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Spiritual Diary, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1758], tr. by Bush, Smithson and Buss [1883-9] at sacred-texts.com

Spiritual Diary

They also close up the internal chamber of the ear, so that one can scarcely hear, which I manifestly perceived; nay, they oppress intervals as if by a siege from without.

CONCERNING VISIONS WHICH ARE ILLUSIONS. There are visions experienced by certain persons on the earth who say and boast that they have seen many [wonderful] sights; and they are also called seers [visionarii]. This kind of visions is such that when any object is presented, be it what it may, certain spirits induce upon it such an appearance by phantasies, that when a cloud for instance, or a certain lunar light is seen by night, then spirits hold his mind, and thus his imagination, in the representation of some particular thing, whether of an animal, or an infant, or any monstrosity; and as long as his imagination is held in things of this kind, he is persuaded that he actually sees such things. In this way very many visions are bruited, which are nothing else than illusions; but such thin often happen to those who indulge much in phantasies, and who thus labor under an infirmity of mind, which renders them credulous.

That similar things exist also with spirits, inasmuch as they may be induced by spirits from the man's imagination, I can testify from abundant experience. It is in their power to represent buildings, gardens, meadows, and similar amenities, and unless the reaction is given them that such things are mere representations induced by others, spirits would not know anything else than that they were realities, and this they openly acknowledged.

THAT THERE ARE THOSE WHO INSPIRE TERROR. ((There are some self-confident spirits to whom it is permitted to induce terrors, and terrors of such a nature that no one would believe that they could be inspired. Especially it is permitted them to represent an arm apparently naked, and in various positions, according to variety [of circumstances and ends]. Of such an arm it is a peculiarity, that it impresses upon a soul or a spirit such a terror, that even those who were strangers to terror in their lifetime have confessed that they have received from this source an intimidation, which could not be expressed. The same object was once shown to me, and I was smitten with like terror, which continued for some time, for it seemed that it could have crushed the bones and the marrow; yea, if permitted, it would, however incredible, have produced that effect, because flowing from the world of spirits; still it is true, for the phantasy of spirits is competent to do it. Terrors of this kind are induced by spirits, who trust to themselves that there is nothing which they cannot do; but as these things cannot well be believed, they are to be prudently set forth, lest men should think themselves listening to fables or trash.))

The inhabitants of the world of spirits have peculiar skill in things of this kind; and if it were permitted them to exercise such magical arts, they could easily induce the minds of men to believe that they were miracles, for these things have an effect upon material and corporeal objects. Hence were the magical practices of the Egyptians; hence the diabolical arts everywhere spoken of [in the Word]; hence false miracles which are of the devil, and which were performed by the Egyptian magicians. The same holds true of many other things, and especially of those illusory visions just mentioned above.

Unless a man be in faith towards the Lord, he is easily induced to believe that such visions are from heaven, and the like, when yet they are of the devil, for they cannot be distinguished from true visions and true miracles, except by those who are led by the Lord; but at this day such things are forbidden, for these rabbles [of spirits] are held in bonds, and not permitted to rove beyond the limits which for certain reasons are assigned them. - 1748, March 28.

THAT INTELLECTUAL FAITH IS A MERE MATTER OF THE MEMORY. I spoke with certain souls who, in the life of the body, supposed that they had faith, or that an intellectual faith would save, or was of a saving nature [salvifica], nor were they willing to recede from the theory they had established to themselves, that faith alone saved, from which it would follow that the quality of the life is of no consequence, as is the opinion of many. It was given me to say to them that such a faith is by no means saving, that it is not really faith, because the life shows of what kind of faith they are possessed, and that such a faith is a mere matter of the memory, producing nothing, whereas the life of faith is love from the Lord. When I read the passage in Mark 12:28, where a certain scribe inquires what is the first or chief commandment, [I asked them the same question,] because the scribe believed the same thing, but yet only intellectually, and not in his life, for it is said that he tempted Jesus. It was then given them to perceive that such a faith was a mere cognition, which is far from saving, unless it so works as to cause a man to love his neighbor as himself.

