20、一团相当明亮的火焰出现了，欢快地燃烧了近一个小时。这火焰预示着水星灵要来了，他们在觉知、思维和言语上比之前的灵人还要迅速。他们一来就立刻把我记忆里的东西过了一遍，对我来说太快了，以致我没能察觉他们到底发现了什么，只是听他们反复说：“就是这么回事。”对于我在天堂和灵人界所看到的，他们说，这些事他们以前就知道。我意识到有一大群灵人与他们相联，就在我后面，在后脑勺靠左一点的地方。
21. I kept seeing a fairly bright, cheerful flame for the better part of an hour. The flame signaled the arrival of some other spirits from Mercury, but these spirits scrutinized things, thought about them, and communicated even more rapidly than the earlier ones. As soon as they came, they ran through the contents of my memory, but I could not catch what they were observing, because they were so quick. I kept hearing them say, “Yes, that’s right.” As for what I had seen in the heavens and the world of spirits, they said they already knew that information. I perceived that there was a large group of spirits accompanying them, a little behind [me] on the left, on a level with the back of [my] head. 1
Footnotes:
1. Swedenborg’s description of the locations of the spirits in relation to the body can be somewhat confusing. For Swedenborg, the whole of heaven has the form of a human body, which he calls “the universal human” (see note 6 in Last Judgment 9), and spirits dwell in different parts of it, which correspond to the different organs. But when he speaks of the location of spirits, as here, it often seems as if he is describing them in relation to corresponding parts of his own body. (On this phenomenon, see Secrets of Heaven 3884.) It is perhaps simplest to understand his manner of speaking through the idea of correspondences (see note 12 in New Jerusalem 1): that what Swedenborg experienced in relation to his own body corresponds to the place spirits occupy in the universal human, and vice versa. [RS, SS]
21. A fairly bright flame was to be seen burning cheerfully; it lasted for some time. The flame signalled the arrival of spirits from Mercury whose perception, thought and speech were quicker than that of the previous ones. Immediately on arrival they ran through the contents of my memory, but they were too quick for me to grasp what it was they were observing. I heard them saying repeatedly: 'That's the sort of thing.' When they came to what I had seen in the heavens and in the world of spirits, they said they had known this before. I became aware of a large number of spirits associated with them, who were behind me, a little to the left on a level with the back of the head.
21. There appeared a whitish flame, burning briskly, and this for nearly an hour. That flame signified the approach of spirits of Mercury, who for penetration, thought, and speech, were more prompt than the former spirits. When they were come, they instantly ran through the things contained in my memory, but I could not perceive what they observed by reason of their promptitude. I heard them afterwards saying that such is the case; in respect to what I had seen in the heavens and in the world of spirits, they said that they knew those things before. I perceived that a multitude of spirits consociated with them was behind, a little to the left in the plane of the occiput.
21. Apparebat flamma satis candida flagrans laete, et hoc per aliquantum horae; flamma illa significabat adventum spirituum Mercurii, qui in pervidendo, cogitando loquendoque promptiores erant prioribus: cum venerunt, illico percurrebant illa quae in Memoria mea erant, sed quae observabant, non appercipere potui ob promptitudinem illorum; audiebam subinde dicentes, quod tale sit; ad illa quae videram in caelis et in mundo spirituum, dicebant se prius nosse: percipiebam quod multitudo spirituum illis consociatorum esset a tergo paulo ad sinistrum in plano occipitis.