384. After that the third speaker arose and spoke as follows:

"Love alone is not the origin of beauty, neither is wisdom alone, but the origin is a union of love and wisdom - a union of love with the wisdom in a youth, and a union of wisdom with its love in a maiden. For a maiden does not love wisdom in herself but in a young man, and on that account sees him as beautiful; and when the young man see this in a young woman, he then sees her as beautiful. Therefore love through wisdom creates beauty, and wisdom from love receives it.

"The fact of this is clearly apparent in heaven. I saw maidens and wives there, and observed their beauty; and I beheld one kind of beauty in the maidens and another altogether in the wives, seeing in the maidens only its sparkle, but in the wives its effulgence. I saw the difference as being like that between a diamond sparkling with light and a ruby refulgent at the same time with fire.

"What is beauty but something that gives delight to the sight? What is the origin of this delight but the interplay of love and wisdom? This interplay causes the sight to glow, and the glow radiates from eye to eye and presents beauty.

"What makes the beauty of a face but its ruddy glow and pearly radiance, and a lovely blending of the two? Is the ruddy glow not owing to love, and the pearly radiance to wisdom? For love glows with a ruddy glow from its fire, and wisdom shines with a pearly radiance from its light. I saw both qualities plainly in the faces of a married couple in heaven - a ruddy glow blended with a pearly radiance in the wife, and a pearly radiance blended with a ruddy glow in the husband. And I noticed that their looking at each other caused each to become brighter."

When the third speaker said this, the crowd applauded and cried out, "He is the winner!" And suddenly a flaming light - which is the light of conjugial love also - filled the house with a radiant splendor, and at the same time their hearts with gladness.

279. The third experience.

Seven years ago, when I was collecting the passages which Moses wrote drawing on the two books called The Wars of Jehovah and The Utterances (Numbers 21), some angels were present who told me that those books were the ancient Word; its historical parts are called The Wars of Jehovah, the prophetical parts The Utterances. They said that this Word was still preserved in heaven and was used by the ancients there, whose Word it had been when they were in the world. The ancients, among whom this Word is still in use in heaven, were in part from the land of Canaan and the neighbouring countries, for instance, Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Chaldaea, Assyria, Egypt, Sidon, Tyre and Niniveh. The inhabitants of all these kingdoms had a representative form of worship, and thus a knowledge of correspondences. The wisdom of those times came from that knowledge, which endowed them with inward perception and communication with the heavens. Those who knew the correspondences of that Word were called wise and intelligent, and in later times soothsayers and sorcerers.

[2] But because that Word was full of the sort of correspondences which conveyed celestial and spiritual ideas distantly, so that many people began to falsify it, therefore by the Lord's Divine providence in course of time it vanished, and another Word was given written by correspondences not so distant; this was done through the prophets among the Children of Israel. This Word retains many place names, not only in the land of Canaan, but also in the adjacent parts of Asia; all of these meant matters concerning the church and its states. But these meanings were taken over from the ancient Word. That was the reason why Abram was ordered to go into that land, and his descendants through Jacob were brought into it.

[3] I am allowed to report this new piece of information about the ancient Word, which was in Asia before the Israelite Word existed. It is still preserved there among the peoples who live in Great Tartary. I have spoken with spirits and angels in the spiritual world who came from there. They said that they possess the Word, and have done so from ancient times; and they conduct their Divine worship in accordance with that Word. It is composed purely of correspondences. They said that it also contains the book of Jashar mentioned in Joshua (Joshua 10:12-13), and in the Second Book of Samuel (2 Samuel 1:17-18); they also have the books called The Wars of Jehovah and The Utterances, which are mentioned by Moses (Numbers 21:14-15, 27-30). When I read in their presence the words which Moses took from this source, they looked to see whether they were there, and they found them. This made it clear to me that they still have the ancient Word. During our conversation they mentioned that they worship Jehovah, some of them as an invisible God, and some as visible.

[4] They went on to say that they do not allow foreigners to enter their territory, except the Chinese, with whom they have peaceful relations, because the Chinese Emperor comes from there. ¹ They added that they are so populous that they do not believe any region in all the world is more so. This too is plausible when one considers the wall so many miles long, which the Chinese in former times constructed as a defence against invasion by them.

Moreover I was told by angels that the first chapters of Genesis, dealing with creation, Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, their sons and descendants down to the flood, as well as Noah and his sons, are also found in that Word, and were copied from it by Moses. Angels and spirits from Great Tartary are to be seen in the southern quarter towards the east. They are separated from others by living on a higher level. They do not allow anyone from Christian countries to visit them, and if any do go up, they put them under guard to prevent them leaving. The reason for this isolation is that they possess a different Word.

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