Every man loves his proprium, both the voluntary proprium and the intellectual. The voluntary proprium is evil, and the intellectual proprium is falsity from that evil, thus it is the falsity of evil. And because every man loves his proprium, he is thus loving the evil and its falsity; and, because everything that is loved is also delightful, therefore he knows no otherwise than that the evil he has is good, and that its falsity is truth - for that which is said to be good is all that which is delightful. From these things it can be seen at the outset that, if a man does not recognize and know what sins are, to that extent he sees no otherwise than that he is without sin. But, inasmuch as a man loves his own evil and its falsity, because he loves his proprium, he is not able from himself to know which thing is evil, and what thing is falsity from it; he has to see it from some other source. He must see it from the precepts of religion, all of which have reference to the ten precepts of the Decalogue. If at heart he rejects these precepts, he cannot by any means see otherwise than that he is without sin; and in that case, having been initiated from childhood into the worship of God, and being aware from the Church's teaching that he is a sinner from his very origin and subsequent birth, he sets about confessing that he is a sinner; but nevertheless, being unaware of what sin is, he believes all the time that he is not a sinner. I have heard people declaring that they were sinners, that they were in sins of every kind from conception and birth, that, from the head to the sole of the foot, there was no soundness in them, and more things of the same kind; but, because they did not know what sin is, they did not know that the love of self, and arrogance, are the heads of all sins. They did not know that bearing hatred and taking revenge just because one is not honoured and worshipped as a demigod, is a sin, nor that slandering the neighbour out of enmity and thus bearing false witness against him, is a sin; nor that deceiving anyone by word or deed, is a sin; that despising another in comparison with oneself, envying him his goods, being covetous of them, are sins. They did not know, either, that claiming merit for performing the various acts of worship towards God, in matters both of faith and of charity, is a sin; besides innumerable other things. I have heard them say that they did not know such things were sins; nor anything, indeed, no matter what the nature of it, that one thinks but does not say, or wills but does not do. On account of this ignorance one of them said he did not know he was a sinner - "and if I am," he said, "I am purified from them when I have said this prayer, 'I know not my sins, O God, take them away.'" But when the same person examined himself, which took place in the world of spirits, he noticed that his sins were so numerous that he could not tell them all. He saw, too, that he could, if he wanted to, recognize and know them. He said, however, that he did not want to, as he would then have to abstain from thinking and willing them, to do which would conflict with the delight of his life. From these things it is now evident that, in so far as any one does not recognize and know what sins are, he sees no otherwise than that he is without sin.