4803. A matter wholly unknown in the world and worthy of mention is this: The states in which good spirits and angels live undergo constant change and perfection. In this way they are conveyed to the more internal parts of the province in which they dwell, and so into more excellent functions. For in heaven purification takes place constantly, which is so to speak a new creation. Yet the situation is that no angel to all eternity can possibly attain complete perfection. The Lord alone is the perfect One, He being the root and the source of all perfection. Those who correspond to the mouth constantly wish to be speaking, for speaking gives them utmost pleasure. While undergoing perfection they are restricted to speaking nothing but that which is beneficial to companions, the community, heaven, and the Lord. The delight they take in speaking in that way grows in the measure that the desire to regard themselves in what they speak and to strive after wisdom from what is properly their own passes away from them.

9516. 'And their faces of a man towards his brother' means truth and good joined together. This is clear from the meaning of 'the face' as the interiors, at this point looking towards and being joined to, for when two are looking each towards the other they join themselves together on the level of interiors (interiors being meant by 'the face', 1999, 2434, 3527, 3573, 4066, 4796-4805, 5102, 5165, 5168, 5695, 9306); and from the meaning of 'man towards brother' as mutually, dealt with in 4725, so that truth joined to good is meant. For 'man' means truth, 3134, 3309, 3459, 4725, 7716, 9007, and 'brother' good, 367, 2360, 3303, 3803, 3815, 4121, 4191, 5409, 5686, 5692, 6756.

3302. 'And they called his name Esau' means its essential nature, that is to say, of the Natural as regards good. This is clear from the meaning of 'calling the name' or calling by name, as knowing the essential nature of a person or thing, and so knowing that nature itself, dealt with in 144, 145, 440, 768, 1754, 1896, 2009, 2724, 3006, and from the fact that names in the Word, however many these may be, in the internal sense mean spiritual realities, 1224, 1888, so that 'Esau' is some spiritual reality. That reality is the Lord's Divine Natural as regards Divine Good when first conceived, as is clear from what has been stated and from what follows concerning Esau, as well as from other places in the Word. But as Esau and Edom are very similar in meaning - the difference being that 'Edom' is the Divine Natural as regards good to which doctrinal matters concerning truth have been allied - confirmation from places in the Word will in the Lord's Divine mercy therefore be provided at verse 30 below, where Esau is called Edom.