wisdom distinguish and separate them. Hence it is that angels of the lower heavens cannot ascend to angels of higher heavens; and if they are allowed to ascend, then they do not see them nor anything that is about them. They do not see them because the love and wisdom of the higher angels is in a higher degree, and this transcends perception. For each angel is his own love and wisdom, and love together with wisdom is in its form a man, because God Who is Love itself and Wisdom itself, is a Man. It has sometimes been granted me to see that angels of the lowest heaven ascended to angels of the third heaven; and when they had made their way thither, I have heard them complaining that they did not see anyone, and yet they were in the midst of those angels. Afterwards they were instructed that the angels were invisible to them because their love and wisdom were imperceptible to them, and that love and wisdom are what make an angel appear as a man.
180. That there are degrees of love and wisdom is still more clearly evident from the love and wisdom of angels compared to the love and wisdom of men. It is well known that the wisdom of angels is relatively ineffable; and it will be seen in what follows that it is incomprehensible to men when they are in natural love. The reason that it appears ineffable and incomprehensible is because it is in a higher degree.
184. DEGREES ARE OF A TWOFOLD KIND, DEGREES OF HEIGHT AND DEGREES OF BREADTH
A knowledge of degrees is like a key for opening the causes of things, and for entering into them. Without that knowledge, scarcely anything of cause can be known. For without it, the objects and subjects of both worlds appear so simple as though there were nothing in them beyond that which meets the eye, when yet the things that appear are as one to thousands, indeed, to myriads, compared with the things which lie hidden within. The interiors which do not lie open can by no means be disclosed except by a knowledge of degrees. For exterior things go on to interior things, and through these to inmost things by means of degrees, not by continuous degrees but by discrete degrees. Continuous degrees are defined as lessenings or decreasings from grosser to finer, or from denser to rarer; or rather as growths and increasings from finer to grosser, or from rarer to denser, exactly like gradations of light to shade, or of heat to cold. Discrete degrees, however, are quite different. They are like things prior, posterior and final, and like end, cause and effect. These degrees are called discrete, because the prior is by itself, the posterior by itself and the final by itself, but yet taken together they make one. The atmospheres from highest to lowest, or from the sun to the earth and which are called ethers and airs, are separated into such degrees. They are like simple things, collections of those, and again collections of these which taken together are called a composite. These degrees are discrete because they exist distinctly and these are understood as degrees of height, whereas the former degrees are continuous because they increase continuously, and these are understood as degrees of breadth.
185. Each and all things which have existence in the spiritual world and in the natural world have co-existence from discrete degrees and at the same time from continuous degrees, that is, from degrees of height and degrees of breadth. That dimension which consists of discrete degrees is called height, and that which consists of continuous degrees is called breadth. Their position relatively to the sight of the eye does not change the designation. Without a knowledge of these degrees nothing can be known about the difference between the three heavens, nor about the difference between the love and wisdom of the angels there, nor between the heat and light in which they are, nor about the difference between the atmospheres which surround and contain them. Again without a knowledge of these degrees, nothing can be known about the differences among the interior faculties belonging to the minds of men, and so nothing about their state as to reformation and regeneration, nor the differences of the exterior faculties belonging to the body, in the case of angels as well as men. And certainly nothing can be known about the difference between the spiritual and the natural, and thus nothing about correspondence. Indeed nothing can be known of any difference of life between men and beasts, nor of the difference between more perfect and less perfect beasts, nor yet about the differences among forms of the vegetable kingdom, and matters of the mineral kingdom. From which it can be established that those who have no knowledge of these degrees cannot from any judgment see causes. They only see effects and judge causes from these, and this is done for the most part from induction which is continuous with effects, when yet causes produce effects not continuously but discretely. For cause is one thing, and effect is another. The difference is like that between prior and posterior, or between that which forms and that which is formed.
186. That it may be still better understood what discrete degrees are, what their nature is, and how they differ from continuous degrees, the angelic heavens may serve as an example. There are three heavens, and these are separated by degrees of height. Wherefore the heavens are one below another, nor do they communicate with each other except by influx, which is effected by the Lord through the heavens in their order to the lowest, but not the other way about. Each heaven by itself, however, is divided into regions not by degrees of height but by degrees of breadth. Those who are in the middle, or the centre, are in the light of wisdom, but those who are on the outside even at the boundaries, are in the shade of wisdom. Thus wisdom decreases, even to ignorance, just as the light decreases towards shade, which takes place by continuity. It is the same with men. The interiors belonging to their minds are separated into as many degrees as the angelic heavens, and these degrees are one above another. Therefore the interiors of men belonging to their minds are separated by discrete degrees, or degrees of height. Hence it is that man may be in the lowest degree, then in a higher, and even in the highest, according to the degree of his wisdom; and when he is only in the lowest degree, the higher degree is closed, but as he receives wisdom from the Lord, it is opened. There are also in man, as in heaven, continuous degrees or degrees of breadth. A man is like the heavens because as regards the interiors of his mind he is a heaven in the least form, to the extent that he is in love and wisdom from the Lord. That a man as regards the interiors of his mind is a heaven in the least form may be seen in the work HEAVEN AND HELL (n. 51-58).
188. I am not aware that anything has been known so far about discrete degrees or degrees of height, but only about continuous degrees or degrees of breadth. And yet nothing can become known of the real nature of cause without a knowledge of degrees of both kinds. Therefore the whole of this Part shall deal with these; for it is the purpose of this little work to uncover causes so that effects from them may be seen, and thus the darkness in which the man of the Church is about God and the Lord, and about Divine things in general which are called spiritual may be dispelled. I may mention this, that the angels are in sorrow about the darkness on earth. They say that hardly anywhere do they see light, and that men seize upon fallacies, confirm them, and by this means multiply falsities upon falsities; and to confirm these, men explore, by means of reasonings from untruths and from truths falsified, such things as cannot be
dispelled owing to the darkness regarding causes and the ignorance regarding truths. The angels specially lament over confirmations about faith separate from charity and justification thereby. They also lament men’s ideas about God, angels and spirits, and about their ignorance of what love and wisdom are.
189. DEGREES OF HEIGHT ARE HOMOGENEOUS AND ONE IS FROM THE OTHER IN SERIES, JUST AS ARE END, CAUSE AND EFFECT
Since degrees of breadth, that is, continuous degrees, are like gradations of light to shade, heat to cold, hard to soft, dense to rare, gross to fine, and so forth, and since these degrees are known by sensual and ocular experience, while degrees of height, that is, discrete degrees are not, therefore the latter shall be treated of especially in this Part, for without a knowledge of these [discrete] degrees, causes cannot be seen. Indeed it is known that end, cause and effect follow in order like first, middle and last. It is also known among other things that the end produces the cause, and through the cause, the effect so that the end may exist. And yet to know these things and not see them in their applications to existing things is merely to know abstractions which remain in the mind only so long as analytical ideas derived from metaphysical ones are in the thought. Hence it is that, although end, cause and effect proceed through discrete degrees, yet little if anything is known in the world about these degrees. For a mere knowledge of abstractions is like an airy something which flies away. But if abstractions are applied to such things as are in the world, they are like what is seen with the eyes on earth, and remain in the memory.
190. All things which exist in the world, about which a threefold dimension is predicated, or which are called composite, consist of degrees of height or discrete degrees. But examples will make this clear. It is known from ocular experience that every muscle in the human body consists of minute fibres and that these, gathered together into little bundles, form larger fibres, called motor fibres and that from groups of these exists the composite thing called a muscle. It is the same with nerves. In these from most minute fibres knitted together are formed greater ones which appear as filaments. From these massed together is woven the nerve. It is the same in the rest of the combinations, bundles and groupings out of which organs and viscera are made up; for these are composites out of fibres and vessels variously put together through similar degrees. It is also the same with each and every thing of the vegetable kingdom, and of the mineral kingdom. In woods there are combinations of filaments in threefold order. In metals and stones there are massed together parts also in threefold order. From these examples it is clear what discrete degrees are, namely, that one thing exists from another, and from this other, a third which is called a composite; and that each degree is discreted from the other.
The reason for this is that the degrees of each subject and of each thing are homogeneous, and they are homogeneous because produced by the first degree. For their formation is such that the first, by combinations and accretions, in a word, by massing together [of parts] produces the second, and through this, the third, and discretes each from the other by a covering drawn around it. Hence it is clear that the first degree is chief and solely regnant in subsequent degrees, consequently that the first degree is the all in all of subsequent degrees.
196. It is said that degrees are such in respect to each other, but it means that substances are such in their degrees. Speaking by degrees is an abstract way of speaking which is universal, thus applicable to every subject or thing which is in degrees of this kind.
197. Application can be made to all those things which have been enumerated in the preceding section, as to muscles, nerves, the materials and parts of each kingdom, vegetable and mineral, to the organic substances which are the subjects of thoughts and affections in man, to atmospheres, to heat and light, and to love and wisdom. In all of these, the first is solely regnant in subsequent things, indeed is the only thing in them, and being the only thing in them, is the all in them. That this is the case is clear also from these facts which are well known, namely, that the end is the all of the cause, and that through the cause is the all of the effect, and thus end, cause and effect are called first, middle and last end. Further, it is known that the cause of the cause is also the cause of the thing caused, and that there is nothing essential in causes except the end, and nothing essential in motion except conatus,* also that the substance which is substance in itself is the sole substance.
* An urge, effort or striving.
198. From these things it can clearly be seen that the Divine, which is substance in itself, that is the one only and sole substance, is the substance from which everything and all things have been created, thus that God is the All in all of the universe, in accordance with what has been shown in Part I, as:
Divine Love and Wisdom is substance and form (n. 40-43);
Divine Love and Wisdom is substance and form in itself thus the Very and Only One (n. 44-46);
All things in the universe have been created by the Divine Love and Wisdom (n. 52-60);
Consequently the created universe is His image (n. 61-65); The Lord alone is heaven where the angels are (n. 113-118).
199. ALL PERFECTIONS INCREASE AND ASCEND ALONG WITH DEGREES AND IN ACCORDANCE WITH THEM
It has been shown above that there are two kinds of degrees, degrees of breadth and degrees of height (n. 184-188); also that degrees of breadth are like those of light verging towards shade, or of wisdom towards ignorance; but that degrees of height are like end, cause and effect, or like first, second and last. It is said of the latter degrees that they ascend or descend, for they pertain to height; but of the former it is said that they increase or decrease, for they pertain to breadth. These degrees differ so much from each other that they have nothing in common. They are therefore to be perceived as distinct, and by no means to be confounded.
200. All perfections increase and ascend along with degrees and in accordance with them because all predicates follow their subjects, and perfection and imperfection are general predicates, for they are predicated of life, of forces, and of forms.
Perfection of life is perfection of love and wisdom; and because the will and the understanding are receptacles of these, perfection of life is also perfection of will and understanding, and therefore of affections and thoughts. And because spiritual heat is the containant of love, and spiritual light is the containant of wisdom, perfection of these can also be referred to perfection of life.
Perfection of forces is perfection of all things which are actuated and moved through the agency in which, however, there is no life. Such forces are the atmospheres as to movements. Such forces also are interior and exterior organic substances with man, and with animals of every kind. Such forces are also all things in the natural world which are endowed with active powers both immediately and mediately from the sun there.
Perfection of forms and perfection of forces make one, for such as the forces are, such are the forms, with the difference only that forms are substances, while forces are their activities. Therefore similar degrees of affection belong to both. Forms which are not at the same time forces are also degrees of perfection.
201. The perfections of life, forces and forms increasing or decreasing according to degrees of breadth, that is, continuous degrees, will not be discussed here because these degrees are known in the world, but perfections of life, forces and forms ascending or descending according to degrees of height or discrete degrees will be discussed, for those degrees are not known in the world. But how perfections ascend and descend according to those degrees can he little understood from things visible in the natural world, but clearly from things visible in the spiritual world. From things visible in the natural world, it is only discovered that the more they are looked into, the more do wonders appear, as, for example, in the eyes, ears, tongue, in muscles, heart, lung, liver, pancreas, kidneys and other viscera; also in seeds, fruits and flowers; and again in metals, minerals and stones. It is well known that in all these, wonders appear the more they are looked into. But yet from these things it has been little suspected that these objects are interiorly more perfect according to degrees of height or discrete degrees. Ignorance of those degrees has concealed the fact. But because the same degrees stand out conspicuously in the spiritual world, for the whole of that world, from highest to lowest, is distinctly discreted into these degrees, therefore from that world knowledge of these degrees can be drawn. Then conclusions can be drawn therefrom about perfection of forces and forms which are in similar degrees in the natural world.
202. In the spiritual world there are three heavens arranged according to degrees of height. In the highest heaven are angels superior in every perfection to angels in the middle heaven, and in the middle heaven are angels superior in every perfection to angels of the lowest heaven. The degrees of perfection are such that angels of the lowest heaven cannot ascend to the first threshold of the perfections of the angels of the middle heaven, nor these to the first threshold of the perfections of the angels of the highest heaven. This seems a paradox, yet it is the truth. The reason is that they are consociated according to discrete, and not according to continuous degrees. It has been made known to me by experience that there is such a distinction between the affections and thoughts and consequently the speech, of the angels of the higher and the lower heavens that they have nothing in common, and that communication takes place only through correspondences which have existence through the immediate influx of the Lord into all the heavens, and by mediate influx through the highest heaven into the lowest. Such being the nature of these distinctions, they cannot be expressed in natural language, and so cannot be described. For the thoughts of angels, being spiritual, do not fall into natural ideas. They can be expressed and described only by the angels themselves through their own languages, words and writings, and not through those which are human. This is why it is said that in the heavens ineffable things are heard and seen. These distinctions may in some measure be comprehended from these considerations, that the thoughts of angels of the highest or third heaven are thoughts of ends, and the thoughts of angels of the middle or second heaven are thoughts of causes while the thoughts of angels of the lowest or first heaven are thoughts of effects. It is to be known that it is one thing to think from ends, and another to think about ends; also that it is one thing to think from causes, and another to think about causes; just as it is one thing to think from effects, and another about effects. Angels of the lower heavens think about causes and about ends, but angels of the higher heavens think from causes and ends. To think from these belongs to higher wisdom, whereas to think about these belongs to lower wisdom. To think from ends pertains to wisdom, to think from causes pertains to intelligence, and to think from effects pertains to knowledge. From these things it is clear that all perfection ascends and descends along with degrees and according to them.
203. Since the interior things of man, which belong to his will and understanding, are like the heavens as to degrees (for man, as to the interiors of his mind, is a heaven in least form), so also their perfections are similar. But these perfections are not apparent to any man while he is living in the world, for he is then in the lowest degree, and from the lowest degree the higher degrees cannot be known. But after death they are known. For then man comes into that degree which corresponds to his love and wisdom, for he then becomes an angel, and thinks and speaks things ineffable to his natural man. For there is then an elevation of all things of his mind, not in a single, but in a threefold ratio. Degrees of height are in this threefold ratio, but degrees of breadth are in single ratio. But into those degrees none ascend and are elevated, except those who, in the world, have been in truths, and have applied them to life.
204. It appears as if prior things must be less perfect than posterior things, that is, simple things than composites. But yet prior things out of which posterior things are formed, or simple things out of which composites are formed, are the more perfect. The reason is that the prior or simpler things are more naked and less covered over with substances and matters devoid of life; and they are, as it were, more divine. Consequently, they are nearer to the spiritual Sun where the Lord is. For perfection itself is in the Lord, and hence in the Sun which is the first proceeding of His Divine Love and Wisdom, and hence in those things which next follow on, and thus in order down to lowest things which are more imperfect as they recede. Unless there were such pre-eminent perfection in prior and simple things, neither man nor any kind of animal could have come into existence from seed, or have afterwards continued to exist. Neither could the seeds of trees and shrubs vegetate and bear fruit. For the more prior anything prior is, and the more simple anything simple is, the more immune it is from destruction, because it is more perfect.
205. IN SUCCESSIVE ORDER THE FIRST DEGREE MAKES THE HIGHEST, AND THE THIRD THE LOWEST; BUT IN SIMULTANEOUS ORDER THE FIRST DEGREE MAKES THE INMOST, AND THE THIRD THE OUTERMOST
There is successive order and simultaneous order. The successive order of these degrees is from highest to lowest, or from top to bottom. The angelic heavens are in this order. There the third heaven is the highest, the second is the middle, and the first is the lowest. Such is their relative situation. In like successive order are the states of love and wisdom with the angels there, also states of heat and light and of the spiritual atmospheres. In like order are all the perfections of forms and forces there. When degrees of height, that is, discrete degrees, are in successive order, then they may be compared to a column divided into three stages through which ascent and descent are made. In its upper storey are things most perfect and most beautiful; in the middle one, things less perfect and beautiful; in the lowest, things still less perfect and beautiful. Simultaneous order, however, which consists of like degrees has another appearance. In it the highest things of successive order which are, as was said above, the most perfect and the most beautiful are in the inmost, the lower things in the middle, and the lowest on the circumference. They are as if in a solid composed of these three degrees, in the middle or centre of which are the finest parts, round about this are parts less fine, and in the extremes which constitute the circumference are the parts composed of these and which are therefore grosser. It is like the column mentioned just above subsiding into a plane, the highest part of which forms the inmost, the middle forms the middle and the lowest the outermost.
206. Since the highest of successive order becomes the inmost of simultaneous order, and the lowest becomes the outermost, so in the Word, by higher is signified inner, and by lower is signified outer. Similarly by upwards and downwards, also by high and deep.
207. In every ultimate there are discrete degrees in simultaneous order. The motor fibres in every muscle, the fibres in every nerve, also the fibres and little vessels in all viscera and organs, are in such order. Inmostly in these are the most simple things which are the most perfect; the outmost is a composite of these. There is a like order of these degrees in every seed and in every fruit, also in every metal and stone. Their parts of which the whole is composed, are of such a nature. The inmost, the middle and the outmost things of the parts are in these degrees, for they are successive compositions, that is, bundlings and massings together from simple things which are their first substances or matters.
209. THE ULTIMATE DEGREE IS THE COMPLEX, CONTAINANT AND BASE OF PRIOR DEGREES
The doctrine of degrees which is recounted in this Part has hitherto been illustrated by various things which exist in both worlds, as by the degrees of the heavens where the angels are, by the degrees of heat and light with them, and by the degrees of atmospheres, and by various things in the human body, and also in the animal and mineral kingdoms. But this doctrine is of wider application. It extends not only to natural things, but also to civil, moral, and spiritual things, and to all and each of their details. The reason that the doctrine of degrees even extends to such things is twofold. First, because in every thing of which anything can be predicated there is a trine which is called end, cause, and effect and these three are inter-related according to degrees of height. Secondly, everything civil, moral and spiritual is not something abstracted from substance, but they are substances. For as love and wisdom are not abstract things, but are substances (as was shown above n. 40-43), so in like manner are all things which are called civil, moral and spiritual. These can indeed be thought of abstractly from substance, but yet in themselves they are not abstract; as for example, affection and thought, charity and faith, will and understanding, for it is the same with those as with love and wisdom, namely, they are not possible outside of subjects which are substances, but are states of subjects, that is, of substances. That they are changes of these, which present variations, will be seen in what follows. By substance is also understood form, for there cannot be substance without form.
210. From the fact that it has been possible to think of will and understanding, besides affection and thought, and charity and faith abstractly from the substances which are their subjects, and that they have been so considered, it has come about that a true idea of these things, as being states of substances or forms, has perished. They are just like sensations and actions which are not things abstract from the sensory and motor organs; abstracted or separated from these, they are nothing but figments of the imagination. For they are like sight without the eye, hearing without the ear, taste without the tongue, and so forth.
211. Since all things civil, moral and spiritual, progress through degrees just as natural things do, not only through continuous, but also through discrete degrees, and since the progressions of discrete degrees are like progressions of ends to causes, and of causes to effects, I have purposed to illustrate and confirm the present subject-matter which is that the ultimate degree is the complex, containant and base of prior degrees, by the things above mentioned, namely, by those things pertaining to love and wisdom, to will and understanding, to affection and thought, and to charity and faith.
212. That the ultimate degree is the complex, containant and base of prior degrees is manifestly obvious from progressions of ends to causes and effects. That the effect is the complex, containant and base of causes and ends can be comprehended by enlightened reason. But it is not so clear that the end with all things of it, and the cause with all things of it, are actually in the effect, and that the effect is their full complex. That such is the case can be established from things said in this Part, especially from these, that one thing is from the other in a threefold series; that the effect is nothing else than the end in its ultimate; and because the ultimate is the complex, it follows that it is the containant and also the base.
213. As regards love and wisdom, love is the end, wisdom the instrumental cause, and use is the effect. Also use is the complex, containant and base of wisdom and love. And use is such a complex and such a containant that all things of love and all things of wisdom are actually within it. It is their “togetherness”. But it should be clearly borne in mind that all things of love and wisdom which are homogeneous and concordant, are present in use, in accordance with those things mentioned and explained above (in the section n. 189-194).
214. Affection, thought and action are also in a series of like degrees, because all affection has relation to love, thought to wisdom, and action to use. Charity, faith, and good works are in a series of like degrees, for charity is of affection, faith is of thought, and good works of action. Will, understanding, and practice are also in a series of like degrees, for will is of love and hence of affection, understanding is of wisdom and hence of faith, and practice is of use and hence of work. As, therefore, all things of wisdom and love are present in use, so all things of thought and affection are present in action, all things of faith and charity in good works, and so forth. But all these are homogeneous, that is, concordant.
215. It has not yet been known that the ultimate of each series, that is, use, action, work, and practice, is the complex and containant of all the prior things. It appears as if there were nothing more in use, action, work and practice than such as there is in motion. But yet all the prior things are actually present in these, and so fully that there is nothing lacking. They are enclosed therein like wine in its cask and like furniture in its house. They are not apparent, because they are regarded only externally, and regarded externally, they are merely activities and motions. It is like when arms and hands move, and one is unconscious that a thousand motor fibres concur in every motion of them, and that to the thousand motor fibres correspond thousands of things of thought and affection which excite the motor fibres. Because these things act inwardly, they are not apparent to any bodily sense. But this is known, that nothing takes place in or through the body except from the will by means of the thought. And because both of these act, it cannot be otherwise than that all things of the will and the thought, in general and in particular, are within the action. They cannot be separated. Hence it is that from a man’s deeds or works others judge of the thought of his will which is called intention. This has been made known to me, that angels, from the mere deed or work of a man, perceive and see everything of the will and thought of the doer. Angels of the third heaven perceive and see from his will the end for which he acts, and angels of the second heaven the cause through which the end operates. It is from this that in the Word, works and deeds are so often commanded, and that it is said that a man is known by his works.
216. According to angelic wisdom, unless will and understanding, that is, affection and thought, as well as charity and faith, clothe and invest themselves, whenever possible, with works and deeds, they are only like something airy which passes away, or like phantoms in the air which perish; and they first become permanent with man and become a part of his life, when he practises and does them. The reason is that the ultimate is the complex, containant and base of things prior. Such an airy nothing and such a phantom is faith separated from good works, and such also are faith and charity without their practice, only with the difference that those who regard faith and charity, know and can will to do good, but not so those who are in faith separated from charity.
217. DEGREES OF HEIGHT ARE IN FULNESS AND IN POWER IN THEIR ULTIMATE
In the preceding section it was shown that the ultimate degree is the complex and containant of prior degrees. Hence it follows that prior degrees are in fulness in their ultimate, for they are in their effect, and every effect is the fulness of causes.
218. That these ascending and descending degrees, which are also called prior and posterior, and likewise degrees of height or discrete degrees are in their power in their ultimate, can be confirmed by all those things which have been adduced in the preceding sections as confirmations from things of sense and perception. Here, however. I wish to confirm them only by the conatus, forces and motions in dead and in living subjects. It is known that conatus does nothing from itself but acts through forces corresponding to itself, and through these produces motion; consequently that conatus is the everything in forces, and through forces, the everything in motion; and because motion is the ultimate degree of conatus, through motion conatus exerts its power. Conatus, force and motion are not otherwise conjoined except according to degrees of height, the conjunction of which is not by continuity, for they are discrete, but by correspondences. For conatus is not force, nor is force motion. But force is produced by conatus, because force is conatus In action, and through force motion is produced. Wherefore there is no power in conatus alone, nor in force alone, but there is power in motion which is their product. That such is the case may still appear doubtful because not illustrated by applications to sensible and perceptible things in nature; nevertheless, such is the progression of conatus, force and motion into power.
219. But let application of this be made to living conatus, and to living force, and to living motion. Living conatus in man, who is a living subject, is his will united to his understanding. Living forces in man are the things which interiorly constitute his body, in all of which there are motor fibres entwined in various ways. And living motion in man is action which is produced through these forces by the will united to the understanding. For the interior things which belong to the will and the understanding make the first degree. The interior things belonging to the body make the second. And the whole body which is the complex of these makes the third degree. It is well known that the interior things belonging to the mind have no power except through forces in the body, and that forces have no power except through the action of the body itself. These three do not act by what is continuous, but by what is discrete, and to act by what is discrete is to act by correspondences. The interior things of the mind correspond to the interior things of the body; and the interior things of the body correspond to its exterior things by which actions come forth. Wherefore the two prior degrees have power through the exterior things of the body. It may seem as if conatus and forces in man have some power even although there is no action, as in sleep and in states of rest, but at such times, the determinations of conatus and forces are into the general motor organs of the body which are the heart and the lungs. But when the action of these ceases, the forces also cease, and, with the forces, the conatus.
220. Since the whole, that is, the body has fixed its powers chiefly in the arms and hands which are ultimates, therefore by “arms” and “hands” in the Word is signified power, and by the “right hand” superior power. Since such is the evolution and putting forth of degrees into power, therefore from action alone which is made with the hands, the angels who are with a man, and in the correspondence of all things belonging to him, know his quality as to understanding and will, also as to charity and faith, thus as to the internal life belonging to his mind and the external life derived therefrom in the body. I have often wondered that the angels have such knowledge from the mere action of the body through the hands, but yet it has been shown several times by living experience. And it has been said that it is from this that ordinations into the ministry are performed by the laying on of hands and that by touching with the hand is signified communicating, besides other similar things. From these things the conclusion is formed that everything of charity and faith is in works, and that charity and faith without works are like rainbows around the sun, which vanish away and are lost in the cloud. Because of this, “works” are so often mentioned in the Word and it is said [we are] “to do” them, and that a man’s salvation depends upon these. Also he that doeth is called wise, and he that doeth not, foolish. But it ought to be known that by “works” here are understood uses which are actually done, for in these and according to them is everything of charity and faith. There is this correspondence [of works] with uses, because this correspondence is spiritual, but it is carried out through substances and matters which are subjects.
221. Here two arcana, which fall within the understanding by what has been said above, can be revealed. The first arcanum is that the Word in the sense of the letter is in its fulness and its power. For there are three senses in the Word according to the three degrees; the celestial sense, the spiritual sense and the natural sense. Since these senses are in the Word according to the three degrees of height, and their conjunction is effected by correspondences, therefore the ultimate sense, which is the natural and is called the sense of the letter, is not only the complex, containant and base of the corresponding interior senses, but is also the Word in the ultimate sense in its fulness and its power. That such is the case is shown at length and confirmed in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE (n. 27-35, 36-49, 50-61, 62-69). The second arcanum is that the Lord came into the world and took upon Him a Human in order to put Himself into the power of subjugating the hells and of bringing back to order all things both in the heavens and on earth. This Human He put on over His former Human. This Human which He put on in the world was like man’s human in the world. Yet both Humans are Divine and therefore infinitely transcend the finite humans of angels and men. And because He fully glorified the natural Human even to its ultimate, so He rose again with the whole body, differently from any man. Through the assumption of this Human He put on Divine omnipotence, not only for subjugating the hells and bringing back the heavens to order, but also for holding the hells in subjection to eternity, and saving mankind. This power is understood by His “sitting at the right hand of the power and might of God”. Since the Lord, by the assumption of a natural Human, made Himself Divine Truth in ultimates, therefore He is called “the Word”, and it is said that “the Word was made flesh”, and the Divine Truth in ultimates is the Word as to the sense of the letter. This the Lord made Himself by fulfilling all things of the Word concerning Himself in Moses and the Prophets. For every man is his own good and his own truth, and man is man from no other source; but the Lord, by the assumption of a natural human, is Divine Good Itself and Divine Truth, or what is the same, He is Divine Love Itself and Divine Wisdom, both in first things and in ultimates. Hence it is that the Lord since His advent into the world appears as a Sun in the angelic heavens in stronger radiance and in greater splendour than before His advent. This is an arcanum which, by the doctrine of degrees, can penetrate the understanding. The Lord’s omnipotence before His advent into the world will be spoken of in what follows.
222. THERE ARE DEGREES OF BOTH KINDS IN THE GREATEST AND THE LEAST OF ALL CREATED THINGS
That the greatest and the least of all things consist of discrete and continuous degrees, that is, degrees of height and of breadth, cannot be illustrated by examples from visible things because the least things are not Visible to the eyes, and the greatest things, which do stand out, do not appear to be distinguished into degrees. And on this account this matter does not allow of demonstration except by universals. And because angels are in wisdom from universals, and from that in knowledge of particulars, it is allowed to bring forward their utterances concerning these things.
223. The utterances of angels concerning this subject are as follows:- there can be nothing so minute as not to have in it degrees of both kinds: for example, there can be nothing so minute in any animal, or in any vegetable, or in any mineral, or in the ether and the air as not to have in it these degrees. And because ether and air are receptacles of heat and light, there can be nothing so minute as not to have the least thing of heat and light; and because spiritual heat and light are the receptacles of love and wisdom, there can be nothing of these so minute, as not to have in it degrees of both kinds. From utterances of the angels it is also declared that the least thing of affection or of thought, indeed the least thing of an idea of thought, consists of degrees of both kinds, and that the least thing not consisting of these degrees is nothing. For it has no form, thus no quality, and no state which can be changed and varied, and by this have existence. Angels confirm this by the truth that infinite things in God the Creator, Who is the Lord from eternity, are one distinctly, and that there are infinite things in His infinites, and that in things infinitely infinite, there are degrees of both kinds which also in Him are one distinctly. And because those things are in Him, and all things were created by Him, and created things repeat in a certain image the things which are in Him, it follows that there cannot be the least finite in which there are not such degrees. It is because the Divine is the same in greatest and in least things that these degrees are equally in least and in greatest things. That in God-Man infinite things are one distinctly, may be seen above (n. 17-22); and that the Divine is the same in greatest and in least things (n. 77-82); which facts are further illustrated (n. 155, 169, 171).
224. There cannot be the least things of love and wisdom, or the least things of affection and thought, or even the least things of an idea of thought in which there are not degrees of both kinds, for the reason that love and wisdom are substance and form (as was shown above n. 40-43). The same is true of affection and thought. And because there can be no form in which these degrees are not, as was stated above, it follows that there are like degrees in these. For to separate love and wisdom, or affection and thought, from substance in form, is to annihilate them, because they are not possible outside their subjects, for they are states of their subjects perceived by man in variation, and these states present them to view.
