341. [333.] An affection for knowing and understanding truth for the sake of acclaim or for the sake of material gain is possible, and also for the sake of reward. A love of knowing and understanding is a love of natural light. A love of knowing and understanding truths is a love of spiritual light, which exists primarily in people who possess a love of good, but is possible also in people who are caught up in a love of acclaim. I have been granted to know from experience that a love of light for the sake of acclaim as the goal is possible also in people who are caught up in a love of evil, but in them their love of evil is then concealed or dormant. It merely tinges the surface, like beauty formed of variegated colors, and the more concealed or dormant it is, the more it may afford delight. A love of knowing and understanding truths for the sake of acclaim is an external quality, which can be possible provided the internal quality is concealed and dormant. But it is a spurious love. It is like something filthy covered over with a beautiful color, even with gold, beneath whose surface is something bad. When the person is caught up in evil, therefore, it is impossible for him to be aware of and to understand truths; indeed, he hates them, for he then hardens himself against truths. Thus the internal quality dispels the external one. Possible even is a reverent quality externally and a profane one internally, if the internal one is dormant, but not if the internal one is active.