56. Again, heaven is where the Lord is acknowledged, believed in and loved. Variety in worship of the Lord resulting from the variety of good in one society and another is not harmful but beneficial, for the perfection of heaven is therefrom. It can scarcely be made clear to the comprehension that the perfection of heaven is the result of variety, without employing terms in common use in the learned world and by them showing how unity, to be perfect, is formed from various parts. Every unity has its existence from diversity, for a unity that is not the result of diversity is not anything; it has no form and therefore no quality. When, on the other hand, a unity comes into existence from various parts, and these various parts are in a perfect form in which each attaches itself in series, like a congenial friend to another, then the quality is perfect. So heaven is a unity resulting from the arrangements of various parts in the most perfect form, for the heavenly form is the most perfect of all forms. That this is the origin of all perfection is evident from all the beauty, pleasantness and delight that affect the senses as well as the mind (animus). For these exist and flow from no other source than the concert and harmony of many concordant and harmonious parts, either co-existing in order or following in order, and not from a unity apart from plurality. From this comes the saying that variety gives delight, and it is known that it is the nature of the variety which determines the delight. From all this it can be seen, as in a mirror, how perfection comes from variety even in heaven. For the things that are in the spiritual world can be seen as in a mirror ¹ from those that come into existence in the natural world.

Footnotes:

107. That such is the case throughout the whole of heaven may be concluded from a similar one in each society there, for every society in heaven is a heaven in smaller form, and is also like a person. The reality of this may be seen in the book Heaven and Hell 41-87.

In every society in heaven, the angels who are at its center likewise relate to the heart and lungs, and they possess the greatest light. This light and its accompanying perception of truth radiate out in every direction from the center to the surrounding areas, thus to all the rest of the people in the society, and make possible their spiritual life.

I have been shown that when the people who were at the center, who formed the region of the heart and lungs and who therefore possessed the greatest light, were removed, those who lived round about were left in comparative darkness, and that they then had such a weak perception of truth as to have scarcely any. But as soon as those at the center returned, their light reappeared as before, and they recovered their former perception of truth.