339. It has been said above that children are of a genius either
celestial or spiritual. Those of a celestial genius are easily
distinguished from those of a spiritual genius. Their thought,
speech, and action, is so gentle that hardly anything appears except
what flows from a love of good to the Lord and from a love for other
children. But those of a spiritual genius are not so gentle; but in
everything with them there appears a sort of vibration, as of wings.
The difference is seen also in their ill-feeling and in other
things.
340. Many may suppose that in heaven little children remain little
children, and continue as such among the angels. Those who do not
know what an angel is may have had this opinion confirmed by
paintings and images in churches, in which angels are represented as
children. But it is wholly otherwise. Intelligence and wisdom are
what constitute an angel, and as long as children do not possess
these they are not angels, although they are with the angels; but as
soon as they become intelligent and wise they become angels; and what
is wonderful, they do not then appear as children, but as adults, for
they are no longer of an infantile genius, but of a more mature
angelic genius.
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