1347. That marriages in the heavens are without prolification, but that, instead of this, there is spiritual prolification, which is of love and wisdom, is because, with those who are in the spiritual world, the third [degree], which is natural, is wanting, and this is the continent of spirituals, and spirituals without their continent have no consistence like those things which are procreated in the natural world: also spirituals, considered in themselves, relate to love and wisdom; wherefore these (love and wisdom) are what are born from marriages in the heavens. It is said these are born, because conjugial love perfects an angel, and unites him with his consort, whereby he becomes more and more man, for, as was said above, two consorts in heaven are not two but one angel; wherefore, by conjugial unition, they fill themselves with the human, which is, to will to grow wise, and to love that which is of wisdom.-C. L. 49–52.

this is the fundamental love of all loves, and that into it are gathered all joys and all delights from first to last? And who does not know that, after this pleasant time, these transports successively decline and pass away, till at length they are scarcely sensible of them? If it be then said as before, that this is the fundamental love of all loves, and that into it are gathered all joys and delights, they do not consent, nor acknowledge these things, and perhaps assert that they are nonsense, or transcendental mysteries. From this it is evident, that the earliest love of marriage emulates love truly conjugial, and exhibits it in a certain image, to be seen; and this is because then the love of the sex is cast away, which is unchaste, and in its place the love of one of the sex, which is love truly conjugial and chaste, being implanted, remains; who does not then look upon other women with indifference, and upon her who is his own and only one, with a look of love?

1348. To what has been related concerning the state of consorts after death, the following is add- 1350. That love truly conjugial is yet so rare, ed: I. That all those consorts who are merely that it is not known what it is, and scarcely that it natural, are separated after death; this is, because is, is because the state of pleasurable gratificathe love of marriage grows cold with them, and the tions before nuptials is after them changed into love of adultery grows warm; but still, after sepa- a state of indifference from an insensibility to ration, they sometimes associate themselves, as them. It is known that every man is, at birth, consorts with others, yet after a short time they merely corporeal, and that from corporeal he berecede from each other: and this is done often and comes natural more and more interiorly, and thus repeatedly, till at length the man is bound over to rational, and at length spiritual; this is effected some harlot, and the woman to some adulterer, progressively, because the corporeal is like ground, which is done in an infernal prison, where promis- in which things natural, rational and spiritual are cuous whoredom is forbidden each under a penalty. implanted in their order; thus man becomes more II. Consorts, of whom one is spiritual and the other and more man. Similar things take place when natural, are also separated after death, and to the he enters into marriage; man then becomes a fuller spiritual is given a suitable consort; but the nat-man, because he is conjoined with a consort, with ural one is transmitted to the resorts of the lascivi- whom he acts as one man; but this takes place in ous amongst his or her like. III. But they who in a certain image, in the first state, which was spoken the world have lived unmarried, and have altogeth- of above; in like manner he then commences from er alienated their minds from marriage, if they be the corporeal, and proceeds into the natural, but spiritual, remain unmarried, but if natural, they be-in regard to conjugial life, and conjunction into one come whoremongers. But it is otherwise with therefrom; they who then love corporeal naturals, those who, in their celibacy, have desired marriage, and rationals only from them, cannot be conjoined and especially with those who have solicited it to a consort as into one, except as to those exterwithout success; for these, if they are spiritual, nals, and when the externals fail, cold invades the blessed marriages are provided, but not until they internals, which expels the delights of that love, as are in heaven. IV. They who in the world have from the mind so from the body, and afterwards as been shut up in monasteries, as well virgins as men, from the body so from the mind, and this until at the conclusion of the monastic life, which con- there is nothing remaining of the remembrance of tinues some time after death, are let loose and dis- the earliest state of their marriage, and consecharged, and enjoy the free indulgence of their quently no knowledge respecting it. Now, as this desires, whether they wish to live in marriage or takes place with most persons at this day, it is evinot; if they wish to live married, they become so, dent that what love truly conjugial is, is not known, but if not, they are borne to the unmarried at the and scarcely that it is. It is otherwise with those side of heaven; but they who burned with prohib- who are spiritual; the first state with these is an ited lust, are cast down. V. The unmarried are initiation into perpetual happiness, which advances at the side of heaven, because the sphere of per- in degree, as, in them, the spiritual rational of petual celibacy infests the sphere of conjugial love, the mind, and thence the natural sensual of the which is the very sphere of heaven; and the sphere body, conjoin and unite themselves, each with of conjugial love is the very sphere of heaven, be- those of the other; but instances of this are rare cause it descends from the heavenly marriage of C. L. 58, 59. the Lord and the church. — C. L. 54.

