334. It is abundantly clear that these are for our use and that they are gifts freely given if we look at the state of angels in the heavens. They have bodies, rational abilities, and spiritual receptivity just as we on earth do. They are nourished for free, because they are given their food daily. They are clothed for free, because they are given their clothing. They are housed for free, because they are given their homes. They have no anxiety about any of these things; and to the extent that they are spiritually rational, they enjoy pleasure, protection, and preservation of their state.

The difference is that angels see that these things come from the Lord because they are created in response to the angels' state of love and wisdom, as explained above in 322, while we do not see this because things recur according to the calendar and happen not according to our states of love and wisdom but according to our efforts.

321. It should be known that in outward appearance the spiritual world is just like the natural world. One sees there lands, mountains, hills, valleys, plains, fields, lakes, rivers, and springs, just as in the natural world, thus all the phenomena belonging to the mineral kingdom. One sees also parks, gardens, groves, and forests, in which are found trees and bushes of every kind, with fruits and seeds, and plants, flowers, herbs, and grasses, thus all the phenomena belonging to the plant kingdom. One sees animals, birds, and fish of every kind, thus all the phenomena belonging to the animal kingdom. A person there is an angel or spirit.

This much is premised in order to make it known that the universe of the spiritual world is just like the universe of the natural world, the only difference being that the phenomena which exist there are not fixed and set like phenomena in the natural world, because nothing there is natural, but everything spiritual.