180. * were seen by me in many series and over quite a long period of time, 5084. and still, those angels or spirits who portray these in a person do not at all know what they mean, but they are driven to depict them as if it were their own essential nature to do so, just as birds, if it is allowed to make a comparison, which are driven by instinct, portray the secrets of marriage by what they do, namely, building nests, laying eggs, hatching them, feeding their chicks, all in a most marvellous way; yet they are driven by nature to do these things. So, on a higher level, they who enjoy spiritual life, as do spirits and angels, portray such secrets with unlimited variety. That displays of this kind had existed in the earliest times in the first people, there can be no doubt; for speech cannot be cultivated, and cannot be devised, except from objects. Thus He spoke by means of such portrayals. That they can also