and the higher and purer delight do they find in marriage. If this be so—and we know it is—the conclusion is irresistible that there must be marriages in heaven; and not only so, but that this relation must exist there in its greatest perfection, and the delights thence resulting be the sweetest and most abundant. And we should also infer that the farther the angels advance in the divine life, the more perfectly would the souls of consorts there be united, and the fuller and more perfect be their blessedness. Accordingly Swedenborg says:
"It was shown me what is the manner of the progress of the delights arising from conjugial love, this way toward heaven and that way toward hell. The progress of the delights toward heaven was into blessednesses and happinesses continually multiplying, till they became innumerable and ineffable; and as the progression was more interior, it was into blessednesses and happinesses still more innumerable and ineffable, till it came even to the essential heavenly blessednesses and happinesses of the inmost heaven, or the heaven of innocence; and this by a most perfectly free principle, for all freedom is of love, consequently the most perfect freedom is of conjugial love which is essentially celestial. Afterwards was shown the manner of the progress of the delights of conjugial love toward hell, in that they remove themselves by degrees from heaven, and this also from an apparently free principle, till at length there are scarce any remains of a human principle in them. The deadly and infernal principle in which they close cannot be described."—A. C. n. 2744.
In conclusion:—We have thus far examined Swedenborg's revelation on this subject, in the light of reason and known facts. Here, as on other subjects, he has
