Page:The Other Life.djvu/108

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psychology of Swedenborg. I once saw a remarkable case which seemed to have some relation to the curious fact stated in the foregoing paragraph. The patient, who was slowly recovering from an apoplectic stroke, was found to have totally lost his memory of words. When he began attempting to express his ideas, he repeated one number after another at considerable length, as if he was using words. He evidently thought that he was clothing his ideas in the usual and proper manner, for he was surprised and indignant that his meaning was not comprehended. He continued thus speaking in numbers, never, however, in their numerical order, for several months. He was probably connected interiorly with some of those spiritual societies which speak and write in numbers.

There are books and libraries in heaven to which all the literary treasures upon earth are absolutely insignificant. It is pleasant to think that our most charming and ennobling pleasures here are to be continued and intensified hereafter. The sons and daughters of art will pursue their delightful vocations for ever. Every book ever written upon earth might be reproduced in the spiritual world from the imperishable memories of those who have read it. Few, if any, of them will attain this