faces forwards or into the chamber, but not backwards or towards the
wall. This was told me by their spirits, who said that the cause was
that they believe that they thus turn their face to the Lord, but that
if they turn it backwards they turn it away from Him. The like has
sometimes happened to myself when in bed, but I had not previously
been aware of its origin.

58. They take pleasure in prolonging their repasts, not so much from
delight in feeding as from delight in conversing then. When they sit
at table, they do not sit on chairs or benches, nor on raised seats of
turf, nor on the grass, but on the leaves of a particular tree. They
were not willing to say of what tree the leaves were; but when I
guessed at several, they at last assented when I named the fig tree.
They informed me besides, that they do not prepare their food to
please the palate, but chiefly for the sake of use; they added that to
them the food which is wholesome is savoury. A conversation took place
on this subject among the spirits, and it was urged that it would be
well for man to observe this rule, for thus he would ensure having a
sound mind in a sound body. It is otherwise with those with whom the
taste rules: the body hence becomes diseased, at least it becomes
inwardly feeble, consequently so does the mind; for the mind comports
itself according to the interior state of the recipient parts of the
body, as sight and hearing do according to the state of the eye and
ear; hence the folly of placing all the delight of life in luxury
and pleasure; from this too comes dulness in such things as belong to
thought and judgment, and acuteness in such as belong to the body and
the world. By this man acquires the likeness of a brute animal, with
which indeed such persons not inappropriately compare themselves.

59. Their dwellings were also shown me. They are lowly dwellings