225. The greatest things in which there are degrees of both kinds, are the universe in its whole complex, the natural world in its complex, and the spiritual world in its complex, every empire and every kingdom in its complex, every thing civil, moral and spiritual of these in their complex, the whole animal kingdom, the whole vegetable kingdom, and the whole mineral kingdom, each in its complex, all atmospheres of both worlds taken together, as well as their heats and lights. Likewise, things less general, as man in his complex, every animal in its complex, every tree and every shrub in its complex, besides every stone and every metal in its complex. The forms of these are alike in this, that they consist of degrees of both kinds. The reason is that the Divine by which they were created is the same in greatest and in least things (as was shown above, n. 77-82). The singulars and the veriest singulars are like generals and veriest generals in this that they are forms of both kinds of degrees.
226. From the fact that greatest and least things are forms of both kinds of degrees, there is connection between them from firsts to lasts, for likeness conjoins them. But yet there can be no least thing which is the same as any other. Consequently, there is a distinction of all the singulars and of the veriest singulars. There can be no least thing in any form or among any forms the same as another for the reason that there are like degrees in greatest things, and greatest things consist of least things. When there are such degrees in greatest things, and in accordance with those degrees, perpetual distinctions from top to bottom, and from centre to circumference, it follows that there cannot be any lesser or least of these, in which are like degrees, which are the same as any other.
227. It is also a matter of angelic wisdom that the perfection of the created universe comes from the likeness of generals and particulars, or between greatest and least things as to those degrees. For then one thing regards another as its like, with which it can be conjoined for every use, and can present every end in effect.
228. But these things may appear paradoxical because they are not shown by application to visible things. Yet abstract things, because they are universals, are usually better comprehended than things applied, for these are of perpetual variety, and variety obscures.
229. It is maintained by some that there can be a substance so simple as not to be a form from lesser forms, and that out of that substance, through accumulations, substantial or composite things come into existence, and at length, substances called material. But there just cannot be such absolutely simple substances. For what is substance without form? It is that of which nothing can be predicated, and out of an entity of which nothing can be predicated, there cannot be anything made up by means of accumulations. That there are innumerable things in the first created substances of all things, which are in least and simplest things, will be seen in what follows where forms are treated of.
230. IN THE LORD THE THREE DEGREES OF HEIGHT ARE INFINITE AND UNCREATE, BUT IN MAN THE THREE DEGREES ARE FINITE AND CREATED
In the Lord the three degrees of height are infinite and uncreate, because the Lord is Love Itself and Wisdom Itself, as was shown in preceding pages. And because the Lord is Love Itself and Wisdom Itself. He is also Use Itself. For love has use as its end, which it brings forth by wisdom. For without use, love and wisdom have no boundary or end, that is, no dwelling-place of their own. Consequently, it cannot be said that they have being and existence unless there be use in which they are. These three constitute the three degrees of height in subjects of life. These three are like first end, middle end which is called cause, and ultimate end which is called effect. That end, cause and effect constitute the three degrees of height has been shown above and confirmed by many things.
231. That there are these three degrees in man can be established from the elevation of his mind even to the degrees of love and wisdom in which are the angels of the second and third heaven. For all angels were born men, and man as to the interior things belonging to his mind, is a heaven in least form. Therefore, there are with man from creation as many degrees of height as there are heavens. Man is also an image and likeness of God. Consequently these three degrees have been inscribed on man because they are in God-Man, that is, the Lord. That in the Lord these degrees are infinite and uncreate, while in man they are finite and created can be established from those things which were shown in Part I, namely from this, that the Lord is Love and Wisdom in Himself, that man is a recipient of love and wisdom from the Lord, also that concerning the Lord nothing except what is Infinite can be predicated, and concerning man nothing except what is finite.
232. These three degrees with the angels are called Celestial, Spiritual and Natural. And for them the celestial degree is the degree of love, the spiritual degree is the degree of wisdom, and the natural degree is the degree of uses. These degrees are so called because the heavens are distinguished into two kingdoms, one called the celestial and the other the spiritual, to which is added a third kingdom in which are men in the world, and this is the natural kingdom. Also the angels of whom the celestial kingdom consists are in love. The angels of whom the spiritual kingdom consists are in wisdom. But men in the world are in uses. And therefore these kingdoms are conjoined. How it is to be understood that men are in uses will be discussed in the next Part.
233. It has been told me from heaven that in the Lord from eternity, Who is Jehovah, before the assumption of the Human in the world, the two prior degrees existed actually, and the third degree in potency, as they do also with angels. But that after the assumption of a Human in the world, He put on also the third degree, which is called the natural, thereby becoming Man, like a man in the world, the only difference being that in the Lord, this degree as were the prior ones, is infinite and uncreate, while in angel and in man these degrees are finite and created. For the Divine which, apart from space, had filled all space (n. 69-72), penetrated even to the ultimates of nature. But before the assumption of the Human, there was a Divine influx into the natural degree mediate through the angelic heavens, but after the assumption, immediate from Himself. This is the reason that all Churches in the world before His advent were representative of spiritual and celestial things, but after His advent they became spiritual-natural and celestial-natural, and representative worship was abolished. This was also the reason that the Sun of the angelic heaven which, as was said above, is the first proceeding of His Divine Love and Wisdom, after the assumption of the Human, shone forth with greater radiance and splendour than before the assumption. This also is what is understood by these words in Isaiah:
In that day the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold as the light of seven days. Isa. XXX 26
This is said of the state of heaven and of the Church after the Lord’s coming into the world. Again, in the Apocalypse:
The countenance of the Son of Man was as the sun shineth in his strength. Rev. I 16
and elsewhere as in Isa. LX 20; 2 Sam. XXIII 3, 4; Matt. XVII 1, 2.
The mediate enlightenment of men through the angelic heaven, which was before the coming of the Lord, may be compared to the light of the moon, which is the mediate light of the sun. And because after His coming this was made immediate, it is said in Isaiah that the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun; and in David:
In His day shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace until there is no longer any moon. Psalm LXXII 7
This also is said of the Lord.
234. The reason that the Lord from eternity, that is, Jehovah, put on this third degree by the assumption of a Human in the world was because He could enter into this degree only by means of a nature like human nature, thus only by means of conception from His Divine and by birth from a virgin. For in this way He could put off a nature which is in itself dead, although a receptacle of the Divine, and could put on the Divine. This is understood by the Lord’s two states in the world, which are called the state of exinanition and the state of glorification, which are treated of in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE LORD.
235. These things have been said in general about the threefold ascent of the degrees of height. But because these degrees must be in greatest and in least things, as was said in a recently preceding section, it is not possible to say anything of them here in detail. This only may be said, that there are such degrees in each and in all things of love, and therefore in each and all things of wisdom, and therefrom in each and all things of use. But all these are infinite in the Lord, while in angel and in man they are finite. But how there are these three degrees in love, in wisdom and in uses cannot be described and unfolded except in series.
236. THESE THREE DEGREES OF HEIGHT ARE IN EVERY MAN FROM BIRTH, AND CAN BE OPENED SUCCESSIVELY, AND AS THEY ARE OPENED, MAN IS IN THE LORD AND THE LORD IN MAN
It has not hitherto been made known that there are three degrees of height in every man for the reason that these degrees had not been acknowledged. And so long as these degrees were concealed, it was impossible for other than continuous degrees to be known. And when these are the only degrees known, it can be imagined that love and wisdom with man increase only by continuity. But it ought to be known that with every man from birth there are three degrees of height, or discrete degrees, one above or within another; and that every degree of height, or discrete degree, has also degrees of breadth, or continuous
degrees, according to which it increases by continuity. For there are degrees of both kinds in greatest and least things of everything, as was shown above (n. 222-229). For no degree of one kind is possible without degrees of the other kind.
237. These three degrees of height are called natural, spiritual and celestial, as stated above (n. 232). When man is born he comes first into the natural degree and this increases with him by continuity according to his knowledge and the understanding acquired thereby even to the highest point of the understanding which is called the rational. Yet the second degree which is called the spiritual is not opened by this means. It is opened by a love of uses in conformity with the things acquired by the understanding, but a spiritual love of uses which is love towards the neighbour. This degree can grow in like manner by continuous degrees even to its highest point, and it increases by cognitions* of truth and good, that is, by means of spiritual truths. Yet not even by these is the third degree, which is called celestial, opened. But it is opened by the celestial love of uses, which is love to the Lord. And love to the Lord is nothing else than committing to life the precepts of the Word, which in all, are to shun evils because they are hellish and devilish, and to do good because it is heavenly and Divine. These three degrees are thus successively opened in man.
* This term is generally used by Swedenborg to indicate interior spiritual knowledge, or knowledge from understanding and reflection, as distinct from external factual knowledge.
238. So long as man lives in the world, he does not know anything about the opening of these degrees in him, the reason being that he is then in the natural degree which is the ultimate, and from this he thinks, wills, speaks and acts; and the spiritual degree which is interior, communicates with the natural degree, not by continuity, but by correspondences, and communication by correspondences is not sensibly felt. But as soon as man has put off the natural degree which is the case when he dies, he then comes into that degree which has been opened with him in the world. He with whom the spiritual degree has been opened comes into the spiritual degree, he with whom the celestial degree has been opened, comes into the celestial degree. He who comes into the spiritual degree after death, no longer thinks, wills, speaks and acts naturally, but spiritually; and he who comes into the celestial degree thinks, wills, speaks and acts in accordance with that degree. And because communication between degrees can only be by correspondences, therefore the distinctions of love, wisdom and use as regards these degrees are such as to have nothing in common through any continuity. From these things it is plain that there are degrees of height in man, and that they can be successively opened.
239. Since the three degrees of love and wisdom and hence of use must be in man, it follows that there must be in him three degrees of will, and of understanding, and hence of conclusion and so of determination towards use. For the will is the receptacle of love, the understanding the receptacle of wisdom, and conclusion is use from these. From this it is evident that, in every man, there is a natural, a spiritual and a celestial will and understanding in potency from birth, and in act when they are opened. In a word, the mind of man which consists of will and understanding, is, from creation and therefore from birth, of three degrees so that man has a natural mind, a spiritual mind, and a celestial mind, and can thereby be raised into, and possess angelic wisdom while he lives in the world. But yet he comes into that wisdom only after death, if he becomes an angel, and then he speaks things ineffable and incomprehensible to the natural man. I knew a man of mediocre learning in the world whom I saw after death and with whom I spoke in heaven, and I clearly perceived that he spoke like an angel, and that the things he said would be imperceptible to the natural man. The reason was that in the world he had applied to life the precepts of the Word, and had worshipped the Lord, and hence he was raised up by the Lord into the third degree of love and wisdom. It matters that this elevation of the mind should be known, for upon it depends an understanding of what follows.
240. There are in man from the Lord two faculties by which he is distinguished from beasts. One faculty is the ability to understand what truth is and what good is. This faculty is called rationality, and is a faculty of his understanding. The other faculty is the ability to do what is true and good. This faculty is called freedom, and is a faculty of his will. For man, by his rationality, is able to think whatever he pleases, either with or against God, and either with or against the neighbour. He can also will and do what he thinks. But when he sees evil and fears punishment, he is able, by his freedom, to abstain from doing it. Man is a man by reason of these two faculties, and is distinguished from beasts. Man has these two faculties from the Lord, and has them from Him continually, nor are they taken away, for if they were taken away, man’s human would perish. In these two faculties, the Lord is with every man, with the good man as well as the evil. They are the Lord’s dwelling-place in the human race. Hence it is that every man, whether good or evil, lives to eternity. But the Lord’s dwelling is nearer in man as man by means of these faculties, opens the higher degrees. For by the opening of these, man comes into higher degrees of love and wisdom, thus nearer to the Lord. From these things it can be established that as these degrees are opened, so man is in the Lord, and the Lord in him.
241. It was said above that the three degrees of height are like end, cause and effect, and that according to these degrees, there follow in succession love, wisdom and use. Therefore a few things will here be said about love as being end, wisdom as being cause, and use as being effect. Whoever consults his reason, while it is enlightened, can see that his love is the end of all things of man, for what he loves that he thinks about, decides and does, consequently that he has as his end. One can also see from his reason that wisdom is cause, for man, or his love which is the end, searches in the understanding for a means through which to attain its end. Thus he consults his wisdom and these means provide the cause through which he [acts]. It is clear without explanation that use is effect. But one man’s love is not the same as that of another, thus neither is one man’s wisdom the same as that of another, neither is use. And because these three are homogeneous (as was shown above, n. 189-194), it follows that such as is the love in man, such is the wisdom in him, and such is the use. Wisdom is mentioned but that which pertains to man’s understanding is understood.
242. SPIRITUAL LIGHT FLOWS IN WITH MAN THROUGH THREE DEGREES, BUT NOT SPIRITUAL HEAT EXCEPT SO FAR AS MAN SHUNS EVILS AS SINS, AND LOOKS TO THE LORD
From the things shown above it is established that from the Sun of heaven, which is the first proceeding of the Divine Love and Wisdom (which was treated in Part II), proceed light and heat, light from its wisdom, and heat from its love; also that light is the receptacle of wisdom, and heat the receptacle of love, and that so far as man comes into wisdom, so he comes into that Divine light, and so far as he comes into love, to that extent he comes into that Divine heat. It is also established from things shown above that there are three degrees of light and three degrees of love, and that these degrees have been formed in man that he may be a receptacle of the Divine Love and Wisdom, thus of the Lord. It is now to be shown that spiritual light flows in through these three degrees in man, but not spiritual heat except in so far as a man shuns evils as sins and looks to the Lord; or what is the same thing, that man is able to receive wisdom even to the third degree, but not love, unless he shuns evils as sins, and looks to the Lord; or what is still the same, that a man’s understanding may be raised into wisdom, yet not his will except in so far as he shuns evils as sins.
243. It has been made clearly evident to me from experience in the spiritual world that the understanding can be elevated into the light of heaven, that is, into angelic wisdom, and that man’s will cannot be raised into the heat of heaven, that is, into angelic love, unless he shuns evils as sins and looks to the Lord. Many times I have seen and perceived that spirits who knew merely that God is, and that the Lord was born a Man, but scarcely knew anything else, understood the arcana of angelic wisdom, almost as angels do; but not only these simple spirits, but also many of the infernal crew. They understood when they heard, but not when they thought within themselves. For when they heard, light entered from above, but when they thought within themselves, no other light could enter except that which corresponded to their heat or love. And therefore after they heard these arcana and perceived them, whenever they turned their ears away, they remembered nothing. Indeed those who were of the infernal crew then rejected those things with disgust and completely denied them. The reason for this was that the fire of their love and its light, being fatuous, induced darkness by which the heavenly light entering from above was extinguished.
244. The same thing happens in the world. A man who is not altogether stupid, and who has not confirmed himself in falsities from the pride of self-intelligence, hearing others speak on some exalted subject, or reading some such matter, understands and also retains these things if he is in any affection of knowing, and may afterwards confirm them. Either a good or a bad man may do this. Even a bad man, although at heart he denies the Divine things belonging to the Church, can still understand them, and also speak of and preach them, and learnedly confirm them in writing. But when left to his own thoughts he thinks against them from his infernal love, and denies them. From which it is clear that the understanding can be in spiritual light, although the will is not in spiritual heat. And it also follows from this that the understanding does not lead the will, nor does wisdom produce love, but simply teaches and shows the way, teaching how man ought to live and showing the way he ought to go. It further follows that the will leads the understanding, and causes it to act as one with itself, and that the love, which is of the will, calls that which in the understanding agrees with it, wisdom. In following sections it will be seen that the will does nothing by itself, apart from the understanding, but does everything which it does in conjunction with the understanding; also that the will, by influx, takes the understanding into partnership with itself, not the reverse.
245. It will now be explained what is the nature of the influx of light into the three degrees of life in man which belong to his mind. The forms which are receptacles of heat and light, that is, of love and wisdom in man, and which, as was said, are in threefold order, or of three degrees, are transparent from birth, and transmit spiritual light just as crystal glass transmits natural light. Hence it is that man as to his wisdom can be raised even to the third degree. But yet these forms are not opened, except when spiritual heat conjoins itself to spiritual light, that is, love to wisdom. By this conjunction these transparent forms are opened according to degrees. It is the same with the heat and light of the sun of the world in respect to the plants upon the earth. The light of winter which is as bright as that of summer does not open anything in seed or in tree. But when spring heat conjoins itself to the light, then it opens [vegetation]. The case is similar, for spiritual light corresponds to natural light, and spiritual heat to natural heat.
246. This spiritual heat is obtained only by shunning evils as sins, and at the same time looking to the Lord. For so long as a man is in evils he is also in the love of them, because he lusts after them, and the love of evil or lust is a love contrary to spiritual love and affection. And this love or lust can be removed only by shunning evils as sins, and because a man cannot shun evils from himself, but from the Lord, therefore he must look to Him. When therefore he shuns these from the Lord, then the love of evil with its heat is removed, and in place of it, the love of good with its heat is introduced, and by this means a higher degree is opened. For the Lord flows in from above and opens it, and then conjoins love, or spiritual heat, to wisdom or spiritual light. From this conjunction the man begins to flourish spiritually, like a tree in springtime.
247. By the influx of spiritual light into all three degrees of the mind man is distinguished from beasts. And man being in advance of beasts can think analytically, can see not only natural but also spiritual truths, and when he sees them he can acknowledge them and thus be reformed and regenerated. The capacity of receiving spiritual light is what is understood by rationality, mentioned above, which every man has from the Lord, and which is not taken away from him, for if it were taken away he could not be reformed. It is from that faculty, called rationality, that man, unlike beasts, is able not only to think, but also to speak from thought. Afterwards from his other faculty which is called freedom, also mentioned above, he is able to do these things which he thinks from his understanding. As these two faculties, rationality and freedom, which are proper to man have been treated of above (n. 240), therefore nothing further will be said about them here.
248. IF THE HIGHER DEGREE, WHICH IS THE SPIRITUAL, IS NOT OPENED IN MAN, HE BECOMES NATURAL AND SENSUAL
It was shown above that there are three degrees of the human mind which are called natural, spiritual and celestial, and that these degrees may be successively opened in man. It was then shown that the natural degree is first opened, and afterwards, if a man shuns evils as sins and looks to the Lord, the spiritual degree is opened, and lastly the celestial degree. Since these degrees are successively opened according to a man’s life, it follows that the two higher degrees may not even be opened, and that then the man remains in the natural degree which is the lowest. It is also known in the world that there is a natural and a spiritual man, or an external and an internal man. But it is not known that a natural man becomes spiritual by the opening of any higher degree in him, and that the opening comes about by a spiritual life, which is a life in conformity with the Divine precepts, and that without a life in conformity with these man remains natural.
249. There are three kinds of natural men. The first consists of those who know nothing about the Divine precepts. The second of those who know that there are such precepts but think nothing of a life according to them. And the third of those who despise and deny those precepts. As regards the first kind which consists of those who know nothing about the Divine precepts, they cannot do otherwise than remain natural because they cannot be taught from themselves. Every man is taught about the Divine precepts by others who know them from religion, and not by immediate revelations, on which subject, see THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE (n. 114-118). Those of the second kind who know that there are Divine precepts but think nothing of a life according to them, also remain natural, caring about nothing but the things of the world and the body. After death these become slaves and servants according to the uses they are able to perform for those who are spiritual. For the natural man is a slave and servant, but the spiritual man is a master and lord. Those of the third kind who despise and deny the Divine precepts, not only remain natural, but also become sensual in the measure of their contempt and denial. Sensual men are the lowest natural men, who are unable to think above the appearances and fallacies of bodily senses. These are in hell after death.
250. Because it is not known in the world what the spiritual man is, and what the natural, and because he who is merely natural is by many called spiritual, and conversely, therefore these subjects are to be discussed separately:
(i) What the natural man is, and what the spiritual man.
(ii) The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree has been opened.
(iii) The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree has not been opened, but yet not closed up.
(iv) The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree has been entirely closed up.
(v) Lastly, the nature of the difference between the life of a merely natural man and the life of a beast.
251. (i) What the natural man is, and what the spiritual man. A man is not a man from the face and body, but from the understanding and the will, and therefore by the natural man and the spiritual man is understood his understanding and will which are either natural or spiritual. The natural man as to his understanding and will is like the natural world, and may also be called a world or microcosm; and the spiritual man as to his understanding and will is like the spiritual world, and may also be called a spiritual world or heaven. From this it is clear that because the natural man is a natural world in a certain image, he loves the things of the natural world, and that because the spiritual man is a spiritual world in a certain image, he loves those things belonging to that world or heaven. The spiritual man, indeed, also loves the natural world, but in no other way than a master loves his servant through whom he performs uses. According to uses also the natural man becomes like the spiritual, which happens when the natural man feels the delight of uses from the spiritual man. This natural man may be called natural-spiritual. The spiritual man loves spiritual truths. He loves not only to know and understand them, but he also wills them; but the natural man loves to speak of those truths and also to do them. To do truths is to perform uses. This subordination is from the conjunction of the spiritual world and the natural world. For whatever appears and is done in the natural world derives its cause from the spiritual world. From these considerations it may be established that the spiritual man is altogether distinct from the natural man, and that no communication occurs between them other than such as there is between cause and effect.
252. (ii) The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree has been opened is clear from what has been said above. And to those things it must be added that the natural man is a complete man when the spiritual degree has been opened within him, for he is then associated with angels in heaven and at the same time with men in the world, and in regard to both, lives under the Lord’s protection. For the spiritual man draws out commands from the Lord through the Word, and executes them by means of the natural man. The natural man whose spiritual degree has been opened does not know that he thinks and acts from his spiritual man, for he seems to do so from himself, when yet he does it not from himself but from the Lord. Neither does the natural man whose spiritual degree has been opened know that through his spiritual man he is in heaven, when yet his spiritual man is in the midst of the angels of heaven, and sometimes is even visible to the angels, but because he withdraws himself into his natural man, after a brief stay there he is no longer seen. Nor does the natural man in whom the spiritual degree has been opened know that his spiritual mind is being filled by the Lord with thousands of arcana of wisdom, and with thousands of the delights of love, and that he will come into these after death when he becomes an angel. The reason the natural man does not know these things is because communication between the natural and the spiritual man is effected by correspondences, and communication by correspondences is not perceived in the understanding except by the fact that truths are seen in light, and in the will except by the fact that uses are performed out of affection.
253. (iii) The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree has not been opened, but yet not closed up. The spiritual degree has not been opened, but yet not closed up in those who have led somewhat of a life of charity, and yet have known little of genuine truth. The reason is that this degree is opened by the conjunction of love and wisdom, or of heat with light; love alone or spiritual heat alone does not open it, nor does wisdom alone or spiritual light alone, but both in conjunction. Consequently, if genuine truths, out of which wisdom or light arises, are not known, love is not adequate to open that degree, but only keeps it in the possibility of being opened. This is what is understood by its not being closed up. This occurs just as in the vegetable kingdom in that heat alone does not impart vegetation to seeds and trees, but heat in conjunction with light effects this. It ought to be known that all truths are of spiritual light, and all goods are of spiritual heat, and that good opens the spiritual degree by means of truths; for good, by means of truths, effects use, and uses are the goods of love which derive their essence from the conjunction of good and truth. After death, the lot of those in whom the spiritual degree has not been opened, and yet not closed up, is that, because they are natural and not spiritual, they are in the lowest parts of heaven where they sometimes suffer hard things, or they are in some higher heaven in the boundaries, where they are, as it were, in the light of evening. For in heaven and in every society thereof, the light decreases from the middle to the boundaries, and those who are pre-eminent in Divine truths are in the middle, while those who are in few truths are in the boundaries. Those are in few truths who know nothing more from their religion than that there is a God, and that the Lord suffered for them, also that charity and faith are the essentials of the Church, and are not concerned to know what faith and charity are, when yet, faith in its essence is truth, and truth is manifold, and charity is all the work of employment which man does from the Lord. He does this from the Lord when he shuns evil as sins. It is exactly as was said above that the end is the all of the cause, and the effect the all of the end by means of the cause. The end is charity or good, the cause is faith or truth, while effects are good works or uses. From which it is clear that, from charity can no more be carried into works than the measure in which charity is conjoined with the truths of faith. Through these truths charity enters into works and qualifies them.
254. (iv) The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree has been entirely closed up. The spiritual degree is closed up in those who are in evils as to life, and still more in those who are in falsities arising from evils. It is the same as with the fibril of a nerve which contracts at the slightest touch of anything heterogeneous, similarly every motive fibre of a muscle, indeed the muscle itself, and even the whole body shrinks from the touch of whatever is hard or cold. So also the substances or forms of the spiritual degree in man shrink from evils and their falsities, for these are heterogeneous. For the spiritual degree, because it is in the form of heaven, admits nothing except goods, and the truths which are from good, these being homogeneous to it, but evils and falsities which are of evil are heterogeneous to it. This degree is contracted, and by contraction is closed up especially in those who in the world are in a love of ruling from love of self because this love is the opposite of love to the Lord. It is also closed up, but not to the same extent, in those who, from love of the world, are in the insane greed of possessing the goods of others. The reason these loves close the spiritual degree is that they are the origins of evil. The contraction or the closing up of this degree is like the turning back of a spiral in the opposite direction. And this is the reason that that degree, after it has been closed up, turns back the light of heaven. Consequently, there is darkness there instead of the light of heaven, and so, truth which is in the light of heaven, becomes nauseous. In those people not only is the spiritual degree itself closed up, but also the higher region of the natural degree which is called the rational, until at last the lowest region of the natural degree which is called the sensual, alone remains open. For this is nearest to the world and to the external senses of the body from which the man afterwards thinks, speaks and reasons. The natural man who has become sensual through evils and their falsities, in the spiritual world in the light of heaven, does not appear as a man but as a monster, even with the nose pulled back. That the nose is pulled back is because the nose corresponds to the perception of truth. Also he cannot bear a ray of heavenly light. Such have in their caverns no other light than that resembling the light from live coals or from burning charcoal. From these facts it is clear who and of what character are those in whom the spiritual degree has been closed up.
255. (v) The nature of the difference between the life of a natural man and the life of a beast. This difference will be particularly treated of in what follows where Life is the subject. Here it may merely be stated that the difference is that in man there are three degrees of the mind, or three degrees of understanding and will, and that these degrees can be opened successively. And because these are translucent, man as to his understanding, can be elevated into the light of heaven and can see truths, not only civil and moral, but also spiritual, and from many truths seen, can form conclusions about truths in their order, and thus perfect the understanding to eternity. Whereas the beasts have not the two higher degrees, but only the natural degrees, and without the higher degrees, they have no capacity to think on any matter, civil, moral or spiritual. And because their natural degrees are incapable of being opened and hence raised into higher light, they are unable to think in successive order, but can only think in simultaneous order, which is not thinking but acting from a knowledge corresponding to their love. And because they are unable to think analytically, and to see a lower thought from any higher thought, therefore, they are unable to speak but can utter sounds in accordance with the knowledge pertaining to their love. But yet the sensual man who is in the lowest natural, differs from the beast only in this that he can fill his memory with knowledges, and can think and speak from them. This power he draws from a capacity proper to every man, of being able to understand truth if he chooses. It is this capacity that makes the difference. Still many by the abuse of this capacity have made themselves lower than the beasts.
256. THE NATURAL DEGREE OF THE HUMAN MIND REGARDED IN ITSELF IS CONTINUOUS, BUT BY CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE TWO HIGHER DEGREES, WHEN IT IS ELEVATED, IT APPEARS AS IF IT WERE DISCRETE
Although this can scarcely be comprehended by those who have not yet a knowledge of degrees of height, it must nevertheless be revealed, because it belongs to angelic wisdom which, although it cannot be thought about by the natural man in the same way as by angels, yet can be comprehended by the understanding when this is elevated into the degree of light in which the angels are. For the understanding can be elevated thus far, and be enlightened in accordance with the elevation. The enlightenment of the natural mind, however, does not ascend through discrete degrees, but increases by a continuous degree, then as it increases, so the mind is enlightened from within by the light of the two higher degrees. How this comes about can be comprehended from a perception of degrees of height, as being one above another, and the natural degree which is the lowest, being as a kind of covering for the two higher degrees. Then as the natural degree is raised towards a degree of a higher kind, so, from within, the higher acts into the outer natural, and illuminates it. The illumination is effected, indeed, from within by the light of the higher degrees, yet that illumination is received by the natural degree which envelops and surrounds them (the higher degrees), by continuity, thus more lucidly and more purely in accordance with the ascent, that is, the natural degree is enlightened from within by the light of the higher degrees discretely, but in itself is enlightened continuously. From these facts it is clear that so long as a man lives in the world, and is thereby in the natural degree, he cannot be elevated into very wisdom such as the angels have, but only into a higher light even up to the angels, and can receive enlightenment from their light which inflows from within and illuminates. But these things cannot as yet be described more clearly. They can be better comprehended from effects, for effects present causes in themselves in light and thus illustrate them provided some previous knowledge of causes is held.
257. Effects are: (i) The natural mind can be raised up to the light of heaven in which angels are, and perceive naturally, thus less fully, what angels perceive spiritually. But yet man’s natural mind cannot be raised into angelic light itself. (2) By means of his natural mind raised to the light of heaven, man can think, yea, speak with angels; but the thought and speech of the angels then inflow into the natural thought and speech of the man, and not conversely. Wherefore, the angels speak with the man in a natural language which is the man’s native tongue. (3) This comes about by a spiritual influx into the natural man, and not by any natural influx into the spiritual man. (4) Human wisdom which is natural so long as a man lives in the natural world, can by no means be raised into angelic wisdom, but only into some image of it. The reason is that elevation of the natural mind is effected by continuity, as from shade to light, or from grosser to purer. But still the man with whom the spiritual degree has been opened comes into that wisdom when he dies, and can also come into it by a lulling of bodily sensations, and then by an influx from above into the spiritual things of his mind. (5) Man’s natural mind consists of spiritual substances together with natural substances. Thought comes from its spiritual substances, not from its natural substances. The latter recedes when a man dies, but not the spiritual substances. Consequently, after death, when man becomes a spirit or angel, that same mind remains in a form like that which it had in the world. (6) The natural substances of that mind which, as was said, recede by death, make the cutaneous covering of the spiritual body in which spirits and angels are. By means of such a covering, which is taken from the natural world, their spiritual bodies continue in being, for the natural is the ultimate containant. Hence it is that there is no spirit or angel who was not born a man. These arcana of angelic wisdom are here adduced, so that the quality of the natural mind in man may be known, which subject is further treated of in what follows.
258. Every man is born into a capacity of understanding truths even to the inmost degree in which the angels of the third heaven are. For the human understanding, rising up by continuity around the two higher degrees, receives the light of the wisdom of those degrees in the manner stated above (n. 256). Hence it is that man can become rational according to the elevation. If he is raised to the third degree he becomes rational from that degree, if he is raised to the second degree he becomes rational from that degree, and if he is not raised he is rational in the first degree. It is said that he becomes rational from those degrees, because the natural degree is the general receptacle of their light. The reason man does not become rational, even to the maximum possible to him, is that love, which is of the will, cannot be raised in the same manner as wisdom, which is of the understanding. Love, which is of the will, is raised only by shunning evils as sins, and then, by goods of charity which are uses which the man afterwards performs from the Lord. Consequently, if love, which Is of the will, is not at the same time raised, wisdom, which is of the understanding, however it may have ascended, relapses even to its own love. And so it is that the man whose love is not at the same time with his wisdom raised into the spiritual degree, is still not rational except in the lowest degree. From these facts it can be established that man’s rational is in appearance as if it were of three degrees, a rational from the celestial, a rational from the spiritual, and a rational from the natural. Also that rationality which is the capacity capable of being elevated, is still in man whether he be elevated or not.
