4628. To continue what has been said about the odours into which spheres associated with perceptions are converted, one smells them as plainly as odours on earth. But they do not enter the sensory awareness of anyone whose interiors are closed, because they come in by an internal route, not by an external one. These odours have two different origins, namely the perception of good and the perception of evil. Those originating in the perception of good are most pleasing, being like the perfume from fragrant flowers in a garden, and from other fragrancies, and are indescribably lovely as well as various. Among odorous spheres such as these live the inhabitants of heaven.
[2] But the odours which originate in the perception of evil are most displeasing. They are foul and stinking, like the reek of stinking waters, excrement, dead bodies, or people with the disgusting smell like that of mice or lice coming from them. Among malodorous spheres such as these live the inhabitants of hell. And what is astonishing, those living among them do not find them offensive. Indeed those foul smells are delightful to them, and when such exist the inhabitants of hell are within the sphere of things that give them joy and delight. But when hell is opened and the exhalation from it reaches good spirits, these are seized with horror and also distress, like those in the world who encounter the sphere of such stenches.
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