in nature is measurable, and so is time. This is measured by days, weeks,
months, years, and centuries; days are measured by hours; weeks and months
by days; years by the four seasons; and centuries by years. Nature derives
this measurement from the apparent revolution and annual motion of the sun
of the world. But in the spiritual world it is different. The progressions
of life in that world appear in like manner to be in time, for those there
live with one another as men in the world live with one another; and this
is not possible without the appearance of time. But time there is not
divided into periods as in the world, for their sun is constantly in the
east and is never moved away; for it is the Lord's Divine Love that
appears to them as a sun. Wherefore they have no days, weeks, months,
years, centuries, but in place of these there are states of life, by
which a distinction is made which cannot be called, however, a distinction
into periods, but into states. Consequently, the angels do not know what
time is, and when it is mentioned they perceive in place of it state; and
when state determines time, time is only an appearance. For joyfulness of
state makes time seem short, and joylessness of state makes time seem
long; from which it is evident that time in the spiritual world is nothing
but quality of state. It is from this that in the Word, "hours," "days,"
"weeks," "months," and "years," signify states and progressions of state
in series and in the aggregate; and when times are predicated of the
church, by its "morning" is meant its first state, by "mid-day" its
fullness by "evening" its decline, and by "night" its end. The four
seasons of the year "spring," "summer," "autumn," and "winter," have a
like meaning.

74. From the above it can be seen that time makes one with thought from
affection; for from that is the quality of man's state. And with
progressions of time, in the spiritual world, distances in progress
through space coincide; as may be shown from many things. For instance,