reason of
their meeting, and desired that each company in order would declare
their sentiments respecting Heavenly Joy and Eternal Happiness. Then
each company formed themselves into a ring, with their faces turned one
towards another, that they might recall the ideas they had entertained
upon the subject in the natural world, and after examination and
deliberation might declare their sentiments.

3. After some deliberation, the First Company, which was from the north,
declared their opinion, that heavenly joy and eternal happiness
constitute the very life of heaven; so much so that whoever enters
heaven, enters, in regard to his life, into its festivities, just as a
person admitted to a marriage enters into all the festivities of a
marriage. "Is not heaven," they argued, "before our eyes in a particular
place above us? and is there not there and nowhere else a constant
succession of satisfactions and pleasures? When a man therefore is
admitted into heaven, he is also admitted into the full enjoyment of all
these satisfactions and pleasures, both as to mental perception and
bodily sensation. Of course heavenly happiness, which is also eternal
happiness, consists solely in admission into heaven, and that depends
purely on the divine mercy and favor." They having concluded, the Second
Company from the north, according to the measure of the wisdom with
which they were endowed, next declared their sentiments as follows:
"Heavenly joy and eternal happiness consist solely in the enjoyment of
the company of angels, and in holding sweet communications with them, so
that the countenance is kept continually expanded with joy; while the
smiles of mirth and pleasure, arising from cheerful and entertaining
conversation, continually enliven the faces of the company. What else
can constitute heavenly joys, but the variations of such pleasures to
eternity?" The Third Company, which was the first of the wise ones from
the western quarter, next declared their sentiments according to the
ideas which flowed from their affections: "In what else," said they, "do
heavenly joy and eternal happiness consist but in feasting with Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob; at whose tables there will be an abundance of rich and
delicate food, with the finest and most generous wines, which will be
succeeded by sports and dances of virgins and young men, to the tunes of
various musical instruments, enlivened by the most melodious singing of
sweet songs; the evening