AE 1144 - We Are What We Love

AE 1144 [2]

Man was created to love self and the world,
to love the neighbor and heaven,
and to love the Lord.
For this reason when a man is born
he first loves himself and the world,
and afterwards, so far as he becomes wise,
he loves the neighbor and heaven,
and as he becomes still wiser
he loves the Lord.
Such a man is in the Divine order,
and is actually led by the Lord,
although apparently by himself.
But so far as he is not wise
he stops in the first degree,
which is to love himself and the world;
and if he loves the neighbor, heaven, and the Lord,
it is for the sake of self before the world.
But if he is wholly unwise
he loves himself alone,
and the world and also the neighbor for the sake of self;
while heaven and the Lord
he either despises or denies
or hates in heart, if not in words.