133. Something now needs to be said about heaven's warmth. In its essence, heaven's warmth is love. It emanates from the Lord as the sun, which is divine love for the Lord and from the Lord, as has been explained in the preceding chapter. We can therefore see that heaven's warmth is just as spiritual as its light, because they come from the same source. ¹

There are two things that emanate from the Lord as the sun, divine truth and divine good. Divine truth comes out in heaven as light and divine good as warmth. However, divine truth and divine good are so united that they are not two, but one. For angels, though, they are separated. There are angels who accept divine good more readily than divine truth, and there are angels who accept divine truth more readily than divine good. The ones who are more open to divine good are in the Lord's heavenly kingdom; the ones who are more open to divine truth are in the Lord's spiritual kingdom. The most perfect angels are the ones who are equally open to both.

Footnotes:

267. The reason angels can accept so much wisdom is that their deeper levels are open, and wisdom, like any perfection, increases as one moves toward the deeper levels and as they are opened. ¹

In every angel there are three levels of life corresponding to the three heavens (see 29-40). People whose first level has been opened are in the first or most remote heaven. People whose second level has been opened are in the second or intermediate heaven. People whose third level has been opened are in the third or inmost heaven. The wisdom of angels in heaven is according to these levels; so the wisdom of angels of the third heaven vastly transcends the wisdom of angels of the intermediate heaven, and their wisdom in turn transcends that of angels of the farthest heaven (see above, 209-210, and on the nature of the levels, see 38).

The reason for these differences is that the elements of the higher levels are detailed, and those of the lower are general, the general ones being inclusive of the details. The ratio of details to generalizations is on the order of thousands or ten thousands to one, so this is the ratio between the wisdom of angels of a higher heaven and that of angels of a lower heaven.

However, the wisdom of these latter angels similarly transcends our wisdom, for we are engrossed in our bodies and their sensory operations, and these physical sensory faculties are on the lowest level of all. This fact enables us to see the nature of the wisdom of people who base their thinking on sensory information - that is, the ones we call sense-oriented people. Specifically, they have no access to wisdom, only to information. ² It is different, though, for people whose thoughts are raised above sensory matters, and even more for people whose deeper levels have been opened all the way into heaven's light.

Footnotes:

5774. 'And each one loaded his ass, and they returned to the city' means that truths were brought back up from sensory impressions to known facts. This is clear from the meaning of an ass' as factual knowledge, dealt with in 5492, and of 'loading' it as bringing back up from sensory impressions since 'causing one's pouch to come down to the earth' means bringing the contents of the natural down to the level of sensory impressions, 5767 (raising 'the pouch' up from these is what 'loading' implies here); and from the meaning of 'the city' as truth present in doctrine, dealt with in 402, 2449, 2947, 3216.

[2] A brief explanation must be given of what bringing truths back up from sensory impressions to known facts is. Sensory impressions are one thing, known facts another, and truths yet another; they are consecutive to one another, for sensory impressions give rise to factual knowledge, and factual knowledge leads on to truths. Images that come in through the senses are stored in a person's memory; then he uses those images either to deduce a fact or to gain a perception of some fact he is learning about. After that he uses these facts either to deduce certain truths or to gain a perception of some truth he is learning about. This is the way everyone develops onwards from childhood. While he is a child a person's thought and grasp of things relies on sensory impressions; as he grows older his thought and grasp of things relies on factual knowledge, and after that on truths. This is the path leading to the power of judgement a person enters into as he matures.

[3] From this one may see that sensory impressions, known facts, and truths are distinct and separate. Indeed the three remain so distinct that sometimes a person's attention is fixed on sensory impressions, as happens when he gives thought only to what impinges on his senses; sometimes his attention is fixed on facts, as happens when he rises above sensory impressions and thinks more deeply; and at other times his attention is fixed on truths which have been inferred from facts, as happens when he thinks more deeply still. Anyone who stops to reflect can know these things from what is present within himself. In addition a person can bring truths down into known facts and see those truths within them, even as he can bring facts down into sensory impressions and consider them within these. And he can do the opposite. From all this one may see what is meant by bringing the contents of the natural down to the level of sensory impressions, and bringing truths back up from sensory impressions to known facts.