576. THE MALICE AND NEFARIOUS ARTS OF INFERNAL SPIRITS

In what way spirits are superior to men anyone can see and comprehend who thinks interiorly and knows anything of the operation of his own mind; for in his mind he can consider, evolve, and form conclusions upon more things in a single moment than he can utter or express in writing in half an hour. Hence is clear the superiority of man when he is in his spirit, and therefore when he becomes a spirit. For it is the spirit who thinks, and it is the body by which the spirit expresses his thoughts in speech or writing. In consequence of this, the man who becomes an angel after death is in intelligence and wisdom ineffable in comparison with his intelligence and wisdom while he lived in the world; for while he lived in the world his spirit was bound to his body, and was thereby in the natural world; and therefore whatever he thought spiritually flowed into natural ideas, which are comparatively general, gross, and obscure, and do not receive the innumerable things that pertain to spiritual thought, and which involve spiritual thought in the obscurities that arise from worldly cares. It is otherwise when the spirit is released from the body and comes into its spiritual state, which takes place when he passes out of the natural world into the spiritual world to which he belongs. From what has already been said it is evident that his state as to thoughts and affections is then immeasurably superior to his former state. Because of this the thoughts of angels are ineffable and inexpressible, and are therefore incapable of entering into the natural thoughts of man; and yet every angel was born a man, and has lived as a man, and he then seemed to himself to be no wiser than any other similar man.