possible not only of the more grievous evils but also of the less
grievous. This is effected by the enjoyments of the affections of what is
good and true, and of what is just and sincere, affections into which one
comes so far as he regards evils as sins and therefore avoids and is
averse to them, and still more as he fights against them. It is by these
means that the Lord purifies all who are saved. He purifies them by
external means also, such as fame and standing and sometimes wealth, but
put into these means by the Lord are the enjoyments of affections of good
and truth, by which they are directed and fitted to become enjoyments of
love for the neighbor.
[13] If one saw the enjoyments of the lusts of evil assembled in some
form, or perceived them distinctly by some sense, he would see and
perceive that they are too numerous for definition. For hell in its
entirety is nothing but the form of all the lusts of evil, and no one
lust in it is quite similar to or the same as another, nor can be to
eternity. Of these countless lusts man knows scarcely anything, and even
less how they are connected with one another. Yet the Lord in His divine
providence continually allows them to come forth, for them to be drawn
away, and this is done in perfect order and sequence. For the evil man is
a hell in miniature, and the good man a heaven in miniature.
[14] The withdrawal from evils, which the Lord effects in a thousand
highly secret ways, may best be seen and concluded about from the secret
activities of the soul in the body. Man knows that he examines the food
he is about to eat, perceives what it is by its odor, hungers for it,
tastes it, chews it, and by the tongue rolls it down into the esophagus
and so into the stomach. But then there are the hidden activities of the
soul of which he knows nothing, for he has no sensation of them. The
stomach rolls about the food it receives, opens and breaks it up by
solvents, that is, digests it, and offers fit portions to the little
mouths opening in it and to veins which imbibe it. Some it sends to the
blood, some to the lymphatic vessels, some to the lacteal vessels of the
mesentery, and some down to the intestines. Then the chyle, conveyed
through the thoracic duct from its cistern in the mesentery, is carried
to the vena cava, and so to the heart. From the heart it is carried into
the lungs, from them through the left ventricle of the heart into the
aorta, and from this by its branches to viscera throughout the body and
also to the kidneys. In each organ separation and purification of the
blood are effected and removal of the heterogeneous, not to mention how
the heart sends its blood up to the brain after purification in the
lungs, which is done by the arteries called carotids, and how the brain
returns the blood, now vivified, to the vena cava just above where the
thoracic duct brings in the chyle, and so back again to the heart.
[15] These and countless other activities are secret operations of the
soul in the body. Man has no sense of them, and unless he is acquainted
with the science of anatomy, knows nothing of them. Yet similar
activities take place in the interiors of the human mind. Nothing can
take place in the body except from the mind, for man's mind is his
spirit, and his spirit is equally man; the sole difference being that
what is done in the body is done naturally, while what is done in the
mind is done spiritually; there is all similarity. Plainly, then, divine
providence operates with every man in a thousand hidden ways, and its
incessant care is to cleanse him, since its purpose is to save him.
Plainly, too, nothing more is incumbent on man than to remove evils in
the outward man; the Lord sees to the rest, when He is implored.
297. (iii) _The evil cannot be fully withdrawn from evil and led in good
by the Lord so long as they believe their own intelligence to be
everything and divine providence nothing._ It would seem that man could
withdraw himself from evil provided he thought that this or that was
contrary to the common good, or to what is useful, or to national or
international law, and this an evil as well as a good man can do if by
birth or through practice he is such that he can think clearly within
himself, analysing and reasoning. But even then he is not capable of
withdrawing himself from evil. The faculty of understanding and of
perceiving, even abstractly, has indeed been given everyone by the Lord,
to the evil as well as to the good, as has been shown above in many
places, and yet man cannot deliver himself from evil by means of this
faculty. For evil comes of the will, and the understanding influences the
will only with light, enlightening and instructing. If the heat of the
will, that is, man's love, is hot with the lust of evil, it is cold
towards the affection of good, therefore does not receive the light but
either repels or extinguishes it, or by some fabricated falsity turns it
into evil. The light is then like winter light, which is as clear as the
light in summer and remains as clear even when it flows into frozen
trees. But this can be seen better in the following order:
1. When the will is in evil, one's own intelligence sees only falsity,
and neither desires to see, nor can see, anything else.
