Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence | Page 9

destroys the something. But of this in what
follows.
12. Marriage of good and truth may, however, be found either in a
cause or from the cause in an effect. In a cause the marriage of good
and truth is one of will and understanding, or of love and wisdom. Such
a marriage is in all that a man wills and thinks and in all his ensuing
determinations and purposes. This marriage enters into and in fact
produces the effect. But in producing the effect, good and truth seem
distinct, for then the simultaneous turns successive. When, for example,

a man wills and thinks about food, clothing, shelter, business or
employment, or about his relationship to others, first he wills and
thinks or comes to his conclusions and intentions all at the same time;
but when these are determined to effects, truth follows on good, though
in will and thought they continue to make one. In the effects the uses
pertain to love or good, and the ways of performing the uses pertain to
understanding or truth. Anyone can confirm these general truths by
particular instances provided he perceives what is referable respectively
to good of love and to truth of wisdom, and also how differently it is
referable in cause and in effect.
13. We have said often that love constitutes man's life. This does not
mean, however, love separate from wisdom or good from truth in the
cause, for love separate or good separate is not an actuality. The love
which makes man's inmost life--the life he has from the Lord--is
therefore love and wisdom together; neither is the love which makes
his life as a recipient being separate in the cause, but only in the effect.
For love cannot be understood except from its quality, which is wisdom;
and the quality or wisdom can exist only from its own esse, which is
love; thence it is that they are one; it is the same with good and truth.
Since truth is from good as wisdom is from love, it is the two taken
together that are called good or love. For love has wisdom for its form,
and good for its form truth, and form is the source, and the one source,
of quality. It is plain from all this that good is good only so far as it has
become one with its truth, and truth truth only so far as it has become
one with its good.
14. (vi) Good of love not united to truth of wisdom is not good in itself
but seeming good; and truth of wisdom not conjoined with good of love
is not truth in itself but seeming truth. The fact is that no good, in itself
good, can exist unless joined with its truth, and no truth, in itself truth,
can exist unless it has become joined with its good. And yet good
separate from truth is possible, and truth separate from good. They are
found in hypocrites and flatterers, in evil persons of every sort, and in
such as are in natural but not spiritual good. These can all do well by
church, country, society, fellow-citizens, the needy, the poor, and
widows and orphans. They can also comprehend truths, from

understanding think them, and from thought speak and teach them. But
the goods and truths are not interiorly such, that is, basically goods and
truths, but only outwardly and seemingly such. For such good and truth
look to self and the world, not to good itself and truth itself; they are
not from good and truth; they are of the mouth and body only, therefore,
and not of the heart.
[2] They may be likened to gold or silver which is spread on dross,
rotten wood or mire. When uttered the truths may be likened to a breath
exhaled and gone, or to a delusive light which dies away, though they
appear outwardly like genuine truths. They are seeming truths in those
who utter them; to those hearing and assenting, and unaware of this,
they may be altogether different. For everyone is affected by what is
external according to his internal. A truth, by whomsoever uttered,
enters another's hearing and is taken up by his mind in keeping with the
state or character of his mind.
Of those in natural good by inheritance, but in no spiritual good, nearly
the same is true as of those described above. The internal of every good
or truth is spiritual. The spiritual dispels falsities and evils, but the
natural left to itself favors them. To favor evil and falsity does not
accord with doing good.
15. Good can be separated from truth, and truth from good, and then
still appear as good or truth, for the reason that the human being has a