11、一些灵人靠近我，我从天上得知，他们来自离太阳最近的那个星球，该星球在我们的世界叫水星。他们一来就在我的记忆里搜寻我所知道的。灵人做这种事可谓驾轻就熟，因为他们一靠近人，就能看见储存在他记忆里的一切细节。所以，当他们搜寻各种事物，包括我所造访过的城市和地方时，我发现他们对教堂、宫殿、房屋或街道并不感兴趣，只对我所知道曾在那些地方发生的事件，以及它们的管理体制、居民的秉性和习俗等等感兴趣。因为这类事在人的记忆里与地方紧密联系在一起；以至于当回想起地方时，这些事也被带了出来。我对这种行为感到惊讶，于是就问他们为何不理会那些壮观的地方，只留意那里所发生的事件和行动。他们说，他们不喜欢看物质、肉体或世俗的事物，只喜欢看真相。这证明，水星的灵人在巨人里面和对抽象概念，而非物质或世俗概念的记忆有关。灵人可进入人的整个记忆，但没有什么东西能从他们的记忆进入人的记忆(AC 2488, 5863, 6192, 6193, 6198, 6199, 6214)。天使则能进入启动并指导人的所思、所愿和所行的情感和目的(AC 1317, 1645, 5844)。
11. Some spirits came to me, and I was told by a heavenly source 1that they were from the planet closest to the Sun, which in our world is called Mercury. As soon as they reached me, they searched my memory to see what I knew. This is something spirits can do most skillfully, because when they come close to an individual they can see what is in that individual’s memory in detail. 2As they were going through various things in my memory, including the cities and places I had been to, I noticed that they had no interest in knowing about the churches or palaces or houses or streets I had seen but only what I knew had happened in those locations, as well as what form of government existed there, and what the character and customs of the citizens were, and things like that. In our memories such matters are associated with particular places, so when the places are called to mind, these characteristics come to mind as well. 3
I was surprised that the spirits were like this, so I asked them why they had no interest in the magnificent things that exist in those places, but instead wished to know only about the culture and events there. 4They said that they found pleasure only in looking at what is real, and none in looking at material, physical, or earthly things. This gave me confirmation that in the universal human the spirits from that planet relate to the memory of things that are apart from what is physical and earthly.
Footnotes:
1. This specification of Swedenborg’s ground for identifying the spirits with the planet Mercury is missing from the earlier parallel passage in Secrets of Heaven (6809). Similar additions appear in Other Planets 46 133. As conscious additions, these would seem to reflect a desire to make it clear that the identifications were based on information received from a higher source than the spirits themselves. In Other Planets 95[3], 111[2], and 145, as well as in their earlier parallel passages in Secrets of Heaven, Swedenborg also mentions angels as the source of information specifying which planet particular spirits had come from, or of the identification of the sun of a planet outside our solar system from which particular spirits had come. While this information is attributed to heaven and to angels, it is perhaps significant that Swedenborg does not give the Lord as the source, as he does in a general way for his overall theology in True Christianity 779-where he specifically denies an angelic source: “I also testify that ever since the first day of this calling, I have accepted nothing regarding the teachings of this church from any angel; what I have received has come from the Lord alone while I was reading the Word.” Compare also Other Planets 105, on the conception angels and spirits have of the planets and their positioning. [GFD, LSW]
2. [Swedenborg note] Spirits have access to everything in our memory, but nothing can pass from their memory into ours: 2488, 5853, 6192, 6193, 6198, 6199, 6214. Angels have access to the desires and goals in us that give rise to and determine the precise ways in which we think, will, and act: 1317, 1645, 5854.
