e; and it is known in the
learned world that every star is like a sun in its own place, for it
remains fixed as the sun of our Earth does in its place; and that it
is the distance that makes it appear in so small a form as a star;
consequently, that, like the sun of our system, each star has planets
around it, which are earths; and that the reason why these do not
appear before our eyes is on account of their immense distance, and
because only the light from their own star reaches us, which light
cannot be again reflected from the planets so far as to reach us. To
what other purpose could so great a heaven with so many constellations
be intended? For the end of the creation of the universe is man, that
from man there may be an angelic heaven; but what would a human
race, and from it an angelic heaven, from one single earth, be for
an Infinite Creator, for whom a thousand, yea tens of thousands of
earths, would not suffice? It has been calculated that, supposing
there were in the universe a million earths, and on every earth three
hundred million men, and two hundred generations within six thousand
years, and that to every man or spirit there were to be allotted a
space of three cubic ells, the sum of that great number of men or
spirits would not occupy a space equal to a thousandth part of this
Earth, consequently hardly the space occupied by one of the satellites
of the planet Jupiter or Saturn: which would be a space in the
universe so small as to be scarcely discernible; for a satellite [of
Jupiter or Saturn] is scarcely visible to the naked eye. What would
this be for the Creator of the universe, for whom the whole universe,
even if it were completely filled, would not be enough, for He is
Infinite. In conversing with the angels on this subject, they have
told me that they have a similar idea of the fewness of the human race
relatively to the infinity of the Creator; but that, nevertheless,
they do not think from spaces, but from states, and that according
to their idea, earths numbering as many myriads as could ever be
conceived in thought would still be as absolutely nothing to the Lord.
The earths in the starry heaven, however, shall now be treated of in
what follows from real experience; from which it will likewise be made
manifest how the translations to these earths were effected as to my
spirit, whilst my body remained in its own place.

THE FIRST EARTH IN THE STARRY HEAVEN, AND ITS SPIRITS AND INHABITA