oolish delight as if they
were possessed of the universe and all that it contains: into this
delirium every man comes after death, who has abstracted his spirit from
the body, and has not wished to recede from the delight of the delirium
by thinking at all religiously respecting evils and falses, and least of
all respecting the inordinate love of self as being destructive of love
to the Lord, and respecting the inordinate love of the world, as being
destructive of neighborly love.

268. After this the two angels and also myself were seized with a desire
of seeing those who from worldly love are in the visionary concupiscence
or phantasy of possessing all wealth; and we perceived that we were
inspired with this desire to the end that such visionaries might be
known. Their dwellings were under the earth of our feet, but above hell:
we therefore looked at each other and said, "Let us go." There was an
opening, and in it a ladder by which we descended; and we were told that
we must approach them from the east, lest we should enter into the mist
of their phantasy, whereby our understanding and at the same time our
sight would be obscured; and lo! there appeared a house built of reeds,
and consequently full of chinks, standing in a mist, which continually
issued like smoke through the chinks of three of the walls. We entered,
and saw perhaps fifty here and fifty there sitting on benches, with
their faces turned from the east and south, and looking towards the west
and north. Before each person there was a table, on which were large
purses, and by the purses a great quantity of gold coin: so we asked
them, "Is that the wealth of all the persons in the world?" they
replied, "Not of all in the world, but of all in the kingdom." The sound
of their voice was hissing; and they had round faces, which glistened
like the shell of a snail, and the pupils of their eyes in a green plane
as it were shot forth lightning, which was an effect of the light of
phantasy. We stood in the midst of them, and said, "You believe that you
possess all the wealth of the kingdom;" they replied, "We do possess
it." We then asked, "Which of you?" they said, "Every one;" and we
asked, "How every one? there are many of you:" they said, "Every one of
us knows that all which another has is his own. No one is allowed to
think, and still less to say, 'Mine are not thine;' but every one may
think and say, 'Thine are mine.'" The coin on the tables appeared, even