self into a centre; did it thus flow by
chance into so wonderful and stupendous an order, where one thing exists
for the sake of another, and everything for the sake of man, and with a
view to his eternal life? Is it possible that nature from any principle
of love, by any principle of wisdom, should provide such things? And can
nature make angels of men, and heaven of angels? Ponder and consider
these things: and your idea of nature existing from nature will fall to
the ground." Afterwards we questioned him as to his former and present
sentiments concerning his third inquiry, relating to the CENTRE AND
EXPANSE OF NATURE AND OF LIKE; whether he was of opinion that the centre
and expanse of life are the same with the centre and expanse of nature?
He replied, that he was in doubt about it, and that he formerly thought
that the interior activity of nature is life; and that love and wisdom,
which essentially constitute the life of man, are thence derived; and
that the sun's fire, by the instrumentality of heat and light, through
the mediums of the atmospheres, produce those principles; but that now,
from what he had heard concerning the eternal life of men, he began to
waver in his sentiments, and that in consequence of such wavering, his
mind was sometimes carried upwards, sometimes downwards; and that when
it was carried upwards, he acknowledged a centre of which he had before
no idea; but when downwards, he saw a centre which he believed to be the
only one that existed; and that life is from the centre which before was
unknown to him; and nature is from the centre which he before believed
to be the only one existing; and that each centre has an expanse around
it. To this we said, Well, if he would only respect the centre and
expanse of nature from the centre and expanse of life, and not
contrariwise; and we informed him, that above the angelic heaven there
is a sun which is pure love, in appearance very like the sun of the
world; and that from the heat which proceeds from that sun, angels and
men derive will and love, and from its light they derive understanding
and wisdom; and that the things which are of life, are called spiritual
and that those which proceed from the sun of the world, are what contain
life, and are called natural; also that the expanse of the centre of
life is called the SPIRITUAL WORLD, which subsists from its sun, and
that the expanse of nature is called the NATURAL WORLD, which subsists
from its sun.