1950. THE CHARACTER OF [MERE] CRITICS IN THE OTHER LIFE. Certain spirits, who in the life of the body had devoted much labor and time, not to the sense of words, but to the words themselves, and who had consequently devoted themselves to the art of criticism (of whom also several had labored in translating the Sacred Scriptures), were with me; but I can declare, that whilst they were present, all things whatsoever that were written and thought, were rendered [by their sphere] so obscure and confused, that I could scarcely understand anything whatever, - yea, my thought was kept, as it were, in a prison, because they determined all the thought solely to the words, abstracting it from the sense of the expressions, so that they wearied me extremely, even to indignation; whilst, nevertheless, they thus imagined themselves to be wiser than others; whereas, such as are from the lowest class of the people, and even children, are much wiser, and can more wisely understand the sense; - hence of what quality such erudition, or such human wisdom is, abundantly appears, namely, that it is much inferior to that of rustics and of children, inasmuch as they thereby close the way to interior things.