1497. * And so they are cast into that place, where they appear to themselves to be the kind of snakes that are called dragons, and there they live on in their dreadful fantasies. They do not harm each other, of course, but they are as if without rationality, like those wild animals, remaining so for centuries, until their former life has been changed. For because their life's delight had been revenge, which cannot be blotted out except together with their life, therefore they remain that way until they no longer know they had been human beings. So their former life perishes, even though it remains, and the ability to lead a different life is added over and above it. While they are sustained in that ability they can be kept among certain kinds of spirits; but what they are then like, I have not yet been permitted to ascertain. 1748, 18 March. * 1496 is lacking in the original.