3. The assertion that “in our memories such matters are associated with particular places” refers to a mnemonic technique that goes back to several classical sources: Aristotle’s On Memory 449b-453b (= Aristotle 1984, 714-720); the pseudo-Ciceronian Ad C. Herennium: De Ratione Dicendi (To Gaius Herennius: On the Theory of [Public] Speaking) 3:16-24; the De Oratore (On the [Ideal] Orator) 2:85-88 of Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.E.); and the Institutio Oratoria (Institutes of Oratory) 11:2 of Marcus Fabius Quintilian (around 35-96 C.E.). According to the theory that grew out of these works and later evolved into a major tradition in Europe, orators would associate the content of their speeches with specific physical places. For example, they might associate parts of an oration with particular rooms in their own house. As they needed to recall their speech, they would proceed through the rooms of the house mentally and the associated ideas of the speech would recur to them. (For more description of the system, see Aristotle 2004, 22-26.) The same connection between ideas and places can be seen in the general activity of these Mercurian spirits, who travel through the universe seeking out the knowledge associated with its places. For a translation and study of Aristotle’s work on memory, see Aristotle 2004. For classic studies of memory techniques in the West, see Rossi 1985 and Yates 1966. [SS]
4. The Latin here translated “events” is res, which most broadly refers to “things” as opposed to “people.” However, it is precisely such inanimate “things” that are here declared to be matters of no interest, so it is best taken in the well-attested secondary meaning of specific events or activities (compare the phrase res gestae, “things done”). The noun res is the basis of the adjective realis; and the Latin word translated “what is real” in the next sentence is the neuter plural of that adjective, realia. [GFD]
11. Some spirits approached me, and I was told from heaven that they were from the world nearest to the sun, the planet named in our world Mercury. Immediately on arrival they sought out from my memory what I knew. (Spirits are very clever at doing this, being able when they approach a person to see the details stored in his memory. 1) So when they looked into various matters, including the cities and places I had visited, I noticed that they were not interested in churches, palaces, houses or streets, but only in the events I knew had taken place in them, together with such matters as their administration, the character and customs of their inhabitants, and so forth. For such matters are closely bound up with places in a person's memory, so that when the places are recalled, these facts are presented too. I was surprised at this behaviour, so I asked why they dismissed the splendid locations and only looked into the things and events associated with them. They said that they took no pleasure in looking at material, bodily or earthly objects, but only facts. This proved that the spirits from that world answer to the memory of abstract ideas, not material or earthly ones.
Footnotes:
1. Spirits have access to the whole of a person's memory, but nothing passes from their memory into the person's (Arcana Caelestia 2488, 5863, 6192-6193, 6198-6199, 6214). Angels have access to the affections and purposes which initiate and direct what a person thinks, wishes and does (Arcana Caelestia 1317, 1645, 5854 [5844 in original]).
11. Some spirits came to me, and it was declared from heaven, that they were from the earth which is nearest to the sun, and which in our earth is called by the name of the planet Mercury. Immediately on their coming, they sought from my memory what I knew. Spirits can do this most dexterously, for when they come to man, they see in his memory all things contained therein. 1During their search for various things, and amongst others, for the cities and places where I had been, I observed that they did not wish to know anything of temples, palaces, houses, or streets, but only of those things which I knew were transacted in those places, also of whatever related to the government therein, and to the genius and manners of the inhabitants, and similar things: for such things cohere with places in man's memory; wherefore when the places are recalled, those things also are brought up. I wondered that they were of such a nature; wherefore I asked them, why they disregarded the magnificence of the places, and only attended to the things and deeds done there. They said they had no delight in looking at things material, corporeal, and terrestrial, but only at things real. Hence it was confirmed, that the spirits of that earth, in the Greatest Man, have relation to the memory of things abstracted from what is material and terrestrial.
Footnotes:
1. Spirits enter into all the things of man's memory but not from their own memory into man's (Arcana Coelestia 2488, 5863, 6192, 6193, 6198, 6199, 6214). Angels enter into the affections and ends, from which and for the sake of which man thinks, wills, and acts in such and such a manner and not otherwise (Arcana Coelestia 1317, 1645, 5844).
11. Venerunt ad me Spiritus, et dictum e Caelo quod ex Tellure proxima Soli, quae in nostra tellure Planeta nomine Mercurii vocatur, essent, et statim, ut venerunt, e memoria mea inquisiverunt quae novi; (hoc Spiritus solertissime possunt facere; cum enim ad hominem veniunt, in memoria ejus vident singula, quae ibi sunt:) 1cum inquirerent varia, et inter illa urbes et loca ubi fueram, animadverti, quod templa, palatia domos, plateas, non vellent scire, sed modo illa quae novi facta in locis illis, tum quae erant regiminis ibi, quae geniorum et morum illis qui ibi, et similia; talia enim cum locis cohaerent in memoria apud hominem, quapropter cum loca excitantur, etiam subeunt illa. Quod tales essent, miratus sum, quare interrogabam, cur praeterirent magnifica locorum, et modo res et facta ibi inquirerent; dicebant quod illis nulla delectatio sit spectare Materialia, Corporea et Terrestria, sed solum Realia: inde confirmatum est, quod illius Telluris spiritus in maximo Homine referrent memoriam rerum abstractarum a materialibus et terrestribus.
Footnotes:
1. Quod spiritus intrent in omnia memoriae hominis, et quod non e sua in hominis, Arcana Coelestia 2488, 5863, 6192, 6193, 6198, 6199, 6214: quod angeli in affectiones et fines exquibuset propter quos homo ita non aliter cogitat, vult agit, Arcana Coelestia 1317, 1645, 5844.