153. [153.] 20. I once saw several people in a certain house sitting around a table. They looked like merchants-men of wealth-and still others began to arrive, so that there was a number of them. They appeared by their visage to be upright, and they were dressed as though they were angelic spirits; but I saw all of them cast into desert places and forests, thus outside the sphere of upright societies. I was told the reason, that in their outward conduct in the world they had lived like Christians and behaved well, but only to gain a reputation for being honest and honorable in order to profit by it; that they had done not the least thing for the sake of God or the neighbor but only for their own benefit; and that therefore they had no communication with heaven. That is why they were cast out into those places, where they wander among bandits and become bandits themselves; for such as these become bandits when external bonds are removed. They also would have been bandits in the world if they had not been held in bonds by external considerations, which are fears for the loss of reputation and consequently of material gain.