The speech of words is not the speaking that is proper to spirits, but to mankind, or to the bodily memory; but the speech of the inward memory is the true speech of spirits, and what it is like was shown to me today. It is thought, and to be sure, communicative thought, by which I spoke with them just now, and in fact about how all that they can understand and can perceive is their knowledge, even if they had not previously known that they knew it. For they understand instantaneously, and because they understand, it cannot but be in them and can be said to be from them as well as anyone else who declares it. So that speech is an inward speaking, embracing many things, for it is simultaneously observant of the thinking of the other, and perceptive of whether he is of the same thought. It is of such a nature that it is hardly ever wrong. In short, it is a communication of ideas, one of which cannot be expressed by many words, and if it is expressed this still brings out little, for [the communication] has with it its entire mental image, so to speak, that is being manifested. Such is the speech of spirits among themselves, in short, not words, but the images of words, for each word has a mental image of great extension, as is evident from the fact that