Page:Emanuel Swedenborg, Scientist and Mystic.djvu/297

XXI ] that of any Christian. There was pity in him, and because this spirit could feel such pity he could be with the angels, and, when he had forgotten his graven image, he could worship the true Lord, "differently from very many Christians." 19

Yet, though Swedenborg believed in one true Lord, he could imagine Him as manifesting in different ways. Not unlike the Saiva saying, "O Thou Who dost take the shapes imagined by Thy worshippers," is Swedenborg's saying that the Lord reveals himself differently in each community of heaven, according to the kind of goodness in each.

Of children in heaven Swedenborg said that no matter what the creeds may say, all children go to heaven when they die, and are brought up there. If caught early enough they can become angels, not having any positive evil in them as yet. They are given to motherly angels who had greatly loved children when on earth, and taught to speak, first by "sounds of affection." Later they are taught (in the best Montessori manner), without having their wills broken, through "representations" scaled to their understanding, and when educated enough they become angels and look grown-up.

As to whether the rich could get into heaven, Swedenborg said that man can obtain heaven even if he has lived well and merrily on earth, if he had not made rich living the object of his life. Those who do not use their riches for others are like moist soil without the light of day, he said, they rot. But the poor have plenty of vices too. As for traders, it is on the whole easier for them to reach heaven than for officials; the latter are apt to take to themselves the merit belonging to their office and they become arrogant.

Beauty in heaven corresponds to inner development; there is something, he said, dim and unillumined about the less developed. Love illumines and shapes faces and forms until those who see such a form are astounded, and that is why persons who have inherited an ugly body may be transformed into the greatest beauty in heaven. Hence Swedenborg's report that he saw a former teacher of his, Moræus, so transformed.

In hell love also rules, but it is love of self. At first the new arrivals are received quite well, while the demons investigate how