Spiritual Experiences (Odhner) n. 1045

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1045. Those who have indulged in pretending affection, so that it has become second nature, and also those who during their lives had devoted themselves to adulatory poetry containing nothing but verbose inventions, and thus a mixture of falsehood and truth, solely for the sake of flattering themselves and others-their smell is like vomit, like the odor that comes from the stomach after vomiting. It is a foul smell, sickening to others, that contracts the nostrils. But there are different kinds of these. In the first place, those in general who like to pretend with complimentary words, and so play the pretender; also those who do so in writing and verse, among whom are those who like to pretend with a view to their own glory and profit. I have smelled that smell when such people as those mentioned above were present.


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