Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 2.djvu/66

 From all my experience which is now of many years, I can declare that the form of the angels is in every respect human; that they have faces, eyes, ears, breasts, arms, hands and feet; that they see, hear, and converse with each other; in a word, that they lack nothing which belongs to man, except the material body. I have seen them in a light which exceeds by many degrees the noon-day light of the world; and in that light I observed all parts of their faces more distinctly and clearly than ever I did the face of men on earth. I have also been permitted to see an angel of the inmost heaven. His countenance was brighter and more resplendent than the faces of the angels of the inferior heavens. I examined him closely, and his form was perfectly human.

It is, however, to be observed that angels cannot be seen by man with his bodily eyes, but with the eyes of the spirit which is within him; because the spirit is in the spiritual world, and all things of the body are in the natural world. Like sees like, because from like.

Besides, every one knows that the organ of bodily vision which is the eye, is so gross that it cannot see even the smaller things of nature except by the aid of optical glasses; much less, then, can it discern those which are above the sphere of nature, as are all things in the spiritual world. Nevertheless, these are seen by man when he is withdrawn from the bodily sight, and the sight of his spirit is opened. This is effected in a