1050. On spiritual methods of portraying things
Those who portray things to others only by words, and thus by combining scattered mental images, that is by speaking, as most people on earth do, cannot at all understand how spirits communicate their thoughts among themselves. And they can understand it all the less, the more they dwell on words and their own personal ideas. Neither can those who stick only to the most obvious meaning of words, or only to matters of the material memory, since only personal details are stored up in it. But they, rather, who have more universal mental images, withdrawn from material ones, can somewhat understand it.
1050. CONCERNING THE SPIRITUAL MODES OF REPRESENTING THINGS
Those who represent things to others only by means of words, and by separated ideas joined together, that is, by speech as most men do - can never apprehend how spirits communicate their thoughts among themselves; and the more they adhere to the words and the particular ideas, the less can they apprehend. Nor can they who for various reasons dwell in the proximate sense of the words, or only in the things of the memory of particulars, apprehend it, since only particulars are there concentrated. But those who have more universal ideas, thus ideas abstracted from particulars, can understand somewhat better.
1050. De spiritualibus modis repraesentandi res
Qui solum per voces, ac ideas sparsas sic junctas hoc est per loquelam repraesentant res aliis, ut plerique homines, nequaquam capere possunt, quomodo spiritus inter se communicant sua cogitata, ac eo minus possunt, quo magis vocibus et particularibus ideis inhaerent, nec ii qui solum sensui proximo vocum, aut qui solum rebus memoriae particularium, quum modo particularia ibi concentrata sunt, ex variis causis, sed ii potius aliquatenus possunt intelligere, qui universaliores ideas habent, sic abstractas a particularibus.