805. There was a certain one who had thought and spoken nothing but what was ingenious in expressions or words; whatever came up he bent it so that something ingenious might shine forth in each expression. I wondered who he was, because he could not be distinguished from other spirits except by the determinations of his speech and thoughts towards such things. But I was instructed that such are those who, in the life of the body, have only had as their end, and have loved, studies which treat of particulars, as critical matters and various readings of the classical authors and of the Sacred Scriptures, and who have loved only the compilation of dictionaries; in ordinary life they have loved nothing more than elegance of expression, equivocal speech, and play upon words. I was shown what kind of life he and those like him have. It was such that I could apperceive nothing, as it were, living in them, but it was as if there were words, and scarcely anything else but words. Yet, for all that, they were of a ready mind, and could talk well; still the thought inhered in the single things said, and their speech was composed of such things. It was like something without life, or as a thing in which there was only the very least life. Still, this spirit was not evil because he could have no extension by thought, but there was a general restriction, especially to something in the words, and also to particular little characteristics of speech. Hence he did not appear life-like, but spoke as if he were some artificial carved image.