5588. As regards the speech of spirits, it is from the ideas of the speech-thought; which ideas are distinct from the words which are with man; for, when a man speaks, he thinks only the sense of the thing about which he is speaking; and that sense is what falls into the words. That thought which is the speaking, or exterior thought, separated into ideas, constitutes the speech of spirits; and it is from the interior natural memory. For the internals which the spiritual have are closed: wherefore, they speak about truths and goods.