269、⑷已经成为爱和生命的一部分的品质会遗传给后代。众所周知，人生在邪恶中，这邪恶是父母那里遗传来的。有些人还以为这邪恶不是他从父母那里获得的，而是通过他的父母从亚当那里获得的；然而，这是一个错误。人从父亲那里获得它，他从父亲拥有自己的灵魂，灵魂在母亲里面披上一个身体。因为来自父亲的种子，即精子是接受生命的最初容器，不过是如在父亲里面的那样一种容器；事实上，种子，即精子就在他的爱之形式中，每个人的爱在其最大和最小形式上都是一样的。此外，种子，即精子具有朝向人类形式的一种努力在里面，并且逐渐发育成人类的形式。由此可推知，所谓的遗传之恶来自父亲，因而来自祖父、曾祖父，从他们相继传给后代。经验也证明了这一点，例如，各民族在情感上与他们的始祖具有相似性，这种相似性在宗族中尤其明显，在家庭中更为明显。正是这种相似性使得历代不仅通过性情、甚至通过面部特征被辨别出来。
关于这个主题，即对邪恶的爱从父母遗传给后代，我们将在下文充分讨论心智，也就是意愿和理解力，与身体及其肢体和器官的对应关系时予以详细说明。在此只举这几个例子，好叫人们知道，邪恶是从历代父母那里传下来的，并且通过代代累积不断增加，直到人生来无非是恶；而且邪恶的毒性也照着属灵心智关闭的层级而增长，因为这时属世心智以这种方式从上面被关闭；最终，后代无法从这种状态中得以恢复，除非在主的帮助下避恶如罪。属灵心智只能以这种方式被打开，属世心智则通过这种打开而被带回到对应的形式中。
269, 4. Things that have become part of our love and life are passed on to our offspring. It is generally acknowledged that we are born into evil and that we get this as an inheritance from our parents. Some people believe that it is not from our parents, but through them from Adam; but this is a mistake. It comes from the father, from whom we get the soul that is clothed with a body in the mother. The semen that comes from the father is the first vessel of life; but it is the kind of vessel it was in the father. It is actually in the form of his love, and everyone's love is the same in its largest and its smallest forms. There is within it a striving toward the human form, a form into which it gradually develops. It follows, then, that the evils we call hereditary come from our fathers and are therefore handed down from our grandfathers and earlier ancestors to their offspring in sequence.
Experience tells us this, too. There is a likeness of disposition in peoples that comes from their first ancestor, a greater likeness within extended families, and a still greater likeness within individual households. The similarity is so clear that we recognize lineages not only by their dispositions but by their faces as well. There will be more about the way evil love is born into us from our parents later on, when I discuss the way the mind (that is, our volition and discernment) corresponds to the body and its members and organs. At this point I cite only a few things in order to show that evils are handed down from our parents in sequence and that they grow, piling up one generation after another, until we are nothing but evil at birth. The viciousness of evil increases in proportion to the closing of the spiritual mind, with the earthly mind closing to anything from above as well. This is remedied in our descendants only by their abstaining from evils as sins, with the Lord's help. There is no other way to open the spiritual mind and thereby bring the earthly mind back into a corresponding form.
269. (4) Qualities that have become matters of one's love and consequent life are passed on hereditarily to offspring. People know that a person is born into a state of evil, and that he acquires this state hereditarily from his parents. Some also believe that he acquires it not from his parents, but through his parents from Adam, but this is an erroneous supposition. A person acquires the state from his father, from whom he has his soul, which is clothed with a body in the mother. For the sperm which comes from the father is the first vessel receptive of life - a vessel, however, of such a character as it was in the father, being in the form of his love, and everyone's love in the greatest and least of its forms is the same. The sperm moreover carries within it an endeavor toward the human form, into which it also gradually develops. It follows therefore that evils we call hereditary come from fathers, and so from grandfathers and great-grandfathers, being transmitted in succession from them into their offspring.
Experience, too, attests to this. For nations exhibit a likeness in their affections to their earliest progenitor, and even more so clans, and still more individual families. Indeed they exhibit such a likeness that succeeding generations are discerned not only from their dispositions but also from their facial features.
[2] On this subject, however, regarding the hereditary transmission of a love of evil from parents into offspring, we will say more in subsequent discussions where we take up the correspondence of the mind or of the will and intellect with the body and its members and organs. We have presented only these few observations here in order to make it known that evils are passed on in succession from parents; that in consequence of the accumulated evils of one generation after another they increase, to the point that a person from birth is nothing but a mass of evil; that the malignity of the evil grows to the degree that the spiritual mind is closed, for the natural mind is then closed above; and that this condition is not restored to its original state in succeeding generations except by their refraining from evils as sins in obedience to the Lord. Thus and no otherwise is the spiritual mind opened and the natural mind thereby brought back into a corresponding form.
