e of wisdom, that is, from external innocence to internal: the
latter innocence is the end of all their instruction and progression:
therefore when they attain to the innocence of wisdom, the innocence of
infancy is adjoined to them, which in the mean time had served them as a
plane. I saw a representation of the quality of the innocence of
infancy; it was of wood almost without life, and was vivified in
proportion as the knowledges of truth and the affections of good were
imbibed: and afterwards there was represented the quality of the
innocence of wisdom, by a living infant. The angels of the third heaven,
who are in a state of innocence from the Lord above other angels, appear
like naked infants before the eyes of spirits who are beneath the
heavens; and as they are wiser than all others, so are they also more
truly alive: the reason of this is, because innocence corresponds to
infancy, and also to nakedness, therefore it is said of Adam and his
wife, when they were in a state of innocence, that they were naked and
were not ashamed, but that when they had lost their state of innocence,
they were ashamed of their nakedness, and hid themselves, Gen. ii. 25;
chap. iii. 7, 10, 11. In a word, the wiser the angels are the more
innocent they are. The quality of the innocence of wisdom may in some
measure be seen from the innocence of infancy above described, n. 395,
if only instead of parents, the Lord be assumed as the Father by whom
they are led, and to whom they ascribe what they have received.

414. On the subject of innocence I have often conversed with the angels
who have told me that innocence is the _esse_ of every good, and that
good is only so far good as it has innocence in it: and, since wisdom is
of life and thence of good, that wisdom is only so far wisdom as it
partakes of innocence: the like is true of love, charity, and faith; and
hence it is that no one can enter heaven unless he has innocence; which
is meant by these words of the Lord, "_Suffer infants to come to me, and
forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of the heavens; verily I say
unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of the heavens as an
infant, he will not enter therein_," Mark x. 14, 15; Luke xviii. 16, 17.
In this passage, as well as in other parts of the Word, infants denote
those who are in innocence. The reason why good is good, so far as it
has innocence in it, is, because all good is from the Lord, and
innocence consists in