nversed with the angels who were with me, concerning
dominion, that there are two kinds of dominion, one, of love towards
the neighbour, and the other, of the love of self; and that the
dominion of love towards the neighbour exists among those who dwell
separated into households, families, and clans: but the dominion of
the love of self among those who dwell together in society. Among
those who live separated into households, families, and clans, he who
is the father of the clan bears rule, and under him the fathers of
families, and under these the fathers of each household. He is called
the father of the clan, from whom the families are derived, and the
households of which the families are composed. But all these exercise
dominion from love, like the love of a father towards his children,
who teaches them how they ought to live, provides for their good, and
as far as possible gives to them of what is his own. It never enters
into his mind to subject them to himself, as subjects or as servants,
but he loves that they should obey him as sons obey their father. And
since this love, as is known, increases in descending, therefore the
father of a clan acts from a more inward love than the father himself
from whom the children are immediately descended. Such also is the
dominion in the heavens, because such is the Lord's dominion; for His
dominion is from Divine Love towards the whole human race. But the
dominion of the love of self, which is opposite to the dominion of
love towards the neighbour, began when man alienated himself from the
Lord; for in proportion as a man does not love and worship the
Lord, in that proportion he loves and worships himself, and in
that proportion also he loves the world. Then it was that, from the
necessity for self-preservation, clans consisting of families
and households gathered themselves into one body, and established
governments under various forms. For in proportion as that love
increased, in the same proportion evils of every kind, as, enmity,
envy, hatred, revenge, cruelty and deceit, increased with it, being
directed against all who opposed that love; for from the proprium, in
which those are who are in the love of self, nothing but evil springs,
inasmuch as man's proprium is nothing but evil, and, as the proprium
is evil, it is not receptive of good from heaven: therefore the love
of self, when it is the reigning love, is the father of all such
evils[ddd]; and that love is also of su