Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 341
therefore whatever a man understands and thinks from his
understanding he calls true, and whatever a man wills and
thinks from his will he calls good. From his understanding
man can think and thus perceive both what is true and what is
good; and yet he thinks what is true and good from the will
only when he wills it and does it. When he wills it and from
willing does it, it is both in his understanding and in his will,
consequently in the man. For neither the understanding alone
nor the will alone makes the man, but the understanding and
will together; therefore whatever is in both is in the man, and is
appropriated to him. That which is in the understanding alone
is in man, and yet not really in him; it is only a thing of his
memory, or a matter of knowledge in his memory about which
he can think when in company with others and outside of
himself, but not in himself; that is, about which he can speak
and reason, and can simulate affections and gestures that are in
accord with it.
424. This ability to think from the understanding and not at
the same time from the will is provided that man may be
capable of being reformed; for reformation is effected by means
of truths, and truths pertain to the understanding, as just said.
For in respect to his will man is born into every evil, and
therefore of himself wills good to no one but himself; and one
who wills good to himself alone delights in the misfortunes
that befall another, especially when they tend to his own
advantage; for his wish is to divert to himself the goods of all
others, whether honors or riches, and so far as he succeeds in
this he inwardly rejoices. To the end that this will of man may
be corrected and reformed, an ability to understand truths, and
an ability to subdue by means of truths the affections of evil
that spring from the will, are given to man. This is why man
has this ability to think truths with his understanding, and to
speak them and do them. But until man is such that he wills
truths and does them from himself, that is, from the heart, he
is not able to think truths from his will. When he becomes
such, whatever he thinks from his understanding belongs to his
faith, and whatever he thinks from his will belongs to his love;