narrative. The only man seen by Swedenborg took from his
wife 'the garment which she wore, and threw it over his own shoulders;
loosening the lower part, which flowed down to his feet like a robe
(much as a man of our earth might be expected to loosen the tie-back of
the period, if he borrowed it in like manner) he thus walked about
clad.'

He next visited an earth circling round a star, which he learned was one
of the smaller sort, not far from the equator. Its greater distance was
plain from the circumstance that Swedenborg was two days in reaching it.
In this earth he very nearly fell into a quarrel with the spirits. For
hearing that they possess remarkable keenness of vision, he 'compared
them with eagles which fly aloft, and enjoy a clear and extensive view
of objects beneath.' At this they were indignant, supposing, poor
spirits, 'that he compared them to eagles as to their rapacity, and
consequently thought them wicked.' He hastened to explain, however, that
he 'did not liken them to eagles as to their rapacity, but as to
sharpsightedness.'

Swedenborg's account of a third earth in the star-depths contains a very
pretty idea for temples and churches. The temples in that earth 'are
constructed,' he says, of trees, not cut down, but growing in the place
where they were first planted. On that earth, it seems, there are trees
of an extraordinary size and height; these they set in rows when young,
and arrange in such an order that they may serve when they grow up to
form porticoes and colonnades. In the meanwhile, by cutting and pruning,
they fit and prepare the tender shoots to entwine one with another, and
join together so as to form the groundwork and floor of the temple to be
constructed, and to rise at the sides as walls, and above to bend into
arches to form the roof. In this manner they construct the temple with
admirable art, elevating it high above the ground. They prepare also an
ascent into it, by continuous branches of the trees, extended from the
trunk and firmly connected together. Moreover, they adorn the temple
without and within in various ways, by disposing the foliage into
particular forms; thus they build entire groves. But it was not
permitted me to see the nature of these temples, only I was informed
that the light of their sun is let in by apertures amongst the branches,
and is everywhere transmitted through crystals; whereby the light
falling on the walls is refracted in colours like those of