Conjugial Love the Fundamental of all Loves, and the Receptacle of all Joys and Delights.

Conjugial Love scarcely known at this Day. 1349. That there is given such conjugial love as 1351. That conjugial love, considered in its esis described in the following pages, may indeed be sence, is the fundamental love of all the loves of acknowledged from the first state of that love, heaven and the church, is, because its origin is when it insinuates itself and enters into the heart from the marriage of good and truth; and from of a youth and a virgin; and thus by those who this marriage proceed all the loves which make begin to love one only of the sex, and to desire her heaven and the church with man; the good of this as a wife; and still more during the period of be- marriage makes love, and the truth of it makes trothment and the interval which precedes the nup-wisdom, and when love approaches wisdom, or tials; and lastly at the nuptials, and the first of the joins itself therewith, then love becomes love, and daye which follow them. Who does not, then, when wisdom in its turn approaches love, and joins acknowledge and consent to these positions, that itself with it, then wisdom becomes wisdom.

their varieties in the souls of consorts, and from their souls in their minds, and from their minds in their breasts, are infinite and also eternal; and that they are exalted according to the wisdom with the husbands; and this because they live to eternity in the flower of their age, and because to them nothing is more blessed than to grow wiser and wiser.-C. L. 68, 69.

1354. Forasmuch as conjugial love in its first essence is love to the Lord from the Lord, and thence also is innocence, therefore that love is like

gels: for as innocence is the very esse of all good, so peace is the very esse of all delight from good, consequently it is the very esse of all joy between conjugial partners: now whereas all joy is of love, and love conjugial is the fundamental love of all the loves of heaven, therefore peace itself principally resides in that love. That peace is a bliss of heart and of soul arising from the conjunction of the Lord with heaven and the church, thus also from the conjunction of good and truth, whilst

Love truly conjugial is nothing else but the conjunction of love and wisdom; two consorts, between whom or in whom this love is at the same time, are an effigy and form of it; all likewise in the heavens, where the faces are genuine types of the affections of their love, are likenesses thereof, for it is in them in general and in every part, as has been shown above; now, because two consorts are this love in effigy and form, it follows that every love, which proceeds from the form of love itself, is like unto it; wherefore if conjugial love be heavenly and spiritual, the loves proceed-wise peace, such as is in the heavens with the aning from it are also heavenly and spiritual; conjugial love therefore is as a parent, and all other loves are as the offspring; hence it is, that from the marriages of the angels in the heavens, are generated spiritual offsprings, which are of love and wisdom, or of good and truth.-C. L. 65. 1352. All pleasures whatever, which are felt by man, are of his love; the love by them manifests itself, yea, exists and lives; that the pleasures are exalted in the same degree as the love is exalted, and also as the incidental affections touch the there is a cessation of all dissension and combat ruling love more nearly, is known. Now, as conjugial love is the fundamental love of all good loves, and as it is inscribed on the most minute particulars of man, as was shown above, it follows that its pleasures exceed the pleasures of all other loves, and also that it makes other loves pleasant, according to its presence, and conjunction with them; for it expands the inmost of the mind, and at the same time the inmost of the body, as the delightful current of its fountain flows through and opens them. All pleasures, from first to last, are gathered into this love, because of the superior excellence of its use above all others; for its use is the propagation of the human race, and thence of the angelic heaven; and because this use was the end of ends of creation, it follows that all the blessedness, happiness, gladnesses, gratifications, and pleasures, which by the Lord the Creator could possibly be conferred on man, are gathered into this his love. That pleasures follow use, and are in man according to the love of it, is manifest from the pleasures of the five senses sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch; each of these has pleasures with variations according to their specific uses; what, then, must be that belonging to the sense of conjugial love, whose use is the complex of all other uses?

