THERE ARE GENERA AND SPECIES OF AFFECTIONS, AND VARIETIES OF THE SPECIES, WITHOUT END: THE SAME WITH USES

This can be established from the human body, from the human race and from the angelic heaven, furthermore from the animal and vegetable kingdoms. In each of these there is an indescribable number of genera, species and varieties of affections, or uses, for not a single thing exists identically the same as another: there is always a difference; and these differences are everywhere distinguished into genera and species, and both of these again into varieties, the varieties themselves being infinite, because they are from the Infinite. Anyone can see this to be the case from human faces, not one of which since the time of creation has been so like another as to be the same, nor can there be to all eternity. In the same way, too, in the human body, there is not any least part in it identically the same as any other, or identically the same as the equivalent part in another human being. It is the same with affections and their uses. That it is the same with affections, and in consequence with uses, man is profoundly ignorant, so profoundly ignorant of it that he asks, What is an affection? What is love? It can be illustrated, therefore from nowhere else but heaven, where all, by derivation from the Divine Love, which is Life Itself, are affections.

[24.] In heaven, Divine Love, which is Life Itself, is distinguished into two kingdoms, one in which love to the Lord reigns, the other in which love towards the neighbour does. Love to the Lord involves uses "as from their source" ("a quo"), love towards the neighbour involves them "as towards their object" ("ad quem"). Divine Love, which is Life Itself, is further distinguished into lesser kingdoms, which may be termed "provinces," and these again into societies, and the societies into families and households; such, in the heavens, are the differentiations of Divine Love into genera and species, and these again into their differences, which are meant by varieties. The reason affections, and similarly uses, are distinguished in this manner, is because every angel is an affection and is also a use.

[2] [25.] Since all things in hell are arranged oppositely to the things in heaven, this is also the case with love. Devilish love there, which is death itself, is also distinguished into two kingdoms, one in which love of self reigns, the other in which love of the world does. Love of self involves evil uses "from the point of view of their origin" ("a quo") which is self, love of the world evil uses "from the point of view of effect" ("ad quem"). These, because they are done from self, are also done for the sake of self, for every love returns by a circle, as it were, to that from which it comes. This devilish love is distinguished further into provinces, and these into societies and so on.

[26.] In the human body there are similar differentiations in the affections, and likewise in the uses, all things in man corresponding to all things in heaven, as said above. In the body the heart and the lungs correspond to the two kingdoms of heaven, the members, organs and viscera to the provinces of heaven, and the textures of the members, organs and viscera to the societies of heaven. As these, both in general and in particular, are uses, and as uses live from the life that is love, the life in them cannot be called anything else but an affection for use. As is the case with the human body, and also with heaven, so, too, is it with the whole human race, the latter being as it were a single man in the Lord's sight in the same way as heaven is, as stated above.

[27.] With regard to the living things on the globe, and to its vegetation, it is well known that they are distinguished in a similar way into genera and species and their varieties. [3] There are, moreover, in the animal kingdom two general divisions, one, beasts of the earth, the other, birds of the air. Also in the vegetable kingdom there are two general divisions, one fruit-bearing trees, the other seed bearing plants. It can be seen in both these cases also, that there are genera and species of affections and varieties of the species without end, similarly in the case of uses, since as before stated,* the souls of animals are natural affections, and the souls of plants are uses of affections. * In APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED, NO. 1201.