259. It has been said that every man is born into that capacity, that is, into rationality, but by this is understood every man whose externals have not been damaged by accident, either in the womb, or after birth by disease, or by a wound inflicted on the head, or in consequence of an insane love bursting forth and breaking down restraints. In such the rational cannot be raised, for life which is of the will and the understanding has in these no bounds in which it can terminate, so disposed as to produce outmost acts according to order, for life acts according to outmost determinations, but not from them. That there can be no rationality in infants and children may be seen below (n. 266, at the end).
260. THE NATURAL MIND, SINCE IT IS THE COVERING AND CONTAINANT OF THE HIGHER DEGREES OF THE HUMAN MIND, IS REACTIVE, AND IF THE HIGHER DEGREES ARE NOT OPENED, IT ACTS AGAINST THEM, BUT IF THEY ARE OPENED, IT ACTS WITH THEM
It has been shown in the preceding section that the natural mind which is in the lowest degree, envelops and encloses the spiritual mind and the celestial mind, which as to degrees, are higher. It is now to be shown here that the natural mind reacts against the higher or interior minds. It reacts because it covers, includes and contains them, and this cannot he done without reaction. For unless it reacted, the interior or enclosed parts would loosen, thrust themselves out and fall to pieces, just as the viscera which are the interiors of the body would push forth and so fall apart if the coverings around the human body did not react. So, too, unless the membrane enveloping the motor fibres of a muscle, reacted against the forces of these fibres in their activities, not only would action cease, but all the inner tissues would be loosened. It is the same with every ultimate degree of the degrees of height, consequently, with the natural mind relatively to the higher degrees, for as was said above, there are three degrees of the human mind, the natural, the spiritual and the celestial, and the natural mind is in the outmost degree. Another reason that the natural mind reacts against the spiritual mind is that the natural mind consists not only of substances of the spiritual world but also of substances of the natural world, as was said above (n. 257), and substances of the natural world from their very nature react against the substances of the spiritual world. For substances of the natural world are in themselves dead, and are acted upon from without by substances of the spiritual world. And substances which are dead, and are acted upon from without, resist from their own nature, and thus from their nature react. From these considerations it can be established that the natural man reacts against the spiritual man, and that there is a conflict. It is the same thing whether it is said the natural and spiritual man, or the natural and spiritual mind.
261. From these facts it can be established that, if the spiritual mind has been closed up, the natural mind continually acts against the things of the spiritual mind, while fearing lest anything should flow in therefrom to disturb its own states. Everything that flows in through the spiritual mind is from heaven, for the spiritual mind is, in form, a heaven. And everything that flows into the natural mind is from the world, for the natural mind is, in form, a world. And from this it follows that, when the spiritual mind has been closed up, the natural mind reacts against all things of heaven, nor does it admit them except in so far as they are serviceable to it as means of acquiring and possessing the things of the world. And when the things of heaven also serve the natural mind as means to its own ends, then those means, although they appear heavenly, yet become natural, for the end qualifies them as they become like the knowledges of the natural man in which inwardly there is no life. But because heavenly things cannot be so joined to natural things that the two act as one, therefore they separate, and in merely natural men, heavenly things arrange themselves from without, encompassing the natural things which are within. Hence it is that a merely natural man can speak and preach about heavenly things, and also stimulate them by actions, although inwardly he thinks against them. The latter he does when alone, the former when in company. But of these things more will be said in what follows.
262. The natural mind or man, from the reaction which is in him from birth, acts against the things which are of the spiritual mind or man, when he loves himself and the world above all things. Then also he feels delight in evils of every kind, as in adulteries, frauds, revenges, blasphemies and other like things. And he then also acknowledges nature as creator of the universe, all of which things he confirms by his rational faculty. And after confirmations he either perverts or suffocates, or repels the goods and truths of heaven and the Church, and at length, either shuns them or turns his back upon them or hates them. This he does in his spirit, and in the body just so far as he dares to speak with others from his spirit without fear of the loss of reputation as a means to honour and gain. When man is such, he successively closes up the spiritual mind more and more closely. Confirmations of evil by means of falsities especially close it up. Hence it is that confirmed evil and falsity cannot be extirpated after death. They are extirpated only in the world by means of repentance.
263. But when the spiritual mind has been opened, the state of the natural mind is entirely different. Then the natural mind is disposed towards obedience to the spiritual mind, and is subordinate to it. For the spiritual mind acts upon the natural mind from above or within, and removes the things therein which react, and adapts to itself those things which act in like manner with itself, so that the excessive reaction is gradually taken away. It is to be known that, in the greatest and least things of the universe, both living and dead, there is action and reaction, therefore there is an equilibrium of all things. This is annulled when action supersedes reaction, and vice versa. It is the same with the natural mind and with the spiritual mind. When the natural mind acts from the delights of its love, and the pleasures of its thoughts which in themselves are evils and falsities, then the reaction of the natural mind removes those things which are of the spiritual mind and blocks the doors against their entrance, and causes action to come from such things as agree with its reaction. Thus, action and reaction of the natural mind is brought about which is opposed to action and reaction of the spiritual mind. Hence a closing up of the spiritual mind takes place like the twisting back of a spiral. Whereas if the spiritual mind is open, then the action and reaction of the natural mind is turned inwards, for the spiritual mind acts from above or within, and at the same time from below or from without, through those things in the natural mind which are disposed towards obedience to it, and it twists back the spiral in which lie the action and reaction of the natural mind. For this mind is from birth in opposition to the things belonging to the spiritual mind, an opposition, as is well known, derived by heredity from parents. Such is the change of state which is called reformation and regeneration. The state of the natural mind before reformation can be compared to a spiral twisting or bending itself downwards. But after reformation it can be compared to a spiral twisting or bending itself upwards. Wherefore before reformation a man looks downwards towards hell, but after reformation, he looks upwards towards heaven.
264. THE ORIGIN OF EVIL ARISES FROM THE ABUSE OF THE CAPACITIES PROPER TO MAN, NAMELY RATIONALITY AND LIBERTY
By rationality is understood the capacity of understanding truths and thereby untruths, and goods and thereby evils; and by liberty is understood the capacity of thinking, willing and doing these freely. From what precedes it can be established, and it will be further established from what follows that every man, from creation, consequently from birth, has these two capacities, and that they are from the Lord; and that they are not taken away from him, and that from them is the appearance that man thinks, speaks, wills and acts as from himself; that the Lord dwells in these capacities with every man; and that man by virtue of that conjunction lives to eternity; that by means of these capacities, but not without them, man can be reformed and regenerated; finally, that by them man is distinguished from beasts.
265. That the origin of evil arises from the abuse of these capacities will be declared in this order:
(i) A bad man equally with a good man enjoys these two capacities.
(ii) A bad man abuses them to confirm evils and falsities, while a good man uses them to confirm goods and truths.
(iii) Confirmed evils and falsities with man are permanent, and come to be of his love, and consequently of his life.
(iv) Such things as have come to be of the love and life are engendered in offspring.
(v) All evils, both engendered and acquired, have their seat in the natural mind.
266. (i) A bad man equally with a good man enjoys these two capacities. It was shown in the preceding section that the natural mind, as regards the understanding, can be elevated even to the light in which angels of the third heaven are, and can see truths, acknowledge them, and then speak about them. From this it is plain that, since the natural mind can be thus elevated, a bad man equally with a good man enjoys the capacity called rationality, and since the natural mind can be elevated to such an extent, it follows that a bad man can also think and speak about [heavenly] truths. Also that he is able to will and do them, although he neither wills nor does them, both reason and experience testify. Reason: Who cannot will and do what he thinks? But his not willing and doing it is because he does not love to do and will it. This ability to will and to do is the liberty which every man has from the Lord, but his not willing and doing good, when he can, comes from the love of evil which opposes. Yet he can resist this love, and there are many indeed who do resist it. By experience this has often been confirmed in the spiritual world. I have heard evil spirits who inwardly were devils, and who in the world rejected the truths of heaven and the Church, when the affection for knowing, in which every man is from childhood, was excited in them by the glory that, like the brightness of fire, surrounds each love, they perceived the arcana of angelic wisdom just as clearly as did good spirits who inwardly were angels. Indeed these diabolical spirits declared that they could in fact will and act according to those arcana, but did not wish to do so. When told that they might will them if only they would shun evils as sins, they said that they could even do that, but did not wish to. From this it was clear that the wicked equally with the good have the capacity called liberty. Let anyone look within himself and he will observe that such is the case. Man has the power to will because the Lord, from Whom that capacity comes, continually gives the power. For as was said above, the Lord dwells in every man in both these capacities, thus in the capacity or the power of being able to will. As far as the capacity of understanding, called rationality is concerned, man does not have this until his natural mind matures. Until then it is like the seed in unripe fruit, which has no power to be opened in the soil and to grow into a plant. Neither does this capacity exist in those mentioned above (n. 259).
267. (ii) A bad man abuses these capacities to confirm evils and falsities, while a good man uses them to confirm goods and truths. From the intellectual capacity called rationality, and from the voluntary capacity called liberty, man derives the power to confirm whatever he wishes. For the natural man is able to raise his understanding into higher light to any extent he desires. But he who is in evils and consequent falsities, raises it no higher than into the upper region of his natural mind, and rarely to the region of the spiritual mind. The reason is that he is in the delights of the love of his natural mind, and if he rises above that mind the delight of his love perishes. If his understanding is raised higher and he sees truths opposed to the delights of his life or to the principles of his self-intelligence, he either falsifies these truths or passes them over and relinquishes them out of contempt, or he retains them in the memory as a means to serve his life’s love, or the pride of his self-intelligence. It is clearly manifest from the numerous heresies in the Christian world, each of which is confirmed by its adherents, that the natural man is able to confirm whatever he wishes. Who does not know that evils and falsities of every kind can be confirmed? It is possible to confirm, and indeed it is confirmed by the evil within themselves that there is no God, and that Nature is everything, and created herself; that religion is only a medium by which simple minds may be held in bondage; that human prudence effects all things, and the Divine Providence nothing except to sustain the universe in the order in which it was created; also that murders, adulteries, thefts, frauds, and revenge are allowable, according to Machiavelli and his followers. These and a host of similar things the natural man is able to confirm, and to fill volumes with the confirmations, and when they are confirmed then these falsities appear in their foolish light, and truths in such obscurity as to be seen only as phantoms of the night. In a word, take what is most false and present it as a proposition, and say to a clever person “confirm”, and he will confirm to the total extinction of the light of truth. But set aside the confirmations, return and view the proposition itself from your own rationality, and you will see its falsity in its baseness. From these things it can be established that man can abuse these two capacities which he has from the Lord to confirm evils and falsities of every kind. This no beast can do, because a beast does not enjoy these capacities. Therefore, a beast is born into all the order of its life, and into all the knowledge of its natural love, but not so a man.
268. (iii) Confirmed evils and falsities with man are permanent, and come to be of his love, and consequently of his life. Confirmations of evil and falsity are nothing else than removals of good and truth, and if they increase, they are rejections, for evil removes and rejects good as falsity does truth. Hence indeed it is that confirmations of evil and falsity are closures of heaven, for every good and truth flows in from the Lord through heaven, and when heaven is closed, then man is in hell, and in a society there in which a like evil and falsity reigns, from which hell he cannot afterwards be released. It has been granted me to speak with some who, ages ago, had confirmed themselves in the falsities of their religion, and I saw that they remain in the same falsities, in the same way as they were in them in the world. The reason is that all things in which a man confirms himself come to be of his love and life. They come to be of his love because they come to be of his will and understanding, and the will and understanding form the life of everyone, and when they come to be of man’s life they come to be not only of his whole mind but also of his whole body. And so it is clear that a man who has confirmed himself in evils and falsities, is such from head to foot, and when he is wholly such, by no turning or twisting back can he be led back to an opposite state and thus be withdrawn from hell. From these considerations and from what precedes in this section, it can be seen whence the origin of evil comes.
269. (iv) Such things as have come to be of the love and consequently of the life are engendered in offspring. It is well known that man is born into evil, and that he derives it from parents by heredity. And by some it is believed that he inherits it not from parents, but through parents from Adam; but this is an error. He derives it from the father from whom he has a soul, and it is clothed with a body in the mother. For the seed, which is from the father, is the first receptacle of life, but such a receptacle as it was with the father. For it is in the form of his love, and the love of each man in things greatest and least, is similar to itself and there is in the seed a conatus into the human form, into which indeed it successively goes forth. Hence it follows that the evils called hereditary are from fathers, thus from grandfathers and ancestors successively transmitted to offspring. Experience teaches this same thing for as regards the affections, there is a resemblance of races to their first progenitors, and a stronger resemblance in families, and a still stronger resemblance in households. Indeed such is the resemblance that generations are distinguishable, not only from dispositions, but even from faces. But concerning this ingeneration of the love of evil from parents to offspring more will be said in what follows where the correspondence of the mind, that is of the will and understanding, with the body and its members and organs, is treated of. Here these few things only are brought forward that it may be known that evils are derived from parents successively, and that they increase through the accumulations of one after another, until man by birth is nothing but evil; also that the malignity of the evil increases according to the degree in which the spiritual mind is closed up, for in this way, the natural mind is also closed above. Finally there is no recovery from this in posterity except by shunning evils as sins by help from the Lord. In this and in no other way is the spiritual mind opened, and through it the natural mind is brought back into a correspondent form.
270. (v) All evils and consequent falsities, both engendered and acquired, have their seat in the natural mind. Evils and the consequent falsities reside in the natural mind, because that mind is, in form or image, a world, while the spiritual mind is, in form or image, a heaven, and in heaven evil cannot be entertained. Wherefore the spiritual mind has not been opened from birth but is only in the potentiality of being opened. The natural mind also derives its form in part from substances of the natural world, but the spiritual mind only from substances of the spiritual world. This mind is preserved in its integrity by the Lord so that man may become a man, for he is born an animal, but becomes a man. The natural mind with all its belongings is bent back into gyres from right to left, but the spiritual mind into gyres from left to right. Thus those minds are in contrary direction to one another-an indication that evil resides in the natural mind, and that from itself it acts against the spiritual mind. Further, the gyration from right to left is turned downwards, thus towards hell, but the gyration from left to right tends upwards, thus towards heaven. That such is the case was made clear to me by this experience, that an evil spirit can gyrate his body only from right to left, not from left to right, while a good spirit can gyrate his body from right to left only with difficulty, but with ease from left to right. The gyration follows the flow of the interiors which belong to the mind.
271. EVILS AND FALSITIES ARE IN ALL RESPECTS OPPOSED TO GOODS AND TRUTHS, BECAUSE EVILS AND FALSITIES ARE DIABOLICAL AND INFERNAL, WHILE GOODS AND TRUTHS ARE DIVINE AND HEAVENLY
Everyone acknowledges when he hears it that evil and good are opposites, also the falsity of evil and the truth of good. But because those who are in evil do not feel and therefore do not perceive otherwise than that evil is good, for evil gives enjoyment to their senses, especially sight and hearing, and hence also gives enjoyment to their thoughts and thus their perceptions, therefore they acknowledge that evil and good are indeed opposites, yet when they are in evil, they say, from their enjoyment of it, that evil is good, and good evil. Take an example. One who abuses his freedom to think and to do what is evil calls that freedom, while its opposite, that is to think good which in itself is good, he calls bondage, when yet the latter is truly freedom, but the former, bondage. He who loves adulteries calls it freedom to commit adultery, but not to be allowed to commit adultery he calls bondage, for he feels enjoyment in lasciviousness but undelight in chastity. He who is in the love of ruling from love of self feels in that love a delight of life surpassing other delights of every kind. Hence everything belonging to that love he calls good, and declares evil everything contrary to it, when yet the reverse is the case. It is the same with every other evil. While everyone, therefore, acknowledges that evil and good are opposites, still those who are in evil cherish a contrary idea about that opposition, and only those who are in good have a right idea about it. No-one so long as he is in evil can see good, but he who is in good can see evil. Evil is below as in a cave, good is above as on a mountain.
272. Now because many do not know what the nature of evil is, and that it is entirely opposed to good, and as it is important for this to be known, therefore this matter is to be considered in this order:
(i) The natural mind which is in evils and consequent falsities is a form and image of hell.
(ii) The natural mind which is a form and image of hell descends through three degrees.
(iii) The three degrees of the natural mind which is a form and image of hell, are opposite to the three degrees of the spiritual mind which is a form and image of heaven.
(iv) The natural mind which is a hell is in everything opposed to the spiritual mind which is a heaven.
273. (i) The natural mind which is in evils and consequent falsities is a form and image of hell. It is impossible here to describe the nature of the natural mind in man in its substantial form, that is, its nature in its own form woven out of the substances of both worlds in the brains where that mind resides in its first principles. The universal idea of that form will be given in what follows where the correspondence of the mind and body is to be treated of. Here something will be said only about its form as regards states and their changes whereby perceptions, thoughts, intentions, volitions and their belongings are manifested; for as regards these states and changes, the natural mind which is in evils and consequent falsities is a form and image of hell. This form supposes a substantial form as a subject, for without a substantial form as a subject, changes of state are impossible, just as sight is impossible without an eye, and hearing without an ear. Therefore as regards the form or image by which the natural mind reflects hell, that form or image is such that the ruling love with its lusts, which is the universal state of that mind, is like the devil in hell, and the thoughts of the false, arising out of that ruling love, are like the devil’s crew. Nothing else is understood in the Word by the devil and his crew. The case is similar also [in hell], for in hell there is a love of ruling from the love of self, a reigning love, called there the devil, and affections of the false with the thoughts arising out of that love, are called his crew. It is the same in every society in hell, with differences such as the differences of species in one genus. Also in a similar form is the natural mind which is in evils and consequent falsities. Therefore also the natural man who is of this character comes, after death, into a society of hell similar to himself, and then, in each and every particular, he acts in unison with it, for he comes into his own form, that is, into the states of his own mind. There is also another love, called satan, subordinate to the former love which is called the devil; this is the love of possessing the goods of others by every evil device. Malicious villanies and subtleties are its crew. Those who are in this hell are generically called satans, and those in the former, devils; and such of them as act openly there do not disown their name. Hence it is that the hells as a whole are called the devil and satan. The two hells are generically distinguished in accordance with those two loves, because all the heavens are distinguished into two kingdoms, the celestial and the spiritual, in accordance with two loves. And the diabolic hell corresponds, by opposites, to the celestial kingdom, while the satanic hell corresponds, by opposites, to the spiritual kingdom. It may be seen in the work HEAVEN AND HELL (n. 20-28) that the heavens are distinguished into two kingdoms. The natural mind which is of such a character is in form a hell because every spiritual form is like itself in greatest and in least things. Therefore it is that every angel is a heaven in lesser form, as has also been shown in the work HEAVEN AND HELL (n. 51-58). From this it also follows that every man or spirit who is a devil or a satan is a hell in lesser form.
274. (ii) The natural mind which is a form or image of hell descends through three degrees. It may be seen above (n. 222-229), that both in the greatest and least of all things, there are degrees of two kinds, namely degrees of height and of breadth. This is true also of the natural mind in greatest and least things. Degrees of height are here understood. The natural mind, by its two capacities called rationality and freedom, is in this state that it is capable of ascending through three degrees, or of descending through three degrees. It ascends by reason of goods and truths, and descends by reason of evils and falsities. And when it ascends, the lower degrees which tend towards hell are closed, but when it descends, the higher degrees which tend towards heaven are closed. The cause for this is that they are in reaction. These three degrees, higher and lower, have neither been opened nor closed in man in earliest infancy, for he is then ignorant of good and truth, and of evil and falsity. But as he commits himself to one or the other, so the degrees are opened and closed on one side or the other. When they are opened towards hell, then the reigning love which is of the will is allotted the highest or inmost place; the thought of the false, which is of the understanding from that love, is allotted the second or middle place; and the outcome of the love, through the thought, or of the will through the understanding, is allotted the lowest place. The same is the case here as with degrees of height, treated of previously, which in order are as end, cause and effect, or as first end, middle end and last end. The descent of these degrees is towards the body. Hence in descent they become grosser, becoming material and corporeal. If truths are drawn out of the Word into the second degree to form that degree, then those truths are falsified from the first degree, which is the love of evil, and become servants and slaves. From this it can be established what the truths of the Church from the Word become with those who are in the love of evil, or whose natural mind is, in form, a hell, namely, that they are profaned because they serve the devil as means, for as was said above, the love of evil reigning in the natural mind which is a hell is the devil.
275. (iii) The three degrees of the natural mind which is a form and image of hell, are opposite to the three degrees of the spiritual mind which is a form and image of heaven. It has been shown above that there are three degrees of the mind, called natural, spiritual and celestial, and that the human mind, made up of these degrees, looks towards heaven and turns itself in that direction. From this it can be seen that the natural mind, looking downwards and turning itself towards hell, likewise is made up of three degrees, and that each degree of it is opposite to the degree of that mind which is a heaven. That such is the case has been made very clear to me from those things seen in the spiritual world; namely, that there are three heavens, and that these are distinguished according to three degrees of height; that there are three hells, and that these are also distinguished according to three degrees of height or depth; that the hells are opposed to the heavens in each and every particular; also that the lowest hell is opposite to the highest heaven, the middle hell opposite to the middle heaven, and the uppermost hell to the lowest heaven. It is the same with the natural mind which is in form a hell, for spiritual forms are like themselves in things greatest and least. The heavens and hells are thus in opposition because their loves are opposed. Love to the Lord and hence love towards the neighbour form the inmost degree in the heavens. But love of self and love of the world form the inmost degree in the hells. Wisdom and intelligence, arising from their own loves, form the middle degree in the heavens, while foolishness and insanity, arising from their own loves and appearing as wisdom and intelligence, form the middle degree in the hells. Conclusions from the two degrees, whether laid up in the memory as knowledges, or determined in actions in the body, form the lowest degree in the heavens, conclusions from the two degrees, whether they become know-ledges or actions, forming the lowest degree in the hells. How the goods and truths of heaven are turned, in the hells, into evils and falsities, thus into what is opposite, can be established from the following experience. I heard that a certain Divine truth flowed down out of heaven into hell, and I heard that, on the way, in its descent, through degrees, it was converted into something false so that at the lowest hell it became the exact opposite of the truth. From this it was clear that the hells according to degrees are in opposition to the heavens as regards all goods and truths, these becoming, by influx into forms turned the wrong way, evils and falsities. For it is well known that all inflowing is perceived and felt according to the recipient forms and their states. This conversion into the opposite was also made clear to me from this experience. It was granted me to see the hells as they are placed relatively to the heavens, and those who were there appeared upside down, the head downward and the feet upward. But it was said that they yet appear to themselves to be upright upon their feet, comparatively as in the antipodes. It can be established from these evidences of experience, that the three degrees of the natural mind which, in form and image, is a hell, are opposite to the three degrees of the spiritual mind which, in form and image, is a heaven.
276. (iv) The natural mind which is a hell is in everything opposed to the spiritual mind which is a heaven. When the loves are opposite, then all things belonging to perception become opposites. For out of love, which makes the very life of man, all other things flow like streams from their source. Things which are not from that source separate themselves in the natural mind from those which are. Those things arising from man’s reigning love are in the middle, and other things at the sides. If these are truths of the Church from the Word, they are relegated from the middle further away to the sides, and are finally exterminated. And then the man, that is, the natural mind perceives evil as good, and sees falsity as truth, and conversely. This is why he believes maliciousness to be wisdom, insanity to be intelligence, cunning to be prudence, and evil devices to be ingenuity. Added to this, he regards as nothing the Divine and heavenly things belonging to the Church and to worship, and regards bodily and worldly things as of the greatest importance. Thus he inverts the state of his life, so that what belongs to the head he makes as the sole of his foot, and tramples upon it. So the man, from being alive, becomes dead. He whose mind is a heaven is said to be alive, while he whose mind is a hell is said to be dead.
277. ALL THINGS WHICH ARE OF THE THREE DEGREES OF THE NATURAL MIND, ARE INCLUDED IN THE DEEDS WHICH ARE DONE BY THE ACTS OF THE BODY
By a knowledge of degrees which is set out in this Part, the following arcanum is disclosed, that all things of the mind, that is of man’s will and understanding, are in his acts and deeds, included much in the same way as are things visible and invisible in a seed, or in fruit, or in an egg. Acts or deeds by themselves appear in external things just as these do, but yet in internal things there are innumerable things. For there are the concurring forces of the motor fibres of the whole body, and all the things of the mind which excite and determine these forces, which, as shown above, are of three degrees. And because there are all the things of the mind [in these], there are all the things of the will, that is, all the affections of man’s love which make the first degree; and there are all the things of the understanding, that is, all the thoughts of his perception which make the second degree; and there are all the things of the memory, or all ideas of the thought nearest to speech, taken from the memory, which present the third degree. Out of these things determined into act, come forth deeds, in which, seen in external form, prior things do not appear although they are actually therein. It may be seen above (n. 209-216) that the outmost is the complex, containant and base of things prior, and that degrees of height are in fulness in their outmost (n. 217-221).
278. The acts of the body, viewed by the eye, appear thus simple and uniform, as do seeds, fruits and eggs in external form, or as nuts and almonds in their kernels, yet they contain in themselves all the prior things from which they exist, because every outmost thing is covered around, and by this means kept distinct from prior things. Each degree also is surrounded by a covering, and by this means kept distinct from another degree. Consequently, things of the first degree are not known from the second degree, nor are those of that degree known by the third degree. Take an example. The love of the will which is the first degree of the mind is not known in the wisdom of the understanding which is the second degree of the mind, except by a certain enjoyment of thinking of the matter. The first degree which, as has been said, is the love of the will, is not known in the knowledge of the memory, which is the third degree, except by a certain pleasure in knowing and speaking. It follows from these examples that a deed, which is an act of the body, includes all these things although in external form it appears simple and as one thing.
279. This is confirmed by the following. The angels who are with man perceive separately those things which are from the mind in an act, the spiritual angels perceiving those things therein which are from the will. This appears as a paradox but yet it is true. It is to be known, however, that the things of the mind pertaining to any proposition under consideration or present in the mind, are in the middle, other things being around them according to affinities. The angels say that a man character is perceived from each single act, but in a likeness of his love, various according to its determinations into affections and into thoughts therefrom. In a word, every act or deed of a spiritual man is, before the angels, like a palatable fruit, useful and beautiful, which when opened and eaten yields flavour, use and delights. It may also be seen above (n. 220) that the angels have such a perception of the acts and deeds of a man.
280. It is the same with man’s speech. The angels know a man love from the sound of his speech, they know his wisdom from the articulation of the sound, and they know his knowledge from the sense of the words. Furthermore they say that these three are in every word, for the word is a kind of resultant, there being within it sound, articulation and sense. It has been told me by angels of the third heaven that, from each successive word which a man speaks, they perceive the general state of his disposition (animus), and also some particular states. They said that in each single word of the Word there is a spiritual [sense] from the Divine wisdom, and a celestial which is of the Divine love, and [the fact] that these are perceived by the angels when the Word is devoutly read by man has been abundantly shown in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE.
281. From these facts it is concluded that, in the deeds of a man whose natural mind descends through three degrees into hell, there are all his evils and falsities of evil, and that, in the deeds of a man whose natural mind ascends into heaven, there are all his goods and truths, and that both are perceived by the angels from the mere speech and act of a man. Hence it is that it is said in the Word that a man is to be judged according to his works and that he shall render an account of his words.
282. PART IV
THE LORD FROM ETERNITY, WHO IS JEHOVAH, CREATED THE UNIVERSE AND ALL THINGS THEREOF FROM HIMSELF, AND NOT FROM NOTHING
It is known throughout the world, and acknowledged by every wise man from interior perception that God Who is the Creator of the universe is one. And it is known from the Word that God the Creator of the universe is called “Jehovah”, from the verb “to be”, because He alone is. It has been shown in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE LORD by many passages in the Word that the Lord from eternity is that same Jehovah. Jehovah is called the Lord from eternity, because Jehovah assumed a Human in order that He might save men from hell. And later He commanded His disciples to call Him Lord. Therefore in the New Testament Jehovah is called “the Lord”, as can be established from the following:
Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul. Deut. VI
and in the New Testament:
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul. Matt. XXII 37
It is the same in other passages in the Evangelists, taken from the Old Testament.
283. Everyone who thinks from clear reason sees that the universe was not created out of nothing, since he sees that out of nothing not anything can be made. For nothing is nothing, and to make anything out of nothing is a contradiction, and what is a contradiction is contrary to the light (lux) of truth which is from Divine Wisdom. And whatever is not from Divine Wisdom is not from Divine Omnipotence. Everyone who thinks from clear reason also sees that all things have been created out of a substance which is Substance in itself, for this is Esse itself, out of which all things which have being can exist. And because God alone is Substance in itself, and consequently Esse itself, it is evident that the existence of things is from no other source. Many have seen this because reason enables them to see. But they have not dared to confirm it, fearing lest they might perhaps come to think that the created universe is God, because from God, or that nature is from itself, and thus that the inmost of nature is what 1S called God. So it is that although many have seen that the existence of all things is from no other source than from God and His Esse, yet they have not dared to progress beyond their first thought on the subject, lest their understanding become em-meshed in a so-called Gordian knot, from which they might not afterwards be able to extricate it. Their being unable to extricate their understanding is because they thought of God, and of the creation of the universe by God, from time and space which are properties of nature, and no one is able to have a perception of God and of the creation of the universe from nature. But everyone, whose understanding is in any interior light, can have a perception of nature and of its creation out of God, because God is not in time and space. That the Divine is not in space may be seen above (n. 7-10); that the Divine fills all the spaces of the universe apart from space (n. 69-72); and that the Divine is in all time apart from time (72-76). In what follows it will be seen that, although God has created the universe and all things thereof out of Himself, yet there is nothing whatever in the created universe which is God; besides many things which will put this matter in its proper light.
284. Part I of this work is treated of God, that He is Divine Love and Wisdom, and that He is Life; also that He is substance and form which is very and only Esse. Part II treated of the spiritual sun and its world, and of the natural sun and its world, and of the creation of the universe with all things thereof from God by means of these two suns. Part III treated of degrees in which are each and all things that have been created. This Part IV will now treat of the creation of the universe from God. The reason that these and the former subjects are treated is because the angels have lamented before the Lord that, when they look upon the world they see nothing but darkness, and among men, no knowledge of God, nor of heaven nor of the creation of nature, for their wisdom to lean upon.
285. THE LORD FROM ETERNITY, THAT IS, JEHOVAH, COULD NOT HAVE CREATED THE UNIVERSE AND ALL THINGS THEREOF UNLESS HE WERE A MAN
Those who have a natural corporeal idea of God as a Man are entirely unable to comprehend how God as a Man could have created the universe and all things thereof. For they think within themselves, how could God as a Man wander all over the universe from space to space, and create? Or how can He, from His Place, say the word, and as soon as it is spoken, can things be created? Such are the thoughts that occur within the ideas of those who think of God-Man as like a man in the world, when it is said that God is a Man, and who think about God from nature and its properties, which are time and space. But certainly those who think of God-Man, not as a man in the world, nor from nature and its space and time, perceive clearly that, unless God were a Man, the universe could not have been created. Bring your thought into the angelic idea about God as being a Man, and put away, as far as you can, the idea of space, and you will come in thought near to the truth. Indeed some of the learned perceive that spirits and angels are not in space, because they perceive the spiritual apart from space. For the spiritual is like thought which, although it is in man, yet man is able by means of it to be present as it were elsewhere, in any place however remote. Such is the state of spirits and angels who are men, even as to their bodies. They appear in the place where their thought is, because spaces and distances in the spiritual world are appearances, and act as one with their thought from affection. From these considerations it can be established that God, Who appears as a Sun far above the spiritual world, and to Whom there can be no appearance of space, is not to be thought of from space. And it can then be comprehended that He created the universe, not out of nothing, but out of Himself; also that His Human Body cannot be thought of as great or small, or of any stature, because this pertains to space also; consequently, that in things first and last, and in things greatest and least, He is the same; and furthermore, that the Human is the inmost in every created thing, though apart from space. That the Divine is the same in things greatest and least may be seen above (n. 77-82); and that the Divine fills all spaces apart from space (n. 69-72). And because the Divine is not in space, it is not continuous as the inmost of nature is.
