856. CONCERNING A CERTAIN PLANE IN MAN IN RESPECT TO HIS AFFECTIONS There is in man a certain plane, as it were, which is thus represented as a soft body which lies beneath that exterior callosity induced by corporeal and worldly things. When this superinduced exterior is removed, that underlying plane or body comes to view. In what way this exterior is removed I am wholly unable to say, but it is so represented that when it is cast off, there is presented, as it were, this soft round body or brain. When, later, man acts from this, he acts according to his interior disposition and from this he rules his exteriors. But the exteriors, being congeries of particulars, cannot be so ruled by the interior soft body, that the latter may shine forth, except by continual reflection upon one's actions and life. It is from this that prudent men are wont to judge a man's character. I cannot doubt, however, but that there is underneath this a similar body which is still softer, because therein are the Remains which are preserved by the Lord, which the Lord alone knows. 1748, Feb. 18.