a kind of circle around them. The reason of their appearing next behind the christians is, because they acknowledge our Lord as the greatest and wisest of prophets, who was sent into the world to instruct mankind, and also confess him to be the Son of God. Every one in that world dwelleth at a distance from the centre, where the christians inhabit, according to his confession of the Lord and of one God; for that confession joineth minds with Heaven, and causeth their distance from the east, over which point the Lord is.

830. The real Mahomet, who wrote the Alcoran, is not visible amongst the Mahometans at this day. I have been informed, that on his first entrance into the spiritual world, he was appointed to preside over them, but because he desired to have dominion over all things relating to their religion, as a God, he was removed from his abode which he had beneath the Roman Catholics, and was let down to a lower habitation on the right side next the south. A certain society of Mahometans was once instigated by some evil spirits to acknowledge Mahomet as a God, and in order to appease the disturbance on that occasion, Mahomet was raised

up

from the earth beneath, and produced to their view, and at the same time also he was seen by me; he appeared like to corporeal spirits, who

have no interior perception; his face was of a dusky complexion, and I heard him utter these words : “I am your Mahomet," and presently he seemed to sink down again.

834. It was once given me to perceive what is the nature and quality of polygamical love amongst the Mahometans; I was conversing with a certain person who acted in the office and character of Mahomet, and after some conversation at a distance with him, he transmitted to me an ebony spoon, and other things, which were tokens that they came from him; and at the same instant a communication was opened from various places for the heat of their polygamical love, which from some felt like the heat in baths after bathing; from some like the heat in kitchens where flesh is boiling; from some like the heat in cooks' shops where stinking meat is exposed to sale; from some like what is perceived in an apothecary's shop, where emulsions and other medicines are prepared; from some like the heat in stews and bagnios; and from some like what is felt in shops where skins, leather, and shoes are exposed to sale. There was also in that heat something of a rancid, austere, and burning quality, arising from jealousy; whereas the heat in the christian heavens, when the delight of their love is perceived as an odour, is attended

with fragrance like what is experienced in gardens and vineyards, and shrubberies; and in some places it is like the odour perceivable in shops where aromatic herbs are exposed to sale; and in other places like the scent arising from wine presses or wine vaults. That the delights attending all kinds of love in the spiritual world are frequently perceived as odours, hath been constantly shewn in the MEMORABLE RELATIONS annexed to each chapter of this work." True Christ. Relig.

CONCERNING INFANTS IN HEAVEN.

66 THAT THE LOVE OF INFANTS REMAINS AFTER DEATH, ESPECIALLY WITH WOMEN.

410. "Infants, as soon as they are raised up, which is effected immediately after their decease, are elevated into heaven, and are delivered up to angels, who are of the female sex, and who in the life of the body in the world loved infants, and at the same time feared God; these, inasmuch as they had loved all infants with maternal tenderness, receive them as their own, and the infants in this case, as from a principle implanted, love them as their mothers; as many infants are consigned to them, as they desire from a spiritual storge. The.

heaven, in which infants are, appears in front in the region of the forehead, in a line, or radius, in which the angels look directly at the Lord; the situation of that heaven is such, because all infants are educated under the immediate anspices of the Lord; there is an influx also into this heaven from the heaven of innocence, which is the third heaven. When they have passed through this first period of their life, they are transferred to another heaven, where they are instructed.

"THAT INFANTS ARE EDUCATED UNDER THE LORD'S AUSPICES BY SUCH WOMEN, AND GROW IN STATURE AND INTELLIGENCE AS IN THE WOrld.

411. "Infants in heaven are educated in the following manner: they learn to speak from the female angel who has the charge of their education; their first speech is merely the sound of affection, in which however there is somewhat initial of thought, whereby the human principle in the sound is distinguished from the sound of an animal; this speech by degrees becomes more distinct, as ideas derived from affection enter the thought; all their affections, which also have growth, proceed from innocence. At first, such things are insinuated into them as appear before their eyes, and are delightful; and whereas these

N

things are from a spiritual origin, the things of heaven flow into them at the same time, whereby the interiors of their minds are opened. Afterwards the infants, as they are perfected in intelligence, so they grow in stature, and viewed in this respect, they appear also more adult; the reason is, because intelligence and wisdom is essential spiritual nourishment, therefore those things which nourish their minds, nourish also their bodies. But infants in heaven do not grow up beyond their first age, and there they stop, and remain therein to eternity. And when they are in that age they are given to marriage, * which is provided of the Lord, and is celebrated in the heaven where the youth is, who presently follows the wife into her heaven, or into her house, if they are in the same society. That I might know of a certainty that infants grow in stature, and arrive at maturity as they grow in intelligence, it was given me to speak with some whilst they were infants, and afterwards with them when they were grown up, and they appeared as full grown youths, in a stature like to that of young men full grown in the world.

"For in the Resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." JESUS CHRIST, Matt. xxii. 30.