286. That God could not have created the universe and all things thereof unless He were a Man may be very clearly understood by an intelligent person from the fact that he cannot deny within himself that in God there is Love and Wisdom, mercy and compassion, also Good itself and Truth itself because these are from Him. And because he cannot deny these things, neither can he deny that God is a Man. For not one of these qualities is possible, abstracted from a man, for man is their subject, and to separate them from their subject, is to say that they are not. Think of wisdom, and place it outside man. Is it anything? Can you conceive of it as something ethereal, or as something flaming? You cannot, unless perhaps you think of it as being within these, and if within these, it must be wisdom in a form such as man has, it must be wholly in his form, with nothing lacking for wisdom to be in it. In a word, the form of wisdom is man. And because man is the form of wisdom, he is also the form of love, mercy, compassion, good and truth, because these make one with wisdom. It may be seen above (n. 40-43) that love and wisdom are not possible except in a form.
287. That love and wisdom are man can also be evidenced from the fact that the angels of heaven are men and are beautiful to the extent in which they are in love and its wisdom from the Lord. The same can be established from what is said in the Word concerning Adam, that he was created into the likeness and into the image of God (Gen. I, 26), because into the form of love and wisdom. Every man on earth is born into the human form as regards his body, for the reason that his spirit, which is also called his soul, is a man. And this is a man because it is receptive of love and wisdom from the Lord. And to the extent that the spirit or soul of a man receives these, so far he becomes a man after the death of the material body which enveloped him. But so far as he does not receive them, to that extent he becomes a monster which derives something of man from the ability to receive.
288. Since God is a Man, therefore the whole angelic heaven in the aggregate has reference to a single man, and is divided into regions and provinces according to the members, viscera and organs of man. For there are societies of heaven which constitute the province of all the things of the brain, of all the things of the facial organs, and of all the things of the viscera of the body. And these provinces are distinguished from each other just as those organs are in man. Moreover the angels know in which province of man they are. The entire heaven has this resemblance because God is a Man. God, too, is heaven because the angels who constitute heaven are recipients of love and wisdom from the Lord, and recipients are images. It has been shown in the ARCANA CAELESTIA, at the end of several chapters, that heaven is in the form of all things of man.
289. From these facts it can be seen how inane are the ideas of those who think of God as something other than a Man, and of the Divine attributes as not being in God as a Man, since these attributes, separated from man are mere figments of the imagination. It may be seen above (n. 11-13) that God is Very Man, from Whom every man is man in accordance with his reception of love and wisdom. This is here confirmed on account of what follows, that the creation of the universe by God, because He is a Man, may be perceived.
290. THE LORD FROM ETERNITY, THAT IS, JEHOVAH, PRODUCED FROM HIMSELF THE SUN OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD, AND FROM THAT, CREATED THE UNIVERSE, AND ALL THINGS THEREOF
The Sun of the spiritual world was treated of in Part II of this work, and the following facts were there set forth:
The Divine Love and Wisdom appear in the spiritual world as a Sun, (n. 83-88).
Spiritual heat and light go forth from that Sun. (n. 89-92).
That Sun is not God, but it is a going forth from the Divine Love and Wisdom of God-Man; it is the same with the heat and light from that Sun (n. 93-98).
The Sun of the spiritual world is in the middle altitude, and appears distant from the angels as the sun of the natural world from men (n. 103-107).
In the spiritual world the east is where the Lord appears as a Sun, and the remaining quarters are thence determined (n. 119-123, n. 124-128).
Angels turn their faces continually to the Lord as a Sun (n. 129-134, 135-139).
The Lord created the universe and everything therein by means of the Sun which is the first proceeding of the Divine Love and Wisdom (n. 151-156).
The sun of the natural world is pure fire, and nature which derives its origin from that sun, is consequently dead; and the sun of the natural world was created in order that the work of creation might be completed and finished (n. 157-162).
Without two suns, the one living and the other dead, creation is not possible (n. 163-166).
291. Among those things which are set forth in Part II, there is also this, that the spiritual Sun is not the Lord, but is a going forth from His Divine Love and Wisdom. It is called a going forth, because that Sun is brought forth out of the Divine Love and Wisdom, which are in themselves substance and form,
and through this the Divine goes forth. But because human reason is such that it does not give assent without seeing a thing from its cause, and thus having some perception of how it is, so here, something will also be said about how the Sun of the spiritual world, which is not the Lord, but a going forth from Him, is produced. I have spoken much with angels concerning this matter. They have said that they clearly perceive this in its spiritual light, but that they cannot easily present it to man in his natural light, owing to the difference between the two kinds of light, and the consequent difference of thought. They said, however, that his case is like the sphere of affections and of thoughts therefrom which encompasses each angel, and by which his presence is evident to those near or far. They also said that this encompassing sphere is not the angel himself, but is from each and every thing of his body, wherefrom substances constantly emanate like a stream, and whatever emanates, encompasses him; also that these substances close about his body, constantly activated by the two fountains of the motion of his life, the heart and the lungs, excite the atmospheres into their own activities, and thereby present a perception like that of his presence among others. And thus, they said that it is not a separate sphere of affections and consequent thoughts which goes forth and is continued, although it is so called, because the affections are mere states of the mind’s forms in the angel. They said further that there is such a sphere around every angel, because there is one around the Lord; and that the sphere around the Lord is in like manner from Himself, and that that sphere is their sun, that is, the Sun of the spiritual world.
292. Quite often a perception has been granted me of such a sphere around an angel and spirit, and also a general sphere around many in a society, and I have also been granted to see it under various appearances, in heaven sometimes appearing like a thin flame, in hell like gross fire; in heaven sometimes like a thin and white cloud, and in hell, like a thick and black cloud. It has also been granted me to perceive these spheres as various kinds of odours and stenches. Out of these experiences I was convinced that a sphere derived from substances set free and separated from their bodies, encompasses everyone in heaven and everyone in hell.
293. It was also perceived that a sphere issues forth, not only from angels and spirits, but also from each and all things that appear in the spiritual world, as from trees and from their fruits there, from shrubs and their flowers, from herbs and from grasses, even from the soils and their very particles. And from this it was clear that, both in the case of things living and things dead, this is a universal law, that each thing is encompassed by something like that which is within it, and that this is continually exhaled from it. It is well known, from the experience of many learned men, that it is the same in the natural world, that there is a wave of effluvia constantly flowing forth out of man, as well as out of every animal, and also out of every tree, fruit, shrub, flower, and even out of metal and stone. The natural world derives this from the spiritual world, and the spiritual world from the Divine.
294. Since these things which constitute the Sun of the spiritual world are from the Lord, but are not the Lord, therefore they are not life in itself, but are devoid of life in itself. In the same way, those things which flow forth from an angel or a man, and make spheres around him, are not the angel or the man, but are from them though devoid of their life. These spheres make one with the angel or man only in that they are in accordance because taken from the forms of their bodies, which in them were forms of their life. This is an arcanum which angels, by means of their spiritual ideas, are able to see in thought and also express in speech, but men by their natural ideas are not, since a thousand spiritual ideas make one natural idea, and one natural idea cannot be resolved by man into any spiritual idea, much less into so many. The reason is that these ideas differ according to degrees of altitude which were treated in Part III.
295. That there is such a difference between the thoughts of angels and those of men was made known to me by this experience. The angels were asked to think spiritually on some subject and afterwards to tell me what they had thought. When they did this and wished to tell me they could not, saying that they cannot utter these things. It was the same with their spiritual language and writing. There was not any word of spiritual language the same as a word of natural language. Neither was there anything of spiritual writing like natural writing, except the letters, each of which contained an entire meaning. But, what is wonderful, they said that they seemed to themselves to think, speak, and write in the spiritual state, just as man does in the natural state, when yet there is no similarity. From this it was plain that the natural and the spiritual differ according to degrees of altitude, and that they communicate with each other only by means of correspondences.
296. THERE ARE IN THE LORD THREE THINGS WHICH ARE THE LORD, THE DIVINE OF LOVE, THE DIVINE OF WISDOM, AND THE DIVINE OF USE. AND THESE THREE ARE PRESENTED IN APPEARANCE OUTSIDE THE SUN OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD, THE DIVINE OF LOVE BY HEAT, THE DIVINE OF WISDOM BY LIGHT, AND THE DIVINE OF USE BY THE ATMOSPHERE WHICH IS THEIR CONTAINANT
That heat and light go forth from the Sun of the spiritual world, and that heat goes forth from the Lord’s Divine Love, and light (lux) from His Divine Wisdom, may be seen above (n. 89-92, 99-102, 104-150). It will here be shown that the third which goes forth from the Sun there, is the atmosphere which is the containant of heat and light, and that this goes forth out of the Lord’s Divine which is called Use.
297. Everyone who thinks with any enlightenment can see that love has use for an end, and intends it, and brings it forth by means of wisdom. For love of itself can bring forth no use, but can do so by means of wisdom as a medium. Indeed, what is love unless there is something loved? This something is use, and because use is that which is loved, and is brought forth by means of wisdom, it follows that use is the containant of wisdom and love. It has been shown (n. 209-216, and elsewhere) that these three, love, wisdom and use follow in order according to degrees of altitude, and that the ultimate degree is the complex, containant and base of the prior degrees. From these facts it can be established that these three, the Divine of Love, the Divine of Wisdom, and the Divine of Use are in the Lord, and in essence are the Lord.
298. It will be fully shown in what follows that man, as regards both his exteriors and his interiors, is a form of all uses, and that all the uses in the created universe correspond to those uses in him. Here it need only be mentioned in order that it may be known that God as a Man is a form itself of all uses from which form all the uses in the created universe derive their origin, and thus that the created universe, viewed as to uses, is an image of Him. Those things which, from God-Man, that is, from the Lord, are by creation in order, are called uses. But those things which are from man’s proprium are not called uses, for the proprium is hell, and those things are contrary to order.
299. Now because these three, love, wisdom and use are in the Lord, and are the Lord, and because the Lord is everywhere for He is Omnipresent, and because the Lord cannot present Himself such as He is in Himself, and such as He is in His own Sun, to any angel or man, He therefore presents Himself by means of such things as can be received, and does so as to love, by heat, as to wisdom by light, and as to use, by the atmosphere. The Lord manifests Himself as to use by the atmosphere, because the atmosphere is the containant of heat and light, as use is the containant of love and wisdom. For light and heat which go forth from the Divine Sun cannot go forth into nothing, that is into a vacuum, but go forth into a containant which is a subject. And this containant we call the atmosphere, which encompasses the Sun, and receives the sun in its bosom, bearing it to the heavens where the angels are, and thence to the world where men are, thus making manifest the Lord’s presence everywhere.
300. It has been shown above (n. 173-178, 179-183) that there are atmospheres in the spiritual world as there are in the natural world. And it was there stated that the atmospheres of the spiritual world are spiritual, while the atmospheres of the natural world are natural. It can now be established, from the origin of the spiritual atmosphere most closely encompassing the spiritual Sun, that everything belonging to it is, in its essence, of the same nature as that Sun in its essence. That this is so, the angels, by means of their spiritual ideas which are apart from space, declare in this way, namely, that there is only one substance from which all things are, and that the Sun of the spiritual world is that substance, and because the Divine is not in space, and is the same in things greatest and least, this is also the case with that Sun which is the first going forth of God-Man. Furthermore, this one only substance which is the Sun, going forth by means of atmospheres according to continuous degrees or degrees of latitude, and at the same time according to discrete degrees or degrees of altitude, presents varieties of all the things in the created universe. The angels declared that, unless spaces are removed from ideas, these things can in no way be comprehended, and if they are not removed, it cannot be but that appearances induce fallacies. Yet these fallacies cannot be induced so long as it is thought that God is the very Esse from which all things are.
301. It is clearly evident, moreover, from angelic ideas which are apart from space, that, in the created universe, nothing lives except God-Man, that is, the Lord, and that nothing is moved except by life from Him, and that nothing has being except through the Sun from Him, and so, that it is the truth that, in God, we live, we move, and have our being.
302. THE ATMOSPHERES, OF WHICH THERE ARE THREE, BOTH IN THE SPIRITUAL AND THE NATURAL WORLD, IN THEIR ULTIMATES TERMINATE IN SUCH SUBSTANCES AND MATTERS AS ARE ON THE EARTH
It has been shown in Part III (n. 173-176) that there are three atmospheres both in the spiritual and the natural world, which are distinguished from each other according to degrees of height, and which in their progress towards lower things decrease according to degrees of breadth. And because atmospheres decrease in their progress towards lower things, it follows that they continually become more dense and inert, and finally in ultimates, become so dense and inert as to be no longer atmospheres, but substances at rest, and in the natural world fixed like those on the earth called matters. From this origin of substances and matters it follows, first, that these substances and matters are also of three degrees; secondly, that they are held together in mutual connection by the surrounding atmospheres; thirdly, that they are accommodated to the production of all uses in their forms.
303. Who will not affirm, if he reflects that there are continual mediations from the prime to the ultimates, that such substances or matters as are on the earth have been produced by the sun through its atmospheres. Also that nothing can come into existence except from what is prior to itself, and finally from a prime, and that the prime is the Sun of the spiritual world, the Prime of that Sun being God-Man, that is, the Lord? Now, because atmospheres are prior things through which the Sun manifests itself in ultimates, and since these prior things continually decrease in activity and expanse even to ultimates, it follows that when their activity and expanse terminate in ultimates, they become substances and matters such as are on the earth, and these retain within them, from the atmospheres from which they originated, an effort and conatus to bring forth uses. Those who do not deduce the creation of the universe and all things thereof by continual mediations from a First [Being], cannot but build hypotheses broken and disjoined from their causes. And when these hypotheses are examined by a mind with an interior perception of things they do not appear like buildings but like the massed rubbish of decayed buildings.
304. From this universal origin of all things in the created universe, individual things there have a similar origin in that they go forth from their first to ultimates which are relatively in a state of rest, that they may terminate and continue in existence. In the human body, therefore, fibres go forth from their first forms until at last they become tendons, also the fibres with vessels go forth from their first forms until they finally become cartilages and bones, upon which they may rest and continue in existence. Because there is such a progression of fibres and vessels in man from firsts to ultimates, there is a similar progression, therefore, of their states which are sensations, thoughts and affections. These also from their firsts which are in light go forth through to ultimates where they are in shade, or from their firsts where they are in heat to ultimates where they are not in heat. Because there is such a progression of these, there is also such a progression of love and all the things thereof, also of wisdom and all the things thereof. In a word, such is the progression of all things in the created universe. This is the same as was shown above (n. 222-229), that there are degrees of both kinds in the greatest and least of all created things. There are degrees of both kinds even in the least things of all because the spiritual Sun is the sole substance from which all things are, according to the spiritual ideas of the angels (n. 300).
305. IN THE SUBSTANCES AND MATTERS OUT OF WHICH THE EARTH IS FORMED, THERE IS NOTHING OF THE DIVINE IN ITSELF, BUT YET THEY ARE FROM THE DIVINE IN ITSELF
From the origin of the earth as treated in the preceding section, it can be confirmed that, in its substances and matters, there is nothing of the Divine in itself, but that they are devoid of all that is Divine in itself. For they are, as was said, the endings and terminations of the atmospheres whose heat has ended in cold, light in darkness and activity in inertia. But yet they have brought with them by continuation from the substance of the spiritual Sun, that which was there from the Divine which, as said above (n. 291-298) was a sphere encompassing God-Man, or the Lord. From this sphere, by continuation from the Sun by means of the atmospheres, have arisen the substances and matters from which the earth is formed.
306. The origin of the earth from the spiritual Sun by means of the atmospheres, cannot be described otherwise by words flowing forth from natural ideas, but can be, by words flowing forth from spiritual ideas. Because such are apart from space, they do not fall into any words of natural language. Spiritual thoughts, speech and writings differ so completely from natural thoughts, speech and writings that they have nothing in common, and that they communicate only by correspondences may be seen above (n. 295). It is sufficient, therefore, that the origin of the earth be perceived naturally in any measure at all.
307. ALL USES WHICH ARE THE ENDS OF CREATION ARE IN FORMS, AND THEY TAKE FORMS FROM SUCH SUBSTANCES AND MATTERS AS ARE ON THE EARTH
All the things treated of hitherto, such as the Sun, atmospheres and earths, are simply means to the ends. The ends of creation are those things which are produced by the Lord as a Sun through the atmospheres, out of the earth, and these ends are called uses. In their extent they include all things of the vegetable kingdom, all things of the animal kingdom, and finally the human race and from that, the angelic heaven. These are called uses because they are recipients of the Divine Love and Wisdom, also because they have regard to God the Creator from Whom they are, and thereby conjoin Him to His great work, and by the conjunction bring it about that, as they come into being from Him, so they continue in existence. It is said that they have regard to God the Creator from Whom they are and conjoin Him to His great work, but this is to speak according to the appearance. Indeed it is understood that God the Creator causes them to regard and conjoin themselves to Him as it were of themselves. But how they regard and thereby conjoin will be told in what follows. Something has been said before on these subjects in the appropriate places, as that the Divine Love and Wisdom must necessarily be and have existence in others created by it (n. 47-51); that all things in the created universe are recipients of Divine Love and Wisdom (n. 55-60); and that the uses of all created things ascend by degrees to man, and through man to God the Creator from Whom they are (n. 65-68).
308. Who does not see clearly that uses are the ends of creation, when he considers that from God the Creator nothing can have existence and therefore nothing can be created except use? And that to be use, it must be for the sake of others? Also that use even for the sake of self must be for the sake of others, for use for the sake of self lies in being of use to others. He who considers this can also realise that use which is use cannot spring from man, but is in man from Him from Whom everything that comes forth is use, thus from the Lord.
309. But because the forms of uses are here treated of, the subjects will be detailed in the following order:
(i) In the earths there is a conatus to produce uses in forms, that is, forms of uses.
(ii) In all forms of uses there is a certain image of the creation of the universe.
(iii) In all forms of uses there is a certain image of man.
(iv) In all forms of uses there is a certain image of the Infinite and the Eternal.
310. (i) In the earths there is a conatus to produce uses in forms, that is, forms of uses. It is evident from their source that there is this conatus in earths. The substances and matters of which earths consists are endings and terminations of the atmospheres which go forth as uses from the spiritual Sun, (see above n. 305, 306). And because the substances and matters of which earths consist are from that source, and their aggregates are held in connection by the pressure of the surrounding atmospheres, it follows that hence they have a perpetual conatus towards producing forms of uses. It is from their origin that they derive the very quality which enables them to produce, being as they are the ultimates of the atmospheres with which they therefore accord. It is said that such a conatus and quality are in the earths, but it is understood that they are present in the substances and matters of which the earths consist, whether they are in the earths or exhaled from the earths into the atmospheres. It is well known that atmospheres are full of such exhalations. That there is such a conatus and such a quality in the substances and matters of earths is clearly evident from the fact that seeds of every kind, opened up to their innermost by means of heat, are impregnated by the most subtle substances which can have no other than a spiritual origin, and through which they have power to conjoin themselves to use out of which is their prolific nature. Then through conjunction with matters from a natural origin, they are able to produce forms of uses, and finally deliver them as from a womb so that they may also come into the light, and thus germinate and grow. This conatus is afterwards continuous from the earths through the root even to ultimates and from ultimates to firsts wherein the use itself lies in its origin. Thus uses pass over into forms. And forms in their progression from firsts to ultimates, and from ultimates to firsts derive from use, which is like a soul, that each and everything of the form is of some use. Use is said to be like a soul because its form is like a body. It also follows that there is a more interior conatus which is the conatus of producing uses for the animal kingdom through germinations, for by such, animals of every kind are nourished. It follows further that in all these there is also an inmost conatus which is that of performing a use to the human race. From this origin these things follow:
(1) that there are ultimates, and in ultimates are all prior things simultaneously in their order, in accordance with what has been frequently shown above; (2) that as shown above (n. 222-229) there are degrees of both kinds in the greatest and least of all things, similarly in this conatus; (3) all uses are brought forth by the Lord out of ultimates, so that there must be in ultimates a conatus towards uses.
311. But yet all these conatuses are not living for they are the conatuses of the ultimate forces of life, within which forces there is present, from the life out of which they spring, a striving to return at length to their origin through the means available. Atmospheres become such forces in ultimates by which substances and matters such as are on the earth, are moulded into forms and are held together in forms both within and without. Time does not permit of fuller explanation here owing to the extent of the subject.
312. The first production out of these earths, while they were still new and in their simple state, was the production of seeds, the first conatus in them could not be any other.
313. (ii) In all forms of uses there is a certain image of creation. Forms of uses are of a threefold kind; forms of uses of the mineral kingdom; forms of uses of the vegetable kingdom; and forms of uses of the animal kingdom. The forms of uses of the mineral kingdom cannot be described because they are not visible to the eye. The first forms are the substances and matters of which the earth consists, in their minutest parts. The second forms are aggregates arising out of these, which are of infinite variety. The third forms come from plants fallen to dust, and from animal remains, and from the continual evaporations and exhalations of these which mix with earths and make the soil. These forms of the three degrees of the mineral kingdom in image resemble creation in this, that activated by the sun by means of the atmospheres and their heat and light, they produce uses in forms, which uses were the ends of creation. This image of creation lies deeply hidden within their conatus, (regarding which see above
n. 310).
314. In the forms of uses of the vegetable kingdom the image of creation appears in this that from their first things they proceed to their ultimates, and from ultimates to their firsts. Their first things are seeds, their ultimates are stalks clothed with bark, and by means of the bark which is the ultimate of the stalks, they tend to seeds which, as was said, are their first things. The stalks clothed with layers of bark represent the globe clothed with earths out of which come the creation and formation of all uses. Many people are aware that vegetable growths take place by the pushing upwards of sheaths, rinds, and barks by means of the coverings of the roots being continued around the stems and branches to the beginnings of fruits, and so on through fruits to seeds. An image of creation appears in forms of uses in the progress of their formations from firsts to ultimates and from ultimates to firsts; also in the whole progression there is the end of producing fruit and seeds, which are uses. It is clear from the foregoing statement that the progression of the creation of the universe was from its First, which is the Lord encircled by the Sun to ultimates which are earths, and from these through uses to its First, that is, the Lord. Moreover, the ends of the whole creation were uses.
* per libros, philyras et tunicas-These words all refer to layers of tissue derived from trees (mainly the linden) which were used as writing or wrapping material.
315. It should be known that the heat, light and atmospheres of the natural world contribute absolutely nothing towards this image of creation. It is only the heat, light and atmospheres of the Sun of the spiritual world that do so. These carry that image with them and clothe it with the forms of uses of the vegetable kingdom. The heat, light and atmosphere of the natural world merely open the seeds, hold their products in a state of expansion, and clothe them with matters which give them fixity. But this is done not by forces from their own sun, which viewed in themselves are null, but by forces from the spiritual Sun by which the natural forces are unceasingly impelled towards those services. As to giving them an image of creation, natural forces contribute absolutely nothing, for the image of creation is spiritual. In order, however, that the image may be manifest and perform a use in the natural world, and may stand fixed and be permanent, it must be materialised, that is, filled in with the matters of that world.
316. There is a similar image of creation in the forms of uses of the animal kingdom in that the animal body which is its ultimate is formed out of a seed deposited in a womb or an ovum, and this body, when mature, produces new seeds. This progression is similar to that of the forms of uses of the vegetable kingdom. Seeds are the beginnings, the womb or the ovum is like the ground. The state before birth is like the state of the seed in the ground while it is taking root, the state after birth until the time of prolification is like the germination of a tree until its state of fruit-bearing. It is clear from this parallelism that there is a likeness of creation in the forms of animals as well as in the forms of plants, in that there is a progression from firsts to ultimates, and from ultimates to firsts. A similar image of creation stands out in the individual things in a man. For there is a similar progression of love through wisdom into uses. Hence a similar progression of the will through the understanding into acts, and of charity through faith into works. Will and understanding, also charity and faith are the firsts or source. Acts and works are the ultimates. Out of these, by means of the enjoyments of uses, a return is made to their firsts, which, as was said, are will and understanding, or charity and faith. It is clearly obvious from the enjoyments felt in the acts and works which are from anyone’s love that the return is effected by means of the enjoyments of uses, for they flow back to their first thing of love from which they spring and thereby conjunction is effected. The enjoyments of acts and works are enjoyments called uses. A similar progression from firsts to ultimates, and from ultimates to firsts stands out in the most purely organic forms of affections and thoughts with a man. In his brains, there are those star-like forms called the cineritious substances. Out of these go forth fibres through the medullary substances through the neck into the body. These proceed to the ultimates of the body, and from ultimates return to their firsts. The return of fibres to their firsts is made through the blood-vessels. There is a similar progression of all affections and thoughts which are changes and variations of state of those forms and substances. For the fibres issuing out of those forms and substances are comparatively like the atmospheres from the spiritual Sun, which are containants of heat and light. And bodily acts are like the things produced out of the ground by means of the atmospheres, the enjoyments of their uses returning to the source from which they sprang. But it can scarcely be fully comprehended by the understanding that the progression of these is such and that there is an image of creation within this progression, for the reason that thousands and myriads of forces operating in act appear as a one, and also because the enjoyments of uses do not appear as ideas in the thought but only affect without distinct perception. On these matters, see what has already been stated and explained above, namely-The uses of all created things ascend by degrees of altitude to man, and through man to God the Creator from Whom they are (n. 65-68); also, The end of creation exists in ultimates, which end is that all things may return to the Creator and that there may be conjunction (n. 167-I72). But these things will appear in still clearer light in the Part which follows, where the correspondence of the will and the understanding with the heart and lungs will be considered.
317. (iii) In all forms of uses there is a certain image of man. This has been shown above (n. 61-64). It will be seen in the section following that all uses from firsts to ultimates have a relation to, and a correspondence with all things of man, consequently that man is, in a certain image, a universe, and conversely that the universe, viewed as to uses, is in image a man.
318. (iv) In all forms of uses there is a certain image of the Infinite and the Eternal. The image of the Infinite in these forms is plain from their conatus and power to fill the spaces of the whole world, and even of many worlds, to infinity. For from one seed is produced a tree, shrub or plant which fills its own space. And from this tree, shrub or plant seeds are produced, in some cases thousands of them which, when sown and germinated, fill their own spaces. And if from each of their seeds there should come forth as many more, reproduced again and again, in the course of years the whole world would be filled. And if the productions were still continued, many worlds would be filled, and this to infinity. Estimate a thousand seeds from one and multiply thousands by thousands, ten times, twenty times, a hundred times, and you will see. The image of the Eternal in these forms is similar. Seeds are propagated from year to year, and propagations never cease. They have not ceased from the creation of the world till now, and will not cease to eternity. These two facts are outstanding indications and witnessing signs that all things of the universe have been created by an Infinite and Eternal God. Besides these images of the Infinite and Eternal, there is a further image of the Infinite and Eternal in varieties, in that there can never be a substance, state or thing in the created universe the same as another, neither in the atmospheres, nor in earths nor in the forms arising out of these, thus not in any of the things which fill the universe, can anything identical be produced to eternity. This is outstandingly observable in the variety of faces of mankind. No one face can be found throughout the world the same as another, nor can there be such to eternity. Consequently, no one mind is the same as another, for the face is the image of the mind.
319. ALL THINGS OF THE CREATED UNIVERSE, VIEWED FROM USES, REPRESENT MAN IN AN IMAGE; AND THIS PROVES THAT GOD IS MAN
Man was called a microcosm by the ancients from the fact that he represents the macrocosm which is the universe in its whole complex. But today it is not known why man was so called by the ancients, for no more of the universe or macrocosm appears in him than that he derives nourishment and bodily life from its animal and vegetable kingdoms, and that he is maintained in a living condition by its heat, sees by its light, and hears and breathes by means of its atmosphere. Yet these things do not make man a microcosm, as the universe with all things in it is a macrocosm. But the ancients called man a microcosm, or little universe, and this they derived from the knowledge of correspondences in which the most ancient people were, and from communication with the angels of heaven. For angels of heaven know from the things which they see about them that all the things of the universe, regarded as to uses, represent man in an image.
320. But it cannot enter the thought and so come to the knowledge of anyone from the idea of the universe as seen in the spiritual world that man is a microcosm or little universe, because the created universe, viewed as to uses, is in image a man. Therefore this can be confirmed only by an angel who is in the spiritual world, or by some one to whom it has been granted to be in that world, and to see the things which are there. Because this has been granted to me, I am able, from the things I have seen there, to reveal this arcanum.
321. It should be known that the spiritual world is, in external appearance, wholly like the natural world. Lands, mountains, hills, valleys, plains, fields, lakes, rivers, fountains are to be seen there just as in the natural world, thus all things belonging to the mineral kingdom. There are also to be seen paradises, gardens, groves, woods, and in them trees and shrubs of all kinds along with fruits and seeds. There are also plants, flowers, herbs and grasses, thus all things belonging to the vegetable kingdom. Beasts, birds and fishes of all kinds are to be seen, thus all things belonging to the animal kingdom. Man there is an angel or spirit. This is premised that it may be known that the universe of the spiritual world is wholly like that of the natural world with this difference only that the things in the spiritual world are not fixed and static like those in the natural world, because there nothing is natural but everything is spiritual.
322. That the universe of that world represents man in an image can be plainly established from the fact that all the things just mentioned (n.32I) appear to the life and have existence about the angel and about the angelic societies, as if produced or created from them. They remain about them and do not pass away. That they are as if produced or created from them is seen by this that, when the angel withdraws, or when the society passes to another place, these things no longer appear. Also when other angels come in place of them, the appearance of all things about them is changed, the trees and fruits of the paradises are changed, in the flower garden the flowers and seeds, in the fields, the herbs and grasses, also the species of animals and birds are changed. Such things have existence and are changed in this way because all these things come into existence according to the affections and consequent thoughts of the angels, for they are correspondences. And because things that correspond make one with that to which they correspond, they are therefore an image representative of it. This image is not seen when these things are regarded in respect of their forms, but it is seen when they are regarded in respect of their uses. It has been granted me to perceive that when their eyes have been opened by the Lord, and they saw those things from the correspondence of uses, the angels recognised and saw themselves in them.
323. Now because lose things which have existence about the angels in accordance with their affections and thoughts represent a kind of universe, in that there are lands, plants and animals, and these constitute an image representative of the angel, so it is clear why the ancients called man a microcosm.
