1421. Consequently, they were just like flames running through and enjoying fine material, such as everything I had seen in the heavens, which they said they knew about. And then I said that perhaps they imagine they know it, and yet do not know it, because everything spirits see in a person's memory, they imagine they know and had known. But still, I realized that at the level of the occiput, a little behind and to the left, there was a multitude of them, who were aware of all this at the same time, and that they are able to obtain such knowledge because they pay attention only to the real events and thus to the inward qualities, and do not want to linger in outer ones; for spirits have this kind of memory.
1421. Consequently they were like flames, running through and delighting in the subtle things [of my memory], thus those things which I had seen in the heavens, which they said that they knew. I then said to them that perhaps they only supposed that they knew them, and nevertheless did not know them, because a spirit supposes that he himself knows and had known the things which he perceives in man from his memory. I perceived, moreover, that in the plane of the occiput at the back, a little to the left, there was a multitude of these spirits who together perceived this, and that they could have such thought because they attend only to the reality and thus to the interiors, being unwilling to tarry in externals; for such is the memory with spirits.
1421. Proinde erant sicut flammae, percurrendo subtilia 1
, et iis delectando, sic ea quae videram in coelis, quod dicebant se nosse; cumque iis dicebam, quod fortasse putent se nosse, et tamen non norint, quia, ea quae spiritus percipit in homine ex ejus memoria, putat se scire, et scivisse, usque percipiebam, quod in plano occipitis a tergo paulo ad sinistrum, esset multitudo eorum, qui simul id perciperent, et quod talem cognitionem habere possent, quia solum ad res et sic ad interiora attendunt, nec morari volunt in externis, nam talis memoria est penes spiritus.
Footnotes:
1. The Manuscript has subilia