3714. Throughout yet another day the Sirens have been with me and caused me great annoyance, but what they are like showed from the fact that left to themselves they were carried away into things so utterly obscene that nothing, as I have heard, could be more so - and of course, among themselves. From this it can be known that there is no inner bond that restrains them, no conscience or acknowledgement, much less conviction of anything true and good, but that the inward parts are loose, not bound. Only outer bonds, like those of etiquette and apparent sincerity to achieve their own ends hold them back - and perhaps more than others.
[2] But their inward restraints are thus unleashed, unbound, so that when the outer bonds are removed, as when they are behaving licentiously among themselves, then they are carried without any horror, without shame, without the constraint of any inward law, into the most accursed, wicked and obscene acts.
Such also are their thoughts. For everyone can tell whether some law of conscience is constraining them from the simple fact that they are unwilling to think this or that because it is evil, because it is accursed, because it is obscene, so that when such a thought occurs, they either become afraid, or become ashamed, or become horrified, or they are held back from it in some other way. These are the inner bonds in which a person on earth is held - but the sirens are held by no bonds.
3714. During still another day the sirens were with me, and caused me great annoyance, but of what quality they were appeared from this, that when left to themselves they were borne away into things so atrociously obscene that nothing, as I heard, could be more so, and that too among themselves. It may thence be known that there is [with them] no internal bond which shall coerce [their evils], no conscience or acknowledgment [of right], still less the persuasion of anything true and good; but that their interiors are altogether loosed from restraint, not bound except by merely external bonds, such as a regard to decorum and apparent probity, which perhaps influences them more than others. But their interiors are such, so dissolute and relaxed, that provided external bonds were removed, as they are while acting licentiously among themselves, they would rush without horror, without shame, without check from any interior law, into the most abandoned, iniquitous, and obscene acts. Such, at any rate, are their thoughts, for anyone can know from this whether a law of conscience constrains one, viz., that he is unwilling to think of this or that because it is evil, because it is base, because it is obscene, so that when such a thought is suggested he is struck with fear, with shame, with horror, or is in some other way withheld from it. These are the internal bonds by which man is held, but the sirens are restrained by no [such] bond.
3714. Per alterum diem adhuc Sirenes apud me, et me magna molestia affecerunt, sed quales sunt, constabat exinde, quod relictae sibi in obscenissima ferebantur, quibus obscenius vix quicquam, ut audivi; et quidem inter se; exinde sciri potest, quod nullum vinculum internum sit, quod coercet, nulla conscientia seu agnitio, minus persuasio alicujus veri et boni, sed quod interiora sint prorsus soluta, non vincta, solum vincula externa, ut decori et apparentis honesti propter fines continent eas, et forte magis quam alios; sed interiora earum sunt talia, sic dissoluta, absque vinculis, ut dum modo vincula externa removeantur, ut dum inter se licentiose faciunt, tunc absque horrore quodam, absque pudore, absque legis ullius interioris constrictione, in facinorosissima, scelestissima et obscenissima ferantur. Tales etiam sunt cogitationes earum, nam quisque nosse potest, num lex conscientiae quaedam constringat, ex eo, quod non velit cogitare hoc aut illud quia malum, quia facinus, quia obscoenum, sic ut dum cogitatio talis incidit, vel timeat, vel pudeat, vel horrescat, vel inde aliter detineatur; haec sunt vincula interna in quibus tenetur homo, at sirenes nullis vinculis.