Intelligence and wisdom produce this effect. The
reason why children appear more mature, thus as youths and young men,
as they are perfected in intelligence and wisdom, is that
intelligence and wisdom are essential spiritual nourishment;{1} and
thus the things that nourish their minds also nourish their bodies,
and this from correspondence; for the form of the body is simply the
external form of the interiors. But it should be understood that in
heaven children advance in age only to early manhood, and remain in
this to eternity. That I might be assured that this is so I have been
permitted to talk with some who had been educated as children in
heaven, and had grown up there; with some also while they were
children, and again with the same when they had become young men; and
I have heard from them about the progress of their life from one age
to another.
{Footnote 1} Spiritual food is knowledge, intelligence, and
wisdom, thus the good and truth from which these are (n. 3114,
4459, 4792, 5147, 5293, 5340, 5342, 5410, 5426, 5576, 5582,
5588, 5655, 8562, 9003). Therefore in a spiritual sense
everything that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord is food
(n.
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