638. * # # Souls or spirits who want to govern themselves think that [to be so governed by the Lord] would be to lose all pleasure, and the whole will in which pleasure resides, and thus all freedom, consequently all life and its pleasantness - as they are now dictating to me. But because they do not know what life truly is, and what pleasure truly is, and what freedom truly is, therefore it should be known that we for the first time have true life and the things which make life's happiness, when we are governed by the Lord alone, and when we are only acted upon. It is then granted us to live as if on our own, and to partake of heavenly joy. But the reason it seems otherwise to those souls or spirits, is because they are judging from their own active state, in which there can be nothing but unrest, and finally unhappiness - the result of exercising their imaginary freedom. This freedom is license, or the rule of passions, and of evil spirits who arouse them. When they are under the control of evil spirits, or of their own desires, then they believe they are being governed by themselves, whereas the contrary is the case. 1748, 3 February. Nor indeed, can the one type of person be distinguished from the other by the outer aspect, the inner aspect being what makes us such as we are and that in which happiness resides. Indeed, there are those who judge me insane when I speak in this way, when yet countless experience has confirmed this to me, and confirms it in me every day. * 636-7 will be found after 638, in accordance with the author's instructions.