1353. I know that few will acknowledge, that all joys and all delights, from first to last, are gathered into conjugial love, because love truly conjugial, into which they are gathered, is at this day so rare, that what it is is not known, and scarcely that it is, as was explained and confirmed above, for they are not in any other conjugial love than that which is genuine; and as this is so rare on earth, it is impossible to describe its supereminent felicities otherwise than from the mouth of angels, for they are in it. They have said that the inmost delights of this love, which are of the soul, into which the conjugial of love and wisdom, or of good and truth from the Lord, first flows, are imperceptible, and thence ineffable, because they are at the same time of peace and innocence; but that they become in their descent more and more perceptible, in the superiors of the mind as blessedness, in the inferiors as happiness, in the breast as pleasures from them; and that from the breast they diffuse themselves into each and every part of the body, and at length unite themselves in ultimates into the delight of delights. Moreover, the angels have related wonders respecting these delights, saying that

of the evil and false with good and truth, may be seen above; and whereas conjugial love descends from those conjunctions, therefore also all the delight of that love descends and derives its essence from celestial peace. That peace also shines forth as a celestial bliss from the face of conjugial partners in the heavens, who are in that love, and from that love mutually look at each other; nor can such celestial bliss, which intimately affects the delights of loves, and is called peace, be given with any other, than with those who can intimately, thus as to their hearts themselves, be conjoined. A. E. 997.

1355. It has been told me, that so many and so great are the delights and plesantnesses in that love, which are manifested by turns, that they are innumerable and exceed all description; they are also multiplied with continued augmentations to eternity. The origin of those delights is from this circumstance, that conjugial partners desire to be united into one as to their minds, and that heaven, by virtue of the marriage of good and truth from the Lord there, conspires to such union. I will here relate some particulars concerning the marriages of angels in heaven: they say that they are in continual potency; that after the act there is never any weariness, much less any sadness, but alacrity of life, and hilarity of mind; that the conjugial partners mutually pass the night in each other's bosoms, as if they were created into one; that effects are constantly open, so that they are never deficient whilst they will, inasmuch as without these their love would be as the vein of a fountain stopped up; the effect opens that vein, and renders it everlasting, and also promotes conjunction that they may become as one flesh, for the vital [principle] of the man adds itself to the vital [principle] of the wife and couples them together: they say that the delights of the effects cannot be described by the expressions of any language in the natural world, nor be thought of in any ideas, but such as are spiritual, and even these cannot exhaust the subject. These things have been told me by the angels. A. E. 992.

[NOTE.-Lest any novitiate in spiritual things, or any merely natural mind, should take offence at, or treat with levity, the averments of Swedenborg on this head, let it be observed, according to all previous instructions, that all angels are the spirits of glorified men and women: and that even now, in this world, there is nothing of sensational delight, or effect, in the body, bui which has its origin in the spirit. Or, according to the statemen of our author in another place"The spirit is the very man

himself, who thinks, and who lusts, who desires and is affected; nothing else; and the good of life makes conjunc and further, that all the sensitive, which appears in the body, is

properly of its spirit, and of the body only by influx."-A. C. 4692. tion because it is of heat; spiritual heat is nothing These grounds being conceded, why should not the conjugial else, for it is love, and good of life is of love; and functions, as well as all others of the organized spiritual body, it is known that all light, even that of winter, exist and operate in the angelic world? But let the reason

cannot be without conjunction of the male and female principles.

thereof be particularly remembered. Marriages on earth are for makes presence, and that heat united to light makes the procreation of offspring, but in the heavens, instead thereof, conjunction; for gardens and shrubberies appear for the procreation of goods and truths. But such procreation in all light, but they do not flower and fructify, But there are no abstract principles given - none but what exist unless when heat conjoins itself to light. From in essences and forms. Such, then, is the external nature of all these things the conclusion is obvious, that they cohabitation in the heavens. It is by such means that married are not gifted by the Lord with love truly conjugial, who merely know the truths of the church, but who know them and do its goods.-C. L. 71, 72.

