3591. THAT WE CAN KNOW NOTHING EXCEPT WHAT IS GRANTED BY THE LORD. There were spirits who confused themselves from the fact that they did not know how everyone enjoyed the liberty of thinking, and that ideas did not flow according to the order which they supposed, and they wished to inquire into the causes, but were not able to discover them. It was told them that the reason of this was, that they might know that they knew nothing, for if they wished to inquire into the details of everything, there would be indefinite things which would confound, yea, indefinites of indefinites; and if they should know some of these, still there would immediately be others that were opposed to them, and so on; thus the inquiry would be protracted to eternity, and contrary things would continually confound them. Wherefore it is of the Lord's providence that one finds so many contraries in every particular about which men reason and conclude, viz, that in consequence of the confusion arising from these contraries they may abide in universal truths, or in the knowledges of faith, that these may govern their thoughts, and that while they prevail they may abstain from such [fruitless inquiries].