835. THE AFRICANS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD; ALSO SOMETHING IN REGARD TO THE GENTILES.
The Gentiles who have known nothing about the Lord are seen in the spiritual world round about those who have known Him; yet so arranged that the outmost border is formed exclusively of those who are thorough idolaters, and who in the former world worshiped the sun and moon. But those who acknowledge one God, and who accept such precepts as the Decalogue contains as the precepts of the religion and consequently of their life, communicate more directly with the Christians at the center; for in this case the communication is not intercepted by the Mohammedans and Papists. The Gentiles are also distinguished according to their genius and their capacity to receive light through the heavens from the Lord; for there are among them some who are interior and some who are exterior, which difference comes partly from climate, partly from the stock from which they have sprung, partly from education, and partly from religion. The Africans are more interior than the others.