THAT THE LORD KNOWS AND DISPOSES ALL THINGS, EVEN THE MINUTEST [singularrissima] IN THE UNIVERSAL HEAVEN AND IN ALL THE EARTHS. ((This may appear also from the case of the human body, in the viscera, cavities, membranes of which, both within and without, there are sensitive fibers in such abundance that nothing can come in contact with them but they perceive it. That the same holds good in regard to the stomach, the liver, and the lungs, is obvious. The fibers are organically and variously formed, and by means of them the soul of man knows and perceives whatever change takes place, and according to that perception closes of everything and induces states adapted to restore health to those parts which are out of order.

Since such things occur in the animal body, and there is nothing which does not come to the soul of the animal whence all things are conveniently disposed in general and in particular, what shall we not say of the Grand Man in heaven, and of those things which depend upon heaven, since the Lord is the life of all, and every particular is ordered as in the most perfect man. Wherefore the Lord is sole [and supreme], because He alone is life, and thus all in all, perceiving, disposing and ordering all and single things, so that they shall act according to [fixed] laws, upon which depends the well-being and conservation of all things in the universe. - 1748, March 28.

It is a fact of common occurrence in the world of spirits that those who are there are unable to believe that the Lord can know all and everything in all and everything, even things the most minute which take place in the universe, whether in heaven or in the world, or in all the earths; for they, like men, view all things from a lower plane, because from their natural mind, which is extremely limited, and to which impossibilities are prone to suggest themselves. But when I often said to them, and by suitable ideas represented, that it could be predicated of the soul in the body that it did not know the things [transpiring in it]; and if it did not know, it could not dispose all and everything in its own body, and minister healing [to diseased parts], which the learned ascribe to nature, but erroneously and perversely, inasmuch as they are all from the Lord; and when also it was said that the will of man alone could dispose, and, as it were, know what muscles and what motive fibers should concur to anyone action, of which there are thousands and myriads distributed everywhere over the body, and when by this it was represented to them how the case is with the Lord who is the God of the universe, and the only life; then they had nothing to say in reply, for impossibilities yielded [to such a view of the subject]. - 1748, March 28.))

CONCERNING SORES, AND FOUL TUBERCLES WHICH ARE NATURALLY PRODUCED UPON THE PLEURA AND PERICARDIUM, OR WHAT KIND OF SPIRITS CONSTITUTE THEM. ((There are some in the world who pass their lives in a course of mere artifices and lies; that is to say, that in order to attain the objects at which they aim they make use of falsehoods, from which originate evil; consequently they seek their ends through evil means. Thus it was shown to me by a living experience that they employ the services of the innocent for the purpose of persuading concerning those things which they intend and desire to obtain; as also that by lying in various modes they induce persons who are ignorant of their ends to say so and so, from whence arise enmities and aversions, for they act covertly and take various precautionary measures that those who serve them as tools should not understand their scope. This was shown to me by a living experience. They took for a subject a certain one who was of a genius unlike their own, in order that they might thus effect persuasion through an innocent medium; they then by means of mental induction and imitation brought into play things that are familiar in the world of spirits, but which this is not the place to describe; and all this in order that I might be persuaded concerning the objects at which they aimed. In order that there might be no suspicion as to the true source [of their machinations], I may say, in a word, that they make use of evil means that they may attain to whatever ends they propose. These means are deceits, falsehoods, and artifices, from which very many evils spring forth. Self-love or pride are the prompting causes of these machinations, and those of this quality exercise similar arts in every single thing which they intend.

Such spirits are those vicious affections which are called sores and foul tubercles, that break out upon the pleura and other membranes, which, if they become irradicated, the disease spreads far and near so as to [vitiate and weaken] the entire membrane, and thus gradually draw the whole body to death.

