2589. No mercy, nor innocence, can belong to mankind

Since mankind is such as to be nothing but love of self and of the world, so that in their least parts as in the greatest there is [nothing but] love of self and of the world, consequently hatred of the neighbor and of the Lord-which necessarily follows from love of self and of the world-they can by no means be other than unmerciful and nothing but mercilessness and what is contrary to innocence. Therefore mercy and innocence in their origin must come from and flow in from a different source, and where is any other spring than the Divine, or the Lord, Who Himself is Mercy and Innocence? I was given a better view of this by a spiritual mental image. 1748, 13 July.