han other evils, and infects them with poison and thus
wholly destroys the spiritual life of man. Most of these spirits are
in the hells behind the back, and are called genii; and there they
delight to make themselves invisible, and to flutter about others
like phantoms secretly infusing evil into them, which they spread
around like the poison of a viper. These are more direfully tormented
than others. But those who are not deceitful, and who have not been
so filled with malignant craftiness, and yet are in the evils derived
from the love of self, are also in the hells behind, but in those
less deep. On the other hand, those that have been in evils from the
love of the world are in the hells in front, and are called spirits.
These spirits are not such forms of evil, that is, of hatred and
revenge, as those are who are in evils from the love of self; and
therefore do not have such malice and cunning; and in consequence
their hells are milder.

579. I have been permitted to learn by experience what kind of malice
those possess who are called genii. Genii act upon and flow into the
affections, and not the thoughts. They perceive and smell out the
affections as dogs do wild beasts in the forest. Good affections,
when they perceive them in another, they turn instantly into evil
affections, leading and bending them in a wonderful manner by means
of the other's delights; and this so secretly and with such malignant
skill that the other knows nothing of it, for they most carefully
guard against anything entering into the thought, as thereby they
would be manifested. The seat of these in man is beneath the back
part of the head. In the world they were such as deceitfully
captivated the minds of others, leading and persuading them by the
delights of their affections or lusts. But such spirits are not
permitted by the Lord to come near to any man of whose reformation
there is any hope; for they have the ability not only to destroy the
conscience, but also to stir up in man his inherited evils, which
otherwise lie hidden. Therefore to prevent man's being led into these
evils, these hells, by the Lord's provision, are entirely closed up;
and when any man of such a character comes after death into the other
life, he is at once cast into their hell. When the deceit and
craftiness of these spirits are clearly seen they appear as vipers.

580. The kind of malice infernal spirits possess is evident from
their nefarious arts, which