4540. From manifest experience it is given me to know that the infernals can acknowledge truths and be convinced, and thus that they can understand; and they then appear as if easily capable of being reformed, but because the filthy delight of their life follows them, they are, when left to themselves, the worst of the infernals, and like irrational beasts. Hence it may appear manifest that such spirits can speak and reason concerning the truths of faith as well as others, who are not in a life of evil, and that they are the serpents spoken of in Genesis.