36. It is their custom not to tell another what they know, but still they want to learn from all others what is known to them. With their own society, however, they communicate everything, insomuch that what one knows all know, and what all know each one in the society knows[l].
37. Inasmuch as the spirits of Mercury abound in knowledges, they are in a certain kind of conceit; hence they imagine that they know so much that it is almost impossible to know more. But it was told them by the spirits of our Earth, that they do not know much but little, and that the things which they do not know are comparatively infinite; and that the things which they do not know, are, relatively to those they do know, as the waters of the largest ocean to those of a very small fountain; and further, that the first step towards wisdom consists in knowing, acknowledging, and perceiving that what one knows, is, compared with what one does not know, so little as hardly to be anything. In order that they might know that it is so, it was granted that a certain angelic spirit should speak with them, and tell them generally what they knew and what they did not know, and that there were infinite things which they did not know, and that eternity would not suffice for their acquiring even a general knowledge of things. He spoke by means of angelic ideas much more readily than they did, and as he disclosed to them what they knew and what they did not know, they were struck with amazement. Afterwards I saw another angel speaking with them, who appeared at some height towards the right; he was from our Earth. He recounted very many things which they did not know; and afterwards he spoke with them by means of changes of state, which they said they did not understand. He then told them that every change of state, and also every smallest part of such change, contains infinite things. When they heard this, as they had been conceited on account of their knowledges, they began to humble themselves. Their humiliation was represented by the sinking downwards of the compact body (volumen) which they formed (for that company appeared at the time as a compact body, in front towards the left, at a distance, in the plane of the region below the navel); but the compact body appeared as it were hollowed in the middle, and raised at the sides; an alternating motion was also observed therein. They were also told what that signified, that is, what they thought in their humiliation, and that those who appeared elevated at the sides were not as yet in any humiliation; and I saw that the compact body was separated, and that those who were not in humiliation were sent back towards their earth, the rest remaining.
38. There once came some spirits of Mercury to a certain spirit from our Earth, who, during his life in the world, had been most celebrated for his learning,—he was Christian Wolf—desiring to receive information from him on various subjects. But when they perceived that what he said was not elevated above the sensual things of the natural man, because in speaking he thought of honour, and wanted, as in the world (for in the other life every one is like his former self), to connect various things into series, and from these again and continually to deduce others, and so form several chains of such, which they did not see or acknowledge to be true, and which therefore they declared to be chains which neither cohered in themselves nor with the conclusions, and called them the obscurity of authority, they ceased to question him, inquiring only what this was called and what that. And because he answered these questions also by material ideas, and not by any that were spiritual, they departed from him. For in the other life every one speaks spiritually, or by spiritual ideas, so far as in the world he had believed in God; and materially, so far as he had not believed. As an opportunity here offers, I may relate how the case is, in the other life, with the learned who acquire intelligence by their own meditation kindled by the love of knowing truths for the sake of truths, thus for the sake of uses apart from worldly considerations; and how the case is with those who acquire intelligence from others without any meditation of their own, as is the practice of those who desire to know truths merely for the purpose of acquiring a reputation for learning, and of thereby attaining honour or gain in the world, and consequently not for the sake of uses apart from worldly considerations. I may here relate a certain experience concerning men of this character. There was apperceived a certain sound penetrating from beneath near the left side as far as the left ear: I observed that there were spirits who were attempting to force their way there, but I could not ascertain of what character they were. When they had forced their way, however, they spoke with me, saying that they were logicians and metaphysicians, and that they had immersed their thoughts in such [sciences] without any other end than that of acquiring a reputation for learning, and thus of attaining to honours and wealth: they lamented that they now led a miserable life, because they had studied these sciences for no other end, and thus had not cultivated their Rational by means of them. Their speech was slow and muffled. In the meantime there were two conversing above my head, and when I asked who they were, I was told that one of them was of the highest distinction in the learned world, and it was given me to believe that he was Aristotle. Who the other was, was not stated. He was then let into the state in which he had been when he lived in the world, for every one can easily be let into the state of life which he had had in the world, since every state of his life remains with him. I was surprised to find that he applied himself to the right