4107. CONCERNING A CIVIL STATE. There are those in the other life who live in a so-called civil state, which is pleasant and agreeable, and in which I was for some time. Living in their own agreeable and pleasant sphere, they fear no one, and when any spirit not good approaches, they speak civilly with him as one who is too good to say or do aught that is amiss; such a spirit is then himself also reduced into a civil state, and either demeans himself as good, or departs, for the mind or disposition of the one affects the other. They never in that state say that anyone is bad; though still it is not a state of dissimulation, but of sincerity, for they speak from civil promptings, and it is the state of those who in the world have lived happily and well in the conjugial relation, and have loved children. - 1748, December 1.