1992. How good is also turned into evil by spirits
Some turn good into evil by deceit, some because of different passions, so there are many causes. But here I am allowed to mention only one way in which goodness in spirits is turned into evil, without their hardly realizing it, as in the case of those who had become sick of their wives, and thereby felt almost disgust [for them], and thus for marriage love. When any delight or pleasantness pertaining to marriage love reaches them, because they had grown sick of it, that pleasantness and delight is turned with them at once into boredom and aversion, and thus into the opposite. I spoke with spirits about this, for the same thing is true of other enjoyments and delights. 1748, 18 May.
1992. HOW GOOD IS TURNED INTO EVIL BY SPIRITS.
Some turn good into evil from deceit, some from some other prompting, so that there is a variety of causes; but I may here just allude to one method by which good is turned into evil among spirits who are scarcely aware of the fact; that is the case of those who have become weary of their wives, and thence have taken, as it were, a disgust even towards conjugial love, as when something of a delightful or pleasant nature which is of conjugial love comes to them, and of which they weary, then immediately that pleasing and delightful thing is turned with them unconsciously into what is tedious and nauseating, thus into the contrary, concerning which I conversed with spirits. The case is the same in regard to other pleasures and delights. - 1748, May 18.
1992. Quomodo etiam vertatur bonum in malum a spiritibus
Quidam vertunt bonum in malum ex dolo, quidam ex cupidine alia, sic plures causae sunt; sed hic solum memorare licet unum modum, quo bonum, spiritibus 1
fere nescientibus, apud eos vertitur in malum, ut qui fastidiverunt uxores, et inde ceperunt quasi nauseam, ita pro amore conjugiali: dum aliquid delitiosi aut jucundi, quod est amoris conjugialis ad eos pervenit, quia fastidiverunt eum, ideo illico apud eos, quasi nescientes, vertitur jucundum et delitiosum illud, in taediosum et fastidiosum, sic in contrarium, de qua re cum spiritibus loquutus; sic enim res se habet in aliis jucunditatibus et elitiis. 1748, 18 Maj.
Footnotes:
1. This is how it appears in J.F.I. Tafel's edition; the Manuscript has spiritus