he presented himself, and I spoke to him from
behind and said, "Do you know anything about hell, damnation, and
torment in hell?" And presently, when he was turned to me, I asked him
what he heard? He said, "I heard, 'Do you know anything concerning
heaven, salvation, and happiness in heaven?'" and afterwards when the
latter words were said to him from behind, he said that he heard the
former. It was next said to him from behind, "Do you know that those who
are in hell are insane from falses?" and when I asked him concerning
these words what he heard, he said, "I heard, 'Do you know that those
who are in heaven are wise from truths?'" and when the latter words were
spoken to him from behind, he said that he heard, "Do you know that
those who are in hell, are insane from falses?" and so in other
instances: from which it evidently appears, that when the mind turns
itself from the Lord, it turns to itself, and then it perceives things
contrary. "This, as you know, is the reason why, in this spiritual
world, no one is allowed to stand behind another, and to speak to him;
for thereby there is inspired into him a love, which his own
intelligence favors and obeys for the sake of its delight; but since it
is from man, and not from God, it is a love of evil, or a love of the
false. In addition to the above, I will relate to you another similar
circumstance. On certain occasions I have heard goods and truths let
down from heaven into hell; and in hell they were progressively turned
into their opposites, good into evil, and truth into the false; the
cause of this, the same as above, because all in hell turn themselves
from the Lord." On hearing these two things the two angels thanked me,
and said, "As you are now meditating and writing concerning a love
opposite to our conjugial love, and the opposite to that love makes our
minds sad, we will depart;" and when they said, "Peace be unto you," I
besought them not to mention that love to their brethren and sisters in
heaven, because it would hurt their innocence. I can positively assert
that those who die infants, grow up in heaven, and when they attain the
stature which is common to young men of eighteen years old in the world,
and to maidens of fifteen years, they remain of that stature; and
further, that both before marriage and after it, they are entirely
ignorant what adultery is, and that such a thing can exist.

* * * * *

ON FORNICATION.

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