3888. They who are in knowledges, and thus withdrawn from affections, so that they lead as from themselves, as was perceived through me, without a perception that should enable them to know whether it is of the Lord, have reference to the interior membrane of the cranium, to which is adjoined the outer pericranium. But when they begin to use such a speech and are delighted with it, they begin to have relation to that membrane of [the same organ] which is turned towards the bones of the cranium, into which [bones] it hardens, for the bones thence derive their existence. The reason of this is, that they thus lose also the life of knowledges, which constitutes the outermost surfaces, for when they are delighted with such ideas formed from themselves, they then begin to speak evil of others, and well of themselves, thus despising others and exalting themselves, which life begins to be cartilaginous, and afterwards bony. When they suppose that no other one can understand their speech, they are at length drawn onwards even to speaking ill of heaven and perhaps of the Lord; thus their celestial life is successively turned into no life.