227. CONCERNING MIRACLES WITHOUT FAITH THEY EFFECT NOTHING I spoke with a certain angel, and there came up the subject of miracles, that they never effect anything with unbelievers. They are like wind which touches and is gone, for within there is nothing to which they may refer themselves, as it was with the posterity of Jacob immediately after they went forth out of Egypt, in the region of the Sea Suph, and also afterwards when they had crossed that sea. Certain spirits said that they wanted to see miracles in order that they might believe; and they were answered in this way: faith is something intrinsic, and it fixes its root in the internal of man; it cares nothing for miracles, it despises them; but with those who have no faith, even miracles can never produce any root. These and similar things are better and more fully apprehended when there is conversation with spirits. They perceive the full sense together with the antecedents and the consequents; the sense is also assisted by a kind of representation and imagination, which is a kind of angelic speech. 1747, Oct. 30,* o.s. * The manuscript has Oct. 23, but since in nos. 226, 229, and 331, the date 22 is crossed out and 29 written above, it seems evident that the author omitted to make the change here. For the same reason, in the first line of n. 228 we have changed 22 and 23 to 29 and 30, as the author himself did in the last line. In n. 230 we have twice changed 23 and 24 to 30 and 31.