Page:A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion.djvu/217

Rh also in the former, although the origin of their existence is different. In the natural world the varieties of climates depend on the sun's distances from the equator, but in the spiritual world they depend on the distances of the affections of the will, and the thoughts of the understanding, from a true love, and a true faith; for all things in the spiritual world exist according to such correspondence. In the frigid zones, in the spiritual world, there are the same appearances as in the frigid zones in the natural world; the ground seems frozen hard as stone, the water seems covered with ice, and the whole face of the country appears white with snow. These cold regions are the resort and habitation of those, who, during their abode in the natural world, have brought a lethargy on their understandings, in consequence of an indolent indisposition to think on spiritual subjects, attended with a laziness in the execution of good and useful purposes; they go by the name of Northern spirits (spiritus boreales) On a certain time I was seized with a strong desire to see some country in the frigid zone, where those northern spirits dwell; and accordingly I was carried in the spirit towards the north, to a region which appeared covered with snow, and where the water was frozen to a solid ice. It was the sabbath day, and I saw a number of men, that is, spirits, of the same size and stature with men in the natural world, who had their heads covered with lions' skins, by reason of the cold, and their bodies, both before and behind, down to the loins, covered with the skins of leopards, and their legs and feet with the skins of bears; I also observed several riding in chariots, and some of the chariots made in the shape of a dragon with horns, stretching out before; they were drawn by small horses without tails, which ran with the impetuosity of terrible fierce beasts, whilst the driver, with the reins in his