6485. I have talked to good spirits about Divine Providence and about a person's own prudence. They demonstrated what they had to say on the subject by means of a representation that is a familiar one among them, dust thinly distributed in the air. They have said that one's own prudence compared with Divine Providence is like that dust and the whole atmosphere. In comparison the dust is nothing; and it also falls to the ground. The good spirits added that people who attribute everything to their own prudence are like those who wander in dark forests and do not know the way out; and if they find it they attribute their success either to their own prudence or to fortune. Those spirits went on to say that all things which happen by chance are the work of Providence and that Providence acts silently and secretly, for very many reasons. If it acted openly, they said, a person could not possibly be reformed.