946、我曾与一些灵人谈论过这一事实：可能很少有人会相信来世有如此多且如此奇妙的事。因为人们对死后的生活没有概念，除了一种笼统和模糊的概念之外，而这根本不是概念。他们因以下事实而确认这个概念，即：他们无法亲眼看到一个灵魂或灵人。此外，尽管学者们肯定灵魂或灵人的存在，但他们对这些的信仰还不如感官人，因为他们执着于人造的词语和术语，而这些东西更容易模糊、甚至熄灭对事物的理解，还因为他们只专注于自我和世界，很少关注公共利益和天堂。我与之交谈的灵人对世人竟是这样感到惊讶，尽管他们十分清楚自然本身及其每个王国都包含太多他们所不知道的奇妙而多样的事物。以人类的内耳为例，关于它的令人震惊而又闻所未闻的事实能写满一整本书，人人都相信这些事实。但若说到产生自然界的每一个事物的灵界，就几乎没有人相信它了；如前所述，原因就是人们所确认的先入为主的偏见，即：灵界不存在，因为他们看不到它。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]946. I talked with some spirits about the prospect that few will believe all these things can happen in the other world. People have no conception of life after death, except for a vague, general notion, which is no conception at all, and they harden themselves in this notion by the fact that they cannot see a soul or spirit with their eyes. Furthermore, although scholars affirm that the soul or spirit exists, they get bogged down in inventing technical terms that dim — no, extinguish — any understanding of the subject.{*1} Because of this, and because they focus on themselves and worldly advantages and rarely on the common good or heaven, scholars have even less belief than sense-oriented people do.
The spirits I was talking to were amazed that humankind could be this way despite knowing that nature itself, in each of its kingdoms, provides so many varied wonders of which people are unaware. Take just the human inner ear, for example; a whole book could be filled with astounding and unheard-of facts about it, and everyone trusts those facts. But say anything about the spiritual world, which gives rise to each and every detail of nature's kingdoms, and hardly anyone believes it. The reason, as noted, is people's confirmed prejudice that the spiritual world is nothing because they do not see it.
Footnotes:
{*1} In Swedenborg's time the existence of the soul was in general not doubted, though there was much scholarly debate about its nature and qualities. For an overview of some aspects of this debate that Swedenborg at one time thought worth transcribing, see his Quotations on Various Philosophical and Theological Topics (Swedenborg 1976c), 10-27, 162-184, 187-203, 259-289, 346-377, 400-420. This notebook, left unpublished by him but known to have been written around 1741, contains quotations on the soul (among other topics) both from ancient sources (Plato [427-347 b.c.e.], Aristotle, Augustine, and Scripture) and from various scholars of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: René Descartes, Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715), Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri (1651-1725), Andreas Rydelius (1671-1738), Christian Wolff (1679-1754), and George Bernard Bilfinger (1693-1750). As Swedenborg observes here, these scholars' discussions of the topic are indeed highly technical in nature. [JSR]
Potts(1905-1910) 946
946. I have spoken with spirits concerning the fact that possibly few will believe in the existence of so many and such wonderful things in the other life, in consequence of the absence of any but a very general and obscure conception - amounting to none at all-of the life after death, and in which men have confirmed themselves by the consideration that they do not see a soul or spirit with their eyes. Even the learned, although they say there is a soul or spirit, so cleave to artificial words and terms-which rather obscure or even extinguish the understanding of things than assist it-and so devote themselves to self and the world, and but rarely to the general welfare and to heaven, that they believe still less than do sensuous men. The spirits to whom I spoke marveled that men should be of such a character, seeing that they are well aware of the existence in nature itself, and in each of its kingdoms, of many wonderful and varied things about which they are ignorant, as for example those in the internal human ear, concerning which a book might be filled with things amazing and unheard of, and in the existence of which everyone has faith. But if anything is said about the spiritual world, from which come forth all things in the kingdoms of nature both in general and in particular, scarcely anyone gives credence to it, on account-as before said-of the preconceived and confirmed opinion that because it is not seen it is nothing.
Elliott(1983-1999) 946
946. I have spoken to spirits about the fact that few people probably are going to believe that so many things such as these exist in the next life, the reason for that unbelief being that man has no more than a very general and hazy concept, amounting to none at all, about his life after death, a concept which people have confirmed for themselves from the fact that they do not see the soul or spirit with their eyes. This applies to the learned too. Though they refer to the existence of the soul or spirit, their belief in these is even less than that of sensory-minded people because they cling to artificial words and terms which do more to obscure and even extinguish the understanding of things, and also because they study only themselves and the world, and rarely the common good and heaven. Spirits whom I have spoken to have been amazed that man should be like this, even though he knows that nature itself and each of its kingdoms contain so many wonderful and varied things of which he is ignorant. Take just the human ear, for example. A whole book could be written about the remarkable and unheard of aspects of it, in whose existence everybody has faith. But if anything is said about the spiritual world, the source of every single thing in the realms of nature, scarcely anyone believes it, on account, as has been stated, of the preconceived and confirmed opinion that it has no existence because it is invisible.
Latin(1748-1756) 946
946. Locutus cum spiritibus de eo quod forte pauci credituri sint tot et talia dari in altera vita, ex causa quod homo non alium conceptum habeat de vita sua post mortem quam communissimum quendam obscurum, qui est nullus, in quo se confirmarunt ex eo quod animam aut spiritum non oculis videant; et quod docti, tametsi aiunt quod anima aut spiritus sit, usque quis inhaerent vocibus fictis et terminis qui intellectum rerum magis obscurant: immo exstinguunt, et quia student sibi et mundo, raro communi et caelo: adhuc minus quam sensuales homines credant. Spiritus cum quibus locutus mirati sunt quod homo talis sit, cum tamen sciat quod in ipsa natura et in unoquovis ejus regno dentur tot mirabilia et varia quae ignorat; ut pro exemplo solum in aure interna humana, de qua integer liber stupendis et inauditis impleri posset, quibus unusquisque fidem habet; at si de mundo spirituali ex quo omnia et singula quae sunt in naturae regnis existunt, aliquid dicitur vix aliquis credit, ex causa, ut dictum, praeconceptae et confirmatae opinionis quod nihil sit quia non videt.