Arcana Coelestia volume 7 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 3922teeth. They too said that they love urine more than all otherliquids, and feculent urine the most. These, however, had notsomething bearded for a face, as the first had, but a kind ofdreadful grate of teeth; for the beard and teeth signify the lowestnatural things. Their being without a face signifies that they haveno rational life, because when no face appears it is a sign that thereis no correspondence of the interiors with the grand man; for in theother life everyone appears in the light of heaven in accordancewith his correspondence, and hence the infernals appear in horribledeformity.5388. A certain spirit was with me, talking with me, who in thelife of the body had had no faith, and had not believed in any lifeafter death; he also had been one of the dexterous. He couldcaptivate the minds of others by flattery and by giving assent, onwhich account his quality was not apparent at first from hisdiscourse; he could also talk with volubility, like a stream, and likea good spirit. But his quality was first known by his not liking tospeak about matters of faith and charity, for then he could notfollow in thought, but drew back; and it was afterward perceivedfrom several indications that he had been an assentor for thepurpose of deceiving. For assentations are according to ends; if theend is friendship, or the pleasure of conversation, or the like, oreven rightful gain, there is not so much harm in it; but if the end isto elicit secrets, and thereby bind another to evil services—ingeneral if the end is to do harm—it is evil. Such was the end thisspirit had in view, and he was also in opposition to those who arein the province of the kidneys and ureters. He too said that heloved the smell of urine above all other odors; and he caused apainful contraction or cramp in the lower region of the belly.5389. There are troops of spirits who wander about, and by turnscome back to the same places. Evil spirits greatly fear them, for theytorment them with a certain kind of torture. I was informed thatthey correspond to the fundus or upper part of the bladder ingeneral, and to the muscular ligaments converging therefromtoward the sphincter, where the urine is driven out by a kind ofcontortion. These spirits apply themselves to the part of the back