SD 2495, 2502 - the deceit that leads to listlessness and destruction

SD 2495
it was a certain kind of deceit not before observed so much in others,
namely that they were able to slip into any company whatever . . ..
. . . there was nothing whatever of what was being thought and happening
that they did not pick up on and then want to make use of for their own sake.
It was therefore an active deceit
. . . concerned only for themselves, not for others.

2502.
There was such poison in them
that it blunted all my power to engage in truths and goodness,
taking away all zeal.
They have been with me for several days
and have so troubled me in thinking and doing serious things,
things true and good,
and in seeing them, that I hardly knew what to do.
Such is the influence of their poisons.
When they are in the company of good spirits,
they bring on them a sluggishness
in doing good and the duties of their function.

. . . when that kind of spirit comes among those
who are inclined to performing useful tasks in the commonwealth,
or into their societies, then all their ardor is dampened.
So the human race is being led astray mainly by them,
for which reason kings reject such people from their courts,
for they inflict great harm on societies,
leading them away from truths and goodness . . ..
They are destroyers of the human race.
For it is generally known
that people who begin to indulge in idleness
take the greatest pleasure in it,
like beggars who once they become accustomed to that laziness
then hold back and remove themselves
from every effort to be members of civil society, or to be citizens.
They cannot be called citizens, but destroyers of citizens.
(July 3, 1748)