of hell. But it does not appear so to those who cast themselves thither, for they enter of their own accord. And they who enter from an ardent love of evil, appear as if they were cast headlong, with their heads downward and their feet upward. On account of this appearance it seems as if they were cast down to hell by Divine Power.
From what has been said it may now be seen that the Lord casts no one down to hell; but that every one casts himself down, not only while he lives in the world, but also after death when he comes among spirits.
The Lord, from his divine essence,—which is good, love and mercy,—cannot deal in the same manner with every man, because evils and the falsities thence derived, not only resist and blunt but also reject his divine influx. Evils and the falsities thence derived are like black clouds which interpose themselves between the sun and man's eye, and take away the sunshine and serenity of the day. The sun, however, still continues in the perpetual effort to dissipate the obstructing clouds; for it is behind them and operating toward their dispersion; and in the meantime, also, transmits something of shady light to the eye through various indirect passages.
It is the same in the spiritual world. There the sun is the Lord and the divine love; and the light is the divine truth; the black clouds there, are falsities derived from evil; and the eye is the under-