partners are continually giving and receiving of each other's life, and perfecting themselves in love and wisdom forever and ever. Moreover, in regard to there being "no weariness nor sadness after the act," it is to be observed that there would be none in this world, were men in the true order of their life. If, then, the correspondence is perfect, between the heavens and the earth - if, in both, there is an exterior and an interior- an outward act and an inward prolification, then let all the repugnance which may be felt at this announcement of the heaven-instructed Seer, be charged, not to the plain and philosophical statement, but to the ignorance and prejudice of earthly minds. The truth herein contained, when sufficiently abstracted from all low and gross ideas, and invested with that spirituality and holiness which belong to the subject, is only calculated to rationalize our ideas of the heavenly world, and exalt and purify our conceptions of the

chastity and sacredness of conjugial love. Compiler.]

Marriages of the Men of the Golden Age.

1358. No one can be in love truly conjugial, and in its pleasantnesses, delights, blessings, and joys, but he who acknowledges the Lord alone that is, a trine [or threefold principle] in Him; who so approaches the Father as a person by Himself, or the Holy Spirit as a person by Himself and those not in the Lord, such a one cannot have conjugial love. The genuine conjugial principle is given Qualifications for receiving Conjugial Love. especially in the third heaven, because the angels there are in love to the Lord, acknowledge Him 1356. That no others can be in love truly con- alone as God, and do his commandments; to do jugial, but they who receive it from the Lord, who the commandments is, with them, to love Him: are those that come directly to him, and live the the commandments of the Lord are, to them, the life of the church from Himself, is, because this truths in which they receive Him: there is conlove, considered in its origin and its correspond-junction of the Lord with them, and of them with ence, is heavenly, spiritual, holy, pure, and clean, the Lord, for they are in the Lord because in good, above every love which is with the angels of and the Lord is in them, because in truth; this is heaven and the men of the church, and these its the celestial marriage, from which love truly conattributes cannot be given but to those who are jugial descends. —Å. E. 995. conjoined to the Lord, and from Himself consociated with the angels of heaven; for these shun extra conjugial loves, which are conjunctions with 1359. Whilst I was once meditating on conjugial others than their own proper consorts, as the loss love, my mind was seized with a desire of knowof the soul and the lakes of hell; and in propor- ing what that love had been with those who lived tion as a consort shuns such conjunctions, even as in the GOLDEN AGE, and afterwards what it had to lusts of the will and purposes therefrom, so far been with those who lived in the following ages, love truly conjugial is purified with them, and be- which have their names from silver, copper, and comes successively spiritual, first while they live iron; and as I knew, that all who lived well in on earth, and afterwards in heaven. Neither with those ages are in the heavens, I prayed to the Lord men nor with angels can any love be pure, conse- that I might be allowed to discourse with them and quently neither this love; but because the inten- be instructed: and, behold, an angel stood before tion which is of the will is primarily regarded by me, and said, I am sent by the Lord to be a guide the Lord, therefore, so far as man is in this inten- and attendant; and I will first lead and attend you tion, and perseveres in it, so far he is initiated into to those who lived in the first age, or period, which its purity and sanctity, and successively advances. is called golden: and he said, The way to them is That no others can be in spiritual conjugial love arduous; it is through a dark forest, which none but those who from the Lord are such, is, because can pass unless with a guide given him from the heaven is in it; and the natural man, with whom this Lord. I was in the spirit, and prepared myself for love derives its pleasure only from the flesh, cannot the journey, and we turned our faces to the east ; approach to heaven, nor to any angel, yea, neither and as we advanced, I saw a mountain, whose to any man in whom is this love, for it is the funda- height reached beyond the region of the clouds. mental love of all heavenly and spiritual loves. We passed through a great desert, and came to a That this is so, has been confirmed to me by ex-forest crowded with various kinds of trees, and perience. I saw genii in the spiritual world, who made dark by their closeness, of which the angel were preparing for hell, approaching to an angel had forewarned me; but the forest was divided by whilst he was happy with his consort; and as they approached, while yet at a distance, they became like furies, and sought caverns and ditches as asylums, into which they cast themselves.

