153. [153] I once saw many spirits, sitting around a table in a certain house, who looked like rich merchants; and still more spirits were approaching so that there were quite a number of them. In face they appeared as though upright, and they were clothed as though they were angelic spirits. But I saw that they were all cast into desert places, and into woods, thus outside the societies of the upright. The reason was stated, namely, because, in the world, they had lived, in external form like Christians and had acted well, but this solely for the purpose of acquiring a reputation for sincerity and honesty in order to make gain therefrom; and that they had not done the least thing for the sake of God or the neighbor, but all for the sake of themselves; and that, therefore, they had no communication with heaven. Hence it is that they were cast out thither, where they roam about amongst robbers, and themselves commit robbery. For when external bonds are taken away from such spirits they become robbers. They were robbers even in the world, were it not that externals, which are fears for the loss of fame and hence of gain, held them in bonds.