Page:Heaven Revealed.djvu/336

 himself, but for the sake of its communication with others from himself. Hence it is inscribed on the wisdom of the wise, that no one is wise or lives for himself alone, but for others at the same time. Thence is society, which otherwise could not be. To live for others is to perform uses. Uses are the bonds of society, which are just as many as there are good uses, and the number of uses is infinite. . . Moreover, every love has its own pleasure, for by this love lives; and the pleasure of the love of uses is heavenly pleasure, which enters succeeding pleasures in order, and according to the order of succession exalts them and makes them eternal.

"After this they enumerated the heavenly delights proceeding from the love of use, and said that they are myriads of myriads, and that they who are in heaven enter into them. And with further discourses of wisdom on the love of uses, they passed the day with them until evening."—C. L, n. 18.

And the same thing in substance is often repeated in his writings. In the light of these disclosures heaven is seen to be a state of intense activity. Every angel has some useful occupation which he loves, and in the earnest pursuit of which he finds intense delight. Without it, he could not really know what heaven is. Its essential constituents, we are told, are love and wisdom; but these are only ideal entities—mere abstractions—until determined toward and embodied in works. They have no real existence but in use. The angels say:

"Love and wisdom without use, are only ideas of abstract thought, which, after some stay in the mind, pass on as winds; but these two are united in use, and there become a unit which is called a real thing. Love cannot be easy unless it is doing, for it is the veriest active principle of life; neither can wisdom exist and subsist