491. (11) Adulteries committed by such people are grave and are imputed to them in accordance with their persuasions. The intellect alone persuades, and when it does, it draws over the will and places it around itself, and so reduces it to compliance. Persuasions are formed by reasonings, which the mind seizes on either from its upper realm or from its lower one. If it does so from its upper realm, which communicates with heaven, it defends marriages and condemns adulteries. But if it does so from its lower realm, which communicates with the world, it defends adulteries and denigrates marriages. It is possible for everyone to defend evil as easily as good, likewise falsity as easily as truth. The defending of evil is also perceived as more pleasing than the defending of good, and the affirmation of falsity appears as more enlightened than the affirmation of truth. That is because any defense of evil and falsity draws its reasonings from the pleasures, gratifications, appearances and fallacies of the bodily senses, whereas the defense of good and truth draws its reasons from a realm above the sensual elements of the body. Now, because evils and falsities can be defended just as easily as goods and truths, and because the intellect in defending them draws the will over to its side, and the will together with the intellect forms the mind, it follows that the form of the human mind has its character in accordance with its persuasions, being turned toward heaven if its persuasions are in support of marriages, but turned toward hell if they are in support of adulteries. Whatever character the form of a person's mind has, moreover, such also is the character of his spirit; consequently, such is the character of the person. It follows from this, now, that adulteries of this degree are imputed after death in accordance with a person's persuasions.