324. That this is so has been abundantly confirmed in ARCANA CAELESTIA, and in the work HEAVEN AND HELL, and also in preceding sections where correspondence has been treated of. It has there been shown also that there can be nothing in the created universe which has not a correspondence with something in man, not only with his affections and consequent thoughts, but also with his bodily organs and viscera, yet not with these as substances but as uses. Hence it is that in the Word, where the Church and the man of the Church are treated of, there are so often mentioned trees, such as olives, vines and cedars, also gardens, groves and woods, and the beasts of the earth, birds of the air and fish of the sea. They are mentioned because they correspond, and by correspondence make one, as was stated above. Consequently, when such things are read of in the Word by man, they are not perceived by angels, but instead, the Church or the men of the Church as to their states.
326. It can now be established from these facts that all things in the universe, regarded from uses, represent man in an image, and that this proves that God is Man. For such things as have been mentioned above have existence about the angelic man, not from an angel, but from the Lord through an angel. For they have existence from the influx of the Lord’s Divine Love and Wisdom with the angel who is a recipient, and before whose eyes all is brought forth just as the creation of a universe. From this they know there that God is Man, and that the created universe, regarded as to uses, is an image of Him.
327. ALL THINGS WHICH HAVE BEEN CREATED BY THE LORD ARE USES. THEY ARE USES IN THE ORDER, DEGREE AND RESPECT IN WHICH THEY HAVE RELATION TO MAN, AND THROUGH MAN TO THE LORD FROM WHOM THEY ARE
Concerning these subjects it has been stated above: that nothing except use can exist from God the Creator (n. 308); that the uses of all created things ascend by degrees from ultimate things to man, and through man to God the Creator, from Whom they are (n. 65-68); that the end of Creation exists in ultimates, which end is that all things may return to God the Creator, and that there may be conjunction (n. 167-172); that things are uses so far as they have regard to the Creator (n. 307); that the Divine cannot be other than Esse and Existere in others created by itself (n. 47-51); that all things of the universe are recipients according to uses, and this, according to degrees (n. 58); that the universe, viewed from uses, is an image of God (n. 59); besides many other things. From all of which this truth is plain that all things which have been created by the Lord are uses, and that they are uses in that order, degree and respect in which they have relation to man, and through man to the Lord from Whom they are. It remains now that some things should be stated in detail about uses.
328. By man to whom uses have relation is understood not only an individual, but also an assembly of men, also a society, smaller or larger, as a state, kingdom, or empire, or the largest society which is the world, for each of these is a man. Similarly in heaven the whole angelic heaven is as one man before the Lord, and equally each society of heaven. Thus it is that every angel is a man. That this is so may be seen in the work HEAVEN AND HELL (n. 68-103). From these considerations it is clear what is understood by man in what follows.
329. It can be established what use is from the end of the creation of the universe. The end of the creation of the universe is the existence of an angelic heaven. And because an angelic heaven is the end, man also or the human race is the end since heaven is from that. Hence it follows that all created things are mediate ends, and that there are uses in that order, degree and respect in which they have relation to man, and through man to the Lord.
330. Since the end of creation is an angelic heaven out of the human race, thus the human race itself, therefore all other created things are mediate ends, which because they have relation to man, look to these three things of his, his body, his rational, and for the sake of conjunction with the Lord, his spiritual. For man cannot be conjoined to the Lord unless he is spiritual, nor can he be spiritual unless he is rational, neither can he be rational unless his body is in a sound state. These three are like a house. The body is like the foundation, the rational is as the house built upon it, the spiritual like those things which are in the house, and conjunction with the Lord like dwelling in it. Hence it is clear in what order, degree and respect uses, which are the mediate ends of creation, have relation to man, namely, for sustaining his body, for perfecting his rational, and for receiving what is spiritual from the Lord.
331. Uses for sustaining the body have reference to its nourishment, clothing, habitation, recreation and enjoyment, protection and preservation of its state. The uses created for the nourishment of the body are all things of the vegetable kingdom which are for eating and drinking, such as fruits, grapes, grain, vegetables and herbs; also all things of the animal kingdom which are eaten, as oxen, cows, calves, deer, sheep, kids, goats, lambs and milk from them, as well as fowls and fish of many kinds. Uses created for the clothing of the body are also many things from these two kingdoms, as also uses for habitation, recreation, enjoyment, protection and preservation of state. These are not enumerated because they are well known, and therefore a mere recounting of them would fill pages. There are indeed many things which yield nothing of use to man, but what is superfluous does not do away with use, but ensures the continuance of use. Abuse of uses is also possible, but abuse does not do away with use, just as falsification of truth does not do away with truth except with those who falsify it.
332. Uses for perfecting the rational are all the things which teach the subjects already mentioned, and are called knowledges and studies pertaining to natural, economic, civil and moral affairs. These are acquired from parents and teachers, or from books, or from associations with others, or by reflection on these subjects by oneself. These things perfect the rational so far as they are uses in a higher degree and they endure so far as they are applied to life. Space forbids enumeration of these uses, both on account of their abundance, and of their varied relation to the common good.
333. Uses for receiving the spiritual from the Lord are all the things which belong to religion and to worship therefrom, thus all things that teach the acknowledgment and knowledge of God, and the knowledge and acknowledgment of good and truth and thus eternal life. These are acquired as other learning from parents, teachers, publications and books, and especially by applying what is learned to life, and in the Christian world, by doctrines and sermons from the Word, and through the Word from the Lord. These uses in their whole extent may be described in the same terms as the uses of the body, as nourishment, clothing, habitation, recreation, enjoyment, and protection of state, if only these are applied to the soul, nutrition answering to goods of love, clothing to truths of wisdom, habitation to heaven, recreation and enjoyment to happiness of life and heavenly joy, protection to safety from infesting evils, and preservation of state to eternal life. All these things are given by the Lord according to the acknowledgment that all bodily things are also from the Lord, and that man is only a servant and domestic administrator appointed over the goods of his Lord.
334. That such things have been given to man for use and enjoyment, and that they are free gifts is clearly evident from the state of angels in the heavens who have, like men on earth, a body, a rational and a spiritual. They are nourished freely for food is given them daily, they are clothed freely for garments are given them, they are housed freely for dwellings are given them, nor have they any care regarding all these things, and to the extent that they are rational-spiritual, so they have enjoyment, protection and preservation of state. The difference is that angels see that these things are from the Lord, because they are created according to the state of their love and wisdom (as was shown in a preceding section n. 322). But men do not see this because their harvest is yearly and not in accord with the state of their love and wisdom, but in accord with their diligence.
335. Although it is said that these things are uses because through man they have relation to the Lord, yet they cannot be said to be uses from man for the Lord’s sake, but from the Lord for man’s sake, because in the Lord all uses are infinitely one, and in man there are no uses except from the Lord. For man cannot do good from himself, but from the Lord, and good is what is called use. The essence of spiritual love is doing good to others, not for the sake of self but for the sake of others; infinitely more is this the essence of Divine Love. It is like the love of parents towards their children in that they do good to them from love, not for their own sake but for the children’s sakes. This is manifestly seen in the love of a mother for her little children. Because the Lord is to be adored, worshipped and glorified, it is believed that He loves adoration, worship and glory for His own sake. But it is for man’s sake that He loves these, because by means of them, man comes into a state in which the Divine can flow in and be perceived, for by this means man removes his proprium which inhibits influx and reception, and the proprium which is self-love hardens the heart and shuts it up. This is removed by the acknowledgment that from man himself nothing comes but evil, and from the Lord nothing but good. From this acknowledgment comes a softening of the heart and humiliation out of which flow forth adoration and worship. It follows from these things that the uses which the Lord performs for Himself through man are such that man may be able to do good from love, and because this is the Lord’s love, its reception is the enjoyment of His love. Therefore let no-one believe that the Lord is with those who merely adore Him, but He is with those who do His commandments, which are uses. With such He has His abode but not with the former. (See also what was said above on these matters (n. 47-49).
336. EVIL USES WERE NOT CREATED BY THE LORD, BUT ORIGINATED TOGETHER WITH HELL
All good things which exist in act are called uses, and all evil things which exist in act are also called uses, but the latter are evil uses while the former are good uses. Now since all good things are from the Lord and all evil things from hell, it follows that none but good uses were created by the Lord and that evil uses arose out of hell. By the uses especially treated of in this section are understood all those which are to be seen on the earth, such as animals and plants of every kind. The animals and plants which perform uses to man are from the Lord, and those which do injury to man are from hell. By uses from the Lord are likewise understood all things which perfect the rational of man, so that he may receive the spiritual from the Lord. And by evil uses are understood all things which destroy the rational, making man unable to become spiritual. These things which do injury to man are called uses because they are of use to the evil in doing evil, and are also conducive to absorbing malignities, and thus to curing them. Use is spoken of in both senses, as is love, so there is good love and evil love, and love calls everything that it does, use.
337. That good uses are from the Lord, and evil uses from hell, will be shown in the following order:
(i) What is meant by evil uses on the earth,
(ii) All things that are evil uses are in hell, and all things that are good uses are in heaven,
(iii) There is a continuous influx from the spiritual world into the natural world,
(iv) Influx from hell brings about evil uses wherever there are such things as correspond to them,
(v) The lowest spiritual separated from what is above brings this about,
(vi) There are two forms into which the operation by influx takes place, the vegetable and animal forms,
(vii) Both these forms receive the faculty to propagate their kind, and the means of propagation.
338. (i) What is meant by evil uses on the earth. By evil uses on the earth are understood all noxious things in both the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and also in the mineral kingdom. It is needless to enumerate all the noxious things in these kingdoms for this would merely heap up names, and doing this without indicating the harmful effect that each kind produces would not serve the use which this work has in view. For the sake of information a few examples will suffice. Such in the animal kingdom are poisonous snakes, scorpions, crocodiles, dragons, horned owls, screech owls, mice, locusts, frogs, and spiders, as well as flies, drones, moths, lice, mites, in a word, creatures that destroy grasses, leaves, fruits, seeds, meat and drink, and do injury to beasts and men. In the vegetable kingdom there are all malignant, virulent and poisonous herbs, and leguminous plants and shrubs of like character; in the mineral kingdom all the poisonous earths. From these few examples it can be seen what is meant by evil uses on earth. For evil uses are all the things which are opposed to good uses, about which see a preceding section (n. 336).
339. (ii) All things that are evil uses are in hell, and all things that are good uses are in heaven. Before it can be seen that all evil uses which have existence on earth are not from the Lord but from hell, something must first be premised concerning heaven and hell, without a knowledge of which evil as well as good uses may be attributed to the Lord, and considered to be at the same time from creation; or they may be attributed to nature, and their origin to the natural sun. From these two errors man cannot be led away unless he knows that nothing whatever has existence in the natural world which does not derive its cause and therefore its origin from the spiritual world, and that good is from the Lord, and evil from the devil, that is, from hell. By the spiritual world is meant both heaven and hell. In heaven are to be seen all these things which are good uses, concerning which see a preceding section (n. 336). While in hell are to be seen all these things which are evil uses, concerning which see just above (n. 338) where they are enumerated. These are wild creatures of every kind, as serpents, scorpions, dragons, crocodiles, tigers, wolves, foxes, swine, owls of different kinds, bats, rats, mice, frogs, locusts, spiders and noxious insects of many kinds. There also appear poisonous things, also hemlocks of all kinds and aconites, both of herbs and of earths, in a word, everything harmful and deadly to man. Such things appear in the hells so to the life as to resemble exactly those upon and in the earth. It is said they appear there, but yet they are not there as on earth, for they are mere correspondences of the cupidities that swarm out of their evil loves, presenting themselves in such forms before others. Because there are such things in the hells, therefore they also abound in foul smells, cadaverous, stercoraceous, urinous, putrid, with which the diabolical spirits there are delighted, as animals in rank stenches. From these things it can be established that similar things in the natural world did not derive their origin from the Lord and were not created from the beginning, neither did they spring from nature through her sun, but they are from hell. That they are not from nature through her sun is clearly manifest from the fact that the spiritual inflows into the natural and not the reverse. And that they are not from the Lord is plain because hell is not from Him, therefore nothing in hell, corresponding to the evils of those there, is from Him.
340. (iii) There is continuous influx from the spiritual world into the natural world. He who does not know that there is a spiritual world, or that it is distinct from the natural world as what is prior is distinct from what is posterior, or as cause from the thing caused, cannot know anything about this influx. This is why those who have written about the origin of vegetables and animals could only deduce that the origin was from nature, and if from God, that God had implanted in nature from the beginning the power of producing such things-not knowing that no power is implanted in nature, for nature in herself is dead and contributes no more to the production of those things than, for instance, a tool does to the work of a mechanic, the tool having to be perpetually moved to cause action. It is the spiritual which derives its origin from the Sun where the Lord is, and proceeds to the ultimates of nature, that produces the forms of vegetables and animals and shows forth the marvels existing in both, and fills the forms with matters from the earth that they may become fixed and enduring. Now because it is not known that there is a spiritual world, and that the spiritual is from the spiritual Sun where the Lord is, and which is from the Lord, and that the spiritual is what impels nature to act, as what is living impels what is dead, also that the same things exist in the spiritual world as in the natural world, it can be seen that vegetables and animals have had their existence only from the Lord through that world, and through that world they have continuous existence. Thus there is continuous influx from the spiritual world into the natural. That this is the case will be abundantly confirmed in the section following. Noxious things are produced on earth through influx from hell by the same law of permission whereby evils themselves inflow from hell into men. This law will be set forth in the ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE.
341. (iv) Influx from hell brings about evil uses wherever there are such things as correspond to them. The things that correspond to evil uses, that is, to hurtful plants and noxious animals, are cadaverous, putrid, excrementitious, stercoraceous, rancid and urinous matters. Consequently in places where these are, such plants and such small animals as were mentioned above, spring forth; and in the torrid zone, similar things of larger size, such as serpents, basilisks, crocodiles, scorpions, rats and others. Everyone knows that swamps, stagnant pools, dung-hills, fetid bogs are full of such things, also that noxious insects fill the atmosphere like clouds, and noxious vermin walk the earth in armies, consuming its plants to the very roots. I once observed in my garden in the space of an ell, nearly all the dust was turned into minute insects for when it was stirred with a stick, they rose like clouds. It is evident from mere observation that cadaverous and putrid matters are in accord with these noxious and useless little animals and that they are homogeneous, and it is still more clearly seen from the cause which is that similar stenches and fumes exist in the hells where such animalcules are also to be seen. Those hells are therefore named accordingly. Some are called cadaverous, some stercoraceous, some urinous, and so on. But all these hells are covered over, that those vapours may not escape from them. For when they are opened a very little as happens when novitiate devils enter, they excite vomiting and oppressive headaches, and those that are also poisonous induce fainting. Even the dust there is of the same nature, wherefore it is called damned dust. From this it is clear that there are such noxious stenches because the two things correspond.
342. It now becomes a matter of enquiry whether such things spring from eggs conveyed hither by means of air, or rain or water oozing through the soil, or whether they come forth from the damp and the stenches there. That these noxious animalcules and insects mentioned above are hatched from eggs which have been carried to the spot or which have lain hidden everywhere in the ground since creation, is opposed to all observable facts. For worms come forth in minute seeds, the kernels of nuts, in wood, in stones and even out of leaves, and upon plants and in them there are lice and grubs which correspond to them. Flying insects, too, such as appear in houses, fields and woods arise in like manner in summer without having oviform matters sufficient to account for them, also there are vermin that devour meadows and lawns, and in some hot localities fill and infest the air, besides those that swim and fly unseen in filthy waters, sour wines and pestilential air. These observable facts support those who declare that the odours, effluvia, and exhalations emitted from plants, earth and ponds, are what give the initial rise to such things. That when they have come forth, they are afterwards propagated either by eggs or offshoots, does not disprove their immediate generation, since every living creature, along with its minute viscera, receives organs of generation and means of propagation, about which see below, (n. 347). In agreement with these facts is the observation hitherto unknown that there are similar things also in the hells.
343. That the hells mentioned have not only communication but also conjunction with such things on earth may be concluded from this that the hells are not remote from men but are around them, indeed within those who are evil, thus they are contiguous to the earth. For man, as regards his affections and lusts and consequent thoughts, and as regards his actions springing from them which are good or evil uses, is in the midst either of angels of heaven or of spirits of hell; and as such things as are on the earth are also in the heavens and the hells, it follows that influx therefrom directly produces such things when the temperature is favourable. For all things that appear in the spiritual world whether in heaven or in hell are correspondences of affections or lusts, for they have existence there in accordance with these. Consequently when affections or lusts which in themselves are spiritual meet with homogeneous or corresponding things on earth, there is present both the spiritual which provides a soul and the material which provides a body. Also within everything spiritual there is a conatus to clothe itself with a body. The hells are around man and hence contiguous to the earth, because the spiritual world is not in space, but is where there is corresponding affection.
344. I heard two presidents of the English Royal Society, Sir Hans Sloane and Martin Folkes, conversing together in the spiritual world about the existence of seeds and eggs, and about productions from them on the earth. The former ascribed them to nature, and said that nature was endowed from creation with a power and force to produce such things by means of the sun heat. The other declared that this force is in nature unceasingly from God the Creator. That the controversy might be settled, a beautiful bird appeared to Sir Hans Sloane, and he was asked to examine it to see whether it differed in the least particular from a similar bird on earth. He held it in his hand, examined it, and declared that there was no difference. For he knew that it was nothing but an affection of some angel represented outside him as a bird, and that it would vanish or cease with the affection that produced it. And this indeed happened. By this experience, Sir Hans Sloane was convinced that nature contributes nothing whatever to the production of vegetables and animals, but that they are produced solely by what flows into the natural world out of the spiritual world. He said that, if that bird were to be infilled in its minutest parts with corresponding matters from the earth, and thus fixed, it would be a lasting bird like the birds on earth; and that it is the same with such things as are from hell. To this he added that if he had known what he now knew of the spiritual world, he would have ascribed to nature no more than this, that it serves the spiritual which is from God, in fixing those things which inflow unceasingly into nature.
345. (v) The lowest spiritual separated from what is above brings this about. It was shown in Part III that the spiritual flows down from its sun even to the ultimates of nature through three degrees which are called celestial, spiritual and natural; that these three degrees are in man from creation, consequently from birth; and that they are opened according to his life. It was also shown that if the celestial degree which is the highest and inmost is opened, the man becomes celestial, if the spiritual degree which is the middle is opened, he becomes spiritual, but if only the natural degree which is the lowest and outermost is opened, he becomes natural. If man becomes natural only, he loves only corporeal and worldly things; and so far as he loves them, so far he does not love celestial and spiritual things, and does not look to God, and to that extent becomes evil. From these things it is clear that the lowest spiritual, which is called spiritual-natural, can be separated from its higher parts, and is separated in men from whom hell is formed. The lowest spiritual cannot of itself be separated from its higher parts and look towards hell either in beasts or in earths; it is possible only with men. From which it follows that the lowest spiritual, separated from what is above it, such as it is with those who are in hell, works to effect those evil uses on earth, spoken of above. That noxious things on earth derive their origin from man, and thus from hell, can be confirmed from the condition of the land of Canaan, described in the Word. When the children of Israel lived according to the Commandments, the earth yielded her increase, likewise the flocks and herds; and when they lived contrary to the Commandments, the land was barren and, as it is said, accursed; instead of harvests it yielded thorns and briars; flocks and herds miscarried, and wild beasts broke in. The same may be deduced from the locusts, and lice in Egypt.
346. (vi) There are two forms into which operation by influx takes place, the vegetable and the animal form. That two universal forms only are produced from the earth is known from the two kingdoms of nature, which are called the animal and vegetable kingdoms. And all the things of either kingdom have many features in common. Thus the subjects of the animal kingdom have organs of sense and organs of motion, members and viscera also, which are actuated by brains, heart and lungs; while the subjects of the vegetable kingdom send a root into the ground and bring forth stem, branches, leaves, flowers, fruit and seeds. Both kingdoms, animal and vegetable alike, as to productions into their forms, derive their origin by spiritual influx and operation from the Sun of heaven where the Lord is, and not from the influx and operation of nature from her sun, except the fixation of them, as was said above. All animals, great and small, derive their origin from the spiritual in the lowest degree, which is called natural, and man alone from all the degrees, of which there are three, called celestial, spiritual, and natural. As each degree of height, or discrete degree, decreases from its perfection to its imperfection by continuity, as light does to shade, so also do animals; wherefore there are perfect, less perfect, and imperfect animals. The perfect animals are elephants, camels, horses, mules, oxen, sheep, goats, and others, either of the herd or flock. The less perfect are birds. The imperfect are fish and shell fish; these, since they are the lowest of their degree, are, as it were, in shade, while the former are in light. Yet since they live solely from the lowest spiritual degree, which is called the natural, animals cannot look elsewhere than towards the earth and the food there, and to their own kind for the sake of propagation. The soul of all these is natural affection and appetite. It is the same with the subjects of the vegetable kingdom, which include the perfect, less perfect, and imperfect. The perfect are fruit trees, the less perfect are grape vines and shrubs, and the imperfect are grasses. From the spiritual, which is their origin, vegetables derive that they are uses, and animals derive that they are affections and appetites, as has been said.
348. That all uses, both good and evil, are from a spiritual origin, thus from the Sun where the Lord is, can be illustrated by this experience. I have heard that goods and truths have been sent down through the heavens from the Lord to the hells, and that these same things received by degrees in the abyss were there turned into evils and falsities, the opposites of the goods and truths sent down. The reason for such a change was that recipient subjects turn all things that inflow into such things as agree with their own forms, just as brilliant sunshine is turned into hideous colours and into black in those objects whose substances are inwardly of such a form as to suffocate and extinguish the light; and stagnant pools, dung hills and dead bodies turn the heat of the sun into stenches. From these things it can be established that evil uses also are from the spiritual Sun, but that good uses are changed in hell into evil uses. It is clear, therefore, that the Lord has not created and does not create any except good uses, and that hell produces evil uses.
349. THE VISIBLE THINGS IN THE CREATED UNIVERSE TESTIFY THAT NATURE HAS PRODUCED NOTHING, AND DOES PRODUCE NOTHING, BUT THAT THE DIVINE PRODUCES ALL THINGS OUT OF ITSELF, AND THROUGH THE SPIRITUAL WORLD
Very many people in the world speak from the appearance. They say that the sun by its heat and light produces whatever is to be seen in plains, fields, gardens, and woods; also that the sun by its heat hatches worms from eggs, and makes beasts of the earth and fowls of the air prolific, indeed, even gives life to man. Those who speak so from appearance only, may do so without ascribing these things to nature for they do not think about it: like those who speak of the sun rising and setting, making days and years, and being in this or that altitude; these likewise speak from the appearance, and can do so, although they do not ascribe these effects to the sun; for they are not thinking of the sun’s standing still and the earth’s turning round. But those who confirm themselves in the idea that the sun produces the things that appear on the earth by means of its heat and light, in the end ascribe all things to nature, even the creation of the universe, and become believers in naturalism and, finally, atheists. These can indeed say afterwards that God created nature and endowed her with the power of producing such things, but they say this for fear of the loss of reputation. They still, by God the Creator, mean nature, and some the inmosts of nature; and then the Divine things taught by the Church count for nothing with them.
350. Some indeed who have ascribed certain visible things to nature are to be excused for a twofold reason. First, they know nothing of the Sun of heaven, where the Lord is, and of influx therefrom, nor anything of the spiritual world and its state, nay rather, nothing of its presence with man. They could only think of the spiritual as a purer natural, and thus of angels as being in the ether or the stars; also of the devil as man’s evil, or if actually existing, as being either in the air, or in the abyss; and of men’s souls after death as being in the midst of the earth, or in some abstract somewhere till the day of judgment; and of other similar delusions brought about by ignorance concerning the spiritual world and its Sun. The second reason for excusing them is that they could not understand the method by which the Divine produced all those things that appear on earth, good and evil alike; afraid to confirm themselves in the idea, lest they should ascribe evil things also to God, and form a material idea concerning Him, and make God and nature one, and thus confound them. These are two reasons for excusing those who have believed that nature produces things visible by power implanted in her by creation. But those who have become atheists, through confirmations in favour of nature, ought not to be excused, because they could have confirmed themselves in favour of the Divine. Ignorance certainly excuses, but does not remove a falsity which has been confirmed, for this kind of falsity unites with evil, and so with hell. Consequently, those who have confirmed themselves in favour of nature so far as to separate the Divine from her, reckon nothing as sin, because every sin is against the Divine which they have separated and thus rejected; and they who in spirit reckon nothing as sin, when they become spirits after death, confined to hell, rush headlong into crime according to the lusts, to which they have given free rein.
352. Those who have deliberately avoided thinking of the Divine when observing the marvels in nature, and who thereby become sensual, do not reflect that the sight of the eye is so gross that it sees many little insects just as if they were one obscure insect, when yet every single one of them is furnished with organs of feeling and motion, and thus is possessed of fibres and vessels, a tiny heart also, and lung tubes, minute viscera and brains; and that these organs are woven out of the purest substances in nature, their tissues corresponding to something of life, by which their minutest parts are separately moved. Since the sight of the eye is so gross that many such little insects, with innumerable parts to each one, appear to it as an obscure speck, and yet, by that sight. those who are sensual think and judge, it is plain how their minds have been dulled, and into what darkness it has brought them concerning spiritual things.
353. Any one can confirm himself in favour of the Divine from the visible things of nature, if he choose to do so, and he also does confirm himself, who thinks about God in regard to life. Take, for instance, the birds of the air, how each individual species knows its own food and where to find it, recognises its kind by sound and sight, and which among other kinds are its friends and which its enemies; how they mate, know sexual union, skilfully build their nests, lay eggs therein, sit upon them, know the period of incubation, at which time precisely they hatch out their young, love them most tenderly, cherish them under their wings, bring food in their bills to nourish them, and this until they can act for themselves, do the same things themselves and bring forth a family to perpetuate their kind. Every one who is willing to reflect on the Divine influx through the spiritual world into the natural can see this influx in these things. He can also, if he will, say from his heart, “Such items of knowledge cannot flow into them from the sun through its rays of light, for the sun, from which nature derives its origin and essence, is pure fire, and therefore its rays of light are absolutely dead”; and thus he can draw the conclusion, that such wonders come from the influx of the Divine Wisdom into the outmost things of nature.
354. Any one can confirm himself in favour of the Divine from things seen in nature, when he sees larvae, from delight of a certain desire, longing and hoping for the change from their earthly condition to one something like the heavenly, and creep into places and stow themselves away, as if into a womb in order to be reborn, and there become chrysalises, aurelias, caterpillars, nymphs, and at last butterflies; then having undergone this change of form and been decked with the beautiful wings of their kind, they fly upwards into the air as into their heaven, and there frolic joyfully, effect their marriages, lay eggs, and provide for themselves a posterity; and in the meantime are nourished with delightful and sweet food from the flowers. What man, confirmed in favour of the Divine by the visible things of nature, does not see a certain likeness to man’s earthly state in these creatures as larvae, and a likeness to the heavenly state in them as butterflies? On the other hand, those confirmed in favour of nature see indeed the same things, but because they have cast out of mind the heavenly state of man, they call them mere instincts of nature.
355. Anyone can confirm himself in favour of the Divine, from things to be seen in nature, by consideration of what is known about the bees. They know how to gather wax and suck honey from herbs and flowers, and to build cells like tiny houses, and arrange them in the form of a city with streets through which they pass in and out. They scent at long distances the flowers and herbs from which they gather wax for their home and honey for food, and laden with these fly back in a direct line to their hive. Thus do they provide themselves with food and dwelling for the coming winter, as if they foresaw its approach and knew of it. They also appoint for themselves a mistress as queen, by whom a further generation will be propagated; and for her they make a royal court above themselves with guards in attendance round about; when the time of bringing forth approaches, she goes with her retinue of attendants from cell to cell and lays her eggs, which the throng of followers smear all over lest they receive injury from the air; from these a new progeny is to come forth for them. Later, when this progeny has advanced to its maturity, so that it can do the same, it is driven from the hive. The expelled swarm first gathers itself together, and then in a body, lest the association be dispersed, flies away in quest of a home for itself. Moreover, in the autumn the useless drones are led out and deprived of their wings, lest they return and consume the food for which they have not worked: not to mention other particulars. From these facts it can be established that, on account of the use performed to the human race by influx from the spiritual world, bees have a form of government like that which exists with men on earth, or rather with the angels in heaven. Can any man of unimpaired reason fail to see that their methods do not come from the natural world? What is there in common between the sun from which nature exists and a government that rivals and compares with the government of heaven? From these and other very similar things in the brute creation, the man who avows and worships nature confirms himself in favour of nature, while he who avows and worships God by those same things, confirms himself in favour of the Divine. For the spiritual man sees in them spiritual things, and the natural man natural things, thus each according to his character. So far as I am concerned, I have regarded these things as proofs of the influx of the spiritual into the natural, or of the spiritual world into the natural world, and therefore from the Divine Wisdom of the Lord. Moreover, consider whether you can think analytically about any form of government, any civil law, and moral virtue, or any spiritual truth, unless the Divine flows in out of His Wisdom through the spiritual world. As for myself, I could not and cannot do so, for I have observed that influx, perceptibly and sensibly, for nearly nineteen years continuously, and therefore speak from actual experience.
356. Is it possible for anything natural to have use as an end and to dispose uses into their orders and forms? It is impossible except with one who is wise; and none but God, Whose Wisdom is Infinite, can so give order to the universe and form it. Who else, or what else, can foresee and provide all those things that are food and clothing for men-food from the fruits of the earth and from animals, and clothing from the same sources? It is among the wonders of creation that those insignificant worms, called silkworms, should clothe in silk and magnificently adorn both women and men, from queens and kings even to maid-servants and man-servants; and that insignificant insects like bees should supply in abundance wax for the candles by which temples and courts are made brilliant. These and many other things are convincing evidence that the Lord makes all things that exist in nature, from Himself, through the spiritual world.
357. To the above must be added, that I have seen in the spiritual world such as have been confirmed in favour of nature from things visible in the world, and at last had become atheists. In spiritual light their understanding appeared open below, but closed above. The reason was that they looked downwards to the earth and not upwards toward heaven. Above their sensual, which is the lowest part of the understanding, appeared the likeness of a veil; in some lit up from hellish fire, in some black as soot, and in some livid as a corpse. Therefore, beware every one of confirmations in favour of nature. Let him confirm himself in favour of the Divine. There is no lack of evidence.
358. PART V
TWO RECEPTACLES AND DWELLINGS OF HIS OWN, CALLED WILL AND UNDERSTANDING, HAVE BEEN CREATED AND FORMED BY THE LORD IN MAN; THE WILL FOR HIS DIVINE LOVE, AND THE UNDERSTANDING FOR HIS DIVINE WISDOM
The Divine Love and Wisdom of God the Creator, Who is the Lord from eternity, and the creation of the universe, have been treated of, something shall now be said of the creation of man. We read that man was created in the image of God after His likeness (Gen. I 26). By “the image of God” is there meant the Divine Wisdom, and by “the likeness of God” the Divine Love; for wisdom is nothing else than an image of love, since love shows itself in order to be seen and recognized in wisdom; and because it is there seen and recognized, wisdom is its image. Moreover love is the Esse of life, and Wisdom is the Existere of life therefrom. The likeness and image of God appear clearly in angels, for love from within shines forth in their faces, and wisdom in their beauty; and beauty is the form of their love. I have seen and perceived it.
