Page:Swedenborgs Maximus Homo.pdf/8



the early part of his work on "Heaven and Hell"—a volume which contains more true spiritual philosophy than all other works ever written—Swedenborg says that heaven is in the human form. Not only every angel and every society of angels, but the entire angelic heaven, he assures us, is in this form; so that the angels viewed collectively, appear before the Lord as one man. And in his other works he often speaks of the whole heaven of angels as Maximus Homo—the Grand Man, as commonly translated.

This, we are aware, has an odd sound to the ears of most people when they hear it for the ﬁrst time. Perhaps there are few things in the writings of the Swedish seer which appear more arbitrary or fanciful—or, to some minds, more