CONTINUATION CONCERNING THE GREATEST MAN AND CONCERNING CORRESPONDENCE.

4218. At the end of the preceding chapters, I have described things which it has been given me to see and perceive in the world of spirits and in the heavens of angels; and lastly I have spoken of the Greatest Man and Correspondence. To make it fully known how it is with man, and that he is in connection with heaven, not only as to thoughts and affections, but also as to organic forms, both interior and exterior, and that without that connection he cannot subsist even a moment, we may continue now the subject of the correspondence with the Greatest Man, which was begun at the end of the preceding chapters.

4219. That it may be known in general how it is with the Greatest Man, it must be kept in mind that the universal heaven is the Greatest Man, and that heaven is called the Greatest Man because it corresponds to the Divine Human of the Lord; for the Lord alone is Man; and an angel and a spirit, and also a man on earth, are men just in proportion to what they have from Him. Let no one believe that man is man from his having a human face, a human body, a brain, and organs and members. These members are common to him with brute animals, and are therefore what die and become a carcase. But man is man from being able to think and will as a man, and thus to receive what is Divine, that is, what is of the Lord. By this man distinguishes himself from beasts and wild animals; and in the other life also his quality as a man is determined by what he has received from the Lord and made his own in the life of the body.

4220. They who in the life of the body have received the Divine things of the Lord, that is, His love toward the universal human race, and accordingly charity toward the neighbor, and reciprocal love to the Lord, are gifted in

the other life with intelligence and wisdom, and with ineffable happiness; for they become angels and thus truly men. But they who in the life of the body have not received the Divine things of the Lord, that is, love toward the human race, and still less reciprocal love to the Lord, but have loved and indeed worshipped only themselves, and consequently have had for their end what is of self and the world, after brief experience of life in the other world, are deprived of all intelligence, and become most stupid, and are among the stupid infernals there.

4221. In order that I might know this, it was given me to speak with such as have lived in this manner, and likewise with one with whom I was also acquainted in the life of the body. While he lived on earth, whatever good he did to the neighbor was for the sake of himself; that is, for his own honor and gain. All others he despised and hated. He made confession of God indeed with the mouth, but did not acknowledge Him with the heart. When it was given me to speak with him, there exhaled from him a sphere like that of the body. His speech was not like that of spirits, but like that of a man still living; for the speech of spirits is distinguished from that of men in being full of ideas, or in having what is spiritual within, and thus a life which cannot be expressed; but his speech was not so. Such a sphere exhaled from him and was perceived in everything that he spoke. He appeared there among the vile; and it was said that they who are such gradually become so gross and stupid as to their thoughts and affections, that no one can be more stupid in the world. They have their place under the haunches, where their hell is. From the same place there had appeared one before, not in appearance like a spirit, but like a grossly corporeal man, in whom there was so little of the life of intelligence which is properly human, that you would call it stupidity personified. From this it was manifest what kind of spirits those become who are in no love toward the neighbor, or

toward the public, and still less toward the kingdom of the Lord; but who are only in the love of self, and regard themselves only in everything, even adoring themselves as gods, and wishing also to be so adored by others, and having this intent in everything they do.

4222. As regards the correspondence of the Greatest Man with what is within man, it has correspondence with each and every thing in him organs, members, and viscera so far indeed that there is not a single organ or member in the body, nor any part in an organ or member, nor even any particle of a part, with which there is not correspondence. It is known that every organ and every member in the body consists of parts, and of parts of parts as the brain, for example, which consists in general of the cerebrum, of the cerebellum, of the medulla oblongata, and of the medulla spinalis, this being a continuation, or appendix, as it were. Again the cerebrum consists of many members, which are its parts of the membranes which are called the dura mater and pia mater, of the corpus callosum, of the corpora striata, of the ventricles and cavities, of the smaller glands, of the septa, in general of the cineritious substance and the medullary substance, and furthermore of the sinuses, blood vessels, and plexuses. It is similar with the organs of sense and motion in the body, and with the viscera, as is well known from anatomical studies. All these things in general and in particular correspond most exactly to the Greatest Man, and to so many heavens, as it were, therein. For the heaven of the Lord is distinguished in like manner into lesser heavens, and these into still lesser, and these into least, and at length into angels, every one of whom is a little heaven corresponding to the greatest. These heavens are most distinct from one another, each one belonging to its own general heaven, and the general heavens to the most general, or the whole, which is the Greatest Man.

4223. But with regard to correspondence the truth is,

that the heavens above mentioned correspond indeed to the organic forms themselves of the human body, and therefore it is said that these societies or those angels belong to the province of the brain, or to the province of the heart, or to the province of the lungs, or to the province of the eye; and so on. But still they correspond principally to the functions of these viscera or organs. It is as with the organs or viscera themselves, whose functions constitute one with their organic forms; for no function can be conceived except from forms, that is, from substances, substances being the subjects from which they exist. Sight, for example, cannot be conceived without the eye, nor respiration without the lungs. The eye is the organic form. from which and by means of which the sight exists, and the lungs are the organic form from which and by means of which the respiration exists; and so also with the rest. It is the functions, therefore, to which the heavenly societies principally correspond; and as they correspond to the functions, they correspond also to the organic forms; for the one is indivisible and inseparable from the other, so that whether you name the function or the organic form by which and from which is the function, it is the same thing. This is why there is correspondence with the organs, members, and viscera, because there is with the functions; and therefore when the function is produced, the organ also is excited. So also it is in each and every thing which a man does when he wills to do this or that, in this manner or another, and is thinking of it, the organs then move in concurrence, and thus according to the intention of the 2 function or use; for use is what governs the forms. It is manifest also from this, that the use existed before the organic forms of the body, and that the use produced and adapted them to itself, and not the reverse. But when the forms are produced, and the organs adapted, the uses proceed from them; and then it appears as if the forms or organs existed previously to the uses, when yet it is not so.

For use flows in from the Lord, and this through heaven, according to order, and according to the form in which heaven is ordered by the Lord, and thus according to correspondence. Thus man exists, and thus he subsists. From this again it is manifest from what cause man, as to each and every thing in him, corresponds to the heavens.

4224. Organic forms are not only those that are apparent to the eye, and that can be detected by microscopes; but there are also organic forms still more pure, which can never be discovered by any eye, whether naked or assisted." The latter forms are interior, as are those of internal sight, and which are in fine those of the understanding. These are inscrutable, but still they are forms, that is, substances; for no sight, not even intellectual, can exist, except from something. This is also known in the learned world, that is to say, that without substance, which is a subject, there is not any mode, or any modification, or any quality which manifests itself actively. These purer or interior forms which are inscrutable, are those which form and present the internal senses, and also produce the interior affections. With those forms the interiors of heaven correspond, because they correspond with the senses which they present, and with the affections of these senses. But since very 2 many things have been disclosed to me respecting these senses and their correspondence, they cannot be set forth clearly unless each one is treated of in particular; and so it may be well, in the following pages, by the Divine mercy of the Lord, to continue what has been commenced at the end of previous chapters in regard to the correspondence of man with the Greatest Man; in order that man may at length know, not from any reasoning, and still less from any hypothesis, but from experience itself, how it is with him, and with his internal man, which is called his soul, and in fine with his conjunction with heaven, and through heaven with the Lord; and consequently whence man is man, and by what he is distinguished from beasts; and