311. Given this description of our own prudence and of people who believe in it, we can see the nature of the prudence that is not our own and of the people who believe in it. That is, the prudence that is not our own is the prudence people have who do not convince themselves that they are the source of their intelligence and wisdom. They say, "How can people be the source of their own wisdom? How can they do what is good with their own strength?" and when they say it they see within themselves that it is true. Inwardly, they think and believe that other people share this belief, especially educated people, because they do not see how anyone can only think more superficially.

[2] Since they are not subject to illusions because of any rationalizations of appearances, they both know and feel that murder, adultery, theft, and perjury are sins, and they therefore abstain from them. They know and feel that malice is not wisdom and that shrewdness is not intelligence. When they hear clever arguments based on illusions, they shake their heads and laugh to themselves. This is because there is no veil between their inner and outer processes, or between the spiritual and the earthly levels of their minds the way there is in sense-centered people. As a result, they are open to an inflow from heaven that enables them to see things like this more deeply.

[3] They talk more simply and candidly than others and see wisdom as a matter of life rather than of conversation. They are relatively like lambs and doves, while people devoted to their own prudence are like wolves and foxes. Or again, they are like people who live in a house and see the sky through their windows, while people devoted to their own prudence are like people who live in a basement and see nothing through their windows but what is underground. Or again, they are like people standing on a mountain watching people devoted to their own prudence wandering around in the valleys and in the forests.

[4] This shows that a prudence that is not our own is a prudence that comes from the Lord. Outwardly, it looks like our own prudence, but it is totally different inwardly. Inwardly, the prudence that is not our own looks human in the spiritual world, while our own prudence looks like a statue that seems to be alive, solely because people with this prudence still have rationality and freedom, or the ability to discern and to intend and therefore to talk and act. These abilities enable them to pretend to be human. The reason they are statues like this is that what is evil and false is not alive. Only what is good and true is alive; and since they know this rationally--otherwise they would not put on the pretense--they have some lifelike humanity in their statues.

[5] Can anyone fail to realize that our real quality is our inner quality, and that therefore a real person is one whose inner quality is what he or she wants people to see outwardly, and that a statue is someone who is human only outwardly and not inwardly? Think the way you talk--in favor of God, in favor of religion, in favor of justice and honesty--and you will be human. Then divine providence will be your prudence, and you will see in others that their own prudence is insanity.