2292. That, should they be prepared to eternity, they could never possess life as their own, is evident from other facts as well as from this; that there are so many evils in the natural mind, that [there is] nothing [there] but evil augmented by parents, by the first man, and through themselves during the whole course of their life; when yet, in order that they may be in heaven, there must be correspondence, which can never be given save in most general things. As, for example, if but one idea be assumed wherein are indefinite things, and all the indefinites are evils made up by associated evils on every side, because [the idea] is an image of the man, therefore [made up] of evils from the first parent, and of acquired evils; since, therefore, a single idea is of such a quality, and the indefinite things of the idea are such as pertain but to one kind of cupidity, and the kinds of cupidity [are] also innumerable in genus, species, and particular, how then can man ever be reformed so that there may be correspondence, except only in a few things, by which few the Lord leads them to heaven and keeps them in the heavens. - 1748, June 11.