2049. CONCERNING A SPIRIT WHO WAS DISQUIETED FROM ARDENTLY DESIRING HEAVEN. A spirit like-minded to the one before spoken of, and capable of quite a subtle perception, addressed me on the right side, under the arm, saying that there was nothing he so much longed for as heaven; that he had often desired [the enjoyment of] heaven, but that they were unwilling to admit him; and begging that if I knew by what means he could gain entrance thither, I would inform him. It was given me to say in reply that he could not come into heaven till he had laid aside the cupidity of entering it; for such an engrossing desire, even if he was in the height of felicity, would hinder his perceiving it; and thus he could not enter heaven till he had got rid of that cupidity; and all the more because he did not know what heaven really was, as to which being interrogated, he said that it was a joy and felicity greater than could be expressed; he resembling in this respect the mass of men who have no other than a most general idea of heaven, as being a state of joy; but in what it consists, and what is its nature, they are utterly ignorant. 1748, May 22.