Page:Swedenborg's Doctrine of Correspondence.djvu/107

Rh from Correspondences themselves, but from the knowledge of Correspondences; and there was conjunction of heaven with man also then, but not so intimate; their time is what is called the silver age. Afterwards those succeeded, who indeed knew Correspondences, but did not think from the knowledge of them, because they were in natural good, and not as the former in spiritual good; the time of these was called the copper age. After their times, man became successively external, and at length corporeal, and then the knowledge of Correspondences was altogether lost, and with it the conception of heaven and of most things which are of heaven."

Thus we learn that primeval men, in the infancy of the race, had no need of the external verbal forms to guide them into the apprehension and perception of the truth. They were simple, open, sincere, affectionate, and true. The Word which was with God, and was God flowed into them as the impulse of divine life, and thus as a living light. They were capable of holding communion with God by means of His love and wisdom "written on their hearts." They were capable thus of loving