10808. THE SIXTH PLANET OUT IN SPACE - continued

The spirits whom I talked to then were from the northern part of their planet. After that I was taken to others who were from the western part. These, having a similar wish to find out who I was and what I was like, immediately began to say that I was thoroughly evil; they thought, if they said this, that I would be deterred from coming any nearer. I sensed that this was the first thing they said to all newcomers. But I was led to reply that I was fully aware of it, and that they likewise were thoroughly evil, since everyone is born into evil, and therefore whatever comes from man, spirit, or angel - that is, from the self or proprium - is nothing but evil; for any good that resides with a person comes from the Lord. From this they realized that I was in possession of the truth; so they allowed me to talk to them. They demonstrated to me then their conception of how the evil present in a person and good received from the Lord are kept apart. They set the two next to each other, almost touching but nevertheless separated. Yet they were seemingly bound together in an indescribable way, so that good could lead evil and check it, preventing it from acting however it liked, and so that good could thereby direct evil towards what good desired, though evil would not know it. This was how they presented the rule of good over evil and at the same time the free state in which evil is led by good towards good, thus towards the Lord; for from their picture of good they had a picture of the Lord since the good comes from Him.