For another illustration I could use the two essential and universal
things through which human bodies come into existence and continue to
exist: the heart and the lungs,or the systolic and diastolic motions of the
heart and the respiration of the lungs. It is a known fact that these two
pairs of motions are at work in each and every detail of our bodies. This
happens because the heart corresponds to love and the lungs to wisdom,
a correspondence that is fully demonstrated in Angelic Wisdom about
Divine Love and Wisdom[ 371 – 431 ], published in Amsterdam.
[ 3 ] Countless examples in both worlds, spiritual and physical, can con-
vince us that love produces or begets all forms like a bridegroom and hus-
band, by means of wisdom as a bride and wife. For now I will mention
this example alone: the whole angelic heaven is arranged into the form it
takes, and is kept in it, by divine love acting through divine wisdom.
People who attribute the creation of the world to any other force than
divine love acting through divine wisdom, and who do not realize that
these two qualities constitute the essence of God, descend from the sight of
reason to the mere sight of the eye. They embrace nature as the creator of
the universe; as a result they conceive monsters and give birth to phan-
toms. The thoughts they have are false, they use them as the basis of their
reasoning, and the conclusions they reach are eggs with night birds
inside. People like this cannot be called minds; they are eyes and ears
without an intellect, or thoughts without a soul. They speak of colors as
if they could exist without light; of trees as if they could exist without
having been seeds; of all things on earth as if they could exist without the
sun. Such people designate things begun as beginnings, and things
caused as causes. They turn everything upside down, put their reason to
sleep, and see dreams.38 2. Because goodness comes from love and truth comes from wisdom, God
is goodness itself and truth itself.Everyone knows that all things relate to
goodness and truth (which is an indication that all things come from
love and wisdom). Everything derived from love is called good. It feels
good. Love reveals itself in pleasure, and pleasure feels good to everyone.
Everything derived from wisdom is called true. Wisdom, which consists
of nothing but truths, casts its subjects in a delightful light. When we
perceive that delight, something true is coming from something good.
Love is all things that are good combined, and wisdom is all things
that are true combined. Both sets of things are from God, who is love
itself and therefore goodness itself, and wisdom itself and therefore
truth itself.