52. Those that are ignorant of truth (or the true natures of things), are known to be viler than the asses, and other brute creatures that live upon the land; and are meaner than the mean insects that dwell in the holes beneath the earth. (Knowledge of truth ennobles man-kind, above their fellow-creatures). 53. So long is an embodied being said to be a devil of darkness, as he is ignorant of spiritual knowledge, but no sooner is he acquainted with his soul, and united with his self in his intellection, than he is recognized as a spiritual being. 54. The unspiritual man is tossed about on earth as a carcass, and is consumed with the fuel of his cares, as a dead body is burnt away by the flames of its funeral fire; but the spiritualist knowing the nature of his soul, is only sensible of his immortality. 55. Spiritualism flies afar from the man, whose heart is hardened in this world; just as the glory of sunshine, is lost under the shadow of the thickening clouds in the sky. 56. Therefore the mind is to be gradually curbed and contracted in itself, by a dislike of all earthly enjoyments; and the knower of his self should try by long practice of abstinence, to desiccate his spirit of its moisture, to the dryness of a faded leaf. 57. The mind is thickened and fattened by consolidating itself with those of others; and staining it with the affections, of wife and those of offspring, relations and friends. 58. The passions and feelings also are often the causes, of the solidity and stolidity of the mind; and these are its egotism and selfishness, gaiety and impurity of thoughts, and its changing tempers and affections. But most of all it is the sense of meity that this is mine, that nourishes it to gross density. (The mind is puffed up with the increase of possessions). 59. The mind is swollen on coming to prosperity, even under the deadly pains of old age and infirmity; as also under the poisonous pangs of penury and miserliness. (Stinginess is a painful pleasure). 60. The mind grows lusty in its expectation of some good in prospect, even under the afflictions of disease and danger. It grows stout with enduring what is intolerable, and doing what ought not to be done. 61. The heart too becomes stout with its affection for others, and also with its desire and gain of riches and jewels; it becomes lusty with its craving after women, and in having whatever is pleasant to it for the moment. 62. The heart like a snake, is big swollen with feeding on false hopes as air; and by breathing the empty air of passing delights and pleasures. It is pampered by drinking the liquor of fleeting hope, and moves about in the course of its endless expectations. 63. The heart is stanch in its enjoyment of pleasures, however injurious they are in their nature; and though situated inside the body, yet it is subject to pine in disease and uneasiness, under a variety of pains and changes.