43. The spirits of Mercury were once seen to the left in a globe, and then later this stretched out lengthwise to form a roll. I wondered where they wanted to go, whether it was to this world or somewhere else. Shortly afterwards I observed that they were turning to the right and rotating until they approached the world or planet Venus, at its forward face.* But on reaching there they said they did not want to be there, because the people were wicked. So they went around to the rear part of that world; then they said they wanted to stay there, because the people were good. While this was happening I felt a considerable change in my brain, and a strong activity coming from it. From this I was able to infer that the spirits of Venus who come from that region of the planet agreed with the spirits of Mercury, since they answer to the memory of material ideas, which agrees with the memory of non-material ideas to which the spirits of Mercury answer. Consequently, when they were there, the activity emanating from them was stronger. [* The parallel passage at AC 7170 defines 'forward' as the side turned away from the sun, and the 'rear part' as that facing the sun.-TR.]