2628. THAT THERE ARE MERE NECESSITIES WHEREBY MAN IS LED. During much of the night, also quite a long time in the morning, I was for hours in a spiritual idea how man is led by the Lord; and I then perceived by a continuous spiritual idea, which cannot be expressed, that there are mere necessities, whereby man is led by the Lord, to wit, because man is of such a character, both as regards the societies to which he adjoins himself, and as to the thoughts which agree [accord] with him; therefore there is nothing but mere necessities, and indeed necessities whereby man is bent to the best that can be educed [derived] from such a life; for if he were led, otherwise than in this way, it would be to his ruin, for everything whatever [pertaining] to his life, as well thought as action, carries with itself the successive scenes of its life, for everything whatever is like a seed from which grows a tree,