THE USEFUL -LIFE
A CROWN TO THE SIMPLE LIFE

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Gift of
ADRIAN LAMBERT, Y 1930

J2

»^ ir—-

THE
USEFUL LIFE
A CROWN TO THE SIMPLE LIFE

AS TAUGHT BY
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
JOHN BIGELOW

NuUus argento color est, avaris
Abditae terris, inimice lamnse,
nisi temperate
Splendeat usu.
Horace, Lib. U. Ode H.

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1905

Mni.3^

ABBREVIATIONS
OF THE WORKS OF SWEDENBORG FROM WHICH THE EXTRACTS
THAT FOLLOW ^VERE SELECTED
Arcana Ccelestia  A. C.
Heaven and Hell  H. H.
Divine Providence  D. P.
Divine Love and Wisdom  D. L.
CoNjuGiAL Love  C. L.
True Christian Religion  T.
Apocalypse Revealed  A. R.
Memorable Relations  M. R.
The chapter and verse of the Bible are given to those
selections which are commentaries upon them.

THE USEFUL LIFE

INTRODUCTION
The Gospel of the Simple Life has recently-
had, with us, its well-merited Apostolate. Its
welcome here justifies the belief that it has left
an impression upon the heart of the nations that
will help much to " fill the earth with the knowl
edge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover
the sea." Though the Simple Life is one of the
processes, it is not a consummation of the Cre
ator's purposes in making man in his oavh Im
age. One's life may be and often is very simple,
with a corresponding lack of Spiritual vigor.
Useful, even vital, as the Simple Life may be,
it is at best but a station, not a terminal, in the de-

INTRODUCTION
velopment of the regenerating soul. The free
dom from perplexing worldly cares implied in
the Simple Life does not exempt us from any
toil or from the struggles with any of the tempta
tions, the overcoming of which is necessary for
the purification of our lives. When the parents
of Jesus, yet a youth, sought him sorrowing and
found him in the temple sitting with the doctors,
" both hearing them and asking them questions,"
he replied to his mother, "How is it that ye
sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my
Father's business ?"'^
Again, when the Jews took up stones to throw
at him for what they called blasphemy, he said:
Many good works have I shewed you from the Father ;
for which of those works do ye stone me ? . . .
If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.
But if I do them, though ye believe not me, believe the
works : that ye may know and understand that the Fa
ther is in me, and I in the Father.''
Here we see that he who could speak " as never
man spake " appealed to his works to testify to
the truths he sought to teach.
The anchorites of the Thebaid and their im-
1 Luke ii. 49. ' John x. 32, 37, 38.
vi

INTRODUCTION
itators who neglect their duties to the world,
under the delusion of thus escaping temptations,
led simple lives while possibly obeying the most
selfish impulses of an unregenerate nature. Paul
of Thebes, denominated by St. Jerome, who wrote
his life, Auctor Vitce Monasticce— the Author of
the Monastic System — when he was fifteen years
of age, took refuge from the temptations of the
world in a cave on a lofty mountain in Libya, the
entrance to which was disguised by a large stone.
Before this cave grew a palm-tree, and near the
palm-tree was a spring of water. Here he lived,
says his biographer, until he was one hundred
and thirteen years old, without seeing any man —
until, near the close of his life, St. Anthony
looked him up — drinking the water from this
spring, eating the fruit of this palm-tree, and
clothing himself in a garment made of its leaves.
All the property he left at his death was a gar
ment made of leaves from the same tree. Though
perhaps some of these details were a little ex
aggerated by his pious biographer, they do not
in the least exaggerate the selfish delusions
of crowds of anchorites like Paul of Thebes,
Simeon Stylites, St. Anthony of Thebes, and St.

INTRODUCTION
Mary of Egypt, whom Zosimus found, after
forty-four years of solitude, burned brown with
the sun and clothed only with her long white
hair — ascetics who never thought of securing
eternal happiness for any but themselves, nor
of delivering any one but themselves from the
horrors of their imaginary hell.
The late Robert Louis Stevenson, in " Our
Lady of the Snows," has set the quality of this
kind of simple life most fitly to the thrilling
music of his verse :
Out of the sun, out of the blast.
Out of the world, alone I passed
Across the moor and through the wood
To where the monastery ^ stood.
There neither lute nor breathing fife.
Nor rumour of the world of life.
Nor confidences low and dear,
Shall strike the meditative ear.
And ye, O brethren, what if God,
When from Heav'n's top he spies abroad.
And sees on this tormented stage
The noble war of mankind rage:
What if his vivifying eye,
0 monks, should pass your corner by?
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INTRODUCTION
For still the Lord is Lord of might ;
In deeds, in deeds, he takes delight;
The plough, the spear, the laden barks,
The field, the founded city marks ;
He marks the smiler of the streets.
The singer upon garden seats ;
He sees the climber in the rocks ;
To him, the shepherd folds his flocks.
For those he loves that underprop
With daily virtues Heaven's top.
And bear the falling sky with ease,
Unfrowning caryatides.
Those he approves that ply the trade.
That rock the child, that wed the maid,
That with weak virtues, weaker hands,
Sow gladness on the peopled lands.
And still with laughter, song and shout,
Spin the great wheel of earth about.
But ye? — O ye who linger still
Here in your fortress on the hill,-'
With placid face, with tranquil breath,
The unsought volunteers of death.
Our cheerful General on high
With careless looks may pass you by.
1 The destruction of this famous hospice by fire transpired
just as this book was going to press.— J. B.
ix

INTRODUCTION
There is nothing taught more clearly both by
precept and example in the Bible than that Use
is the end and purpose of not only our own but
of aU creation; that all Spiritual life consists in
Uses and that even God himself dwells in the
Uses of what he has created.
It is Pharisees Hke those who stoned Jesus that
in all ages have been the perverters of the Sim
ple Life. It is their too little faith in God's
Love and too much fear of what they apprehend
from his wrath, that has given the familiar cur
rency of a proverb to the question : " What 's the
Use?" the answer to which is implied in the
question. It is an invocation of despair.
What 's the Use of pretending to do to others
as we would have them do to us ; of trying to love
our neighbors as ourselves; of trying to give up
our pipe or our bottle ; of resisting the gambling
propensities to which we are addicted ; of bother
ing ourselves about things that don't pay, or of
longer contending vdth the slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune ? There is no Use in tolerating
our bonds with an unfaithful, brutal, or worth
less husband, or the nagging of a termagant or
silly wife; in striving for public reforms which

INTRODUCTION
never realize our expectations. " Why," we are
prone to ask, " should one struggle to get on in
this world honestly and respectably, when we
see the prosperity of the wicked ? Why not rather
exclaim, in the language of the Royal Psalmist :
Surely in vain have I cleansed my heart.
And washed my hands in innocency." ^
How many, too, have been discouraged by fre
quent failures and are ready to excuse themselves
from putting their shoulders to the wheel again
by saying, " It is too deeply mired : what 's the
Use? " How many have capitulated early in the
battle of life and given up to their senses, to their
appetites, to their vanity, to their lack of faith
in the promises of their Creator, with this wail
of hopelessness on their lips !
In the pages which are here to be submitted
to the reader this question will be found to invite
a different and a most encouraging answer.
It not only shows what is the Use, but also gives
us the assurance that Use is or should be the
purpose and end of everything that we either do,
think, or say. It assumes :
1 Psalm IxxUi.
xi

INTRODUCTION
That our body is created and created only for
the execution of Uses ;
That all the delights of heaven are in and from
Use; That it is of the Providence of the Lord that
there should be no person or thing which does not
perform a Use;
That by Uses we approach our Maker ;
That aU knowledges should have Use for an
end, but that from knowledge alone no Use re
sults. These are some of the topics expanded and il
lustrated in the following pages, and are more
or less conspicuous in all the spiritual writings of
their author.
Had Swedenborg contributed nothing else to
illumine the path in which the Christian should
walk than his exposition of the doctrine of Uses,
our obligations to him could hardly be exagger
ated; for it is safe to say that such an exposition
is to be found in no other literature now extant.
We have plenty of adjurations to learn and try
to be useful, but chiefly to be useful in the way
that seems to us best calculated to insure tem
poral success. The proverbs in which the wisdom
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INTRODUCTION
of this world on this subject is prone to crystallize
will be found pretty uniformly to favor worldly
interests, rarely looking beyond them. They tell
us that :
The sleeping fox catches no poultry.
Sloth makes all things difficult.
At the industrious man's house hunger looks in but
dares not enter.
Industry pays debts ; despair increases them.
Diligence is the mother of good luck.
Plough deep while sluggards sleep.
And you shall have corn to sell and to keep.
The cat in gloves catches no mice.
The eye of a master will do more work than both
his hands.
A fat kitchen makes a lean will.
Get what you can, and what you get hold :
'T is the stone that will turn all your lead into gold.
It will be observed that all these proverbs are
true enough in a sense, yet all of them have self
ish limitations and are mostly used as worldly
guides to success in our business or to the grati
fication of our earthly ambitions and carnal ap
petites. They may minister exclusively to our
most selfish inclinations: none of them neces-
xiii

INTRODUCTION
sarily for righteousness. On the other hand, the
doctrine of Use as laid down here by Sweden
borg is a part, and a vital part, of one of the
"two great Commandments, on which hang all
the Law and the Prophets." Use, in its largest
sense, is here demonstrated to be not only the
proper end or purpose of every thought and act
of our lives, the source of all genuine happiness
here and hereafter, the very purpose for which
we were created; but the source of all the happi
ness of Angels, Spiritual and Celestial, and
equally of Our Father in Heaven, whose infinite
love is devoted unintermittingly to Uses.
No human imagination ever has been or is ever
likely to be able to comprehend the enormity of
the change which the universal adoption of this
view of man's responsibility for the unselfish use
of his resources and opportunities would work.
Such a result of course we can never hope to
realize in this life; but that every one may so
order his own as to realize it in the life beyond, I
do most unfeignedly believe.
There is one aspect of Swedenborg's doctrine
of Use— I call it Swedenborg's, for it is his in
so far as it may be called the doctrine of any

INTRODUCTION
son of man — which invests it with a practical
character of incalculable importance. It is but
a few years since this country had more than a
million of men under arms, the largest naval
force then afloat in the world, and was spending
at the rate of more than a million of dollars a
day in a sectional war. One of the chief excuses
of our government for these unprecedented war
expenditures was to assert and defend the dig
nity of labor by resisting the extension of slavery
into territory where it had no constitutional or
prescriptive sanction.
It was a great and noble struggle ; no national
struggle involving more vital issues perhaps was
ever fought. These issues gave dignity to the
nation, and, I believe, success to its arms. But,
after aU, this fearful struggle, important as it
was, at best only aimed to prevent the degrada
tion of white labor by not allowing labor of any
class among us to be made a badge of servitude
and social inferiority. The elevating and dignify
ing of labor among the white population was only
very indirectly and incidentally, if at all, a factor
in that terrible conflict. We still find among our
white population the same adherence to caste dis-
XV

INTRODUCTION
tinctions as aforetime; the same persistence in
trying to appear what we are not, and to do
what we cannot; the same ambitions to reach so
cial, political, and professional positions for
which we are scantily equipped rather than to
content ourselves with such as we might excel in.
It is painful to think how much of the work
done in this world is done from necessity ra
ther than from choice, and how many are ready
at any moment to exchange positions in which
they are most capable of being useful for others
for which they are less fit, to gratify their vanity,
or for other equally unworthy motives, never
realizing that in every Use they utter the prayer
of a good and faithful servant, and become en
titled to his reward.
It has been wisely said that Spiritual Grace
is the lovely offspring of forgotten toil. When
Aristotle was asked what advantage he had
reaped from study, he replied, "That of doing
from choice what others do through fear." This
apothegm would be infinitely wittier and wiser
if Use were substituted for Study.
If we would appropriate the lesson given to
Peter, we would call no useful labor common or
xvi

INTRODUCTION
unclean; and if we would follow the example of
his Master, who has told us, " My Father worketh
hitherto, and I work," we would realize that there
is nothing so honorable, or so productive of hap
piness, as a life consecrated to Use. Its motive
determines the value of all work.
And here it may be well to recognize an im
portant distinction between the two largest
classes of workmen and the two most consid
erable kinds of their respective work. The first
of these classes consists of those whose interest
in the efiicient and successful prosecution of their
work predominates over their interest in the re
muneration they are to get for it. The other
class consists of those who, while they work, are
thinking only of their remuneration. The first
are always trying to satisfy their ideals ; they are
always doing their work as well as they can, and
therefore are constantly progressing and per
fecting themselves in it,— growing in value to
their employers and in reputation among those
of their calling. To them the Use of their work
is their inspiration, and as a necessary result they
are constantly "advancing in favor with God
and man." xvii

INTRODUCTION
The ideals of the other class are not the per
fection or the Uses of their work, but its pecuni
ary or other transient returns. They are there
fore under a constant temptation to do the least
that is necessary for their purpose; to use the
cheapest rather than the best materials — if the
best is more expensive — that their gains may be
the greater, and are thus making less, if any,
effort to perfect themselves in their vocations.
This class, unhappily a very large one— the
Use of their work not being their inspiration— as
a necessary consequence are pretty constantly
declining in favor with God and man, rarely
dreaming that in such decline they are obeying
a law of gravitation downward, inexorable as that
which keeps the planets of the universe in their
orbits. When we work purely for ourselves and with
no thought of its usefulness to others, we cannot
expect our work to be blessed as it might be were
we animated by a less selfish and worldly spirit.
When Jesus at the shore of the Lake Gennesaret
told Simon to put out into the deep and let down
his nets for a draught, Simon replied, " Master,
we toiled all night, and took nothing: but at
xviii

INTRODUCTION
thy word I mil let down the nets." The result
was that their nets inclosed such a multitude of
fishes that they were near breaking, so that their
mates in the other boats had to come and help
them, so near were they to sinking with the quan
tity of fish taken. All the disciples were amazed,
and Simon fell down at the knees of Jesus and
confessed, probably for the first time in his life,
" I am a sinful man, O Lord." Jesus reassured
him. "Fear not," he said; "from henceforth
thou shalt catch men."
What constituted the difference between the
fruitless toil of Simon and his companions during
the night, and their toil after Jesus came into the
boat with them, but the new motive from which
they all acted? They let down their nets at his
word — that is, under an unselfish inspiration—
and they no longer toiled in vain.
The discourse which they had been hearing
just before they started out to fish had brought
Jesus into their boat with them.
The fishes for which they had toiled all night
and which had been supplied so abundantly in
the morning proved to be, like all the cravings
of the unregenerate heart, of little or no impor-
xix

