2473. The interior memory immeasurably surpasses the exterior, and is relatively as are some myriads to one, or as light is to darkness; for myriads of the ideas of the interior memory flow into a single thing of the exterior memory, and there present a general obscure something. Hence all the faculties of spirits, and still more those of angels, are in a more perfect state, that is, both their sensations, and their thoughts and perceptions. In what way the interior memory excels the exterior, may be seen from examples. When a man calls to remembrance any other man whose quality is known to him from the interaction of many years, whether a friend or an enemy, that which he then thinks about him is presented as one obscure thing; and this because he is thinking from the exterior memory. But when the same man has become a spirit, and calls the other to remembrance, that which he then thinks about him is presented as to all the ideas which he had ever conceived concerning him; and this because he is then thinking from the interior memory. And so it is with everything: the thing itself about which anyone has known many things presents itself in the exterior memory as a single general thing; but in the interior memory it presents itself as to all the particulars about which he has ever acquired for himself an idea in respect to that thing; and this in a wonderful form.