Earths In Our Solar System Which Are Called Planets, and Earths In The Starry Heaven Their Inhabita | Page 5

what I had written. Such is their
eager desire for knowledges.
14. The spirits of Mercury, more than other spirits, possess the

knowledges of things, both of those which are within this solar system,
and those which are beyond it in the starry heaven; and whatever things
they have once acquired they retain, and recollect them as often as
similar ones occur. From this also it may manifestly appear that spirits
have memory, and that it is much more perfect than that of men; and
further, that spirits retain what they hear, see, and apperceive, and
especially such matters as they are delighted with, as these spirits are
with the knowledges of things; for things that are matters of delight and
love flow in as it were spontaneously, and remain; other things do not
enter, but only touch the surface and pass by.
15. When the spirits of Mercury come to other societies, they try to
discover from them what they know, and when they have ascertained
this, they depart. There is also such a communication among spirits,
and especially among angels, that when they are in a society, if they are
accepted and loved, they communicate or share all they know.[l]
[Footnote l: In the heavens there is a communication of all goods,
inasmuch as heavenly love communicates all its possessions to others;
and hence the angels derive wisdom and happiness, nos. 549, 550, 1390,
1391, 1399, 10130, 10723.]
16. The spirits of Mercury, on account of their knowledges, are more
conceited than others; wherefore they were told that, although they
know innumerable things, there is yet an infinity of things which they
do not know; and that even were the knowledges with them to increase
to eternity, they would still be unable to attain to so much as an
acquaintance with the generals of all things. They were told that they
were conceited and elated of disposition, and that this character is
unbecoming; but they replied, that it is not conceit, but only a glorying
on account of the capacity of their memory. Thus they have the art of
excusing their faults.
17. They are averse to verbal speech, because it is material; wherefore,
when I conversed with them without intermediate spirits, I could only
do so by a kind of active thought. Their memory, because it is a
memory of things, not of purely material images, brings nearer to the
thought its proper objects; for the thought, which is above the
imagination, requires for its objects things abstracted from those of
matter. But notwithstanding that this is the case, the spirits of Mercury
excel but little in the faculty of judgment. They take no delight in the

things which pertain to judgment and to conclusions from knowledges;
for their delight is in the bare knowledges.
18. It was suggested to them, whether they did not wish to make any
use of their knowledges; for it is not enough to be delighted with
knowledges, because knowledges have respect to uses, and uses ought
to be their ends; that from knowledges alone no use results to
themselves, but to others with whom they are willing to share or
communicate them; and that it is not at all meet for a man who wants to
become wise to stand still in knowledges alone, inasmuch as these are
only instrumental causes, meant to be serviceable for the investigation
of matters which ought to belong to the life. But they replied that they
were delighted with knowledges, and that to them knowledges were
uses.
19. Some of them, also, wish to appear, not as men, like the spirits of
other earths, but as crystalline globes. Their wanting to appear so,
although they do not, arises from the circumstance that the knowledges
of immaterial things are in the other life represented by crystals.
20. The spirits of Mercury differ entirely from those of our Earth, for
the spirits of our Earth concern themselves not so much about
[immaterial] things as about worldly, corporeal, and terrestrial things,
which are material. For this reason the spirits of Mercury cannot be
together with the spirits of our Earth, and therefore wherever they meet
them they flee away, for the spiritual spheres that are exhaled from both
are almost contrary. The spirits of Mercury have a common saying, that
they do not want to look at the sheath, but at things stripped of their
sheath, thus at interior things.
21. There appeared a flame of considerable brightness, which blazed
cheerfully, and this for about an hour. That flame signified the advent
of some spirits of Mercury who, for penetration, thought, and speech,
were prompter than those who preceded them. When they were come,
they instantly ran over the things that were in my memory, but, owing
to their promptness,