Christianity: The Logic of Creation

to us as yet only in a celestial condition, that is, in its infantile beginnings ; and although this con- dition is one of seeming innocence, yet the least reflection shews that the innocence is more appa- rent than real, more superficial than solid, being of -that sort which characterizes lambs and doves rather than humanity. It is destitute of the human element, which is spontaneity, and hence will not keep. It is the innocence which flows into us from spiritual association, which we inherit from our past ancestry, and is consequently inca- pable of constituting our true individuality. As to my natural or inherited genius, I may be as guileless and harmless as all the lambs and doves extant ; yet nothing shall hinder me spiritually or individually becoming perhaps as ravenous as the wolf, as cunning as the fox, as lordly as the lion, as venomous as the serpent, simply because this guilelessness and harmlessness have no root in my proper spontaneity, that is in my God-given self- hood, but are reflected upon me from chance spi- ritual association. Swedenborg was never able to discover any angelic existence which was sponta- neously good, or good of itself. On the contrary, he found that the highest angel, when dissociated from his fellows, and brought into contact with lower influences, became as lascivious and vile as any devil. In short, he discovered that the angelic goodness was invariably contingent upon harmonic association, or depended upon a rigorous previous