are such as talk well and also do well, but have regard to themselves
in everything. They talk as angels do about the Lord, heaven, love,
and heavenly life, and also act rightly, so that they may appear to
be what they profess to be. But their thinking is different; they
believe nothing; and they wish good to none but themselves. Their
doing good is for the sake of self, or if for the sake of others it
is only for the appearance, and thus still for the sake of self.


69. I have also been permitted to see that an entire angelic society,
where the Lord is visibly present, appears as a one in the human
form. There appeared on high towards the east something like a cloud,
from glowing white becoming red, and with little stars round about,
which was descending; and as it gradually descended it became
brighter, and at last appeared in a perfect human form. The little
stars round about the cloud were angels, who so appeared by virtue of
light from the Lord.


70. It must be understood that although all in a heavenly society
when seen together as one appear in the likeness of a man; yet no one
society is just such a man as another. Societies differ from one
another like the faces of different individuals of the same family,
for the reason given above (n. 47), that is, they differ in
accordance with the varieties of good in which they are and which
determines their form. The societies of the inmost or highest heaven,
and in the center there, are those that appear in the most perfect
and beautiful human form.