1357. That they come into this love, and can be in it, who love the truths of the church, and do its goods, is, because no others are received of the Lord; for these are in conjunction with Himself, and thence can be held in that love from Himself. There are two things which make the church and thence heaven in man- truth of faith and good of life; truth of faith makes the Lord's presence, and good of life according to truths of faith makes conjunction with Himself, and thereby the church and heaven. The truth of faith makes the Lord's presence, because it is of light; spiritual light is

many narrow paths; and the angel said, that just so many are the windings of error, and that, unless the eyes be opened by the Lord, and olive trees be seen intwined with vine tendrils, and the steps be led from olive to olive, the traveller would fall away into Tartarus, which is round about at the sides. This forest is such, to the end that the access may be guarded; for no other than a primeval race dwells upon that mountain. After we had entered the forest, our eyes were opened, and we saw here and there olive trees intwined with vines, from which hung clusters of grapes of an azure color, and the olive trees were ranged in perpetual orbs; wherefore we made various circuits as they presented themselves to our view; and at length we saw a grove of lofty cedars, and some eagles

And

upon their branches; on seeing which the angel | overlaid with gold; and I asked, Whence is this? said, We are now on the mountain not far from its He replied, It is from a flaming light, which glitters summit. We went forward, and saw behind the like gold, irradiates and tinges the curtains of our grove a circular plain, where were feeding he and tent, whilst we are in discourse concerning conjushe lambs, which were forms representative of the gial love; for the heat from our sun, which in its state of innocence and peace of the mountaineers. essence is love, then bares itself, and tinges the We passed over this plain, and, lo, there were seen light, which in its essence is wisdom, with its own tents on tents, to many thousands, in front and on color, which is golden; and this takes place beeach side in every direction, as far as the eye could cause conjugial love, in its origin, is the sport of reach. And the angel said, We are now in the wisdom and love, for the man was born to be wiscamp; there are the armies of the Lord Jehovah, dom, and the woman to be the love of the man's for so they call themselves and their habitations. wisdom; thence are the delights of that sport in These most ancient people, whilst they were in the conjugial love and from it, between us and our world, dwelt in tents; wherefore now also they wives. We have here seen clearly for thousands of dwell in them. But let us bend our way to the years, that those delights, as to quantity, degree, south, where the wiser of them are, that we may and virtue, are excellent and eminent according to meet some one with whom we may converse. As the worship of the Lord Jehovah with us, from I went on, I saw at a distance three boys and three whom that heavenly union, or that heavenly margirls sitting at the door of a certain tent; but as riage, which is of love and wisdom, flows in. As we approached, they appeared like men and wo- he spake these words, I saw a great light upon the men of a middle stature. And the angel said, All hill in the midst among the tents; and I asked, the inhabitants of this mountain appear at a dis- Whence is that light? And he said, It is from the tance as infants, because they are in a state of sanctuary of the tent of our worship. And I asked, innocence, and infancy is the appearance of inno- whether it was permitted to approach. And he cence. These men, on seeing us, ran towards us, said, that it was permitted: and I approached, and and said, Whence are you, and how came you saw the tent without and within, altogether achither? Your faces are not of the faces of our cording to the description of the [tent] tabernacle, mountain. But the angel, in reply, told them, that which was built for the sons of Israel in the desert, we had approached through the forest by permis- the form whereof was shown to Moses upon Mount sion, and what the cause of our coming was. On Sinai, Exod. xxv. 40, and xxvi. 30. And I asked, hearing this, one of the three men invited and in- What is within in that sanctuary, whence there is so troduced us into his tent. The man was clad in a great a light? And he replied, It is a tablet with coat of a blue color, and a tunic of white wool; this inscription, THE COVENANT BETWEEN JEHOand his wife was dressed in a purple gown, and, VAH AND THE HEAVENS: he said no more. under it, a tunic about the breast, of fine linen as we were then in readiness to depart, I asked, wrought in needlework. And because there was Did any of you, while you were in the natural in my thought a desire of knowing what marriages world, live with more than one wife? He replied, were amongst the most ancient people, I looked by that he knew not one; for we could not think of turns on the husband and wife, and observed as it more; those who have so thought have told us, that were the unity of their souls in their faces; and I instantly the heavenly blessedness of their souls, said, You two are one: and the man answered, We receded from the inmost to the outermost of their are one; her life is in me, and mine in her: we are bodies, even to the nails, and together with them two bodies, but one soul; the union between us is the honors of manhood; these, when this was perlike that of the two tents in the breast, which are ceived, were banished the land. After these words, called the heart and the lungs; she is my heart, the man ran to his tabernacle, and returned with a and I am her lungs; but as by heart we here under-pomegranate, in which was an abundance of seeds stand love, and by lungs wisdom, she is the love of of gold; and he gave it, and I brought it away, my wisdom, and I am the wisdom of her love; and it was a sign to me that we had been with wherefore her love from without veils my wisdom, those who lived in the golden age. And then, and my wisdom from within is interiorly in her after a salutation of peace, we departed, and relove; hence, as you said, there is an appearance of turned home. — C. L. 75. the unity of our souls in our faces. I then asked, If such union exist, can you look at any other woman than your own? And he replied, I can ; but as my wife is united to my soul, we both look together, and then nothing of lust can enter; for whilst I look at the wives of others, I look at them by my own wife, whom alone I love; and because this my wife has a perception of all my inclinations, she, as an intermediate, directs my thoughts, and removes every thing discordant, and therewith impresses cold and horror for every thing unchaste; to us here it is as impossible to look upon the wife of any companion from lust, as to look from the shades of Tartarus upon the light of our heaven; therefore there is not given with us any idea of thought, and still less any expression of speech, for the allurements of libidinous love. He could not utter "whoredom," because the chastity of their heaven strove against it. The angel who conducted me then said to me, You hear now the speech of the angels of this heaven, that it is the speech of wisdom, because they speak from causes. After this I looked around, and I saw their tent as

