45. I had a conversation with some people about the he-goat in Daniel and its fight against the ram,* and also concerning the judgment on the goats and the sheep in Matthew;** and a goat with great horns then appeared below me, and I saw it attacking sheep, abusing them cruelly with its horns and buffeting them this way and that. I asked therefore what that was, and I was told that it was the customary appearance of people caught up in faith separated from charity and of their battle with those who lived a life of charity. I was also told that they do not appear to their own eyes as such, but as people arguing sharply with each other, and that the one who looked like a goat was a person caught up in faith alone, while those looking like sheep were people who lived a life of charity. (For spirits sometimes, and especially from a distance, appear in accordance with their affections, inclinations, and consequent principles. So for example, when someone is thinking with his intellect, he appears as though sitting on a horse; and some appear in other ways. It was apparent from this experience that no others than the aforementioned are meant by the horned he-goat in Daniel and the goats in Matthew.) It is believed that all evil people are meant by the goats, but only those evil people are meant who have lived evil lives and at the same time professed faith alone. * Daniel 8. ** Matthew 25:32, 33.

[Marginal Note] [182.] After the Last Judgment was accomplished, many spirits were seen who were dispersed among others to the rear in the west. They appeared from a distance as goats, and some of them as dragons, who wished to lead the upright astray, and therefore they were removed and driven out into deserts containing scarcely any vegetation.