174.  I then conversed with the angels who were with me, concerning dominion, that there are two kinds of dominion, one, of love towards the neighbour, and the other, of the love of self; and that the dominion of love towards the neighbour exists among those who dwell separated into households, families, and clans:  but the dominion of the love of self among those who dwell together in society.  Among those who live separated into households, families, and clans, he who is the father of the clan bears rule, and under him the fathers of families, and under these the fathers of each household.  He is called the father of the clan, from whom the families are derived, and the households of which the families are composed.  But all these exercise dominion from love, like the love of a father towards his children, who teaches them how they ought to live, provides for their good, and as far as possible gives to them of what is his own.  It never enters into his mind to subject them to himself, as subjects or as servants, but he loves that they should obey him as sons obey their father.  And since this love, as is known, increases in descending, therefore the father of a clan acts from a more inward love than the father himself from whom the children are immediately descended.  Such also is the dominion in the heavens, because such is the Lord’s dominion; for His dominion is from Divine Love towards the whole human race.  But the dominion of the love of self, which is opposite to the dominion of love towards the neighbour, began when man alienated himself from the Lord; for in proportion as a man does not love and worship the Lord, in that proportion he loves and worships himself, and in that proportion also he loves the world.  Then it was that, from the necessity for self-preservation, clans consisting of families and households gathered themselves into one body, and established governments under various forms.  For in proportion as that love increased, in the same proportion evils of every kind, as, enmity, envy, hatred, revenge, cruelty and deceit, increased with it, being directed against all who opposed that love; for from the proprium, in which those are who are in the love of self, nothing but evil springs, inasmuch as man’s proprium is nothing but evil, and, as the proprium is evil, it is not receptive of good from heaven:  therefore the love of self, when it is the reigning love, is the father of all such evils[ddd]; and that love is also of such a nature, that in proportion as it is left without restraint, it rushes on until at length each one who is of such a character wants to have dominion over all others in the whole globe, and wishes to possess all the goods of the others; nay, it is not even content with this, but would have dominion over the whole heaven; as may appear from the case of modern Babylon.  Such then is the dominion of the love of self, from which the dominion of love towards the neighbour differs as much as heaven does from hell.  But notwithstanding