INTRODUCTION
tance to them; for "when they had brought
their boats to land, they left all, and followed
him." Working for Jesus had developed in them
tastes which neither fishing nor fishes could sat
isfy. We are prone to ask. Why was not life so or
dered as to make this unremitting toil and strug
gle unnecessary?
It is not ordered so because it is precisely the
lessons that toil and struggle teach that we need.
The means of living might easily have been given
to man without his labor, as the instinct of a
squirrel teaches it all that it needs to know about
getting its living. But the true end of human
life lies not in anything which is produced by the
work of it, but in the spontaneous exercise of our
ability to work. By such work is the spirit nour
ished. The Lord disclosed this truth when he
said, " I have meat to eat that ye know not of.
My meat is to do the will of him that sent me,
and to finish his work." So our meat, that
which gives the fullest satisfaction of life, lies in
work. Hence so many who would not of them
selves realize this are made to enter into its bless-
XX

INTRODUCTION
ings by the necessity under which they are provi
dentially placed to work for their living, or by
the glitter of some hoped-for end to their labor,
whether of wealth or place or power. The end
may prove unsatisfactory, even if attained; but
whether attained or not, some of the good of
work is realized in the very doing of it. To such
a one there is a sense not of slavery in the neces
sary toil of life, but of freedom in the privilege
of doing it. He rejoices even in the utmost stress
of his labor, " as a strong man to run his course."
In the joy of labor he is unconsciously entering
possibly into the joy of his Lord.
Ruskin illumines what I have been trying
to say, in commenting upon the impressions he
received in the presence of Paul Veronese's
famous picture of Solomon and the Queen of
Sheba: The gallery windows being open, there came in with
the warm air floating swells and falls of military music,
from the courtyard before the Palace, which seemed to
be more devotional, in their perfect art, time and disci
pline, than anything I remember of evangelical hymns.
And as the perfect color and sounds gradually asserted
their power on me, they seemed finally to fasten me in
xxi

INTRODUCTION
the old article of Jewish faith, that things dons delight
fully and rightly were always done by the help and in
the Spirit of God.
Thomas Carlyle said of his father, James
Carlyle: Never, of all the men I have seen, has one come per
sonally in my way in whom the endowment from nature
and the arena from fortune were so utterly out of all
proportion. I have said this often and partly know it.
As a man of speculation — had culture ever unfolded
him — he must have gone wild and desperate as Bums;
but he was a man of conduct, and worh keeps all right.
What strange shapeable creatures we are ! ^
Never be idle [said Jeremy Taylor], but fill up all
the spaces of thy time with a severe and useful employ
ment ; for lust easily creeps in at these emptinesses where
the soul is unemployed and the body is at ease; for no
easy, healthful, idle person was ever chaste if he could
be tempted; but of all employments, bodily labor is the
most useful and of the greatest benefit for driving away
the devil.
It was a custom of the Jews that all boys
should learn a trade. Rabbi Judah saith: "He
1 Reminiscences of Carlyle, Vol. I, p. 19.
xxii

INTRODUCTION
that teacheth not his son a trade doth the same
as if he taught him to be a thief." Rabbi Gama
liel saith : " He that hath a trade is like a vine
yard that is fenced."
It has also been the habit of the present im
perial dynasty of Germany to require their male
offspring at least to master some wage-earning
profession as an essential part of their education.
Adam Smith has given a breadth to the Doc
trine of Use which comprehends the order, duty,
and prosperity of nations as well as of indi
viduals.
It deserves to be remarked [he says] that it is perhaps
in the progressive state, while society is advancing to
the further acquisition, rather than when it has ac
quired its full complement of riches, that the condition
of the laboring poor of the great body of the people
seems to be the happiest and the most comfortable one.
It is hard in the stationary, and miserable in the declin
ing, state. This progressive state is in reality the cheer
ful and the hearty state to all the diff'erent orders of the
society. The stationary is dull, the declining melan
choly.
The Golden Sentences here selected from the
writings of the famous Swedish philosopher have
xxiii

INTRODUCTION
a searching and inquisitorial character which
seems to bear a special message to the Christian
nations of this generation.
Who can read and meditate them without
pausing to inquire whether the habits of hfe
prevailing in modern society are as useful as
they might be ; whether any and how much of its
energy, instead of being utihzed, is not running
to waste ; and whether that waste does not involve
a loss not only of material but of spiritual values
that can never be recovered?
I have already alluded to the pride and plea
sure an expert in any department of useful in
dustry has in his work, and how in his desire to
make it as perfect as possible he loses sight en
tirely of any other — especially of any meaner—
motive. His heart is literally in his work. This
is as true of a man who is guiding a plough as of
the man who is thundering in the Senate. When
thus employed, the humblest as well as the most
exalted artisan is thinking no evil. It is the class
of people who do most skillfully whatever useful
work they find themselves best qualified for, no
matter what its social grade, that are not only
the most contented, the best husbands, wives, and
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INTRODUCTION
parents, but also in emergencies the most firm and
reliable, of any class in any nation. No one can
thoughtfully read the history of our Repubhc
and need farther proof of this statement. And
one, if not the chief, reason of this is that their
minds are pretty constantly and earnestly em
ployed in work that commends itself by its use
fulness to them, their families, and their neigh
bors. I confidently refer any of whatever social class
who doubt either of these statements to the les
sons presented in the following pages. They
were never so adequately or impressively ex
pounded as in the several writings from which
the following are but extracts. I can conceive
of no person reading them without a new sense
of responsibility for what he may be doing or
leaving undone, or without experiencing a more
perfect consciousness that he is either drawing
nearer to or receding from the Divine Presence,
as he appropriates or neglects their teachings.

XXV

THE
USEFUL LIFE

CONTENTS

PAGE

Use the End of Creation  3
The Three Loves of Man  5
How these Three Loves Perfect or Pervert Man ... 6
Spiritual Life Consists in Uses  8
Use is the End of Most Interior Delights  8
Use Prior to Form  9
Man was Created for Use  9
Love of Gold and Silver for Use elevates  10
Love intends Use and produces it by Wisdom . . . . 10
Love of Self and the World are Evils, only to be re
moved by conversion into a Love of Use . . . . 12
There is a certain Image of Man in all forms of Uses . 1 3
There is a certain Image of Infinite and Eternal in all
forms of Uses  13
Uses the Mediate Ends for which the Universe was
Created  14
Good is Use  17
Evil Uses were not created by the Lord, but are from
Hell  18
What is meant by Evil Uses on Earth  19
All Things that are Evil Uses are in Hell, and all that
are Good Uses in Heaven  19
Conjugial Love the Complex of all Loves  21
xxix

CONTENTS

PAGE

The Lord's Kingdom is nothing else than the Kingdom
of Ends and Uses  22
A Life of Pleasure contrasted with a Life of Use . . 22
To know your motives of Action study your Delights . 23
Activity, not Idleness, blesses  '23
The principal cause and the instrumental cause act as
one  23
All the ends of Creation are Uses  24.
All Uses are Works and the Delight of the Angels . . 25
No Person nor thing that does not perform Uses . . 26
In Heaven every Delight is of Use and according to
Use  26
Infernal Spirits have to perform Uses  27
Angelic Happiness is in Use, from Use, for Use ... 28
Heavenly Love and Self -Love contrasted  29
Joys of Heaven from conjunction of Love and Wisdom 30
Eternal Rest not Idleness  30
What is Heavenly Joy ?  31
Use Qualifies Truth  31
Man a Form of all Uses  33
The Good of a Man's Love Chooses the Truths of his
Faith  34
The Use determines the Quality of the Affection ... 35
Why Food in a spiritual sense is every thing that is of
Use  35
A Person is of Honour from his Use  37
Such as the Use is, such is the Good  37
Scientifics and Knowledges are of no avail except for
Use  37
Work Must be Use  40

XXX

CONTENTS
PAGE
Uses the Bonds of Human Society and the Delights of
Heaven  40
Love and Wisdom only exist in Use  42
Angels are forms of their Use  42
Use rules in Forms  44
Love, Wisdom, and Use cannot be separated .... 44
All Causes Spiritual  45
Celestial things of Good, Spiritual Things of Truth . 45
Love and Wisdom without Use  46
Serving the Lord is performing Uses  47
Use is Recompense  47
The Use of Wealth and Honours  48
Offices and Honours in Heaven  49
Why the Wicked are advanced to Honours and Wealth 51
Why some Rich are in Hell  52
Uses are subordinated according to Divine Order . . 53
Dignities subservient to Uses, not Uses to Dignities . 53
Rulers who perform Uses without Love to the Neigh
bour  54
The Love of Dignities and Honours for Self and for
Use  55
The Delight of being Useful  59
Paradisiacal Delights  59
Heavenly Joys from State, not Place  60
The Delights of the Bodily Senses  62
The Proper and Improper Use of Dignities .... 63
No Life in what is Useless  64
Love of our Neighbour has a Celestial Origin .... 64
To perform Use is to will well to others  65
Natural and Spiritual Love contrasted  66

XXXI

CONTENTS

PAGE

The Kingdom of the Lord a Kingdom of Uses and
Ends  67
Acting Justly and Faithfully is Charity and Use . . 68
How the Internal and External Man are conjoined . . 69
The Uses and Abuses of Knowledge  70
Natural Light not originating in Pride  71

THE
USEFUL LIFE

THE USEFUL LIFE

USE THE END OF CREATION
The unity of God may be inferred from the creation
of the universe, since the universe being a coherent and
uniform work, from first to last, depends upon God,
as the body depends upon the soul. The universe is
so created, that God may be everywhere present therein,
and keep the whole, with all its parts, under his gov
ernment and observation, and may thus maintain it in
perpetual unity, which is to preserve it. It is for this
reason that Jehovah God declares that he is " the First
and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha
and the Omega" (Isaiah xliv. 6; Rev. i. 8, 17); and
in another place, " I am the Lord that maketh aU things ;
that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth
abroad the earth by myself " (Isaiah xliv. M). This
great system, which we call the universe, is a coherent
and uniform work, from first to last, by reason that

THE USEFUL LIFE
God intended but this one end in its creation, — to form
an angelic heaven from the human race; and aU things
whereof the world consists are means to promote this
end ; for the desire of any end implies also a desire of
the means requisite for its promotion. If, therefore,
we regard the world as a work containing means adapted
to such an end, we may also regard the universe of crea
tion as a coherent and uniform work, and may perceive
that it is a complex of Uses, in successive order, for the
service of the human race, out of which is formed the
angelic heaven. For the divine love cannot design any
other end than the eternal happiness of men, by a com
munication of itself ; and the divine wisdom cannot pro
duce any thing but Uses, as means for the promotion
of that end. By contemplating the world, according
to this enlarged and universal idea, every wise man may
discern that the Creator of the universe is one, and that
his essence is love and wisdom; of consequence, there
is not a single thing existing in the world but that con
tains some hidden Use more or less remote, for the ser
vice of man. While people consider only particular
parts of the creation and do not take a view of the
whole in its connected series as consisting of ends, me
diate causes, and effects ; or while they do not refer
creation to its true source, as an effect derived from
the divine love, by means of the divine wisdom, it is
impossible they should see that the universe is the work
manship of one God, and that he has his abode in the
Uses of every particular thing, being the end for which
it was created. For whatever is in the end is also in the
means conducive thereto, inasmuch as the end itself is
in all the means, acting in them, and producing its own
4

THE USEFUL LIFE
ultimate purposes. While men consider the universe,
not as the workmanship of God, and the habitation of
his love and wisdom, but as the workmanship of nature,
and the habitation of the sun's light and heat alone,
they close up the superior parts of their minds against
the admission of God, and open the inferior parts thereof
for the admission of Satan, whereby they divest them
selves of the nature of men, and acquire the nature of
beasts, not only believing, but actually making, them
selves like unto them ; for they become foxes in cunning,
wolves in fierceness, leopards in treachery, tigers in
cruelty, and crocodiles, serpents, owls, and bats, as to
the respective natures of those animals. In the spiritual
world such persons appear also, at a distance, in the
proper shapes of such beasts as they represent in dis
position; for it is their love of evil which thus repre
sents itself. T. 13.
THE THEEE LOVES OE MAN
There are three universal loves, the love of heaven,
the love of the world, and the love of self. By the love
of heaven is meant love to the Lord and also love toward
the neighbour; and because each of these regards Use
as the end, they may be called the love of Uses. The
love of the world is not merely the love of wealth and
property, but also of all that the world affords, and of
all that delights the senses of the body; as beauty de
lights the eye, harmony the ear, fragrance the nostrils,
delicacies the tongue, softness the skin; also becoming
dress, convenient habitations, society, thus all the en
joyments coming from these and many other things.

