At times I have smelled the stink of filthy wall lice when yet there were no such creatures present, as I very well knew. But when I realized that that smell was spread by some form of corruption of spirits, I was taught by actual experience, corroborated [by angels], that that bad smell portrays the persecution of innocence. For there were some present who had persecuted little children, and were trying to chase them away; as a result, that stench arose immediately. 1748, 3 March.