I have occasionally conversed with spirits on the question of whether it is allowable to judge a person's inward qualities, and when they agreed that it is, I said that it is allowable to judge about their civil and moral, but not their spiritual, life. About this the Lord Alone judges, because He Alone knows. Their civil and moral life it is allowable to explore on the basis of their words and actions, for societies are put together in this world for a variety of reasons and purposes, and one must know whether or not one may join company with them. Otherwise, the state of the world being what it is, people would easily be led astray into evils, and robbed of their every possession. 1748, 7 March. By moral life is meant all that is respectable in society. But how moral virtues work together with faith, and what someone is like inwardly in regard to faith-about these questions, one cannot judge.