Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/53

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quisite as the senses of sight and hearing, because these are conducive to their intelligence and wisdom, but not the rest. Were the other senses as exquisite as these, they would take away the light and delight of their wisdom, and introduce the delight of pleasures belonging to the various appetites and to the body, which obscure and debilitate the understanding in proportion as they predominate. This also is the case with men in the world, who become dull and stupid as to spiritual truths, in proportion as they indulge the sense of bodily taste, and yield to the blandishments of the touch. The state of those who are in hell is also widely different from their state in the world; for in the degree that the external and internal senses with the angels in heaven are excellent and perfect, in like degree are they imperfect with those in hell. But the state of these will be treated of hereafter.


MEMORY AFTER DEATH.

That man takes all his memory with him when he leaves the world, has been confirmed by many things worthy of mention which have been seen and heard, some of which I will relate in order.

There were those who denied their crimes and enormities which they had perpetrated in the world; therefore, lest they should be believed innocent, all their deeds were discovered, and recounted in order from their own memory, from their earliest age to