334.  How children are taught in heaven shall also be briefly told.  From their nurses they learn to talk.  Their earliest speech is simply a sound of affection; this by degrees becomes more distinct as ideas of thought enter; for ideas of thought from affections constitute all angelic speech (as may be seen in its own chapter, n. 234-245).  Into their affections, all of which proceed from innocence, such things as appear before their eyes and cause delight are first instilled; and as these things are from a spiritual origin the things of heaven at once flow into them, and by means of these heavenly things their interiors are opened, and they are thereby daily perfected.  But when this first age is completed they are transferred to another heaven, where they are taught by masters; and so on.

335.  Children are taught chiefly by representatives suited to their capacity.  These are beautiful and full of wisdom from within, beyond all belief.  In this way an intelligence that derives its soul from good is gradually instilled into them.  I will here describe two representatives that I have been permitted to see, from which the nature of others may be inferred.  First there was a representation of the Lord’s rising from the sepulchre, and at the same time of the uniting of His Human with the Divine.  This was done in a manner so wise as to surpass all human wisdom, and at the same time in an innocent infantile manner.  An idea of a sepulchre was presented, and with it an idea of the Lord, but in so remote a way that there was scarcely any perception of its being the Lord, except seemingly afar off; and for the reason that in the idea of a sepulchre there is something funereal, and this was thus removed, after wards they cautiously admitted into the sepulchre something atmospheric, with an appearance of thin vapor, by which with proper remoteness they signified spiritual life in baptism.  Afterwards I saw a representation by the angels of the Lord’s descent to those that are “bound,” and of His ascent with these into heaven, and this with incomparable prudence and gentleness.  In adaptation to the infantile mind they let down little cords almost invisible, very soft and tender, by which they lightened the Lord’s ascent, always with a holy solicitude that there should be nothing in the representation bordering upon anything that did not contain what is spiritual and heavenly.  Other representations are there given, whereby, as by plays adapted to the minds of children, they are guided into knowledges of truth and affections for good.

336.  It was also shown how tender their understanding is.  When I was praying the Lord’s Prayer, and from their under standing they flowed into the ideas of my thought, their influx was perceived to be so tender and soft as to be almost solely a matter of affection; and at the same time it was observed that their understanding was open even from the Lord, for what flowed forth from them was as if it simply