4166. Spirits have more excellent faculties
What the mental images of spirits are like in comparison to human ones is clear from the fact that they are in thought. A person can think in a single moment what he cannot utter or write in hours. Spirits are in that thought - not in an obscure one, as man is, but a distinct one, seen as when someone sees in a picture all the details displayed at the same time - for spiritual symbolic portrayals are adjoined that are indescribable. In short, a single obscure mental image is presented by spirits, by means of many mental images visibly portrayed and understood. Angelic spirits have comparatively still more detail, or just as man compares to spirits, so do spirits compare to angelic spirits, and thus angelic spirits to angels. 1749, 10 Mar. 1
Footnotes:
1. Astrological symbol of Mercury, meaning Wednesday.
4166. THAT SPIRITS HAVE MORE EXCELLENT FACULTIES [THAN MEN].
Of what quality the ideas of spirits are, compared with those of men, may appear from the fact, that spirits are [emphatically] in thought. A man can think in a moment what he would be unable to utter or write in the space of hours. In that thought are spirits, not like man's, an obscure, but a distinct thought, in which things are seen as when one sees in a picture everything simultaneously represented to him, for spiritual representations, such as cannot be described, are adjoined. In a word, a single obscure idea is made clear by means of many representative and intelligible ideas that are set forth by spirits. Angelic spirits employ comparatively still more illustrations, for as is a man compared to spirits, so is a spirit compared to angelic spirits, and so are angelic spirits compared to angels. - 1749, March 10.
4166. Quod spiritus excellentiores facultates habeant
Quales ideae spirituum, respective ad humanas, constare potest, quod ii sint in cogitatione, homo potest cogitare momento, quod non eloqui aut scribere possit per horas, in illa cogitatione sunt spiritus, non in obscura, ut homo, sed in distincta, visa sicut quis cum vidit in pictura omnia sibi simul repraesentata, nam adjunctae sunt repraesentationes spirituales, quae non describi possunt, verbo una idea obscura a spiritibus per multas visibiliter repraesentatas et intellectas sistitur. Angelici spiritus respective adhuc plura, seu sicut homo ad spiritus, ita spiritus ad spiritus angelicos, et sic spiritus angelici ad angelos. 1749, 10 Mart.