THE USEFUL LIFE
The love of self is not merely the love of honour, glory,
fame, and eminence, but also the love of meriting and
soliciting office, and so of reigning over others. Charity
has something in common with each of these three loves,
because, viewed in itself, it is the love of Uses; for
charity wishes to do good to the neighbour (and good is
the same as Use), and from these loves every one re
gards Uses as his ends ; the love of heaven regards spiri
tual Uses ; the love of the world natural Uses, which
may be called civil, and the love of self corporeal Uses,
which may be called domestic, done for one's self and his
own. T. 394.
HOW THESE THREE LOVES PERFECT OR PERVERT MAN
These three loves, when rightly subordinated, per
fect man; but when they are not rightly subordinated,
they pervert and invest him. . . . These three loves,
in relation to each other, are like the three regions of
the body, the highest of which is the head, the middle
is the chest, with the abdomen, while the knees, the feet,
and their soles make the third. When the love of
heaven makes the head, the love of the world the chest
and the abdomen, and the love of self the feet with their
soles, then man is in a perfect state according to crea
tion ; because the two lower loves then subserve the high
est, as the body and all its parts subserve the head.
When, therefore, the love of heaven makes the head,
it flows into the love of the world which chiefly is the
love of riches, and by means of these it performs Uses;
and through this love it flows mediately into the love
of self, which is chiefly a love of dignities, and it per-
6

THE USEFUL LIFE
forms Uses by means of these. Thus those three loves
breathe out Uses from the influx of one into another.
Who does not comprehend that when a man wishes to
perform Uses from spiritual love (which is from the
Lord and is what is meant by the love of heaven), his
natural man performs them by means of his riches and
his other goods, and his sensual man in his own function,
and that it is his honour to produce them.'' Who also
does not comprehend that all the works which a man
does with the body are done according to the state of
his mind in his head, and that if the mind is in the love
of Uses, the body by means of its members effects them .-'
. . . No man of sound reason can condemn riches, for
they are in the general body like the blood in a man;
nor can he condemn the honours attached to office, for
they are the hands of a king and the pillars of society,
provided the natural and sensual loves of them are sub
ordinated to spiritual love. T. 403.
But a man puts on an entirely different state if the
love of the world or of riches makes the head, that is,
if it is the reigning love; for then the love of heaven
is exiled from the head and betakes itself to the body.
. . . But the love of the world is in much variety, worse
as it verges toward avarice; in this the love of heaven
grows black ; so, too, if it verges toward pride and
eminence over others from the love of self. It is differ
ent if it tends to prodigality; it is less hurtful if it
has in view as an end the splendours of the world, as
palaces, decorations, magnificent clothing, servants,
horses and chariots, with pompous display, and so on.
The quality of any love is predicated according to the
end which it regards and intends. T. 404.
7

THE USEFUL LIFE
There is a love of ruling that comes from the love
of the neighbour, and there is a love of ruling from the
love of self. They who are in the love of ruUng from
the love of the neighbour, seek dominion to the end that
they may perform Uses to the public and to private
individuals; and to them, therefore, is also entrusted
dominion in the heavens. Emperors, kings, and dukes,
born and educated for positions of authority, if they
humble themselves before God are sometimes less in that
love than they who are of low origin, but from pride
seek for places of pre-eminence. T. 405.

SPIRITUAL LIFE CONSISTS IN USES
Gen. xLvn. 13—16. Spiritual life consists in exercises.
according to truths, consequently in Uses ; for they
who are in spiritual life desire and seek after truths
with a view to life, that is, that they may live ac
cording to them, and thus with a view to Uses; as
far therefore as they can imbibe truths, according to
which they are to effect Uses, so far are they in spiritual
life, because they are so far in the light of intelligence
and wisdom. A. C. 6119.

USE IS THE END OF MOST INTERIOR DELIGHTS
Gen. IX. 3. There is no pleasure existing in the body
which does not exist and subsist from some interior af
fection ; and there is no interior affection which does not
exist and subsist from one still more interior, in which is
its Use and end. Man, during his life in the body, is
8

THE USEFUL LIFE
insensible to these interior delights which flow in order
from what is inmost, many scarcely knowing that they
exist, much less that all pleasure is thence derived. The
soul is in the Uses and ends, but the body executes such
Uses and ends. In like manner, all eff'ects whatsoever
are representative of the Uses which are their causes:
and the Uses are representative of the ends which are
their first principles. A. C. 994.
USE PRICE, TO FORM
Gen. 38. It appears as if the members and organs
of the human body are before, and that their Uses are
after, for they are first presented to the eye, and are
also known before the Uses ; nevertheless, the Use is
prior to the members and organs, since these latter
are from Uses, and thus formed according to Uses ; yea.
Use itself forms and adapts them to itself: unless this
was the case, all and each of the things in man would
never conspire so unanimously to one. The case is
similar with good and truth; it appears as if truth was
prior, whereas good is prior, being that which forms
truths, and adapts them to itself; wherefore, truths
considered in themselves are only goods formed, or forms
of good ; truths also in respect to good are as the viscera
and fibres in the body in respect to Uses, good also
viewed in itself is nothing but Use. A. C. 4936.
MAN WAS CREATED FOR USE
Gen. xlv. 19. Man ought to have a regard for his
body, to nourish it, to clothe it, to let it enjoy the de-
9

THE USEFUL LIFE
lights of the world; but all this, not for the sake of the
body, but of the soul, in order that the soul, in a sound
body, may act correspondently and rightly, and may
use the body as an organ altogether obsequious to it.
Thus the soul should be the end ; but man should regard
even the soul itself only as a mediate end, not for its
own sake, but for the sake of the Uses it has to perform
in each world; and when man regards Uses as an end,
he regards the Lord as an end, for the Lord arranges
both things for Uses, and uses them. A. C. 5949.
LOVE OF GOLD AND SILVER FOR USE ELEVATES
Gen. XXXIV. 13. They who love lucre and gain, for
no other Use than for the mere sake of gold and silver,
and place all the delight of their lives in the possession
thereof, are in the outermost or lowest things, for the
things which they love are altogether earthly; but they
who love gold and silver for the sake of some Use, ele
vate themselves out of earthly things according to this
Use. The Use itself which man loves, determines his
life, and distinguishes him from others ; an evil Use
makes him infernal, a good Use makes him celestial:
not indeed the Use of itself, but the love of the Use,
for the life of every one is in his love. A. C. 4459.
LOVE INTENDS USE AND PRODUCES IT BY WISDOM
God before creation was Love itself and Wisdom it
self, in their respective tendencies to effect Uses; for
love and wisdom without Use, are merely volatile exis
tences in the mind, which do really take wing and fly
10

THE USEFUL LIFE
away, unless they be firmly fixed in Uses; and in that
case they may be compared with birds which take their
flight over an extensive ocean, but at last fall down
through . fatigue, and perish in the waters. Hence it
appears that the universe was created by God for the
existence of Uses, on which account it may with pro
priety be called a theatre of Uses ; and since man is the
principal end of creation, it follows of consequence that
all and every thing was created for his sake, and there
fore that all the properties of order, both in general
and in particular, were collected into him, and concen
trated in him, to the intent that God by him might
effect primary Uses. Love and wisdom, without their
attendant. Use, may be likened to the sun's heat and
light, which, unless they operated upon men, animals,
and vegetables, would be futile, but which become real by
such influx and operation. There are three things which
follow each other in order — end, cause, and effect; and
it is well known in the learned world that the end is
nothing unless it regard the efficient cause ; and that the
end, together with this cause, are nothing, unless they
produce the effect. The end and the cause may indeed
be abstractedly contemplated in the mind; but still it
should be with a view to producing some effect, which
the end intends, and the cause promotes. The case is
similar with regard to love, wisdom, and Use: it is Use
which love intends and produces by wisdom ; and when
Use is produced, love and wisdom acquire a real exis
tence, and in this make for themselves a habitation and
a seat, where they may be at rest as in their own house.
So also it is with man, in whom the love and wisdom
of God abide, while he is promoting Uses; and for the
11

THE USEFUL LIFE
sake of promoting divine Uses he was created an image
and likeness, that is, a form of divine order. T. 67.
LOVE OP SELF AND THE WORLD ARE EVILS, ONLY
TO BE REMOVED BY CONVERSION INTO
A LOVE OF USE
If good with its truth were infused before, or in a greater
degree than evil and its falsity are removed, the man
would recede from good and return to his evil, becau^
evil would prevail; and that which prevails, conquers.
While evil continues to prevail, good cannot be intro
duced into the inmost of the mind, because evil and
good cannot exist together ; and that which is only in the
outer courts is removed by its enemy which is in the
inner apartments, whereby there is a recession from
good and a return to evil, which is the worst kind of
profanation. Besides, the very delight of a man's life
is to love himself and the world above all things; and
this delight cannot be removed in a moment, but must
be done successively. According to the proportion of
this delight which remains in a man is the prevalence
of evil; and this evil can be removed no otherwise than
by making the love of self to become the love of Uses,
and admitting the love of rule, not for the sake of self,
but for the sake of being useful; for so Uses constitute
the head, the love of self or the love of rule at first
constituting the body under that head, and afterward
the feet upon which he walks. . . . For this reason good
cannot be introduced by the Lord before or in a greater
degree than that in which evil is removed ; and if it were
12

THE USEFUL LIFE
infused sooner, or in greater quantity, the man would
recede from good and return to his evil. D. P. 233.

THERE IS A CERTAIN IMAGE OF MAN IN ALL
FORMS OF USES
All Uses from primaries to ultimates, and from ul-
timates to primaries, have relation to all things of man,
and correspondence with them, and therefore a man is
ill a certain image a universe, and vice versa. The
universe, viewed as to Use, is in image a man, as will
be seen in the following article.

THERE IS A CERTAIN IMAGE OF INFINITE AND ETERNAL
IN ALL FORMS OF USES
The image of infinite in these forms appears from an
endeavor and power of filling the spaces of the whole
world, and of many worlds, ad infinitum: for one seed
produces a tree, shrub, or plant, that fills its space ;
each tree, shrub, or plant, produces seeds, some, several
thousands, which, being sown and growing, fill their
spaces ; and if each seed of theirs were to have so many
new productions again and again, in the course of years
the whole world would be filled ; and if their productions
were stiU to be continued, many worlds would be filled;
and this ad infinitum: compute a thousand from one
seed, and multiply thousands into tens of thousands,
twenties of thousands, and hundreds of thousands, and
you will see. The image of eternal is also similar in
13

THE USEFUL LIFE
these forms, seeds being propagated from year to year,
and their propagations never ceasing: they have not
ceased hitherto from the creation of the world, nor will
they cease to eternity. These two are manifest proofs
and signs that all things in the universe were created
by an infinite and eternal God. Besides these images
of infinite and eternal, there is moreover an image of
infinite and eternal in varieties, in that there can never
exist a substance, state, or thing in the created universe,
the same with another; neither in the atmospheres, nor
in the earths, nor in the forms produced from them;
consequently in none of the things which fill the universe,
can any thing the same as another be produced to eter
nity: this is manifest in the variety of men's faces, no
two are the same in the whole world, or can be to aU
eternity; consequently no two minds are the same, the
face being the type of the mind.
USES THE MEDIATE ENDS FOR WHICH THE UNIVERSE
WAS CREATED
The end of the creation of the universe is, that the
angelic heaven may exist; and as the angelic heaven is
the end, so also is man, or the human race, because
heaven consists of the human race. Hence all things
which are created are mediate ends, and Uses in the
order, degree, and respect, in which they have relation
to man, and by man to the Lord.
Since the end of creation is the angelic heaven from
the human race, consequently the human race itself,
therefore all other created things are mediate ends;
which, as they have relation to man, respect these three
14

THE USEFUL LIFE
things, his body, his rational principle, and his spiritual
principle, for the sake of conjunction with the Lord.
A man cannot be conjoined to the Lord unless he be
spiritual; nor can he be spiritual unless he be rational:
nor rational unless his body be in a sound state: these
things are like a house, the body is like the foundation,
the rational principle is like the superstructure, the
spiritual principle like the things in the house, and
conjunction with the Lord is like inhabitation. Hence
it is evident in what order, degree, and respect Uses,
which are the mediate ends of creation, have relation
to man, namely, for sustaining his body, perfecting his
rational principle, and receiving a spiritual principle
from the Lord.
Uses for sustaining the body, respect its nourishment,
clothing, habitation, recreation and delight, protection,
and preservation of state. Uses created for the nourish
ment of the body are all things of the vegetable king
dom which are for meat and drink, as fruits, berries,
seeds, pulse, and herbs ; and all things of the animal
kingdom which are eaten, as oxen, cows, calves, deer,
sheep, kids, goats, lambs, and their milk; also fowls
and fishes of many kinds. Uses created for the clothing
of the body are also many things from these two king
doms; in like manner Uses for habitation, and for rec
reation, delight, protection, and preservation of state,
which are not enumerated because they are known, and
therefore the recital of them would be mere waste of
paper. There are indeed many things which are not
used by man; but superfluity does not take away Use,
but causes Uses to endure. There is also such a thing
as abuse of Uses; but abuse does not take away Use,
15

THE USEFUL LIFE
as the falsification of truth does not take away truth,
except only in those who are guilty of it.
Uses for perfecting the rational principle are all
things that teach those things now spoken of, and are
called sciences and pursuits, which have relation to nat
ural, economic, civil, and moral things, which are im
bibed either from parents or masters, or from books,
or from communication with others, or by reflection
on what is thus imbibed. These perfect the rational
principle in proportion as they are in a superior de
gree of Use, and they remain in proportion as they
are applied to life. It would be tedious to enumerate
these Uses, on account both of their abundance, and of
their various respect to the common good.
Uses for receiving a spiritual principle from the
Lord, are all things that belong to religion and thence
to worship, consequently that teach the acknowledgment
and knowledge of God, and the knowledge and acknow
ledgment of good and truth, and thereby eternal life;
which, in like manner as other learning, are imbibed
from parents, masters, preaching, and books, and es
pecially by manner of life in conformity thereto ; in
the Christian world by doctrines and preaching from
the Word, and by the Word from the Lord. These
Uses in their extent may be described by things similar
to those that describe bodily Uses, as nourishment,
clothing, habitation, recreation and delight, protection,
and preservation of state, only making the application
to the soul; nourishment to the goods of love, clothing
to the truths of wisdom, habitation to heaven, recreation
and delight to felicity of life and heavenly joy, protec
tion to infesting evils, and preservation of state to
16

THE USEFUL LIFE
eternal life. All these are given by the Lord, accord
ing to the acknowledgment that all things of the body
are also from the Lord, and that a man is but a servant
and steward appointed over the goods of his Lord.
GOOD IS USE
Although it is said that they are Uses, because through
man they have relation to the Lord, still it cannot be
said that they are Uses from man for the Lord's sake,
but from the Lord for man's sake ; because all Uses are
infinitely one in the Lord, and none in man except from
the Lord; a man cannot do good from himself, but
from the Lord, and good is Use. The essence of spiri
tual love is to do good to others, not for the sake of self,
but for the sake of others ; infinitely more so is the
essence of divine love. This is like the love of parents
toward children, who do good to them out of love, not
for their own sake, but for the sake of their children,
as is manifest in the love of a mother toward her chil
dren. It is believed that the Lord, because he is to
be adored, worshipped, and glorified, loves adoration,
worship, and glory, for his own sake; but he loves
them for man's sake, because man thereby comes into
such a state, that the Divine can flow in and be per
ceived, for thereby man removes his proprium which
prevents influx and reception: his proprium, which is
the love of self, hardens his heart and shuts it. This
is removed by the acknowledgment that from himself
nothing is done but evil, and from the Lord nothing
but good ; hence comes a softening of the heart and hu
miliation, from which adoration and worship flow.
17

