329. We can tell what a useful function is from the goal of the creation of the universe. The goal of the creation of the universe is to bring about an angelic heaven; and since an angelic heaven is the goal, so is humanity or the human race, since that is where heaven comes from. It follows, then, that everything that has been created is an intermediate goal, and that the functions are useful in the sequence, on the level, and in the specific way that they relate to humanity, and through humanity to the Lord.

493. The first state of man after death is like his state in the world, for he is then likewise in externals, having a like face, like speech, and a like "animus", thus a like moral and civil life. So it is that he then does not know but that he is still in the world unless he gives attention to what he encounters and to the things told him by the angels when he was resuscitated-that now he is a spirit (450). Thus is one life continued into the other, and death is merely transition.