They were introduced into a large library, which was
divided into classes arranged according to the sciences. The three
strangers, on seeing so many books, were astonished, and said, "There
are books also in this world! whence do you procure parchment and paper,
pens and ink?" The elders replied, "We perceive that in the former world
you believed that this world is empty and void, because it is spiritual;
and you believed so because you had conceived an idea of what is
spiritual abstracted from what is material; and that which is so
abstracted appeared to you as nothingness, thus as empty and void; when
nevertheless in this world there is a fulness of all things. Here all
things are SUBSTANTIAL and not material: and material things derive
their origin from things substantial. We who live here are spiritual
men, because we are substantial and not material; hence in this world we
have all things that are in the natural world, in their perfection, even
books and writings, and many other things which are not in the natural
world." The three strangers, when they heard talk of things SUBSTANTIAL,
conceived that it must be so, as well because they saw written books, as
because they heard it asserted that material things originate in
substantial.
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