1385. There are spirits who belong to the province of the skin, especially the scaly skin, who desire to reason about everything; they have no perception of what is good and true; indeed the more they reason, the less they perceive; they make wisdom consist in reasoning, and on this base their claim to seem wise.* They have been told that it is of angelic wisdom to perceive without reasoning whether a thing is good and true; but they do not apprehend that such perception is possible. These are they who in the life of the body had confused truth and good by means of matters of knowledge and of philosophy, and thereby had seemed to themselves to be pre-eminently learned; but as they had not previously adopted any principles of truth from the Word, they have less common sense than others.
* Compare Arcana 5556, and Spiritual Experiences 3703. [REVISER.]