Marriages of the Men of the Silver Age.

1360. The next day the same angel came to me, and said, Do you wish that I should lead and attend you to the people who lived in the SILVER AGE OR PERIOD, that we may hear from them concerning the marriages of their time? And he said, Neither is access to be had to these but under the auspices of the Lord. I was in the spirit as before, and accompanied my conductor, first to a hill on the confines between the east and the south; and while we were on its declivity, he showed me a great extent of country; and we saw at a distance an eminence as of a mountain, between which and the hill upon which we stood was a valley, and behind it a plain, and from this an acclivity rising gently: we descended the hill to pass the valley, and we saw here and there on each side wood and stone carved into figures of men, and of various beasts, birds, and fishes; and I asked the angel, What are these? Are they idols? And he replied, By no means; they are configurations representative of various moral virtues, and of spiritual truths:

call sacredness; whereas if it should have place with more than one among us, we should call it sacrilege. After he had said these things, we were introduced into an antechamber, where were many devices on the walls, and small images as it were molten of silver; and I asked, What are these? And they said, They are pictures and forms representative of several qualities, characteristics, and enjoyments, which are of conjugial love; these represent unity of souls, these conjunction of minds, these concord of bosoms, these the delights thence arising. As we looked around, we saw as it were a rainbow upon the wall, consisting of three colors, purple, blue, and white; and we saw how the purple color passed the blue, and tinged the white with an azure color, and that this color flowed back through the blue into the purple, and elevated the purple into a brightness as of flame: and the husband said to me, Do you understand these things? and I replied, Instruct me; and he said, the purple color, from its correspondence, signifies the conjugial love of the wife, the white color the intelligence of the husband, the blue color the beginning of conjugial love in the husband's perception from the wife, and the azure color, with which the whiteness was tinged, conjugial love then in the husband; this color, flowing back through the blue into the purple, and elevating it into a brightness as of flame, signifies the conjugial love of the husband flowing back to the wife; such things are represented on these walls, while from meditation on conjugial love, its mutual, successive, and simultaneous union, we view with eager attention the rainbows there painted. To this I replied, These things are more than mystical at this day, for they are appearances representative of the arcana of the conjugial love of one man with one wife. And he replied, They are so; yet to us here they are not arcana, and hence not mystical. When this was said, there appeared at a distance a chariot drawn by small white horses; and when it was seen, the angel said, That chariot is a sign to us to depart: and then, as we were descending the stairs, our host gave us a cluster of white grapes adhering to the vine leaves; and behold, the leaves were made silver, and we brought them away as a sign that we had conversed with the people of the silver age. — C. L. 76.

