and go into heaven, and live there eternally with the blessed. The science of correspondence is therefore better than any other science you can learn, as a means of attaining happiness, and of escaping misery.

Thus you see that the first great use of the science of correspondence arises from the fact that the Bible is written according to correspondence. The next great use of the science of correspondence comes from the fact that the natural or external world is created according to correspondence.

The meaning of this you perhaps understand already, if you remember that all the things of the natural world correspond to some things in the spirit, or mind, or soul. And I think it will be easy for you to see why this fact must make the science of correspondence useful. Because, you can see animals, and vegetables, and all other things of this world; but you cannot see your thoughts and your affections. Now, it is easy for you to learn all the different ways in which animals or vegetables live and grow, and all the truths which teach you about the heat and light of the sun, and

about clouds and rain, and the moon and stars, and electricity and magnetism, and a great many other similar things, of which you have yet hardly learned the names, but may hereafter learn a good deal in the course of your education. And, if you know the science of correspondence, and apply this science to the natural things you thus learn, you will be able to learn out of them a vast many things as to your thoughts and affections which you could not learn so easily in any other way, or so well. Perhaps you will understand my meaning better, as to this use of the science of correspondence, if I tell you that you may consider this natural world as a vast mirror or looking-glass, from which the images of all spiritual things are distinctly reflected; so that you may look upon this mirror and see spiritual things and the things of your own spirit, in these images, when it would often be difficult for you to look upon the spiritual things directly, and see them at all. Just as you can look into a looking-glass and see you own face, which you cannot see in any other way. Perhaps you have now some idea of what I mean by the

science of correspondence, and of the value and use of this science. In the following lessons I shall try to tell you the correspondence and spiritual meaning of many things in this natural world. And then I shall try to show you, by instances and examples, how these correspondences help us to understand the Bible; and how they teach us concerning our own minds, our own affections, and our own duties.

Let us now consider some instances and examples of the correspondence between spiritual and natural things; and we will begin with the sun.

I have told you that there is a spiritual world, into which we enter when we die. In that world there is a sun. And the sun of this world is sim

ilar to the sun of that world.

The sun of that spiritual world supplies that world with heat and light; and it is the source whence the life and being of that world proceeds; and from it go forth the powers which keep that world in existence. So it is with the sun of this natural world; from it come our heat and light; and without this sun, our earth could never have existed, and could not continue to exist.

By the sun of the spiritual world the Lord creates and sustains that world. The heat which flows from it, and gives life to all things there, contains His divine love; and the light which flows from it and illuminates all things there, con

tains His divine truth. The heat and the light of the spiritual sun flow into angels and spirits, and affect their spiritual bodies with heat and light, and at the same time their souls with love and truth; for spiritual heat, or the heat of the soul, is love, and spiritual light, or the light of the soul, is truth.

We may therefore see the first correspondence of our natural sun; from which proceed all its other correspondences. The sun corresponds to the Lord; and the heat which makes us warm corresponds to love, and the light by which we see corresponds to truth.

You remember learning in the first lesson, something about your will, and about your understanding. Now the Lord made your will such that, with heat from His spiritual sun, divine love might flow into it, and become your love and your affections. The Lord also made your understanding such, that, with light from His spiritual sun, divine truth might flow into it and become your intelligence and your wisdom. This is the reason you can love, and think, and live, and it is this which makes you human beings. Your will and under