340. Many may suppose that in heaven little children remain little children, and continue as such among the angels. Those who do not know what an angel is may have had this opinion confirmed from portrayals here and there in churches, in which angels are represented as little children. But the fact is entirely otherwise. It is intelligence and wisdom that make an angel, and as long as little children do not possess these they are not angels, although they are with the angels; but as soon as they become intelligent and wise they become angels. Indeed, I have marvelled that they do not then appear as little children, but as adults, for they are no longer of an infantile genius, but of a more mature angelic genius. Intelligence and wisdom bring this about. The reason little children appear more mature, thus as youths and young men, as they are perfected in intelligence and wisdom, is that intelligence and wisdom are essential spiritual nourishment;# and thus the things that nourish their minds also nourish their bodies, and this from correspondence, for the form of the body is simply the external form of the interiors. But it should be known that in heaven little children advance in age only to early manhood, and remain in this to eternity. That I might be assured that this is so I have been permitted to talk with some who had been educated as little children in heaven, and had grown up there, with some also while they were little children, and again with the same when they had become young men. And I have heard from them about the progress of their life from one age to another. # Spiritual food is knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom, thus the good and truth from which these are (n. 3114, 4459, 4792, 5147, 5293, 5340, 5342, 5410, 5426, 5576, 5582, 5588, 5655, 8562, 9003). Therefore in a spiritual sense everything that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord is food (n. 681). Because bread means all food in general it signifies every good, celestial and spiritual (n. 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 3478, 6118, 8410). And for the reason that these nourish the mind, which belongs to the internal man (n. 4459, 5293, 5576, 6277, 8410).