3821. THAT EVIL SPIRITS ARE CONTINUALLY IN THE EFFORT OF EVIL. It was often observed that when I was in the streets, [evil spirits] wished to cast me under the wheels of a carriage, so that this was in fact familiar to them. Today I particularly observed that they were in such a perpetual endeavor, for it was given to perceive it when they thus made the attempt, and indeed that the sphere of their endeavor is continually such that it is their life; and I perceived that man is continually preserved by the Lord, and their endeavors frustrated. Hence it appears that unless the Lord in every, even the smallest moment, preserved man, yea, even the least of his steps, he would immediately perish; such is the effort of the world of spirits. - 1748, November 2.