XVII.
PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF THE ANGELS.
WHEN a traveler in a foreign land writes an account of his travels, he is expected to describe the personal appearance of the people he visits, as well their character, manners and customs. Without such description his narrative would be incomplete and unsatisfactory. So natural, indeed, is it for people to inquire about the personal appearance of those whom they know only from the lips or pen of another, that a novelist would never think of dismissing one of his heroes without gratifying his readers on this point. If he should, they would be disappointed, and would not fail to note the omission as a conspicuous defect in the story.
Now, Swedenborg professes to have enjoyed open intercourse with the denizens of the spiritual world for a period of nearly thirty years. He claims to have daily seen and conversed with both angels and devils during this long period. If this is true, we should expect him to say something about the personal appearance of the people he saw there—to tell us how they look, whether beautiful or ugly. And this he has not failed to do. He says that the inhabitants of heaven are all in the human form, and beautiful beyond the power of language to describe. And he has told us why they are so beautiful. Their figures and faces, he says, are the very images of the spirit that animates and moulds them. They are the correspondential forms of their elevated thoughts, sweet affections and noble purposes. For Mind is the con-