THE USEFUL LIFE
Hence it follows, that the Use which the Lord performs
to himself by man, is, that out of love he may be able
to do good to man, and because this is his love, recep
tion is the delight of his love. Let not any one there
fore believe that the Lord is with those who only adore
him, but that he is with those who do his command
ments, consequently who perform Uses; with the latter
he has his abode, but not with the former.
EVIL USES WERE NOT CREATED BY THE
LORD, BUT ARE FROM HELL
All goods which exist in act are called Uses, and all
evils which exist in act are also called Uses, but the
latter are called evil Uses, and the former good Uses.
Now as all goods are from the Lord, and all evils from
hell, it follows, that no other than good Uses were
created by the Lord, and that evil Uses originated from
hell. By Uses, which are treated of in particular in
this article, we mean all things that appear on earth,
as animals of all kinds and vegetables of all kinds;
of both the latter and the former, those which furnish
Use to man are from the Lord, and those which do
hurt to man are from hell. In like manner by Uses from
the Lord we mean all things that perfect man's rational,
and cause him to receive a spiritual principle from the
Lord; but by evil Uses, all things that destroy the
rational principle, and prevent man from becoming
spiritual. The things that do hurt to man are called
Uses, because they are of Use to the wicked to do evil,
and because they contribute to absorb malignities, and
thus also as remedies. Use is applied in both senses,
18

THE USEFUL LIFE
like love; for we speak of good love and evil love, and
love calls all that Use which is done by itself. . . .
WHAT IS MEANT BY EVIL USES ON EARTH
Evil Uses on earth mean all noxious things in both the
animal and vegetable kingdoms, and also in the min
eral kingdom. It would be tedious to enumerate all
the noxious things in these kingdoms; for this would
be to heap up names, which, without indication of the
noxious effect that each kind produces, does not pro
mote the Use which this work intends. For the sake
of science it is sufficient here to name some particulars.
Such in the animal kingdom are poisonous serpents,
scorpions, crocodiles, dragons, horned-owls, screech-owls,
mice, locusts, frogs, spiders; also flies, drones, moths,
lice, mites, in a word, those that consume grasses, leaves,
fruits, seeds, meat, and drink, and are noxious to beasts
and men. In the vegetable kingdom they are all malig
nant, virulent, and poisonous herbs; and pulse and
shrubs of the same kind; in the mineral kingdom all
poisonous earths. These few particulars may shew
what is meant by evil Uses on earth; evil Uses are all
things that are opposite to good Uses, concerning which
see the preceding article.
ALL THINGS THAT ARE EVIL USES ARE IN HELL, AND
ALL THAT ARE GOOD USES IN HEAVEN
Before it can be seen that all evil Uses that exist on
earth are from hell, and not from the Lord, something
must be premised concerning heaven and hell. Unless
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THE USEFUL LIFE
this be known, evil Uses as well as good may be attribu
ted to the Lord, and supposed to exist together from the
creation, or they may be attributed to nature, and their
origin to the sun of nature. A man cannot be delivered
from these two errors, unless he knows, that nothing
whatever exists in the natural world that does not de
rive its cause and origin from the spiritual world, and
that the good is from the Lord, and the evil from the
devil, that is, from hell. By the spiritual world is
meant both heaven and hell. In heaven appear all those
things that are good Uses (mentioned in the preceding
article) ; in hell all that are evil Uses (mentioned above,
where they are enumerated) ; wild beasts of all kinds,
as serpents, scorpions, dragons, crocodiles, tigers, wolves,
foxes, swine, owls of different kinds, bats, rats and
mice, frogs, locusts, spiders, and noxious insects of
many kinds: hemlock and aconite, and all kinds of
poison, as well in herbs as in earths ; in a word, all things
that do hurt and kill men ; such things in the hells ap
pear to the life, just like those on the earth and in it.
It is said that they appear there, but still they are not
there as on earth, for they are mere correspondences
of the lusts that spring from evil loves, and present
themselves before others in such forms. Since there are
such things in hell, therefore they also abound in foul
smells, cadaverous, stercoraceous, urinous, and putrid,
with which the diabolical spirits there are delighted, as
animals are delighted with rank-smelling things. Hence
it may appear, that similar things in the natural world
did not derive their origin from the Lord, and were not
created from the beginning, and did not originate from
nature by her sun, but that they are from hell; that
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THE USEFUL LIFE
they are not from nature by her sun is evident, because
what is spiritual flows into what is natural, and not
vice versa: and that they are not from the Lord is also
evident, because hell is not from him, and therefore no
thing in hell that corresponds to the evils of its inhabi
tants. D. L. 317-339.
CONJUGIAL LOVE THE COMPLEX OF ALL LOVES
All pleasures whatever, which are felt by man, are of
his love; the love by them manifests itself, yea, exists
and lives; that the pleasures are exalted in the same
degree as the love is exalted, and also as the incidental
affections touch the ruling love more nearly, is known.
Now, as conjugial love is the fundamental love of all good
loves, and as it is inscribed on the most minute par
ticulars of man, it follows that its pleasures exceed the
pleasures of all other loves, and also that it makes other
loves pleasant, according to its presence, and conjunc
tion with them; for it expands the inmost of the mind,
and at the same time the inmost of the body, as the
delightful current of its fountain flows through and
opens them. All pleasures, from first to last, are gath
ered into this love, because of the superior excellence
of its Use above all others ; for its Use is the propaga
tion of the human race, and thence of the angelic heaven ;
and because this Use was the end of ends of creation,
it follows that all the blessedness, happiness, glad
nesses, gratifications, and pleasures, which by the Lord
the Creator could possibly be conferred on man, are
gathered into this his love. That pleasures follow Use,
and are in man according to the love of it, is manifest
21

THE USEFUL LIFE
from the pleasures of the five senses — sight, hearing,
smell, taste, and touch; each of these has pleasures with
variations according to their specific Uses; what, then,
must be that belonging to the sense of conjugial love,
whose Use is the complex of all other Uses? C. L. 68.
THE lord's KINGDOM IS NOTHING ELSE THAN THE
KINGDOM OF ENDS AND USES
Wherefore, also, the angels who are present with man
attend to nothing else but to ends and Uses, and ex
tract nothing else from his thoughts : paying no regard
to other matters, which are things ideal and material,
as being far beneath their sphere. A. C. 1645, M. R.
A LIFE OF PLEASURE CONTRASTED WITH A LIFE OP USE
There are some persons who live, not for the sake of
any Use they may be to their country, or to the societies
of which it consists, but for the sake of living to them
selves, perceiving no delight in offices, but only in being
honoured and paid court to, (for the sake of which end
also they endeavour to get appointed to offices,) and
also in eating, drinking, playing, and conversing, for
no other end than that of pleasure: such, in the other
life, cannot have any thing in common with good spirits,
still less with angels ; for with these Use constitutes de
light, and the quantity and quality of their delight also
is according to Uses : for the Lord's kingdom is a king
dom of Uses, and if in an earthly kingdom every one
is estimated and honoured according to the Use he per
forms, how much more so in a heavenly kingdom ! A.
C. 5395, M. R. 22

THE USEFUL LIFE

TO KNOW YOUR MOTIVES OF ACTION STUDY
YOUR DELIGHTS
Gen. xxix. 9—11. If any one is desirous to know the
ends by which he is influenced, let him attend only
to the delight which he perceives in himself arising from
praise and self-glory, and then to the delight which he
perceives arising from Use separate from self; if he
perceives this latter delight, he is then in genuine af
fection. A. C. 3796.

ACTIVITY, NOT IDLENESS, BLESSES
Gen. XL. 20. The delight derived from good, and the
pleasantness from truth, which constitute the blessedness
in heaven, do not consist in idleness, but in activity ; for
what is delightful and pleasant in idleness becomes un-
delightful and unpleasant ; but what is delightful and
pleasant in activity remains and continually elevates,
and constitutes blessedness. With those who are in
heaven, activity consists in performing Uses, which to
them is the delight derived from good, and in relishing
truths with a view to Uses, which is the pleasantness
derived from truth. A. C. 6410.
THE PRINCIPAL CAUSE AND THE INSTRUMENTAL CAUSE
ACT AS ONE
It is an eternal truth, that the Lord governs heaven
and earth ; also that no one lives from himself except the
Lord, consequently that the all of life flows-in, good of
23

THE USEFUL LIFE
life from the Lord, and evil of life from hell; this is
the faith of the heavens. When man is in this faith,
in which he may be when in good, then evil cannot be
affixed and appropriated to him, because he knows that
it is not from himself, but from hell. When man is in
this state, he can have peace, for then he will trust solely
in the Lord; neither can peace be given to others than
to those who are in this faith grounded in charity; for
others are continually a prey to solicitudes and lusts,
whence come anxieties. Spirits aspiring to govern them
selves, suppose that this would be to lose their freedom
of wiU; consequently all delight, and all life's sweet
ness. This they say and suppose, because they do not
know how the case really is ; for the man who is led by
the Lord is in essential freedom, and thereby in essential
delight and blessedness ; goods and truths are appro
priated to him, an affection and desire of doing good
is given to him, and then nothing is more happy to him
than to perform Uses ; the perception and sensation of
good, together with intelligence and wisdom, are also
given him ; and all these things are as his own ; for in
this case he is a recipient of the Lord's life. It is known
in the learned world, that the principal cause and the
instrumental act together as one cause; man, inasmuch
as he is a form recipient of the Lord's life, is an in
strumental cause, but life from the Lord is the princi
pal cause; this latter life is felt in the instrumental as
its own, when yet it is not so. A. C. 6325, M. R.
ALL THE ENDS OF CREATION ARE USES
All things which have hitherto been spoken of, as the
sun, the atmospheres, and earths, are only means to ends :
24

THE USEFUL LIFE
the ends of creation are the things produced by the
Lord as a sun, through the atmospheres, from the earths,
and these ends are called Uses; they embrace, in their
whole extent, all things of the vegetable kingdom, all
things of the animal kingdom, and at length the human
race, and by the human race the angelic heaven. These
are called Uses, because they are recipients of divine
love and divine wisdom; also because they look to God,
their Creator, and thereby conjoin him to his great
work, and by this conjunction cause themselves to sub
sist from him as they existed. We say that they look
to God, their Creator, and conjoin him to his great
work, but this is spoken from appearance: the meaning
is, that God the Creator causes them to look, and conjoin
themselves as of themselves. D. L.
ALL USES ARE WORKS AND THE DELIGHT
OF THE ANGELS
Gen. xlvii. 2—6. All the goods, which are called goods
of charity, are nothing but Uses, and Uses are nothing
but works toward our neighbour, our country, the
church, and the Lord's kingdom; charity itself also,
viewed in itself, does not become charity until it comes
into act and becomes a work. For to love any one,
and not to do him good when there is the power, is not
to love; but to do him good when there is the power,
is to love him; and in this case all things of charity
toward him are contained inwardly in the deed or work
itself. For works are the complex of all the things of
charity and faith in man, and are what are called
spiritual goods, and also become goods by exercises, that
is, by Uses. As the angels in heaven are principled in
25

THE USEFUL LIFE
good from the Lord, they desire nothing more than to
perform Uses ; these are the very delights of their life,
and they also enjoy blessedness and happiness accord
ing to their Uses ; which likewise the Lord teaches in
Matthew, " The Son of Man shall come in the glory
of his Father, with his angels, and then shall he render
to every one according to his works," xvi. 27. In this
passage, by works are not meant works as they appear
in the external form, but as they are in the internal
form, viz., according to the principle of charity con
tained in them; this is the only view which the angels
have of works. A. C. 6073.
NO PERSON NOR THING THAT DOES NOT
PERFORM USES
The kingdom of the Lord, which is not only over heaven,
but also over hell, is a kingdom of Uses ; and the Provi
dence of the Lord is, that there should not be any per
son or any thing, from and by which Use is not per
formed. D. P.
IN HEAVEN EVERY DELIGHT IS OF USE AND
ACCORDING TO USE
All the delights of heaven are conjoined with and are
in Uses, because Uses are the goods of love and charity
in which the angels are ; wherefore every one has delights
such as the Uses are, and likewise in such a degree as
is the affection of Use. That all the delights of heaven
are delights of Use, may be manifest from comparison
with the five senses of the body of man. There is given
26

THE USEFUL LIFE
to every sense a delight according to its Use; to the
sight its delight, to the hearing, the smeU, the taste,
and the touch, each its own delight; to the sight
delight from beauty and forms, to the hearing from
harmonious sounds, to the smell from pleasing odours, to
the taste from fine flavours. The Uses which each of them
perform are known to those who attend to such things,
and more fully to those who are acquainted with cor
respondences. That the sight has such delight, is from
the Use which it affords to the understanding, which
is the internal sight ; that the hearing has such delight,
is from the Use which it affords both to the understand
ing and to the will, by hearkening; that the smell has
such delight, is from the Use which it affords to the
brain and also to the lungs ; that the taste has such de
light, is from the Use which it affords to the stomach,
and thence to the whole body, by nourishing it. Con
jugial delight, which is a purer and more exquisite de
light of touch, is more excellent than all those, on ac
count of its Use, which is the procreation of the human
race, and thereby of angels of heaven. These delights
are in those sensories from an influx of heaven, where
every dehght is of Use and according to Use. H. H.
402. INFERNAL SPIRITS HAVE TO PERFORM USES
Such is the equilibrium of all and every thing in an
other life, that evil punishes itself, so that in evil is the
punishment of evil. It is similar in respect to the false,
which returns upon him who is principled therein, hence
every one brings punishment and torment on himself,
27

