magine the spiral writing of the Angels or their golden belts, on
which the gold is of great or lesser thickness. If, for example, this
statement, 'Some angels are solitary,' affected me powerfully for a
time, I was, on reflection, unable to reconcile this solitude with their
marriages. I have not understood why the Virgin Mary should continue to
wear blue satin garments in heaven. I have even dared to ask myself why
those gigantic demons, Enakim and Hephilim, came so frequently to fight
the cherubim on the apocalyptic plains of Armageddon; and I cannot
explain to my own mind how Satans can argue with Angels. Monsieur le
Baron Seraphitus assured me that those details concerned only the angels
who live on earth in human form. The visions of the prophet are
often blurred with grotesque figures. One of his spiritual tales,
or 'Memorable relations,' as he called them, begins thus: 'I see the
spirits assembling, they have hats upon their heads.' In another of
these Memorabilia he receives from heaven a bit of paper, on which he
saw, he says, the hieroglyphics of the primitive peoples, which were
composed of curved lines traced from the finger-rings that are worn in
heaven. However, perhaps I am wrong; possibly the material absurdities
with which his works are strewn have spiritual significations.
Otherwise, how shall we account for the growing influence of his
religion? His church numbers to-day more than seven hundred thousand
believers,--as many in the United States of America as in England, where
there are seven thousand Swedenborgians in the city of Manchester alone.
Many men of high rank in knowledge and in social position in Germany, in
Prussia, and in the Northern kingdoms have publicly adopted the beliefs
of Swedenborg; which, I may remark, are more comforting than those of
all other Christian communions. I wish I had the power to explain to you
clearly in succinct language the leading points of the doctrine on which
Swedenborg founded his church; but I fear such a summary, made from
recollection, would be necessarily defective. I shall, therefore,
allow myself to speak only of those 'Arcana' which concern the birth of
Seraphita."

Here Monsieur Becker paused, as though composing his mind to gather up
his ideas. Presently he continued, as follows:--

"After establishing mathematically that man lives eternally in spheres
of either a lower or a higher grade, Swedenborg applies the term
'Spiritual Angels' to beings who