179.  There are degrees of love and wisdom, consequently degrees of heat and light also degrees, of atmospheres.

The things which follow cannot be comprehended unless it be known that there are degrees, also what they are, and what their nature is, because in every created thing, thus in every form, there are degrees.  This Part of Angelic Wisdom will therefore treat of degrees.  That there are degrees of love and wisdom can be clearly seen from the fact that there are angels of the three heavens.  The angels of the third heaven so far excel the angels of the second heaven in love and wisdom, and these, the angels of the lowest heaven, that they cannot be together.  The degrees of love and wisdom distinguish and separate them.  It is from this that angels of the lower heavens cannot ascend to angels of higher heavens, or if allowed to ascend, they do not see the higher angels or anything that is about them.  They do not see them because the love and wisdom of the higher angels is of a higher degree, transcending the perception of the lower angels.  For each angel is his own love and his own wisdom; and love together with wisdom in its form is a man, because God, who is Love itself and Wisdom itself, is a Man.  It has sometimes been permitted me to see angels of the lowest heaven who have ascended to the angels of the third heaven; and when they had made their way thither, I have heard them complaining that they did not see any one, and all the while they were in the midst of the higher angels.  Afterwards they were instructed that those angels were invisible to them because their love and wisdom were imperceptible to them, and that love and wisdom are what make an angel appear as a man.

180.  That there must be degrees of love and wisdom is still more evident when the love and wisdom of angels are compared with the love and wisdom of men.  It is well known that the wisdom of angels, when thus compared, is ineffable; also it will be seen in what follows that to men who are in natural love, this wisdom is incomprehensible.  It appears ineffable and incomprehensible because it is of a higher degree.

181.  Since there are degrees of love and wisdom, there are also degrees of heat and light.  By heat and light are meant spiritual heat and light, such as angels in the heavens have, and such as men have as to the interiors of their minds; for men have a heat of love similar to that of the angels, and a similar light of wisdom.  In the heavens, such and so much love as the angels have, such and so much is their heat; and the same is true of their light as compared with their wisdom; the reason is, that with them love is in the heat, and wisdom in the light (as was shown above).  It is the same with men on earth, with the difference, however, that angels feel that heat and see that light, but men do not,