ear, and he spoke there, hoarsely, indeed, but still sensibly. From the purport of what he said I apperceived that he was of quite a different genius from those Schoolmen who first arose, namely, that he hatched what he wrote from his own thought, and from the same source produced his philosophical system, so that the terms which he invented, and applied to subjects of thought, were forms of expression by which he described interior things; also that he was excited to such pursuits by a delight of the affection, and by a desire of knowing the things that belonged to the thought and the understanding; and that he followed obediently whatever his spirit had dictated. This was the reason he applied himself to the right ear, differently from his followers, who are called Schoolmen, and who do not proceed from thought to terms, but from terms to thoughts, thus by a contrary way; and many of them do not even proceed to thoughts, but stick fast entirely in terms, their application of which, when they make any, being to confirm whatever they want to, and to invest falsities with an appearance of truth, according to their eagerness to persuade. Consequently for them philosophy is rather a means of becoming foolish than a means of becoming wise; and therefore they have darkness instead of light. Afterwards, I conversed with him on analytical science, saying that a little child, in half an hour, speaks more philosophically, analytically, and logically, than he could describe in a volume, because all things of human thought and consequently of human speech are analytical, and the laws thereof are from the spiritual world; and that he who wants to think artificially from terms is not unlike a dancer who wants to learn to dance from a knowledge of the motory fibres and muscles; if he were to keep his mind (animus) fixed on that knowledge whilst dancing, he would hardly be able to move a foot, and yet, without that knowledge, he sets in action all the motory fibres that are scattered throughout the whole of his body, and, in due measure, the lungs, diaphragm, sides, arms, neck, and all the other parts, to describe all which volumes would not suffice; and that the case is just like this with those who want to think from terms. He approved of these observations, and said, that if one learns to think in that way one proceeds in inverted order: adding, that if any one wants to be foolish, he has only to proceed in that way; and that one should constantly think of use, and from what is interior. He next showed me what idea he had had of the Supreme Deity. He had represented Him to himself as having a human face, and encompassed about the head with a radiant circle; but he now knew that the Lord is Himself that Man, and that the radiant circle is the Divine [proceeding] from Him, which inflows not only into heaven but also into the universe, disposing and ruling both. He added, that He who disposes and rules heaven, disposes and rules the universe also, because the one cannot be separated from the other. He also said, that he believed in only one God, whose attributes and qualities men distinguished by names as numerous as the gods they worshipped. A woman appeared to me who stretched out her hand, desiring to stroke his cheek. When I expressed my surprise at this, he said, that while he was in the world such a woman had often appeared to him, and as it were stroked his cheek, and that her hand was beautiful. The angelic spirits said that such women sometimes appeared to the ancients, and that they called them Pallases; and that the one who appeared to him was from spirits who, when they lived as men in the ancient times, were delighted with ideas and indulged in thoughts, but without philosophy; and as such spirits were with him, and were delighted with him because he thought from what is interior, they representatively exhibited such a woman to his view. Lastly, he told me what idea he had had concerning the soul or spirit of man, which he called Pneuma, namely, that it was an invisible vital [principle], like something of the ether. He said that he knew his spirit would live after death, since it was his interior essence, which cannot die, because it can think; and moreover that he could not think clearly concerning it, but only obscurely, because he had not possessed any knowledge on the subject except from himself, with a little also from the Ancients. Aristotle, it may be remarked, is among sane spirits in the other life, but many of his followers are among the foolish.
39. I once saw that some spirits of our Earth were with some spirits of Mercury, and I heard them conversing with one another; and on this occasion the spirits of our Earth asked them, among other things, in whom they believed. They replied that they believed in God. But when they inquired further concerning the God in whom they believed, they would not say, since it is their custom not to give direct answers to questions. Then the spirits from the earth Mercury, in their turn, asked the spirits from our Earth in whom they believed. They said that they believed in the Lord God. The spirits of Mercury then said they perceived that they believed in no God, and that they had contracted a habit of professing belief with the mouth when yet they do not believe. (The spirits of Mercury have an exquisite perception, in consequence of their continually exploring, by means of perception, what others know.) The spirits of our Earth were of the number of those who in the world had made profession of faith according to the doctrine of the church, but still had not lived the life of faith; and those who do not live the life of faith, in the other life have no faith, because it is not in the man[r]. On hearing this they were silent, because, by an apperception then given them, they acknowledged that the case was so.
