2138. From this it follows that the speech of spirits is a universal language, and that from it have arisen, and been born, so to speak, all languages. For it is spiritual mental imagery that makes up their language. When these images stream into a person's memory, they arouse words the person has in his memory that interact with and resemble them. They also arouse the many associated mental images that usually inhere in the same word, as well as those that have become joined from various adjacent images, and many that cling to it from nearby-all depending on the nature and character of the spirits. For spirits arouse the images and from these the words that suit their nature. So this occurs with all the variety and diversity that exists among spirits, and the states of mind of the spirits.