This is how small children are brought up in heaven. They learn to talk from the angel who brings them up. At first their speech is only a sound expressing affection, yet containing some precursor of thought which allows the human element in the sound to be distinguished from that of an animal. By degrees this speech becomes more distinct, as ideas arising from affection enter into thought. All of their affections, which also increase, proceed from innocence.

The first kind of things to be introduced are what they can see with their eyes and find delightful. Since these are from a spiritual source, these are subject at the same time to influences coming from heaven, and these open the inner levels of their minds. Afterwards, as the children are perfected in intelligence, they grow in stature, and look in this respect too more like adults. The reason is that intelligence and wisdom are the real spiritual nourishment, so that the things which feed their minds also feed their bodies.

But children in heaven do not grow up beyond coming of age; they stop at that stage and stay in it for ever. When they reach that stage they are given in marriage; this is arranged for them by the Lord, and celebrated in the heaven where the young man is. He shortly follows his wife to her heaven, or to her house, if they are in the same community. To convince me that children increase in stature and grow up as their intelligence increases, I was allowed to talk to some while they were children, and then again when they had grown up. In appearance they were like young adults, of the same stature as young adults in the world.