359. Man cannot be an image of God after His likeness, unless God is in him and is his life from the inmost. That God is in man, and is his life from the inmost, follows from what was shown above (n. 4-6) namely, that God alone is Life, and that men and angels are recipients of life from Him. Moreover, it is well known from the Word that God is in man, and makes His abode with him; and because it is known from the Word, it is customary for preachers to declare that men should be prepared to receive God, that He may enter into them, and be in their hearts, that they may be His dwelling-place. The devout man says the same in his prayers, and so do some more openly regarding the Holy Spirit, which they believe is in them when they are in holy zeal, and from that zeal think, speak, and preach. That the Holy Spirit is the Lord, and not some other God who is a Person by Himself, has been shown in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE LORD (n. 51-53). For the Lord declares:
In that day ye shall know that ye are in Me, and I in you. John XII 20; likewise, XV 4, 5; XVII 23
360. Now, because the Lord is Divine Love and Wisdom, and these two essentially are Himself, it is necessary, in order that He may abide in man and give life to him, that He should create and form in him receptacles and dwellings of His own, one for love and the other for wisdom. These receptacles and dwellings in man are called the will and understanding; the receptacle and dwelling of love, the will; and the receptacle and dwelling of wisdom, the understanding. That these two are the Lord’s in man and that from these two man has all his life, will be seen in what follows.
362. THE WILL AND THE UNDERSTANDING, WHICH ARE THE RECEPTACLES OF LOVE AND WISDOM, ARE IN THE BRAINS, IN THE WHOLE AND EVERY PART OF THEM, AND HENCE IN THE BODY, IN THE WHOLE AND EVERY PART OF IT
These things must be shown as follows:
(i) Love and wisdom, and the will and the understanding therefrom, make the very life of man.
(ii) The life of man in its beginnings is in the brains and in its derivatives in the body.
(iii) Such as life is in its beginnings, such it is in the whole and every part.
(iv) By means of those beginnings, life is in the whole from every part, and in every part from the whole.
(v) Such as the love is, such is the wisdom, and therefore such is the man.
363. (i) Love and wisdom, and the will and the understanding therefrom, make the very life of man. Hardly anyone knows what life is. When one thinks about it, it seems as if it were a volatile something, of which no idea is possible. It seems so, because it is not known that God alone is Life, and that His Life is Divine Love and Wisdom; hence it is plain that in man life is nothing else, and that life is in man in the degree in which he receives this love and wisdom. It is known that light and heat go forth from the sun, and that all things in the universe are recipients, and become warm and bright in the degree in which they receive these. So also do heat and light go forth from the Sun where the Lord is; the heat going forth therefrom is Love, and the light going forth is Wisdom, as was shown in Part II. Life, therefore, comes from these two, which go forth from the Lord as the Sun. That love and wisdom from the Lord is life can be established also from this, that man grows listless as love recedes from him, and stupid as wisdom leaves him, and, if they were to recede altogether, he would be deprived of life. There are many things pertaining to love, which have had other names assigned to them because they are derivatives-as affections, desires, appetites, and their pleasures and enjoyments; and there are many things pertaining to wisdom-as perception, reflection, recollection, thought and intention towards a thing; and there are many things pertaining to both love and wisdom-as consent, conclusion and determination to action, besides others. All these, in fact, pertain to both, but are named from the more important and characteristic of the two. Finally from these two are derived sensations; they are sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, with their enjoyments and pleasures. It is according to appearance that the eye sees, but in fact the understanding sees through the eye; on which account seeing is attributed also to the understanding. The appearance is that the ear hears, but in fact the understanding hears through the ear; therefore hearing is predicated of attention and listening which are of the understanding. The appearance is that the nose smells, and that the tongue tastes; but it is the understanding that by its perception smells and also tastes; for this reason, smelling and tasting are attributed also to perception. And so in other cases. The sources of all of these are love and wisdom; from which it can be established that these two make the life of man.
364. Everyone sees that the understanding is the receptacle of wisdom, but few see that the will is the receptacle of love. The explanation is that the will does nothing by itself, but acts by means of the understanding; also that, when the love of the will passes into the wisdom of the understanding, it first of all goes into affection, and in this way passes through; and affection is only perceived as something pleasant in thinking, speaking, and doing, to which no attention is given. Still it is evident that love is from the will, for the reason that everyone wills what he loves, and does not will what he does not love.
365. (ii) The life of man in its beginnings is in the brains and in its derivatives in the body. In beginnings means in its first things, and in derivatives means in what is brought forth and formed from first things; and by life in beginnings is meant will and understanding. These two are what are in their beginnings in the brains, and in their derivatives in the body. It is evident that beginnings or first things of life are in the brains:
(i) From feeling itself; since, when a man exerts his mind to think, he perceives that he thinks in the brain. He draws in, as it were, the sight of the eye, and knits his brows, and feels that the investigation is within, mostly in the forehead and somewhat above it.
(2) From the formation of man in the womb; since the brain or head comes first and for quite a long time continues larger than the body.
(3) Since the head is above and the body below; and it is according to order that the higher acts upon the lower, and not the reverse.
(4) Since, with the brain injured, either in the womb, or by a wound, or by disease, or by excessive strain, thought is impaired, and sometimes the mind becomes deranged.
(5) Since all the body’s outward senses, namely, sight, hearing, smell and taste, together with the general sense of touch, and even speech, are in the front part of the head, which is called the face, and communicate immediately by means of fibres with the brains, and derive from them their sensitive and active life.
(6) Hence it is that affections which are of love are portrayed in the face, and thoughts which are of wisdom are reflected in the eyes.
(7) Anatomy also teaches that all fibres descend from the brains through the neck into the body and that none ascend from the body through the neck into the brains. And where the fibres are in their beginnings and first things, there life is in its beginnings and first things. Who dares to deny that life has its origin where the fibres have their origin?
(8) Ask anyone of common perception “Where is thought?” or “Where do you think?” and he will reply, “In the head.” Then ask someone who has assigned the seat of the soul to a particular gland or to the heart, or elsewhere, “Where are affection and its thought in their first beginning? Are they not in the brain?” and he will answer, “No,” or that he does not know. The reason for this ignorance you may see above (n. 361).
366. (iii) Such as life is in its beginnings, such it is in the whole and in its every part. In order that this may be perceived, it shall be explained where in the brains those beginnings are, and how they become derivations. Anatomy shows clearly where they exist. It makes known that there are two brains, and that they are continued from the head into the spinal column; that they consist of two substances, called cortical substance and medullary substance; that cortical substance consists of innumerable gland-like forms, and medullary substance of innumerable fibre-like forms. Now as these glands are the heads of fibrils, they are also their beginnings; for the fibres begin and go forth from these glands, and gradually become bundled together into nerves. These bundles or nerves, when formed, descend to the sensory organs in the face, and to the organs of motion in the body, and form them. Consult anyone skilled in the science of anatomy, and you will be convinced. This cortical or glandular substance forms the surface of the cerebrum, and also the surface of the corpora striata, from which comes the medulla oblongata; it also forms the middle of the cerebellum, and the middle of the spinal marrow. But the medullary or fibrillary substances everywhere begin in and proceed from the cortical; and from this come the nerves, and from them all things of the body. That this is true is proved by dissection. They who know these things, either from study of the science of anatomy or from those skilled in it, can see that the beginnings of life are nowhere else than the commencements of the fibres, and that fibres cannot go forth from themselves, but from those beginnings. These beginnings or origins, which appear as glands, are almost countless; their multitude may be compared to the multitude of stars in the universe; and the multitude of fibrils from them can be compared to the multitude of rays going out from the stars and bearing their heat and light to the earths. The multitude of these glands may also be compared to the multitude of angelic societies in the heavens, which also are countless, and, as I have been told, are in the same order; and the multitude of fibrils going out from these glands can be compared to spiritual truths and goods, which in the same way flow down therefrom like rays. Hence it is like a universe and like a heaven in its least form, as has frequently been said and shown above. From these things it can be established that such as life is in beginnings, such it is in derivatives; or, such as life is in its first things in the brains, so is it in the things arising therefrom in the body.
368. (v) Such as the love is, such is the wisdom, and therefore such is the man. For such as are the love and wisdom, such are the will and understanding, since the will is the receptacle of love, and the understanding of wisdom, as was shown above; and these two make the man and his character. Love is manifold, and so manifold that the varieties are unlimited, as can be established from the human race in the earths and in the heavens. There is no man or angel so like another that there is not any difference. Love is what distinguishes, for every man is his own love. It is supposed that wisdom makes a distinction, but wisdom comes from love and is the form of love; for love is the Esse of life, and wisdom is the Existere of life from that Being. It is believed in the world that the understanding makes the man; but this is believed because the understanding can be raised into the light of heaven, as was shown above, and the man may thus have the appearance of being wise; but as much of the understanding as transcends, that is, does not belong to the love, appears to be the man’s, so far he has that character, but it is only an appearance. For as much of the understanding as transcends has really to do with the love of knowing and being wise, but not at the same time with the love of applying to life what the man knows and understands. Wherefore in the world with time that part passes away, or it lingers without in the borders, a thing of the memory, ready to fall away; on which account it is separated after death, and nothing more remains than agrees with the spirit’s own love. Because love makes the life of man, and thus the man himself, all the societies of heaven and all the angels in the societies, are arranged according to the affections belonging to their love. But no society nor any angel in a society is arranged according to anything of the understanding apart from their love. It is the same in the hells and their societies, but in accordance with loves opposed to the heavenly loves. From these things it may be evident that such as the love is, such is the wisdom, and therefore such is the man.
369. It is recognised, that man is of the same character as his reigning love, but only in respect of mind and disposition, not in respect of his body, thus not wholly. But it has been made known to me from much experience in the spiritual world, that man from head to foot, or from the first things in the head to the last things in the body, is of the same nature as his love. For all in that world are forms of their love, angels, forms of heavenly love, devils, of hellish love; devils deformed in face and body, but angels beautiful in face and body; and if their love is assailed, their faces are changed, and wholly disappear if much attacked. This is peculiar to that world and so happens because their bodies make one with their minds. The reason is clear from what has been said above, that all things of the body are derivatives, that is, are woven by means of fibres from beginnings which are receptacles of love and wisdom. When beginnings have this character, their derivatives are bound to be of the same character. The consequence is that where beginnings go, the derivatives follow; they cannot be separated. Hence it is that he who raises his mind to the Lord is wholly raised up to Him, and he who casts his mind down to hell is wholly cast down to hell; wherefore the whole man comes, according to his life’s love, either into heaven or into hell. The mind of man is a man because God is Man; the body is the external of the mind, and feels and acts; and thus they are one, and not two. This is a matter of angelic wisdom.
371. THERE IS A CORRESPONDENCE OF THE WILL WITH THE HEART, AND OF THE UNDERSTANDING WITH THE LUNGS
This is to be shown in the following order:
(i) All things of the mind have relation to the will and understanding, and all things of the body to the heart and lungs.
(ii) There is a correspondence of the will and understanding with the heart and lungs, and from this a correspondence of all things of the mind with all things of the body.
(iii) The will corresponds to the heart.
(iv) The understanding corresponds to the lungs.
(v) By means of this correspondence many arcana relating to the will and understanding, and therefore also concerning love and wisdom, may be disclosed.
(vi) Man’s mind is his spirit, and the spirit is the man. The body is the external through which the mind or spirit feels and acts in its world.
(vii) The union of man’s spirit with the body is by the correspondence of his will and understanding with his heart and lungs, and separation is through non-correspondence.
372. (i) All things of the mind have relation to the will and understanding, and all things of the body to the heart and lungs. By the mind nothing else is understood than the will and understanding, which in their entirety are all the things that affect a man and all he thinks of, thus all things of man’s affection and thought. Those things by which man is affected belong to his will, and those of which he thinks belong to his understanding. It is known that all the things of man’s thought belong to his understanding, since he thinks from the understanding. But it is not so well known that all the things of man’s affection belong to his will, because when he thinks, he pays no heed to the affection, but only to what he is thinking; just as when he hears somebody speaking, he pays attention not to the sound, but to the words themselves; when yet affection stands in the same relation to thought as sound does to the spoken word. Consequently one knows from the sound of a speaker’s voice what his affection is, and from the words what his thought is. Affection belongs to the will because every affection belongs to love, and the receptacle of love is the will, as was shown above. He who does not know that affection belongs to the will confuses affection with the understanding, for he declares it to be one with thought; yet they are not one although they act as one. That they are confused is clear from the common expression “I think I shall do this,” meaning, “I will do it.” But that they are two things is also clear from a common expression, “I wish to think over this matter”, and when he thinks it over, the affection of the will is present in the thought of the understanding, just as sound is present in the spoken word, as was said before. That all things of the body have relation to the heart and lungs is well known, but that there is a correspondence of the heart and lungs with the will and the understanding is not known. This subject will therefore be discussed in what follows.
373. Since the will and understanding are receptacles of love and wisdom, these two are organic forms, or forms organized out of the purest substances, for such they must be to be receptacles. It does not matter that their organization is imperceptible to the eye. Even when the vision of the eye is magnified by the microscope, the organization lies within, imperceptible. The smallest insects also are imperceptible to vision, yet they have organs of sense and motion, for they feel, and walk and fly. Acute observers have discovered from their anatomical studies by means of the microscope, that they, too, have brains, hearts, lung tubes, and viscera. When the tiny insects themselves are not visible and still less their component viscera, and it is not denied that they are organized even to each single particle in them, how then can it be said that the two receptacles of love and wisdom, called will and understanding, are not organic forms? How can love and wisdom, which are life from the Lord, act on what is not a subject, or on anything which has no substantial existence? How otherwise can thought inhere, and how can anything be spoken from non-inherent thought? Is not the brain, where thought presents itself complete and organized in every part thereof? There the organic forms themselves are visible even to the naked eye; and the receptacles of the will and understanding in their first principles emerge in the cortical substance, where they are clearly seen as small glands, concerning which see above (n. 366). Do not, I beg you, think of these things from an idea of vacuum. Vacuum is nothing, and in nothing, nothing takes place, and from nothing, nothing comes forth. (Concerning the idea of vacuum, see above, n. 82).
374. (ii) There is a correspondence of the will and understanding with the heart and lungs, and from this a correspondence of all things of the mind with all things of the body. This is something new, because it has hitherto been unknown, for the reason that nobody knew what the spiritual was, and wherein it differed from the natural. Consequently, what correspondence is was unknown; for there is a correspondence between spiritual things and natural, and through that correspondence comes their union. It is said that hitherto there has been no knowledge of what the spiritual is and how it differs from the natural and hence what correspondence is. Yet these things could have been known. Who does not know that affection and thought are spiritual, and therefore that all things belonging to them are spiritual? Who does not know that action and speech are natural, and therefore that all things belonging to them are natural? Who does not know that affection and thought, which are spiritual, cause man to act and speak? Who cannot know from these things what is the correspondence of spiritual things with natural? Does not thought make the tongue speak, and affection together with thought make the body act? They are two distinct things. I can think without speaking, and I can will without acting; and the body, it is known, neither thinks nor wills, but speech is derived from thought, and action from the will. Does not affection beam forth from the face and there present a type of itself? This everyone knows. Is not affection, regarded in itself, spiritual, and are not the changes of the countenance, called the expression, natural? From this, who might not then conclude that there is a correspondence and hence a correspondence of all things of the mind with all things of the body? And, since all things of the mind have relation to affection and thought, or what is the same, to will and understanding, and all things of the body to the heart and lungs, who might not also conclude that there is a correspondence of the will with the heart, and of the understanding with the lungs? Such things have been unknown, though they might have been known, because man has become so external as to be unwilling to acknowledge anything except the natural. This has been the delight of his love, and therefore the delight of his understanding. For which reason it has been distasteful to him to raise his thought above the natural to something spiritual apart from the natural, and consequently, on account of his natural love and its delight, he could only think of the spiritual as a purer natural, and of correspondence as something flowing in by continuity. Nay more, a man who is merely natural, is unable to think of anything apart from the natural; to him this would be nothing. There is another reason that these things have not been seen, and have, therefore, hitherto been unknown. It is because all things of religion, called spiritual, have been banished from the sight of man by the dogma in the whole Christian world, that the theological, that is the spiritual, teachings, decreed by Councils and certain leaders, must be blindly believed because, as they say, they transcend the understanding. Some, therefore, have imagined the spiritual to be like a bird flying above the air in the ether, to which the sight of the eye does not reach; when yet it is like a bird of paradise flying near the eye and touching its pupil with its lovely wings, longing to be seen. By the sight of the eye is meant intellectual vision.
375. The correspondence of the will and understanding with the heart and lungs cannot be proved abstractly, that is, by reasonings alone, but may be proved by effects. It is the same as with the causes of things. These, indeed, can be seen rationally, but only clearly, by effects; for causes are in effects, and by their means render themselves visible; till then the mind is not convinced about causes. The effects of such correspondence will be related in what follows. But lest anyone fall into ideas concerning this correspondence acquired from hypotheses about the soul, let him first read carefully what has been shown in the preceding section; (n. 363-364), Love and wisdom, and will and understanding therefrom, make the very life of man; (n. 365), The life of man is in first things in the brains, and in its derivatives in the body; (n. 366), Such as life is in first things, such it is in the whole and its every part; (n. 367), By means of those first things life is in the whole from every part, and in every part from the whole; (n. 368), Such as the love is, such is the wisdom, and therefore such is the man.
376. Here, by way of evidence, it may be permitted to bring forward a representation of the correspondence of the will and understanding with the heart and lungs, seen in heaven among the angels. By a wonderful inflowing into spirals, inexpressible in words, they formed a likeness of the heart and lungs with all the internal structures therein, and in so doing they were following the flow of heaven, for heaven strives to come into forms like these by reason of the influx of love and wisdom from the Lord. In this manner they were representing the union of heart and lungs and at the same time the correspondence of these with the love of the will and the wisdom of the understanding. They called this correspondence and union the heavenly marriage, saying, that it is the same in the whole body and its individual members, organs and viscera as it is in those which belong to the heart and lungs; and that where the heart and lungs do not act and each perform its part, there can be no motion of life from any voluntary principle, and no sensation of life from any intellectual principle.
377. Since the correspondence of the heart and lungs with the will and understanding is treated of in the pages immediately following, and since the correspondence of all parts of the body, namely, the members, organs of sense, and viscera of the body, is founded upon this correspondence, and since the correspondence of natural things with spiritual has hitherto been unknown, and yet is amply set forth in two works, one of which treats of HEAVEN AND HELL, and the other, the ARCANA CAELESTIA, of the spiritual sense of the Word in Genesis and in Exodus, I will here indicate what has been written and shown in those two works regarding correspondence. In the work HEAVEN AND HELL: The correspondence of all things of heaven with all things of man (n. 87-102). The correspondence of all things of heaven with all things on earth (n. 103-115). In the work ARCANA CAELESTIA, on the spiritual sense of the Word in Genesis and Exodus: The correspondence of the face and its expression with affections of the mind
(n. 1568, 2988-2989, 3631, 4796-4797, 4800, 5165, 5168, 5695, 9306). The correspondence of the body as to its gestures and actions, with things intellectual and voluntary (n. 2988, 3632, 4215). The correspondence of the senses in general (n. 4318-4330). The correspondence of the eyes and of sight (n. 4403-4420). The correspondence of the nostrils and of smell (n. 4624-4634). The correspondence of the ears and of hearing (n. 4652-4660). The correspondence of the tongue and of taste (n. 4791-4805). The correspondence of the hands, arms, shoulders, and feet (n. 4931-4953). The correspondence of the loins and organs of generation (n. 5050-5062). The correspondence of the internal viscera, especially of the stomach, thymus gland, of the receptacle and ducts of the chyle, of the mesentery (n. 5171-5181). The correspondence of the spleen (n. 9698). The correspondence of the peritoneum, kidneys and bladder (n. 5377-5385). The correspondence of the liver, and of the hepatic, cystic, and pancreatic ducts (n. 5183-5185). The correspondence of the intestines (n. 5392-5395, 5379). The correspondence of the bones (n. 5560-5564). The correspondence of the skin (n. 5552-5559). The correspondence of heaven with man (n. 911, 1900, 1982, 2996-2998, 3624-3649, 3741-3745, 3884, 4051, 4279, 4403, 4524-4525, 6013, 6057, 9279, 9632). All things that exist in the natural world and in its three kingdoms correspond to all things which appear in the spiritual world (n. 1632, 1831, 2758, 2990-2993, 2997-3003, 3213-3227, 3483, 3624-3649, 4044, 4053, 4116, 4366, 4939, 5116, 5377, 5428, 5477, 8211, 9280). All things that appear in the heavens are correspondences (n. 1521, 1532, 1619-1625, 1807-1808, 1971, 1974, 1977, 1980-1981, 2299, 2601, 3213-3226, 3349-3350, 3475-3485, 3748, 9481, 9570, 9576-9577). The correspondence of the sense of the letter of the Word and of its spiritual sense is treated of in the ARCANA CAELESTIA throughout; and on this subject see also the DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE (n. 5-26, 27-65).
378. (iii) The will corresponds to the heart. This cannot be seen so clearly taken by itself as when the will is considered in effects (as was said above, n. 375). By itself, this fact can make it evident, that all affections, which are of love, lead to changes in the rate of the heart’s action, as is plain from the pulse of the arteries, which act synchronously with the heart. Its changes and pulsations in accordance with the love’s affections are innumerable. Those felt by the finger are only that it beats slowly or quickly, high or low, calmly or roughly, regularly or irregularly, and so on; thus varying with joy and sorrow, peace of mind and wrath, courage and fear, fevers and chills, and so forth. Since the motions of the heart, termed systole and diastole are changed and varied to accord with the affections of each one’s love, many ancient writers, and some modern, have ascribed affections to the heart and also believed the heart their dwelling place. From this it has come into ordinary speech to talk of the heart as generous or timid, joyous or sad, soft or hard, stout or weak, whole or broken, of flesh or of stone; likewise as gross, soft, gentle; giving the heart to doing something, a single heart, a new heart, laying up in the heart, receiving in the heart, not rising above the heart, hardening one’s heart, a friend at heart; hence the terms concord, discord, folly of heart, and many similar terms expressive of love and its affections. Like expressions are found in the Word, because the Word has been written by means of correspondences. Whether you say love or will it is the same, since the will is the receptacle of love, as was said above.
380. That the blood is red is also on account of the correspondence of the heart and the blood with love and its affections; for in the spiritual world there are colours of every kind. Red and white are the fundamental, and the rest derive their varieties from these and their opposites, which are a smoky fire shade and black. Red there corresponds to love, and white to wisdom. Red corresponds to love because it originates from the fire of the Sun there, and white corresponds to wisdom because it originates from the light of the same Sun; and because there is a correspondence of love with the heart, the blood cannot but be red, and indicate its origin. Hence it is that in the heavens, where love to the Lord reigns, light is the colour of flame, and the angels are clothed in purple garments; and in the heavens where wisdom reigns, the light is shining white, and the angels are clothed in white garments of fine linen.
381. The heavens are distinguished into two kingdoms, one of which is called celestial and the other spiritual; in the celestial kingdom love to the Lord reigns, and in the spiritual kingdom wisdom from that love. That kingdom in which love prevails is called heaven’s cardiac kingdom, and that where wisdom reigns, is called its pulmonary kingdom. It should be known that the whole angelic heaven in its entirety resembles one man and so appears in the Lord’s sight. Consequently its heart makes one kingdom, and its lungs the other; for there is a general cardiac and pulmonary motion of the whole heaven, and an individual motion therefrom in each angel. The general cardiac and pulmonary motion is from the Lord alone, because love and wisdom come from Him alone; for these two motions are in the Sun, where the Lord is, and which exists from the Lord, and thence in the angelic heaven and in the universe. Banish [the idea of] spaces and think of omnipresence, and you will be convinced that it is so. That the heavens are distinguished into two kingdoms, celestial and spiritual, may be seen in the work on HEAVEN AND HELL (n. 26-28); and that the whole angelic heaven in its entirety resembles one man (n. 59-67).
382. (iv) The understanding corresponds to the lungs. This follows from what has been said concerning the correspondence of the will with the heart; for will and understanding are the two things which reign in the spiritual man or in the mind; and the heart and lungs are the two things which reign in the natural man or in the body; and the correspondence is between all the things of the mind and all the things of the body, as was said above; from which it follows that the will corresponds to the heart, and the understanding to the lungs. Moreover, everyone may observe in himself, both from his thought and from his speech, that the understanding corresponds to the lungs. From thought: No one can think unless the respiration agrees and harmonizes; consequently, when one is thinking quietly the breathing is quiet, if one thinks deeply the breathing is deep; the breath is drawn in and let out, the lungs contract and expand according to the thought, thus according to the influx from love, slowly, quickly, eagerly, gently, intently; indeed, if the breath be held completely, it is impossible to think except in one’s spirit by its own respiration, and that is not manifestly perceptible. From speech: For not the slightest sound escapes from the mouth without the assistance of the lungs; for the sound, which is articulated into words, all comes forth by means of the trachea and epiglottis; wherefore, according to the inflation of those bellows and the opening of the passage, the voice is raised even to a shout, and according to the contraction is lowered; and, if the passage is closed, speech together with thought, ceases.
383. Since the understanding corresponds to the lungs, and thought therefrom to the respiration of the lungs, therefore in the Word, “soul” and “spirit” signify the understanding: as where it is said:
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul Matt. dd. 37
God will give a new heart and a new spirit Ezek. XXXVI 26; Ps. LI 10
That “heart” signifies the love of the will was shown above; therefore “soul” and “spirit” signify the wisdom of the understanding. That by the spirit of God, also called the Holy Spirit, is signified Divine Wisdom, and therefore Divine Truth, by which men are enlightened, may be seen in the DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE LORD (n. 50-51).
Hence it is that:
The Lord breathed on His disciples, and said, Receive ye the Holy Spirit. John XX 22
for the same reason it is said that:
Jehovah God breathed into the nostrils of Adam the breath of lives, and he was made a living soul. Gen. II 7
also He said to the prophet,
Prophesy upon the breath, and say unto the wind, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. Ezek. XXXVII 9
likewise in other places; therefore the Lord is called “The breath of the nostrils”, and “the breathing place [spiraculum] of life”. Because respiration passes through the nostrils, they signify perception; and an intelligent man is said to be keen-scented, and an unintelligent man to be dull-scented. For the same reason, spirit, and wind in the Hebrew and in some other languages are the same word; for the word spirit is derived from a word that means breathing; and therefore, when a man dies, he is said “to give up the ghost” (anima). It is from this also that men believe the spirit to be wind, or an airy something like breath from the lungs, and the soul to be of similar nature. From these things it can be established that to “love God with all the heart and all the soul” means to love Him with all the love and with all the understanding, and to “give a new heart and a new spirit” means to give a new will and a new understanding. Because “spirit” means understanding, it is said of Bezaleel:
That he was filled with the spirit of wisdom, of intelligence and of knowledge Exod. xxi 3
and of Joshua:
That he was filled with the spirit of wisdom Deut. XXXIV 9
and Nebuchadnezzar says of Daniel:
That an excellent spirit of knowledge, of intelligence, and of wisdom, was in him Dan. V 11, 12, 14
and it is said in Isaiah:
They that err in spirit shall acquire intelligence Isa. XXIX 24
likewise in many other places.
384. Since all things of the mind have relation to the will and understanding and all things of the body to the heart and lungs so there are in the head two brains, each distinct from the other as is the case with the will and understanding. The cerebellum exists chiefly for the sake of the will, and the cerebrum chiefly for the understanding. Similarly the heart and lungs in the body are distinct from the rest of the organs there. They are separated from them by the diaphragm and are enveloped by a covering of their own, called the pleura, and form that part of the body called the chest. In the other parts of the body, that is, the members, organs and viscera, the will and the understanding are joined together, and thus also there are pairs; for example, arms, hands, loins, feet, eyes, nostrils; within the body, kidneys, ureters, testicles; and the viscera, which are not in pairs, are divided into right and left. Moreover, the brain itself is divided into two hemispheres, the heart into two ventricles, and the lungs into two lobes. The right of these relates to the goodness belonging to truth, and the left to the truth belonging to goodness; or what is the same, the right has relation to the goodness of love from which comes the truth of wisdom, and the left to the truth of wisdom which comes from the good of love. And because the union of good and truth is reciprocal, and by means of that union they become as it were one, the effect in man is that these pairs act together and jointly in their functions, movements, and sensations.
385. (v) By means of this correspondence many arcana concerning the will and understanding, and therefore also concerning love and wisdom may be disclosed. In the world it is scarcely known what the will is or what love is, since man is not able, of himself, to love and from love to will, in the same way that he can understand and think, as from himself; just as he cannot of himself make the heart to beat, although he can of himself make the lungs breathe. Now because it is scarcely known in the world what the will is and what love is, and yet it is known what the heart and lungs are-for these can be seen and examined by the eye, and also have been examined and described by anatomists, whereas the will and understanding cannot be seen and examined-therefore, when it is known that they correspond, and by correspondence act as one, many arcana concerning the will and understanding can be disclosed which otherwise would be impossible; as, for instance, the union of the will with the understanding, and the reciprocal union of the understanding with the will; or, as the conjunction of love with wisdom, and the reciprocal conjunction of wisdom with love; as also the descent of love into the affections, the associations of the affections, and of their influx into the perceptions and thoughts, and at length their influx according to correspondence into the actions and senses of the body. These and many other arcana can be both disclosed and illustrated by the union of the heart and lungs, and by the blood flowing in from the heart to the lungs, and reciprocally from the lungs to the heart, and from there through the arteries into all the members, organs, and viscera of the body.
386. (vi) Man’s mind is his spirit, and the spirit is the man. The body is the external through which the mind or spirit feels and acts in the world of the body. That man’s mind is his spirit and that the spirit is the man can hardly be accepted in their faith by such as have deemed the spirit to be wind and the soul something ethereal, such as is breathed from the lungs; for they say, How can the spirit be the man when it is spirit, and how can the soul be the man when it is soul? And similarly concerning God because He is called a Spirit. They have derived this idea of the spirit and the soul from the fact that, in some languages spirit and wind are the same word; also, that when a man dies, it is said that he gives up the ghost or spirit; and again that in cases of suffocation or swooning life returns when the spirit, or breath of the lungs, comes back. And since they perceive nothing except breath and air, they judge from the eye and bodily sense that the spirit and the soul of man after death is not the man. From such a corporeal conclusion about the spirit and soul, various hypotheses have arisen, out of which has grown the belief that man does not become a man until the day of the last judgment, and in the meanwhile he remains somewhere or other, awaiting re-union with his body as has been related in the CONTINUATION CONCERNING THE LAST JUDGMENT, (n. 32-38). Since man’s mind is his spirit, the angels who also are spirits are called minds.
387. The mind of man is his spirit and the spirit is the man because by mind are understood all the things of man’s will and understanding, and these exist in first principles in the brains, and in their derivatives in the body; thus they are all things of man as to their forms. Since that is so, the mind, that is, the will and understanding, impels the body and all parts at will. Does not the body do whatever the mind thinks and wills? Does not the mind encourage the ear to hear and direct the eye to see, the tongue and lips to speak, impel the hands and fingers to do whatever it pleases, and the feet to walk whither it wills? Is the body anything but an obedience to its mind; and can the body be such an obedience unless it has the mind in its derivatives within it? Is it consistent with reason to think that the body obeys because the mind wills it so to do? If that were so they would be two, the one above and the other below, and the one will issue orders which the other will attentively obey. Because this is not at all compatible with reason, it follows that man’s life is in first principles in the brains, and in its derivatives in the body, as has been said above (n. 365); also, that such as life is in first principles, such it is in the whole and in its every part (n. 366); and that from these first principles life is in the whole from every part, and in every part from the whole (n. 367). That all things of the mind have relation to the will and understanding, and that these are receptacles of love and wisdom from the Lord, and that these two make the life of man, has been shown in the preceding pages.
