Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 192
these letters in ancient times were all inflected, and none of
them, as at present, were bounded by straight lines. Thus it is
that in the Word Divine things and arcana of heaven are
contained even in its iotas, points, and tittles.
261. This writing in characters of a heavenly form is in use in
the inmost heaven, the angels of which surpass all others in
wisdom. By means of these characters they express the
affections, from which thoughts flow and follow in order in
accordance with the subject treated of. Consequently these
writings, which I have also been permitted to see, involve
arcana which thought cannot exhaust. But such writings do
not exist in the lower heavens. The writings there resemble the
writings in the world, having like characters, and yet they are
not intelligible to man, because they are in angelic language;
and angelic language is such that it has nothing in common
with human languages (n. 237), since by the vowels they
express affections, and by the consonants the ideas of thought
from the affections, and by the words from these the sense of
the matter (see above, n. 236, 241). Moreover, in this writing,
which I have also seen, more is involved in a few words than a
man can express in several pages. In this way they have the
Word written in the lower heavens; but in the inmost heaven
in heavenly characters.
262. It is a notable fact that the writings in the heavens flow
naturally from their very thoughts, and this so easily that the
thought puts itself forth, as it were, and the hand never
hesitates in the choice of a word, because both the words they
speak and those they write correspond to the ideas of their
thought; and all correspondence is natural and spontaneous.
There are also writings in the heavens that exist without the aid
of the hand, from mere correspondence with the thoughts; but
these are not permanent.
263. I have also seen writings from heaven made up of mere
numbers set down in order and in a series, just as in writings
made up of letters and words; and I have been taught that this