hat
rich and poor and great and small are found in both heaven and hell (nn.
357-365). It is plain from this that distinction and wealth with those
now in heaven were blessings in the world, and with those now in hell
were curses in the world.

[2] If he will think about the matter with reason, anyone can know when
distinction and wealth are blessings or curses, namely, that they are
blessings with those who do not set their heart on them, and curses with
those who do. One sets the heart on them in loving oneself in them, and
one does not set the heart on them when he loves uses and not himself in
them. Above (n. 215) we told what the difference between the two loves,
and the nature of it, is. It is to be added that distinction and wealth
seduce some and not others. They do so when they excite the loves in
man's proprium, that is, self-love, which is the love found in hell and
is called the devil (as remarked above), and they do not seduce if they
do not excite that love.

[3] Both the wicked and the good come to distinction and are prospered in
means because the wicked as well as the good perform uses. The wicked
perform uses for the sake of their personal standing and gain; the good
do so for the sake of the standing and profit of the work which they do.
The good regard the standing and profit of their work as principal causes
of action, and personal standing and gain as instrumental causes; but the
wicked regard their personal standing and gain as the main incentives and
the standing and gain of their work as the instrumental. Yet who does not
see that a person, whatever his function or standing, is to serve the
affairs which he administers, and not they him? Who does not see that a
judge is to serve justice, a magistrate the common welfare, a king his
kingdom, and that it is not to be the other way around? According to the
laws of a kingdom, a man is invested therefore with distinction and
standing in keeping with the eminence of the work he does. Moreover, who
does not see that the difference between the two loves is like that
between what is principal and what is instrumental? One who ascribes to
himself personally the eminence of a position appears in the spiritual
world, when this inversion is pictured, as himself inverted, feet up and
head down.

[4] Second: _When distinction and wealth are blessings they are spiritual
and eternal, but when they are curses they are temporal and ephemeral._
There are distinct