1221. THE JUDGMENT OF SPIRITS There are spirits who constitute the urinary province. The grosser of them examine every soul they meet, and desire to castigate and punish him. But their judgment is of such a character that whatever appears to them as discordant and as reprehensible in their sight, they censure and strive to chastise without considering the circumstances, for they do not go beyond externals, nor do they care what the circumstances are. Even though the soul is not at fault, but the fault only appears as his from the society in which he is as can sometimes happen they attribute it to him, and fasten it upon him; wherefore nothing is submitted to their judgment unless the soul is inwardly of such a nature, a fact which these spirits do not know. And so it is that unless the Lord governed all souls and every single thing no mortal would escape such a judgment. These spirits are above Gehenna, and extend themselves not far from the face in the plane of which they are, towards Gehenna, but above. This therefore can be called the Judgment of Gehenna.* Their nature can be evident from a comparison of their phantasies and life with the operation of the kidneys, ureters and bladder. 1748, Mar. 8. * This is the literal translation from the Greek of the phrase in Matt. xxiii 33.
[1221a.] CONCERNING ANGELIC SPEECH It is not easy to describe angelic speech because words have to be used which signify things that are corporeal and natural. As a result there are corporeal and natural ideas, and this according to the condition of each individual. For angelic speech is such that if angels were to dictate the words and they were so written down, they would understand nothing else than the sense of the words abstractly from every natural and corporeal idea, while spirits and men would understand them naturally and corporeally. As those things which are in the interior degree correspond, I wondered that I could neither think nor speak with angels, except...* * This unfinished paragraph was left unnumbered in the manuscript.
1221 1/2. CONCERNING ANGELIC SPEECH I wondered that I could not think and speak with angels, save by means of spirits; besides, it was only to some degree that it was granted to know that it was angelic, and according to my inmost perception I could sometimes suppose that I was thinking angelically, but still it was not so.
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