337. I have also been shown how all things are instilled into them by
delightful and pleasant means suited to their genius. I have been
permitted to see children most charmingly attired, having garlands of
flowers resplendent with most beautiful and heavenly colors twined
about their breasts and around their tender arms; and once to see
them accompanied by those in charge of them and by maidens, in a park
most beautifully adorned, not so much with trees, as with arbors and
covered walks of laurel, with paths leading inward; and when the
children entered attired as they were the flowers over the entrance
shone forth most joyously. This indicates the nature of their
delights, also how they are led by means of pleasant and delightful
things into the goods of innocence and charity, which goods the Lord
continually instilled into these delights and pleasures.
338. It was shown me, by a mode of communication common in the other
life, what the ideas of children are when they see objects of any
kind. Each and every object seemed to them to be alive; and thus in
every least idea of their thought there is life. And it was perceived
that children on the earth have nearly the same ideas when they are
at their little plays; for as yet they have no such reflection as
adults have about what is inanimate.
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