4784. CONCERNING DEVILS WHO LABOR IN EVERY WAY TO INTRODUCE ADULTERIES. I was led along in a wakeful vision, and, on the way, passed through the hell of those who, in every way, and diligently, labor to pervert, invert and extinguish those things which belong to conjugial love, and to induce such things as are of adultery. They acted almost like genii; but they were subtle spirits placed in concealment; and they gave heed to all the changes of thought and affection, and continually endeavored to pervert these into lascivious adultery, by seductively persuading, and thus injecting the idea that that surpasses the conjugial state. I wondered how they were able to give heed to all the changes of thought, and lead these away from truths and goods, to pervert, then invert and extinguish them, according to the end of their design, and this continually. They afterwards entered into the spiritual life itself, which is not perceived by man - but, in vain, because this is protected by the Lord. The modes of perversion and inversion cannot be described, because they are in the spiritual sphere. They took place by means of the idea of speech, or such ideas as are not attended to by man, since many of these make one idea of speech, or one word; still less [does man attend to] the affections therein, which are the life of these, or of ideas. From this it can be evident to me, that a man who had once perceived the delight of adultery - for to introduce this was their end - can hardly ever be removed and turned away from it; further, that never can anyone resist them unless protected by the Lord, for they act into the life proximately, and yet rather interiorly, within human thought, so that man can by no means observe it. Nor should I have been able, unless, being enlightened by the Lord, I knew how to speak and think with spirits, and so to perceive the quality of the ideas from their affections.