388. From what has just been said it may now be seen that man’s mind is the man himself. For the fundamental texture of the human form, or the human form itself with every detail thereof is continued from its first principles, out of the brain and through the nerves, as also has been shown above. This is the form into which man comes after death. He is thereupon called a spirit and an angel, and is a completely equipped man, but a spiritual man. The material form which was added and assumed in the world, is not a human form of itself, but by reason of that spiritual form. It was added and assumed so that man could perform uses in the natural world, and also that he might carry with him out of the purer substances of the world some fixed containant of spiritual things, and in this way continue and perpetuate his life. It is a truth of angelic wisdom that man’s mind, not only in general, but in every particular, is in constant conatus towards the human form, because God is a Man.
389. In order that man may be man, no part, either of the head or body that exists in the complete man, must be lacking, since there is nothing therein that does not enter into and make the human form; for it is the form of love and wisdom, and this regarded in itself, is Divine. In it are all the terminations of love and wisdom, which in God-Man are infinite, but in His likeness, that is, in man, angel and spirit, are finite. If any part that exists in man were lacking, something of a termination from love and wisdom corresponding to it, through which the Lord might be in man from first forms to outmosts, and might provide uses in the created world from His Divine Love through His Divine Wisdom, would be lacking.
390. (vii) The conjunction of man’s spirit with the body is by means of the correspondence of his will and understanding with his heart and lungs, and separation comes through non-correspondence. As it has been unknown hitherto that man’s mind, that is, the will and understanding, is his spirit, and that the spirit is the man, and moreover, that man’s spirit as well as his body has a pulse and respiration, it could not be known that the pulse and respiration of the spirit in man flow into the pulse and respiration of his body and produce them. Since, therefore, man’s spirit, equally with his body, enjoys a pulse and respiration, it follows that there is a like correspondence of the pulse and respiration of a man’s spirit with the pulse and respiration of his body, for, as was said, the mind is his spirit, consequently, when their dual motions cease to correspond, a separation comes, which is death. Separation or death occurs when, from some sickness or accident, the body comes into such a condition as to be unable to act in unison with its spirit, for thus correspondence perishes, and with it conjunction; not when respiration alone ceases, but when the heart beat ceases. For so long as the heart is in motion, love with its vital heat remains and preserves the life, as is clear from cases of swooning and suffocation, and from the condition of foetal life in the womb. In a word, man’s bodily life depends on the correspondence of its pulse and respiration with the pulse and respiration of his spirit; and when that correspondence ceases, his bodily life ceases, and his spirit departs and continues its life in the spiritual world, which is so like his life in the natural world that he does not know that he has died. Most people are out of the body and in the spiritual world after a lapse of two days. I have spoken with some after two days.
391. That a spirit enjoys a pulse and respiration exactly as a man does in a body can only be proved by spirits and angels themselves, when permission to speak with them is granted. This permission has been given to me; wherefore, when questioned on this matter, they affirmed that they are men exactly like men in the world, that they enjoy the use of a body just as men do, except that it is spiritual, and that they feel the beating of the heart in the chest and of the artery in the wrist just as men do in the natural world. I have questioned many of them and they have said the same. I have been permitted to know from personal experience that man’s spirit breathes within his body. On one occasion the angels were allowed to control my respiration, to lessen it at will, and at last to withdraw it so far that only the breathing of my spirit remained, which was then perceptible to sense. The same thing happened when I was permitted to learn the state of the dying, as may be seen in the work on HEAVEN AND HELL (n. 449). Sometimes also I have been brought into the breathing of my spirit alone as far as to perceive sensibly its harmony with the general respiration of heaven. I have many times been in a state like that of the angels, and also been raised up to them in heaven, and being then in the spirit outside the body, I have conversed with them with respiration in the same manner as in the world. From these and other actual proofs I saw plainly that man’s spirit breathes, not only in the body, but also after it has left the body; that the spirit’s breathing is so silent that a man does not notice it; and that it flows into the manifest breathing of the body almost as cause flows into effect, and thought into the lungs and by means of the lungs into speech. Hence it is also plain that the conjunction of the spirit and body in man exists by means of the correspondence of the cardiac and pulmonary motions of both.
392. These two motions-cardiac and pulmonary-exist and continue because the whole angelic heaven in general and in particular is in these two motions of life; and this again is because the Lord pours them forth from the Sun where He is, and which is from Him; for that Sun acts from the Lord upon these two motions. It is clear that they have no other origin since all the things of heaven and of the world depend on the Lord through that Sun in such a union of form as may be compared to chain work from the first link to the last, also since the life of love and wisdom is from Him, and all the forces of the universe are from life. It follows that the variation of these motions is in accordance with the reception of love and wisdom.
393. More will be said of the correspondence of these motions in what follows: namely what kind of correspondence those have who breathe with heaven and those who breathe with hell; also those who speak with heaven but think with hell, thus those who are hypocrites, flatterers, deceivers, and such like.
394. FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF THE HEART WITH THE WILL AND THE UNDERSTANDING WITH THE LUNGS EVERYTHING MAY BE KNOWN THAT CAN BE KNOWN ABOUT THE WILL AND UNDERSTANDING, OR ABOUT LOVE AND WISDOM, AND THUS ABOUT MAN’S SOUL
Many in the learned world have toiled laboriously in search of the soul; but because they knew nothing of the spiritual world and of man’s state after death, they could only frame theories of the operation of the soul in the body, not of its nature. The only idea they have been able to reach of what the soul is like is of something most pure in the ether, and of its containing form as of something ethereal. Concerning this, however, they have ventured only generalities lest they ascribed anything natural to the soul, knowing that the soul is spiritual. Now, because they had conceived such an idea of the soul and yet know perfectly well that the soul operates in the body and produces everything that has to do with its sensation and motion, they have, as was said, laboured hard in research on the operation of the soul in the body, which some have held to be effected by influx and some by harmony. But as nothing has been discovered in this way in which the mind, desirous of seeing if it be so, can acquiesce, it has been granted me to speak with angels, and to be enlightened on this subject by their wisdom, of which the following is a summary. Man’s soul, which lives after death, is his spirit, and it is man in complete form; the soul of this form is the will and understanding and the soul of these is love and wisdom from the Lord. These two faculties are what constitute man’s life, which is from the Lord alone. For the sake of reception of Him by man, the Lord causes it to appear that life, is, as it were, man’s own; but, lest he should ascribe life to himself as his own and thus withdraw himself from reception of the Lord, the Lord has also taught that everything of love, which is called good, and everything of wisdom, which is called truth, come from Him, and nothing of them from man; and since these two are life, that everything of life which is life comes from Him.
395. Since the soul, as to its very being [Esse], is love and wisdom, and these two faculties exist in man from the Lord, two receptacles have been created in man which also are the Lord’s dwelling-places with him; one is for love and the other for wisdom; the receptacle for love is called the will, and the receptacle for wisdom is called the understanding. Now since Love and Wisdom in the Lord are one distinctly (see n. 17-22), and Divine Love is of Divine Wisdom, and Divine Wisdom is of Divine Love (n. 34-39), and these go forth in like manner from God-Man, that is, from the Lord, therefore in man these two receptacles and dwelling-places of the Lord, called will and understanding, were so created by the Lord as to be distinctly two, but yet to make one in every operation and in every sensation; for in these the will and the understanding cannot be separated. Still, as essential to the end that man may become a receptacle and dwelling-place, it has been done, as necessary to this end, that man’s understanding can be raised above his own particular love into a certain light of wisdom, in the love of which he is not, and thereby may see and learn how one must live to come into that love and so enjoy happiness to eternity. Now since man has misapplied the power of raising the understanding above his own particular love, he has destroyed that within him which might have been the receptacle and dwelling-place of the Lord, that is, of love and wisdom from the Lord, by making the will the dwelling-place of the love of self and of the world, and the understanding the dwelling-place of confirmations of those loves. This is the origin of these two dwelling-places, will and understanding, becoming dwelling-places of infernal love, and, by confirmations in their favour, of infernal thought, which in hell passes for wisdom.
396. The cause of the love of self and of the world being infernal, and of man’s being able to enter into them and so destroy the will and understanding within himself, is this: by creation the love of self and of the world are heavenly loves, for they are loves of the natural man of service to spiritual loves, as foundations are to houses. From the love of self and the world man takes care of his own body, he desires to be fed, clothed, and housed, to provide for his family, to seek useful employment, yea and to be held in respect according to the dignity of his office, by reason of obedience, and also to find delight and refreshment in worldly enjoyment; yet all these for the sake of the end, which must be use. For through these things he is in a condition to serve the Lord and the neighbour. When, however, there is no love of serving the Lord and the neighbour, and the love is only that of serving himself by means of the world, then from being heavenly, it becomes infernal, and makes the man sink mind and soul into his own proprium which in itself is altogether evil.
397. Now in case man through the understanding be in heaven, as is possible, and through the will in hell, and thereby have a divided mind, after death everything that transcends his own particular love is removed; whence it ensues that will and understanding with all men finally act as one. With those who are in heaven, the will loves what is good and the understanding thinks what is true; but with those in hell, the will loves what is evil and the understanding thinks what is false. Man does the same in the world when he thinks from his spirit, as he does when alone, although many think differently when they are in the body, as happens when they are not alone. Then it is different because they raise their understanding above the proprium of their will, or the love of their spirit. These things have been declared to make known that will and understanding are distinct faculties, and created to act as one, and that they ought to do so before death and if not they are forced to do so after death.
398. Because, then, love and wisdom, and thence will and understanding, are what are spoken of as the soul, it is to be shown in what follows how the soul acts upon the body and effects all its operations, and since this may be known from the correspondence of the heart with the will, and of the lungs with the understanding, by that correspondence the following propositions have been revealed:
(i) Love or the will is man’s very life.
(ii) Love or the will strives continually towards the human form and all things thereof
(iii) Love or the will can do nothing through its human form except by marriage with wisdom or the understanding.
(iv) Love or the will prepares a home or bed-chamber for its future wife, which is wisdom or the understanding.
(v) Love or the will also prepares all the things in its own human form so that it may act together with wisdom or the understanding.
(vi) After the nuptials, the first conjunction comes through the affection of knowing, from which springs an affection for truth.
(vii) The second conjunction comes through an affection for understanding, from which springs perception of truth.
(viii) The third conjunction comes through an affection for seeing truth, from which springs thought.
(ix) Love or the will comes into sensitive and active life through these three conjunctions.
(x) Love or the will introduces wisdom or the understanding into all things of its house.
(xi) Love or the will does nothing except in union with wisdom or the understanding.
(xii) Love or the will conjoins itself to wisdom or the understanding, and causes wisdom or the understanding to be conjoined to it.
(xiii) Wisdom or the understanding, from power given it by love or the will, can be elevated and can receive such things as are of light out of heaven and perceive them.
(xiv) Love or the will can be elevated in like manner and can perceive such things as are of heat out of heaven, provided it loves wisdom its partner in that degree.
(xv) Otherwise love or the will draws wisdom or the understanding back from its elevation so that it may act in unison with itself.
(xvi) Love or the will is purified by wisdom in the understanding if they are elevated together.
(xvii) Love or the will is defiled in and by the understanding, if they are not elevated together.
(xviii) Love, when purified by wisdom in the understanding, becomes spiritual and celestial.
(xix) Love, defiled in and by the understanding, becomes natural and sensual.
(xx) The faculty of understanding, called rationality, and the faculty of acting, called freedom, still remain.
(xxi) Spiritual and celestial love is love towards the neighbour and to the Lord; and natural and sensual love is love of the world and of self
(xxii) It is the same with charity and faith and their union as with will and understanding and their union.
399. (i) Love or the will is man’s very life. This follows from the correspondence of the heart with the will (see above, n. 378-381). For as the heart acts in the body, so does the will in the mind; and as all things of the body, as to existence and motion, depend on the heart, so all things of the mind, as to existence and life, depend on the will. It is said “on the will”, but this means on the love, because the will is the receptacle of love, and love is life itself (see above, n. 1-3), and love which is life itself is from the Lord alone. By the heart and its extension into the body through arteries and veins it can be known that love or the will is man life, since those things which correspond to each other act in a similar manner, except that one is natural and the other spiritual. In what way the heart acts in the body is plain from anatomy. For instance, every thing is living or submissive to life where the heart acts through vessels sent out from itself: and everything is lifeless where the heart does not act through its vessels. Moreover, the heart is the first thing and the last thing that acts in the body. That it is the first is evident from embryos, and that it is the last is evident from the dying, and that it may act apart from the co-operation of the lungs is evident from cases of suffocation and of swooning. From this it can be seen that, as the subsidiary life of the body depends on the heart alone, so likewise the life of the mind depends on the will alone, and in the same way the will lives when thought has ceased, just as the heart does when breathing has ceased, as is also clear from embryos, the dying, and the cases of suffocation and swooning. From which it follows that love or the will is man’s very life.
400. (ii) Love or the will strives continually towards the human form and all things thereof This is evident from the correspondence of the heart with the will. For it is well known that all things of the body are formed in the womb by means of fibres from the brains and blood vessels from the heart, and that the tissues of all the organs and viscera come from these two sources; from which it is clear that all things of man have existence from the life of the will, which is love, from their beginnings out of the brains through the fibres; and all things of his body out of the heart through the arteries and veins. From these things it is clearly evident that life, which is love and the will therefrom, strives continually towards the human form; and since the human form is composed of all things that are in man, it follows that love or the will is in the constant conatus and endeavour to form all those things. There is a conatus and endeavour towards the human form because God is Man, and Divine Love and Wisdom is His Life, from which comes the whole of life. Everyone can see that unless Life, which is very Man, were acting into that which is not life in itself, nothing could be formed such as exists in man, in whom thousands of things go to make one thing, and with one consent aspire to the likeness of the Life from which they sprang, in order that man can become His receptacle and dwelling-place. From these things it may be seen that love, and from love the will, and from the will the heart, strive continually towards the human form.
401. (iii) Love or the will can do nothing through its human form except by marriage with wisdom or the understanding. This also is clear from the correspondence of the heart with the will. The embryo-man lives by the heart, but not by the lungs; for at that time blood does not flow from the heart into the lungs and enable him to breathe, but through an aperture into the left ventricle of the heart; for which reason the embryo during that time cannot move any part of the body, for it lies bunched up, nor can it feel anything, for the sensory organs are closed. It is the same with love or the will, from which the embryo is all the while living, but in obscurity, without feeling and movement. But as soon as ever the lungs are opened, which takes place after birth, he begins at once to feel and to move, and likewise to will and to think. From these things it can be established that love or the will can do nothing through its human form except by marriage with wisdom or the understanding.
402. (iv) Love or the will prepares a home or bed-chamber for its future wife which is wisdom or the understanding. In the created universe and every single thing thereof a marriage exists between goodness and truth; and this is so because goodness comes from love, and truth from wisdom, and these two are in the Lord, and from Him all things were created. How this marriage exists in man can be seen reflected in the union of the heart with the lungs, for the heart corresponds to love or goodness, and the lungs to wisdom or truth (see above, n. 378-384). From that conjunction it can be seen how love or the will betroths to itself wisdom or the understanding, and later weds or goes through a form of marriage with it. It betroths her to itself by preparing a home or bed-chamber for her; and it marries her by uniting her to itself through the affections, and then carries wisdom with it into that home. Why it is so cannot be fully described except in spiritual language, because love and wisdom, and will and understanding therefrom, are spiritual concepts, which can indeed be taught in natural language, but only so as to be vaguely perceived on account of the ignorance of what love, wisdom, affections of goodness, and affections of wisdom which are affections of truth, are. Yet one can see the nature of the betrothal and of the marriage of love with wisdom, or of the will with understanding through the parallelism that exists in their correspondence with the heart and lungs. For it is the same with these as with love and wisdom, so much so as to make absolutely no difference, except that one is spiritual and the other natural. Thus it is evident from the heart and lungs that the heart first forms the lungs, and later unites itself with them; it forms the lungs in the embryo, and unites itself with them after birth. This the heart does in its home, the breast, where they share their tent in common, separated from the other parts of the body by a wall, the diaphragm, and by a covering, the pleura. It is the same with love and wisdom, or with will and understanding.
403. (v) Love or the will also prepares all the things in its own human form so that it may act together with wisdom or the understanding. Will and understanding are mentioned, but it is right that it should be known that the will is the whole man; for the will is, with the understanding, in first principles in the brains and in derivatives in the body, and thence in the whole and in its every part as has been shown above (n. 365-367). From which it can be established that the will is the whole man as to form itself, both the general and the particular form of all things thereof; and that the understanding is its partner, just as the lungs are the partner of the heart. Let everyone beware of entertaining the idea that the will is something separate from the human form, for it is the same. From this it can be seen not only how the will prepares a bed-chamber for the understanding, but also how it prepares all things in its home, the whole body, so that it may act in union with the understanding. This it makes ready in this way; each and all things of the body are united to the understanding as they are to the will, or the understanding has each and all things of the body in subjection as the will has. How this preparation is effected can be seen in the body, as in a mirror or likeness, by means of the science of anatomy. Thus it is known how all things in the body are connected so that when the lungs breathe, each and all things of the whole body are moved thereby, while at the same time also they are moved by the beating of the heart. It is known from anatomy that the heart is united to the lungs by auricles, which are continued into the interiors of the lungs; again that all the viscera of the whole body are joined to the cavity of the chest by means of ligaments; and so joined that when the lungs breathe, each and all things in general and in detail receive something from the respiratory motion. For when the lungs swell out, the ribs expand the thorax, the pleura IS dilated, and the diaphragm is stretched wide, and together with these all the lower parts of the body connected with them by ligaments receive some movement through the action of the lungs. I do not mention many facts lest those who have no anatomical knowledge become lost through ignorance of the scientific terms employed on this subject. Only consult the expert and discerning anatomists as to whether all things in the whole body from the breast downwards are not so bound together that, when the lungs are inflated, each and all things are roused to action, synchronizing with the action of the lungs. From these things the nature of the union of the understanding with each and all things of the human form, prepared by the will, is now plain; but examine the connections well, and survey them with anatomical eye, and afterwards, according to the connections, observe their co-operation with the breathing lungs and with the heart, and then think of understanding in place of lungs, and of will instead of heart, and you will see.
404. (vi) After the nuptials, the first conjunction comes through an affection for knowing, from which springs an affection for truth. By nuptials is to be understood man’s state after birth, from a state of ignorance to a state of intelligence, and from this to a state of wisdom. The first state of mere ignorance is not here meant by nuptials, since at that stage there is no thought from the understanding, but only a dim affection of the love or will. This state is the first step towards the nuptials. But in the second state, which is of man in childhood, it is well known that there is an affection for knowing, by which the infant child learns to talk and to read, and later gradually acquires knowledge which belongs to the understanding. It cannot be doubted, that it is love, belonging to the will, that effects this. For if love or the will did not set it in motion, it would not be done. That every man has, after birth, an affection for knowing, and through it acquires the knowledge by which his understanding is gradually formed, enlarged, and perfected, everyone acknowledges if he looks to experience with the aid of reason. That from this comes affection for truth is also clear; for when man has become intelligent from an affection for knowing, it is not so much that affection by which he is led, as an affection for reasoning, and forming conclusions on matters in which he takes delight, whether they be economic, civil, or moral. When this affection is raised yet more to spiritual things, it becomes an affection for spiritual truth. That its first or introductory state was an affection for knowing may be evident from the fact that an affection for truth is an exalted affection for knowing; for to be affected by truths is to wish to know them from affection, and when he discovers them, to drink them in from the joy of affection.
(vii) The second conjunction comes through an affection for understanding from which springs perception of truth. This is clear to anyone who desires to study it from rational insight, which insight makes it plain that affection for truth and perception of truth are two faculties of the understanding, that in some persons are united and in some are not. They are united with those who love to perceive truths with the understanding, and not with those who only wish to know truths. It is clear also that everyone has as much perception of truth as he has affection for understanding. Indeed, take away affection for understanding truth and there will be no perception of truth; but grant affection for understanding truth, and its perception will correspond to the degree of affection for it. For the perception of truth is never lacking in a man of sound reason, provided he has the affection for understanding truth. It has been shown above that every man has this faculty of understanding truth, which is called rationality.
(viii) The third conjunction comes through an affection for seeing truth, from which springs thought. Affection for knowing is one thing, affection for understanding another, and affection for seeing truth another. This is but dimly seen by those who are unable to perceive the mind’s workings separately, but is perfectly plain to those who can. The reason that the former see these distinctions dimly, is that the mind’s workings are simultaneous in the thought with those who have both affection for truth and perception of it, and when simultaneous, they cannot be distinguished. Man is in manifest thought when his spirit thinks in the body, especially when in company with others; but when he has an affection for understanding, and thereby enters into the perception of truth, he is then in the thought of his spirit, which is meditation. This does indeed sink into bodily thought, but into silent thought; for it is above bodily thought and sees the things which belong to thought from the memory, as it were, below itself, for he draws therefrom either conclusions or confirmations. But affection itself for truth is perceived only as a striving of the will from something delightful that lies within meditation as its life, to which little attention is paid. From these things it can now be established that these three, affection of truth, perception of truth, and thought, follow in sequence from love, and exist only in the understanding. For when love enters into the understanding, which it does when their conjunction is effected, it first begets affection for truth, then affection for understanding what it knows, and finally affection for seeing in bodily thought that which it understands, for thought is nothing else than internal sight. Because it belongs to the natural mind, thought does indeed exist first, but thought, in accordance with perception of truth coming from affection for truth, exists at the last. This thought is wisdom’s thought, but the other is thought by means of the natural mind from the memory. All the workings of love or the will outside the understanding relate to affections for goodness, and not to affections for truth.
405. That these three things from the love which belongs to the will follow in sequence in the understanding can indeed be comprehended by a rational man, but not yet seen clearly, and so cannot be confirmed to the extent of faith. Now since love which belongs to the will acts as one with the heart by correspondence, and wisdom which belongs to the understanding acts as one with the lungs, as shown above, what has just been said (n. 404) concerning affection for truth, perception of truth, and thought, can nowhere be more clearly seen and confirmed than in the lungs and the structure thereof. These, therefore, must be briefly described. After birth, the heart discharges the blood from its right ventricle into the lungs; and, after passing through these, empties it into its left ventricle; and so opens the lungs. This it does through the pulmonary arteries and veins. The lungs have bronchial tubes which branch out, and finally terminate in air-cells, into which the lungs admit air and so breathe. Around the bronchial tubes and their branches there are arteries and veins, called bronchia, rising from the vena azygos or vena cava and from the aorta. These arteries and veins are distinct from the pulmonary arteries and veins. These facts make it plain that the blood flows into the lungs by two ways and flows out of them by two ways. This enables the lungs to breathe at a different rate from the heart’s beat. It is well known that the alternate motions of the heart and of the lungs respectively do not act as one. Now since there is a correspondence of the heart and lungs with the will and understanding, as was shown above, and since conjunction by correspondence is such that as one acts, so the other acts, it can be seen, by the influx of blood from the heart into the lungs, how the will flows into the understanding, and affects the things mentioned just above, concerning affection for and perception of truth, and concerning thought (n. 404). Correspondence has revealed to me this and many other things concerning them, which cannot be described in a few words. Since love or the will corresponds to the heart, and wisdom or the understanding corresponds to the lungs, it follows that the blood vessels of the heart in the lungs correspond to affections for truth, and the branches of the bronchia of the lungs to perceptions and thoughts from those affections. Anyone who explores all the tissues of the lungs from these beginnings and makes the analogy with the love of the will and with the wisdom of the understanding, will be able to see as in a certain image the things mentioned above (n. 404), and so be confirmed in faith. But since the facts of anatomical knowledge concerning the heart and lungs are known to a few, and confirming anything by the unknown leads to obscurity, I refrain from further demonstration of the analogy.
406. (ix) Love or the will comes into sensate and active life through these three conjunctions. Love without the understanding, or affection which is of love, without thought, which is of the understanding, can neither feel nor act in the body; because love without the understanding is as it were blind, while affection without thought is as it were in darkness, for the understanding is the light by which love sees. The wisdom of the understanding moreover is from the light which goes forth from the Lord as the Sun. Since therefore, the will’s love sees nothing without the light of the understanding, and is blind, it follows that, without the light of the understanding, even the bodily senses also would be blind and bloated, not only sight and hearing, but the others also; the other senses also, because every perception of truth is of love in the understanding, as was shown above, and all the senses of the body derive their perception from the perception of its mind. It is the same with every bodily act. For an act from love without the understanding is like the action of a man in the night time, when he knows not what he is doing. Therefore there would be no intelligence and wisdom in the action, which cannot be called living action. Action also derives its esse from love and its quality from intelligence. Besides, all the power of goodness is by means of truth; on which account goodness acts in truth and thus by its means; and goodness is of love, and truth is of the understanding. From these things, it can be confirmed that love or the will comes into its sensate and active life through these three conjunctions, concerning which see above (n. 404).
407. That it is so can be confirmed to the life from the conjunction of the heart with the lungs, because the correspondence between the will and the heart, and between the understanding and the lungs, is such that just as love acts with the understanding spiritually, so does the heart act with the lungs naturally; hence what has been said above may be seen as in an image presented to the eye. That man neither has any sensate life nor any active life so long as the heart and lungs do not act together, is evident from the state of the embryo or of the infant in the womb, and from its state after birth. As long as man is an embryo, or in the womb, the lungs are closed; consequently he possesses neither feeling nor action; the organs of sense are sealed up, the hands are bound and the feet likewise; but after birth the lungs are opened, and in proportion as they are opened so man feels and acts; the lungs are opened by the blood sent into them from the heart. That man has neither sensate nor active life without the co-operation of the heart and lungs is evident also in swoons, when the heart alone acts and not the lungs, for breathing is then suspended. In these cases it is well known that there is no sensation and no movement. The same is true of a man suffocated, whether it be by water, or by something blocking the larynx and closing the breathing passage of the lungs. The man appears at the time to be dead, he feels nothing and does nothing, and yet is alive at heart, as is well known, for he returns to both his sensate and active life, as soon as the obstruction of the lungs is removed. It is true the blood circulates in the meantime through the lungs, but through the pulmonary arteries and veins, and not through the bronchial arteries and veins, which give man the power to breath. It is the same with the influx of love into the understanding.
408. (x) Love or the will introduces wisdom or the understanding into all things of its house. By the house of love or the will is meant the whole man as to all his mind’s belongings. Because these correspond to all the things of the body (as shown above), the house means also the whole man as to all the parts of his body, called members, organs, and viscera. That the lungs are introduced into all these in the same way as the understanding into all things of the mind can be confirmed from what has been shown above: for example, love or the will prepares a home or bed-chamber for its future wife, which is wisdom or the understanding (n. 402); love or the will prepares all the things in its own human form, or in its home, so that it may act together with wisdom or the understanding (n. 403). From the facts stated in these passages, it is plain that each and all things in the whole body are connected by ligaments put forth from the ribs, spine, sternum, and diaphragm, and from the peritonaeum which depends on these, in such a way that, when the lungs are breathing, they are similarly depressed and raised in alternate movements. That the alternations of breathing also penetrate to the viscera themselves, even to their inmost recesses, can be established from a study of anatomy; for the ligaments mentioned above adhere to the sheaths of the viscera, and the sheaths, by thrusts outward, penetrate to their innermost parts, as do the arteries and veins also through their branches. Hence it can be established that the breathing of the lungs is in entire conjunction with the heart in every part of the body; and in order that the conjunction may be complete in every respect, even the heart itself is in pulmonic motion, for it lies in the bosom of the lungs and is connected with them by the auricles, and rests upon the diaphragm, whereby its arteries also participate in the pulmonic motion. Moreover the stomach has a similar union with the lungs by the connection of its gullet with the trachea. These anatomical facts are adduced with the purpose of showing the kind of conjunction existing between love or the will and wisdom or the understanding, and of both together with all things of the mind; for it is similar.
409. (xi) Love or the will does nothing except in conjunction with wisdom or the understanding. For as love has no sensate nor any active life apart from the understanding, and as love introduces the understanding into all things of the mind (as was shown above, n. 407, 408), it follows that love or the will does nothing except in conjunction with the understanding. For what is it to act from love without the understanding? This can only be called irrational; for the understanding teaches what ought to be done and how it ought to be done. Love does not know this apart from the understanding; consequently the marriage between love and the understanding is such that although they are two, yet they act as one. There is a similar marriage between goodness and truth, for goodness is of love, and truth is of the understanding. Every single thing in the universe which has been created by the Lord has such a marriage; their use has relation to goodness and the form of the use to truth. It is from this marriage that in each and everything of the body there is a right and a left, and the right relates to goodness from which truth springs, and the left to truth from goodness, thus to their conjunction. The pairs in man are from this source. There are two brains, two hemispheres of the brain, two ventricles of the heart, two lobes of the lungs, two eyes, ears, nostrils, arms, hands, loins, feet, kidneys, testicles, and other things; and where there are not pairs, there is a right and a left. There are pairs because goodness has truth in view in order that it may have existence, and truth has goodness in view in order that it may itself have being. It is the same in the angelic heavens and in each of their societies. More concerning these may seem above (n. 401), where it was shown that love or the will can do nothing through its human form without a marriage with wisdom or the understanding. The conjunction of evil and falsity, which is the opposite of the conjunction of good and truth, will be spoken of elsewhere.
410. (xii) Love or the will conjoins itself to wisdom or the understanding, and causes wisdom or the understanding to be reciprocally conjoined to it. That love or the will conjoins itself to wisdom or the understanding is plain from their correspondence with the heart and lungs. Anatomical observation teaches that the heart comes into its life’s motion when the lungs are not yet in motion. Experience teaches it by those who suffer from swoons and suffocation, also from embryos in the womb, and chicks in eggs. Knowledge of anatomy also teaches that the heart, while it is acting alone, forms and adapts the lungs so that it may put the respiration in motion there; and that it also forms the other viscera and organs so that it may perform various uses in them, the organs of the face that it may have sensation, the organs of motion that it may act, and the rest of the bodily organs that it may exhibit uses corresponding to the affections of love. From these things it can now for the first time be shown that just as the heart produces such things on account of the varied activities it is about to perform in the body, so love produces corresponding things in its receptacle, the will, for the sake of the various affections that make up its form, which, as was shown above, is the human form. Now since the first and nearest affections of love are the affections for knowing, for understanding, and for seeing what it knows and understands, it follows that love forms the understanding for them, and actually comes into them when it begins to feel and to act, and to think. The understanding contributes nothing to this, as is evident from the analogy of the heart and lungs (see above). From these things it can be seen that love or the will conjoins itself to wisdom or the understanding, and not wisdom or the understanding to love or the will; and it is further evident that the knowledge which love acquires to itself from the affection for knowing, and the perception of truth which it acquires from the affection for understanding, and thought which it acquires from the affection for seeing what it knows and understands, do not come from the understanding, but from love. Thoughts, perceptions, and knowledges therefrom, do indeed flow in from the spiritual world, yet are not received by the understanding, but by love in accordance with its affections in the understanding. It appears as if the understanding receives them, and not love or the will, but it is an illusion. It appears also as if the understanding unites itself to love or the will, but this also is an illusion. Love or the will conjoins itself to the understanding and makes the union reciprocal. This reciprocal conjunction comes from love’s marriage with it. The conjunction thence is made seemingly reciprocal from the life and consequent power of love. It is the same with the marriage of good and truth, for good is of love, and truth is of the understanding. Good does everything, it receives truth into its home, and conjoins itself with truth as far as it is in harmony. Good may also admit truths which are not in harmony, but this it does from an affection for knowing, understanding, and thinking its own things, while it is not yet determined upon the uses which are its ends, and are called its goods. There is absolutely no reciprocal conjunction, or conjunction of truth with good, what is conjoined reciprocally comes from the life of good. From this it is that every man and every spirit and angel is judged by the Lord according to his love or good, and no one according to his understanding, or truth separate from love or good. For man’s life is his love, as was shown above, and his life is according as he has exalted his affections by means of truths, that is, in accordance as his affections have been perfected by love. Love’s affections are exalted and perfected by means of truths, thus by wisdom; and then love acts conjointly with its wisdom, as if from it, but actually of itself through wisdom, as through its own form, which form receives nothing whatever from understanding, but everything from some fixed purpose of love which is called affection.
