110 HEAVEN and HELL §212
can be presented to our eyes, for the countless things involved are so
intricate that viewed en masse they look like a soft, undefi ned lump. Yet
actually each and every function of our volition and understanding fl ows
into act through them with perfect defi nition. We can see how these
fi bers rejoin in the body by looking at the various plexuses—cardiac,
mesenteric, and others—and the nodes called ganglia where many fi bers
from all over the body come together, combining within these nodes and
then exiting in different arrangements to various functions, a pattern that
is repeated over and over again. Further, there are similar arrangements
in all our viscera, in each member and organ and muscle. Anyone who
probes these and other wonders with the eye of wisdom will be utterly
stunned; and yet these are the few things that the eye can see, and what it
cannot see is more amazing still because it is more inward in nature.
It is abundantly clear that this form corresponds to heaven’s form if
we consider the way our volition and discernment work in it and accord-
ing to it, because whatever we intend fl ows spontaneously into act and
whatever we think travels along the fi bers from their beginnings to their
ends, giving rise to our senses. Further, since this is the form of our
thought and intentions, it is the form of our intelligence and wisdom.
It is this form that corresponds to heaven’s form. We can learn from
this that it is this kind of form that determines the way all the affection
and thought of angels reaches out, and that they enjoy intelligence and
wisdom to the extent that they are in this form. It may be seen above
(§§ 78 – 86 ) that this form of heaven comes from the Lord’s divine human.
These matters have been included so that it may also be known that
heaven’s form by its very nature can never be fathomed even in a general
way and is thus incomprehensible even to angels, as already stated.Forms of Government in Heaven
213
S
INCE heaven is differentiated into communities, and the larger com-
munities consist of some hundreds of thousands of angels (§ 50 ), and
since all the people in a given community are involved in similar good
but not in similar wisdom (§ 43 ), it follows of necessity that there are