6484. There was a certain one who had confirmed himself in the notion that nothing is of the Divine Providence, but that each and all things are of sagacity, and are also from fortune and chance. He granted that there is fortune, but knew not what it is. He was one of the subtle evil spirits, because he had been more given to thought than to speech and conversation. When he came into the other life he continued there his former life, as all do; he sought out and learned all things-even magical arts-that he supposed might be of service to him, and by means of which he might take such care of himself as to be fortunate from himself. I conversed with him, and he said that he was in his heaven when this was the case, and that there could not possibly be any other heaven than that which he made for himself. But it was given to answer that his heaven is turned into hell as soon as the real heaven flows into it. He was then in the world of spirits, and when spirits are there they are in the delights of the loves in which they had been in the world (see n. 5852). But it then came to pass that heaven flowed into his delight, and he then suddenly felt hell, and said with horror that he had never believed this. I was told by good spirits that he was worse than the others because there was a more subtle influx from him than from the others. Afterward the same spirit was reduced into the state of his infancy, and the Lord showed the angels what his quality had been at that time, and also what was the then foreseen quality of his future life, and that every detail of his life had been led by the Lord, and that he would have plunged into the most atrocious hell if there had been even the least cessation of the continual providence of the Lord. This can be presented to view before the angels. He was also asked whether he had ever thought about eternal life. He said that he had not believed in it, and that he had rejected everything of the kind, because he saw so much confusion, the righteous suffering, and the wicked glorying, with other such things; also because he saw that brute animals have similar senses and life, also discernment and sagacity; thus he had believed that he should die as they do. He said that he had been in the utmost amazement when he perceived that he lived after death.