37. Because the spirits of Mercury abound in knowledges, they are in a certain kind of pride; hence they imagine that they know so much, that it is almost impossible to know more. Rut it was told them by the spirits of our earth, that they do not know many, but few things, and that the things which they do not know are respectively infinite, and that those things which they do not know, compared to the things they know, are like the waters of the largest ocean compared with the waters of a very small fountain; and further, that the first step to wisdom is to know, acknowledge, and perceive that what is known is little and scarce anything in comparison with what is unknown. To convince them that this is the case, it was granted, that a certain angelic spirit should speak with them, and should tell them in general what they knew, and what they did not know, and that there were infinite things which they did not know, also that to eternity they could not even know the general things. He spoke by angelic ideas much more readily than they did, and because he discovered to them what they knew, and what they did not know, they were struck with amazement. Afterwards I saw another angel speaking with them, who appeared in some altitude to the right. He was from our earth, and enumerated very many things which they did not know. Afterwards he spoke with them by changes of state, which they said they did not understand. Then he told them that every change of state contains infinite things, as did also every smallest part of such change. When they heard these things, inasmuch as they had been in pride on account of their knowledges, they began to humble themselves. Their humiliation was represented by the sinking downwards of their volume; for that company then appeared as a volume, in front at a distance towards the left, in the plane of the region below the navel, but the volume appeared as it were hollowed in the middle, and elevated on the sides; a reciprocal moving was also observed therein. They were likewise told what that signified, that is, what they thought in their humiliation, and that they who appeared elevated on the sides were not as yet in any humiliation. And I saw that the volume was separated, and that they who were not in humiliation were remanded back towards their orb, the rest remaining where they were.