234-245). It was in this way
that man had thought while in the world when he was thinking within
himself, for at such times his thought was not from his bodily words,
but he [mentally] saw the things, and in a minute of time saw more
than he could afterwards utter in half an hour. Again that the state
of the exteriors is not man's own state or the state of his spirit is
evident from the fact that when he is in company in the world he
speaks in accord with the laws of moral and civil life, and at such
times interior thought rules the exterior thought, as one person
rules another, to keep him from transgressing the limits of decorum
and good manners. It is evident also from the fact that when a man
thinks within himself, he thinks how he must speak and act in order
to please and to secure friendship, good will, and favor, and this in
extraneous ways, that is, otherwise than he would do if he acted in
accordance with his own will. All this shows that the state of the
interiors that the spirit is let into is his own state, and was his
own state when he was living in the world as a man.
505. When the spirit is in the state of his interiors it becomes
clearly evident what the man was in himself when he was in the world,
for at such times he acts from what is his own.
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