§271 angels’ wisdom 143
f. On the correspondence of the ear and hearing: 4652 – 4660. The ear corresponds to perception
and obedience and therefore refers to them: 2542 , 3869 , 4653 , 5017 , 7216 , 8361 , 9311 , 9397 , 10065
[ 10061 ]. It means the acceptance of truths: 5471 , 5475 , 9926. On the correspondence of the eye
and its sight: 4403 – 4421 , 4523 – 4534. Eyesight therefore means the intelligence of faith and also
faith itself: 2701 , 4410 , 4526 , 6923 , 9051 , 10569.
The reason angels of the third heaven are like this is that they are 271
centered in love for the Lord, and that love opens the deeper levels of
the mind to the third level and is open to and retentive of all wisdom.
It should also be known that angels of the inmost heaven are constantly
being even more perfected in wisdom and that this too happens differ-
ently than for angels of the outmost heaven. Angels of the inmost heaven
do not store up divine truths in their memory or translate them into
information. Rather, as soon as they hear them, they grasp them and
apply them to their lives. This is why divine truths for them are virtu-
ally engraved, because anything that is committed to life is to that extent
internalized. It is different, though, for angels of the outmost heaven.
They first assign divine truths to their memory and store them in the
form of information. Then they retrieve them and use them to perfect
their understanding; and without any deeper grasp of their truth, they
intend them and commit them to life. Consequently, things are relatively
cloudy for them.
It is worth noting that angels of the third heaven are perfected in wis-
dom through hearing rather than through seeing. What they hear through
preaching does not go into their memory but directly into their percep-
tion and intention and becomes a matter of their life. What they see with
their eyes, though, does go into their memory, and they think and talk
about it. This has enabled me to see that the path of hearing is the path of
wisdom for them. This too is because of correspondence, since the ear
corresponds to obedience, and obedience has to do with the way we live;
while the eye corresponds to intelligence, and intelligence is a matter of
doctrine.f The state of these angels is described in many places in the
Word; for instance, in Jeremiah:
I will put my law in their midst and I will write it on their heart. No
longer will people teach their friends or their family, saying, “Know
Jehovah,” for all the people there are will know me, from the least of
them to the greatest of them. (Jeremiah 31 : 33 – 34 )And in Matthew,
Let your conversation be “Yes, yes; no, no,” for anything beyond this
comes from evil. (Matthew 5 : 36 [ 5 : 37 ])