35. Some spirits from Mercury visited me who had been sent by other spirits to hear what was going on around me. One of the spirits from our world told them to tell their own people not to speak anything but the truth, and not to follow their custom of replying to questions by stating the opposite. If any of the spirits from our world, he said, were to do this, he would be beaten. The answer came back from the distant group which had sent the spirits that, if that deserved a beating, then they should all be beaten, since they were so much in the habit of doing this they could not stop. They said that this is also what they do when talking to people in their world, but they do not intend to deceive them, but rather to instil a desire for knowledge. For when they state the opposite and go some way towards hiding the matter, then the desire to know is aroused and the memory is sharpened by their anxiety to find it out. I also had a conversation with them on the same subject on another occasion. Knowing that they talked with people in their world, I asked how they teach its inhabitants. They said that they do not teach them what is the fact of the matter, but they give them a hint of it, so as to nurture and increase their desire to find out and know the fact. For if they replied to every question, the desire would disappear. They went on to say that another reason why they state the opposite is to show up the truth better; for every truth shows up best when contrasted with its opposite.