Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/80

 their own love leads them also, and by means of it they are led by others. Still more is this the case when they become spirits; because then it is not allowable to assume the appearance of any other love, and to counterfeit what is not their own.

That the spirit of man is his ruling love, is manifest in all social intercourse in the other life; for so far as any one acts and speaks according to another's love, the latter appears conspicuously, with a full, cheerful and lively countenance; but so far as any one acts and speaks in opposition to the love of another, his countenance begins to change, to become obscure, and to fade from the sight, until at last he disappears entirely as if he had not been there. I have often wondered at this, because nothing of the kind can take place in the world; but I was told that the case is similar with the spirit in man, which, when it turns itself away from another, is no longer visible to him.

That a spirit is his ruling love, was also made evident by this circumstance, that every spirit seizes and appropriates to himself whatever agrees with his love, and rejects and removes from himself everything that does not agree with it.

Every one's love is like spongy and porous wood, which imbibes such fluids as promote its growth, and repels others. It is also like animals of every kind, which know their proper food, and seek that which agrees with their nature, and turn away from