Page:The New View of Hell.djvu/106



VERY individual has some ruling love; and this love is his life. His character is according to the nature of this love;—heavenly if the love be good, infernal if the love be evil. And this love each one takes with him into the other world, because he takes there his life—his character—his own spiritual organism which the ruling love has moulded; and he can take nothing else.

And according to Swedenborg the ruling love cannot be changed after death. If, therefore, it be of an infernal character, it remains so for ever. The individual will have no desire to change his character in the other world, or to be anything else than his ruling love makes him; and without such desire we cannot conceive how any essential change in him can possibly take place. And if the character or ruling love undergoes no change after death, then the wicked will remain so for ever, and the hells will be unending in their duration.

And this is the solemn fact disclosed by Swedenborg.