354. At the end of this conversation the angels went away, and two priests came, accompanied by a man who in the world had been an ambassadorial envoy. I related to them what I had overheard from the angels; and on hearing it they began to argue among themselves as to whether intelligence and wisdom and the resulting prudence are from God or from man. The argument was heated. At heart the three believed alike, thinking that because these are in man they are from man, and that the very perception and sensation of its being so confirm it. But the priests, being then in a state of theological zeal, kept saying that nothing of intelligence and wisdom and so nothing of prudence is from man. When the ambassadorial envoy would retort in reply that that would mean nothing of thought as well, the priests would agree that that was so. However, because it was perceived in heaven that the three men shared a similar belief, a voice from there said to the ambassadorial envoy, "Put on the apparel of a priest, and suppose yourself to be a priest, and then speak." So he did as he was bidden. And he loudly declared then that nothing of intelligence and wisdom and so nothing of prudence can ever exist except it be from God, which he also demonstrated using the customary eloquent manner of speaking, full of rational arguments. (It is a peculiar phenomenon in the spiritual world that a spirit thinks himself to be this or that sort of person according to the kind of garment he has on. The reason for this is that it is the understanding which clothes everyone there.) [2] After that the voice from heaven said likewise to the two priests, "Put off your attire and put on the attire of ministers of state, and suppose that that is what you are." So they did accordingly; and they at once then thought from their inner selves and spoke using arguments they had inwardly cherished in favor of their having their own intelligence. At that moment a tree then appeared along the path, and a voice said to them: "It is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Take care that you do not eat of it." But despite this, infatuated as they were with their own intelligence, the three of them burned with a desire to eat of it; and they began to say to each other, "Why not? Is the fruit not good?" And they went over and ate. Immediately then the three became warm friends, because they shared a similar belief; and together they entered on the path of their own intelligence, which led to hell. Nevertheless, I saw them brought back from there, because they had not yet been prepared.