whether they saw the frequent mention in the Word of love and charity,
works and deeds, and keeping the Commandments, and the declaration that
the man who keeps the Commandments is blessed and wise, but the man who
does not is foolish. They said that on reading these things they saw them
only as matters of faith, and passed them by with their eyes closed, so
to speak.

[7] Those who have confirmed themselves in falsities are like men who see
streaks on a wall, and at twilight fancy that they see the figure of a
horseman or just of a man, a visionary image which is dissipated when the
daylight floods in. Who can sense the spiritual uncleanness of adultery
except one who is in the cleanliness of chastity? Who can feel the
cruelty of vengeance except one who is in good from love to the neighbor?
What adulterer or what avenger does not sneer at those who call enjoyment
in such acts as theirs infernal but the enjoyments of marital love and
neighborly love heavenly? And so on.

[8] Third: _The ability to confirm whatever one pleases is not
intelligence but only ingenuity, to be found in the worst of men._ Some
show the greatest dexterity in confirmation, who know no truth and yet
can confirm both truth and falsity. Some of them remark, "What is truth?
Is there such a thing? Is not that true which I make true?" In the world
they are believed to be intelligent, and yet they are only daubing a
wall.* Only those are intelligent who perceive truth to be truth and who
confirm it by verities constantly perceived. Little difference may be
seen between the latter and the former because one cannot distinguish
between the light of confirmation and the light of the perception of
truth. Those in the light of confirmation seem also to be in the light of
the perception of truth. Yet the difference is like that between illusory
light and genuine. In the spiritual world illusory light is such that it
turns into darkness when genuine light flows in. There is such illusory
light with many in hell; on being brought out into genuine light they see
nothing at all. It is evident, then, that to be able to confirm whatever
one pleases is only ingenuity, which the worst of men may have.

* Cf. Ezekiel 13:10, 11 and _Arcana Caelestia_ n. 739(2), Apocalypse
Explained nn. 237(5) and 644(25). Tr.

[9] Fourth: _Confirmation may be mental and not at the same time
volitional, but all volitional confirmation is also mental._ Let an
example serve to illustr