Arcana Coelestia volume 7 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 3925unarmed, and kill and despoil them in their fury. I have conversedwith angels about such men, as to what they are when left tothemselves and permitted to act without law and with freedom,how they are much more savage than the worst wild beasts, whichdo not so rush to the destruction of their own species, but merelydefend themselves and appease their hunger with what is allottedthem for food, and when sated do no such things. It is otherwisewith the man who acts thus from cruelty and ferocity. The angelswere horrified that mankind should be of such a nature as to firstbegin to rejoice at heart and be elated in mind when they see thewhole field strewn with fallen troops, and reeking with blood—notrejoicing that their country has been freed, but only in beingthemselves lauded as great men and heroes. And yet they callthemselves Christians, and even believe that they will come intoheaven, where there is nothing but peace, mercy, and charity. Suchare in the hell of the colon and rectum. But those of them in whomthere had been any humanity appear in front to the left in a curvedline, within a kind of wall; yet there is still much of the love of selfin them. If any of these have a regard for what is good, this issometimes represented by little stars almost fiery, but not of whitelight. A wall appeared to me as it were of plaster with moldedfigures, near the left elbow, which wall became more extended andat the same time higher, the upper part verging in color to sky-blue;and I was told that this was a representative of some spirits of thiskind who were better.5394. They who have been cruel and adulterers, in the other lifelove nothing so well as filth and excrements, the stenches from suchthings being most sweet and delightful to them, and beingpreferred by them to all other delights. The reason is that thesethings correspond. These hells are partly under the buttocks, partlyunder the right foot, and partly deep down in front. These are thehells into which the way by the rectum intestine leads. A certainspirit being conveyed thither, and speaking with me therefrom, saidthat nothing but privies were to be seen there. They who were inthe place spoke to him, and led him to various privies, which werevery numerous there. He was afterward led to another place a littleto the left; and when he was there, he said that a most dreadfulstench exhaled from the caverns there, and that he could not stir a