The Literal Meaning of Genesis
BOOK TWELVE PU
standers that he had had no extraordinary or clairvoyant experience at all but had made the statement in a light and playful mood. His own amazement at what happened was all the greater because he was more keenly aware of the spirit in which he had said the words.
48. How do these things enter the spirit of man? Are they fashioned there? Or are they implanted fully formed and seen as a consequence of some sort of union, so that angels reveal to men their own thoughts and the likenesses of bodies which they fashion beforehand in their own spirit through their knowledge of future events? In such a way the angels see our thoughts;! not, of course, with eyes, because they see not by body but by spirit. But there is this difference: they know our thoughts whether we will it or not, whereas we cannot know theirs unless they reveal them. For they have the power, I believe, of hiding their thoughts by spiritual means, just as we can hide our bodies from the eyes of others by setting up some obstacle to obstruct their view. And what takes place in our spirit to allow a man sometimes to see only images that have a meaning, while he is unaware of the fact that they do mean something; and at other times to allow him to perceive that such images have some meaning, while he is left in ignorance of what they mean; and at still other times to allow the human soul through some sort of fuller revelation to see these images with the spirit and understand their meaning with the mind? It is extremely difficult to find an answer to these questions; and even if I had the knowledge, it would be a great task to discuss and explain the matter.
CHAPTER 23
Summary of the ways in which the likenesses of bodies are seen in the spirit.
49. But I think it is sufficient now to demonstrate this one fact, namely, that there exists in us a spiritual nature in which the likenesses of bodily things are formed. This spiritual nature