mer or natural world, and
that in that world they believed that they should not live as men until
after the day of the last judgement, when they should be again clothed
with the flesh and bones that had been laid in the tomb; therefore, in
order to remove all doubt of their being really and truly men, they by
turns viewed and touched themselves and others, and felt the surrounding
objects and by a thousand proofs convinced themselves that they now were
men as in the former world; besides which they saw each other in a
brighter light, and the surrounding objects in superior splendor, and
thus their vision was more perfect. At that instant two angelic spirits
happening to meet them, accosted them, saying, "Whence are you?" They
replied, "We have departed out of a world, and again we live in a world;
thus we have removed from one world to another; and this surprises us."
Hereupon the three novitiate spirits questioned the two angelic spirits
concerning heaven; and as two of the three novitiates were youths, and
there darted from their eyes as it were a sparkling fire of lust for the
sex, the angelic spirit said, "Possibly you have seen some females;" and
they replied in the affirmative; and as they made inquiry respecting
heaven, the angelic spirits gave them the following information: "In
heaven there is every variety of magnificent and splendid objects, and
such things as the eye had never seen; there are also virgins and young
men; virgins of such beauty that they may be called personifications of
beauty, and young men of such morality that they may be called
personifications of morality; moreover the beauty of the virgins and the
morality of the young men correspond to each other, as forms mutually
suited to each other." Hereupon the two novitiates asked, "Are there in
heaven human forms altogether similar to those in the natural world?"
And it was replied, "They are altogether similar; nothing is wanting in
the male, and nothing in the female; in a word, the male is a male, and
the female a female, in all the perfection of form in which they were
created: retire, if you please, and examine if you are deficient in
anything, and whether you are not a complete man as before." Again, the
novitiates said, "We have been told in the world we have left, that in
heaven they are not given in marriage, because they are angels:--is
there then the love of the sex there?" And the angelic spirits replied,
"In heaven _your_ love of the