through.


56. Again, heaven is where the Lord is acknowledged, believed in, and
loved. Variety in worship of the Lord from the variety of good in
different societies is not harmful, but beneficial, for the
perfection of heaven is therefrom. This can scarcely be made clear to
the comprehension without employing terms that are in common use in
the learned world, and showing by means of these how unity, that it
may be perfect, must be formed from variety. Every whole exists from
various parts, since a whole without constituents is not anything; it
has no form, and therefore no quality. But when a whole exists from
various parts, and the various parts are in a perfect form, in which
each attaches itself like a congenial friend to another in series,
then the quality is perfect. So heaven is a whole from various parts
arranged in a most perfect form, for the heavenly form is the most
perfect of all forms. That this is the ground of all perfection is
evident from the nature of all beauty, agreeableness and delight, by
which the senses and the mind are affected; for these qualities
spring and flow from no other source than the concert and harmony of
many concordant and congenial parts, either coexisting in order or
following in order, and never from a whole without many parts. From
this is the saying that variety gives delight; and the nature of
variety, as is known, is what determines the delight. From all this
it can be seen as in a mirror how perfection comes from variety even
in heaven. For from the things that exist in the natural world the
things of the spiritual world can be seen as in a mirror.{1}

{Footnote 1} Every whole is from the harmony and concert of
many parts. Otherwise it has no quality (n. 457). From this the