4341. WHAT IT IS TO BE NOTHING. A certain upright spirit spoke with me saying, that he was nothing. I asked him what conception he had of being nothing, [whereupon] I perceived that he had an idea of being nothing compared to the multitude of spirits and the whole universe. But it was given to say to him that this was one kind of conception, but that there were many others, as, for instance, that he had no power of himself, that he had no thought of himself, that he had no life of himself, and that in fact he was, in himself considered, merely a certain lifeless and defiled something that was altogether evil, and thus that all good is from the Lord. This is the proper idea of [being] nothing, - 1749, August 5.