4727. CONCERNING THE FAITH OF WOLF. There was a certain one very celebrated in the world of letters, who had written very much, even on theological matters. He was at first naturalistic; but when, afterwards, he was admonished, he turned round, and pretended to piety and confession of faith from the heart, to such a degree, that they knew no other than that he was a good converted Christian. But that he only did this with the mouth, and the contrary in the heart, is evident from his confession before good spirits in the other life, where he was reduced into such a state that he should speak from his thought which he had in the world, and not from simulation. He then confessed that he never believed in any God, but that nature was everything. He said his reasons were, first, that God is never seen nor heard, but that He is in secret, and this for ages; and that if there were a God, he should present himself to the sight of men, so that they might believe: second, that nothing of Divine Providence appears: third, that the soul is nothing but breath, which exists thus from the interior organisms, which being dead the soul also is dissipated, because that is only like an atmospheric affair: fourth, that brute animals also think, and will too, and some of them more dexterously and intelligently than man, as, for instance, the bear, dogs, mice, foxes; and what differs is so little that it is scarcely worthy to be mentioned. It is as to speech, which they do not have because they have not such an organism [as man]; but still parrots and the like speak, and they know what they say: fifth, that the last judgment has been expected in vain for so many ages, and that it is false that the stars will then fall from heaven upon the earth, because they are larger than the earth, and that the sun which still sits unmoved in the center will do likewise, besides other things of a similar kind. He admitted these things in the presence of good spirits, although he had spoken otherwise [in the world]. Hence it is evident of what quality are the learned of the world, and that the most learned are atheists, and that they confirm themselves more than the rest, according to the greater knowledge which they possess, greater self-confidence and greater abundance of confirmations of the false; so that learning is, to them, a means of becoming insane. It was said to him that [in the world] he did not believe that he was going to live after death, but that he now perceives that he lives, and that he formerly thought falsely in this respect.