ledge of good and evil, ye shall be as God' (Gen.
iii. 5), they then made in themselves the origin of evil, because they
turned themselves from God, and turned to themselves, as to God. _To eat
of that tree, signifies to believe that they knew good and evil, and
were wise, from themselves, and not from God._" But the two angels then
asked, "How could man turn himself from God, and turn to himself, when
yet he cannot will, think, and thence do anything but from God? Why did
God permit this?" I replied, "Man was so created, that whatever he
wills, thinks, and does, appears to him as in himself, and thereby from
himself: without this appearance a man would not be a man; for he would
be incapable of receiving, retaining, and as it were appropriating to
himself anything of good and truth, or of love and wisdom: whence it
follows, that without such appearance, as a living appearance, a man
would not have conjunction with God, and consequently neither would he
have eternal life. But if from this appearance he induces in himself a
belief that he wills, thinks, and thence does good from himself, and not
from the Lord, although in all appearance as from himself, he turns good
into evil with himself, and thereby makes in himself the origin of evil.
This was the sin of Adam. But I will explain this matter somewhat more
clearly. The Lord looks at every man in the forepart of his head, and
this inspection passes into the hinder part of his head. Beneath the
forepart is the _cerebrum_, and beneath the hinder part is the
_cerebellum_; the latter was designed for love and the goods thereof,
and the former for wisdom and the truths thereof; wherefore he that
looks with the face to the Lord receives from him wisdom, and by wisdom
love; but he that looks backward from the Lord receives love and not
wisdom; and love without wisdom, is love from man and not from the Lord;
and this love, since it conjoins itself with falses, does not
acknowledge God, but acknowledges itself for God, and confirms this
tacitly by the faculty of understanding and growing wise implanted in it
from creation as from itself; wherefore this love is the origin of evil.
That this is the case, will admit of ocular demonstration. I will call
hither some wicked spirit who turns himself from God, and will speak to
him from behind, or into the hinder part of the head, and you will see
that the things which are said are turned into their contraries." I
called such a spirit and