Heaven and its Wonders and Hell Part 23

344. From what has been said it can be seen what child education is in heaven, namely, that it is leading them by means of an understanding of truth and the wisdom of good into the angelic life, which is love to the Lord and mutual love, in which is innocence. But how different in many cases is the education of children on the earth can be seen from this example. I was in the street of a large city, and saw little boys fighting with each other; a crowd flocked around and looked on with much pleasure; and I was told that little boys are incited to such fights by their own parents. Good spirits and angels who saw this through my eyes so revolted at it that I felt their horror; and especially that parents should incite their children to such things, saying that in this way parents extinguish in the earliest age all the mutual love and all the innocence that children have from the Lord, and initiate them into the spirit of hatred and revenge; consequently by their own endeavors they shut their children out of heaven, where there is nothing but mutual love. Let parents therefore who wish well to their children beware of such things.

345. What the difference is between those who die in childhood and those who die in mature life shall also be told. Those dying in mature life have a plane acquired from the earthly and material world, and this they carry with them. This plane is their memory and its bodily natural affection. This remains fixed and becomes quiescent, but still serves their thought after death as an outmost plane, since the thought flows into it. Consequently such as this plane is, and such as the correspondence is between the things that are in it and the rational faculty, such is the man after death. But the children who die in childhood and are educated in heaven have no such plane, since they derive nothing from the material world and the earthly body; but they have a spiritual-natural plane. For this reason they cannot be in such gross affections and consequent thoughts, since they derive all things from heaven. Moreover, these children do not know that they were born in the world, but believe that they were born in heaven. Neither do they know about any other than spiritual birth, which is effected through knowledges of good and truth and through intelligence and wisdom, from which man is a man; and as these are from the Lord they believe themselves to be the Lord's own, and love to be so. Nevertheless it is possible for the state of men who grow up on the earth to become as perfect as the state of children who grow up in heaven, provided they put away bodily and earthly loves, which are the loves of self and the world, and receive in their place spiritual loves.

346. x.x.xVIII. THE WISE AND THE SIMPLE IN HEAVEN.

It is believed that in heaven the wise will have more glory and eminence than the simple, because it is said in Daniel:

They that are intelligent shall s.h.i.+ne as with the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever (12:3).

But few know who are meant by the "intelligent" and by those that "turn many to righteousness." The common belief is that they are such as are called the accomplished and learned, especially such as have taught in the church and have surpa.s.sed others in acquirements and in preaching, and still more such among them as have converted many to the faith. In the world all such are regarded as the intelligent; nevertheless such are not the intelligent in heaven that are spoken of in these words, unless their intelligence is heavenly intelligence. What this is will now be told.

347. Heavenly intelligence is interior intelligence, arising from a love for truth, not with any glory in the world nor any glory in heaven as an end, but with the truth itself as an end, by which they are inmostly affected and with which they are inmostly delighted.

Those who are affected by and delighted with the truth itself are affected by and delighted with the light of heaven; and those who are affected by and delighted with the light of heaven are also affected by and delighted with Divine truth, and indeed with the Lord Himself; for the light of heaven is Divine truth, and Divine truth is the Lord in heaven (see above, n. 126-140). This light enters only into the interiors of the mind; for the interiors of the mind are formed for the reception of that light, and are affected by and delighted with that light as it enters; for whatever flows in and is received from heaven has in it what is delightful and pleasant. From this comes a genuine affection for truth, which is an affection for truth for truth's sake. Those who are in this affection, or what is the same thing, in this love, are in heavenly intelligence, and "s.h.i.+ne in heaven as with the brightness of the firmament." They so s.h.i.+ne because Divine truth, wherever it is in heaven, is what gives light (see above, n. 132); and the "firmament" of heaven signifies from correspondence the intellectual faculty, both with angels and men, that is in the light of heaven. [2] But those that love the truth, either with glory in the world or glory in heaven as an end, cannot s.h.i.+ne in heaven, since they are delighted with and affected by the light of the world, and not with the very light of heaven; and the light of the world without the light of heaven is in heaven mere thick darkness.{1} For the glory of self is what rules, because it is the end in view; and when that glory is the end man puts himself in the first place, and such truths as can be made serviceable to his glory he looks upon simply as means to the end and as instruments of service. For he that loves Divine truths for the sake of his own glory regards himself and not the Lord in Divine truths, thereby turning the sight pertaining to his understanding and faith away from heaven to the world, and away from the Lord to himself. Such, therefore, are in the light of the world and not in the light of heaven. [3] In outward form or in the sight of men they appear just as intelligent and learned as those who are in the light of heaven, because they speak in a like manner; and sometimes to outward appearance they even appear wiser, because they are moved by love of self, and are skilled in counterfeiting heavenly affections; but in their inward form in which they appear before the angels they are wholly different. All this shows in some degree who those are that are meant by "the intelligent that will s.h.i.+ne in heaven as with the brightness of the firmament." Who are meant by those that "turn many to righteousness," who will s.h.i.+ne as the stars, shall now be told.

