719. THE DIFFERENCE OF SPIRITS When rationality is taken away from a spirit so that he acts solely from instinct, whatever he then does is excused, for he acts as if in sleep; and also because one cannot but pity the state of such spirits, because they perceive that they act in this manner. But still, when together those same spirits are rational, their rationality then only serves to make them studious to conceal their instinct. Thus their customary dissimulation is for the most part due to fear and other causes; for in the life of the body their rationality was scarcely anything else than a means by which their natural instinct and depraved loves were concealed. This I could gather today from living experience. 1748, Feb. 10. Spirits could understand these things as well as if they were obvious to the senses, but I doubt whether men living in the body can understand them.