The reason why the love of self and the love of the world are infernal
loves, and yet man has been able to come into them, and thus to ruin
will and understanding in him, is as follows: By creation the love of
self and the love of the world are heavenly loves; for they are loves
of the natural man serving his spiritual loves, as a foundation does a
house. From the love of self and the world, a man wishes well by his
body, desires food, clothing and habitation, takes thought for his
household, seeks occupation to be useful, wishes also for obedience's
sake to be honored according to the dignity of the thing he does, and
to be delighted and recreated by the pleasures of the world;--yet all
this for the sake of the end, which must be use. By this a man is in
position to serve the Lord and to serve the neighbor. But when there
is no love of serving the Lord and the neighbor, but only a love of
serving oneself at the world's hands, then from being heavenly that
love becomes infernal, for it causes a man to sink mind and character
in his _proprium_, or what is his own, which in itself is the whole of
evil.
--_Divine Love and Wisdom, n._ 396