29.  From the facts that have now been stated, it clearly appears, that spirits retain in the memory the things that they see and hear in the other life, and that they are equally capable of being instructed as when they were men in the world, consequently, of being instructed in those things that are of faith, and thereby of being perfected.  The more interior spirits and angels are, the more promptly and fully do they imbibe, and the more perfectly do they retain [what they hear], and as this [capacity remains] for ever, it is evident that wisdom is continually growing with them.  With the spirits of Mercury, the science of things is continually growing, yet not therefore wisdom, because they love knowledges, which are means, but not uses, which are ends.

30.  Furthermore, the character of the genius of the spirits who are from the planet Mercury may still further appear from the following facts.  It must be known that all spirits and angels without exception were once men, for the human race is the seminary of heaven; and that spirits are altogether such as to their affections and inclinations as they had been when they lived as men in the world, for every one’s life follows him[n].  This being the case, the genius of the men of every earth may be known from the genius of the spirits who are from it.

[Footnote n:  Every one’s life remains with him and follows him after death, nos. 4227, 7440.  The externals of life are kept closed after death, and the internals of life are opened, nos. 4314, 5128, 6495.  All things in general and particular of thought are then made manifest, nos. 4633, 5128.]

31.  Since the spirits of Mercury in the Grand Man have relation to the memory of things abstracted from material things, therefore when any one speaks to them of terrestrial, corporeal, and merely worldly things, they are absolutely unwilling to hear; and if they are forced to hear of those things, they transmute them into others, and for the most part into contrary things, so as to avoid them.

32.  In order that I might know for certain that such was their genius, it was allowed to represent to them meadows, fallow-lands, gardens, woods, and streams.  To represent such things is to exhibit before another in imagination those things which, in the other life, appear to the life.  But they instantly transmuted them; they darkened the meadows and fallow-lands, and by representations filled them with snakes; the streams they turned black, so that the water no longer appeared limpid.  When I asked why they did so, they said they did not want to think of such things, but of realities, which are the knowledges of things abstracted from terrestrial things, especially of such as exist in the heavens.