411. Love calls all those things which are favourable to it its goods, and all those that as means lead to goods it calls its truths; and because they are means they are loved and become the property of its affection, and thus become affections in form; on which account truth is nothing else than a form of love’s affection. The human form is nothing else than a form of all love’s affections; beauty is its intelligence which it procures through truths received either by external and internal sight or hearing. These are the things that love disposes into the form of its affections. These forms exist in great variety, but all derive a resemblance from their general form, which is the human. All of these appear to love beautiful, and worthy to be loved, but the rest ugly and unlovable. From these things it is evident also that love conjoins Itself to the understanding, and not the reverse, and that the reciprocal conjunction also comes from love. This is what is meant by love or the will causing wisdom or the understanding to be reciprocally conjoined to it.
412. What has been said may be seen in some resemblance and so confirmed by the correspondence of the heart with love and of the lungs with the understanding (of which above). For since the heart corresponds to love, its extensions which are arteries and veins correspond to affections, and in the lungs to affections for truth; and as there are also other vessels in the lungs called air vessels, by which breathing is effected, these vessels correspond to perceptions. It must be correctly understood that the arteries and veins in the lungs are not affections, and that respirations are not perceptions and thoughts, but that they are correspondences, for their action is correspondent or synchronous; similarly, that the heart and lungs are not love and the understanding, but correspondences; and since they are correspondences, the one may be seen in the other. Anyone who has acquired a knowledge of the structure of the lungs from a study of anatomy, and makes comparison with the understanding, can see clearly that the understanding does nothing of itself, does not perceive nor think from itself, but it does everything from love’s affections, which in the understanding are called affections for knowing, understanding, and seeing truth (and were treated of above). For all the conditions of the lungs depend upon the blood from the heart and from the vena cava and aorta; and breathing, which takes place in the bronchial branches, goes on according to those conditions; for when the inflow of blood stops, breathing stops. Much more can yet be disclosed by comparing the structure of the lungs with the understanding, to which the lungs correspond; but as a knowledge of anatomy is confined to few and to demonstrate or confirm anything by the unknown renders it obscure, it is not advisable to say more on the matter. From my knowledge of the structure of the lungs I am fully convinced that love conjoins itself to the understanding through its affections, and that the understanding does not conjoin itself to any affection of love, but that it is conjoined reciprocally by love because of the end, that love may have sensate and active life. But indeed it ought to be known that man has a twofold respiration, one of the spirit, the other of the body; and that the breathing of the spirit depends on the fibres from the brains, and the breathing of the body on the blood vessels from the heart and from the vena cava and aorta. Moreover, it is evident that thought draws out the respiration, and it is evident also that love’s affection draws out thought; for thought apart from affection is precisely like respiration without the heart-an impossibility. Hence it is clear that love’s affection conjoins itself to thought which is of the understanding, as said above, in the same way as the heart does in the lungs.
413. (xiii) Wisdom or the understanding, from power given it by love, can be elevated, and can receive such things as are of light out of heaven, and perceive them. It has been shown in several places above that man has the power to perceive arcana of wisdom when he hears them. This faculty of man is what is called rationality and is the heritage of every man by creation. It is the faculty of understanding things interiorly and of forming opinions on what is just and right, and on what is good and true; and by it man is distinguished from beasts. This therefore is the meaning where it is said “the understanding can be elevated and can receive such things as are of light out of heaven, and perceive them”. That this is so can be seen also in a certain image in the lungs, since the lungs correspond to the understanding. It may be evident in the lungs from their cellular substance, which is made up of bronchial tubes continued even to the minutest air-cells, which are receptacles for the air used in breathing; these are the things with which the thoughts act in conjunction by correspondence. This cell-like substance is such that it can be expanded and contracted in twofold fashion, in one with the heart, and in the other almost separate from the heart, in the former by arteries and veins which come from the heart alone, in the latter by the bronchial arteries and veins which come from the vena cava and aorta; these vessels are outside the heart. This takes place in the lungs because the understanding can be raised above its own particular love corresponding to the heart and can receive light from heaven. Yet when the understanding is raised above its own particular love, it does not go away from it, but derives therefrom an affection for knowing and understanding for the sake of some reward of honour, glory, or gain in the world. This quality clings to every love like a surface, on account of which love shines out to the surface, and with the wise shines through. These things concerning the lungs are brought forward to prove that the understanding may be elevated, and receive and perceive things that are of the light from heaven, for the correspondence is plenary. To see from correspondence is to see the lungs in accordance with the understanding, and the understanding from the lungs and so from both together to perceive proof.
414. (xiv) Love or the will can be elevated in like manner and can receive such things as are of heat out of heaven, provided it loves wisdom, its partner, in that degree. It was shown in the preceding number and in many places above that the understanding can be elevated into the light of heaven, and from it can draw forth wisdom; but it has also been frequently shown that love or the will can be elevated in like manner if it loves things that belong to the light of heaven, or to wisdom. Yet love or the will cannot be elevated through anything of honour, glory, or gain, as an end, but through a love of use, thus not for the sake of self, but for the sake of the neighbour; and because this love is given only by the Lord when man shuns evils as sins, therefore love or the will can be raised by this means and in no other way. Love or the will is elevated into heaven’s heat, the understanding, however, into its light; and if both be raised, their marriage is celebrated there, and is called a heavenly marriage, because it is a marriage of heavenly love and wisdom; consequently it is said that love also is elevated if it loves wisdom, its partner, in that degree. The love of wisdom, or the genuine love of the human understanding, is love towards the neighbour from the Lord. It is the same with light and heat in the world. Light exists without heat and with heat, the former in winter and the latter in summer. When there is heat with light all things flourish. Light in man corresponding to the light of winter is wisdom without its love, and light in man corresponding to the light of summer is wisdom with its love.
415. This conjunction and disjunction of wisdom and love may be seen imaged as it were, in the conjunction of the lungs with the heart. For the heart can be joined to the clustering air-vessels of the bronchia by blood sent out from itself, and by blood not from itself but from the vena cava and aorta. By this means the breathing of the body can be separated from the breathing of the spirit; but when blood from the heart alone acts, the respirations cannot be separated. Now since thoughts act in unison with breathing by correspondence, it is plain from the twofold condition of the lungs in respect of breathing, that man can think in one way and from his thought speak and act in the company of others, and that he can think in another way and from his thought speak and act when not in company, that is, when he fears no loss of reputation. For then he can think and speak against God, the neighbour, the spiritual things of the Church, and against moral and civil things; and moreover, can act against them, by stealing, taking revenge, blaspheming, and committing adultery. But in company when he fears loss of reputation, he can talk, preach, and act precisely like a spiritual, moral, and civil man. From these things it can be established that love or the will, just the same as the understanding, can be elevated and receive those things that are of the heat or love of heaven, provided that it loves wisdom in that degree, and if it does not love wisdom, that it can, as it were, be separated.
416. (xv) Otherwise love or the will draws wisdom or the understanding back from its elevation, so that it may act in unison with itself There is natural love and there is spiritual love. A man who is in natural love and at the same time in spiritual love is a rational man; but a man who is in natural love alone is not a rational man, although he can think rationally precisely like a spiritual man; he does certainly raise his understanding to the very light of heaven, thus to wisdom, but yet the treasures of wisdom or of heavenly light do not belong to his love. His love does this, it is true, but from a desire for honour, glory, and gain. Yet when he perceives, as he does when he reflects within himself from his own natural love, that he gains nothing of the kind from that elevation, he does not then love the things of heavenly light or wisdom; consequently he immediately draws back the understanding from its elevation so that it may act as one with himself. For instance: when the understanding by elevation is in wisdom, then love sees the qualities of justice, sincerity, chastity, yea and of genuine love. The faculty of understanding and seeing things in heavenly light enables love to see this, and furthermore, to talk and preach about them and to depict them as moral and also spiritual virtues. When, however, the understanding is not raised, love; if it is merely natural, does not see those virtues, but instead of them, injustice, frauds, lust, and so forth. If it then contemplates what it had said when its understanding was in a state of elevation, it may ridicule them, and think only that they may serve it for captivating men’s souls. From these things it can be established how it is to be understood that love, if it loves not its partner, wisdom, in that degree draws it back from its elevation, so that it may act as one with itself. That love can be raised, if it loves wisdom in that degree, may be seen above (n. 414).
417. Now since love corresponds to the heart, and the understanding to the lungs, the above statements can be confirmed by their correspondence; thus, how the understanding can be raised above its own particular love even into wisdom; also, how the understanding is drawn back from its elevation by that love, if this is merely natural. Man has a twofold respiration, one of the body and the other of the spirit. These two respirations can be separated and can also be conjoined; with merely natural men, particularly with hypocrites, they are separated, but rarely with spiritual and sincere men. Consequently a merely natural man and hypocrite, whose understanding has been elevated and in whose memory, therefore, many things of wisdom remain, can talk wisely in company by thought from the memory; but when he is not in company, he does not think from the memory, but from his spirit, thus from his love. In like manner also he breathes, because thought and respiration act correspondently. That the structure of the lungs is such that they can breathe both by blood from the heart and by blood from outside the heart has been shown above.
418. It is the common opinion that wisdom makes the man; therefore when people hear anyone speaking and teaching wisely, they credit him with wisdom; indeed, he himself believes so at the time. The reason is that when he speaks and teaches in company, he is thinking from his memory, and, if he is a merely natural man, from the surface of his love, which is the desire for honour, glory, and gain; but that same man, when alone, actually thinks from the interior love of his spirit, and then not wisely, but at times insanely. From these things it can be established that no one is to be judged by wise speech, but by his life; that is to say, no one is to be judged by wise speech apart from life, but by wise speech conjoined to life. By life is meant love. That love is the life has been shown above.
419. (xvi) Love or the will is purified in the understanding if they are elevated together. From birth, man loves nothing but himself and the world, for nothing else is apparent to his eyes, and therefore nothing else occupies his mind. This love is corporeal-natural, and may be called material love. Moreover, this love has become impure on account of heavenly love having been separated from it in parents. This love can only be parted from its impurity if the man acquires the faculty of raising his understanding into the light of heaven, and if he sees how he ought to live, so that his love may be raised together with the understanding into wisdom. Through the understanding, love, that is, the man, sees which evils corrupt and defile love, and he sees also that if he shuns those evils because they are sins, and rejects them, he loves the opposite, all of which are heavenly things; and then also he sees the means by which he may shun those evils as sins and reject them. Love, that is, the man, sees all this by the exercise of the faculty of raising his understanding into the light of heaven, the source of wisdom. Then so far as love puts heaven first and the world second, and at the same time puts the Lord in the first place and himself in the second, to that extent love is cleansed from its filth and is purified; that is, love is raised into heavenly heat and conjoined to the light of heaven in which the understanding is dwelling, and a marriage is made that is called the marriage of good and truth, that is, of love and wisdom. Everyone can understand intellectually and see rationally that in the measure that any man shuns and rejects theft and fraudulence, to that extent he will love sincerity, uprightness, and justice; in the measure that he shuns and rejects revenge and hatred, he will love the neighbour; and in the measure that he shuns and rejects adulteries, he will love chastity, and so on. Indeed there is scarcely anyone who knows what there is of heaven and of the Lord in sincerity, uprightness, justice, love towards thy neighbour, chastity, and the other affections of heavenly love, until he has removed their opposites. When the opposites are removed, he comes into those affections and therefrom recognizes and sees them; meanwhile it is as if a veil were interposed, which does indeed transmit to love the light of heaven; but because love does not in that degree love its partner, wisdom, it does not receive it, indeed may even refute and rebuke it, when it returns from its elevation. Yet man is consoled by the thought that the wisdom of his understanding may prove the means to honour, glory, or gain. Indeed then he puts himself and the world in the first place, and the Lord and heaven in the second; and what is put in the second place is loved only so far as it is serviceable; and if not of use, is given up and rejected, if not before death, yet after it. From these things the truth now stands out that love or the will is purified in the understanding, if they are elevated together.
420. A similar thing is portrayed in the lungs, whose arteries and veins correspond to the love’s affections, and whose respirations correspond to the understanding’s perceptions and thoughts, as has been said above. That the heart’s blood is purified from disorderly matters in the lungs and is nourished with the beneficial properties of the air inhaled, is evident from much observation. That the blood is purified of disorderly matters in the lungs, is evident not only from the inflowing blood which is venous, and therefore filled with the chyle collected from food and drink, but also from the expirations which are moist, and from their odour, as perceived by others, as well as from the diminished quantity of blood flowing back into the left ventricle of the heart. That the blood is nourished with the beneficial matters of the air inhaled, is evident from the immense volumes of odours and exhalations continually flowing forth from meadows, gardens and woods; and from the copious supplies of various kinds of salts dissolved in the waters rising out of the earth, and from rivers and ponds; and from the vast quantities of exhalations and effluvia from human beings and animals, with which the air is laden. That these things flow into the lungs with the indrawn air is not to be denied, nor can it be denied that the blood draws therefrom such things as are beneficial to it; and such things are beneficial as correspond to the affections of its love. Hence it is that there are in the air-cells, or inmost of the lungs, small veins with little mouths, which absorb such things; thereupon the blood flowing back into the left ventricle of the heart is changed into arterial blood and is in good condition. These facts prove that the blood purifies itself from heterogeneous things and nourishes itself with homogeneous things. That the blood in the lungs purifies and nourishes itself correspondently to the affections of the mind is as yet unknown, but is very well known in the spiritual world; for angels in the heavens enjoy only those odours that correspond to the love of their wisdom, but spirits in hell enjoy only those odours that correspond to the love opposed to wisdom; these odours are stenches, but the former are perfumes. It follows from this that men in the world impregnate their blood with similar things according to the correspondence with their love’s affections; for what man’s spirit loves, the blood in accordance with the correspondence craves, and attracts by respiration. From this correspondence it comes that man is purified in respect of his love if he loves wisdom, and is defiled if he does not love it. Moreover, all purification of man is effected by truths of wisdom, and all defilement by falsities opposed to the truths of wisdom.
421. (xvii) Love or the will is defiled in and by the understanding, if they are not elevated together; since, if love is not elevated, it remains impure (as stated above, n. 419-420); and as long as that is so, it loves what is impure, such as revenge, hatred, deceit, blasphemy, adultery; for these are then its affections and are called lusts; while it rejects everything that has to do with charity, justice, sincerity, truth, and chastity. Love is said to be defiled in and by the understanding: in the understanding, when love is affected by those impure things; by the understanding, when love causes the things of wisdom to become its servants, and still more when it perverts, falsifies, and adulterates them. There is no need to say more of the state of the heart or its blood in the lungs corresponding to these things, than was said above (n. 420), except that instead of purification of the blood its defilement takes place, and instead of nutrition of the blood by fragrant things as it is in heaven, nutrition is effected by stinking things, exactly as in hell.
422. (xviii) Love, purified by wisdom in the understanding, becomes spiritual and celestial. Man is born natural, but as the understanding is elevated into the light of heaven and with it love is elevated into the heat of heaven, so he becomes spiritual and celestial; he then becomes like a Garden of Eden which has at once the light and heat of perpetual spring. It is not the understanding that becomes spiritual and celestial, but love; and when love becomes spiritual, it also makes its partner, the understanding, spiritual and celestial. Love becomes spiritual and celestial by a life in accordance with the truths which wisdom teaches and impresses. Love imbibes these truths by means of its understanding and not from itself; for love cannot be elevated except by knowing truths, and it can know these only by means of an elevated and enlightened understanding; and then as far as it loves truths by doing them, so far it is elevated. For it is one thing to understand, and another to will; or one thing to talk and another to do. There are those who understand and speak truths of wisdom, yet neither will them nor practise them. When, therefore, love does put into practice the truths of light, which it understands and talks about, it is elevated. That it is so, man may see from reason alone; for what can be said of the man who understands the truths of wisdom and speaks about them while he lives contrary to them, that is, while his will and conduct are opposed to them? Love purified by wisdom becomes spiritual and celestial, because man has three degrees of life, called natural, spiritual, and celestial, treated of in the Third Part of this work. Man can be elevated from one to another; yet he is not raised by wisdom alone, but by life in accordance therewith, for man’s life is his love. Wherefore, he loves wisdom to the extent that he lives it; and that is the measure of his purification from what is unclean, that is from sins; and so far as he purifies himself, he loves wisdom.
423. That love purified by wisdom in the understanding becomes spiritual and celestial cannot be seen through its correspondence with the heart and lungs, because no one can see the quality of the blood by which the lungs are maintained in a state of respiration. The blood may abound in impurities, and yet be indistinguishable from pure blood. Moreover the respiration of a merely natural man appears the same as that of a spiritual man, but yet the difference is clearly discerned in heaven, for there everyone breathes in accordance with the marriage of love and wisdom; on this account, as angels are recognized by that marriage, they are recognized also by the breathing. This is why, when anyone enters heaven who is not in that marriage, he is seized with anguish in the breast, and struggles for breath like those in the agony of death; for which reason also he throws himself headlong from the place and does not rest until he finds himself among those with respiration similar to his own; for then by correspondence they are in similar affection and therefore in similar thought. From these things it can be established that with the spiritual man, it is his purer blood, called by some the animal spirit, which is purified; and that it is purified to the degree the man is in the marriage of love and wisdom. It is this purer blood which corresponds most nearly to this marriage, and since it flows into the blood of the body, it follows that the latter blood also is purified by it. The reverse is true of those in whom love is defiled in the understanding, but, as was said, no one can test this by any experiment on the blood, but he can by observing the affections of love, since these correspond to the blood.
424. (xix) Love, defiled in and by the understanding, becomes natural, sensual, and corporeal. Natural love separated from spiritual love is the opposite of spiritual love. The reason is that natural love is the love of self and of the world, and spiritual love is love to the Lord and to the neighbour; and love of self and the world looks downward and outward, and love to the Lord looks upward and inward. Consequently, when natural love is separated from spiritual love, it cannot be elevated from man’s proprium, but remains immersed in it, and so far as it loves it, is firmly attached to it. Then if the understanding ascends and sees by the light of heaven such things as are of wisdom, it drags the wisdom down and unites it to itself in its proprium and there either rejects the things of wisdom, or falsifies them, or encircles itself with them to be spoken of for reputation’s sake. Just as natural love can ascend by degrees and become spiritual and celestial, so also it can descend by degrees and become sensual and corporeal; and the descent is to the extent that it loves to dominate from no love of use, but solely from the love of self. It is this love which is called the devil. Those who are in this love can speak and act exactly like those who are in spiritual love; but, at the time they do so, it is either from the memory or from the understanding raised by itself into the light of heaven. Nevertheless their speech and actions may be compared to fruit outwardly good but rotten within, or almonds whose shells look sound but are worm-eaten within. In the spiritual world they call these things phantasies, by means of which harlots, who are there called sirens, make themselves look beautiful and adorn themselves with becoming dresses, but when the phantasy is dissipated they look like ghosts, and are like the devils who make themselves angels of light. For when that corporeal love drags its understanding down from its elevation, as it does when alone, and then thinks from its own love, it thinks against God in favour of nature, against heaven in favour of the world, and against the true and good things of the Church in favour of the false and evil things of hell, and thus against wisdom. From these things it can be established what is the character of those called corporeal men, for they are not corporeal in respect of the understanding, but are corporeal in respect of love; that is, they are not corporeal in understanding when speaking in company, but when communing with themselves in spirit; and because they are such in spirit, after death, in respect of both love and understanding, they become what are known as corporeal spirits. Those who in the world had been in the supreme love of ruling from self love, and at the same time had excelled others in elevation of the understanding, then appear in body like Egyptian mummies, and in mind gross and foolish. Who in the world today knows that this love in itself is of such a character? Nevertheless a love of ruling from a love of use is possible, but only from a love of use for the sake of the general good, not for the sake of self. But man can hardly distinguish the one from the other and yet the difference between them is like that between heaven and hell. The difference between these two loves of ruling may be seen in the work on HEAVEN AND HELL (n. 551-565).
425. (xx) The faculty of understanding, called rationality, and the faculty of acting, called freedom, still remain. These two faculties belonging to man were discussed above (n. 264-267). Man possesses these two faculties in order that he may, from being natural, become spiritual, that is, may be regenerated. For, as was said above, it is man’s love that becomes spiritual and is regenerated; and this cannot become spiritual or be regenerated unless he knows by means of his understanding what evil is and what good is, and therefore what truth is and what falsity is. When he knows these things, he can choose one or the other; and if he chooses good, he can by means of his understanding be informed of the means by which to attain to good. All the means are provided by which man can attain to good. The ability to know and understand these means comes from rationality, and the ability to do them from freedom. Freedom is also the will to know, to understand, and to think them. Those who believe from the teaching of the Church, that spiritual or theological things transcend the understanding, and must therefore he believed without understanding, know nothing about these faculties. Such people can only deny that there is a faculty of rationality. And those who believe from the teachings of the Church that no one can do good of himself, and therefore no good must be done with any hope of salvation as its cause, can only deny from a principle of their religion the existence of both faculties belonging to man. Therefore, those who have become confirmed in these beliefs, are deprived after death of both faculties in accordance with their faith, and instead of the heavenly freedom which might have been theirs, have infernal freedom, and instead of the angelic wisdom they might have had from rationality, they come into infernal insanity. The wonderful thing is that they perceive the existence of both these faculties in doing what is evil and thinking what is false, not knowing that the freedom to do evil is slavery, and that the reason for thinking what is false is irrational. But it must be clearly recognized that both these faculties of freedom and rationality are not man’s, but are the Lord’s with man, and that they cannot be appropriated to man as his own; therefore, they cannot be given to man as his own, but remain continually the Lord’s with him; and yet they are never taken away from man, for this reason, that without them he cannot be saved; for regeneration is not possible without them, as was said above. Wherefore man is taught by the Church that he cannot think what is true nor do what is good from himself. But since man is only conscious that this thought and act come from himself, it is perfectly clear that he ought to believe that he thinks what is true and does what is good as if from himself. For, if he does not believe this, either he does not think and act in this way and so has no religion, or he thinks and acts from himself, and then he ascribes to himself what is Divine. That man ought to think what is true and do what is good as if from himself may be seen in the DOCTRINE OF LIFE FOR THE NEW JERUSALEM, from beginning to end.
426. (xxi) Spiritual and celestial love is love towards the neighbour and to the Lord, and natural and sensual love is love of the world and of self By love towards the neighbour is meant the love of uses, and by love to the Lord is meant the love of doing uses, as has been shown before. The reason that these loves are spiritual and celestial is that the love of uses and doing them from love for them is distinct from man’s proprium; for he who loves uses spiritually, regards not himself but others outside self, for whose good he is concerned. The loves of self and of the world are opposed to these loves, for they have no regard to uses for the sake of others, but only for the sake of self; and those who perform uses in this way invert the Divine order, and put themselves in the Lord’s place, and the world in place of heaven. Thus it comes about that they look backwards, away from the Lord and from heaven, and to look backwards is to look towards hell; but more concerning these loves may be seen above (n. 424). But man does not feel and perceive the love of performing uses for the sakes of uses, as he does feel and perceive a love of performing uses for the sake of self; hence also he does not know, when he does them, whether he is doing them for the sake of uses or for the sake of self. But he may know that in the degree he shuns evils, he is performing uses for the sake of uses; for so far as he shuns them, he does them not from himself, but from the Lord. For evil and good are opposites, and for this reason one comes into good to the extent that one comes out of evil. No one can be in evil and in good at the same time, because no one can serve two masters at the same time. These things are said so that it may be known that, although man does not perceive by sense whether the uses performed are for the sake of use or for the sake of self, that is, whether the uses are spiritual or merely natural, he may yet know it by this, whether or not he considers evils to be sins. If he regards them as sins, and if, on that account, he refrains from doing them, then the uses he performs are spiritual; and when, from a feeling of aversion, he shuns sins, he also begins to have a sensible perception of the love of uses for the sake of uses, and this from a spiritual delight in them.
427. (xxii) It is the same with charity and faith, and their conjunction, as with will and understanding, and their conjunction. There are two loves in accordance with which the heavens are distinguished, celestial love and spiritual love. Celestial love is love to the Lord and spiritual love is love towards the neighbour. The distinction between these loves is that celestial love is the love of what is good, and spiritual love is the love of what is true; for those who live in celestial love perform uses from the love of what is good, and those who live in spiritual love from the love of what is true. The marriage of celestial love is with wisdom and the marriage of spiritual love is with intelligence; for doing what is good from good is the part of wisdom, and doing what is good from truth is the part of intelligence; wherefore celestial love does what is good, and spiritual love does what is true. The difference between these two loves can be defined only in this way, that those who live in celestial love have wisdom inscribed on their life and not on their memory, for which reason they do not talk about Divine truths, but do them; while those who live in spiritual love have wisdom inscribed on their memory, and therefore talk about Divine truths and do them from principles in the memory. Because those living in celestial love have wisdom inscribed on their life, they perceive instantly whether anything they hear is true or not; and when asked if it be true, answer only, “It is,” or “It is not.” These are they who are meant by the words of the Lord:
Let your communication be Yea, yea, Nay, nay Matt. V 37.
And since such is their character they are unwilling to hear anything about faith, saying, “What is faith? Is it not wisdom”? and “What is charity? Is it not doing?” and when told that faith is believing what is not understood, they turn away with the remark, “This man is out of his mind.” These are they who dwell in the third heaven, and who are the wisest of all. People who applied to their life Divine truths directly they heard them, acquired such a disposition in the world by turning away from evils as infernal, and by worshipping the Lord alone. To others they appear like little children because they live in innocence, and they even seem simple because they have nothing to say about truths of wisdom, and because there is nothing of pride in their discourse. Yet all the while as they listen to anyone speaking, they perceive by the tone all things of his love, and by his speech all things of his intelligence. These are they who abide in the marriage of love and wisdom from the Lord; and who relate to the heart region of heaven, mentioned above.
428. On the other hand those who live in spiritual love, which is love towards the neighbour, do not have wisdom inscribed on their life, but intelligence; for the part of wisdom is to do good from affection for what is good, and the part of intelligence is to do good from affection for what is true, as was said above. Neither do these know what faith is. When faith is mentioned they understand truth, and when charity is mentioned they understand putting into practice; and when told that they must believe, reply that this is idle talk, and ask, “Who does not believe what is true?” This they say because they see truth in the light of their own heaven; on which account, to believe what they do not see, they call either simplicity or foolishness. These constitute the lung region of heaven, also mentioned above.
429. But those who live in spiritual-natural love have neither wisdom nor intelligence inscribed on their life, but have something of faith from the Word, so far as this has been conjoined with charity. Since these do not know what charity is, nor if faith be truth, they cannot be among those in the heavens who are in wisdom and in intelligence, but among those who are in knowledge only. Yet those who shun evils as sins dwell in the lowest heaven, and in light there which is like the light of the moon by night, while those who have not confirmed themselves in ignorant faith, but have at the same time cherished some affection for truth, having been instructed by angels so far as they can receive truths and live according to them, are raised into societies of those who dwell in spiritual love, and intelligence therefrom. Those become spiritual, the rest remain natural-spiritual. But those who have lived in faith separate from charity are removed and sent away into deserts because they are not in any good, thus not in any marriage of good and truth, in which all are who are in the heavens.
430. All that has been said in this Part concerning love and wisdom may be said of charity and faith, only if spiritual love is understood in respect of charity, and truth by which comes intelligence in respect of faith. It is the same if the terms will and understanding, or love and intelligence, are used, since the will is the receptacle of love, and the understanding of intelligence.
431. To the above I will add this memorable fact. In heaven all who perform uses from an affection for use draw from the life which they share in common, a state of wisdom and happiness exceeding that of others. And there, with them, performing uses means acting sincerely, uprightly, justly, and faithfully, in the work of their employment. This they call charity, and acts of worship they call signs of charity, and other things they call duties and privileges; declaring that when anyone does the work of his employment sincerely, uprightly, justly, and faithfully, the community abides and continues steadfast in its state of good, and that this is to “be in the Lord”, since everything that flows in from the Lord is a use, and flows in from the parts into the community, and from the community to the parts. The parts there are angels, and the community is a society of them.
432. WHAT MAN’S INITIAL FORM IS AT CONCEPTION
What man’s initial or primitive [form] is in the womb after conception no one can know, since it cannot be seen; moreover, it is formed out of spiritual substance, which is not visible by natural light. Now since there are some in the world who turn their minds to searching out even the primitive form of man, that is, the seed from the father by which conception is effected, and since many of them have fallen into the error, that man is in his fulness from his first beginning, which is the rudiment, and is afterwards perfected by growth, it has been disclosed to me what that rudiment or first is in its form. This has been disclosed to me by angels, to whom it was revealed by the Lord; and because they had made it part of their wisdom, and it is a delight of their wisdom to communicate what they know to others, permission having been granted, they presented before my eyes in the light of heaven a type of man’s initial form, which was like this. It seemed like a tiny image of the brain with a delicate delineation of something of a face in front without any appendage. This primitive in the upper convex part was a structure of globules or spherules touching one another, and each spherule was a compounding of those yet more minute, and each of these in like manner of those still more minute; it was thus of three degrees. In front, in the flat part, something outlined appeared to represent a face. The convex part was covered round about with a skin or membrane so fine as to be transparent. The convex part, which was a type of the brain in least forms, was also divided into two lobes, as it were, just as the brain in its greatest extent is divided into two hemispheres. I was informed that the right lobe was the receptacle of love, and the left lobe was the receptacle of wisdom; and that by their wonderful interweavings they were, as it were, consorts and partners. It was further shown in the light of heaven, which shone brightly upon it, that the structure of this little brain, as to its arrangement and flux, was in the order and form of heaven, and that its outer structure was in direct opposition to that order and form. After these things had been shown and seen, the angels said that the two interior degrees, which were in the order and form of heaven, were receptacles of love and wisdom from the Lord; and that the outer degree, which was in direct opposition to the order and form of heaven, was a receptacle of infernal love and folly; for the reason that man by hereditary defilement is born into evils of every kind, and these evils remain there in outermosts; and that these defilements are not removed unless the higher degrees are opened, which, as was said, are receptacles of love and wisdom from the Lord. And since love and wisdom are very man, for love and wisdom in their essence are the Lord, and this primitive of man is a receptacle, it follows that in that primitive there is a continuous striving to attain the human form, which indeed it gradually assumes.
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