ocence is affected by
innocence, and is affected to the extent that he is in that good; but
those who are not in the good of innocence are not affected by
innocence. For this reason all who are in hell are wholly
antagonistic to innocence; they do not know what it is; their
antagonism is such that so far as any one is innocent they burn to do
him mischief; therefore they cannot bear to see little children; and
as soon as they see them they are inflamed with a cruel desire to do
them harm. From this it is clear that what is man's own, and
therefore the love of self, is antagonistic to innocence; for all who
are in hell are in what is their own, and therefore in the love of
self.{1}

{Footnote 1} What is man's own is loving self more than God,
and the world more than heaven, and making one's neighbor of no
account as compared with oneself; thus it is the love of self
and of the world (n. 694, 731, 4317, 5660). The evil are wholly
antagonistic to innocence, even to the extent that they cannot
endure its presence (n. 2126).

284. XXXII. THE STATE OF PEACE IN HEAVEN.

Only those that have experienced the peace of heaven can have any
perception of the peace in which the angels are. As man is unable, as
long as he is in the body, to receive the peace of heaven, so he can
have no perception of it, because his perception is confined to what
is natural. To perceive it he must be able, in respect to thought, to
be raised up and withdrawn from the body and kept in the spirit, and
at the same time be with angels. In this way has the peace of heaven
been perceived by me; and for this reason I am able to describe it,
yet not in words as that peace is in itself, because human words are
inadequate, but only as it is in comparison with that rest of mind
that those enjoy who are content in God.

285. There are two inmost things of heaven, namely, innocence and
peace. These are said to be inmost things because they proceed
directly from the Lord. From innocence comes every good of heaven,
and from peace every delight of good. Every good has its delight; and
both good and delight spring from love, for whatever is loved is
called good, and is also perceived as delightful. From this it
follows that these two inmost things, innocence and peace, go forth
from the Lord's Divine love and move the angels from what is inmost.
That innocence is the inmost of good may be seen in the preceding
chapter, where the state of innoce