324. Those who deliberately or with intent to deceive speak falsehoods, and utter them in a tone which imitates spiritual affection - even more so if they intersperse them with truths from the Word, which are thus falsified - these people were called by the ancients spell-makers (on these see APOCALYPSE REVEALED 462); and also soothsayers and serpents of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. These counterfeiters, liars and deceivers can be likened to people who chat in pleasant and friendly fashion with their enemies, and all the time they are talking hold a dagger behind their backs with which to kill them. They can also be likened to those who dip their swords in poison before attacking their enemies; and to those who mix aconite in water or poisonous substances in new wine and sugar icing. They might also be likened to charming and attractive whores, who are infected with a dire disease, or to twigs covered in prickles, which if put to the nose damage the olfactory fibrils; or to sugar-coated poisons; and to dung which when dried in autumn gives off an agreeable smell. Such people are described in the Word as leopards (see APOCALYPSE REVEALED 572).