Souls of this vicious stamp, though they come into the world of spirits, and have the power of insinuating themselves before their true quality is made manifest, yet they are not tolerated [there], as they would infect the crowd of spirits with their own vicious state. Wherefore they first undergo this peculiar punishment, to wit: that a number of such are made to rotate from left to right at the outset, in a plane orbit, which presently in the course of circumrotation swells out, and afterwards the swelling is depressed, so that the orbit becomes as it were hollow, and the celerity is increased; while in the meantime and during the circumrotation a process of exploration is going on, whether they will persist in being such as they are. This circumrotation takes place in the world of spirits above the head, a little in front, which is administered to those who were of the character described; and because they persisted they were rolled over and over, and projected to the back under the occiput. There was, however, still another mode of circumrotation in which the swelling or bulging out [tuberositas] was quite prominent, and was turned by flexure into one, and that one was again intervolved, thus rendering the revolving motion confused; in fact, the orbit was inverted to a perpendicular, and the celerity at the same time greatly increased: usque ut propter celeritatem, dum appareret, ... ita ad imitamen talium tuberositatum, seu apostematum. 1763-1

It was afterwards shown that all such lie as if dead, with their face and belly downwards, and that they are subsequently let down into the lower parts of the earth, that they may there pass their lives)) (((being thus detruded at once from the world of spirits and from the body into those lower regions of the earth, where they are to lead a most obscure kind of life apart from companions, being then in fact as if dead.

It was shown, moreover, how much of the truly human there is in such, by means of a representation in which they were [almost entirely] divested of a body, the portion that remained being exceedingly small, as was represented by a miniature human figure, whereby was signified how little of the human and of themselves they retain after that most obscure life passed in their hell, which is in a deep place beneath the right foot, a little in front.

Wherefore let all such take heed to themselves, as in order to compass the ends which they propose make use of means that disturb societies, and cause enmities and hatreds between their members, and that too for the sake of promoting their own selfish views. - 1748, March 28.

These are rather to be called deadly imposthumes or abscesses wherever they are seated, whether in the chest, in the pleura, in the pericardium, in the mediastinum, or in the lungs.

It was observed, also, that in their orbit-like circumrotation they attempted to draw others within their whirl, to wit, the harmless and the innocent, so that it gave them no concern whomsoever they might drag into perdition, provided they seemed themselves to perish.

I observed that they perceive as in an instant what is capable of being perverted. They have their eyes intently fixed, and instantly lay hold of, or violently seize at the first glance those things which favor them either that they may pervert or vindicate, or assume as means; and that, too, before I could have the least idea that they had noticed anything pertaining to me; thus they are more acute than others, and are in the life of their self-love.

WHOSOEVER IS IN FAITH KNOWS AND PERCEIVES THAT HE DOES NOT LIVE FROM HIMSELF. As relates to perception, see elsewhere; but knowledge teaches the same thing, to wit, that man by no means lives from himself, as I also today demonstrated to spirits by a universal idea; for since man is a mere particle in the Grand Man, and there is nothing in the individual man to which there is not something corresponding in the Grand Man, it obviously follows that he lives not from himself but from the all and singular things of the angels in heaven and in the world of spirits, who excite the things which man thinks; and since all are merely organic beings, and the Lord alone is life, it obviously follows that man lives not from himself. Besides this [it is shown] by living experience, that when they with whom a spirit is most intimately associated are withdrawn, he is then, as it were, dead, and can neither think nor do anything. - 1748 March 28.

The exceeding fallacy of sense, involved in a man's thinking that he lives from himself derives its origin from the love of self, which when it reigns makes it impossible that there should be faith in the Lord, though this alone, inasmuch as the Lord is alone, causes the knowledge and perception of that fact. And in order that this might be more clearly evinced to spirits - for the genuine angels know it and perceive it very manifestly (to know is, as it were, without them, to perceive is within them) - it was shown them by an experience which I scarcely dare produce, as scarcely anyone would believe it; but inasmuch as it occurred frequently, I would simply observe that when any spirit fixes his attention upon the walking of a horse and speaks at the same time, he is heard precisely as if the steps of the walking horse spoke - an experience at which the spirits were sometimes indignant, while the thought at the same time arose that the fallacy of sense in this case was similar to that in man's supposing himself to live from himself. - 1748, March 28. To whatever sound spirits apply their attention and direct their hearing and their imagination, whether to the strokes of hammers or other things, the speech is heard as having a similar sound; not that the speech is actually there, but such is the fallacy that it cannot be known but that the sound does speak. CONCERNING THE LAW OF NATURE [jure naturae]. (((((((The angels wonder that the learned on this earth, as they call themselves, should dispute and wrangle concerning the principles of natural law, and that many should derive those principles from themselves, consequently from the love of self, of kindred, and of their own possessions, and not, as does the universal heaven, from the love of the Lord, and thus from love towards the neighbor as towards one's self, when yet the Lord calls that principle the primary of all precepts, not to say that everything in heaven, in the world, and on the earth dictates the same thing.))))))) 1770-1

