290. [266.] Concerning the possibility of a vacuum, he said that in the world he had believed a vacuum to be possible; but when angels perceived that the idea he had of a vacuum was an idea of nothingness, they turned away, saying that they could not bear the idea of nothingness, since when an idea of nothingness enters, any idea of the essence of things perishes, and when an idea of the essence of things perishes, so does any idea of the thought, intellect, affection, love, or will in people and in angels, which are in every instance impossible in a state of nothingness. The angels asked him whether he believed that the Divine from which angels have all their wisdom and people all their intelligence is, in either the spiritual world or the natural world, a vacuum, thus whether he believed that any Divine operation can flow in through a vacuum into the vacuum of these worlds and make them perceptible. Upset at this question, he replied that it could not do so through an absolute vacuum, which is an empty nothingness, but through an apparent vacuum, because the Divine is the underlying being itself of the wisdom and love in angels in heaven and people in the world and informs all things, and being itself and nothingness are so antithetic to each other that if one is postulated, the other cannot be. Therefore the angels prayed that he and all those who harbor the idea of a vacuum as one of nothingness would reject it, that they might associate together, knowing that no element of their life can ever exist in a state of nothingness, but only in things which are, and which from their are-ness or being have expression. The angels added that of a vacuum conceived of as nothingness, nothing can ever be said that relates to acting, reacting, receiving, or taking in, thus nothing that relates to the life of their wisdom and love, which has in it so many limitless affections with their variations, perceptions and sensations, because nothing is nothing, and something cannot be predicated of nothing. Having listened to this, Newton said that he had already rejected that idea and would reject it thereafter, knowing that he is now in the spiritual world-even though in it according to his former idea would have been his vacuum-and that he is now still a person, thinking, feeling, acting, and even breathing there. These are not possible in a vacuum that is an empty nothingness, he said, but only in something which is, and which from its being exists and subsists. Nor is any interstitial nothingness possible, he said, because it would be destructive of somethingness, that is, of the essences and substances which constitute something. For something and nothing are completely antithetical, so antithetical that he is horrified at the idea of nothing, and he guards himself against it, he said, to keep his mind from falling into a state of insensibility.