Page:The Other Life.djvu/58

 look out from his double eyes into both worlds; hear from his double ears the music of each, and converse one moment with angels and the next with men!

Such was the state of Swedenborg.

Such was the state of the prophets and apostles and of all men who have communicated audibly and visibly with the spiritual world. The possibility of such a state is latent in every human soul. The probability of its repetition depends upon the needs of the Church and the spiritual development of the race.

The spiritual body which lives in the natural body may or may not be a perfect image and likeness of its material covering. Sometimes it is very dissimilar, so that the face of the external man is unlike the face of his indwelling spirit. The reason of this is, that our natural bodies are derived from our parents and bear the imprint of many hereditary forces. They belong to the fixed things of nature and are only changeable within certain limits. But our spiritual bodies are moulded by our own appropriation of the goodness and truth which Divine Providence furnishes for our spiritual sustenance. As we subdue our hereditary evils and ad-