CONCERNING THOSE WHO ARE IN THE LOWER EARTH [inferiorum terrra]. (((((There are in the lower earth many mansions or many places where those are detained who are undergoing preparation (concerning some of this class see elsewhere). [Their position is] nearly under the left foot, a little in front, and rising up to a very considerable altitude. Many are held in a kind of obscurity, especially such as are in almost a middle state between the life of the body and its sleep; and there they think scarcely at all, barely remembering at times what they had done in their lifetime from a rash and evil prompting, but still not so that they are tormented by conscience on account of it; for those in that region are not such as have done evil with a clear conscience and of set purpose, but yet they have perpetrated evil, although it has been from imprudence, ))))) for they might have known in the life of the body that it was evil, as they were thus instructed from the Word of the Lord; but the Word of the Lord, after their principles were firmly adopted, could not penetrate, inasmuch as they persisted in the imprudence of their life.

(((Those who are in the lower earth are not indeed within the Grand Man, but without, yet they live from the Lord's life.))) Concerning these it was said that there are great numbers there, and that some are detained there through long periods of time, even for ages, until they are vastated. - 1748, March 29.

The ancients seem to have alluded to this class of persons (:see whether they are spoken of in the Word:) so long as they were not absorbed in the love of self and of the things pertaining to that love. Of these things the ancients had knowledge also who were without the Ancient Church, but still from the Ancient Church, and they called them the Lethean waters which were to be drunk; but yet there was no water there.

Some of them perceive a tedium more or less according to their life in the body, whether [they had acted] from imprudence or from set purpose.

CONCERNING THE IMPRESSION WITH SPIRITS THAT THEIR BODIES LIVE. The spirits of this our earth have such an impression in regard to their still living in the body as will scarcely be credited, and it is with the utmost difficulty that they can be persuaded to the contrary. I pointed out to them in various ways that that was a phantasy, so that they at length acknowledged it, but they still fell back into similar phantasies, wherefore their mind remains a long time after death in the body [so to speak], which is also the cause that when spirits from the earth Jupiter are present, who have an aversion to bodies, an extreme uneasiness arises [and is felt] on both sides. - 1748, March 29.

THAT SPIRITS JUDGE FROM MAN'S PERSUASION. In conversing with spirits, I observed that they were persuaded concerning things of which they could have no knowledge; this persuasion evidently arose from my being myself persuaded concerning anything which I was demonstrating. This happened very often, and in regard to a variety of subjects, even scientifics, which they had not known, as also in a multitude of particular things; from whence I was authorized to conclude, as I said to the spirits, that they judged and affirmed from my persuasion. Consequently if I demonstrated anything falsely, they would be persuaded concerning that also, for in respect to material things they cannot judge from themselves, though they still suppose that the knowledges which are in my memory are theirs. Thus they possess a man, even to the degree of being indignant when I said that they did not know themselves, but had it from me.

 1778-1 ((((((Hence various things may be concluded, as concerning Balaam, that if he had by imprecations devoted the posterity of Jacob, certain spirits in the world of spirits would have been so persuaded that they would have stirred up turbulent hordes against that nation, and the evil would have endeavored to pervert the good. The world of spirits before the Lord's Advent was of this character, but after His Advent they were powerfully restrained in this respect.

Hence also it is given to conclude respecting interior persuasions from the Lord, that men are persuaded in faith, and concerning the thing of faith, from the Lord, and by no means from themselves. - 1748, March 29.

