4036. As they were ignorant of what conscience is, they asked of me respecting its nature. It was given to reply, that it was all that internal sensation which is experienced when a man acts contrary to goodness and truth. When anything of this nature is done, man is conscious of the contrariety, so that it operates as a certain kind of sensible check, as with me; moreover, that it is a perception given by the Lord, by virtue of which one is affected with pain that he has done aught that is contrary to goodness and truth, and with a self-sorrow, so that he, as it were, sheds tears, as the principle is one of the most interior nature; for weeping ensues when anything is done contrary to good. - 1748, November 22.