{Footnote 1} The light of the world is for the external man, the light of heaven for the internal man (n. 3222-3224, 3337).

The light of heaven flows into the natural light, and so far as the natural man receives the light of heaven he becomes wise (n. 4302, 4408). The things that are in the light of heaven can be seen in the light of heaven but not in the light of the world, which is called natural light (n. 9755). Therefore those who are solely in the light of the world do not perceive those things that are in the light of heaven (n. 3108). To the angels the light of the world is thick darkness (n. 1521, 1783, 1880).

348. By those who "turn many to righteousness" are meant those who are wise, and in heaven those are called wise who are in good, and those are in good that apply Divine truths at once to the life; for as soon as Divine truth comes to be of the life it becomes good, since it comes to be of will and love, and whatever is of will and love is called good; therefore such are called wise because wisdom is of the life. But those that do not commit Divine truths at once to the life, but first to the memory, from which they afterwards draw them and apply them to the life, are called the "intelligent." What and how great the difference is between the wise and the intelligent in the heavens can be seen in the chapter that treats of the two kingdoms of heaven, the celestial and the spiritual (n. 20-28), and in the chapter that treats of the three heavens (n. 29-40). Those who are in the Lord's celestial kingdom, and consequently in the third or inmost heaven, are called "the righteous" because they attribute all righteousness to the Lord and none to themselves. The Lord's righteousness in heaven is the good that is from the Lord.{1} Such, then, are here meant by those that "turn to righteousness;" and such are meant also in the Lord's words,

The righteous shall s.h.i.+ne forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matt. 13:43). Such "s.h.i.+ne forth as the Sun" because they are in love to the Lord from the Lord, and that love is meant by the "sun" (see above, n. 116-125). The light of such is flame-colored; and the ideas of their thought are so tinged with what is flaming because they receive the good of love directly from the Lord as the sun in heaven.

{Footnote 1} The merit and righteousness of the Lord is the good that rules in heaven (n. 9486, 9983). He that is "righteous" or "made righteous" is one to whom the merit and righteousness of the Lord is ascribed; and he is "unrighteous"

who holds to his own righteousness and merit (n. 5069, 9263).

The quality of those in the other life who claim righteousness to themselves (n. 942, 2027). In the Word "righteousness" is predicated of good and judgment of truth; therefore "doing righteousness and judgment" is doing good and truth (n. 2235, 9857).

349. All who have acquired intelligence and wisdom in the world are received in heaven and become angels, each in accordance with the quality and degree of his intelligence and wisdom. For whatever a man acquires in the world abides, and he takes it with him after death; and it is further increased and filled out, but within and not beyond the degree of his affection and desire for truth and its good, those with but little affection and desire receiving but little, and yet as much as they are capable of receiving within that degree; while those with much affection and desire receive much. The degree itself of affection and desire is like a measure that is filled to the full, he that has a large measure receiving more, and he that has a small measure receiving less. This is so because man's love, to which affection and desire belong, receives all that accords with itself; consequently reception is measured by the love. This is what is meant by the Lord's words,

To him that hath it shall be given, that he may have more abundantly (Matt. 13:12; 25:29).

Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, shall be given into your bosom (Luke 6:38).

350. All are received into heaven who have loved truth and good for the sake of truth and good; therefore those that have loved much are called the wise, and those that have loved little are called the simple. The wise in heaven are in much light, the simple in less light, everyone in accordance with the degree of his love for good and truth. To love truth and good for the sake of truth and good is to will and do them; for those love who will and do, while those who do not will and do do not love. Such also love the Lord and are loved by the Lord, because good and truth are from the Lord. And inasmuch as good and truth are from the Lord the Lord is in good and truth; and He is in those who receive good and truth in their life by willing and doing. Moreover, when man is viewed in himself he is nothing but his own good and truth, because good is of his will and truth of his understanding, and man is such as his will and understanding are. Evidently, then, man is loved by the Lord just to the extent that his will is formed from good and his understanding from truth. Also to be loved by the Lord is to love the Lord, since love is reciprocal; for upon him who is loved the Lord bestows ability to love.

