1077. CONCERNING THE MEMORY OF PARTICULARS Whilst man lives, he does not know that there is any other memory than the memory of particulars, because he has not reflected upon those things which are of the interior memory, and that without the interior memory he would never be able to reason; still less has he reflected upon the more interior memory without which he could never understand that which is true and good. I have sometimes spoken with spirits concerning the memory of particulars and the interior memory. They can know this better than man, as it can be demonstrated to their sight, as it was to me. For the memory of particulars can be taken away, as it were, and thus the interior memory be laid open to view in the likeness of a very soft snow-white substance, as shown elsewhere. [See nos. 856, 862-865.] Moreover, from this the spirits know that they do not enjoy any memory of particulars, which is like some callus adhering, nor is it permitted for many reasons that that memory should be used. Hence it is that spirits have so many prerogatives over men, which would never be so if they were to speak from that corporeal memory. But they speak from the interior memory, and it then seems to them as though they spoke from none other than their own memory of particulars. For they speak from man's memory of particulars, and so enter into the possession of the whole of man's memory that they can draw forth from it anything whatever that he has thought and done. See elsewhere, [nos. 267, 796-797].