411. XX. INFANTS ARE EDUCATED UNDER THE LORD'S AUSPICES BY SUCH WOMEN, AND GROW IN STATURE AND INTELLIGENCE AS IN THE WORLD. Infants in heaven are educated in the following manner; they learn to speak from the female angel who has the charge of their education; their first speech is merely the sound of affection, in which however there is some beginning of thought, whereby what is human in the sound is distinguished from the sound of an animal; this speech gradually becomes more distinct, as ideas derived from affection enter the thought: all their affections, which also increase, proceed from innocence. At first, such things are insinuated into them as appear before their eyes, and are delightful; and as these are from a spiritual origin, heavenly things flow into them at the same time, whereby the interiors of their minds are opened. Afterwards, as the infants are perfected in intelligence, so they grow in stature, and viewed in this respect, they appear also more adult, because intelligence and wisdom are essential spiritual nourishment; therefore those things which nourish their minds, also nourish their bodies. Infants in heaven, however, do not grow up beyond their first age, where they stop, and remain in it to eternity. And when they are in that age, they are given in marriage, which is provided by the Lord, and is celebrated in the heaven of the youth, who presently follows the wife into her heaven, or into her house, if they are of the same society. That I might know of a certainty, that infants grow in stature, and arrive at maturity as they grow in intelligence, I was permitted to speak with some while they were infants, and afterwards when they were grown up; and they appeared as full-grown youths, in a stature, like that of young men full grown in the world.
412. Infants are instructed especially by representatives adequate and suitable to their genius; the great beauty and interior wisdom of which can scarcely be credited in the world. I am permitted to adduce here two representations, from which a judgement may be formed in regard to the rest. On a certain time they represented the Lord ascending from the sepulchre, and at the same time the unition of his human with the divine. At first they presented the idea of a sepulchre, but not at the same time the idea of the Lord, except so remotely, that it was scarcely, and as it were at a distance, perceived that it was the Lord; because in the idea of a sepulchre there is somewhat funereal, which they hereby removed. Afterwards they cautiously admitted into the sepulchre a sort of atmosphere, appearing nevertheless as a thin vapor, by which they signified, and this with a suitable degree of remoteness, spiritual life in baptism. They afterwards represented the Lord's descent to those who were bound, and his ascent with them into heaven; and in order to accommodate the representation to their infant minds, they let down small cords that were scarcely discernible, exceedingly soft and yielding, to aid the Lord in the ascent, being always influenced by a holy fear lest any thing in the representation should affect something that was not under heavenly influence: not to mention other representations, whereby infants are introduced into the knowledges of truth and the affections of good, as by games adapted to their capacities. To these and similar things infants are led by the Lord by means of innocence passing through the third heaven; and thus spiritual things are insinuated into their affections, and thence into their tender thoughts, so that they know no other than that they do and think such things from themselves, by which their understanding commences.
413. XXI. IT IS THERE PROVIDED BY THE LORD, THAT WITH THOSE INFANTS THE INNOCENCE OF INFANCY BECOMES THE INNOCENCE OF WISDOM (AND THUS THEY BECOME ANGELS). Many may conjecture that infants remain infants, and become angels immediately after death: but it is intelligence and wisdom that make an angel: therefore so long as infants are without intelligence and wisdom, they are indeed associated with angels, yet are not angels: but they then first become so when they are made intelligent and wise. Infants therefore are led from the innocence of infancy to the innocence of wisdom, that is, from external innocence to internal: the latter innocence is the end of all their instruction and progression: therefore when they attain to the innocence of wisdom, the innocence of infancy is adjoined to them, which in the mean time had served them as a plane. I saw a representation of the quality of the innocence of infancy; it was of wood almost without life, and was vivified in proportion as the knowledges of truth and the affections of good were imbibed: and afterwards there was represented the quality of the innocence of wisdom, by a living infant. The angels of the third heaven, who are in a state of innocence from the Lord above other angels, appear like naked infants before the eyes of spirits who are beneath the heavens; and as they are wiser than all others, so are they also more truly alive: the reason of this is, because innocence corresponds to infancy, and also to nakedness, therefore it is said of Adam and his wife, when they were in a state of innocence, that they were naked and were not ashamed, but that when they had lost their state of innocence, they were ashamed of their nakedness, and hid themselves, Gen. ii. 25; chap. iii. 7, 10, 11. In a word, the wiser the angels are the more innocent they are. The quality of the innocence of wisdom may in some measure be seen from the innocence of infancy above described, n. [395], if only instead of parents, the Lord be assumed as the Father by whom they are led, and to whom they ascribe what they have received.
414. On the subject of innocence I have often conversed with the angels who have told me that innocence is the esse of every good, and that good is only so far good as it has innocence in it: and, since wisdom is of life and thence of good, that wisdom is only so far wisdom as it partakes of innocence: the like is true of love, charity, and faith; and hence it is that no one can enter heaven unless he has innocence; which is meant by these words of the Lord, "Suffer infants to come to me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of the heavens; verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of the heavens as an infant, he will not enter therein," Mark x. 14, 15; Luke xviii. 16, 17. In this passage, as well as in other parts of the Word, infants denote those who are in innocence. The reason why good is good, so far as it has innocence in it, is, because all good is from the Lord, and innocence consists in being led by the Lord.
