around by the hand. The points made above are therefore to be
demonstrated one by one in the order in which they were set forth.

[2] First: _It is an error of the age to believe that evils are separated
and in fact cast out when they are remitted._ It has been granted me to
learn from heaven that no evil into which man is born and which he has
made actual in him is separated from him, but is removed so as not to
appear. Earlier I shared the belief of most persons in the world that
when evils are remitted they are cast out and are washed and wiped away
as dirt is from the face by water. It is not like this with evils or
sins. They all remain. When they are remitted on repentance, they are
thrust from the center to the sides. What is in the center, being
directly under view, appears as in the light of day, and what is to one
side is in shadow and at times in the darkness of night. Inasmuch as
evils are not separated but only removed, that is, thrust to one side,
and as man can go from The center to the periphery, he can return, as it
may happen, to his evils, which he supposed had been cast out. For the
human being is such that he can go from one affection to another and
sometimes to the opposite, and thus from one center into another; the
affection in which he is at the time makes the center, for he is then in
the enjoyment and light of it.

[3] Some who are raised after death into heaven by the Lord, for they
have lived well, have carried with them, however, the belief that they
are clean and rid of sins, therefore are not in a state of guilt. In
accord with their belief they are clothed at first in white garments, for
white garments signify a state purified from evils. But after a time they
begin to think, as they did in the world, that they are washed, as it
were, from all evil, and to glory that they are no longer sinners like
other men. This can hardly be kept from being an elation of mind and a