Footnote r: [(return) ]
They who make profession of faith from doctrine, and do not live the life of faith, have no faith, nos. 3865, 7766, 7778, 7790, 7950, 8094. And their interiors are contrary to the truths of faith, although in the world they do not know this, nos. 7790, 7950.
40. Certain spirits knew from heaven that a promise had once been made to the spirits of the earth Mercury, that they should see the Lord; they were, therefore, asked by the spirits about me whether they recollected that promise. They said that they did recollect it; but that they did not know whether the promise had been made in such a manner as to preclude all doubt respecting it. While they were thus talking together, the Sun of heaven appeared to them. (The Sun of heaven, which is the Lord, is seen only by those who are in the inmost or third heaven; others see the light which proceeds from it.) On seeing the Sun, they said that this was not the Lord God, because they saw no face. Meanwhile the spirits were conversing with each other, but I did not hear what they said. Suddenly, however, the Sun again appeared, and in the midst of it the Lord, encompassed with a solar circle: at this sight the spirits of Mercury humbled themselves profoundly, and bowed down. At that time also, the Lord appeared out of that Sun to certain spirits of our Earth, who, when they were men, had seen Him in the world; and they, one after another, and thus many in succession, confessed that it was the Lord Himself; and they made this confession before the whole assembly. At the same time also the Lord appeared out of the Sun to the spirits of the planet Jupiter, who declared with a clear voice, that it was He Himself whom they had seen on their earth when the God of the universe appeared to them[s].
Footnote s: [(return) ]
The Lord is the Sun of heaven, from which proceeds all the light there, nos. 1053, 3636, 4060. And the Lord thus appears to those who are in His celestial kingdom, where love to Him reigns, nos. 1521, 1529-1531, 1837, 4696. He appears at a middle height above the plane of the right eye, nos. 4321, 7078. Therefore in the Word the sun signifies the Lord as to the Divine Love, nos. 2495, 4060, 7083. The sun of the world does not appear to spirits and angels, but in its place as it were a dark something behind, opposite to the Sun of heaven or to the Lord, no. 9755.
41. After the Lord had appeared, some were led towards the front parts to the right, and as they advanced, they said that they saw a light much clearer and purer than they had ever seen before, and that a greater light could not possibly be seen: and it was then the time of evening here. Those who said this were many[t].
Footnote t: [(return) ]
In the heavens there is great light, which exceeds, by many degrees, the noon-day light on earth, nos. 1117, 1521, 1533, 1619-1632, 4527, 5400, 8644. All light in the heavens is from the Lord as the Sun there, nos. 1053, 1521, 3195, 3341, 3636, 3643, 4415, 9548, 9684, 10809. The Divine Truth proceeding from the Divine Good of the Lord's Divine Love appears in the heavens as light and constitutes all the light there, nos. 3195, 3222, 5400, 8644, 9399, 9548, 9684. The light of heaven illuminates both the sight and the understanding of the angels, nos. 2776, 3138. Heaven being said to be in light and heat, signifies in wisdom and in love, nos. 3643, 9399, 9401.
42. It should be known that the sun of the world does not appear at all to any spirit, nor does anything of the light from it. The light of this sun is, to spirits and angels, like thick darkness. This sun remains in the perception with spirits only from their having seen it when they were in the world, and it is exhibited to them in idea as an exceedingly dark something, and situated behind at a considerable distance, at a little height above the plane of the head. The planets which are within the system of this sun appear according to a fixed situation in respect to the sun: Mercury appears behind, a little towards the right; the planet Venus to the left, a little backwards; the planet Mars to the left in front; the planet Jupiter likewise to the left in front, but at a greater distance; the planet Saturn directly in front, at a considerable distance; the Moon to the left, at a moderate height: the satellites also appear to the left relatively to their own planets. Such is the situation of these planets in the ideas of spirits and angels. Spirits also appear near their own planet, but apart from it. With regard to the spirits of Mercury in particular, they do not appear in any particular quarter, or at any particular distance, but they appear sometimes in front, sometimes to the left, sometimes a little to the back; the reason is, that they are allowed to wander through the universe for the purpose of procuring knowledges.