1771. CONCERNING THOSE WHO ARE IN THE LOWER EARTH [inferiorum terrra]. (((((There are in the lower earth many mansions or many places where those are detained who are undergoing preparation (concerning some of this class see elsewhere). [Their position is] nearly under the left foot, a little in front, and rising up to a very considerable altitude. Many are held in a kind of obscurity, especially such as are in almost a middle state between the life of the body and its sleep; and there they think scarcely at all, barely remembering at times what they had done in their lifetime from a rash and evil prompting, but still not so that they are tormented by conscience on account of it; for those in that region are not such as have done evil with a clear conscience and of set purpose, but yet they have perpetrated evil, although it has been from imprudence, ))))) for they might have known in the life of the body that it was evil, as they were thus instructed from the Word of the Lord; but the Word of the Lord, after their principles were firmly adopted, could not penetrate, inasmuch as they persisted in the imprudence of their life.