eaven as it is in
itself. There is seen in the faces of such something comparatively
obscure, not vivified by any thing of interior life shining through
it. In a word, all perfection increases toward interiors and
decreases toward exteriors, and as perfection increases and decreases
so does beauty. I have seen angelic faces of the third heaven of such
radiance that no painter with all his art could possibly give any
such light to his colors as to equal a thousandth part of the
brightness and life that shone forth from their countenances. But the
faces of the angels of the lowest heaven may in some measure be
equalled.

460. In conclusion I will mention a certain arcanum hitherto unknown
to any one, namely, that every good and truth that goes forth from
the Lord and makes heaven is in the human form; and this not only as
a whole and in what is greatest, but also in every part and what is
least; also that this form affects everyone who receives good and
truth from the Lord, and causes everyone who is in heaven to be in
the human form in accordance with his reception of good and truth. It
is in consequence of this that heaven is like itself in general and
in particular, and that the human form is the form of the whole, of
every society, and of every angel (as has been shown in the four
chapters from n. 59 to 86); to which let it be added that it is the
form of the least things of thought derived from heavenly love with
the angels. No man, however, can easily comprehend this arcanum; but
it is clearly comprehended by the angels, because they are in the
light of heaven.

461. XLVIII. AFTER DEATH MAN IS POSSESSED OF EVERY SENSE, AND OF ALL
THE MEMORY, THOUGHT, AND AFFECTION, THAT HE HAD IN THE WORLD, LEAVING
NOTHING BEHIND EXCEPT HIS EARTHLY BODY.

It has been proved to me by manifold experience that when man passes
from the natural world into the spiritual, as he does when he dies,
he carries with him all his possessions, that is, everything that
belongs to him as a man, except his earthly body. For when man enters
the spiritual world or the life after death, he is in a body as he
was in the world, with no apparent difference, since he neither sees
nor feels any difference. But his body is then spiritual, and thus
separated or purified from all that is earthly; and when what is
spiritual touches or sees what is spiritual, it is just the same as
when what is natural touches or sees what is natural. So when a man
ha