4321. CONCERNING PAUL. He was for a long time in front a little to the right, and it was shown him that he might attain to happiness, but whenever the opportunity was granted he continually spoke against the truths of faith. At length a certain spirit was detected in a higher place, who said to he led him. He spoke with abundant confidence as one that directed him and everything that pertained to him, profess in himself to be, as it were, a god, and breathing forth a sphere like the Lord; but he was a certain devil who imagined himself to be the very devil that deceived Adam and Eve according to the common opinion. He was sent into hell, into caverns, where he wandered about till [he came directly] under my feet, and there spoke. From thence he by and by ascended, veiled in a cloud, which, however, was his phantasy. It was then given me to hear Paul speaking with him and saying that he wished to be his companion, and that they would go together and make themselves gods. Wherefore being associated they went in company to a considerable distance in front and would fain have deceived those that were there; but they were rejected wherever they came. Having been moreover infested during my sleep by adulterers, these two when they perceived it lent their aid to the infesters, and so stubbornly held me in that vile train of thought that I could scarcely release myself. These adulterers or adulteresses were punished by the bruising process [gnuggismus] or reciprocal collisions, which is their [appropriate] punishment; and because those two were concerned in it, they also painfully underwent the same punishment. Hence it was made known to all that Paul is of such a nefarious character, and that it was only from certain causes that he was hitherto exempted [from the proper penalty], for the base suffer punishment for baseness, concerning which I also conversed with him; and he is now among those companies which rove about, and approximate the place of the desert. - 1749, July 10.