271. Such are the angels of the third heaven because they are in love to the Lord, and that love opens the interiors of the mind to the third degree, and is a receptacle of all things of wisdom. It must be understood also that angels of the inmost heaven are still being continually perfected in wisdom, and this differently from the angels of the outermost heaven. The angels of the inmost heaven do not store up Divine Truths in the memory and thus make out of them a kind of science; but as soon as they hear them they perceive them and apply them to life. For this reason, Divine Truths are as permanent with them as if they were inscribed on them, for what is committed to the life is as something contained in it. But it is not so with the angels of the outermost heaven. These first store up Divine Truths in the memory and stow them away with their knowledge, and draw them out therefrom to perfect their understanding by them, and will them and apply them to the life, but with no interior perception as to whether they are truths. Consequently, they are in comparative obscurity. It is a notable fact that the angels of the third heaven are perfected in wisdom by hearing and not by seeing. What they hear from preachings does not enter into their memory, but enters directly into their perception and will, and becomes a matter of life. What they see with their eyes, however, does enter into their memory, and they reason and talk about it. This shows that with them the way of hearing is the way of wisdom. This, too, is from correspondence, for the ear corresponds to obedience, and obedience belongs to the life, while the eye corresponds to intelligence, and intelligence is a matter of doctrine.# The state of these angels is described in different parts of the Word, as in Jeremiah:
I will put My law in their mind, and write it on their heart. They shall teach no more every one his friend and every one his brother, saying, Know ye Jehovah; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them even unto the greatest of them. Jere. xxxi. 33, 34.
And in Matthew:
Let your speech be Yea, yea, Nay, nay; what is more than these is from evil. Matt. v. 37.
"What is more than these is from evil" because it is not from the Lord, for the truths which are in the angels of the third heaven are from the Lord, because they are in love to Him. In that heaven love to the Lord is willing and doing Divine Truth, for Divine Truth is the Lord in heaven. # Of the correspondence of the ear and of hearing (n. 4652-4660). The ear corresponds to and therefore signifies perception and obedience (n. 2542, 3869, 4653, 5017, 7216, 8361, 9311, 9397, 10061). The ear signifies the reception of truths (n. 5471, 5475, 9926). The correspondence of the eye and its sight (n. 4403-4421, 4523-4534); from which the sight of the eye signifies the intelligence that belongs to faith, and also faith (n. 2701, 4410, 4526, 6923, 9051, 10569).