5700. THOSE WHO WERE CALLED LEARNED AND WERE BELIEVED BECAUSE THEY COULD CONFIRM THEIR OWN DOGMA WHATEVER IT MIGHT BE, IN THE OTHER LIFE. There are many who can confirm anything whatever, and so dexterously that it appears, at the time, entirely as if they were true, and by this means also pass in the world as learned, and as more rational than others; when, nevertheless, they have almost nothing of the understanding of truth, but this is dark and closed with them. This was proved by many. One was Rosenadler, who was able to confirm anything whatever so skillfully that scarcely any could surpass it; and, when he had confirmed it, he himself believed it to be true. He was believed by others to be possessed of an interior understanding beyond other men; and that his great faculty of confirmation was from that source. He was sent to a place where there was interior thought; and then he became blind, so as to be able to see nothing; and it happened so, as often as he was let into thinking interiorly. He said, therefore, as he believed in the world, that he could make out whatever he chose, to be true; but it was shown him that this was a fallacy, and that he was not even able to see that which is true in itself. One of the Siren kind was exhibited, who was able to make herself more beautiful than others. She appeared so beautiful that all who looked upon her from the Natural, declared that she was the most beautiful of women: she was likewise able to adorn herself with becoming and magnificent clothes. But when this deceptive external was taken away, she appeared in a diabolical form.