THE USEFUL LIFE
by casting himself into the midst of the diabolical crew,
who act as the executioners. The Lord never sends any
one into hell, but is desirous to bring all out of hell;
still less does he induce torment ; but since the evil spirit
rushes into it himself, the Lord turns all punishment and
torment to some good and Use. It would be impossible
there should be any such thing as punishment, unless Use
was the end aimed at by the Lord, for the Lord's kingdom
is a kingdom of ends and Uses, but the Uses which the
infernal spirits are able to promote, are most vile, and
when they are exercised in promoting those Uses, they
are not in so great a state of torment; but on the cessa
tion of such Uses, they are cast again into hell. A. C.
696, M. R.
ANGELIC HAPPINESS IS IN USE, FROM USE, FOR USE
The angelic life consists in Use, and in the goods of
charity. For nothing is more delightful to the angels
than to instruct and teach spirits coming from the world,
— to serve mankind by inspiring them with what is good,
and by restraining the evil spirits attendant on them
from passing their proper bounds, — to raise up the dead
to eternal life, and afterwards, if their souls be of such
a quality as to render it possible, to introduce them
into heaven. In the performance of these offices they
perceive an indescribable degree of delight. Thus they
are images of the Lord, for they love their neighbour
more than themselves, and where this feeling exists,
there is heaven. Angelic happiness then is in Use, from
Use, and according to Use; or, in other words, it is ac
cording to the goods of love and charity. Those who
28

THE USEFUL LIFE
entertained the idea, that heavenly joy consists in in
dolence and in indolently quaffing eternal delight, were,
for the purpose of making them ashamed of their opin
ions, led to perceive the nature of such life. And they
perceived that it is most thoroughly sorrowful; for be
ing destructive of every delight, it soon becomes irk
some and disgusting. A. C. 452, 453, 454, M. R.
HEAVENLY LOVE AND SELF-LOVE CONTRASTED
From a comparison of self-love with heavenly love, its
quality may be made manifest. Heavenly love consists
in loving Uses for the sake of Uses, or goods for the
sake of goods, which a man performs for the church,
for his country, for human society, and for a fellow-
citizen ; for this is to love God and to love the neighbour,
because all Uses and all goods are from God, and are
likewise the neighbour who is to be loved. But he who
loves them for the sake of himself, loves them no other
wise than as serving attendants, because they serve
himself. Hence it follows that he who is in self-love,
wills that the church, his country, human societies, and
his fellow-citizens should serve him, and not he them,
for he places himself above them, and them below him
self. Hence it is that so far as any one is in self-love,
so far he removes himself from heaven, because from
heavenly love. H. H. 557.
The end for the sake of which wealth is sought, is
called its Use, and it is the end or Use from which the
love has its quality; for the love is of such a quality
as is the end regarded, and all other things only serve it
as means. H. H. 565. 29

THE USEFUL LIFE

JOYS OF HEAVEN FROM CONJUNCTION OF
LOVE AND WISDOM
The joys of heaven and eternal happiness are not places,
but states of the life of man {homo), and a state of
heavenly life is from love and wisdom ; and because Use
is the continent of these two, therefore a state of hea
venly life is from the conjunction of love and wisdom
in Use. It is the same thing if we say charity, faith,
and good works, inasmuch as charity is love, faith is
truth from which is wisdom, and good works are Uses.
C. L. 10. ETERNAL REST NOT IDLENESS
Eternal rest is not idleness, since from idleness is lan
guor, torpor, stupor, and deep sleep of the mind, and
thence of the whole body, and these are death and not
life, and still less eternal life in which the angels of
heaven are ; wherefore eternal rest is a rest which dis
pels these, and causes man to live; and this is nothing
else but such as elevates the mind; it is therefore some
study and work by which the mind is excited, vivified,
and delighted; and this is done according to the Use,
from which, in which, and to which it operates; hence
it is, that the entire heaven is regarded by the Lord as
containing Uses ; and every angel is an angel according
to Use ; the pleasure of Use carries him on, as a favour
able stream does a ship, and causes him to be in eter
nal peace, and in the rest of peace; thus is understood
eternal rest from labours. That an angel is alive ac-
30

THE USEFUL LIFE
cording to the application of the mind from Use, is
clearly manifest from this, that every one has conjugial
love with its ability, potency, and delights, according
to his application to the genuine Use in which he is.
C. L. 207. WHAT IS HEAVENLY JOY?
What then is heavenly joy? It is the delight of doing
something useful to ourselves and others, and the de
light of Use derives its essence from love, and its ex
istence from wisdom; the delight of Use arising from
love, through wisdom, is the life and soul of all heavenly
joys. In the heavens there are most joyful consocia
tions, which exhilarate the minds (mentes) of the angels,
delight their souls (animi), fill their bosoms with plea
sure, and recreate their bodies; but not until they have
performed Uses in their functions and employments;
from these Uses is the soul or life of all their joys and
delights; and if this soul or life be taken away, acces
sory joys gradually become no joys, exciting first of all
indifference, then disgust, and lastly sorrow and anx
iety. C. L. 58. USE aUALIFIES TRUTH
Instructions in the heavens differ from instructions
on earth in this, that knowledges are not committed to
the memory, but to the life ; for the memory of spirits
is in their life, inasmuch as they receive and imbibe all
things which are in agreement with their life, and do not
receive, still less imbibe, those things which are not in
31

THE USEFUL LIFE
agreement; for spirits are affections, and thence in a
human form similar to their affections. This being the
case with them, the affection of truth is continually
inspired for the sake of the Uses of life; for the Lord
provides that every one may love the Uses suited to his
genius, which love is also exalted by the hope of becom
ing an angel. And whereas all the Uses of heaven have
reference to the common Use, which is for the Lord's
kingdom, this kingdom being their country, and whereas
all special and particular Uses are excellent in propor
tion as they more nearly and more fully regard that
common Use, therefore all special and particular Uses,
which are innumerable, are good and heavenly. With
every one therefore the affection of truth is conjoined
with the affection of Use, insomuch that they act as one ;
truth is thus implanted in Use, so that the truths which
they learn are truths of Use. Thus angelic spirits are
instructed and prepared for heaven. The affection of
truth suitable for Use is insinuated by various means,
most of which are unknown in the world; chiefly by
representatives of Uses, which in the spiritual world
are exhibited by a thousand methods, and with such
delights and pleasures that they penetrate the spirit,
from the interiors which are of his mind to the exte
riors which are of his body, and thus affect the whole.
Hence the spirit becomes as it were his own Use; and
so when he comes into his own society, into which he is
initiated by instruction, he is in his own life when in his
own Use. From these things it may be manifest that
knowledges, which are external truths, do not introduce
any one into heaven, but the life itself, which is the life
of Use, implanted by knowledges. H. H. 517.

THE USEFUL LIFE

MAN A FORM OF ALL USES

Every one, who thinks with any enlightenment, may
see, that love has for end and intends Use, and pro
duces Use by wisdom. Love of itself cannot produce
any Use, but by means of wisdom. What, indeed, is
love, unless there be something that is loved? This
something is Use; and as Use is what is loved, and it is
produced by wisdom, it follows that Use is the conti
nent of wisdom and love. These three, love, wisdom,
and Use, follow in order according to the degrees of
altitude, and the ultimate degree is the complex, con
tinent, and basis of the prior degrees. Hence it may
appear, that these three, the Divine of love, the Divine
of wisdom, and the Divine of Use, are in the Lord, and
that in essence they are the Lord.
That man considered as to exteriors and interiors is a
form of all Uses, and that all Uses in the created uni
verse correspond to those Uses, will be fully shown in
what follows: it is merely mentioned here, in order to
shew, that God as a Man is the essential form of all
Uses, — the form from which all the Uses in the created
universe derive their origin; and that the created uni
verse, viewed as to Uses, is an image of God. Those
things that are from God-Man, that is, from the Lord,
by creation in order are called Uses ; but not those that
are from man's proprium, for that proprium is hell,
and those things that are from it are contrary to order.
D. L. 297, 298.

THE USEFUL LIFE

TRUTHS OF HIS FAITH

Gen. xxvn. 1—8. From these considerations it may be
manifest how the case is with the truths of faith and
with the goods of love appertaining to the man who is
regenerating, namely, that the good which is of love
chooses to itself suitable truths of faith, and by them
perfects itself, and thus that the good of love is in the
first place, and the truths of faith in the second. The
scientifics or knowledges of good and truth in the mem
ory of the external man, after that they have per
formed the above Use, as it were vanish away from that
memory. In this respect they are like those principles
of instruction which have served man from infancy, as
means of perfecting his moral and civil life, and which,
after they have performed that Use, and man has thence
derived life, perish from the memory, and remain only
as to exercise or Use. Thus man learns to speak, learns
to think, learns to discern and judge, learns to con
verse morally, and to behave himself decently ; in a word,
learns languages, manners, intelligence and wisdom.
The scientifics, which served for those Uses, are signified
by ashes, which are to be removed; and the knowledges
of truth and of good, by which man receives spiritual
life, after that they have served for Use, that is, have
imbued life, are signified by the ashes of the altar, which
are also to be removed. A. C. 9723.

34

THE USEFUL LIFE

THE USE DETERMINES THE QUALITY OF
THE AFFECTION
Gen. xxiv. 12-14. The good of affection is like ground,
wherein truths as seeds are inseminated, but such as the
ground is, that is, such as the affection is, such is the
produce of what is inseminated ; the end or Use dictates
what is the quality of the ground, or what the quality
of the affection, consequently what is the quality of the
produce of what is inseminated; or if you would rather
express it thus, love itself dictates, for love is to all
both end and Use, inasmuch as nothing is accounted
as end and Use but what is loved.
Thus it is also with man about to be regenerated;
his first affection of truth is very impure, for there is
in it an affection of Use as an end for the sake of him
self, for the sake of the world, for the sake of glory in
heaven, and such like things, which respect himself, but
not the community, the Lord's kingdom, and stiU less
the Lord. Such an affection must needs precede; nev
ertheless it is successively purified by the Lord, till at
length false and evil principles are removed and cast
out as it were to the circumference; still they were sub
servient as means. A. C. 3089.
WHY FOOD IN A SPIRITUAL SENSE IS EVERY
THING THAT IS OF USE
Gen. xli. 23-26. " And let them gather all the food."
— This signifies all things which are of Use, as appears
(1.) from the signification of "to gather," as denoting
35

THE USEFUL LIFE
to bring together and preserve; and (2.) from the sig
nification of " food," as denoting the things which are
of Use. Food in the internal sense properly signifies
the things which nourish the soul of man, that is, which
nourish him after the life of the body ; for he then lives
a soul or spirit, and no longer has need of material
food, as in the world, but of spiritual food, which is
all that which is of Use, and which conduces to Use.
What conduces to Use is to know what is good and true ;
what is of Use is to will and to do what is good and
true; these are the things whereby the angels are nour
ished, and which are therefore called spiritual and celes
tial food. The mind of man, where his interior under
standing and interior will, or his intentions or ends of
life, are, is not nourished by any other food even while
it lives in the body: material food does not penetrate
there, but only to the things of the body which that food
supports, to the end that the mind may enjoy its food
when the body enjoys its, that is, that the man may have
a sound mind in a sound body. That food or meat in
the internal sense is every thing which is of Use, is evi
dent from these words of the Lord : " Jesus said to his
disciples, I have meat to eat which ye know not of: the
disciples said one to another. Hath any one brought him
to eat? Jesus saith unto them. My meat is to do the
will of him that sent me, and to finish his work," John
iv. 32-34. And in another place : " Labour not for the
meat which perisheth, but for the meat which endureth
unto everlasting life, which the Son of man wiU give
unto you; for him hath God the Father sealed," John
vi. 27. A. C. 5293.

36

THE USEFUL LIFE

A PERSON IS OP HONOUR FROM HIS USE
As every one loves, esteems, and honours Use, so also he
loves, esteems, and honours the person to whom that Use
is adjoined; and likewise that the person is so far loved,
esteemed, and honoured, as he does not ascribe the Use to
himself, but to the Lord; for so far he is wise, and so
far the Uses which he performs, he performs from good.
Spiritual love, esteem, and honour, are nothing else than
the love, esteem, and honour of Use in the person, and
the honour of the person from the Use, and not of the Use
from the person. He also who regards men from spiri
tual truth, regards theiri no otherwise; for he sees one
man like to another, whether he be in great dignity or
in little, with a difference only in wisdom; and wisdom
is to love Use, thus the good of a fellow-citizen, of a
society, of the country, and of the church. H. H. 390.
such as THE USE IS, SUCH IS THE GOOD
Gen. XXIV. 10. Common scientifics are not good in
themselves, nor alive, but the affection thereof causes
them to be good and to live, for in this case they have
respect to Use; no one is affected with any scientific, or
truth, except on account of Use, Use making it good;
but such as the Use is, such is the good. A. C. 3049.
SCIENTIFICS AND KNOWLEDGES ARE OF NO
avail except FOR USE
Gen. XVI. 16. It is to be observed, that the rational
principle can never be conceived and born, or formed,
37

THE USEFUL LIFE
without scientifics and knowledges: but those scientifics
and knowledges ought to have Use for their end, and
then they have life for their end, since aU life has rela
tion to Uses, as having relation to ends. Unless they are
learned with a view to a life of Uses, they are of no
importance, because they are of no Use. From scientifics
and knowledges alone, without the life of Use, a rational
principle is formed as above described, like a wild-ass,
morose, contentious, having a parched and dry life,
originating in a certain delight of truth defiled with self-
love. But when they have Use for their end, they then
receive life from Uses ; nevertheless, the quality of their
life is according to that of the Uses. They who learn
knowledges in order to be perfected in the faith of love,
(for true and real faith is love to the Lord and neigh
bourly love,) are in the Use of all Uses, and receive from
the Lord spiritual and celestial life; and when they are
in that life, they are in the faculty of perceiving all
things which relate to the Lord's kingdom. All the
angels are in such a life, and are, in consequence, in
intelligence and wisdom. A. C. 1964.
It is not enough to be delighted with knowledges, be
cause knowledges have respect to Uses, and Uses ought
to be the end of knowledges; from knowledges alone
no Use results to them, but to others with whom they
are disposed to communicate their knowledges ; and it
is not expedient for any man who is willing to become
wise, to stand still in knowledges alone, these being only
instrumental causes, intended to be subservient to the
investigation of Uses, which Uses ought to be Uses of
life. A. C. 6815, M. R. 38

