Page:Heaven Revealed.djvu/146

 might we reasonably expect would be the character of their surroundings?

Then the light in which the angels dwell, and which is said to be a thousand-fold brighter than that of our sun, is another consideration in favor of the truth of Swedenborg's disclosures on this subject. For if they are in a state to bear a thousand-fold brighter light than people on earth enjoy, then the objects they behold around them ought to be a thousand times more numerous and beautiful than are seen here on earth. Besides, we know that the most exalted and enlightened minds always see with other eyes than those of the ignorant and depraved. The former, on account of their superior purity and enlightenment, behold a world of beauty which is quite hidden from the latter. All the ways and works of God are surpassingly beautiful; but light and the right kind of eyes are needed to enable the beholder to discern their beauty. By virtue, therefore, of their superior light and better eyesight, the angels ought to see round about them precisely such a beautiful worid as Swedenborg has described.

And the Bible adds its testimony also to that of reason, experience, and the best instincts of our nature. Read the description of the Garden in which man is said to have been placed at the time of his creation, and where "the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food." For although that Garden and all its beautiful belongings are not to be literally interpreted—although they are to be taken as the representatives of the internal states of the most ancient people in the days of their innocence and in-