The case is the same with the raven;
appearance is appearance; and say what you will, a raven is altogether
and entirely white; it grows white also as it grows old; and this I have
seen." We next requested him to tell us from his heart, whether he was
in joke, or whether he really believed that nothing is true but what a
man makes true? and he replied, "I swear that I believe it." Afterwards
the legate asked him, whether he could make it true that he was out of
his senses; and he said, "I can; but I do not choose: who is not out of
his senses?" When the conversation was thus ended, this universal
confirmator was sent to the angels, to be examined as to his true
quality; and the report they afterwards made was, that he did not
possess even a single grain of understanding; because all that is above
the rational principle was closed in him, and that alone which is below
was open. Above the rational principle is heavenly light, and below it
is natural light; and this light is such that it can confirm whatever it
pleases; but if heavenly light does not flow into natural light, a man
does not see whether any thing true is true, and consequently neither
does he see that any thing false is false.
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