A certain spirit whom I believe I had known during his life, having died only a few years earlier, three or four, came to me and spoke with me. But about his life in the body I knew no more than that he was devoted to studies, and at the same time, devoted to philosophy. From this I was able to infer that he also wanted to be a philosopher in the mysteries of faith and thus to comprehend them, and that he would only believe something when he understood it philosophically. He had been present with me for nearly a quarter of an hour, so that his life's belief was streaming in, as I could plainly sense from the fact that I began to doubt, feeling cold in regard to the Lord's government over least things, while admitting it over the whole. As a result, whatever particular detail then flowed in, I seemed to want to reject - as if the Lord ruled heaven and earth only by a universal, not a singular providence. The cold was that of a belief based on intellect, or truths, not so much on affection - as I am now telling that spirit. And he is standing by, and even guiding the selection of words. 1748, 6 February.