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Lamps with lights signify truths (veritates) which shine from good, nos. 4638, 9548, 9783.

34. Moreover, I spoke with them about sheep and lambs, but they were not willing to hear of such things, because they were perceived by them as terrestrial things; the reason was, that they did not understand what innocence is, which lambs signify; this was apperceived from the circumstance that, on my saying that lambs, when represented in heaven, signify innocence^q, they said that they did not know what innocence was, but only knew it by name: the reason is, that they are affected with knowledges only, but not with uses, which are the ends of knowledges, consequently they are unable to know, from internal perception, what innocence is.

Footnote q: (return)

Lambs in heaven, and in the Word, signify innocence, nos. 3994, 7840, 10132.

35. Some of the spirits of the earth Mercury came to me, being sent by others, in order that they might hear what was going on near me. These were told by one of the spirits of our Earth, to tell their [friends] not to speak anything but what was true, and not, as they were wont, to present opposite things to their questioners; for that if any of the spirits of our Earth were to do so, he would be punished. But immediately the company from which those spirits had been sent forth, and which was at a distance, made answer, that if they must be punished on that account, they must all be punished, inasmuch as, from continual practice, they could not do otherwise. They said that when they speak with the men of their own earth, they also do likewise, not, however, with any intention to deceive, but to inspire the desire of knowing; for when they present opposite things, and conceal things in a certain manner, the desire of knowing is excited, and thus from the zeal of exploring those things, the memory is perfected. I also, on another occasion, spoke with them on the same subject, and, as I knew that they spoke with the men of their earth, I asked in what manner they instructed their inhabitants. They said that they do not instruct them fully as to how a matter is, but keep insinuating some apperception of it, in order that from this the desire of exploring and of acquiring knowledge may be nourished and grow; for if they were to answer all their questions, the desire would perish. They added, that they suggest opposites for this reason also, that the truth (veritas) may afterwards appear the better; for all truth appears from relation to its opposites.

36. It is their custom not to tell another what they know, but still they want to learn from all others what is known to them. With their own society, however, they communicate everything, insomuch that what one knows all know, and what all know each one in the society knows^l.

37. Inasmuch as the spirits of Mercury abound in knowledges, they are in a certain kind of conceit; hence they imagine that they know so much that it is almost impossible to know more. But it was told them by the spirits of our Earth, that they do not know much but little, and that the things which they do not know are comparatively infinite; and that the things which they do not know, are, relatively to those they do know, as the waters of the largest ocean to those of a very small fountain; and further, that the first step towards wisdom consists in knowing, acknowledging, and perceiving that what one knows, is, compared with what one does not know, so little as hardly to be anything. In order that they might know that it is so, it was granted that a certain angelic spirit should speak with them, and tell them generally what they knew and what they did not know, and that there were infinite things which they did not know, and that eternity would not suffice for their acquiring even a general knowledge of things. He spoke by means of angelic ideas much more readily than they did, and as he disclosed to them what they knew and what they did not know, they were struck with amazement. Afterwards I saw another angel speaking with them, who appeared at some height towards the right; he was from our Earth. He recounted very many things which they did not know; and afterwards he spoke with them by means of changes of state, which they said they did not understand. He then told them that every change of state, and also every smallest part of such change, contains infinite things. When they heard this, as they had been conceited on account of their knowledges, they began to humble themselves. Their humiliation was represented by the sinking downwards of the compact body (volumen) which they formed (for that company appeared at the time as a compact body, in front towards the left, at a distance, in the plane of the region below the navel); but the compact body appeared as it were hollowed in the middle, and raised at the sides; an alternating motion was also observed therein. They were also told what that signified, that is, what they thought in their humiliation, and that those who appeared elevated at the sides were not as yet in any humiliation; and I saw that the compact body was separated, and that those who were not in humiliation were sent back towards their earth, the rest remaining.

38. There once came some spirits of Mercury to a certain spirit from our Earth, who, during his life in the world, had been most celebrated for his learning,—he was Christian Wolf—desiring to receive information from him on various subjects. But when they perceived that what he said was not elevated above the sensual things of the natural man, because in speaking he thought of honour, and wanted, as in the world (for in the other life every one is like his former self), to connect various things into series, and from these again and continually to deduce others, and so form several chains of such, which they did not see or acknowledge to be true, and which therefore they declared to be chains which neither cohered in themselves nor with the conclusions, and called them the obscurity of authority, they ceased to question him, inquiring only what this was called and what that. And because he answered these questions also by material ideas, and not by any that were spiritual, they departed from him. For in the other life every one speaks spiritually, or by spiritual ideas, so far as in the world he had believed in God; and materially, so far as he had not believed. As an opportunity here offers, I may relate how the case is, in the other life, with the learned who acquire intelligence by their own meditation kindled by the love of knowing truths for the sake of truths, thus for the sake of uses apart from worldly considerations; and how the case is with those who acquire intelligence from others without any meditation of their own, as is the practice of those who desire to know truths merely for the purpose of acquiring a reputation for learning, and of thereby attaining honour or gain in the world, and consequently not for the sake of uses apart from worldly considerations. I may here relate a certain experience concerning