37. Inasmuch as the spirits of Mercury abound in knowledges, they are in a certain kind of conceit; hence they imagine that they know so much that it is almost impossible to know more. But it was told them by the spirits of our Earth, that they do not know much but little, and that the things which they do not know are comparatively infinite; and that the things which they do not know, are, relatively to those they do know, as the waters of the largest ocean to those of a very small fountain; and further, that the first step towards wisdom consists in knowing, acknowledging, and perceiving that what one knows, is, compared with what one does not know, so little as hardly to be anything. In order that they might know that it is so, it was granted that a certain angelic spirit should speak with them, and tell them generally what they knew and what they did not know, and that there were infinite things which they did not know, and that eternity would not suffice for their acquiring even a general knowledge of things. He spoke by means of angelic ideas much more readily than they did, and as he disclosed 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 at some height towards the right; he was from our Earth. He recounted very many things which they did not know; and afterwards he spoke with them by means of changes of state, which they said they did not understand. He then told them that every change of state, and also every smallest part of such change, contains infinite things. When they heard this, as they had been conceited on account of their knowledges, they began to humble themselves. Their humiliation was represented by the sinking downwards of the compact body (_volumen_) which they formed (for that company appeared at the time as a compact body, in front towards the left, at a distance, in the plane of the region below the navel); but the compact body appeared as it were hollowed in the middle, and raised at the sides; an alternating motion was also observed therein. They were also told what that signified, that is, what they thought in their humiliation, and that those who appeared elevated at the sides were not as yet in any humiliation; and I saw that the compact body was separated, and that those who were not in humiliation were sent back towards their earth, the rest remaining.