In respect to things, however, which do not agree with the life of spirits, the life which they have derived from their loves in the life of the body, they cannot be persuaded except by the Lord alone while being reformed. - 1748, March 29.

CONCERNING THOSE WHO CONSTITUTE DEADLY ULCERS OF THE HEAD, OR WITHIN THE CRANIUM. There are some of such a quality, that when they approach they rush into the cranium, and thence into the spinal marrow, and intend and attempt nothing else than to kill the man. Spirits of this character flocked to me and rushed forth with into the spinal marrow, saying at once, before they were at all provoked, that they would suck up the marrow and whatever was vital; and when they attempted it in vain, they still remained within the cranium, intent upon a variety of schemes, which, however, were abortive. In such cases they intend the taking away from the man all his intellectual faculty. I perceived them manifestly in the cerebral chamber, and their attempts also from the pain thence resulting. I spoke with them, and they were compelled to confess whence, who, and of what quality they were.

They stated that they dwelt in dark woods, and were there of deformed aspect, having ferine faces and shaggy hair, and roaming about like wild beasts. They are quite numerous, nor dare they attempt any such thing towards their companions, to whom it is then permitted to treat them cruelly almost at pleasure, from which they shrink in horror, and then abstain from inflicting anything of the kind upon them. They also wander about solitarily, and are thus held in bonds.

It was told me they were such as had formerly [in their lifetime] slaughtered whole armies, as is recorded in the Scripture histories, having induced insanities upon them, for they rushed into the chambers of their brain, and then inspired such terror that one slew another. That they were able to strike such terror I was assured, but it is seldom done at the present day. It is extremely rare that the bonds are loosened to any of them at this day, and only takes place in the case of someone who is of such a quality that it were better that he should be permitted to perish as to his body than as to his soul, and in regard to whom, unless he perished bodily in this manner, by means of insanity and suicide, he could not well be prevented from perishing to eternity.

These are those spirits who correspond to deadly ulcers of the head within the cranium, of which the effect is similar.

Others, their associates, appeared considerably elevated in front, and they spoke and said that those who were within my cranium were their subjects through whom they operated.

While they live in woods but little of life is granted them, which life was shown; such they said they had. - 1748, March 29.

HOW THE LIFE IN THE BODY IS CONTINUED AFTER DEATH. There were certain ones who had led a lascivious life in the body, and who being infected themselves, had infected others also with their contagion and pest. Some of them, as I had reason to suppose, came to me not long after their decease, and ignorant that they were now in another life. I observed that they wished to live here as they had done in their bodies. Their life in the body was to inveigle wives and commit adultery without conscience, enticing other men's wives into this crime whenever they could accomplish it, and desiring the same thing now, inasmuch as they knew not that they were in the other life.

When I informed them that the case was not in this as in the other life, they wondered at first that they were in the other life, but soon forgetting this, they persisted [in their evil promptings], asking where there were families, in order that they might continue their machinations. I said to them that if they had no regard to spiritual sins in matters of this kind, still they should not endeavor to sunder the love of a wife by such allurements from that of her husband, as this would be to act against spiritual order; but they paid no attention to this, neither did they understand it. I moreover urged them to desist by their fear of the laws and the punishment flowing therefrom, as it was now palpably manifest that they desired to perpetrate such wrongs; but for this they cared nothing. I then appealed to their regard for their reputation, as their good name would in this way suffer, but neither did they care for this, for their quality and what they cared for is at once perceived by a spiritual idea. But when I intimated that the facts might become known, and the domestics be employed to treat them with severity, and even to punish them with sorer stripes than they now dreamt of - this, and this only, seemed to strike them with dread. But forgetting even this, they held on in their purposes, and their interior thoughts were represented to me, which were most filthy; then the wiles which they devised in their minds were declared, and these were of such a character as to make it improper to reveal them to anyone. It thus appears that their interiors are altogether laid open before spirits in the other life, and still more before the angels, who know their interior thoughts with the utmost exactness, while they are held after death in a similar state, and even all the devices of their hearts, for they were represented by them as to their quality, which was most foul. In like manner [they represented] the quality of certain ones in the life of the body who supposed adulteries and the like to be nothing unlawful, when yet they so defile their spiritual life that the effects cannot be removed without punishments quite severe. Concerning these it was said to me that such in the married state afterwards conceive aversions to their partners; differently from those who do not live in such cupidity.

