which makes them unwilling to raise the thoughts of their understanding

above the natural into spiritual light; and those who are unwilling to do

this can think only from space, even concerning God; and to think according

to space concerning God is to think concerning the expanse of nature. This

has to be premised, because without a knowledge and some perception that

the Divine is not in space, nothing can be understood about the Divine

Life, which is Love and Wisdom, of which subjects this volume treats; and

hence little, if anything, about Divine Providence, Omnipresence,

Omniscience, Omnipotence, Infinity and Eternity, which will be treated

of in succession.

with every man in the world, and with every angel in heaven, and with

every spirit under heaven, cannot be comprehended by a merely natural

idea, but it can by a spiritual idea. It cannot be comprehended by a

natural idea, because in the natural idea there is space; since it is

formed out of such things as are in the world, and in each and all of

these, as seen by the eye, there is space. In the world, everything great

and small is of space; everything long, broad, and high is of space; in

short, every measure, figure and form is of space. This is why it has

been said that it cannot be comprehended by a merely natural idea that

the Divine is not in space, when it is said that the Divine is everywhere.

Still, by natural thought, a man may comprehend this, if only he admit

into it something of spiritual light. For this reason something shall

first be said about spiritual idea, and thought therefrom. Spiritual idea

derives nothing from space, but it derives its all from state. State is

predicated of love, of life, of wisdom, of affections, of joys therefrom;

in general, of good and of truth. An idea of these things which is truly

spiritual has nothing in common with space; it is higher and looks down

upon the ideas of space which are under it as heaven looks down upon the

earth. But since angels and spirits see with eyes, just as men in the

world do, and since objects cannot be seen except in space, therefore in

the spiritual world where angels and spirits are, there appear to be

spaces like the spaces on earth; yet they are not spaces, but appearances;

since they are not fixed and constant, as spaces are on earth; for they

can be lengthened or shortened; they can be changed or varied. Thus because

they cannot be determined in that world by measure, they cannot be

comprehended there by any natural idea, but only by a spiritual idea. The

spiritual idea of distances of space is the same as of distances of good

or distances of truth, which are affinities and likenesses according to

states of goodness and truth.

8. From this it may be seen that man is unable, by a merely natural idea,

to comprehend that the Divine is everywhere, and yet not in space; but

that angels and spirits comprehend this clearly; consequently that a man

also may, provided he admits into his thought something of spiritual light;

and this for the reason that it is not his body that thinks, but his

spirit, thus not his natural, but his spiritual.

9. But many fail to comprehend this because of their love of the natural,

which makes them unwilling to raise the thoughts of their understanding

above the natural into spiritual light; and those who are unwilling to do

this can think only from space, even concerning God; and to think according

to space concerning God is to think concerning the expanse of nature. This

has to be premised, because without a knowledge and some perception that

the Divine is not in space, nothing can be understood about the Divine

Life, which is Love and Wisdom, of which subjects this volume treats; and

hence little, if anything, about Divine Providence, Omnipresence,

Omniscience, Omnipotence, Infinity and Eternity, which will be treated

of in succession.

Man knows that there is such a thing as love, but he does not know what

love is. He knows that there is such a thing as love from common speech,

as when it is said, he loves me, a king loves his subjects, and subjects

love their king, a husband loves his wife, a mother her children, and

conversely; also, this or that one loves his country, his fellow citizens,

his neighbor; and likewise of things abstracted from person, as when it

is said, one loves this or that thing. But although the word love is so

universally used, hardly anybody knows what love is. And because one is

unable, when he reflects upon it, to form to himself any idea of thought

about it, he says either that it is not anything, or that it is merely

something flowing in from sight, hearing, touch, or interaction with

others, and thus affecting him. He is wholly unaware that love is his

very life; not only the general life of his whole body, and the general

life of all his thoughts, but also the life of all their particulars.

This a man of discernment can perceive when it is said: If you remove

the affection which is from love, can you think anything, or do anything?

Do not thought, speech, and action, grow cold in the measure in which the

affection which is from love grows cold? And do they not grow warm in the

measure in which this affection grows warm? But this a man of discernment

perceives simply by observing that such is the case, and not from any

knowledge that love is the life of man.

What the life of man is, no one knows unless he knows that it is love.

If this is not known, one person may believe that man’s life is nothing

but perceiving with the senses and acting, and another that it is merely

thinking; and yet thought is the first effect of life, and sensation and

action are the second effect of life. Thought is here said to be the first

effect of life, yet there is thought which is interior and more interior,

also exterior and more exterior. What is actually the first effect of life

is inmost thought, which is the perception of ends. But of all this

hereafter, when the degrees of life are considered.

Some idea of love, as being the life of man, may be had from the sun’s

heat in the world. This heat is well known to be the common life, as it

were, of all the vegetations of the earth. For by virtue of heat, coming

forth in springtime, plants of every kind rise from the ground, deck

themselves with leaves, then with blossoms, and finally with fruits, and

thus, in a sense, live. But when, in the time of autumn and winter, heat

withdraws, the plants are stripped of these signs of their life, and they

wither. So it is with love in man; for heat and love mutually correspond.

Therefore love also is warm.

GOD ALONE, CONSEQUENTLY THE LORD, IS LOVE ITSELF, BECAUSE HE IS LIFE

ITSELF AND ANGELS AND MEN ARE RECIPIENTS OF LIFE.