609. CONCERNING PHILOSOPHY - THAT IT IS OF NO ACCOUNT Today, when I left home and when I returned, I was affected with sadness, and I knew that this sadness was due to a certain spirit who was perturbed. He applied himself to me, saying, that in his age he had been such that he supposed that he had been amongst the most famous, and had applied his "animus" to such studies; and now as he turned them over in his mind, he said he was disturbed and affected with great sadness, and that he now saw and perceived how trifling are such things in the world, and that they are phantasies which take away all light from things spiritual and Divine. He called them dung which ought to be cast away, for they have hitherto prevented him from knowing spiritual and still more celestial things. He is now with me and sees and governs me as I write. 1748, Jan. 30.