they comprehend the spirit of sound, the spirit of color, the spirit of vegetable life; they can question the mineral, and the mineral makes answer to their thoughts.  What to them are sciences and the treasures of the earth when they grasp all things by the eye at all moments, when the worlds which absorb the minds of so many men are to them but the last step from which they spring to God?  Love of heaven, or the Wisdom of heaven, is made manifest to them by a circle of light which surrounds them, and is visible to the Elect.  Their innocence, of which that of children is a symbol, possesses, nevertheless, a knowledge which children have not; they are both innocent and learned.  ‘And,’ says Swedenborg, ’the innocence of Heaven makes such an impression upon the soul that those whom it affects keep a rapturous memory of it which lasts them all their lives, as I myself have experienced.  It is perhaps sufficient,’ he goes on, ’to have only a minimum perception of it to be forever changed, to long to enter Heaven and the sphere of Hope.’

“His doctrine of Marriage can be reduced to the following words:  ’The Lord has taken the beauty and the grace of the life of man and bestowed them upon woman.  When man is not reunited to this beauty and this grace of his life, he is harsh, sad, and sullen; when he is reunited to them he is joyful and complete.’  The Angels are ever at the perfect point of beauty.  Marriages are celebrated by wondrous ceremonies.  In these unions, which produce no children, man contributes the understanding, woman the will; they become one being, one Flesh here below, and pass to heaven clothed in the celestial form.  On this earth, the natural attraction of the sexes towards enjoyment is an Effect which allures, fatigues and disgusts; but in the form celestial the pair, now one in Spirit find within theirself a ceaseless source of joy.  Swedenborg was led to see these nuptials of the Spirits, which in the words of Saint Luke (xx. 35) are neither marrying nor giving in marriage, and which inspire none but spiritual pleasures.  An Angel offered to make him witness of such a marriage and bore him thither on his wings (the wings are a symbol and not a reality).  The Angel clothed him in a wedding garment and when Swedenborg, finding himself thus robed in light, asked why, the answer was:  ’For these events, our garments are illuminated; they shine; they are made nuptial.’ (’Conjugial Love,’ 19, 20, 21.) Then he saw the two Angels, one coming from the South, the other from the East; the Angel of the South was in a chariot drawn by two white horses, with reins of the color and brilliance of the dawn; but lo, when they were near him in the sky, chariot and horses vanished.  The Angel of the East, clothed in crimson, and the Angel of the South, in purple, drew together, like breaths, and mingled:  one was the Angel of Love, the other the Angel of Wisdom.  Swedenborg’s guide told him that the two Angels had been linked together on earth by an inward friendship