351. It is believed in the world that those who have much knowledge, whether it be knowledge of the teachings of the church and the Word or of the sciences, have a more interior and keen vision of truth than others, that is, are more intelligent and wise; and such have this opinion of themselves. But what true intelligence and wisdom are, and what spurious and false intelligence and wisdom are, shall be told in what now follows. [2] True intelligence and wisdom is seeing and perceiving what is true and good, and thereby what is false and evil, and clearly distinguis.h.i.+ng between them, and this from an interior intuition and perception. With every man there are interior faculties and exterior faculties; interior faculties belonging to the internal or spiritual man, and exterior faculties belonging to the exterior or natural man. Accordingly as man's interiors are formed and made one with his exteriors man sees and perceives. His interiors can be formed only in heaven, his exteriors are formed in the world. When his interiors have been formed in heaven the things they contain flow into his exteriors which are from the world, and so form them that they correspond with, that is, act as one with, his interiors; and when this is done man sees and perceives from what is interior. The interiors can be formed only in one way, namely, by man's looking to the Divine and to heaven, since, as has been said, the interiors are formed in heaven; and man looks to the Divine when he believes in the Divine, and believes that all truth and good and consequently all intelligence and wisdom are from the Divine; and man believes in the Divine when he is willing to be led by the Divine. In this way and none other are the interiors of man opened. [3] The man who is in that belief and in a life that is in accordance with his belief has the ability and capacity to understand and be wise; but to become intelligent and wise he must learn many things, both things pertaining to heaven and things pertaining to the world--things pertaining to heaven from the Word and from the church, and things pertaining to the world from the sciences. To the extent that man learns and applies to life he becomes intelligent and wise, for to that extent the interior sight belonging to his understanding and the interior affection belonging to his will are perfected. The simple of this cla.s.s are those whose interiors have been opened, but not so enriched by spiritual, moral, civil and natural truths. Such perceive truths when they hear them, but do not see them in themselves. But the wise of this cla.s.s are those whose interiors have been both opened and enriched. Such both see truths inwardly and perceive them. All this makes clear what true intelligence is and what true wisdom is.

352. Spurious intelligence and wisdom is failing to see and perceive from within what is true and what is good, and thereby what is false and what is evil, but merely believing that to be true and good and that to be false and evil which is said by others to be so, and then confirming it. Because such see truth from some one else, and not from the truth itself, they can seize upon and believe what is false as readily as what is true, and can confirm it until it appears true; for whatever is confirmed puts on the appearance of truth; and there is nothing that can not be confirmed. The interiors of such are opened only from beneath; but their exteriors are opened to the extent that they have confirmed themselves. For this reason the light from which they see is not the light of heaven but the light of the world, which is called natural light [lumen]; and in that light falsities can s.h.i.+ne like truths; and when confirmed they can even appear resplendent, but not in the light of heaven. Of this cla.s.s those are less intelligent and wise who have strongly confirmed themselves, and those are more intelligent and wise who have less strongly confirmed themselves. All this shows what spurious intelligence and wisdom are. [2] But those are not included in this cla.s.s who in childhood supposed what they heard from their masters to be true, if in a riper age, when they think from their own understanding, they do not continue to hold fast to it, but long for truth, and from that longing seek for it, and when they find it are interiorly moved by it. Because such are moved by the truth for the truth's sake they see the truth before they confirm it.{1} [3] This may be ill.u.s.trated by an example. There was a discussion among spirits why animals are born into all the knowledge suited to their nature, but man is not; and the reason was said to be that animals are in the order of their life, and man is not, consequently man must needs be led into order by means of what he learns of internal and external things. But if man were born into the order of his life, which is to love G.o.d above all things and his neighbor as himself, he would be born into intelligence and wisdom, and as knowledges are acquired would come into a belief in all truth. Good spirits saw this at once and perceived it to be true, and this merely from the light of truth; while the spirits who had confirmed themselves in faith alone, and had thereby set aside love and charity, were unable to understand it, because the light of falsity which they had confirmed had made obscure to them the light of truth.

{Footnote 1} It is the part of the wise to see and perceive whether a thing is true before it is confirmed and not merely to confirm what is said by others (n. 1017, 4741, 7012, 7680, 7950). Only those can see and perceive whether a thing is true before it is confirmed who are affected by truth for the sake of truth and for the sake of life (n. 8521). The light of confirmation is not spiritual light but natural light, and is even sensual light which the wicked may have (n. 8780). All things, even falsities, may be so confirmed as to appear like truths (n. 2477, 2480, 5033, 6865, 8521).

