262. The natural mind or man, from the reaction which is in him from birth, acts against the things which are of the spiritual mind or man, when he loves himself and the world above all things. Then also he feels delight in evils of every kind, as in adulteries, frauds, revenges, blasphemies and other like things. And he then also acknowledges nature as creator of the universe, all of which things he confirms by his rational faculty. And after confirmations he either perverts or suffocates, or repels the goods and truths of heaven and the Church, and at length, either shuns them or turns his back upon them or hates them. This he does in his spirit, and in the body just so far as he dares to speak with others from his spirit without fear of the loss of reputation as a means to honour and gain. When man is such, he successively closes up the spiritual mind more and more closely. Confirmations of evil by means of falsities especially close it up. Hence it is that confirmed evil and falsity cannot be extirpated after death. They are extirpated only in the world by means of repentance.