infantile state in which it was when on earth; and when in this state, it necessarily puts on precisely the same infantile form which it had when in the same state in this world. For it is one of the laws of the other life, that as soon as any person is remitted into the state in which he was while on earth, he immediately puts on a similar bodily form, a similar manner, a similar expression of countenance, and speaks in a similar tone. This results necessarily from the great law of Correspondence, which is fixed and constant in the other world.
But it is not in heaven that parents are permitted to meet and recognize their little ones who have gone before them, but in the World of Spirits, that intermediate state upon which all first enter immediately after death. For all, when in this state, or on their first entrance into the other world, being in the state of their externals, appear just as they did in this world. Therefore it is in the World of Spirits where those who had been friends and acquaintances on earth, meet and recognize each other after death. It is here that parents meet and recognize their children. But they will not always remain together here, because they will not always remain in the state of their externals. As the parents pass from their external and natural, into an internal and spiritual state, they will gradually lose the desire to have their little ones remain always in the same state, or of the same infantile form. They will by degrees cease to think of them as their children; and as they come into higher
