4254. CONCERNING THE BONDS OF THOUGHT; CONCERNING CONSCIENCE. It was perceived and shown that thoughts have their own bonds. Those who possess conscience have internal bonds; those who are destitute of conscience, external bonds, as the tacit ones of shame, fear, honor, and other things. This appears manifestly in the other life, where external bonds are taken away from them; then there remain the bonds of thought from which it appears of what quality their thoughts were. External bonds are sometimes taken away from the sirens, and it then appears that some of them are utterly void of shame, though still not irrational, for this bond is not taken away, as they aim to be thought rational.