1427. Neither do they like to inform me about anything they know, for they try to change it into something else. And so I asked them whether they teach their own inhabitants, but got the reply likewise through inward sensation, that they do not want to teach them, but still they do quiz them. This is done, I think, so as to nourish and increase their appetite to know. For if they are given all the answers, that appetite passes away, so their spirits are kept in that state of not wanting to educate them. Yet the inhabitants are tested by them in various ways. Another reason is, so that they may not know truths in all matters, for if they knew those truths, they would not have the opposites, and then thinking would also perish, which is developed and energized and enlivened by opposites.
1427. Nor are they willing to instruct me concerning the things they know, for they want to change them into something else. I therefore inquired whether or not they instructed the inhabitants of their earth. I received the answer, likewise by the interior sense, that they are unwilling to instruct, but nevertheless that they explore them, which is done, as I imagine, in order that thereby their eagerness to know may be nourished and increased; for if they were to answer all questions that eagerness would perish. Therefore these spirits are kept in the state of being unwilling to inform their inhabitants, although they explore them in various ways. There is the further reason that they may not know truths in all cases, for if they knew the truths, then they would not have the opposites, thus thought also would perish, for it is varied, acts and lives from opposites.
1427. Nec volunt instruere me, de iis quae sciunt, nam volunt mutare ista in alia, quaerebam itaque anne incolas suos instruerent, sed responsum tuli, per interiorem sensum, similiter, quod non velint instruere eos, sed usque quod explorent, quod fit, ut reor, ut inde cupido sciendi alatur et augeatur, si enim responderent ad omnia, tunc perit ista cupido, quare tenentur spiritus eorum in illo statu, ut non velint eos informare, sed usque quod variis modis incolae ab iis explorentur 1
; tum ex causa, quod non veritates in omnibus sciant, nam si veritates, tunc opposita non haberent, sic periret quoque cogitatio, quae ex oppositis variatur, agit, et vivit.
Footnotes:
1. This is how it appears in J.F.I. Tafel's edition; the Manuscript has explorent