relates to goodness and truth, so everything that is against the divine
design relates to evil and falsity. As goodness loves to be united to truth,
so evil loves to be united to falsity and the reverse. As the union of good-
ness and truth gives birth to all intelligence and wisdom, the union of evil
and falsity gives birth to all insanity and foolishness. If you look deeply at
the union of evil and falsity, you will see that it is not a marriage but an
act of adultery.
[ 8 ] (h) The fact that evil and falsity are the opposite of goodness and
truth makes it clear that truth cannot be joined to evil and that goodness
cannot be joined to the falsity that comes from evil. If truth is joined to
evil it becomes false and no longer true because it has been falsified. If
goodness is joined to the falsity that comes from evil the goodness
becomes evil and no longer good because it has been contaminated. Fal-
sity that does not come from evil, however, can be joined to goodness.
[ 9 ] (i) No people who are focused on evil and falsity as a result of
their convictions and their lives are able to know what goodness and
truth are, because they believe that their evil is good and their falsity is
true. On the other hand, all who are focused on goodness and truth as a
result of their convictions and their lives are able to know what evil and
falsity are, because all goodness and truth are essentially heavenly, but all
evil and falsity are essentially hellish; and everything heavenly is in the
light but everything hellish is in the dark.
3. Love in general. 399
(a) Our love is our very life itself. The nature of our love determines
the nature of our life and in fact our entire nature as a human being. Our
dominant or leading love, however, is the love that constitutes us.
Our dominant or leading love has many other loves; they are derived
from it in a hierarchy beneath it. No matter how these other loves may
look or seem, each one of them is part of our leading love. With it they
make one government, so to speak. Our dominant love is like the
monarch and leader of the rest: it guides our other loves and uses them as
intermediate purposes through which it focuses on and aims for its goal.
Both directly and indirectly, this goal is the primary and ultimate objec-
tive for them all.
[ 2 ] (b) The focus of our dominant love is what we love above all else.
What we love above all else is constantly present in our thinking, because
it is in our will and ultimately constitutes our life.
For example, if we love wealth above everything else, whether that
means money or property, we are constantly contemplating how to get
§399 goodwill & good actions 489