8118. Angels have told me that the most ancients on our planet lived in similar groupings, divided up into nations, families, and households. All were content with their goods; and it was totally unknown in their day for people to grow rich on others' goods and also to exercise control over others. Ancient times therefore, and especially the most ancient times, were more acceptable to the Lord than those which followed. And since that kind of state existed innocence also reigned at that time, and wisdom with it. Everyone did good out of a desire for good, and behaved righteously out of a desire for righteousness. Doing anything good and righteous for the sake of one's own position or for the sake of gain was unknown to them. Nor did they speak anything other than the truth which they were led to do not by a desire for truth but for good, that is, not by an understanding separated from the will but by a will linked to the understanding. This is what the ancient times were like, and therefore angels were able to mix with men. They were able to carry a person's mind, virtually separated from bodily connections, up into heaven with them to lead him around and show him the magnificent and happy sights there, as well as to share their own happiness and delight with them. These times were also well known to ancient authors, who called them the Golden Age as well as the Saturnian.
[2] The reason why those times were such was, as has been stated, that people lived divided up into nations, nations into families, and families into households; and each household lived by itself. It did not enter anyone's head to encroach on another's inheritance and thereby to acquire wealth and control. Self-love and love of the world were far from them then. Each person rejoiced in his heart in his own well-being, and no less in that of another.
[3] But this scene was changed. In course of time it turned into the opposite, when people's minds were taken over by the desire to control others and possess their goods. For its own protection the human race was then gathered into kingdoms and empires. And because the laws of charity and conscience which had been inscribed on people's hearts ceased to exist, it was necessary to produce laws that would curb acts of violence, laws that rewarded people by giving them position and gain or punished them by withdrawing the same things. When the human condition changed in this way heaven moved away from mankind; it has retreated further and further, until the present centuries, when no one knows any longer whether heaven really exists, and therefore whether hell does. Indeed there is a denial of their existence. These details have been mentioned in order that a parallel situation may serve to cast some light on the state of those on the planet Jupiter, on the source of their uprightness, and also their wisdom, about which much more will be said further on.
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