Page:The Other Life.djvu/91

 "mountain," we have the visual image of a mountain in the mind's eye; but this image is not conveyed by the sound to a foreigner unacquainted with our language. The word used by a spirit to convey the idea of "mountain" to the mind, would involve not only its form and color, height and distance, but the very causes of its formation, the spiritual states represented by it, and its connection, near and remote, with all other things.

Ideas, which appear to us so simple, are inconceivably complex. The spiritual microscope applied to ideas, as we apply the natural microscope to physical objects, will show us that every idea, apparently but one thing, is composed of innumerable other ideas; and that further analysis, instead of bringing us to some definite end, only opens before us new worlds of wonder.

A spiritual word, therefore, contains and represents thousands of thoughts. The inconceivable richness and fullness of such language make clear what Swedenborg says, that angels can express more in a minute than we can in an hour; and can convey in a few words what it would take us many pages to express.

We have new names given to us in heaven. No material word, not even the names of Abraham,