1272. After these things, I was shown how the women among them dressed. On their head they had a long, rounded, black hat with a peak in front. 1 Their faces were small. The men, on the other hand, were shaggy with hair.
I was shown also how proud they were to have large numbers of children. Wherever they ventured, they took their children with them, letting the children walk in front in a curved line. But they were told that animals — even the worst ones — all love their offspring, and that this provides no proof of virtue in them. They could have loved their children not out of conceit or pride, it was said, but out of a desire to increase world population for the sake of the common good, and more especially to swell the number of people in heaven. 2 So they could have made the Lord's kingdom their goal, and then they would have exhibited a genuine love for children.
Footnotes:
1. Swedenborg drew an illustration of this hat in his Spiritual Experiences (Swedenborg 1998-2002) §3589. [LHC]
2. This statement reflects a view, common at the time, that population increase was a good thing. Possibly there is an echo of the command of Genesis 1:28: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it" (New Revised Standard Version). Furthermore, Swedenborg often refers to the human race as the "breeding ground for heaven," that is, as the stock from which the inhabitants of heaven derive; compare §§6697:1, 7069, 9441. [RS, SS]
