en me to ask them
whether they had any desire to get out of that place: to this they
replied, that they had not as yet merited it by their labour. But when
this state has been accomplished they are taken out from thence.
These [spirits] are natural, because wishing to merit salvation is not
spiritual, for it comes from the proprium and not from the Lord; and
besides, they prefer themselves to others, and some of them despise
others; and if they do not receive more joy than others in the other
life, they are indignant against the Lord; wherefore when they are
cutting wood, it appears as if something of the Lord were under the
wood. This arises from their indignation."[dd]

[Footnote A: _Arcana_, no. 4943. See also nos. 1110, 8740.--TR.]

[Footnote dd: Merit and righteousness belong to the Lord alone, nos.
9715, 9975, 9979, 9981, 9982. Those who place merit in works, or want
to merit heaven by the good deeds which they do, in the other life
want to be served, and are never contented, no. 6393. They despise
their neighbour, and are angry with the Lord Himself if they do not
receive reward, no. 9976. What their lot in the other life is, nos.
942, 1774, 1877, 2027. They are of those who in the lower earth appear
to cut wood, nos. 1110, 4943.]

71. It is common on that earth for spirits to speak with the
inhabitants, and to instruct them, and also to chastise them if they
have done evil. As many particulars on this subject have been related
to me by their angels, I will recount them in their order. The reason
that spirits there speak with men is, that they think much about
heaven and the life after death, and are comparatively little
solicitous about the life of the world; for they know that they shall
live after their decease, and in a happy state according to the state
of their internal man that has been formed in the world. Speaking with
spirits and angels was common on our Earth also in ancient times, and
for the same reason, namely, that they thought [much] of heaven and
little of the world. But in course of time that living communication
with heaven was closed, in proportion as man, from being internal,
became external, or, what is the same, as he began to think much about
the world and little about heaven, and especially when he ceased to
believe in the existence of heaven and hell, or in the existence in
himself of a spirit-man that lives after death. For at this day it
is believed that the body lives from itself a