49. They further related that on their earth they are distinguished into clans, families, and households, and that all live together with their own, separate from the others, and that therefore their habitual intercourse is confined to their kindred: also that no one ever desires another's goods; nor does it ever enter the mind (_animus_) of any one to covet any of the goods of another, much less to obtain them by any artifice, and still less to attack and plunder them; this they consider a crime contrary to human nature, and horrible. When I wanted to tell them that on this Earth there were wars, depredations, and murders, they turned away, and refused to hear. It has been told me by the angels that the Most Ancient inhabitants of our Earth dwelt in the same manner, that is to say, distinguished into clans, families, and households, and that all in those times were content with their own goods; and that it was an entirely unknown thing for one to enrich himself with the goods of others, or to assume dominion from the love of self; and that on this account the Ancient, and especially the Most Ancient times, were more acceptable to the Lord than those which have succeeded them; and that, as their state was such, innocence then reigned, and, together with innocence, wisdom; that every one then did what was good for the sake of good, and what was just for the sake of justice; that they did not know what it was to do what was good and just with a view to their own honour, or for the sake of gain; and that in those times they spoke nothing but what was true, and this not so much from truth as from good, that is, not from the Intellectual separate [from the Voluntary], but from the Voluntary conjoined with the Intellectual. Such were the Ancient times. Angels then could therefore have habitual intercourse with men, and carry their minds, almost separated from corporeal things, into heaven, and could even lead them about there, and show them the magnificent and goodly things there, and also communicate to them their own happinesses and delights. These times were also known to ancient writers, who called them the Golden, and likewise the Saturnian times. The reason why these times were such was, as has been stated, that men then lived distinguished into clans, clans into families, and families into households, and every household dwelt by itself; and that it then never entered into any one's mind (_mens_) to seize upon another's inheritance, and thus acquire for himself opulence and dominion: the love of self and the love of the world were then far away; every one rejoiced in his own, and not less in another's good. But in the course of time this scene was changed and totally reversed, when the lust of exercising dominion and of possessing many things invaded the mind (_animus_). Then the human race, for the sake of self-defence, gathered themselves into kingdoms and empires; and because the laws