ternal tenderness, receive them as their own; and the
infants in this case, as from an innate feeling, love them as their
mothers: as many infants are consigned to them, as they desire from a
spiritual _storge_. The heaven in which infants are appears in front in
the region of the forehead, in the line in which the angels look
directly at the Lord. That heaven is so situated, because all infants
are educated under the immediate auspices of the Lord. There is an
influx also into this heaven from the heaven of innocence, which is the
third heaven. When they have passed through this first period, they are
transferred to another heaven, where they are instructed.

411. XX. INFANTS ARE EDUCATED UNDER THE LORD'S AUSPICES BY SUCH WOMEN,
AND GROW IN STATURE AND INTELLIGENCE AS IN THE WORLD. Infants in heaven
are educated in the following manner; they learn to speak from the
female angel who has the charge of their education; their first speech
is merely the sound of affection, in which however there is some
beginning of thought, whereby what is human in the sound is
distinguished from the sound of an animal; this speech gradually becomes
more distinct, as ideas derived from affection enter the thought: all
their affections, which also increase, proceed from innocence. At first,
such things are insinuated into them as appear before their eyes, and
are delightful; and as these are from a spiritual origin, heavenly
things flow into them at the same time, whereby the interiors of their
minds are opened. Afterwards, as the infants are perfected in
intelligence, so they grow in stature, and viewed in this respect, they
appear also more adult, because intelligence and wisdom are essential
spiritual nourishment; therefore those things which nourish their minds,
also nourish their bodies. Infants in heaven, however, do not grow up
beyond their first age, where they stop, and remain in it to eternity.
And when they are in that age, they are given in marriage, which is
provided by the Lord, and is celebrated in the heaven of the youth, who
presently follows the wife into her heaven, or into her house, if they
are of the same society. That I might know of a certainty, that infants
grow in stature, and arrive at maturity as they grow in intelligence, I
was permitted to speak with some while they were infants, and afterwards
when they were grown up; and they appeared as full-grown youths, in a
stature, like that of young men full grown in the