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