2. If then one's own intelligence is confronted with truth, it either
turns away from it or falsifies it.
3. Divine providence continually causes man to see truth, and also gives
him affection for perceiving and receiving it.
4. Through this means man is withdrawn from evil, not by himself, but by
the Lord.
298. For these things to be made apparent to the rational man, whether he
is evil or good, thus whether he is in the light of winter or in the
light of summer (for colors appear the same in them), they are to be
explained in due order.
First: _When the will is in evil, one's own intelligence sees only
falsity, and neither desires nor is able to see anything else._ This has
often been demonstrated in the spiritual world. Everyone, on becoming a
spirit, which takes place after death when he puts off the material body
and puts on the spiritual, is introduced by turns into the two states of
his life, the external and the internal. In the external state he speaks
and acts rationally, quite as a rational and wise man does in the world;
he can also instruct others in much that pertains to moral and civil
life, and if he has been a preacher he can also give instruction in the
spiritual life. But when he is brought from this external state into his
internal state, and the external is put to sleep and the internal awakes,
the scene changes if he is evil. From being rational he becomes sensuous,
and from being wise he becomes insane. For he thinks then from the evil
of his will and its enjoyments, thus from his own intelligence, and sees
only falsity and does nothing but evil, believing that evil is wisdom and
that cunning is prudence. From his own intelligence he believes himself
to be a deity and with all his mind sucks up nefarious ways.
[2] I have often seen instances of such insanity. I have also seen
spirits introduced into these alternating states two or three times
within an hour, and it was granted them to see and also acknowledge their
insanities. Nevertheless they were unwilling to remain in a rational and
moral state, but voluntarily returned to their internal sensuous and
insane state. They loved this more than the other because the enjoyment
of their life's love was in it. Who can believe that an evil man is such
beneath his outward appearance and that he undergoes such a
transformation when he enters on his internal state? This one experience
makes plain the nature of one's own intelligence when one thinks and acts
from the evil of one's will. It is otherwise with the good. When they are
admitted from their external state into their internal state, they become
still wiser and still more moral.
[3] Second: _If then one's own intelligence is confronted with truth, it
either turns away from it or falsifies it._ The human being has a
volitional and an intellectual proprium. The volitional proprium is evil,
and the intellectual proprium is falsity derived from evil; the latter is
meant by "the will of man" and the former by "the will of the flesh" in
John 1:13. The volitional proprium is in essence self-love, and the
intellectual proprium is the pride coming of that love. The two are like
married partners, and their union is called the marriage of evil and
falsity. Into this union each evil spirit is admitted before he enters
hell; he then does not know what good is; he calls his evil good, because
that is what he feels to be enjoyable. He also turns away from truth then
and has no desire to see it, because he sees the falsity which accords
with his evil as the eye beholds what is beautiful, and hears it as the
ear hears what is harmonious.
[4] Third: _Divine providence continually causes man to see truth and
also gives him affection for perceiving and receiving it._ For divine
providence acts from within and flows thence into the exteriors, that is,
flows from what is spiritual into what is in the natural man, by the
light of heaven enlightening his understanding and by the heat of heaven
quickening his will. The light of heaven in essence is divine wisdom, and
the heat of heaven in essence is divine love. From divine wisdom nothing
can flow but truth, and from divine love nothing but good. With good the
Lord bestows an affection in the understanding for seeing and also
perceiving and receiving truth. Man thus becomes man not only in external
aspect but in internal aspect, too. Everyone desires to appear a rational
and spiritual man, and knows he so desires in order that others may
believe him to be truly man. If then he is rational and spiritual in
external form only, and not at the same time in his internal form, is he
man? Is he different from a player on the stage or from an ape with an
almost human face? May one not know from this that only he is a human
being who is inwardly what he desires others to think he is? One who
acknowledges the one fact must admit the other. Man's own intelligence
can induce the human form only on externals, but divine providence
induces it on internals and thence on externals. When it has been so
induced, a man does not only appear to be a man; he is one.
