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Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom by Emanuel Swedenborg
page 83 of 279 (29%)
spaces are not appearances of spaces according to states of life, as they
are in the spiritual world, these also may be called dead.

161. Since times in like manner are settled and constant, they also are
a property of nature; for the length of a day is constantly twenty-four
hours, and the length of a year is constantly three hundred and sixty-five
days and a quarter. The very states of light and shade, and of heat and
cold, which cause these periods to vary, are also regular in their return.
The states which recur daily are morning, noon, evening, and night; those
recurring yearly are spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Moreover, the
annual states modify regularly the daily states. All these states are
likewise dead because they are not states of life, as in the spiritual
world; for in the spiritual world there is continuous light and there
is continuous heat, the light corresponding to the state of wisdom, and
the heat to the state of love with the angels; consequently the states of
these are living.

162. From all this the folly of those who ascribe all things to nature can
be seen. Those who have confirmed themselves in favor of nature have
brought such a state on themselves that they are no longer willing to
raise the mind above nature; consequently their minds are shut above and
opened below. Man thus becomes sensual-natural, that is, spiritually dead;
and because he then thinks only from such things as he has imbibed from
his bodily senses, or through the senses from the world, he at heart even
denies God. Then because conjunction with heaven is broken, conjunction
with hell takes place, the capacity to think and will alone remaining; the
capacity to think, from rationality, and the capacity to will, from
freedom; these two capacities every man has from the Lord, nor are they
taken away. These two capacities devils have equally with angels; but
devils devote them to insane thinking and evil doing, and angels to
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