A philosopher who had died several years earlier spoke with me, for whom I clarified how certain philosophical terms should be understood. In regard to "forms," I told what they are like, one within the other, and that a more inward one cannot be entered upon except by a dissolution, or death, so to speak, of the outward one, so there is an ascending from one level to another. Nature everywhere has such levels; so there are likewise degrees of the body's life, and of its vital organs, etc. Then I said that there is nothing which does not consist of varieties of its form, and that the more inward forms can vary immeasurably more than outward forms; and that there are many varieties among the different changes of condition. In the purer regions, I said, forms of force and forms of substance signal mental imagery; as well as other similar points. Because he was in the other life, where they are more receptive to understanding matters of this kind, he affirmed them point by point, vowing that the world would do better to acknowledge such things than to get stuck in terms and argumentation about words, which entirely distract the mind from an understanding of the actual realities - as when a speaker dwells on words rather than the sense of the words. In this way people are plunged into trivia, out of which they cannot be raised up; besides other points as well. 1748, 7 February.