1435. The spirits of our earth are also curious and eager to know many things, especially terrestrial and material things, but they are brought by the Lord to learn the corresponding interior things, and to desire them. Hence the spirits of our earth are grosser, slower, and defiled with corporeal cupidities which must be vastated before they can grasp interior things; and they must be completely vastated to the extent that they are averse to them as things of no account, before they can be delighted with these interiors. The spirits of our earth, therefore, especially constitute the provinces of the exterior members of the body. 1748, Mar. 16.