and truth as they exist with those who are in one society. These variations continued a long time; and I observed that the same face in general remained as the plane [or groundwork], and that the rest were only derivations and propagations from that. By this face were also shown me in like manner the affections of the whole society, according to which the faces of those belonging to it are varied; for, as was said above, the faces of angels are the forms of their interiors, that is, of affections which are of love and faith.
Hence it is that an angel who excels in wisdom instantly discerns the character of another from his face. No one in heaven can conceal his interiors by his countenance, and it is absolutely impossible for him to dissemble and deceive through craft and hypocrisy.
All the societies of heaven communicate with each other; not by open intercourse, for few go out of their own society into another, since this is like going out of themselves, or out of their own life, and passing into another which is not so agreeable. But they all communicate by an extension of the sphere which proceeds from the life of every one.
The sphere of one's life is the sphere of his affections which are of love and faith. This sphere extends itself far and wide into the surrounding societies, and in proportion as the affections are more interior and perfect. The angels are intelligent and wise according to the measure of that extension. They who are in the inmost heaven, and in the centre of it, have extension into the