As to their praying to the Lord, which was laid open to me to the life, they seemed to have no doubts whatever in relation to those things which they had learned from a teacher, but they had no other than a verbal or literal sense of the prayer, showing that they were corporeal, and not at all spiritual. - 1748, March 30.

CONCERNING THE LORD'S PRAYER. When the Lord's Prayer, which comprehends all celestial and spiritual things, is read, there may be infused into each particular so many things, that heaven itself shall not be capable of comprehending them, and that, too, according to the capacity and use of everyone. The more internally and intimately anyone penetrates, the more fully or abundantly the things of heaven are understood; by those in lower states they are not comprehended, but are a kind of arcana to them, some being comprehensible solely by an intellectual faith, and some being ineffable: celestial ideas which all emanate from the Lord, the lower they descend, or the lower the character of the men [to whom they come], the more complete appears the closing up [of the mind], till at length a certain hardness ensues in which there is little or nothing besides the sense of the letter or the ideas of the words; whence it was given to know, from the Lord's Prayer, what kind of souls they had been in the life of the body, as to the doctrine of their faith, inasmuch as it was granted to them to have their former sense [of these things] when offering prayer. - 1748, April 1. Thus it is that the idea expands upwardly or inwardly from corporeal things, and indeed to indefinite extent in every degree, or in other words, through indefinitely multiplied expansions in the interiors, and so in the more interior parts, and in the inmosts.

CONCERNING THOSE WHO CONSTITUTE THE NASAL MUCUS IN THE BRAIN. There is a certain class of spirits, who, because they wish to domineer and alone to govern man, excite among other spirits enmities, yea, quarrels even to insanities, for those spirits whom they excite fight among themselves like the bitterest enemies, and those also whom they know to be present. I have witnessed such quarrels and wondered at them, and upon inquiring into the matter was informed that such contests were excited by this class of spirits because they wished to rule without competition.

It was granted me to speak with them, when they immediately said that they would rule and teach everything, and far more that any others; to which I replied that such spirits were insanities, beginning, as they did, from angry quarrels and the like. They spoke with me from a superior to a middle altitude above the forehead. Their speech was such that from the speech I could not judge of their minds, that they were of such a quality, for they spoke rapidly, and as in somewhat of a stream.

I was instructed that these are they who constitute the pituitary mucus of the brain, which is wont to obstruct the sieve-like lamina [or plate], making the brain to stagnate like a kind of excrementitious ground, whence arise dullness and similar insanities. I was informed, too, that a like class of men are those who make it a rule to cause dissensions and enmities among all others, or who, as the saying is, divide in order to rule, and that, too, without conscience, like many politicians, thus placing prudence in the enmities, intestine strifes, and hatreds which they can kindle among others. They are altogether external men, because they obstruct, as was said, the nasal respiration, so that it is determined through the mouth, and thus into the pharynx, entirely contrary to the natural mode of respiration, which is through the nostrils, by reason of the agreement of the brain and its animation with external things; thus these persons break the communications between interior and exterior things.

When I perceived that they had not a particle of true faith, I spoke with them, asking if they were aware that they were now in another life, where they would live to eternity? and one of them, having his eye upon certain others whom he perhaps wished to seduce, was reluctant to have that said. I replied that in the world, while they lived there, they might have been esteemed wise among the foolish, but that here they were insane among the wise, which greatly displeased them. I continued saying that the government of heaven consisted in mutual love one towards another, whence arose the order and subordination of so many myriads, while among such as themselves there were strifes and alienations, inasmuch as such things as they had within them, these they produced without them. They said they could not be otherwise; to which I replied, that they had contracted this from their lives in the body, and that they could not be [or act] otherwise while they believed and practiced as they did. - 1748, March 30.

