Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/42

 concerns its seeing in the world,—is material; and what is material sees nothing but what is material, but what is spiritual sees what is spiritual. Therefore when the material of the eye is veiled, and deprived of its co-operation with the spiritual, spirits appear in their own form, which is the human,—not only spirits who are in the spiritual world, but also the spirit that is in another while he is yet in his body.

The form of the spirit is human, because man as to his spirit was created according to the form of heaven; for all things belonging to heaven and to its order are collated into those which appertain to the mind of man; and hence he has the faculty of receiving intelligence and wisdom. Whether we say the faculty of receiving intelligence and wisdom, or the faculty of receiving heaven, it is the same thing.

A rational man can understand the statements here advanced, for he can view things from a chain of causes, and from truths in their order; but a man who is not rational will not understand them. There are several reasons for this; the chief of which is, that he does not wish to understand them because they are contrary to his falsities which he has made his truths; and he who, on this account, does not wish to understand, has closed his rational faculty against the influx from heaven; which, nevertheless, may still be opened, provided the will does not resist.

That man can understand truths, and be rational,