3504.'So that my soul may bless you' means allying it to its own life, consequently life that corresponds to the rational. This is clear from the meaning of 'being blessed' as being endowed with celestial and spiritual good, dealt with in 981, 1731, 2846, 3017, 3406. For the good of early childhood and consequently the good of life, which is the same as the good of the natural, and which is represented by 'Esau', is not spiritual good, for the good of early childhood is devoid of knowledge and intelligence, and so of wisdom. The good of early childhood becomes spiritual good through the implantation of truth, and so through regeneration, see 1616, 1802, 2280, 2290, 2291, 2299, 2304, 2305, 2307, 3494 (end). This is how the correspondence between rational things and natural is effected, and so how the allying of the natural man to the life of the rational is effected. This allying to its own life is what is meant by 'my soul may bless you'.

2304. Many may suppose that young children stay as young children in the next life, and are as young children among the angels. Those who do not know what an angel is may have become confirmed in that notion by the images seen here and there in places of worship, and in other places where young children are portrayed to represent angels. But in fact it is not at all as they suppose. What makes an angel is intelligence and wisdom, and as long as young children do not possess these, though they do indeed reside with angels, they themselves are not angels. But as soon as they have become intelligent and wise, they now become angels for the first time. Indeed what has amazed me, they no longer appear as young children but as adults, for their disposition is no longer that of a young child but of a more adult angelic disposition. Such is the effect produced by intelligence and wisdom, for it may be clear to anyone that it is understanding and judgement, and the life from these, which cause a person to seem to himself and to others to be an adult. I have not only been told by angels that this is so but also have spoken to a certain person who had died as a small child and yet after that appeared as an adult. The same also spoke to his brother who had died when an adult; and he did so out of so much mutual brotherly love that his brother who could not help weeping declared that he perceived nothing else than that this was love itself which was speaking. There are other examples besides this which there is no need to mention.