151、于是，他们在我们地球灵面前展现了他们的圣殿；我们地球灵声称，他们从来没见过比这更宏伟的东西。我也看到了它们，故能描述之。它们不是用砍伐好的树木，而是用正长在地里的树建成的。他们说，他们星球有长势奇妙的高大树种。自这些树刚开始生长之时起，他们就按次序把它们排成行，以便形成门廊和走道；并趁这些树柔嫩的时候，给它们剪枝、塑形，以便它们在生长的过程中交织缠结，形成圣殿的地板和人行道。他们使两侧的树枝长起来形成墙，把树稍弯成拱状形成屋顶。他们用这些材料以一种令人赞叹的技术建造了一座高高耸立于地面的圣殿。他们还用伸展出来并牢牢绑在一起的连续枝条预备了一条上升的通道。此外，他们通过把枝繁叶茂的树木弯曲成各种形状以各种方式装饰圣殿的里里外外，由此建成整个公园。不过，我未蒙允许观察这些圣殿里面是什么样，只是被告知，阳光透过枝条间的缝隙被引入圣殿，通过水晶撒遍各个角落；这些水晶将撒在墙上的阳光折射成像彩虹那样的颜色，尤其折射成他们最爱的蓝色和橙色。这就是他们的建筑，他们喜欢这些建筑胜过我们地球上最宏伟的宫殿。
151. Then their sacred gathering places were shown to some spirits from our planet; they said that they had never seen anything more magnificent. I saw them too, and can therefore describe them. These structures are made from trees that have not been cut down but are still growing in their native soil. The spirits said that on that planet they have trees that grow wonderfully tall and large. They plant these in patterns right from the beginning to become covered walkways, and while their branches are still pliable, well in advance they trim and prune them so that as they grow they will intertwine and join together to form the subfloor and the finish flooring of the developing structure and will also grow up on the sides to form walls, eventually bending together into arches overhead to form the roof. In this way, with amazing skill, they form a structure that is raised high above the ground, and provide it with a staircase formed of branches extending out and solidly connected. They also decorate the space in various ways outside and in by bending branches into particular forms. They make whole groves like this.
I was not allowed to see what their sacred gathering places looked like on the inside, though. I was told only that their sun’s light is let in through spaces between the branches and refracted in all directions by crystals that vary the light on the walls in rainbowlike colors-especially shades of blue and orange, which they love the most.
This was their architecture, which they preferred to the most magnificent mansions on our planet.
151. They then depicted their sacred temples before the spirits of our world, who said that they had never seen anything more magnificent. I can describe them, because I too saw them. They are built not of felled trees, but of ones growing in their native soil. They said that their world contained trees of wonderful height and size. From their earliest stages they arrange these trees in rows to form porticoes and walkways, shaping the branches while still supple, and cutting and pruning them, so that as they grow they will interlace and join to make the floor and pavement of the temple. They make the branches at the sides grow up to form walls, and overhead bend them into arches to make a roof. From these materials they construct with admirable skill a temple raised high above the ground. They make a way up composed of branches stretched out horizontally with no space between and firmly bound together. In addition they decorate such a temple both inside and out with various kinds of topiary work; and so they build up whole parks.
But I was not allowed to see what these temples were like inside. I was only told that sunlight is admitted through openings between the branches, and is everywhere passed through crystals, which turn the light around the walls into colours like the rainbow, especially shades of blue and orange, which they particularly like. This is their architecture, which they prefer to the most magnificent palaces of our world.
151. They then represented their sanctuaries before the spirits of our earth, who said that they had seen nothing more magnificent; and as I also saw them, I can therefore describe them. They are constructed of trees, not cut down, but growing in their native soil. They said that on their earth there were trees of wonderful growth and height. These from their beginnings they arrange in order, so that they serve for porticos and walks, and by cutting and pruning the branches when they are tender, they fit and prepare them so that while they are growing they may intertwine and unite to make the base and floor of the sanctuary, and rise on the sides for the walls, and bend above into arches for the roof. By these means they construct the sanctuary with admirable art, elevated high above the earth, and they also prepare an ascent into it by successive branches of the trees extending out and firmly connected. Moreover they adorn the sanctuary without and within in various ways, by bending the leafy bows into various forms. Thus they build entire groves. But what these sanctuaries are within, I was not permitted to see. It was only told me that the light of their sun is let into them through apertures between the branches, and is here and there transmitted through crystals, by which the light falling on the walls is variegated into colors like the rainbow, especially the colors blue and orange, which they love more than the rest. Such is their architecture, which they prefer to the most magnificent palaces of our earth.
151. Repraesentabant tunc sacras suas Aedes coram spiritibus nostrae Telluris, qui dicebant quod magnificentiora non viderint; et quoniam mihi etiam visae sunt, ideo describere eas possum: construuntur ex arboribus non caesis, sed in nativo suo solo crescentibus; dicebant, quod in Tellure illa essent arbores admiranda proceritate et altitudine; illas a suis initiis disponunt in ordines, ut sint in porticus et in ambulacra, et ramos earum a teneris aptant et parant per sectiones et putationes ut, dum crescunt, consertent se et conjungant pro Aedis construendae solo et pavimento, et ad latera se elevent pro parietibus, ac superne inflectant se in arcus pro tecto; inde construunt Aedem admiranda arte, elevatam alte super terram; in quam etiam ascensum parant per continuos ramos arborum exporrectos et firmiter connexos. Insuper exornant Aedem illam extra et intra variis modis per applicationes frondium in formas: ita aedificant integros lucos. Sed quales sunt illae Aedes intus, non videre datum est, solum dictum, quod lux solis eorum intromittatur per aperturas inter ramos, ac passim transmittatur per chrystalla, per quae lux variegatur in colores quasi iridis circum parietes, imprimis in colores caeruleos et aurantios, quos prae reliquis amant. Haec sunt illorum Architectonica, quae praeferunt Palatiis magnificentissimis nostrae Telluris.