Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/155

Rh the most difficult compositions of Beethoven or Mozart. And he finds, too, that by practicing, and thereby learning to give faithful expression to, the laws that govern in the realm of music, he becomes more and more enamored with the art. Strange and unlooked for raptures transport him. He is introduced, as it were, into a new world. Sweet melodies are rippling all around him. He experiences a delight in executing, or in listening to the execution of, some grand composition, of which, at the beginning of his musical education, he could form no conception. In this and in no other way is the musician born. He comes forth not suddenly nor in any miraculous manner; but slowly, gradually after years of hard study, close application and unremitting toil. The student learns certain musical rules, and then compels himself to reduce these rules to practice. And so at last the musician is produced, developed, or born. And the painter, sculptor, architect, and engineer are born in the same way.

And in a way precisely similar is "the new man" or angel born. In other words, we are introduced or born in a similar manner into the higher life—into a state of supreme love to the Lord and the neighbor;—are lifted out of our low natural state which is hell, into that exalted spiritual state which is heaven. And this is what