or angelic development and the possibility of evil creations. It is a balance which the Lord continually maintains and a freedom which He continually imparts; because it is essential to individual and conscious manhood or angelhood; and in the right or wrong use of it are the issues of good and evil.
Swedenborg teaches, that, "Man was created to love himself and the world, his neighbor and heaven, and also the Lord. Hence it is that when he is born he first loves himself and the world, then his neighbor and heaven, and afterwards in proportion as he grows in wisdom, the Lord; when this is the case he is in reality led by the Lord though he is apparently guided by himself. In proportion, however, as he is unwise, he stops short in the first degree, which is that of loving himself and the world; and if he loves his neighbor, it is for the sake of himself in the eyes of the world. But if he is altogether void of wisdom, he then loves himself alone, or the world and his neighbor for the sake of himself; and with respect to heaven and the Lord; he thinks slightingly of them, or denies them, or even hates them in his heart, if he does not do so openly in words. These are sources of self-love and the
