respecting their state of life and respecting that of the inhabitants
of that planet. That those spirits were from that planet, was evident
from many circumstances, and was also declared from heaven.

47. The earth or planet Jupiter itself does not indeed appear to
spirits and angels: for in the spiritual world no earth is ever
visible to any one, but only the spirits and angels who are from it.
Those who are from the planet Jupiter appear in front to the left, at
some little distance, and this constantly (see above, no. 42): there
also the planet is. The spirits of every earth are near their own
earth, because they are from its inhabitants (for every man after
death becomes a spirit), and because they are thus of a similar
genius, and can be with the inhabitants and be of service to them.

48. They related that in the region of their earth where they had
lived when in the world, the multitude of human beings was as great
as the earth could support; that it was fertile, and abounded in all
things; that the inhabitants desired no more than sufficed for the
necessities of life, and that what was not necessary they did not
regard as useful; and that therefore the multitude of human beings
was so great. They said that their principal care was the education of
their children, and that they loved them most tenderly.

49. They further related that on their earth they are distinguished
into clans, families, and households, and that all live together with
their own, separate from the others, and that therefore their habitual
intercourse is confined to their kindred: also that no one ever
desires another's goods; nor does it ever enter the mind (_animus_) of
any one to covet any of the goods of another, much less to obtain them
by any artifice, and still less to attack and plunder them; this they