13.  How eagerly they search for and imbibe the knowledges of such things as pertain to the memory raised above the sensual things of the body, was made manifest to me from the circumstance that when they looked into the things which I knew respecting heavenly subjects, they ran over them all, and kept on stating the nature of each.  For when spirits come to a man, they enter into the whole of his memory, and call forth from it what suits themselves; nay, what I have often observed, they read its contents as from a book[k].  These spirits did this more skilfully and quickly, because they did not linger over such matters as are heavy and sluggish, and confine and consequently impede the internal sight, as is the nature of all terrestrial and corporeal things, when regarded as ends, that is, when alone loved; but they devoted their attention to things themselves; for those matters to which terrestrial things do not cling, carry the mind (animus) upwards, and so introduce it into a wide field [of view], whereas merely material things drag the mind (animus) downwards, and thus limit and imprison it.  Their eagerness to acquire knowledges and enrich the memory was further evident from the following circumstances:  Once, when I was writing something concerning things to come, and they were at a distance, so that they could not look into those things from my memory; because I was unwilling to read them in their presence, they were very indignant, and, contrary to their usual demeanour, they were disposed to inveigh against me, saying that I was the worst of men, and other like things; and, to show their resentment, they caused a kind of contraction, attended with pain, on the right side of my head as far as the ear; but such treatment did me no harm.  As, however, they had done evil, they removed themselves to a still greater distance, yet kept stopping, being desirous of knowing 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]