9441. Everyone can see that there are many worlds, from the fact that so many stars appear in the universe, and it is known in the learned world that every star is like a sun in its own place, for it remains fixed as the sun of our earth does in its place; and that the distance causes it to appear in a small form like a star; consequently that, like the sun of our system, it has planets revolving around it, which are earths. For what else could there be so great a heaven with so many stars? For the end of the creation of the universe is man; in order that from man there may be an angelic heaven. But what would mankind and an angelic heaven from one single earth be for the infinite Creator, for whom a thousand earths, nay, tens of thousands of them, would not suffice? A calculation has been made, that if there were in the universe one million earths, and on every earth three hundred million men, and two hundred generations within six thousand years, and that to every man there was allotted a space of three cubic ells, the sum of so many men collected into one mass would not occupy a space equal to a thousandth part of this earth; thus not the space of one of the satellites of Jupiter or Saturn; which would be a space in the universe too small to be seen; for any satellite of Jupiter or Saturn is barely visible to the naked eye. And what would this be for the Creator of the universe, to whom the whole universe, if so filled up, would not suffice; for He is infinite. In speaking on this subject with the angels, they said that they have a similar idea concerning the fewness of the human race relatively to the infinity of the Creator; but that still they do not think from spaces, but from states; and that according to their idea, supposing the number of earths to be as many myriads as could possibly be conceived of in thought, they would still be absolutely nothing to the Lord; moreover, that the angelic heaven, of which the human race is the seminary, corresponds to all things that are in man; and that such a heaven cannot be built up of angels from one earth, but only from innumerable earths.