THE USEFUL LIFE
Gen. 11. 1-3. " The Lord salid to him who went away
and hid the talent in the earth. Take ye the talent from
him, and give to him that hath ten talents; for to every
one that hath shall be given, that he may abound: and
from him who hath not, shall be taken away even what
he hath: but cast out the unprofitable servant into outer
darkness," Matthew xxv. 25, 28, 29, 30. And Luke
xix. 24, 25, 26. In like manner the same Evangelist,
" Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, that he may
have abundantly, but whosoever hath not, even what he
hath shall be taken away from him," xiii. 12. The
reason is, because the knowledges of good and evil ap
pertaining to the evil are applied to evil Uses; and the
knowledges of good and truth appertaining to the good
are applied to good Uses ; the knowledges are the same,
but application of Uses constitutes their quality with
every one: they are in this respect like worldly riches,
which with one are disposed of for good Uses, with
another for evil Uses; hence riches with every one
have a quality according to the quality of the Uses
to which they are applied: from this consideration
it is also evident that the same knowledges, like
the same riches, which had appertained to the evil,
may appertain to the good, and serve good Uses:
from these considerations it may now be made mani
fest what is represented by the command, that the
sons of Israel should borrow from the Egyptians vessels
of silver and vessels of gold, and thus should rob and
plunder them ; such robbery or plunder would in no wise
have been commanded by Jehovah, unless it had repre
sented such things in the spiritual world; similar hereto
is what is written in Isaiah, " At length the merchandise
39

THE USEFUL LIFE
of Tyre, and her meretricious hire, shall be honour to
Jehovah; it shall not be laid aside, neither shall it be
withheld; but her merchandise shall be for them that
dwell before Jehovah, to eat, to satiate themselves, and
for him that cover eth himself with what is ancient,"
xxiii. 18, speaking of Tyre, by which are signified the
knowledges of good and truth; merchandise and mere
tricious hire are knowledges applied to evil Uses; that
they would be given to the good, who will apply them
to good Uses, is signified by her merchandise being for
them who dwell before Jehovah. A. C. 7770.
WORK MUST BE USE
Gen. XL. 16-19. The reason why work denotes Use is,
because it is predicated of the will, or of the subjection
of the sensual, subject to the will-part, and whatever is
done thereby, and may be called work, must be Use : all
works of charity are nothing else, for they are works
from the will, which are Uses. A. C. 5078.
USES THE BONDS OF HUMAN SOCIETY AND
THE DELIGHTS OF HEAVEN
Man, when first created, was imbued with wisdom and
its love, not for the sake of himself, but for the sake of
its communication with others from himself; hence it
is inscribed on the wisdom of the wise, that no one is
wise, or lives for himself alone, but for others at the
same time; thence is society, which otherwise could not
be ; to live for others is to perform Uses ; Uses are the
bonds of society, which are just as many as there are
40

THE USEFUL LIFE
good Uses, and the number of Uses is infinite ; there are
spiritual Uses, which are of love to God, and of love to
ward our neighbour; there are moral and civil Uses,
which are of the love of the society and state in which a
man is, and of his fellow-citizens with whom he lives;
there are natural Uses, which are of the love of the world
and its necessities ; and there are bodily Uses, which
are of the love of self-preservation for the sake of su
perior Uses. All these Uses are inscribed on man, and
follow in order one after another; and when they are
together, one is in the other: they who are in the first
Uses, which are spiritual, are in the succeeding ones
also, and are wise; but they who are not in the first,
and yet are in the second, and thereby in the succeeding
ones, are not thus wise, but only appear to be so from
external morality and civility; they who are neither
in the first nor second, but only in the third and fourth,
are not in the least wise, for they are satans, for they love
only the world, and themselves from the world ; but they
who are only in the fourth, are of all least wise, for they
are devils, because they live for themselves alone, and if
for others, it is only for the sake of themselves. Moreover
every love has its own pleasure, for by this love lives, and
the pleasure of the love of Uses is heavenly pleasure,
which enters succeeding pleasures in order, and accord
ing to the order of succession exalts them and makes
them eternal. After this they enumerated the heavenly
delights proceeding from the love of Use, and said that
they are myriads of myriads. C. L. 18.

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LOVE AND WISDOM ONLY EXIST IN USE
There are three [things] which as one flow from the
Lord into our minds ; these three as one, or this trine,
are love, wisdom, and Use; but love and wisdom do not
exist unless ideally, when only in the affections and
thoughts of the mind, but they exist in Use reaUy, be
cause they are simultaneously in act and bodily work;
and where they exist really, there they also subsist ; and
because love and wisdom exist and subsist in Use, it is
Use which affects us ; and Use is faithfully, sincerely,
and diligently to perform the works of one's function.
The love of Use, and therefrom a fixed attention to Use,
hold together the mind, so that it may not flow forth
and dissipate itself, and wander about, and drink in aU
the lusts which flow in from the body and the world
through the senses, with their allurements, by which the
truths of religion and morality, with all their goods,
are scattered to the winds ; but a studious fixing of the
mind upon Use holds and binds them together in Use,
and disposes the mind into a form receptive of wisdom
from those truths, and then it exterminates the sports
and mockeries of falsities and vanities. C. L. 15.

ANGELS ARE FORMS OF THEIR USE
Gen. xxin. 14—19. It is said in the church, that faith
is from the Lord, but it is to be noted, that faith which
is from charity is from the Lord, but not faith separate
from charity, for this faith is from the proprium. . . .
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THE USEFUL LIFE
The man who is affected with truths merely for the sake
of the reputation of learning, that he may gain honour
and wealth, and not for the sake of good Use of life,
is in persuasive faith, which is from himself, not from
the Lord. There are also theoretical truths of faith,
and there are practical truths; he who respects the
theoretical for the sake of the practical, and sees the
former in the latter, and thus from both conjoined re
gards good Use of life, and is affected both with the
former and with the latter for the sake of this end,
he is in faith from the Lord; the reason is, because
according to Use of life all things are formed; the
truths of faith are those by which formation is effected.
That this is the case, is very manifest from those who
are in the other life; all, there, are reduced to the state
of their good, or to the state of their evil, thus to the
Use of their life, which was their end, that is, which
they had loved above all things, and which hence had
been the very delight of their life; to this all are re
duced; the truths or falses, which had made one with
that Use, remain, and also more are learnt, which con
join themselves with the former, and complete the Use,
and cause the Use to appear in its own essential form.
Hence it is that spirits and angels are forms of their
Use, evil spirits the forms of an evil Use, these are in
hell ; good spirits or angels the forms of good Use, these
are in heaven ; hence also it is, that spirits are instantly
known as to their quality by their presence, the truths
of faith being seen from the face and its beauty as to
form, and the good itself, which is the Use, from the
fire of love therein which vivifies the beauty, and also
from the sphere which flows from them. A. C. 9297.
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THE USEFUL LIFE

USE RULES IN FORMS

When he wills to do this or that, and to act thus or
otherwise, and makes it the subject of his thought,
then the organs move themselves agreeably thereto,
thus according to the intention of the function or Use;
for it is Use which rules in forms. Hence also it is
manifest that before the organic forms of the body
existed. Use was, and that Use produced and adapted
them to itself, but not vice versa; but when the forms
are produced, or the organs adapted. Uses thence pro
ceed, and in this case it appears as if the forms or organs
are prior to the Use, when yet it is not so ; for Use flows
in from the Lord, and this through heaven, according
to the order and according to the form in which hea
ven is arranged by the Lord, thus according to cor
respondences. A. C. 4223, M. R.
LOVE, WISDOM, AND USE CANNOT BE SEPARATED
Love and wisdom without Use are not any thing, they
are only ideal entities, nor do they become real until
they are fixed in Use; for love, wisdom, and Use, are
three things which cannot be separated; for if they are
separated each is reduced to nothing; love is nothing
without wisdom, but in wisdom it is formed for some
thing, which something is Use, wherefore when love by
wisdom is in Use, then it is something, yea, it then really
is : they are exactly like end, cause, and effect ; the end
is not any thing unless it exists by the cause in the effect ;
and if any one of the three be destroyed, the whole is
destroyed, and becomes as nothing. It is the same with
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THE USEFUL LIFE
charity, faith, and works; charity without faith is
nothing, nor is faith any thing without charity, nor are
charity and faith any thing without works, but in works
they become something, the quality of which something
is according to the Use of those works. It is the same
with affection, thought, and operation; and also with
will, understanding, and action. A. C. 875.
ALL CAUSES SPIRITUAL
What is natural cannot possibly have existence, except
from a cause prior to itself; this cause is of spiritual
origin, and there is nothing natural which doth not
thence derive the cause of its existence: natural forms
are effects, nor can they appear as causes, still less as
causes of causes, or principles, but they receive their
forms according to their Use in the place where they
are; still however the forms of effects represent the
things appertaining to their causes ; yea, these latter
things represent those which appertain to their princi
ples ; thus all natural things represent the things ap
pertaining to the spiritual, to which they correspond:
and spiritual things also represent the things appertain
ing to the celestial, from which they are derived. A.
C. 2991, M. R.
CELESTIAL THINGS OP GOOD, SPIRITUAL
THINGS OF TRUTH
Gen. xxiv. 52-54. In the Lord's kingdom there are
things celestial and things spiritual, and celestial things
are of good, and spiritual things are of truth thence
45

THE USEFUL LIFE
derived: there is nothing in the universe which has
not relation to good and to truth; whatever apper
tains to Use and to life, has relation to good, but what
ever appertains to doctrine and science, especially in
things regarding Use and life, has relation to truth.
A. C. 3166. LOVE AND WISDOM WITHOUT USE
Love and wisdom without Use are only ideas of ab
stract thought, which also, after some stay in the mind,
pass on as winds ; but those two are collected in Use, and
there become one, which is called real ; love cannot be
easy unless it is doing, for love is the active itself of
life ; neither can wisdom exist and subsist unless when
it is doing from love and with it, and to do is Use;
wherefore we define Use, that it is to do good from love
by means of wisdom; Use is good itself. Since those
three, love, wisdom, and Use, flow into the souls of men,
it may be evident whence it is that it is said, that every
thing good is from God, for every thing done from love
by means of wisdom is called good, and Use also is
what is done. What is love without wisdom but some-
tliing fatuous? and what is love with wisdom without
Use but a breath? Indeed love and wisdom with Use
not only make man, but also are man ; yea, what per
haps ye will wonder at, they propagate man, for in the
seed of the man is his soul in a perfect human form,
covered with substances from the purest things of na
ture, out of which a body is formed in the womb of the
mother ; this Use is the supreme and ultimate Use of the
divine love by means of the divine wisdom. C. L. 183.
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THE USEFUL LIFE

SERVING THE LORD IS PERFORMING USES
Gen. IV. 21-23. The ground and reason why to serve
the Lord denotes to perform Uses, is, because true wor
ship consists in the performance of Uses, thus in exer
cises of charity : he who believes that the service of the
Lord consists solely in frequenting the temple, in hear
ing preaching there, and in praying, and that this is
sufficient, is much deceived ; the real worship of the Lord
consists in performing Uses; and Uses consist during
man's life in the world, in every one discharging aright
his function in his respective station, thus in serving
his country, society, and his neighbour, from the heart,
and in acting with sincerity in all his associations, and
in performing duties prudently according to the quality
of each ; these Uses are principally the exercises of char
ity, and those whereby the Lord is principally wor
shipped; frequenting the temple, hearing sermons, and
saying prayers are also necessary things, but without
the above Uses they avail nothing, for they are not of
the life, but teach what the quality of the life should
be. The angels in heaven have all happiness from Uses,
and according to Uses, insomuch that Uses are to them
heaven. A. C. 9296. USE IS RECOMPENSE
Gen. xlix. 15. " Whosoever of you willeth to be chief
shall be the servant of all; for the Son of Man came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister," Mark x. 35 to
45. And that they who do good without a view to rec-
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THE USEFUL LIFE
ompense, have heaven, he teaches in Luke, "Every one
who exalteth himself shall be humbled, but he who hum-
bleth himself shall be exalted. When thou makest a
dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy breth
ren, nor thy kinsmen, nor rich neighbours, lest they
also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee:
but when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed,
the halt, the blind, then thou shalt be blessed, for they
cannot recompense thee; for thou shalt be recompensed
at the resurrection of the just," xiv. 11 to 14; the rec
ompense in the resurrection of the just is internal happi
ness from doing well without recompense, which hap
piness they receive from the Lord when they perform
Uses ; and they who love to serve without recompense,
in proportion as such love increases, are appointed to
preside over more noble Uses, and actually become
greater and more powerful than others. They who do
good works with a view to recompense, say also, because
they know from the Word, that they are willing to be
the least in heaven, but at the time they think, by so
saying, to become great ; thus they are still influenced
by the same end: but they who do good without recom
pense, do not actually think about being eminent, but
only about being serviceable. A. C. 6393.
THE USE OF WEALTH AND HONOURS
The Lord never withholds a man from seeking after
honours and acquiring wealth, but from the cupidity
of seeking after honours for the sake of eminence only,
or for the sake of self; in like manner, from acquiring
wealth for the sake of opulence only, or for the sake
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THE USEFUL LIFE
of the wealth ; but when he withdraws a man from these,
he introduces him into the love of Uses, that he may
respect eminence, not for the sake of self, but for the
sake of Uses, therefore, that it may be of Uses and
thence of himself, and not first of himself and thence
of Uses: the same is true in regard to opulence. That
the Lord continually humbles the proud, and exalts the
humble, he himself teaches in many places of the Word ;
and what he there teaches, that also is of his Divine
Providence. D. P.
OFFICES AND HONOURS IN HEAVEN
Angels, when they are with men, as it were dwell in
their affections, and are near a man so far as he is in
good from truths, but are more remote in proportion
as his life is distant from good. But all these functions
of the angels are functions of the Lord, through the
angels, for the angels discharge them, not from them
selves, but from the Lord. Hence it is, that by angels,
in the Word, in its internal sense are not understood
angels, but something of the Lord ; and hence it is that
angels, in the Word, are called gods.
These functions of the angels are their general func
tions, but every one has his particular charge ; for every
general Use is composed of innumerable ones, which
are called mediate, administering, subservient Uses. All
and each are co-ordinated and sub-ordinated according
to divine order, and taken together make and perfect
the general Use, which is the general good.
In ecclesiastical affairs are those in heaven, who in
the world loved the Word, and from desire sought for
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THE USEFUL LIFE
the truths there, not for the sake of honour or gain,
but for the sake of Use of life, both for themselves and
others. These, according to the love and desire of Use,
are there in illustration and in the light of wisdom,
into which also they come from the Word in the heavens,
which is not natural as in the world, but spiritual.
These perform the office of preachers, and there ac
cording to divine order those are in a superior place,
who from illustration excel others in wisdom. In civil
affairs are those who in the world loved their coun
try and its general good in preference to their own,
and did what is just and right from the love of what
is just and right. As far as these from the desire of
love investigated the laws of what is just, and thereby
became intelligent, so far they are in the faculty of ad
ministering offices in heaven, and administer them in
that place or degree in which their intelligence is : this
also is then in an equal degree with the love of Use for
the general good. Moreover, in heaven there are so
many offices and so many administrations, and so many
employments also, that they cannot be enumerated on
account of their abundance ; in the world there are com
paratively few. All, how many soever there be, are in
the delight of their work and labour from the love of
Use, and no one from the love of self or of gain. Nor
has any one the love of gain on account of life, because
all the necessaries of life are given to them gratuitously ;
they are housed gratuitously, they are clothed gratu
itously, and they are fed gratuitously. Hence it is
evident that those who have loved themselves and the
world more than Use, have not any lot in heaven; for
every one's own love or own affection remains with him
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after his life in the world, nor is it extirpated to eternity.
H. H. 392, 393, 394.
WHY THE WICKED ARE ADVANCED TO HONOURS
AND WEALTH
The reason why the wicked as well as the good are ad
vanced to honours and promoted to wealth, is, because
the wicked as well as the good perform Uses; but the
wicked do so for the sake of the honour and interest of
their own persons, and the good for the sake of the
honour and interest of the thing itself. The latter
respect the honour and interest of the thing itself as
principal causes, and the honour and interest of their
own persons as instrumental causes; but the wicked
respect the honour and interest of their own persons
as principal causes, and the honour and interest of the
thing itself as instrumental causes. . . . Persons, in
deed, who are in dignity in heaven, are in magnificence
and glory, like that of kings upon earth; but yet they
do not regard the dignity itself as any thing, but the
Uses, in the exercise and administration of which they
are engaged. They receive every one the honours of
his dignity, but they do not attribute them to them
selves, but to the Uses : and as all Uses are from the Lord,
they attribute them to the Lord, from whom they are
derived. Such therefore are spiritual dignities and
riches, which are eternal. But it is otherwise with
those to whom dignities and riches in this world were
curses. These, since they attributed them to them
selves, and not to Uses, and since they did not desire
that Uses should govern them, but that they should gov-
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THE USEFUL LIFE
ern Uses, which they only regarded as such so far as they
were subservient to their own honour and glory, are
therefore in hell, where they are vile drudges in con
tempt and misery; for which reason, as these dignities
and riches perish, they are called temporary and per
ishing. Concerning both the latter and the former the
Lord teaches as follows : " Lay not up for yourselves
treasures upon earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and
where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break
through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will
your heart be also." D. P. 217.
WHY SOME RICH ARE IN HELL
But contrary is the lot of the rich who have not believed
in the Divine, and have rejected from their mind the
things which are of heaven and the church; they are
in hell, where are filth, misery, and want. Into such
things riches are changed which are loved as an end;
nor only riches, but also the Uses of them, which are
either that they may live as they like and indulge in
pleasures, and may be able to give up the mind more
abundantly and freely to the commission of wickedness,
or that they may rise above others, whom they despise.
Such riches, and such Uses, because they have nothing
spirijbual in them, but only what is earthly, become filthy.
They also become putrid as a body without a soul, and
as moist ground without the light of heaven. These are
they whom riches have seduced and withdrawn from
heaven. H. H. 362. 52

