Page:Heaven Revealed.djvu/360

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accomplishes the ends at which it aims. The body or trunk, therefore, viewed in relation to the head, is seen to be a means or secondary cause; and the act of the extremities, through this means, under the direction of the head, is the effect. Accordingly Swedenborg says that the angels of the second heaven, who form as it were the trunk of the Grand Man, are in causes, or in the thought of causes; and that the first or lowest heaven, who constitute the extremities of the Grand Man, are in effects, or in the thought of effects.

We thus see that the three heavens, connected like the head, trunk and extremities of the human body, and really constituting these parts of the Grand Man respectively, are also related like end, cause and effect,—the angels of the highest heaven being more especially in ends, those of the middle heaven in causes, and those of the lowest in effects. And every individual viewed spiritually, is a miniature of the Grand Man, and therefore embodies in himself the same trine of end, cause and effect. He aims to do something—the end. He thinks of how he shall do it—the cause. And the act when done, is the effect.

But let us pursue our inquiry a step further, and notice the beautiful and striking correspondence between these three parts of the body and the three angelic heavens.

Looking at the parts more interiorly, we find that the principal contents of the head are the brain, which is the most refined, delicate and sensitive of all the bodily tissues. It is the seat of sensation, motion and life. It is the great centre of the nervous system, under