3428. CONCERNING THOSE WHO REJECT ALL FAITH, AND BELIEVE ONLY IN LIFE. There was a certain spirit, somewhat obscurely visible, who first spoke with me by ideas, and afterwards applied himself to my left ear, but in an inverted position, his head downwards and his feet upwards,* and thus spoke two or three times in my ear, while I knew not who he was or of what character. It was afterwards disclosed to me by living discourse and by perceptions, that of such a quality are those who reject faith so decidedly that they are unwilling to hear of faith or of knowledges, which they think to be the tree of knowledge that deceived Eve and Adam; and while they insist much upon life, speaking largely of it, and otherwise exalting it, the case is the same [i. e., they appear inverted] with those also who believe [and maintain] the contrary, viz., such as are called Lutherans, who say that faith alone without works saves. The former maintain that faith, which they so entirely reject as to be unwilling to have it named or to hear of it, does not save; indeed they are rather in the persuasion that it damns, [as is to be inferred] from their speaking only of life, as if that alone were life which they call such, though apart from knowledge; and insisting that if it is not such, it is nothing. * The inversion here spoken of is to be regarded as the effect of a strong contrary persuasion. To a certain state of mind a spirit in a directly opposite state appears in the manner here described. In the present life the encasement of the spirit in a material body, prevents the effect from being realized as it is in the other. But even here it is easy to apprehend that to a rigid Papist, for instance, a Protestant must appear as to his moral posture, the opposite of himself, like his own image seen in the water; and so vice versa with the Protestant. They will of course be antipodes to each other if their feet are in contact. Yet each appears to himself normally erect. It seems, however, from what follows, that in some cases, where the sphere of the contrary persuasion is peculiarly strong, that its effect may enter the consciousness of the inverted party, and he may be aware that the other regards him as inverted, and on this ground he may not only be said to be inverted, but may be in a measure sensible of the effect. -Tr.