887. The memory of spirits or souls is, as has been said, an inward one, but not a memory of personal affairs, like that of a person on earth. For a memory of personal matters is useful to one on earth, meeting the needs that living in the body and the world dictate.
But the memory of spirits is an inward one, unfamiliar to [recently arrived] souls, so that whenever I have spoken about it with souls, they thought it did not exist - which happened quite often, for during their life they had been unaware of it. Yet their reveries, and like phenomena, which they love, pertain to that memory, and their passions are the result of an imaginary harmony in fantasies, comparably as some enjoy instruments that are not harmonious, but harsh sounding and out of tune; while others enjoy only those which harmonize rightly and well.
887. The memory of spirits or of souls is, as was said, interior. It is not, however, a memory of particulars like that of man, for the memory of particulars is of use [only] to man, for it is suited to those things which his life in the body and the world requires. But the memory of spirits is interior; it is not known to souls. Therefore as often as I have spoken with souls about it, which is very often, they supposed that it was nothing, for during their life they had known nothing about it. Their phantasies and like things which they love are of that memory. Cupidities are things that flow from the imaginary harmony of phantasies. They are not unlike some who are pleased with instruments not in accord, but of a harsh sound, out of tune among themselves; others only enjoy those that are in just and true accord.
887. Memoria spirituum seu animarum est ut dictum interior, non autem particularium, sicut hominis, quia particularium memoria conducit homini, nam convenit iis quae ejus vita in corpore et mundo requirit. Sed memoria spirituum est interior, non cognita animabus 1
, quare quoties de ea cum animabus loquutus sum, putarunt quod nulla esset, et hoc saepius, nam in vita nesciverunt eam, ac eorum phantasiae et similia, quae amant, istius 2
memoriae sunt; cupiditates sunt ea quae fluunt ex imaginaria harmonia phantasiarum, non aliter ac quod delectentur quidam instrumentis non concordibus sed rudis soni, in se nullius concentus, alii solum quibus 3
concordant juste et bene.
Footnotes:
1. hoc est recens mortuis
2. hoc est particularium
3. The Manuscript has qui