343. Several times when a number of little children who were as yet in a purely infantile state have been with me in choirs, they were heard as a tender unarranged mass, that is, as not yet acting as one, as they do later when they have become more mature. And, what was wonderful, the spirits with me could not refrain from inducing them to talk. This desire is innate in spirits. But I noticed, each time, that the little children were resisting, not wishing to talk in this way. This refusal and resistance, which were accompanied by a kind of indignation, I have often perceived; and when an opportunity to talk was given them they would say nothing except that "It is not so." I have been taught that little children are so tempted in order that they may become accustomed to resisting, and may begin not only to resist falsity and evil, but also may learn not to think, speak, and act, from another, and in consequence may learn to permit themselves to be led by no one but the Lord.