CONCERNING THE MALEVOLENCE OF CERTAIN SPIRITS. The malevolence of spirits consists not only in their inducing thoughts and speech upon man, but also responses, so that the man knows no other than that he responds; that is, that he gives a response in their favor, which has oftentimes been proved to me by lively experience, and spirits have iterated it again and again. They learn this by use, for they thus know how to seduce men most easily, so as to act out the entire man, both in speaking and in answering. At the same time, they inspire also such cupidities as favor the response, so that the man can by no means know but that he is the one [who speaks and responds], for while he is in that cupidity he is in his life, and believes that it is he himself. Such is the malignity of certain spirits, which I can affirm for certain from experience, for they spoke with me for a long time, and I had much to say with them on these points. - 1748, March 30.

HOW THE NATURAL THINGS OF THE ANGELS ARE REPRESENTED BEFORE SPIRITS. Those who are angels do not reflect upon the fact that they are clothed with garments as do those spirits, or recent souls, who, in the life of the body, delighted themselves greatly in beauty of dress. These in the other life from phantasy, while they reflect, suppose themselves clothed in like manner as in the life of the body, in which they took delight. These ideas are so vivid with them, that when I said to them that they were not clothed in garments in the other life, then all those who had recently departed from life wondered, and could only be withdrawn with difficulty from their phantasy. Nay, such was the phantasy of some, that they supposed themselves to be able by touch to perceive that they were clad in garments; but that phantasy is done away in time, and then comes another idea, which is that of almost no garments at all, scarcely of bodies, as they call them.

Moreover, the angels of the interior heaven, while they are represented to spirits, appear to them in comely garments, like virgins, their dress being of white and black mixed and elegantly plaited, modest, and handsomely fitted to the form. But the angels of the more interior heaven are represented before the spirits in most beautiful garments, adorned with various kinds of flowers, and shining in blue and red as the prevailing colors, while the inmost angels appear naked as infants. Those representations are made to spirits, and signify the quality of the natural things of the angels, for such phantasies [as those mentioned above] do not exist in the heavens, wherefore garments appear to be laid aside at the entrance of heaven. From the garments and their color it may be known whence such representations flow.

CONCERNING THE PUNISHMENTS OF THOSE WHO REPRESENT STAGNANT HUMOURS IN THE BRAIN. The humours which stagnate in the brain are mainly of a threefold kind; the first, which is the most gross, is that which flows under the dura mater, or between the meninges, and is forced through its circuit, towards the laminam cribrosam (sieve-like membrane).

Another kind is that which stagnates in the mammillary processes. This is a humour collected from the interiors of the brain, or from within its fibers, and is in like manner determined towards the laminam cribrosam.

The third kind is that which is collected in the lateral ventricles of the brain, and is discharged through the infundibulum, and so on.

Footnotes

1763-1 As the reader will perceive, it is extremely difficult from the language employed to form a definite idea of the nature of the punishment here intended to be described. We confess to our entire inability to gather a clear conception of what the writer intended to convey, more especially in the closing sentence, which for that reason we had left untranslated. For the sake of our Latin readers, and in the faint hope that a truer version may be suggested, we subjoin the original: "Quare subeunt primo eam poenam, nempe quod tales plures circumrotentur a sinistro in dextrum, sicut orbita primum plana, quae mox in circumrotatione extuberant, dein tuberositas ista deprimitur, ut cava fiat ista quasi orbits, et sic augetur celeritas, ac interea in circumrotatione exploratur, num persevenant tales esse; circumrotatio fit in spirituum mundo supra caput antrorsum paulo, quod factum est iis, qui tales fuerunt, et quia persistebant, circumvolvebantur et projiciebantur a tergum sub occipitium; verum circumrotatio fiebat quoque alia, tuberositas elevabatur satis alte, et flectebatur in unum et unus iste iterum intervolvebatur, et sic erat confusa volutio; imo invertebatur orbita ad perpendiculum, et celeriter quoque augebatur, usque ut propter celeritatem, dum appareret, . . . ita ad imitamen talium tuberositatum, seu apostematum."

1770-1 This paragraph has no number in the original, and was probably intended for number 1777. - S.B.

1778-1 Numbered as in the original; see note at the end of 1770. - S.B.