1908. A STATE OF MENTAL QUIET; CONCERNING CELESTIAL STATES IN GENERAL. A state of peace is in a higher degree, a state of mental quiet in a lower. Today, from an early hour in the morning, it was given me to learn from experience the nature of a state of mental quiet, and, indeed, by a species of attraction or subtraction towards the interiors, and towards spirits who were in this quiet state, and that, too, for a whole night, the state continuing till morning, and afterwards for more than an hour. It was thus given to know how sweet the state is, and how indefinite are the states of joy in heaven. It was also given me, in that state, to reflect upon those who desire to live in cares and solicitudes pertaining to corporeal and worldly things, how miserable they are, though they imagine they are in their fullest delight. It was given also to reflect how this state [of quiet] might be supplanted by a state of solicitude, which are like clouds in a serene sky. States of this kind, however, together with many others which are peculiar to the celestials, cannot be perceived [by every one], for they are unknown to the unknowing; neither can they be so expressed in words as to be credible. A certain degree of knowledge may contribute something towards credence, but I can affirm that the states of joy are indefinite as to all things that are pleasant and delightful in the heavens, which yet no one, as a mere man [on the earth], can apprehend, but which still are such that, if one had a sense of them, even of the least, he would never more desire to be in the body, or in corporeal or worldly cares. - 1748, May 9.