AE 998 - A Person Is Like a Garden

 AE 998 [1, 4]

A person is like a garden,
which receives light in winter equally as in summer,
but not heat;
and yet when it does receive heat
it blossoms and bears fruit.
So the evil person equally with the good person
is able to receive light,
that is, to understand Divine truth,
but he cannot blossom and become fruitful,
that is, to be wise and do works that are good,
except as he receives heat,
that is, the good of love.

A person has such and so much of
intelligence and wisdom as he has of conjugial love.
The reason is that conjugial love descends
from the love of good and truth
as an effect does from its cause,
or as the natural from its spiritual;
and from the marriage of good and truth
the angels of the three heavens
have all their intelligence and wisdom;
for intelligence and wisdom are nothing else
than the reception of light and heat
from the Lord as a sun,
that is, the reception of
Divine truth conjoined to Divine good,
and of Divine good conjoined to Divine truth;
thus it is the marriage of good and truth
from the Lord.