4038. But in the other life this implanting or inrooting in the corporeal memory does not take place, for in that life it is not permitted to use the corporeal memory, therefore spirits are not then reformed, but remain in the state in which they were [in the world]; only the defilements and the falsities of the corporeal memory, and of interior ideas are subdued by vastations and punishments, so that they become as dead and are made obsequious, concerning which I have spoken before; and this is what is meant when it is said, that man remains after death such as he had formed himself in the life of the body; wherefore in that life they are not reformed, but vastated, that they may subserve some kind of uses, which also appears sufficiently clear from the case of those who in the life of the body were devoid of conscience, as adulterers and the cruel. These become excrements, and sit like dead stocks, and afterwards serve as a class of subjects that have scarcely anything of life. Conscience is not subsequently given to them, but those things are taken away by vastations which hinder their being adapted to uses.