262. After this I examined the first general love of hell, the love of controlling as the result of self-love, and then the general love of heaven which is its opposite, the love of controlling as the result of a love of being of service. I was not allowed to examine one love without the other, because the intellect does not perceive one love without the other, since they are opposites. So in order to perceive either, they need to be set opposite, each facing the other. For a pretty or well-proportioned face shines out when confronted by its ugly or deformed opposite. When I debated the love of controlling as the result of self-love, I was allowed to perceive that this love is hellish above all others, and so is experienced by those who are in the deepest hell; and the love of controlling others as the result of being of service is heavenly above all others, and is experienced by those who are in the highest heaven.
[2] The reason why the love of controlling others as the result of self-love is hellish above all others is that controlling as the result of self-love comes from the self, and a person's self is from birth sheer evil, and sheer evil is diametrically opposed to the Lord. The more, therefore, those people advance into that evil, the more they deny God and the holy things of the church, worshipping themselves and Nature. I beg those who are possessed by that evil to seek it out in themselves, and then they will see it.
This love is also such that in so far as checks are relaxed, something that happens provided there is no insuperable obstacle, it rushes from one stage to the next until it reaches its acme. Nor does it even stop there, but grieves and groans, if there is no further stage for it to reach.
[3] In the case of politicians this love climbs so high that they want to be kings and emperors, and control, if possible, everything in the world, earning the title of king of kings and emperor of emperors. In the case of the clergy the same love rises to the point that they want to be gods and, so far as possible, to control everything in heaven, acquiring the title god of gods. It will be seen in what follows that both these groups of people do not at heart acknowledge any God. On the other hand, those who want to exercise control from a love of being of service do not want to exercise control from themselves, wanting it to be from the Lord, since the love of being of service is from the Lord, and is the Lord Himself. These people look upon high offices as nothing but means to be of service. They regard such services as far superior to high office; but the others regard high office as far superior to services.
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