THE EARTH OR PLANET MERCURY, AND ITS SPIRIT AND INHABITANTS


9. That the entire heaven resembles one man, who is therefore called
the Grand or Greatest Man (_Maximus Homo_), and that all things in
general and particular in man, both his exteriors and interiors,
correspond to that man or to heaven, is an arcanum as yet unknown in
the world; but that it is so has been shown in many passages[i].
But to constitute that Grand Man, those who come from our Earth into
heaven are insufficient, being comparatively few; they must come from
many other earths: and it is provided by the Lord that as soon as
there is in any part a deficiency in the quality or quantity of the
correspondence, those who may supply it shall be immediately summoned
from another earth, in order that the proportion may be preserved, and
heaven by this means maintain its consistence.

[Footnote i: See note f.]

10. It has also been disclosed to me from heaven, what the spirits
from the planet Mercury have relation to in the Grand Man, namely,
that they have relation to the memory, but to the memory of things
abstracted from earthly and merely material things. As, however, it
has been given me to speak with them, and this for many weeks, and to
learn of what character they are, and to examine how the inhabitants
of that earth are circumstanced, I wish to adduce the experiences
themselves.

11. Some spirits came to me, and it was stated from heaven that they