4.  I have, moreover, spoken with spirits [to the effect] that men may be led to believe that there are more earths in the universe than one, by considering the immensity of the starry heaven with its innumerable stars, each of which, in its own place, that is, in its own system, is a sun, and like our sun, but differs in magnitude.  Any one who rightly weighs these facts must conclude that so immense a whole cannot but be the means to an end which is the final end of creation, and that this end is a heavenly kingdom, in which the Divine may dwell with angels and men.  For the visible universe, that is, the heaven resplendent with such an innumerable multitude of stars, which are so many suns, is merely a means for the existence of earths, and of human beings upon them, from whom a heavenly kingdom [may be formed].  From these considerations a rational man cannot but think that a means so immense to an end so great was not provided for a human race, and a heaven from them, from one earth only.  What would this be to the Divine, who is infinite, and to whom thousands, yea, myriads, of earths, all filled with inhabitants, would be but a little thing and almost nothing!

5.  Besides, the angelic heaven is so immense that it corresponds to each single part in man, myriads [of angels corresponding] to each member, and organ, and viscus, and to each affection of them; and it has been given me to know that this heaven, as to all its correspondences, cannot possibly exist except from the inhabitants of very many earths[f].

[Footnote f:  Heaven corresponds to the Lord, and man, as to all things in general and particular, corresponds to heaven; and hence heaven, before the Lord, is a Man in a large effigy, and may be called the Grand or Greatest Man, nos. 2996, 2998, 3624-3649, 3741-3746, 4625.  Concerning the correspondence of man, and of all things pertaining to him, with the Grand Man, which is heaven, in general, from experience, nos. 3021, 3624-3649, 3741-3751, 3883-3896, 4039-4055, 4218-4218-4228, 4318-4331, 4403-4421, 4523-4533, 4622-4633, 4652-4660, 4791-4805, 4931-4953, 5050-5061, 5171-5189, 5377-5396, 5552-5573, 5711-5727, 10030.]

6.  There are spirits whose sole study is the acquisition of knowledges finding in them their only delight.  These spirits are therefore permitted to wander about, and even to pass beyond this solar system into others, and procure knowledges.  They have stated that there are earths in immense numbers, inhabited by human beings, not only in this solar system, but in the starry heaven beyond it.  These spirits are from the planet Mercury.