f their stay in the spiritual world, which is a time of modesty
and morality, because spent in company with angelic spirits, they are
next, from their externals, led into their internals, and in this case
into the concupiscences with which they had been ensnared in the world,
and the angelic spirits into theirs, to the intent that it may appear in
what degree they had been ensnared; and if a lesser degree, that after
they have been let into them, they may be let out again, and may be
covered with shame. But those who had been principled in this malignant
lust to such a degree as to be made sensible of its eminent delight, and
to make a boast of those thefts as of the choicest spoils, do not suffer
themselves to be drawn away from it; wherefore they are let into their
freedom, and then they instantly wander about, and inquire after
brothels, and also enter them when they are pointed out; (these brothels
are on the sides of hell:) but when they meet with none but prostitutes
there, they go away, and inquire where there are maidens; and then they
are carried to harlots, who by phantasy can assume supereminent beauty,
and a florid girlish complexion, and boast themselves of being maidens;
and on seeing these they burn with desire towards them as they did in
the world: wherefore they bargain with them; but when they are about to
enjoy the bargain, the phantasy induced from heaven is taken away, and
then those pretended maidens appear in their own deformity, monstrous
and dark, to whom nevertheless they are compelled to cleave for a time:
those harlots are called sirens. But if by such fascinations they do not
suffer themselves to be draw away from that wild lust, they are cast
down into the hell lying to the south and west, beneath the hell of the
crafty courtezans, and there they are associated with their companions.
I have also been permitted to see them in that hell, and have been told
that many of noble descent, and the more opulent, are therein; but as
they had been such in the world, all remembrance of their descent and of
the dignity derived from their opulence is taken from them, and a
persuasion is induced on them that they have been vile slaves, and
thence were unworthy of all honor. Among themselves indeed they appear
as men: but when seen by others, who are allowed to look in thither,
they appear as apes, with a stern look instead of a courteous one, and a
horrid countenance instead of one of pleasantry. They walk w