hat is, so far as external bonds are removed, which are fears of
the law and its penalties, and of the loss of reputation, honor,
gain, employment, and life, so far it rushes on until it finally
longs to rule not only over the entire world but also over the entire
heaven, and over the Divine Himself, knowing no limit or end. This
propensity lurks hidden in everyone who is in love of self, although
it is not manifest to the world, where it is held in check by such
bonds as have been mentioned. Everyone can see examples of this in
potentates and kings who are subject to no such restraints and bonds,
but rush on and subjugate provinces and kingdoms so far as they are
successful, and aspire to power and glory without limit; and still
more strikingly in the Babylon of this day, which has extended its
dominion into heaven, and has transferred to itself all the Divine
power of the Lord, and continually lusts for more. That such men,
when they have entered after death the other life, are directly
opposed to the Divine and to heaven, and are on the side of hell, can
be seen in the little work on The Last Judgment and the Destruction
of Babylon.

560. Picture to yourself a society of such persons, all of whom love
themselves alone and love others only so far as they make one with
themselves, and you will see that their love is precisely like the
love of thieves for each other, who embrace and call one another
friends so long as they are acting together; but when they cease to
act together and discard their subordination to one another, they
rise up against and murder one another. When the interiors or the
minds of such are explored they will be seen to be full of bitter
hatred one against another, and at heart will laugh at all justice
and honesty, and likewise at the Divine, which they reject as of no
account. This is still more evident in the societies of such in the
hells treated of below.

561. The interiors pertaining to the thoughts and affections of those
who love themselves above all things are turned towards themselves
and the world, and thus are turned away from the Lord and from
heaven; and consequently they are obsessed with evils of every kind,
and the Divine cannot flow in; for if it does flow in it is instantly
submerged in thoughts of self, and is defiled, and is also mingled
with the evils that flow from what is their own. This is why all such
in the other life look backwards away from the Lord, and towards