THE USEFUL LIFE

USES ARE SUBORDINATED ACCORDING TO DIVINE ORDER
All things in the heavens are instituted according to
divine order, which is every where guarded by adminis
trations executed by the angels; by the wiser, those
things which are of the general good or Use, by the less
wise, those which are of particular Use, and so forth.
They are subordinated, just as in divine order Uses are
subordinated. Hence also dignity is adjoined to every
function, according to the dignity of the Use; but still
an angel does not claim dignity to himself, but ascribes
all to the Use; and because Use is the good which he
performs, and all good is from the Lord, therefore he
ascribes all to the Lord. For this reason, he who thinks
of honour for himself and then for Use, and not for
Use and then for himself, cannot perform any office in
heaven, because he looks backward from the Lord, re
garding himself in the first place, and Use in the second.
When Use is mentioned, the Lord also is understood,
because, as was said just above. Use is good, and good
is from the Lord. H. H. 369.
DIGNITIES SUBSERVIENT TO USES, NOT USES
TO DIGNITIES
Dignities with their honours are natural and tempo
rary, when a man has respect to himself personally in
them, and not to the state and Uses ; for then he cannot
but think interiorly with himself, that the state is for
the sake of him, and not he for the state. He is like a
king who thinks that his kingdom and all the people
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THE USEFUL LIFE
in it are for him, and not he for the kingdom and the
people of which it consists. But the same dignities with
their honours are spiritual and eternal, when a man
considers himself personally as subservient to the state
and to Uses, and not them to him. If he does this, he
is in the truth and in the essence of his dignity and
honour, but if the other, in which he confirms himself,
he is in fallacies, and no otherwise in conjunction with
the Lord than as those who are in falsities and evils
derived therefrom; for fallacies are falsities with which
evils join themselves. D. P. 220.
RULERS WHO PERFORM USES WITHOUT LOVE
TO THE NEIGHBOUR
LovE shown toward a society is love toward our neigh
bour in greater fulness than when it is shown only
toward a single or individual man, is evident from this
circumstance, that dignities are assigned to governors
in proportion to the number of societies subject to their
government, and honours are annexed to them accord
ing to the extent of the Uses they perform. There are
in the world superior and inferior offices, subordinate
to each other, as their authority over societies is more
or less universal, and he whose authority is most univer
sal is called the king ; and every one receives recompense,
glory, and the love of the community, in proportion
to the extent of his office, and the good Uses which he
performs. It is possible however for governors here
below to perform Uses, and to provide for the welfare of
society, and yet to have no real love toward their neigh
bour; this is the case with those who, in the exercise
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THE USEFUL LIFE
of their public functions, regard only the world and
themselves, and do good merely to appear good, or to
deserve further distinction and pre-eminence. Such
persons, although they are not discerned in this world,
are yet discerned in heaven, where they are rejected
from holding any office or dignity ; while those who had
done and promoted Uses from a principle of love to
ward their neighbour, are exalted as rulers over hea
venly societies, and enjoy proportionable honour and
magnificence: these, however, do not place their hearts
and affections in honour and magnificence, but in the
Uses which they are thus enabled to effect. T. 412.
THE LOVE OF DIGNITIES AND HONOURS FOR
SELF AND FOR USE
The love of dignities and honours for the sake of dig
nities and honours, is the love of self, properly the love
of dominion arising from the love of self; and the love
of riches and wealth, for the sake of riches and wealth,
is the love of the world, properly the love of possessing
the goods of others by any art whatever: but the love
of dignities and riches for the sake of Uses, is the love
of Uses, which is the same with the love of our neigh
bour; for that for the sake of which a man acts, is
the end which he has in view, and is first or primary,
while other things are means, and are secondary. With
respect to the love of dignities and honours for their
own sakes, which is the same with self-love, properly
with the love of dominion from the love of self, it is the
love of a man's proprium, and a man's proprium is
all evil. Hence it is that a man is said to be born in all
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THE USEFUL LIFE
evil, and that his hereditary disposition is nothing but
evil. A man's hereditary disposition is his proprium,
in which he is, and into which he comes by self-love,
principally by the love of dominion grounded in the love
of self; for the man who is principled in that love, has
respect to nothing but himself, and so immerses his
thoughts and affections into his proprium. Hence it
is that in the love of self there dwells a love of doing
evil; the reason of which is, that the man does not love
his neighbour, but himself only; and he who loves him
self alone, sees others as without himself, or as vile, or
of no account, and despises them in comparison with
himself, whilst he makes light of doing them mischief.
It is from this cause that he who is in the love of do
minion from the love of self scruples not to defraud his
neighbour, to commit adultery with his neighbour's wife,
to slander him, to breathe revenge against him even unto
death, to treat him cruelly, and the like. A man derives
such evil dispositions from this circumstance, that the
devil himself, with whom every one principled in self-
love is conjoined, and by whom he is led, is nothing
else than the love of dominion from the love of self;
and he who is led of the devil, that is, of hell, is led into
all the above evils, and is continually led by the delights
of those evils. Hence it is, that all who are in hell
have a desire to do mischief to every one ; but those
who are in heaven have a desire to do good to every one.
With respect to dignities and riches, however, that are
loved not for their own sake, but for the sake of Uses,
such love is not the love of dignities and riches, but the
love of Uses, to which dignities and riches are subser
vient as means ; and this love is celestial : but of it more
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THE USEFUL LIFE
in what follows. That those two loves are distinct
from each other as heaven and hell, is evident from
what has now been said; to which I will add, that all
those who are in the love of dominion from the love
of self, whoever they be, whether great or small, are in
hell as to their spirit ; and that all who are in that love,
are in the love of all evils, which if they do not commit,
they still in their spirit think them allowable, and there
fore do them in the body, when the consideration of
dignity and honour, and the fear of the law, do not pre
vent. And what is more, the love of dominion from the
love of self conceals deeply within it hatred against God,
consequently against the divine things of the church,
and especially against the Lord. If persons influenced
by this love acknowledge a God, they do it only with
their mouths ; and if they acknowledge the divine things
of the church, they do it only for fear of losing credit.
The reason why this love inmostly conceals in it hatred
against the Lord, is, because it is the inmost tendency
of it to desire to be a god, for it worships and adores
itself alone ; hence it is, that if any one honours it so
much as to say that it has divine wisdom, and is the deity
of the world, it loves such a one in its heart. It is other
wise with the love of dignities and riches for the sake of
Uses; for this love is celestial, because, as has been
observed, it is the same with the love of our neighbour.
By Uses are meant goods, and therefore by perform
ing Uses, is meant doing good; and by doing Uses or
good, is meant serving others and ministering to them.
Those who do so, although they are in dignity and
opulence, yet respect such dignity and opulence only
as means of performing Uses, consequently of serving
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and ministering. These are those who are meant by
these words of the Lord : " Whosoever will be great
among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever
will be chief among you, let him be your servant "
(Matt. XX. 26, 27). These also are those to whom do
minion in heaven is entrusted by the Lord; for to them
dominion is the means of performing Uses, or doing
good, consequently of serving; and when Uses or good
are the ends, or objects of the love, then it is not they
who have dominion, but the Lord, for all good is from
him. That the difference between them is difficult to be
known, is, because most of those who are in dignity
and opulence also perform Uses ; but it is not known
whether they perform them for the sake of themselves,
or for the sake of the Uses ; and the less so, because in
the love of self and of the world, there is more of the
fire and ardour of performing Uses than in those who
are not in the love of self and the world. The former,
however, perform Uses for the sake of fame or interest,
therefore for the sake of themselves ; but those who per
form Uses for the sake of Uses, or good for the sake
of good, do not perform them from themselves, but
from the Lord. The difference between them is difficult
to be known by a man, because he does not know whether
he is led by the devil or the Lord. He who is led by the
devil, performs Uses for the sake of himself and the
world ; but he who is led by the Lord, does it for the sake
of the Lord and of heaven; and all those perform
Uses from the Lord who shun evils as sins, while aU those
perform Uses from the devil who do not shun evils as
sins; for evil is the devil, and Use or good is the Lord.
A. C. 58

THE USEFUL LIFE

THE DELIGHT OF BEING USEFUL
Heavenly joy consists in the delight of doing some
thing that is useful to ourselves and others; which de
light derives its essence from love and its existence from
wisdom. The delight of being useful, originating in
love, and operating by wisdom, is the very soul and life
of all heavenly joys. In the heavens there are frequent
occasions of cheerful intercourse and conversation,
whereby the minds {mentes) of the angels are exhilar
ated, their minds (animi) entertained, their bosoms de
lighted, and their bodies refreshed; but such occasions
do not occur, tiU they have fulfilled their appointed
Uses in the discharge of their respective business and
duties. It is this fulfilling of Uses that gives soul and
life to all their delights and entertainments ; and if this
soul and life be taken away, the contributory joys grad
ually cease, first exciting indifference, then disgust, and
lastly sorrow and anxiety. M. 5.
PARADISIACAL DELIGHTS
Heavenly joy and eternal happiness thence derived do
not consist in external paradisiacal delights, unless they
are also attended with internal. External paradisiacal
delights reach only the senses of the body ; but internal
paradisiacal delights reach the affections of the soul;
and the former without the latter are devoid of all
heavenly life, because they are devoid of soul ; and every
delight without its corresponding soul, continually grows
more and more languid and dull, and fatigues the mind
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more than labour. There are in every part of heaven
paradisiacal gardens, in which the angels find much joy;
and so far as it is attended with a delight of the soul,
the joy is real and true. The delight of the soul is de
rived from love and wisdom proceeding from the Lord;
and as love is operative, and that by means of wisdom,
therefore they are both fixed together in the effect of
such operation ; which effect is Use. This delight enters
into the soul by Infiux from the Lord, and descends
through the superior and inferior regions of the mind
into all the senses of the body, and in them Is full and
complete; becoming hereby a true joy, and partaking
of an eternal nature from the eternal fountain whence
it proceeds. You have just now seen a paradisiacal gar
den ; and I can assure you that there is not a single thing
therein, even the smallest leaf, which does not exist from
the marriage of love and wisdom In Use; wherefore if
a man be In this marriage, he is in a celestial paradise,
and therefore in heaven. M. 8.

