That it is never permitted anyone in the other life to become worse it was granted to me to find out from the case of the dragon. Whenever he would add something new and accustom himself to an evil he had not previously made a habit, he was heavily punished, to his horror. Therefore he dares not to do it. So there are also such restraints as keep them from wandering outside [the limit], besides countless other bonds depending on each one's acquired evil nature. This is so in the case of all others, as with those who are in Gehenna, who are sometimes kept there in a free state, but as soon as they wander outside and attempt to acquire an evil, and obtain it, then they are at once in the fire of Gehenna, which is their inward, as it were fiery torment, that is indescribable, by which they are then deterred and finally, by the horror of it, are kept from daring to wander beyond, but at every moment when there is a reaching out beyond [the limit], they become afraid. 1748, 7 Sept.