es appeared as of
polished steel, their bodies from the neck to the loins as graven images
of stone clothed with leopards' skins, and their feet like snakes: the
law books too, which they had arranged in order on the tables, were
changed into packs of cards: and now, instead of sitting in judgement,
the office appointed to them is to prepare vermilion and mix it up into
a paint, to bedaub the faces of harlots and thereby turn them into
beauties.

After seeing these things, I was desirous to visit the two other
assemblies, one of which consisted of mere reasoners, and the other of
mere confirmators; and it was said to me, "Stop awhile, and you shall
have attendant angels from the society next above them; by these you
will receive light from the Lord and will see what will surprise you."

232. THE SECOND MEMORABLE RELATION. After some time I heard again from
the lower earth voices exclaiming as before, "O HOW LEARNED! O HOW
WISE!" I looked round to see what angels were present; and lo! they were
from the heaven immediately above those who cried out, "O HOW LEARNED!"
and I conversed with them respecting the cry, and they said, "Those
learned ones are such as only reason _whether a thing be so or not_, and
seldom think _that it is so_; therefore, they are like winds which blow
and pass away, like the bark about trees which are without sap, or like
shells about almonds without a kernel, or like the outward rind about
fruit without pulp; for their minds are void of interior judgement, and
are united only with the bodily senses; therefore unless the senses
themselves decide, they can conclude nothing; in a word, they are merely
sensual, and we call them REASONERS. We give them this name, because
they never conclude anything, and make whatever they hear a matter of
argument, and dispute whether it be so, with perpetual contradiction.
They love nothing better than to attack essential truths, and so to pull
them in pieces as to make them a subject of dispute. These are those who
believe themselves learned above the rest of the world." On hearing this
account, I entreated the angels to conduct me to them: so they led me to
a cave, from which there was a flight of steps leading to the earth
below. We descended and followed the shout, "O HOW LEARNED!" and lo!
there were some hundreds standing in one place, beating the ground with
their feet. Being at first surprised at this sight, I inquired the
reason of their standing in that man