AC 2429 - The Ratio Between Good and Truth

AC 2429 [2-3]

The truth present with someone
is altogether as is the good with him.
Where there is little good there is little truth.
They are present in the same ratio
and are of the same degree,
or as people say,
they march in step with each other.
This may indeed seem a paradox
but it is nevertheless the truth.
Good is the actual essence of truth,
and truth without its essence is not truth.
Although it looks as though it were,
it is no more than something that merely resounds,
and is like an empty vessel. 

For anyone to have the truth within him
he must not only know it,
but also acknowledge it and have faith in it.
When he does 
he possesses truth for the first time,
for in that case
it has an influence on him and remains.
It is different when he merely knows the truth
but does not acknowledge it and have faith in it.
In that case he does not have the truth within him,
as applies to many who are governed by evil.
They can know of truths,
sometimes better than anybody else,
but they nevertheless do not possess it.
Indeed their possession of it
is so much the less
because at heart they deny it.