1624、有一次，一条大型彩虹出现在我面前，好叫我可以从它了解最小型的彩虹是什么样。这是一道周围有一种带子的纯白光，带子中间是某种昏暗、土质的东西。这种东西被一道极其明亮的光环围绕，而光环本身斑驳陆离，并被另一个带有似小星星的金点的发光体分割。其它变化是由进入发光区域的不同颜色的花朵产生的。这些花的颜色不是由白光产出的，而是由一种火焰般的光产生的。这一切表象都代表了属天和属灵事物。在来世，一切可见颜色都代表某种属天或属灵之物。从火焰般的光发出的颜色代表属于爱和对良善的情感的事物，而从白光发出的颜色则代表属于信和对真理的情感的事物。这些是来世所有颜色的源头，所以它们如此辉煌，以至于这个世界的颜色根本无法与之相比。那里还有世上从未见过的颜色。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]1624. Once a large-scale rainbow appeared before me so that I could learn from it what rainbows are like at the smallest scale.{*1} There was a brilliant white light with a kind of belt about it. At the core of the belt was something dim and earthlike surrounded by a bright radiance. The radiance was dappled and broken up by another kind of light containing golden starlike sparkles. Other changes occurred when flowers of different colors entered into the bright radiance 钬?colors produced not by white light but by a fiery kind of light. All of it represented heavenly and spiritual qualities.
In the other world, all visible colors represent something heavenly or spiritual. Colors that partake of fire represent aspects of love and of a desire for what is good. Colors that partake of white light represent aspects of faith and of a desire for truth. All colors in the next life come from these sources and therefore gleam so brilliantly that colors in this world cannot be compared to them. There are also colors that have never been seen in the world.
Footnotes:
{*1} The method that Swedenborg describes here 钬?of using macroscopic phenomena to determine the workings of microscopic phenomena 钬?is reminiscent of the method earlier used by Descartes and others in developing their theories of the rainbow. Descartes takes as his premise that the rainbow is formed "merely from the way the rays of light act against [raindrops]" (Descartes [1637] 2001, 332). He goes on to describe his mode of investigation in this way: "Seeing that [the raindrops'] being larger or smaller does not change the appearance of the arc, I then took it into my head to make a very large [raindrop], the better to examine it" (Descartes [1637] 2001, 332). Descartes's "very large raindrop" was a large glass globe filled with water. There is no question that Swedenborg was aware of such experiments; he probably read them in Descartes's work itself, but in any case he copied a mention of them into his commonplace book, Quotations on Various Philosophical and Theological Topics (Swedenborg 1976c), 249. This entire passage is of a piece with the Enlightenment fascination with macrocosm and microcosm and the utility of enlargement, visual and otherwise, in solving age-old riddles of the natural world. Compare the passage in Worship and Love of God 95:2-3 in which a "zoomed in" image of the inside of the body is shown by a teacher to a pupil. [SS]
Potts(1905-1910) 1624
1624. I saw the form of a certain large rainbow, in order that from it I might know what they are in their smallest forms. The light was the brightest white, encompassed with a sort of border or circumference, in the center of which there was a dimness as it were terrene, and around this it was intensely lucid, which intense lucidity was varied and intersected by another lucidity with golden points, like little stars; besides variegations induced by means of flowers of variegated hue, that entered into the intense lucidity. The colors of the flowers did not flow forth from a white, but from a flaming light. All these things were representative of things celestial and spiritual. All the colors seen in the other life represent what is celestial and spiritual; colors from flaming light, the things that are of love and of the affection of good; and colors from shining white light, those which are of faith and of the affection of truth. From these origins come all the colors in the other life; and for this reason they are so refulgent that the colors in this world cannot be compared to them. There are also colors that have never been seen in this world.
Elliott(1983-1999) 1624
1624. The form of one of the large rainbows was shown to me, so that from it I could get to know what their smallest forms were like. It was a pure white light with a kind of border, in the middle of which was a dark object as if made of earth. This was surrounded by an extremely luminous halo, itself variegated and divided up by another luminescence that had yellow dots like tiny stars. Additional variegations were produced by flowers of different colours entering the luminous area. The colours of these flowers emanated not from a white light but from a flame-like one. All of these appearances were representative of celestial and spiritual things. All the colours that are seen in the next life represent that which is celestial or spiritual. The colours emanating from the flame-like light represent things that belong to love and the affection for good, whereas colours emanating from the white light represent those that belong to faith and the affection for truth. These are the sources of all colours in the next life, and they are therefore so resplendent that the colours of this world cannot compare with them. Colours also exist there which are never seen in this world.
Latin(1748-1756) 1624
1624. Visa mihi est forma cujusdam iridis major, ut inde scire possem quales sunt in formis suis minimis: erat lux candidissima cincta quadam circumferentia, in cujus centro obscurum quasi terrenum, circumfusum lucidissimo, quod lucidissimum variabatur et discriminabatur alio lucido cum punctulis flavescentibus sicut stellulis; praeter variegationes inductas per flores diversicolores intrantes in lucidissimum, quorum colores effluebant non a lucido candido sed a flammeo, quae omnia erant repraesentativa caelestium et spiritualium. Omnes colores visibiles in altera vita repraesentant caeleste et spirituale; colores ex flammeo illa quae sunt amoris et affectionis boni; colores ex lucido candido illa quae sunt fidei et affectionis veri; ex illis originibus omnes colores in altera vita; qui ideo ita fulgent ut colores mundi illis aequiparari nequeant: dantur colores quoque nusquam visi in mundo.