tion is continual in our world, and that it was similar to this in yours, while the universe was created by God.'

"After this we talked upon various subjects, and at last concerning hell; as, that no such things as are in heaven appear there, but only the opposites; since the affections of their love, which are the lusts of evil, are opposite to the affections of the love in which the angels of heaven are. Wherefore, with those in hell, and generally in their deserts, there appear birds of night, as bats, and various kinds of owls, and also wolves, leopards, tigers, rats and mice; moreover, venomous serpents of every kind, such as dragons and crocodiles; and where there is any spot of grass, there grow briers, nettles, thorns and thistles, and some poisonous plants, which at times vanish, and then appear only heaps of stones, and bogs in which frogs croak. All these things are also correspondences, but as was said, correspondences of the affections of their love, which are the lusts of evil." (T. C. R. n. 78-Memorable Relation.)

Again in the Apocalypse Explained, n. 1212, Swedenborg says:

"Vegetables in the heavens appear according to the affections of the angels, and also represent those affections, insomuch, that in them, as in their types, the angels see and know their own affections as to their nature and quality; they are also changed according to the changes of the affections. In the heavens there appear beautiful animals, and similar vegetables; but in the hells noxious animals, and vegetables also similar; and angels and spirits are known, and their qualities distinguished from the appearances of the animals, and in like manner from the appearances of the vegetables; there is a plenary concordance with their affections, and so much so, that an animal can be changed into a concordant vegetable, and a vegetable into a concordant animal. The angels of heaven know what principle or affection is represented in one and the other; and I have heard, and also perceived, that it is similar in both cases. It has also been granted me to know manifestly the correspondence not only of the animals

but also of the vegetables with the societies of heaven, and with the societies of hell, thus with their affections, for societies and affections in the spiritual world make one. Hence it is that so frequent mention is made in the Word, of gardens, groves, forests, trees, likewise of various plants, and that they there signify spiritual things according to their origins, all which have reference to affections.

Again, in the Treatise concerning Heaven and Hell, Swedenborg says:

"The man, who thinks only from natural light, cannot comprehend that there is any thing in heaven similar to what is in the world, and this because from that light he had thought and confirmed himself, that the angels are only minds, and that minds are, as it were, ethereal spectres, and hence that they have not senses as man has, thus neither eyes, and if not eyes, neither objects of sight; when yet angels have all the senses that man has, yea, much more exquisite; the light also, by which they see, is much brighter than the light by which man sees. That angels are men in the most perfect form, and that they enjoy every sense, may be seen above, n. 73-77; and that the light in heaven is much brighter than the light in the world, n. 126-132.

"But the things which appear in the heavens, although for the most part they are similar to those which are on the earth, still they are not similar as to essence; for the things which are in the heavens exist from the sun of heaven, and those which are on the earth from the sun of the world: the things which exist from the sun of heaven are called spiritual, but those which exist from the sun of the world are called natural.

"The things which exist in the heavens do not exist in the same manner as those which exist in the earths: all things in the heavens exist from the Lord, according to the correspondences with the interiors of the angels; for the angels have both interiors and exteriors: the things which are in their interiors, all refer to love and faith, thus to the will and understanding; for the will and understanding are their receptacles; but the exteriors correspond to the interiors: that exteriors corre

spond to interiors, may be seen above, n. 87-115. This may be illustrated by those things which were said above concerning the heat and light of heaven: that the angels have heat according to the quality of their love, and light according to the quality of their wisdom, may be seen, n. 128-134. The case is similar with all other things which appear before the senses of the angels.

66

When it has been given me to be in company with angels, the things which are there have been seen by me altogether as those which are in the world; and so perceptibly, that I knew no other than that I was in the world, and there in the palace of a king: I also spoke with them as man with man.

