3123. CONCERNING A SUBTLE VEIL. There were spirits hid above the head of the family of sirens, who acted so secretly [latenter] that it was not revealed [pateret] until after some time [moram]. They supposed that thus they are free because subtle, as if in a purer [sphere]. Wherefore [quod] they were told that they are not therefore free, and that their most subtle principle appears to them, like as to others, as the subtlest of all things. But inasmuch as they still continued [pergebant] to act thus), they disappeared as it were into a subtler [principle] [wrapped in] a sort of subtle veil, and were carried away, around the head as if once by one [unius] and downwards.
3123 1/2. They supposed that they were not evil, as is customary with sirens; but it was given to tell them, that the intention for which they wished to be so subtle, prevailed in everything else, which end or intention was that they wished to be purer than others. Wherefore, however they acted, as that end ruled; everything is still turned into such as favors the end, which consists in despising others. - 1748, September 11: for they wished to ridicule others and to rule them according to their phantasies.
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