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Swedenborg, Emanuel, 1688-1772

"Heaven and its Wonders and Hell"



203. So far as any one is in the form of heaven he is in heaven, and
is, in fact, a heaven in the least form (n. 57); consequently he is
to the same extent in intelligence and wisdom; for as has been said
above, all the thought of his understanding and all the affection of
his will extend themselves on every side into heaven in accord with
its form, and wonderfully communicate with the societies there, and
these in turn with him.{1} [2] There are some who do not believe that
thoughts and affections really extend themselves around about them,
but believe that they are within them, because whatever they think
they see within in themselves, and not as distant; but such are
greatly mistaken. For as the sight of the eye has extension to remote
objects, and is affected in accordance with the order of the things
seen in that extension, so the interior sight, which is that of the
understanding, has a like extension in the spiritual world, although
not perceived by man, for the reason given above (n. 196). The only
difference is that the sight of the eye is affected in a natural way,
because it is affected by the things in the natural world, while the
sight of the understanding is affected in a spiritual way, because by
the things in the spiritual world, all of which have relation to good
and truth; and man's ignorance of this is because of his not knowing
that there is any light that enlightens the understanding; and yet
without the light that enlightens the understanding man could not
think at all (of which light see above, n.


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