Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/113

 freely and without restraint. He falls into this state without being aware of it, just as in the world when he withdraws the thought which is next to speech, or from which speech proceeds, toward his interior thought, and abides in the latter. Therefore when the man-spirit is in this state, he is in himself, and in his very life; for to think freely from the affection properly his own, is the very life of man, and is himself.

The spirit in this state thinks from his own will, thus from his own affection, or from his own love; and then his thought makes one with his will, and so completely one, that he scarcely appears to think, but merely to will. It is nearly the same when he speaks; yet there is this difference, that he feels some degree of fear lest the thoughts of his will should go forth naked, since by social intercourse in the world this reserve has also become the habit of his will.

All men without exception are let into this state after death, because it is the proper state of their spirits. The former state is such as that of the man was as to his spirit when he was in company, which state is not properly his own. That this state, or the state of his exteriors, in which a man is at first after death,—as treated of in the preceding chapter,—is not properly his own, may be evident from many considerations; as from this, that spirits not only think but also speak from their own affection; for their speech proceeds from their affection, as may appear from what was said and shown in the