1999. HOW THE CASE IS IN REGARD TO THE EXCITEMENTS OF CUPIDITIES WITH THOSE WHO ARE IN FAITH. I conversed with good spirits, who supposed that I might be thinking something of evil, saying that such was my quality, consequently that I was not pure. but it was given me to reply that the truth of the case was like that of an image in a looking-glass, which is supposed by those who know no better to be the very person himself and not an image, when still the fact is not so; for cupidity and evil is excited by evil spirits, and when one is in faith nothing adheres or is imputed to him, but [evil] is turned into good; for nothing of this kind is excited with him who is in faith except for an end, namely, of reformation and regeneration. The idea is, as it were, an image which works an illusion, and presents an appearance of the person himself, when yet it is nothing else than the phantasies of spirits which are communicated, and thus form a semblance of the person himself. With this response, as the spirits were good and faithful, they were abundantly satisfied. - 1748, May 19.