5544. This was not a visitation, for these things had often preceded, but it was a matter of orderly arrangement. For in the middle are the best; in the peripheral regions those who are good, by degrees toward the east those who have a clear perception of what is good, to the west those who have a dim perception of what is good; those to the south are those who have clear perception of what is true, those to the north who have a dim at perception of what is true.

166. [166.] 32. Many also were discovered in the Christian domain who had an understanding of truth but not a will for good. People of this character were initially accepted among the upright, because they can articulate many things that are in fact true. In such, too, the intellect is in the beginning enlightened, but the will asleep. These people gathered on mountains in the western zone. They attached themselves to the upright who dwell in the lowest heaven, who do not inquire into matters of the will, but believe that if people speak intelligently, they are also good. However, I saw that these were people without any charity, and that they affiliated themselves secretly with the evil and infested the upright, doing so first by reasoned arguments, and then by arts, until they were conjoined and the upright bound to them. For in this way they prevail against others as well.

There were many like this in the heavens that Christians made for themselves, and they interposed themselves between the Lord and people in the world and obstructed the way, so that the Divine operation could not have its force. Most of these people were caught up in a conceit in their own intelligence from love of self, and in the delight of ruling.

I saw some people of this character on a quite high mountain in the western zone toward the north and all around the sides of the mountain; and they persuaded themselves and others that everyone in heaven is there in consequence of his intellectual light alone and not at the same time his heavenly warmth. Such people, however, are dangerous.

I saw these people cast down from the mountain and from the sides of the mountain, and a chasm opened below and swallowed them up; and having fallen a long way down, they were brought into a state of darkness, for they then accepted falsities as truths and were turned away to their opposites. Such is the character of the intellect that is led by an evil will.

Evil people who had allied themselves with them, having then no longer the power to resist, were cast down into their various hells, some into hells beneath mountains, some into hells beneath level plains.