225. THE WORST GENII, OR FURIES, ARE SHUT UP IN HELL, AND THEY CANNOT BE RELEASED THEREFROM, LEST THE HUMAN RACE SHOULD PERISH No one can ever conceive how harmful is the crew that is held bound in hell. Some of them having been let loose a little, infested me in such a manner, and so very deceitfully and so acutely, that I could never have believed that such venom was at all possible: wherefore that crew is held so bound that it can on no account mutter against, still less infest, any but the worst of men for whom there is no longer any hope. And when anyone incited by deadly hatred commits dreadful crimes, unless this infernal crew were held in bonds and, as it were, in chains by God Messiah, the human race would perish. But the bond is relaxed with them, as far as it is permitted, when man falls into [the hands of] "the furies"; I have also sometimes experienced these "furies" on former occasions, this being permitted in order that I might relate it. When I had written these things the reins of these "furies" were very slightly relaxed; and as a result those spirits in the ultimate or natural heaven were thrown into such consternation that they manifestly betrayed their terror, and thus desired to flee to supplications to God Messiah. Hence it can be evident how horrible must be the faces of those who are natural spirits, and who flit about in the natural heaven. 1747, Oct. 28, o.s.