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, because material ideas cannot be reproduced in the spiritual world; for spirits and angels speak from the affections and the thoughts thence proceeding, which belong to their minds; and therefore they cannot utter anything which does not agree with their affections and thoughts, as may appear from what was said concerning the speech of the angels in heaven, and concerning their speech with man.

Hence it is, that in proportion as man becomes rational in the world by means of languages and sciences, he is rational after death; and not at all in proportion to his skill in languages and sciences.

I have conversed with many who were reputed learned when in the world, because they were acquainted with the ancient languages, as the Hebrew, Greek and Latin, and who had not cultivated their rational faculty by means of the things written in those languages. Some of them seemed as simple as those who had known no language but their own, and some appeared stupid; but still they retained a conceited persuasion of their superior wisdom.

I have conversed with some who imagined, when in the world, that a man is wise in proportion to the extent of his memory, and who also had stored their memories with a great many things. And they conversed almost exclusively from those things, thus from others and not from themselves. Nor had they employed the stores of their memory to perfect their rational faculty. Some of them were stupid, others