290. [266] Concerning a vacuum he said, that in the world he had believed in the existence of a vacuum; but when the angels perceived that he had an idea of a vacuum, as an idea of nothing, they turned themselves away, saying that they cannot bear the idea of nothing, since when there is an idea of nothing the idea of the essence of things perishes. And when the idea of the essence of things perishes, the idea of thought, understanding, affection, love, and of will with men and angels perishes, which things are not given in nothing. They asked him whether he believed that the Divine, whence is all angelic wisdom, and all intelligence to men in both worlds, the spiritual and the natural, is a vacuum, and thus that any Divine operation inflows through a vacuum into their vacuum and can present itself to perception. At that question he was disturbed. He replied that it cannot through an absolute vacuum, which is nothing, but through an apparent vacuum, because the Divine is the Esse itself of wisdom and love with the angels in heaven and with men in the world, and it fills all things. Also Esse itself and nothing are so contrary to each other, that if one be admitted the other cannot. Therefore the angels entreated that he and all those who cherished the idea of a vacuum as of nothing would desist from it, that they might be together, knowing that nothing of their life can ever be given in nothing, but in those things which are, and which are or exist from the Esse. They added that not anything can be said of a vacuum which is nothing, which has relation to acting, reacting, receiving, or attracting, thus to the life of their wisdom and love; in which there are so many infinite affections with their variations, perceptions, and sensations; for nothing is nothing, and of nothing we cannot predicate something. When he had heard these things, Newton said that before this he had desisted from that idea, and he would desist from it hereafter; knowing that he is now in the spiritual world, in which, nevertheless, according to his former idea, would have been his vacuum; and that even now he is a man, and therein he thinks, feels, acts, yea breathes, and this could not take place in a vacuum which is nothing, but in something which is, and from Esse exists and subsists, and that an interstitial nothing is impossible, because that would be destructive of something, that is of essences and substances which are something. For something and nothing are altogether opposites, even so that he was horrified at the idea of nothing, and would beware of it, lest his mind fall into a swoon.