Conjugial Love #364

364. To gain a clear idea of the zeal in good persons and the zeal in evil ones, and of the difference between them, it is necessary to form some concept of the internal and external elements in people. To do this, let us take a common concept respecting these, because we mean it also for common folk. Let us present it by the illustration of a nut or almond and their kernels. The internal elements in good people are like kernels within in their undamaged and good state, enclosed in their normal and native shell. But altogether differently in evil people, their internal elements are like kernels either too bitter to be edible, or too rotted or wormy; while their external elements are like casings or shells either like their native ones, or reddish like shellfish, or polychromatic like rainbow-stones ¹ . That is how their external elements appear, in which lie concealed the internal ones just described.

It is the same with the two kinds of zeal in people.

Footnotes:

364. To get a distinct idea of zeal with the good and of zeal with the evil, and of their dissimilarity, one must have some conception of internals and externals in man. Let it be a conception plain to the common mind. Let us employ the figure of a nut, an almond, say, and its kernel. With the good the internals are like sound, good kernels, enclosed in their usual and native shell. With the evil, contrariwise, the internals are like rotten or wormy kernels, or so bitter they are inedible, but their externals are shells or coats either like the native shell of the almond, or like shiny conchs, or like multicolor rainbow-stones. So do their externals look, in which are concealed the internals we have just described. The same is true of their zeal.