1312. IF VERITIES BE ASSUMED AS A THESIS OR PRINCIPLE, INNUMERABLE VERITIES ARE THEN DISCOVERED AND ALL THINGS CONFIRM It is well known that whatever thesis or thought a man takes as a principle or as the truth of a proposition, very many confirming things which resemble truths are added; in this way very many falsities are at length born from one. But if a verity is taken as a thesis, there is then nothing which does not confirm. Take the following, which I proposed to spirits, as an example: When it is assumed as a verity that a spirit does not enjoy such a memory as man has, so that he does not know what has happened in the past, then, because this is Divinely ordered and instituted, innumerable affirming truths are added therefrom as that in this way a spirit has his greatest happiness and otherwise there would be neither any happiness nor any heaven, for then every one from the past would be anxious concerning the future, he would be filled with desires and be worried with daily cares, as man is. Thus he would trust in himself, and would not suffer himself to be governed by the Lord, besides innumerable other things which are contrary to a state of happiness. Therefore the Lord commanded that man should not be concerned with such cares in thinking about the morrow [Matthew xi 34]. 1748, Mar. 12.