[5] Fourth: _Through this means man is withdrawn from evil, not by
himself, but by the Lord._ When divine providence gives man to see truth
and to be affected by it, he can be withdrawn from evil for the reason
that truth points the way and dictates; doing what truth dictates, the
will unites with truth and within itself turns it into good, for it
becomes something one loves, and what is loved is good. All reformation
is effected through truth, not without it, for without truth the will
continues in its evil, and should it consult the understanding, is not
instructed, rather the evil is confirmed by falsities.
[6] With regard to intelligence, this seems to the good man as well as to
an evil man to be his and proper to him. Like an evil man, he is also
bound to act from intelligence as if it were his own. But one who
believes in divine providence is withdrawn from evil, and one who does
not believe in it is not withdrawn; he believes who acknowledges that
evil is sin and desires to be withdrawn from it, and he does not believe
who does not so acknowledge and desire. The difference between the two
kinds of intelligence is like that between what is believed to exist in
itself and what is believed not to exist in itself but to appear as if it
did. It is also like the difference between an external without an
internal similar to it and an external with a similar internal. Thus it
is like the difference between impersonations of kings, princes or
generals by mimes and actors through word and bearing, and actual kings,
princes or generals. The latter are such in fact as well as outwardly,
but the former only outwardly, and when the exterior is laid off, are
known only as comedians, actors or players.
299. (iv) _The Lord governs hell by means of opposites, and those in the
world who are evil He governs in hell as to their interiors but not as to
their exteriors._ One who does not know the character of heaven and hell
cannot know at all that of man's mind; his mind is his spirit which
survives death. For the mind or spirit of man is altogether in form what
heaven or hell is. The only difference is that one is vast and the other
very small, or one is archetype and the other a copy. As to his mind or
spirit, accordingly, the human being is either heaven or hell in least
form, heaven if he is led by the Lord, and hell if he is led by his
proprium. Inasmuch as it has been granted me to know what heaven and hell
are, and it is important to know what the human being is in respect to
his mind or spirit, I will describe both heaven and hell briefly.
300. All who are in heaven are nothing other than affections of good and
thoughts thence of truth, and all who are in hell are nothing other than
lusts of evil and imaginations thence of falsity. These are so arranged
respectively that the lusts of evil and the imaginings of falsity in hell
are precisely opposite to the affections of good and the thoughts of
truth in heaven. Therefore hell is under heaven and diametrically
opposite, that is, the two are like two men lying in opposite directions,
or standing, invertedly, like men at the antipodes, only the soles of
their feet meeting and their heels hitting. At times hell also appears to
be so situated or inverted relatively to heaven, for the reason that
those in hell make lusts of evil the head and affections of good the
feet, while those in heaven make affections of good the head and lusts of
evil the soles of the feet; hence the mutual opposition. When it is said
that in heaven there are affections of good and thoughts of truth from
them, and in hell lusts of evil and imaginations of falsity from them,
the meaning is that there are spirits and angels who are such. For
everyone is his affection or his lust, an angel of heaven his affection
and a spirit of hell his lust.
301. The angels of heaven are affections of good and thoughts thence of
truth because they are recipients of divine love and wisdom from the
Lord; for all affections of good are from the divine love and all
thoughts of truth are from the divine wisdom. But the spirits of hell are
lusts of evil and the imaginations thence of falsity because they are in
self-love and their own intelligence, and all lusts of evil come of
self-love and imaginations of falsity from one's own intelligence.