353. False intelligence and wisdom is all intelligence and wisdom that is separated from the acknowledgment of the Divine; for all such as do not acknowledge the Divine, but acknowledge nature in the place of the Divine, think from the bodily-sensual, and are merely sensual, however highly they may be esteemed in the world for their accomplishments and learning.{1} For their learning does not ascend beyond such things as appear before their eyes in the world; these they hold in the memory and look at them in an almost material way, although the same knowledges serve the truly intelligent in forming their understanding. By sciences the various kinds of experimental knowledge are meant, such as physics, astronomy, chemistry, mechanics, geometry, anatomy, psychology, philosophy, the history of kingdoms and of the literary world, criticism, and languages. [2] The clergy who deny the Divine do not raise their thoughts above the sensual things of the external man; and regard the things of the Word in the same way as others regard the sciences, not making them matters of thought or of any intuition by an enlightened rational mind; and for the reason that their interiors are closed up, together with those exteriors that are nearest to their interiors. These are closed up because they have turned themselves away from heaven, and have retroverted those faculties that were capable of looking heavenward, which are, as has been said above, the interiors of the human mind. For this reason they are incapable of seeing anything true or good, this being to them in thick darkness, while whatever is false and evil is in light. [3] And yet sensual men can reason, some of them more cunningly and keenly than any one else; but they reason from the fallacies of the senses confirmed by their knowledges; and because they are able to reason in this way they believe themselves to be wiser than others.{2} The fire that kindles with affection their reasonings is the fire of the love of self and the world. Such are those who are in false intelligence and wisdom, and who are meant by the Lord in Matthew:

Seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand (13:13-15).

And again:

These things are hid from the intelligent and wise, and revealed unto babes (11:25, 26).

{Footnote 1} The sensual is the outmost of man's life, clinging to and inhering in his bodily part (n. 5077, 5767, 9212, 9216, 9331, 9730). He is called a sensual man who forms all his judgments and conclusions from the bodily senses, and who believes nothing except what he sees with his eyes and touches with his hands (n. 5094, 7693). Such a man thinks in things outermost and not interiorly in himself (n. 5089, 5094, 6564, 7693). His interiors are so closed up that he sees nothing of Divine truth (n. 6564, 6844, 6845). In a word he is in gross natural light and thus perceives nothing that is from the light of heaven (n. 6201, 6310, 6564, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624, 6844, 6845). Therefore he is inwardly opposed to all things pertaining to heaven and the church (n. 6201, 6310, 6844, 6845, 6948, 6949). The learned that have confirmed themselves against the truths of the church are sensual (n. 6316). A description of the sensual man (n. 10236).

{Footnote 2} Sensual men reason keenly and cunningly, since they place all intelligence in speaking from the bodily memory (n. 195, 196, 5700, 10236). But they reason from the fallacies of the senses (n. 5084, 6948, 6949, 7693). Sensual men are more cunning and malicious than others (n. 7693, 10236). By the ancients such were called serpents of the tree of knowledge (n.

195-197, 6398, 6949, 10313).

354. It has been granted me to speak with many of the learned after their departure from the world; with some of distinguished reputation and celebrated in the literary world for their writings, and with some not so celebrated, although endowed with profound wisdom. Those that in heart had denied the Divine, whatever their professions may have been, had become so stupid as to have little comprehension even of anything truly civil, still less of anything spiritual. I perceived and also saw that the interiors of their minds were so closed up as to appear black (for in the spiritual world such things become visible), and in consequence they were unable to endure any heavenly light or admit any influx from heaven. This blackness which their interiors presented was more intense and extended with those that had confirmed themselves against the Divine by the knowledges they had acquired. In the other life such accept all falsity with delight, imbibing it as a sponge does water; and they repel all truth as an elastic bony substance repels what falls upon it. In fact, it is said that the interiors of those that have confirmed themselves against the Divine and in favor of nature become bony, and their heads down to the nose appear callous like ebony, which is a sign that they no longer have any perception. Those of this description are immersed in quagmires that appear like bogs; and there they are hara.s.sed by the fantasies into which their falsities are turned.

Their infernal fire is a l.u.s.t for glory and reputation, which prompts them to a.s.sail one another, and from an infernal ardor to torment those about them who do not wors.h.i.+p them as deities; and this they do one to another in turns. Into such things is all the learning of the world changed that has not received into itself light from heaven through acknowledgment of the Divine.

355. That these are such in the spiritual world when they come into it after death may be inferred from this alone, that all things that are in the natural memory and are in immediate conjunction with the things of bodily sense (which is true of such knowledges as are mentioned above) then become quiescent; and only such rational principles as are drawn from these then serve for thought and speech.

