§277 angels’ innocence 145
food. In fact, information, intelligence, and wisdom are spiritual nour-
ishment the way food is natural nourishment. They correspond to each
other.
The angels in any given heaven—even the angels in any given 275
community—do not enjoy the same wisdom, but differ. Those in the
center have the most wisdom, while those who have less are around
them all the way to the borders. The decrease of wisdom according to
the distance from the center is like the decrease in light as it tends
toward darkness (see above, §§ 43 , 128 ). Further, the light for them is on
a consistent level, since heaven’s light is divine wisdom and each indi-
vidual is in light in proportion to his or her acceptance of it. (On heav-
en’s light and the different ways it is accepted, see above, §§ 126 – 132 .)
The State of Innocence of Angels in Heaven
276
N
OT many people in our world know what innocence is or what its
quality is, and people involved in evil do not know at all. It is, ofcourse, visible to our eyes—something about the face and the voice and
the gestures, especially of infants—but still we do not know what it is,
much less that it is where heaven lies concealed within us. To make it
known, I should like to proceed in order and talk fi rst about the inno-
cence of infancy, and then about the innocence of wisdom, and fi nally
about the state of heaven in respect to innocence.
The innocence of infancy, or of little ones, is not real innocence, 277
since it is solely a matter of outward form and not internal. Still, we can
learn from it what innocence is like, since it does radiate from their faces
and from some of their gestures and from their fi rst efforts at speech and
affects [the people around them. The reason it is not real innocence is]
that they do not have any internal thought—they do not yet know what
good and evil are, or what true and false are, and this knowledge is the
basis of our thinking. [ 2 ] As a result, they do not have any foresight of
their own, no premeditation, and therefore no intent of evil. They have
no self-image acquired through love for themselves and the world. They