302. The ordering of affections in heaven and of lusts in hell is
marvelous, and is known to the Lord alone. They are each distinguished
into genera and species, and are so conjoined as to make a unit. As they
are distinguished into genera and species, they are distinguished into
larger and smaller societies, and as they are so conjoined as to make a
unit, they are conjoined as all things in man are. Hence in its form
heaven is like a comely man, whose soul is divine love and wisdom, thus
the Lord, and hell in its form is like a monstrous man, his soul
self-love and self-intelligence, thus the devil. No devil is sole lord
there; self-love is so called.
303. But that the nature of heaven and of hell respectively may be better
known, instead of affections of good let enjoyments of good be
understood, and enjoyments of evil instead of lusts of evil, for no
affections or lusts are without their enjoyments, and enjoyments make
one's life. These enjoyments are distinguished and conjoined as we said
affections of good and lusts of evil are. The enjoyment of his affection
fills and surrounds each angel, the enjoyment common to a society of
heaven fills and surrounds each society, and the enjoyment of all the
angels together or the most widely shared enjoyment fills and envelops
heaven as a whole. Similarly, the pleasure of his lust fills and envelops
each spirit of hell, a common enjoyment every society in hell, and the
enjoyment of all or the most widely shared enjoyment fills and envelops
all hell. Since, as was said, the affections of heaven and the lusts of
hell are diametrically opposite to each other, plainly a heavenly joy is
so unenjoyable to hell that it is unbearable, and in turn an infernal joy
is so unenjoyable to heaven that it is unbearable, too. Hence the
antipathy, aversion and separateness.
304. As these enjoyments constitute the life of each individual and of
all in general, they are not sensed by those in them, but the opposite
enjoyments are sensed when brought near, especially if they are turned
into odors; for every enjoyment corresponds to an odor and in the
spiritual world may be converted into it. Then the general enjoyment in
heaven is sensed as the odor of a garden, varied according to the
fragrance of flowers and fruits; the general enjoyment in hell is sensed
as the odor of stagnant water, into which filth of various sorts has been
thrown, the odor varied according to the stench of the things decaying
and reeking in it. While I have been given to know how the enjoyment of a
particular affection of good is sensed in heaven, and the enjoyment of
some lust of evil in hell, it would take too long to relate it here.
305. I have heard many newcomers from the world complain that they had
not known that their destiny would be according to the affections of
their love. To these, they said, they had given no thought in the world,
much less to the enjoyments of the affections, for they loved what they
found enjoyable. They had believed that each person's lot would be
according to his thoughts from his intelligence, especially according to
thoughts of piety and of faith. But they were answered, that they could
have known, if they wished, that evil of life is unacceptable to heaven
and displeasing to God, but acceptable to hell and pleasing to the devil,
and the other way about, that good of life is acceptable to heaven and
pleasing to God, but unacceptable to hell and displeasing to the devil;
consequently that evil in itself is malodorous and good is fragrant. As
they might have known this if they wished, why did they not shun evils as
infernal and diabolical, but indulge in them merely because they were
enjoyable? Aware now that the enjoyments of evil smell so foully, they
might also know that those full of them cannot enter heaven. Upon this
reply they betook themselves to those who were in similar enjoyments, for
only there could they breathe.
306. From the idea of heaven and hell just given, it may be evident what
the nature of man's mind is. For, as was said, man's mind or spirit is
either a heaven or a hell in least form, that is, his interiors are
nothing other than affections and thoughts thence, distinguished into
genera and species, like the larger and smaller societies of heaven or
hell, and so connected as to act as a unit. The Lord governs them as He
does heaven or hell. That the human being is either heaven or hell in
least form may be seen in the work _Heaven and Hell,_ published at London
in 1758.
307. Now to the subject proposed, that the Lord governs hell by means of
opposites, and those in the world who are evil He governs in hell as to
their interiors but not as to their exteriors. On the first point, that
_the Lord governs hell through opposites,_ it was shown above (nn. 288,
289) that the angels of heaven are not in love and wisdom, or in the
affection of good and thence in thought of truth from themselves, but
from the Lord, likewise that good and truth flow from heaven into hell
where good is turned into evil and truth into falsity because the
interiors of the minds of those in heaven and in hell respectively are
turned in opposite directions. Inasmuch then as all things in hell are
the opposite of all things in heaven, the Lord governs hell by means of
opposites.
