1272、后来，我被指示他们女人的穿着。她们头戴一顶黑色圆帽，帽子前端翘起呈塔状，她们的脸很小；而男人们则乱蓬蓬、毛烘烘的。我还被指示他们多么以子女众多为荣；无论他们走到哪里，都有子女相伴，他们的孩子沿着一条弯弯曲曲的路线在他们前头行。然而，他们被告知，就连野兽，即便最坏的那种，也都有对自己幼崽的爱；这并不能证明他们有任何良善在里面。但如果他们爱孩子不是出于他们对自己和自己荣耀的爱，而是出于为了共同利益而想要增加世界人口，尤其为了增加天堂里的人数，因而为了主的国，那么他们对孩子的爱就是真诚的。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]1272. After these things, I was shown how the women among them dressed. On their head they had a long, rounded, black hat with a peak in front.{*1} Their faces were small. The men, on the other hand, were shaggy with hair.
I was shown also how proud they were to have large numbers of children. Wherever they ventured, they took their children with them, letting the children walk in front in a curved line. But they were told that animals — even the worst ones — all love their offspring, and that this provides no proof of virtue in them. They could have loved their children not out of conceit or pride, it was said, but out of a desire to increase world population for the sake of the common good, and more especially to swell the number of people in heaven.{*2} So they could have made the Lord's kingdom their goal, and then they would have exhibited a genuine love for children.
Footnotes:
{*1} Swedenborg drew an illustration of this hat in his Spiritual Experiences (Swedenborg 1998-2002) 3589. [LHC]
{*2} This statement reflects a view, common at the time, that population increase was a good thing. Possibly there is an echo of the command of Genesis 1:28: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it" (New Revised Standard Version). Furthermore, Swedenborg often refers to the human race as the "breeding ground for heaven," that is, as the stock from which the inhabitants of heaven derive; compare 6697:1, 7069, 9441. [RS, SS]
Potts(1905-1910) 1272
1272. It was afterwards shown me how their women were dressed. They wore upon the head a round black hat, projecting turret-like in front, and had a small face, whereas the men were shaggy and hairy. It was shown me also how they gloried in the great number of their children; and that they had their children with them wherever they went, who walked before them in a curved line. But they were told that the brutes also, even the worst, all have a love for their young; and that this is no evidence that there is anything good in them; but that if they had loved children, not from their love of themselves and their own glory, but that human society might be augmented, for the common good; and especially if they had loved them in order that heaven might thereby be multiplied, thus for the sake of the Lord's kingdom, then their love for children would have been genuine.
Elliott(1983-1999) 1272
1272. I was shown after that how their womenfolk were dressed. On their heads they wore a round black hat with a turret so to speak sticking up at the front. They had small faces. The men however were shaggy and hairy. I was also shown how much they gloried in the large number of children they had, and that wherever they went they were accompanied by their children who led the way in a curving line. They were told however that love of their young also existed with every animal, even the worst, and that this was no argument that they had anything good existing with them. But if they had loved children not for reasons of self-love and glory but so that, for the sake of the common good, the human community would be increased, and more importantly so that heaven might consequently be enlarged - and so for the sake of the Lord's kingdom - their love towards children would in that case have been genuine.
Latin(1748-1756) 1272
1272. Ostensum mihi postea quomodo mulieres eorum amictae fuerint:' circum caput habuerunt pileum rotundum nigrum; protensum, quasi turritum antrorsum, facie fuerunt parva; viri autem hirsuti et pilosi. Ostensum quoque quantum gloriati sunt de multitudine infantum, quod, ubicumque vaderent, haberent secum suos liberos qui praeibant in linea inflexa; sed iis dictum quod amor infantum quoque sit apud omnia bruta, etiam pessima, et quod hoc non argumentum sit quod aliquid bonum apud eos; at si liberos amavissent non sui amoris et gloriae causa, sed ut societas humana ob commune bonum augeretur, et magis ut caelum inde multiplicaretur, ita propter regnum Domini quod tunc fuisset amor erga infantes genuinus.