the people of that age possessed the science of correspondences, and every man, beast, bird, and fish, corresponds to some quality; therefore each carved thing represents some particular of virtue or truth, and many together represent virtue itself or truth itself in a common extended form; these are what in Egypt were called hieroglyphics. We proceeded through the valley, and as we entered the plain, we saw horses and chariots, horses saddled and bridled, and chariots of different forms, some carved like eagles, some like whales, and some like stags with horns, and like unicorns, and likewise beyond them some carts, and around, at the sides, stables; and as we approached, both horses and chariots disappeared, and in their stead we saw men, pairs and pairs, walking, conversing and reasoning. And the angel said to me, The different species of horses, chariots, and stables, seen at a distance, are appearances of the rational intelligence of the men of that age; for horse, from correspondence, signifies the understanding of truth, chariot the doctrine thereof, and stables instructions; you know that in this world all things appear according to correspondences. But we passed by these things, and ascended by a long acclivity, and at length saw a city, which we entered; and in walking through the streets and places of public resort, we observed the houses; they were so many palaces, built of marble, with steps of alabaster in front, and at the sides of the steps pillars of jasper: we saw also temples of a precious stone of the color of sapphire and lapis lazuli. And the angel said to me, Their houses are of stones, because stones signify natural truths, and precious stones spiritual truths; and all they who lived in the silver age had intelligence from spiritual truths, and therefrom in natural truths; the like also is signified by silver. As we looked through the city, we saw here and there pairs and pairs; and as they were husbands and wives, we expected to be invited somewhere; and whilst this was in our minds, as we were passing by, we were called back by two into their house, and we ascended and entered; and the angel, speaking for me, explained to them the cause of our coming to this heaven, that it was for the sake of instruction concerning marriages with the ancients, from whom, says he, you here are. And they replied, We were from a people in Asia, and the study of our age was the study of truths, by which we had intelligence; this study was the 1361. The next day, the conducting and attendstudy of our souls and minds; but the study of ant angel still came and said, Make yourself ready, our bodily senses was the representations of truths and let us go to the inhabitants of heaven in the in forms, and the science of correspondences con- west, who are of the men that lived in the third joined the sensuals of our bodies with the percep- periód, or the COPPER AGE; their habitations are tions of our minds, and gained for us intelligence. from the south over the west to the north, but not On hearing this, the angel requested them to say into it. And having made myself ready, I attend something of their marriages: and the husband ed him, and we entered their heaven from the said, There is a correspondence between spiritual southern side; and a magnificent grove of palm marriage, which is of truth with good, and natural trees and laurels was there: we passed through marriage, which is of a man with one wife; and as this, and then, on the very confines of the west, we we have studied correspondences, we have seen saw giants, twice as tall as ordinary men. They that the church, with its truths and goods, can by asked us, Who let you in through the grove? The no means be given but with those who live in love angel said, The God of heaven. And they replied, truly conjugial with one wife; for the marriage of We are guards to the ancient western heaven, but good and truth is the church with man: where- pass ye on. And we passed on, and from an elefore all we who are here say, that the husband is vation we saw a mountain rising even to the clouds, truth, and his wife is good, and that good cannot and between us and the mountain a number of villove any truth but its own, neither can truth in re-las, with gardens, groves and plains intermixed; turn love any good but its own; if any other were loved, internal marriage, which makes the church, would perish, and there would be only external marriage, to which idolatry, and not the church, corresponds: therefore marriage with one wife we

Marriages of the Men of the Copper Age.

and we passed through the villas even to the mountain, which we ascended; and behold, its summit was not a point, but a plain, and upon it was a spacious and extensive city: and all the houses of the city were built of the wood of resin trees, and