Page:DivineLoveAndWisdom.djvu/65

 proper reception of their own light. From all this it can be seen from how much ignorance those think who, because they cannot see angels and spirits with their eyes, are unwilling to believe them to be men.

. Hitherto it has not been known that angels and spirits are in a totally different light and different heat from men. It has not been known even that another light and another heat are possible. For man in his thought has not penetrated beyond the interior or purer things of nature. And for this reason 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 of it. But, in truth, angels and spirits are entirely above or outside of nature, and are in their own world, which is under another sun. And since in that world spaces are appearances (as was shown above), angels and spirits cannot be said to be in the ether or in the stars; in fact, they are present with man, conjoined to the affection and thought of his spirit; since man is a spirit, and because of that thinks and wills; consequently the spiritual world is wherever man is, and in no wise away from him. In a word, every man as regards 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.

. By that sun which is before the eyes of the angels, and from which they have heat and light, is not meant the Lord Himself, but the first proceeding from Him, which is the highest [degree] of spiritual heat. The highest [degree] of spiritual heat is spiritual fire, which is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom in their first correspondence. On this account