by Death, for it bears within itself the elements of its own destruction.’  Moreover, they can distinguish beings concealed under forms which to ignorant eyes would seem fantastic.  When a man is disposed to receive the prophetic afflation of Correspondences, it rouses within him a perception of the Word; he comprehends that the creations are transformations only; his intellect is sharpened, a burning thirst takes possession of him which only Heaven can quench.  He conceives, according to the greater or lesser perfection of his inner being, the power of the Angelic Spirits; and he advances, led by Desire (the least imperfect state of unregenerated man) towards Hope, the gateway to the world of Spirits, whence he reaches Prayer, which gives him the Key of Heaven.

“What being here below would not desire to render himself worthy of entrance into the sphere of those who live in secret by Love and Wisdom?  Here on earth, during their lifetime, such spirits remain pure; they neither see, nor think, nor speak like other men.  There are two ways by which perception comes,—­one internal, the other external.  Man is wholly external, the Angelic Spirit wholly internal.  The Spirit goes to the depth of Numbers, possesses a full sense of them, knows their significances.  It controls Motion, and by reason of its ubiquity it shares in all things.  ‘An Angel,’ says Swedenborg, ’is ever present to a man when desired’ (’Angelic Wisdom’); for the Angel has the gift of detaching himself from his body, and he sees into heaven as the prophets and as Swedenborg himself saw into it.  ‘In this state,’ writes Swedenborg (’True Religion,’ 136), ’the spirit of a man may move from one place to another, his body remaining where it is,—­a condition in which I lived for over twenty-six years.’  It is thus that we should interpret all Biblical statements which begin, ’The Spirit led me.’  Angelic Wisdom is to human wisdom what the innumerable forces of nature are to its action, which is one.  All things live again, and move and have their being in the Spirit, which is in God.  Saint Paul expresses this truth when he says, ’In Deo sumus, movemur, et vivimus,’—­we live, we act, we are in God.

“Earth offers no hindrance to the Angelic Spirit, just as the Word offers him no obscurity.  His approaching divinity enables him to see the thought of God veiled in the Logos, just as, living by his inner being, the Spirit is in communion with the hidden meaning of all things on this earth.  Science is the language of the Temporal world, Love is that of the Spiritual world.  Thus man takes note of more than he is able to explain, while the Angelic Spirit sees and comprehends.  Science depresses man; Love exalts the Angel.  Science is still seeking, Love has found.  Man judges Nature according to his own relations to her; the Angelic Spirit judges it in its relation to Heaven.  In short, all things have a voice for the Spirit.  Spirits are in the secret of the harmony of all creations with each other;