269. (iv) Such things as have come to be of the love and consequently of the life are engendered in offspring. It is well known that man is born into evil, and that he derives it from parents by heredity. And by some it is believed that he inherits it not from parents, but through parents from Adam; but this is an error. He derives it from the father from whom he has a soul, and it is clothed with a body in the mother. For the seed, which is from the father, is the first receptacle of life, but such a receptacle as it was with the father. For it is in the form of his love, and the love of each man in things greatest and least, is similar to itself and there is in the seed a conatus into the human form, into which indeed it successively goes forth. Hence it follows that the evils called hereditary are from fathers, thus from grandfathers and ancestors successively transmitted to offspring. Experience teaches this same thing for as regards the affections, there is a resemblance of races to their first progenitors, and a stronger resemblance in families, and a still stronger resemblance in households. Indeed such is the resemblance that generations are distinguishable, not only from dispositions, but even from faces. But concerning this ingeneration of the love of evil from parents to offspring more will be said in what follows where the correspondence of the mind, that is of the will and understanding, with the body and its members and organs, is treated of. Here these few things only are brought forward that it may be known that evils are derived from parents successively, and that they increase through the accumulations of one after another, until man by birth is nothing but evil; also that the malignity of the evil increases according to the degree in which the spiritual mind is closed up, for in this way, the natural mind is also closed above. Finally there is no recovery from this in posterity except by shunning evils as sins by help from the Lord. In this and in no other way is the spiritual mind opened, and through it the natural mind is brought back into a correspondent form.
269. (4) Such things as have come to be of the love, and consequently of the life, are engendered in offspring. It is known that man is born into evil, and that he derives it by inheritance from parents; though by some it is believed that he inherits it not from his parents, but through parents from Adam; this, however, is an error. He derives it from the father, from whom he has a soul that is clothed with a body in the mother. For the seed, which is from the father, is the first receptacle of life, but such a receptacle as it was with the father; for the seed is in the form of his love, and each one's love is, in things greatest and least, similar to itself; and there is in the seed a conatus to the human form, and by successive steps it goes forth into that form. From this it follows that evils called hereditary are from fathers, thus from grandfathers and great-grandfathers, successively transmitted to offspring. This may be learned also from observation, for as regards affections, there is a resemblance of races to their first progenitor, and a stronger resemblance in families, and a still stronger resemblance in households; and this resemblance is such that generations are distinguishable not only by the disposition, but even by the face. But of this ingeneration of the love of evil by parents in offspring more will be said in what follows, where the correspondence of the mind, that is, of the will and understanding, with the body and its members and organs will be fully treated of. Here these few things only are brought forward, that it may be known that evils are derived from parents successively, and that they increase through the accumulations of one parent after another, until man by birth is nothing but evil; also that the malignity of evil increases according to the degree in which the spiritual mind is closed up, for in this manner the natural mind also is closed above; finally, that there is no recovery from this in posterity except through their fleeing from evils as sins by the help of the Lord. In this and in no other way is the spiritual mind opened, and by means of such opening the natural mind is brought back into correspondent form.
269. IV. Quod illa, quae facta sunt amoris et inde vitae, ingenerentur proli. Notum est, quod homo nascatur in malum, et quod id trahat ut haereditarium a parentibus; et a quibusdam creditur, quod non a parentibus, sed per parentes ex Adamo, sed hoc est error; trahit id a Patre, a quo est ei anima, ac induitur corpore apud Matrem: semen enim, quod est ex Patre, est primum receptaculum vitae, sed tale receptaculum, quale fuit apud patrem, est enim in forma amoris ejus, et amor cujusvis in maximis et minimis sibi similis est[;] et est in illo conatus in formam 1 humanam, in quam etiam abit successive; inde sequitur, quod mala, quae vocantur haereditaria, sint a patribus, ita ab avis et atavis successive derivata in progenies. Hoc etiam experientia docet, est enim quoad affectiones similitudo gentium cum primo genitore suo, et magis similitudo familiarum, et adhuc magis similitudo domuum; imo talis similitudo, ut internoscantur generationes non modo ab animis, sed etiam a faciebus. 2
[2] Sed de ingeneratione amoris mali a parentibus in proles, in sequentibus, ubi de correspondentia mentis, seu voluntatis et intellectus, cum corpore et ejus membris et organis, plura dicentur: hic solum haec pauca allata sunt, ut sciatur, 3 quod mala a parentibus successive deriventur, et quod per accumulationes unius post alterum increscant, usque ut homo ex nativitate non sit nisi quam malum; et quod malignitas mali crescat secundum gradum occlusionis Mentis spiritualis, sic enim Mens naturalis etiam superius clauditur; et quod hoc in posteris non restituatur, nisi per fugere mala ut peccata ex Domino; sic non aliter aperitur Mens spiritualis, et per illud Mens naturalis in formam correspondentem reducitur.
Footnotes:
1. Prima editio: informam
2. Prima editio: faciebus,
3. Prima editio: sciarur,