othing that a man has appropriated to himself can be
eradicated; it has been made part of his love and at the same time of his
reason, or of his will and at the same time of his understanding, and so
of his life. It can be put aside indeed, but not cast out; put aside, it
is borne from center to periphery, where it stays; this is what we mean
by its remaining.

[2] If, for example, in boyhood or youth, a man appropriated an evil to
himself by doing it with enjoyment from love of it--a fraud, blasphemy,
revenge, or fornication--having done it freely with the assent of thought,
he made it his; but if later he repents, shuns it and considers it a sin
to be averse from, and so desists from it freely according to reason,
then the opposite good is appropriated to him. Good then takes the center
and removes evil to the periphery, farther according to his aversion and
abhorrence for it. Still the evil cannot be so thrust out that one can
say it is extirpated; it may indeed in that removal seem extirpated. What
occurs is that the man is withheld from the evil by the Lord and held in
good. This can happen with all inherited evil and all a man's actual
evil.

[3] I have seen this verified by the experience of some in heaven who
thought they were without evil, being held in good as they were by the
Lord. Lest they should believe that the good in which they were was their
own, they were let down from heaven and let into their evils until they
acknowledged that of themselves they were in evil, and in good only from
the Lord. Upon this acknowledgment they were returned to heaven.

[4] Be it known, therefore, that goods are appropriated to man only in
that they are constantly with him from the Lord, and that as a man
acknowledges this the Lord grants that good shall seem to be the man's,
that is, that it shall seem to him that he loves the neighbor or has
charity, believes or has faith, does good and understands truth, thus is
wise, of himself. From this an enlightened person may see the nature and
the strength of the appearance in which the Lord wills man to be. The
Lord wills it for salvation's sake, for without that appearance no one
can be saved. Also see what was shown above on the subject (nn. 42-45).

80. Nothing that a person only thinks, not even what he thinks to will,
is appropriated to him unless he also wills it so that he does it when
opportunity offers. For when a man then does it, he does it from the will
by the unde