415. To the above I shall add this MEMORABLE RELATION. One morning, as I awoke out of sleep, the light beginning to dawn and it being very serene, while I was meditating and not yet quite awake, I saw through the window as it were a flash of lightning, and presently I heard as it were a clap of thunder; and while I was wondering whence this could be, I heard from heaven words to this effect, "There are some not far from you, who are reasoning sharply about God and nature. The vibration of light like lightning, and the clapping of the air like thunder, are correspondences and consequent appearances of the conflict and collision of arguments, on one side in favor of God, and on the other in favor of nature." The cause of this spiritual combat was as follows: there were some satans in hell who expressed a wish to be allowed to converse with the angels of heaven; "for," said they, "we will clearly and fully demonstrate, that what they call God, the Creator of all things, is nothing but nature; and thus that God is a mere unmeaning expression, unless nature be meant by it." And as those satans believed this with all their heart and soul, and also were desirous to converse with the angels of heaven, they were permitted to ascend out of the mire and darkness of hell, and to converse with two angels at that time descending from heaven. They were in the world of spirits, which is intermediate between heaven and hell. The satans on seeing the angels there, hastily ran to them, and cried out with a furious voice, "Are you the angels of heaven with whom we are allowed to engage in debate, respecting God and nature? You are called wise because you acknowledge a God; but, alas! how simple you are! Who sees God? who understands what God is? who conceives that God governs, and can govern the universe, with everything belonging thereto? and who but the vulgar and common herd of mankind acknowledges what he does not see and understand? What is more obvious than that nature is all in all? Is it not nature alone that we see with our eyes, hear with our ears, smell with our nostrils, taste with our tongues, and touch and feel with our hands and bodies? And are not our bodily senses the only evidences of truth? Who would not swear from them that it is so? Are not your heads in nature, and is there any influx into the thoughts of your heads but from nature? Take away nature, and can you think at all? Not to mention several other considerations of a like kind." On hearing these words the angels replied, "You speak in this manner because you are merely sensual. All in the hells have the ideas of their thoughts immersed in the bodily senses, neither are they able to elevate their minds above them; therefore we excuse you. The life of evil and the consequent belief of what is false have closed the interiors of your minds, so that you are incapable of any elevation above the things of sense, except in a state removed from evils of life, and from false principles of faith: for a satan, as well as an angel, can understand truth when he hears it; but he does not retain it, because evil obliterates truth and induces what is false: but we perceive that you are now in a state of removal from evil, and thus that you can understand the truth which we speak; attend therefore to what we shall say:" and they proceeded thus: "You have been in the natural world, and have departed thence, and are now in the spiritual world. Have you known anything till now concerning a life after death? Have you not till now denied such a life, and degraded yourselves to the beasts? Have you known any thing heretofore about heaven and hell, or the light and heat of this world? or of this circumstance, that you are no longer within the sphere of nature, but above it; since this world and all things belonging to it are spiritual, and spiritual things are above natural, so that not the least of nature can flow into this world? But, in consequence of believing nature to be a God or a goddess, you believe also the light and heat of this world to be the light and heat of the natural world, when yet it is not at all so; for natural light here is darkness, and natural heat is cold. Have you known anything about the sun of this world from which our light and heat proceed? Have you known that this sun is pure love, and the sun of the natural world pure fire; and the sun of the world, which is pure fire, is that from which nature exists and subsists; and that the sun of heaven, which is pure love, is that from which life itself, which is love with wisdom exists and subsists; and thus that nature, which you make a god or a goddess, is absolutely dead? You can, under the care of a proper guard, ascend with us into heaven; and we also, under similar protection, can descend with you into hell; and in heaven you will see magnificent and splendid objects, but in hell such as are filthy and unclean. The ground of the difference is, because all in the heavens worship God, and all in the hells worship nature; and the magnificent and splendid objects in the heavens are correspondences of the affections of good and truth, and the filthy and unclean objects in the hells are correspondences of the lusts of what is evil and false. Judge now, from these circumstances, whether God or nature be all in all." To this the satans replied, "In the state wherein we now are, we can conclude, from what we have heard, that there is a God; but when the delight of evil seizes our minds, we see nothing but nature." These two angels and two satans were standing to the right, at no great distance from me; therefore I saw and heard them; and lo! I saw near them many spirits who had been celebrated in the natural world for their erudition; and I was surprised to observe that those great scholars at one time stood near the angels and at another near the satans, and that they favored the sentiments of those near whom they stood; and I was led to understand that the changes of their situation were changes of the state of their minds, which sometimes favored one side and sometimes the other; for they were vertumni. Moreover, the angels said, "We will tell you a mystery; on our looking down upon the earth, and examining those who were celebrated for erudition, and who have thought about God and nature from their own judgement, we have found six hundred out of a thousand favorers of nature, and the rest favorers of God; and that these were in favor of God, in consequence of having frequently maintained in their conversation, not from any convictions of their understandings, but only from hear-say, that nature is from God; for frequent conversation from the memory and recollection, and not at the same time from thought and intelligence, induces a species of faith." After this, the satans were entrusted to a guard and ascended with the two angels into heaven, and saw the magnificent and splendid objects contained therein; and being then an illustration from the light of heaven, they acknowledged the being of a God, and that nature was created to be subservient to the life which is in God and from God; and that nature in itself is dead, and consequently does nothing of itself, but is acted upon by life. Having seen and perceived these things, they descended: and as they descended the love of evil returned and closed their understanding above and opened it beneath; and then there appeared above it as it were a veil sending forth lightning from infernal fire; and as soon as they touched the earth with their feet, the ground cleaved asunder beneath them, and they returned to their associates.