2852. then every [spirit] according to his nature, takes away what belongs to his disposition; thus man is rended, suffers, is distressed, and undergoes many kinds of pain, anguish, torment, trouble; in a word, the evil spirits with me have taken out, from my composite ideas, the things which were far separated from the center of the idea, and this very many times, whereat I sometimes wondered greatly. Nevertheless, the case is similar as to what is taken away from objects; that unclean spirits saw what I did not see, and [directed] my eyes to filth, wherever it might be, near [my] feet, at [my] side, at a distance thence, and of which I could not have been but wholly ignorant, had not such [spirits] known, felt, and thus seen it. - 1748, August 18. The reason is, because they remove everything, so as not to see, and some abhor that which does not accord with their unclean pleasantnesses. Wherefore they reject to the sides whatever does not agree, so that to them [such] are not only shades, but darkness [caligo] and cold, [and] as it were, death.