14. [41.] XIV
THEY ARE NOT MEN, NOR ARE THEY IN THE LORD, WHO LOVE THEMSELVES ABOVE ALL THINGS, AND THE WORLD AS THEMSELVES
It is certainly possible for those who love themselves and the world to do good uses, and they do them. too; but with such people their affections for the uses are not good affections, being from themselves and for the sake of themselves, not from the Lord and for the sake of the neighbour. They declare indeed, and are convinced, that the uses they do are for the sake of the neighbour, understood in its wide and narrow senses, that is, for the sake of the Church, Country, society, or fellow-citizens; some of them even go so far as to say that the uses they do are for God's sake, because in conformity with His commandments in the Word, and are, moreover, from God, because they are good, and every good is from God; yet the uses they do are nevertheless for the sake of themselves, because they are from themselves; and are for the neighbour's sake in order that they may turn to their own advantage. Such people are recognized and distinguished from those who do uses from the Lord and for the sake of the neighbour, understood in its wide and narrow senses, by the regard they show for themselves and the world in every little thing and by their love of renown for the sake of various ends that are uses in respect of themselves; indeed, they are only affected by uses in proportion as they see therein themselves and what is their own. Furthermore, what they consider delightful are all the delights of the body and it is from the world they seek them. What such people are, may be illustrated by the following comparison: they themselves are the head, the world is the body, Church, Country, fellow-citizens are the soles of the feet and God is the shoe. For those, on the other hand, who love uses* out of love for the uses themselves the Lord is the head, Church, Country, citizens, which together are the neighbour, are the body down to the knees, the legs from the knees as far as the soles are the world, and they themselves are the soles beautifully shod. It is clear then that those who do uses from themselves, that is, out of love for themselves, are completely inverted, there being nothing of man in them.
[2] [42.] There are two sources of all loves and affections, one is the Sun of heaven, which is pure love, the other the sun of the world, which is pure fire. Those who have a love derived from the Sun of heaven are spiritual and living, and are elevated out of their proprium** by the Lord; whereas those who have a love derived from the sun of the world are natural and dead, and are of themselves engulfed in their proprium. It is on account of this that in every visible object they see Nature only, and if they acknowledge God they do so with the lips, not from the heart. It is such people that are meant in the Word by "worshippers of the sun, the moon and all the host of heaven."*** In the spiritual world, they do, certainly, appear like human beings, but in the light of heaven as monsters; and to themselves their life seems like life, but to angels, like death. Amongst them are many who in the world were reputed to be learned, and to my frequent astonishment, they believed themselves to be wise on account of attributing all things to Nature and to prudence, and in fact looked upon those who do not as simple. * The MS. shows that Swedenborg had written "Those on the other hand, who do uses." This he deleted and substituted as above. The change from "those" to "for those" was certainly intentional; the change from "do" to "love" may have been intentional or may have been a slip. ** The Latin word proprium means "what is one's own." Swedenborg uses it in a special sense, involving "what is of the self." *** 2 Kings xxiii, 5; Jeremiah viii. 2.