This is clear to me from such manifold experience that if I were to report the experiences only in general, a volume would be written full. For during several years now, almost every day, I have been surrounded by evil spirits, both around me, next to my head and at my back, and they have not only labored with all their might to bring evil upon me, but have also attempted to do so by flagrant insults, by magic, by deceptions, by secret arts, and by dreadful curses, too, spoken of before [327, 2171], but all and each one of their attempts were in vain, so that finally I was just laughing at their endeavors and flagrant insults. So the Lord preserves the human race, every individual of which is surrounded by evil spirits, and especially today, when evil has grown so greatly, and with it the number of evil spirits has increased-in fact spirits of the very worst sort have emerged. And people do not want to know this, but suppose that they preserve themselves, when nothing could be less true. For if the Lord should relax His hand only for the very least moment of all, mankind would perish. 1748, 13 July.