4419. CONCERNING HYPOCRITES WHO HURT THE GUMS OF THE TEETH, AND THEIR PUNISHMENTS. There were hypocrites with me for several days who caused a pain in the teeth, but not so violent as before; it became at length a kind of dull and almost insensible pain, but the gum was in such a state, that the teeth were not firm in it, and when I touched the teeth upon the right side and the gums, they were painful; this lasted for several days. At length on waking, I heard that very many were undergoing punishments one after another, and that the punishments passed to a distance and upwards to many; the punishment was a peculiar kind of laceration; it was perceived that they were hypocrites who had been vastated, and had very little life remaining. That they were collected about me and made to themselves a sphere as of a society, and thus a habitation according to the form of a kind of society, extending a long distance, was because there were hypocrites about me, who, as it were, attracted them within their sphere; for where there are evils, there are the genii and spirits of that evil. After they were punished that pain of the gums was still perceived. Hence it may be manifest of what quality hypocrites become when they are vastated, namely, that they have little of life. Except that pain I felt nothing from them.