Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/188

 excrementitious and cadaverous substances, produces putrefaction, and draws forth noisome and disgusting stenches. So the light from the same sun produces in one object beautiful and pleasing colors, in another, ugly and disagreeable ones.

The case is similar in regard to heat and light from the sun of heaven, which is love. When heat or love from that sun flows into goods [i. e., into good and orderly human forms], as with good men, spirits and angels, it renders their goods fruitful; but when it flows into the wicked it produces the contrary effect, for their evils either suffocate or pervert it. So the light of heaven, when it flows into the truths of good, imparts intelligence and wisdom; but when it flows into the falsities of evil, it is there turned into insanities and fantasies of various kinds. Thus in every instance the effect is according to reception.

Because infernal fire is the love of self and of the world, it is therefore every lust which springs from these loves; for lust is love in its continuity, since what a man loves he continually lusts after; and it is likewise delight, for what a man loves or lusts after, when he obtains it he perceives to be delightful; nor is heart-felt delight communicated to him from any other source.

Infernal fire, therefore, is the lust and delight which spring from the love of self and the world as from their fountain. The evils originating in these two loves, are contempt of others, enmity and