3593. CONCERNING A MERCILESS MERCY, AND [CONCERNING] CHARITY. Certain spirits, when I was writing respecting the antediluvians, [and saying] that they had scarcely anything [vital] left, were touched with such compassion, that they persuasively induced the idea of the Lord's becoming placable towards them; and because they induced a degree of this persuasion upon me, it was not given then to instruct them that such, if they should come into the spiritual world, would destroy whomsoever they should find by an unseasonable compassion. Others were greatly moved, they knew not whence, to exercise a like pity, and because they penetrate even to good spirits, or to the proximate or intermediate societies, evil and good, it was permitted that some of those who were under the mountain where were the antediluvians before spoken of should come forth; but, as was then perceived there were others also who descended to them, whose life was similar. But concerning the antediluvians, and the manner of their coming forth, see just below.