486. VI. THAT ADULTERIES OF THE FIRST DEGREE ARE ADULTERIES FROM IGNORANCE, WHICH ARE COMMITTED BY THOSE WHO CANNOT OR AS YET DO NOT CONSULT THE UNDERSTANDING AND THENCE INHIBIT THEM. Regarded in themselves, all evils and consequently all adulteries, are evils of the internal and external man simultaneously; the internal man intends them, and the external man commits them. Such, therefore, as is the internal man in the deeds done by the external, such, regarded in themselves, are the deeds. But since the internal man with its intention does not appear before man, therefore, in a court, every one must be judged from his deeds and words, according to the law laid down and its safeguards; the judge must also look to the inner meaning of the law. But let examples illustrate: Say that adultery is committed by an adolescent boy who does not yet know that adultery is a greater evil than fornication; or is committed by a man of extreme simplicity; or by one who by disease is deprived of clear judgment; or, as is the case with some, by one who is delirious at times and who is then in the state of the really delirious; or is committed in insane drunkenness, and so on. It is evident that in these cases the internal man or the mind is present in the external scarcely otherwise than as in an irrational Person. By a rational man, such adulteries are given predicates according to the above circumstances; yet by the same man sitting as judge, the doer is pronounced guilty and punished according to the law. But after death these adulteries are imputed according to the presence, quality, and ability of understanding which was present in the will of the adulterers.