Page:Heaven Revealed.djvu/149

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

which does not correspond to the love that gave it birth, as effect corresponds to cause, or body to soul. Thus all the things in this natural world which are products of human ingenuity, are correspondences of the affections and thoughts of men. They are visible representative forms of certain invisible mental states which they body forth and to which they correspond. And the changes which are continually taking place in that portion of the outward world which is subject to man's control, keep pace with men's internal or mental changes to which they correspond, and without which no outward changes could occur.

Every individual on earth strives to create around himself (and succeeds if he has the means and opportunity) an outward or objective world which is in exact correspondence with his inner or mental world—that is, so far as relates to the natural degree of his mind. He impresses himself, as to this degree, on whatever he makes or causes to be made. His own mind, his coarseness or his culture, his refined taste or the absence of it, is visibly stamped on all around him,—on the house he builds, the furniture he orders, the pictures he buys, the trees he plants, and the flowers he cultivates. If his means and opportunity are ample, all his surroundings will, after a while, be a certain representative image of himself; they will be in exact correspondence with his external or natural mind, and therefore a true expression of the natural affections and thoughts in which they originated. So true is this, and so well understood generally, that almost any careful observer can tell at a glance, by his