266. After witnessing these sad and frightful scenes, I looked around and saw two angels standing not far from me and talking together. One was clothed in a woolen toga, bright with flamy purple, and under it a tunic of shining linen; and the other in similar raiment of scarlet, with a miter, the right side of which was studded with a number of rubies. Approaching them, I gave the salutation of peace and respectfully asked, "Why are you here below?" They replied, "We have been sent here from heaven by command of the Lord, to speak with you about the blessed lot of those who desire to rule from the love of uses. We are worshippers of the Lord. I am the prince of a society, and this other is the high priest there." [2] The prince then said that he was the servant of his society because he served it by performing uses; and the other, that he was the minister of the Church there because it was in the service of his brethren that he administered holy things for the uses of their souls; and that both of them were in perpetual joys from the eternal happiness which was in them from the Lord. "In that society everything is resplendent and magnificent, being resplendent from the gold and precious stones there, and magnificent from the palaces and paradises. The reason is because our love of ruling is not from the love of self but from the love of uses; and since the love of uses is from the Lord, all good uses in the heavens are resplendent and refulgent. In our society we are all in this love and, therefore, from the light there which is derived from the flamy red of the sun, the atmosphere appears golden, for the flamy red of the sun corresponds to that love." [3] When they had thus spoken, a like sphere was seen by me also. It surrounded them, and from it I sensed something aromatic. I told them of this and asked if they would not add something more to what they had said about the love of use. They then continued, saying: "We did indeed seek after the dignities in which we are, but we did this for no other purpose than that we might be able to perform uses more fully, and extend them more widely. We are also surrounded with honor, and this we receive, not on our own account but for the good of the society. Our brothers and fellow-men who are of the common people know scarcely other than that the honors pertaining to our dignities are in us, and thus that the uses we perform are from ourselves; but we feel otherwise. We feel that the honors of the dignities are outside us, being like garments with which we are clothed; while the uses which we perform are from the love of those uses within us from the Lord. This love receives its blessedness from being communicated with others by means of uses. We know from experience that so far as we perform uses from the love of them, the love increases, and with the love, the wisdom whereby the communication is effected; but so far as we retain the uses within ourselves and do not communicate them, the blessedness perishes and the uses then become as food stored up in the stomach which is not distributed for the nourishment of the body and its parts, but remains an undigested mass from which comes nausea. In a word, the whole of heaven, from the first things thereof to the last, is nothing but a containant of uses; and what are uses but actual love of the neighbor? and what but this love holds the heavens together?" [4] Hearing this, I asked: "How can one know whether he performs uses from the love of self or from the love of uses? Every man, both good and evil, performs uses, and he performs them from some love. Suppose that in the world there were a society composed only of devils, and a society composed only of angels, I opine that from the fire of the love of self and the splendor of their own glory, the devils in their society would perform as many uses as the angels in theirs. Who then can know from what love and from what origin the uses are?" [5] To this the two angels responded: "Devils perform uses for the sake of themselves and their reputation, that they may be advanced to honors or may acquire wealth. It is not for these that angels perform uses but for the sake of the uses themselves and from love of them. Man cannot discern between these uses; but they are discerned by the Lord. Every one who believes in the Lord and shuns evils as sins performs uses from the Lord; but every one who does not believe in the Lord, and does not shun evils as sins, performs uses from himself and for the sake of himself. This is the distinction between uses performed by devils and uses performed by angels." Saying this, the two angels departed, and at a distance they appeared to be carried like Elijah in a chariot of fire and taken up into their heaven.