uously repeat, that people and
their political and ecclesiastical governments have apostatized from
Truth and Justice, and cannot establish the promised peace, except
according to the plan which is given in the fifth or last treatise of
this book. The causes of Revolutions and Wars and manifold other plagues
are contained in the apostasy of men from Truth and Righteousness. This
apostasy brings mortal men into the association with departed deluding
and destroying spirits, as you know, if you have comprehended the
preceding treatises, and you will receive the more proof of this
important truth, the farther you will proceed in studying this book.
Mortal men are in close connexion with congenial departed spirits. The
life of man in his mortal body is a manifestation of influence from the
sphere of spirits, for whose society he is prepared. By them he is moved
and supported for action; they influence those who are congenial with
them. But men, if they are not versed in the inner life, are not aware
of this influence; although this is the first and most necessary
knowledge for the abolition of revolutions and wars and manifold other
plagues, which originate from the influence of destroying spirits, who
themselves may be so ignorant, that the magnetic fluid which they
communicate to men is pestilential, as a man who is infected with one or
the other kind of plague, may be ignorant of his dreadful condition, and
of the fact that he infects also others who, in their ignorance of
matters, are united with his deleterious condition. If, for instance,
the Emperors of Austria and France, and their Generals and other
Officers, and all who sympathize with one or the other, and contribute
their share for the destruction of the enemy, would know the proper
condition of spirits with whom they are associated and by whom they are
inspired in their destructive work, they would be exceedingly
frightened, and would cry: "What shall we do to be saved?"

Many years before I knew anything about my present mission, I was aware
by comparing the reports of the Bible with the reports of other ancient
and modern works and with our own experience in regard to the spirit
world, that angels and demons in the Bible are departed men and women of
different high and low spheres, made manifest to men in mortal bodies,
when there was suitable to give to men tangible testimonies, that
mortals are in close connexion with departed congenial spirits. The
legion,