is there, want to leave, and make the effort himself to do so. One can do
this while in the world but not after death, for then he remains forever
in the society in which he put himself in the world. It is for this
reason that man is to examine himself, see and avow his sins, do
repentance, and thereupon persevere to the close of life. I might
substantiate this to full belief by much experience, but this is not the
place to document the experience.

279. (iii) _So far as evils are removed they are remitted._ It is an
error of the age to believe

1. That evils are separated and in fact cast out from man when they are
remitted; and
2. That the state of man's life can be changed in a moment, even to its
opposite, so that from wicked he becomes good, and consequently can be
led from hell and be transported straightway to heaven, and this by the
Lord's sheer mercy.
3. But those who believe and suppose so, do not know at all what evil and
good are and nothing at all about the state of man's life.
4. Moreover, they are wholly unaware that affections, which are of the
will, are nothing other than changes and variations of the state of the
purely organic substances of the mind; and that thoughts, which are of
the understanding, also are; and that memory is the permanent state of
these changes.

When one knows these things, one can see clearly that an evil can be
removed only by successive stages, and that the remission of an evil is
not complete removal of it. But all this has been said in summary form
and unless the items are demonstrated may be assented to and yet not
comprehended. What is not comprehended is as indistinct as a wheel spun