Evil spirits have often said they can do much and prevail over others, so they boast everywhere they go, imagining that it is so, just the opposite to good spirits and angels, who believe they can do nothing and that the Lord can do all things, down to the very least. I have also been prompted to reply to evil spirits that they can do nothing at all. This both surprised them and made them indignant and angry, and because they are unable to tell otherwise, because they do not have faith, it was granted me to tell them that of themselves they are not only merely tools devoid of life, thus dead of themselves, [but] also, today, that if they were not allowed to think in this way, they would be deprived of all life of their own; and in order that they may be kept in life and be improved, they are permitted so to think, in fact they are supported in so thinking by achievements that are produced through them. So it is in order that they may live that they are sustained in this opinion. 1748, 17 Aug.