2398. THAT EVIL SPIRITS ARE ENTIRELY LIKE BRUTES THAT HAVE A FACULTY OF REASONING, THUS ARE, AS IT WERE, RATIONAL BRUTES. I have sometimes said to evil spirits, and thus have also thought, they then perceiving my thoughts, that they are only brutes, and indeed rational in this sense, that they enjoy a reasoning faculty, but cannot exercise it for good; wherefore it is necessary that they be without a corporeal memory, such as they possessed in the life of the body, or that they be held in that state; for of themselves they rush into the worst things, and are viler than brute animals, because they rush contrary to order, and to pervert order in themselves, and in the common [sphere].