3573. Evil spirits steal away truth and goodness even though they do not know what it is
There was something I had forgotten that I seemed to myself anxious to recall to mind, but the spirits did not wish me to. Therefore, when it was being recalled or was about to be recalled, they stole it away, so that I could not remember it. I do not know what it was, nor did the spirits, judging it to be something that would attack them, or that it was something malicious.
This allowed me to learn that spirits are able to snatch away and conceal even things they know nothing about, and also that they sense how near something is to being disclosed that I had once seen. Hence it is also evident, in two ways, that evil spirits, at their very presence or approach, steal away or distort truth and goodness, this for one reason because it at once conflicts with their nature, and for another because it is malicious to want to steal away and conceal it. 1748, 15 Oct.
3573. THAT EVIL SPIRITS SEIZE UPON TRUTH AND GOOD, ALTHOUGH THEY DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE.
There was something which I had forgotten, and which I seemed to myself anxious to recall to mind, but [certain] spirits were unwilling; wherefore when it was recalled, or was on the point of being recalled, they snatched it away, so that I could not recollect it. I know not what it was, nor did the spirits know, supposing it, however, to be something which might infest them, or which proceeded from malice. It was hence given to know that spirits can seize and secrete even things of which they know not what they are; as also that they can perceive how near a thing is to being recalled to my mind which I have once seen. It appears also from this, in a twofold manner, that evil spirits, at the first presence and approximation of truth and good, seize upon it and pervert them, -one reason of which is that they are so directly opposed to their nature; another, that their malignity is such that they are prompted to seize and conceal. - 1748, October 15.
3573. Quod mali spiritus surripiant verum et bonum tametsi non sciunt
Erat quoddam oblitum, quod revocare in memoriam studere mihi visus, sed spiritus nolebant, quare cum revocaretur, seu prope esset ut revocaretur, surripiebant, sic ut non potuissem recordari, non scio quid erat, nec sciebant spiritus, arbitrantes quod esset aliquid, quod eos infestaret, vel quod ex malitia: inde scire datum, quod spiritus possint surripere et occultare ea, quae non sciunt, quid sit, tum quod percipiant quomodo prope sit, ut detegatur, quod mihi visum semel. Exinde quoque constat, sic duplici modo, quod spiritus mali verum et bonum, ad primum praesentiam seu approximationem surripiant, vel pervertant, ex una causa quia adversatur illico naturae eorum, ex altera quod malitia sit, quod surripere aut occultare velint. 1748, 15 Oct.