1051. To make this subject understandable, since it is possible to grasp it to some extent only by an example, let this be mentioned: when someone asserts that there can be no shame unless there is also reverence within it, then the usual course would be that one holds forth on these topics, both what shame is and what reverence is, with many hours of talking and many sheets of writing, investigating what shame is, into what different types it can be categorized in general and particular; likewise, what reverence is in all its many aspects. Then countless conclusions can be drawn according to each person's grasp of the subject and state of development.
All these matters are seen by a spirit and communicated to others in an instant, at a single spiritual glance, without any description or any foreknowledge of details. Thus angels go from one general to the next, then to the specifics, seeing them distinctly and simultaneously, thus knowing the conclusions at once. This is how spirits communicate things among themselves. Souls come directly into that ability after death, but it varies greatly according to the life of their passions. Those come into it better who have not blinded their rational sight with fantasies.
1051. As it is solely by an example that this can to some extent be grasped, let this be mentioned merely as an example: When someone asserts that shame is not possible unless it is accompanied with reverence, it is then usual to spend many hours discussing these things by words, or by the writing of many pages, in regard to what both shame and reverence are; wrangling about what shame is, and the classifications which are predicated of it in general and in particular; in like manner, what reverence is in application to very many circumstances, whence innumerable conclusions can be drawn according to the idea of the subject each one has acquired and the state he has formed. All these things are perceived by a spirit by spiritual intuition alone, without any description or an idea of particulars being known, and they are communicated to others in a moment, thus from one genus to another and so to their species. These things the angels perceive distinctly and simultaneously, so that they at once know the conclusions. Such is the communication of things among spirits, into which faculty souls come at once after death, but with much variety according to the life of their cupidities. Those who have not blinded their rational sight by phantasies understand better.
1051. Ut solum ad captum memoretur, solum per exemplum id potest quodammodo capi, sicut dum aliquis statuat, quod pudor non detur, nisi penes eum reverentia quoque sit, tunc de iis, tam quid pudor, quam quid reverentia, per loquelam plurium horarum, et scripturam plurium membranarum exponi solet, rimando quid pudor, quae ejus distinctiones, de quibus in genere et specie praedicatur, similiter quid reverentia applicate ad perplura, inde conclusiones fieri possunt innumerabiles secundum cujusvis 1
rei tunc captam ideam, et formatum statum: haec omnia per solam intuitionem spiritualem, absque descriptione, et particularium cognita idea, a spiritu percipiuntur, et communicantur aliis in momento, sic ab uno genere ad alterum, sic ad species, haec distincte et simul percipiunt angeli, sic ut conclusiones illico sciant; talis est communicatio rerum inter spiritus, in eam facultatem veniunt illico animae post mortem, sed cum multa varietate, secundum vitam eorum cupiditatem, melius illi, qui non phantasiis visum suum rationalem occoecarunt.
Footnotes:
1. The Manuscript has cujusve