Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/124

 as to his spirit is conjoined to some society, either infernal or heavenly—a wicked man to an infernal society, a good man to a heavenly society. The spirit is led to that society by successive steps, and at last enters it.

An evil spirit, when he is in the state of his interiors, is turned by degrees toward his own society, and at length directly to it before this state is completed; and when completed, the evil spirit of his own accord casts himself into the hell where are those like himself. When casting himself down, he appears like one falling headlong, with the head downward and the feet upward. The reason of this appearance is, that he is in inverted order; for he had loved the things of hell, and rejected those of heaven.

Some evil spirits in this second state go into, and out of their hells alternately; but these do not then appear to fall headlong, as they do when fully vastated. The society itself, in which they were as to their spirit when in the world, is likewise shown them when they are in the state of their exteriors, that they may thence know that they were in hell even while in the life of the body; but still not in a similar state with those who are in hell itself, but in one similar to that of those who are in the world of spirits; concerning whose state, as compared with that of those who are in hell, more will be said in what follows.