If it turns to good, it receives
it from above; and in this case the man's rational principle is formed
more and more to the reception of heaven; but if it turns itself to
evil, it receives that influx from beneath; and in this case the man's
rational principle is formed more and more to the reception of hell. The
reason why those two spheres do not unite, is, because they are
opposites; and an opposite acts upon an opposite like enemies, one of
whom, burning with deadly hatred, furiously assaults the other, while
the other is in no hatred, but only endeavours to defend himself. From
these considerations it is evident, that those two spheres only meet
each other, but do not unite. The middle interstice, which they make, is
on the one part from the evil not of the false, and from the false not
of the evil, and on the other part from good not of truth, and from
truth not of good: which two may indeed touch each other, but still they
do not unite.

437. XII. BETWEEN THOSE TWO SPHERES THERE IS AN EQUILIBRIUM, AND MAN IS
IN IT. The equilibrium between them is a spiritual equilibrium, because
it is between good and evil; from this equilibrium a man has free will,
in and by which he thinks and wills, and hence speaks and acts as from
himself. His rational principle consists in his having the option to
receive either good or evil; consequently, whether he will freely and
rationally dispose himself to conjugial love, or to adulterous love; if
to the latter, he turns the hinder part of the head, and the back to the
Lord; if to the former, he turns the fore part of the head and the
breast to the Lord; if to the Lord, his rationality and liberty are led
by himself; but if backwards from the Lord, his rationality and liberty
are led by hell.

438. XIII. A MAN CAN TURN HIMSELF TO WHICHEVER SPHERE HE PLEASES; BUT SO
FAR AS HE TURNS HIMSELF TO THE ONE, SO FAR HE TURNS HIMSELF FROM THE
OTHER. Man was created so that he may do whatever he does freely,
according to reason, and altogether as from himself: without these two
faculties he would not be a man but a beast; for he would not receive
any thing flowing from heaven, and appropriate it to himself as his own,
and consequently it would not be possible for anything of eternal life
to be inscribed on him; for this must be inscribed on him as his, in
order that it may be his own; and whereas there is no freedom on the one
part, unless there be also a like freedom on the other, as it would