Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/108

 toward certain quarters, and, when left to themselves, walk in the ways which tend in those directions. From the quarters toward which they turn, and the ways in which they go, the quality of the love that leads them is known.

All the spirits who arrive from the world, are indeed connected with some society in heaven or in hell, but only as to their interiors. But the interiors are not manifested so long as they remain in their exteriors, for external things cover and conceal things internal, especially with those who are in interior evil. But afterwards they appear plainly when they come into the second state, because their interiors are then opened and their exteriors laid asleep.

This first state of man after death continues with some for days, with some for months, and with some for a year, but seldom with any for more than a year. In each instance the duration is shorter or longer according to the agreement or disagreement of the interiors with the exteriors. For with every one the exteriors and interiors must act in unity, and must correspond. It is not allowable for any one in the spiritual world to think and will in one way, and to speak and act in another. Every one there must be the image of his own affection, or of his own love; so that what he is in his interiors, he must be in his exteriors. The exteriors of a spirit are therefore first uncovered and reduced to order, that they may serve as a plane corresponding to the interiors. (H. H. 491-498.)