Page:The New View of Hell.djvu/87

 such society more congenial than that of the angels. If forced to live in heaven, or in the society of the wise and good, they would be out of their proper element; nay, they would be unspeakably miserable. It would be far more cruel than it would be to compel persons whose eyes are diseased, to dwell in the bright blaze of the noon-day sun. Accordingly Swedenborg says:

"Spirits who come from the world into the other life, desire nothing more than to be admitted into heaven. Almost all seek to gain admittance, imagining that heaven consists only in being introduced and received. Therefore also, because they desire it, they are conveyed to some society of the lowest heaven; but when they who are in the love of self and the world approach the threshold of that heaven, they begin to be so distressed and tormented interiorly, that they feel hell in themselves rather than heaven. Therefore they cast themselves down headlong thence; nor do they find rest until they come into hell among their like.

"It has often happened also that such spirits desired to know what heavenly joy is; and when they heard that it is in the interiors of the angels, they have wished to have it communicated to themselves. Therefore this also was granted,—for whatever a spirit desires, who is not yet in heaven or in hell, is granted him if it be beneficial. But when the communication was made, they began to be tortured to such a degree that they knew not into what posture to screw their bodies on account of the