5708. * I remarked to spirits, respecting the light arising from confirmation, that, when a thing has been confirmed, it appears luminous. This was made manifest by experiences but I said that they must remove confirming things, and contemplate the principle itself which is confirmed, and examine whether they are able to see anything of light, namely, whether the principle is true or not true; because, whatever exists or comes to the mind from another, even though most false, is yet able to receive light through confirmation. When they were brought back to the principle itself, they saw nothing at all; they were in darknesses, so that they did not see anything. It was then granted me to say that they would be able to see, if they could admit light from heaven into it; but light from heaven enters through good, thus through the will: wherefore, if they were in good, then light [lux] would be in the principle itself, so that they would see it clearly, for heaven does not enter by any other way than by way of good or of love, thus through the will; consequently, that if they have lived the life of good, they would then see light in the principle itself, but otherwise, nothing but darkness. Hence, they would then see confirmatory things in the Word, and would likewise see confirmatory things in their memory; those only which confirm would be called forth, and thus there would be light there too. It was shown, further, that even though it were truth itself which by confirmation had received light, yet if there was not good of life, the truth itself would in like manner be in darkness, also. Wherefore, they were told that, even if they knew all things which were in the universal heaven, and yet were not in the good of life, they would still not have heavenly light, but an inferior light which is merely natural; which is such, that if there were evil of life, it would still perish. * Nos. 5706 and 5707 are missed out in the Latin. It is simply a lapse in the numbering. -TR.