[2] The second point, that _the Lord governs in hell those in the world
who are evil._ This is for the reason that the human being as to his
spirit is in the spiritual world and in some society there, in an
infernal society if he is evil, in a heavenly one if he is good. For his
mind, which in itself is spiritual, cannot be anywhere but among
spiritual beings, of whom he becomes one after death. This has also been
stated and demonstrated above. A man is not there, however, in the same
way as a spirit is who has been assigned to the society, for man is
constantly in a state to be reformed, and therefore, if he is evil, is
transferred by the Lord from one infernal society to another according to
his life and the changes in it. But if he permits himself to be reformed,
he is led out of hell and elevated to heaven, and there, too, he is
carried from one society to another until his death, after which this
does not take place as he is then no longer in a state to be reformed,
but remains in the state which is his from his life. When a person dies,
therefore, he is assigned his place.
[3] Thirdly, _the Lord governs the evil who are in the world in this way
as to their interiors, but in another way as to their exteriors._ The
Lord governs the interiors of man's mind in the manner just stated, but
governs the exteriors in the world of spirits, which is between heaven
and hell. The reason is that commonly man is different in externals from
what he is in internals. He can feign outwardly to be an angel of light
and yet inwardly be a spirit of darkness. His external is therefore
governed in one way, and his internal in another; as long as he is in the
world, his external is governed in the world of spirits, and his internal
in either heaven or hell. On death one also enters the world of spirits
first, therefore, and comes into his external, which he puts off there;
having put it off, he is conducted to the place assigned as his. What the
world of spirits is and its nature may be seen in the work _Heaven and
Hell,_ published at London in 1758, nn. 421-535.
XVI. DIVINE PROVIDENCE APPROPRIATES NEITHER EVIL NOR GOOD TO ANYONE, BUT
ONE'S OWN PRUDENCE APPROPRIATES BOTH
308. Almost everyone believes that man thinks and wills, hence speaks and
acts, from himself. Who of himself can believe otherwise? For the
appearance that he does is so strong that it differs not at all from
actually thinking, willing, speaking and acting from oneself, which is
impossible. In _Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love and Wisdom_ it was shown
that there is only one life and that men are recipients of life; also
that the human will is the receptacle of love, and the human
understanding the receptacle of wisdom; love and wisdom are the one life.
It was also demonstrated that by creation and steadily therefore by
divine providence this life appears in the human being quite as though it
sprang from him and hence was his own, but that this is the appearance so
that man can be a receptacle. It was also shown above (nn. 288-294) that
no one thinks from himself but from others, nor the others from
themselves, but all from the Lord, an evil person as well as a good
person. We showed further that this is well known in Christendom,
especially to those who not only say but also believe that all good and
truth, all wisdom and thus all faith and charity are from the Lord, also
that all evil and falsity are from the devil or hell.
[2] One can only conclude from all this that everything which a man
thinks and wills flows into him. And since all speech flows from thought
as an effect from its cause, and all action flows similarly from the
will, it follows that everything which one speaks and does also flows in,
albeit derivatively or indirectly. It is undeniable that all which one
sees, hears, smells, tastes or feels flows in; why not then what he
thinks and wills? Can there be any difference other than this, that
entities in the natural world flow into the organs of the external senses
or of the body, while entities in the spiritual world flow into the
organic substances of the internal senses or of the mind? Hence as the
organs of the external senses or of the body are receptacles of natural
objects, so the organic substances of the internal senses or of the mind
are receptacles of spiritual objects. As this is man's situation, what
then is his proprium? It cannot consist in his being such or such a
receptacle, for then it would only be the man's manner of reception, not
the life's proprium. No one understands by proprium anything else than
that he lives of himself and consequently thinks and wills of himself;
but that there is no such proprium and indeed cannot be with anyone
follows from what was said above.