2303. Angelic spirits who were above and in front spoke to me in angelic language that was not divided into separate expressions. They said that their state was the state of a serenity of peace, and that they also had young children among them, from whose presence with them they received a feeling of bliss. Those spirits too were members of the female sex. They went on to speak about young children on earth. They said that immediately after these are born, angels from the heaven of innocence are present with them; then in the next phase of their life angels from the heaven of the serenity of peace; after that angels from the communities of charity; and then, as innocence and charity diminish when they are older children, different angels again are present with them. And when at length they become more grown up and enter upon a life alien to charity, angels are indeed present though more remotely, but in accordance with the ends of life which are especially regulated by the angels by a continual instillation by them of ends that are good and a turning aside of ends that are bad. But to the extent they are able or are not able to do this, so they flow in more nearly or more remotely.