"Since all things which correspond to the interiors also represent them, therefore they are called REPRESENTATIVES; and because they are varied according to the state of the interiors with them, therefore they are called APPEARANCES; although the things which appear before the eyes of the angels in the heavens, and are perceived by their senses, appear and are perceived as much to the life as the things which are on the earth appear to man; yea, much more clearly, distinctly, and perceptibly. The appearances which are thence in the heavens, are called real appearances, because they exist really there are also given appearances not real, which are those things which indeed appear, but do not correspond to the interiors; but of these in what follows.

"To show what those things are which appear to the angels according to correspondences, I will here adduce one thing for the sake of illustration. To those who are in intelligence, there appear gardens and paradises, full of trees and flowers of every kind; the trees there are planted in the most beautiful order, combined into arbors, through which are arched entrances, and around which are walks; all of such beauty that they cannot. be described. Those who are in intelligence also walk there, and gather flowers, and weave garlands, with which they adorn infants: there are also species of trees and flowers there, no where seen nor given in the

world on the trees also there are fruits, according to the good of love, in which the intelligent are. They see such things because a garden and a paradise, and also fruit-trees and flowers, correspond to intelligence and wisdom. That such things are in the heavens, is also known in the earth, but only to those who are in good, and who have not extinguished in themselves the light of heaven by natural light and its fallacies; for they think and say, when speaking of heaven, that such things are there as the ear hath not heard, nor the seen." (Heaven and Hell, n. 170-175.)

eye

These extracts may be sufficient to furnish us with a key to the right understanding of Swedenborg's Memorable Relations. Although they are selected from different parts of his writings, and treat of the same things only in different language, yet we find them perfectly consistent with each other. And were we to add many more extracts upon the same subject from his different works, we should find among them all the same consistency and agreement;-a fact, which (considering the number of years that Swedenborg was occupied upon his theological works) it is not easy to account for upon any other supposition than this-that every thing which he has written concerning the spiritual world was actually seen by him as he has described it.

From the above extracts, and from many other parts of his writings, we learn that all things which appear in the spiritual world are spiritual, because from a spiritual origin; and that the things which appear in the heavens represent, by correspondence, the affections and consequent thoughts of the angels, and those which appear in the hells the affections and consequent thoughts of the devils; and that thus both angels and devils behold in the objects around them the types of their own affections. The things without them correspond perfectly to the principles of life within them, and are the effigy or form of those principles. The angels therefore, because their affections are pure and innocent, behold around them most beautiful and magnificent things, which are the representative images of their good affections. The devils on the contrary are surrounded

with hideous and offensive objects, because these are the correspondent forms of their evil loves. It is elsewhere taught in the writings of Swedenborg that the angels are delighted with the paradisaical things around them because they are principled in genuine love and intelligence, and thus have the soul of those things within them. He says that he once heard an angel, who was instructing persons that had lately entered the spiritual world about heavenly joy, say: "that they (i. e. the magnificent things of heaven) are not external paradisal delights, unless these are attended with internal paradisal delights external paradisal delights are only of the senses of the body; but internal paradisal delights are delights of the affections of the soul; and if the former be without the latter, there is in them no heavenly life, because there is no soul in them; and every delight without its corresponding soul continually grows more languid and faint, fatiguing the mind more than labor. There are everywhere in heaven paradisal gardens, from which the angels derive joy, and so far as within it is delight of the soul, so far the joy is to them joy." (The Delights of Wisdom concerning Conjugial Love n. 8.) And thus, as is said in another place, "every one who becomes an angel carries his own heaven in himself, because he carries within him the love of his own heaven."

We also learn from the extracts that have been made that things change in the spiritual world, according as the affections and thoughts of its inhabitants change; so that in the heavens, on account of the change in the states of the angels, there is a change in the appearance of the objects around them corresponding to that pleasing variety which is caused by the changes of the seasons in mild latitudes upon earth. And thus it is a law of divine order in the spiritual as well as in the natural world, that "seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease." (Gen. viii. 22.) "These changes," says Swedenborg, "are for this end, that man may be more and more perfected, and thereby may be rendered more and more happy. Such changes take place in the regenerate man