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, I was unable to apperceive what they observed.  Immediately afterwards, I heard them say that the matter was thus and thus.  With regard to the things which I had seen in the heavens and in the world of spirits, they said that they knew them before.  I perceived that a multitude of spirits who were consociated with them, was behind, a little to the left, in the plane of the occiput.

22.  At another time I saw a multitude of such spirits, but at some little distance from me, in front a little to the right, and they spoke with me from thence, but through intermediate spirits; for their speech is as quick as thought, which does not fall into human speech, except by means of other spirits; and what surprised me, they spoke in a body, and yet as promptly and rapidly as possible.  Their speech, being of many together, was apperceived as undulatory, and, what was remarkable, it glided towards my left eye, although they were to the right.  The reason was, that the left eye corresponds to the knowledges of things abstracted from material things, thus to such as belong to intelligence, while the right eye corresponds to such as belong to wisdom[m].  With the same promptness with which they spoke, they perceived the things that they heard, and formed their judgment upon them, saying of one thing that it was so, and of another that it was not so, their judgment being as it were instantaneous.

[Footnote m:  The eye corresponds to the understanding, because the understanding is the internal sight, and the sight of things immaterial, nos. 2701, 4410, 4526, 9051, 10569.  The sight of the left eye corresponds to truths, consequently to intelligence; and the sight of the right eye corresponds to the goods of truth, consequently to wisdom, no. 4410.]

23.  There was a spirit from another earth, who was well qualified to converse with them, being a prompt and rapid speaker, but who affected elegance in his discourse.  They instantly formed their judgment concerning whatever he spoke, saying of one thing that it was too elegantly, of another that it was too learnedly expressed; so that the only thing they attended to was, whether they heard from him anything which was not known to them before, rejecting thereby such things as obscured the subject, which are chiefly affectations of elegance in expression and of erudition; for these hide the things themselves and in their place substitute expressions, which are the material forms of things; on these the speaker keeps his mind (animus) fixed, and wants to draw attention to his expressions rather than their meaning, by which the ears of his auditors are more affected than their minds (mens).