3889. It was given to compare their speech with the speech of diviners on this earth, who speak with their fingers, or otherwise with the inverted words of those who laugh when they are serious. - 1748, November 6. It was given to add that in order that they may not be understood by others, they abstract the ideas of thought from others, thus imperceptibly from themselves. As to affections, they abstract them also; what then remains, as being external, like that of the words of our earth, in which if there are not ideas, there is nothing of life, it becomes from custom, especially when they begin to be delighted with such speech, such a matter of habit, that they conclude from [mere] forms, and thus have barely external ideas, scarcely such as properly pertain to spirits. Hence arises the bony [quality of the speech], which is indicative of the want of life. This is said to them.