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 acter of their interiors. And when their interiors are fully laid open, if their characters or loves are different, they will not only be disinclined to remain together, but will appear as strangers to each other. Their natural memory being lost or closed, they will no longer remember their former friendship or relationship; nay, they will not know that they have ever seen each other before, though they may have dwelt for years beneath the same roof, and sustained the most intimate of earthly relations. Their faces, too, will appear unfamiliar, being no longer such as they had been in the world, but so changed as to be the images of their ruling loves.

In the intermediate state or world of spirits, therefore, where all, being still in externals, appear as they did on earth, friends and natural relatives meet and recognize each other, and remain together as long as they desire. But when their natural memory and affections have faded or become quiescent, and they have entered into the state of their interiors, then natural relatives cease to be remembered or thought of; and if their characters are essentially unlike, they will no longer desire to remain together, having no affinity for each other.

"Those who have friends and acquaintances in the life of the body, all meet and converse together in the world of spirits, when they desire it; especially wives and husbands, and also brothers and sisters. I have seen a father conversing with six sons whom he recognized; and many others conversing with their relations and friends; but as their characters were dissimilar in consequence of their life in the world, after a short time they separated. But they who pass from the world of Spirits into heaven or hell, afterwards see each other no