Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 5554

Previous Number Next Number Next Translation See Latin 

5554. Very many communities exist which constitute the outer coverings of the body, all differing from one another from the face down to the soles of the feet; for differences exist wherever you choose to look. I have had many conversations with these communities. So far as their spiritual life was concerned they were the kind of people who had allowed themselves to be convinced by others that this or that was the truth; and once they had heard proofs drawn from the sense of the letter of the Word they fully believed it and stuck firmly to the opinion they had received. They also based the life they led, though this was not an evil one, on the same convictions. But other spirits who do not possess a similar frame of mind to theirs find it difficult to have any dealings with them because of their rigid adherence to the ideas they have accepted and because of their refusal to be led away from these by reasonable thinking. Very many spirits like that come from this 'planet, for our own globe is taken up with things of an external nature and responds to internal ones in the way that the skin usually does.


This page is part of the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church