HEAVENLY JOYS FROM STATE, NOT PLACE
The joys of heaven and eternal happiness arise not
from the place, but from the state of the man's life;
and a state of heavenly life is derived from love and
wisdom; and since it is Use which contains love and
wisdom, and in which they are fixed and subsist, there
fore a state of heavenly life Is derived from the con
junction of love and wisdom In Use. It amounts to the
same if we call them charity, faith, and good works;
for charity Is love, faith is truth whence wisdom is de
rived, and good works are Uses. Moreover in our spiri-
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tual world there are places as in the natural world;
otherwise there could be no habitations and distinct
abodes ; nevertheless place with us is not place, but an
appearance of place according to the state of love and
wisdom, or of charity and faith. Every one who becomes
an angel, carries his own heaven within himself, be
cause he carries in himself the love of his own heaven ;
for a man from creation is the smallest effigy, image, and
type of the great heaven, and the human form is no
thing else; wherefore every one after death comes Into
that society of heaven of whose general form he is an
individual effigy; consequently, when he enters into that
society he enters into a form corresponding to his own ;
thus he passes as it were from himself unto that form
as into another self, and again from that other self
Into the same form in himself, and enjoys his own life
In that of the society, and that of the society in his own ;
for every society In heaven may be considered as one
common body, and the constituent angels as the similar
parts thereof, from which the common body exists.
Hence it follows, that those who are in evils, and thence
in falses, have formed in themselves an effigy of hell,
which suffers torment in heaven from the influx and
violent activity of one opposite upon another; for in
fernal love is opposite to heavenly love, and consequently
the delights of those two loves are in a state of discord
and enmity, and whenever they meet they endeavour
to destroy each other. M. 10.

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THE DELIGHTS OF THE BODILY SENSES
What are the delights of the bodily senses without
those of the soul? The former are animated by the
latter. The delights of the soul in themselves are im
perceptible beatitudes ; but, as they descend into the
thoughts of the mind, and thence into the sensations of
the body, they become more and more perceptible; in
the thoughts of the mind they are perceived as satis
factions, in the sensations of the body as delights, and in
the body itself as pleasures. Eternal happiness is de
rived from the latter and the former taken together;
but from the latter alone there results a happiness not
eternal, but temporary, which quickly comes to an end
and passes away, and in some cases becomes unhappi-
ness. You have now seen that all your joys are also
joys of heaven, and that these are far more excellent
than you could have conceived ; yet such j oys do not
inwardly affect our minds. There are three things which
enter by influx from the Lord as a one into our souls ;
these three as a one, or this trine, are love, wisdom, and
Use. Love and wisdom of themselves exist only ideally,
being confined to the affections and thoughts of the
mind; but in Use they exist really, because they are
together in act and bodily employment; and where
they exist really, there they also subsist. And as love
and wisdom exist and subsist in Use, it is by Use
we are affected; and Use consists in a faithful, sincere,
and diligent discharge of the duties of our calling. The
love of Use, and a consequent application to it, preserve
the powers of the mind, and prevent their dispersion;
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THE USEFUL LIFE
so that the mind is guarded against wandering and
dissipation, and the imbibing of false lusts, which with
their enchanting delusions flow in from the body and
the world through the senses, whereby the truths of re
ligion and morality, with all that is good in either, be
come the sport of every wind ; but the application of the
mind to Use binds and unites those truths and disposes
the mind to become a form receptible of the wisdom
thence derived; and in this case it extirpates the idle
sports and pastimes of falsity and vanity, banishing
them from its centre toward the circumference. M. 16.
THE PROPER AND IMPROPER USE OF DIGNITIES
Gen. XXXIX. 16—18. Spiritual truth and good desire
that a man should not take pleasure in dignities and
super-eminence above others, but In offices done to
ward his country, and toward societies In general and
in particular; thus in the Use of dignities. The
merely natural man is altogether ignorant what this
pleasure is, and denies its existence. He makes plea
sure derived from dignities for the sake of self, the
lord, and pleasure derived from dignities for the sake
of societies in general and particular, the servant ; for he
himself is first in every thing he does, and societies after
himself, favouring them so far as they favour him.
Let us take another example : if it be said that Use and
end constitute a thing spiritual or not,— Use and end
for the general good, the church, and the kingdom of
God, constituting what is spiritual, but Use and end
for the sake of self and those connected with self, pre
vailing over the former Use and end, constituting what
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is not spiritual, — this indeed the natural man can ac
knowledge with the mouth, but not with the heart ; with
the mouth instructed from the intellectual principle, not
with the heart from the intellectual principle destroyed
by lusts ; from this principle he makes Use and end for
the sake of self a lord, and Use and end for the sake
of the common good, of the church, and of the kingdom
of God, a servant ; yea, he says In his heart, how can it
possibly be otherwise? A. C. 5025.
NO LIFE IN WHAT IS USELESS
Gen. v. 7, 8. The life of love, and of faith grounded
in love, such as the Most Ancient Church enjoyed, is
life during Its exercise in Use, or In the good and truth
of Use: from Use, by Use, and according to Use, life
is communicated from the Lord ; there can be no lif ^ in
what is useless, for whatever is useless is rejected: herein
the most ancient people were likenesses of the Lord,
wherefore also in things relating to perception thej'
became images: perception consists in knowing what is
good and true, consequently what is of faith: he who
is principled in love, is not delighted only in knowing,
but in doing what is good and true, that is, In being
useful. A. C.
LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOUR HAS A CELESTIAL ORIGIN
He who loves good because it is good, and truth because
It is true, pre-eminently loves his neighbour; for he
loves the Lord, who is good itself and truth itself, who
is the only source of the love of good and of truth,
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THE USEFUL LIFE
and consequently of our neighbour; thus love toward
our neighbour is from a celestial origin. Whether we
speak of Use or of good, it is the same thing; there
fore to do Uses is to do good, and according to the
quantity and quality of Use in the good which we do,
is the quantity and quality of the good itself. T. 419.
TO PERFORM USE IS TO WILL WELL TO OTHERS
That so many various things in man act as one, is
because there is not any thing there which does not do
something for the common weal, and perform Use. The
whole performs Use to its parts, and the parts perform
Use to the whole, for the whole is from the parts, and
the parts constitute the whole: thus they provide for
each other, they have respect to each other, and are
conjoined in such a form that all and each have refer
ence to the whole and its good. Hence it is that they act
as one. Similar are the consociations In the heavens ;
they are conjoined there according to Uses in a similar
form. Therefore those who do not perform Use to the
whole, are cast out of heaven, because they are things
heterogeneous. To perform Use, is to will well to others
for the sake of the common good; and not to perform
Use, is to will well to others, not for the sake of the
common good, but for the sake of self. The latter are
those who love themselves above all things ; but the
former are those who love the Lord above all things.
Hence it is that those who are in heaven act as one, and
this not from themselves, but from the Lord ; for they re
gard him as the only One from whom [all things are],
and his kingdom as the whole, which is to be provided
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THE USEFUL LIFE
for. This is meant by the words of the Lord, Seek ye
first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all
things shall be added wnto you (Matt. vi. 33). To seek
his righteousness, is [to seek] his good. They who
in the world love the good of their country more than
their own, and the good of their neighbour as their
own, are those who in the other life love and seek the
kingdom of the Lord, for there the kingdom of the Lord
is in the place of their country: and they who love to
do good to others, not for the sake of themselves, but
for the sake of good, love the neighbour; for there
good is the neighbour. H. H. 64.
NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL LOVE CONTRASTED
Spiritual and celestial love is love toward the neigh
bour and love to the Lord; and natural and sensual love
is love of the world and love of self. By love toward
the neighbour we mean the love of Uses, and by love
to the Lord we mean the love of doing Uses, as was
shown before. These loves are spiritual and celestial,
because to love Uses, and to do them from the love of
them, is separate from the love of man's proprium. He
that spiritually loves Uses has no respect to himself,
but to others without himself, by whose good he is af
fected. The loves opposed to these are the loves of
self and of the world, for these have no respect to Use
for the sake of others, but for the sake of self, and those
who do this invert the divine order, and put themselves
In the place of the Lord, and the world in the place
of heaven; hence they look back from the Lord and
from heaven, and to look back from them is to look
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THE USEFUL LIFE
toward hell. A man however does not feel and per
ceive the love of doing Uses for the sake of Uses, as
he does the love of doing Uses for the sake of self;
hence also he does not know, when he does Uses, whe
ther he does them for the sake of Use or for the sake
of self: but let him know that he does Uses for the sake
of Use in as far as he shuns evils ; for In as far as he
shuns evils he does Uses, not from himself but from the
Lord. Evil and good are opposite; wherefore in as
far as any one is not in evil, in so far he Is In good.
No one can be in evil and good at the same time, because
no one can serve two masters at the same time. These
observations are to shew, that although a man does
not sensibly perceive whether the Uses that he does
are for the sake of Use or for the sake of self; that is,
whether they are spiritual or merely natural Uses, still
he may know it from this, whether he thinks evils are
sins or not: if he thinks they are sins, and therefore
does them not, then the Uses that he does are spiritual;
and while he shuns sins with aversion, he also begins
to perceive sensibly the love of Uses for the sake of Use,
and this from a spiritual delight in them. D. L. 426.
THE KINGDOM OF THE LORD A KINGDOM OF
USES AND ENDS
How the conjunction of heaven with the world is ef
fected by correspondences, shall also be told in a few
words. The kingdom of the Lord is a kingdom of ends
which are Uses; or what is the same, a kingdom of
Uses which are ends. Therefore the universe was so
created and formed by the Divine, that Uses may every-
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THE USEFUL LIFE
where be clothed with such things as to be set forth in
act or In effect, in heaven first, and then in the world;
thus by degrees and successively even to the ultimates
of nature. Hence it is manifest that the correspondence
of natural things with spiritual, or of the world with
heaven, is effected by Uses, and that Uses conjoin; and
that the forms with which Uses are clothed, are so far
correspondences, and so far conjunctions, as they are
forms of Uses. In the nature of the world, in its triple
kingdom, all things which there exist according to order,
are forms of Uses, or effects formed from Use for Use ;
wherefore the things which are there, are correspon
dences. With respect to man, as far as he lives accord
ing to divine order, thus as far as in love to the Lord
and in charity toward the neighbour, so far his acts
are Uses in form, and are correspondences, by which he
is conjoined to heaven: to love the Lord and the neigh
bour in general is to perform Uses. H. H. 112.
ACTING JUSTLY AND FAITHFULLY IS CHARITY AND USE
Charity itself consists in acting justly and faithfully
in whatever office, business, and emplojnnent a person
is engaged, because every thing so done is of Use to
society, and Use is good, and good in a sense abstracted
from persons is our neighbour. Not only individual
men, but also a society of men, and a man's country in
general, are his neighbour. T. 422.

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how the internal and external man are
conjoined
Gen. XXX. 3—5. In the process of man's regeneration,
the internal man Is to be conjoined with the external,
consequently the goods and truths of the internal man
are to be conjoined to the goods and truths of the ex
ternal, for man is man from goods and truths. These
cannot be conjoined without media. Media are those
things which derive something from the one part, and
something from the other, and which have this effect,
that in proportion as man approaches to the one, the
other becomes subordinate. These media are the things
which are signified by the handmaids here spoken of;
the media on the part of the internal man, by the
handmaids of Rachel, and the media on the part of the
external man, by the handmaids of Leah. That media
of conjunction are necessary, may appear from the fact,
that the natural man of himself is in no agreement
with the spiritual man, but in such a state of disagree
ment, as to be altogether opposite ; for the natural man
regards and loves himself and the world, whereas the
spiritual man does not regard himself and the world,
except in so far as is conducive to promote Uses in the
spiritual world, thus he regards its service, and loves
It from its Use and end. The natural man seems to
himself to have life, when he is exalted to dignities,
and so to super-eminence over others, but the spiritual
seems to himself to have life in humiliation, and in
being the least; not that he despises dignities, if by
them, as media, he can be serviceable to his neighbour,
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THE USEFUL LIFE
to society in general, and to the Church; nor does he
reflect upon the dignities to which he is advanced, for
the sake of himself, but of those Uses which he regards
as ends. By interior communications a spirit is disposed
to Use, to which he is led without being aware of it
himself. A. C. 3913, M. R.

THE USES AND ABUSES OF KNOWLEDGE
Gen. xn. 12. The science of knowledges is only as
somewhat instrumental for the sake of Use, viz., that
knowledges may serve as vessels for the reception of
things celestial and spiritual; and when they are thus
serviceable, they then first begin to be of Use, and re
ceive their delight from Use. It may appear plain
to every attentive observer, that the science of know
ledges is designed in itself for no other end, than that
man may become rational, and thereby spiritual, and
at length celestial, and that by means of knowledges
the external man may be adjoined to the internal: when
this is the case, then man Is principled in Use, for the
internal man regards nothing but Use. It is with a
view to this end, that the Lord insinuates also the de
light which is perceived by children and young persons
in learning the sciences. But when man begins to place
his delight in mere science, he is then influenced by cor
poreal lust, and in proportion as he is so influenced, or
places his delight in mere science, he removes himself
from what is celestial, and his scientifics become closed
toward the Lord, and are rendered material; but in
proportion as scientifics are acquired with a view to Use,
whether for the sake of human society, or the Lord's
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THE USEFUL LIFE
church on earth, or his kingdom in heaven, and more
especially for the Lord's sake, they are more opened
toward the Lord, and become spiritual; wherefore also
the angels, who are principled in the science of all
knowledges, and that in such a manner, that scarce a
thousandth part can be unfolded to man's apprehen
sion, yet esteem knowledges as nothing in comparison of
Use. A. C. 1472.
NATURAL LIGHT NOT ORIGINATING IN PRIDE
But what is meant by natural light proceeding from
glory originating in pride, shall briefly be explained:
there exists natural light from the glory which origi
nates in pride, and likewise which does not originate in
pride; light from glory originating in pride is In those
who are in self-love, and thence in all kinds of evils,
which if they do not perpetrate for fear of suffering
in their reputation, and likewise condemn as being con
trary to morality and to the public good, still they do
not consider them as sins. But natural light from glory
which does not originate in pride, is in those who are
in the delight of Uses proceeding from genuine love
toward their neighbour, the natural light of these
is also rational light within which there is spiritual
light from the Lord; the glory in them is from the
brightness of the influent light from heaven where all
things are splendid and harmonious, for all Uses in
heaven are resplendent ; from these Uses the pleasant
ness in the ideas of the thought with such is perceived
as glory; it enters through the will and its goods, into
the understanding and its truths, and in the latter be
comes manifest. 71

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