For man carries with him his entire natural memory, but its contents are not then under his view, and do not come into his thought as when he lived in the world. He can take nothing from that memory and bring it forth into spiritual light because its contents are not objects of that light. But those things of the reason and understanding that man has acquired from knowledges while living in the body are in accord with the light of the spiritual world; consequently so far as the spirit of man has been made rational in the world through knowledge and science it is to the same extent rational after being loosed from the body; for man is then a spirit, and it is the spirit that thinks in the body.{1}

{Footnote 1} Knowledges belong to the natural memory that man has while he is in the body (n. 5212, 9922). Man carries with him after death his whole natural memory (n. 2475) from experience (n. 2481-2486). But he is not able, as he was in the world, to draw anything out of that memory, for several reasons (n. 2476, 2477, 2479).

356. But in respect to those that have acquired intelligence and wisdom through knowledge and science, who are such as have applied all things to the use of life, and have also acknowledged the Divine, loved the Word, and lived a spiritual moral life (of which above, n.

319), to such the sciences have served as a means of becoming wise, and also of corroborating the things pertaining to faith. The interiors of the mind of such have been perceived by me, and were seen as transparent from light of a glistening white, flamy, or blue color, like that of translucent diamonds, rubies, and sapphires; and this in accordance with confirmations in favor of the Divine and Divine truths drawn from science. Such is the appearance of true intelligence and wisdom when they are presented to view in the spiritual world. This appearance is derived from the light of heaven; and that light is Divine truth going forth from the Lord, which is the source of all intelligence and wisdom (see above, n. 126-133).

[2] The planes of that light, in which variegations like those of colors exist, are the interiors of the mind; and these variegations are produced by confirmations of Divine truths by means of such things as are in nature, that is, in the sciences.{1} For the interior mind of man looks into the things of the natural memory, and the things there that will serve as proofs it sublimates as it were by the fire of heavenly love, and withdraws and purifies them even into spiritual ideas. This is unknown to man as long as he lives in the body, because there he thinks both spiritually and naturally, and he has no perception of the things he then thinks spiritually, but only of those he thinks naturally. But when he has come into the spiritual world he has no perception of what he thought naturally in the world, but only of what he thought spiritually. Thus is his state changed. [3] All this makes clear that it is by means of knowledges and sciences that man is made spiritual, also that these are the means of becoming wise, but only with those who have acknowledged the Divine in faith and life. Such also before others are accepted in heaven, and are among those there who are at the center (n. 43), because they are in light more than others. These are the intelligent and wise in heaven, who "s.h.i.+ne as with the brightness of the firmament" and "who s.h.i.+ne as the stars," while the simple there are those that have acknowledged the Divine, have loved the Word, and have lived a spiritual and moral life, but the interiors of their minds have not been so enriched by knowledges and sciences. The human mind is like soil which is such as it is made by cultivation.

{Footnote 1} Most beautiful colors are seen in heaven (n. 1053, 1624). Colors in heaven are from the light there, and are modifications or variegations of that light (n. 1042, 1043, 1053, 1624, 3993, 4530, 4742, 4922). Thus they are manifestations of truth from good, and they signify such things as pertain to intelligence and wisdom (n. 4530, 4677, 4922, 9466).

EXTRACTS FROM THE ARCANA COELESTIA RESPECTING KNOWLEDGES.

[In these extracts scientia, scientific.u.m and cognitio are alike rendered knowledge, because any distinction between them intended by the author is not sufficiently obvious to be uniformly indicated in English. -- Tr.]

Man ought to be fully instructed in knowledges [scientiis et cognitionibus], since by means of them he learns to think [cogitare], afterwards to understand what is true and good, and finally to be wise (n. 129, 1450, 1451, 1453, 1548, 1802).

Knowledges [scientifica] are the first things on which the life of man, civil, moral, and spiritual, is built and founded, and they are to be learned for the sake of use as an end (n. 1489, 3310).

Knowledges [cognitiones] open the way to the internal man, and afterwards conjoin that man with the external in accordance with uses (n. 1563, 1616).

The rational faculty has its birth by means of knowledges [scientias et cognitiones] (n. 1895, 1900, 3086).

But not by means of knowledges [cognitiones] themselves, but by means of affection for the uses derived from them (n. 1895).

[2] There are knowledges [scientifica] that give entrance to Divine truths, and knowledges [scientifica] that do not (n. 5213).

Empty knowledges [scientifica] are to be destroyed (n.

1489, 1492, 1499, 1581).