27、当水星灵与我同在时，我正在写作，解释圣言的内义。他们觉察到我写的东西，说我所写的这些事极其粗糙，几乎所有的表述都看似物质化。但我被允许回答说，我们地球的人仍觉得我写的东西如此精妙和高深，以致许多事都无法理解。我补充说，在地球，许多人不知道内在人作用于外在人，并使外在人活着；他们出于虚妄的感官印象确信，身体拥有生命。因此，那些邪恶、缺乏信仰的人对死后生命抱有怀疑；他们还将人死后继续活着的那部分称为灵魂，而不是灵。他们争论何为灵魂，它居于何处，认为物质身体即便早已分散到四风中，也会与灵魂重新联结，以便人能作为人活着，以及更多诸如此类的事。听到这些事，水星灵就问这种人能否成为天使。我被允许回答说，那些过着信与仁之良善生活的人会变成天使，不再关心外在和物质的事物，而是关心内在和属灵的事物。当他们到达这种状态时，便享有超越水星灵的光明。为叫他们知道事实的确如此，一位从我们地球进入天堂的天使蒙允许与他们交谈，他活在世上时就过着这种生活；稍后我们会说说有关他的情况。
27. Some spirits from Mercury were with me while I was writing an explanation of the Word’s inner meaning. 1When they noticed what I was writing they said that it was very simplistic and that virtually every expression in it seemed mundane. I replied, though, that nevertheless the people of our planet see what I have written as subtle and lofty, and a lot of it they do not understand. I added that many in our world do not even know that there is an inner self that acts on the outer and causes it to be alive. On the basis of deceptive sensory experience, they have convinced themselves that life is a property of the body, and this leads the ones who are evil and unbelieving to doubt that there even is a life after death. As for the part of us that will live after our bodies die, they call it the soul rather than the spirit, and they argue about what the soul is and where it is located. 2They believe that the material body, even though it has been scattered to the four winds, must be reunited with the soul before we can live as people again, and things of that kind. 3
When the spirits from Mercury heard this, they asked whether people of that sort could ever become angels. I replied that people become angels if they have lived lives devoted to acts of goodness that are inspired by faith and caring. In that case they are no longer focused on things that are external and physical but on things that are internal and spiritual; and when they come into this state they are in fact in a light higher than that of the spirits from Mercury. In order that the spirits from Mercury would know that this was true, they were allowed to talk with an angel in heaven from our planet, one who had been like that while living on earth. The story is continued below [37].
Footnotes:
1. On Swedenborg’s use of the term “the Word” for biblical material, and on the Word’s inner meaning, see note 7 in New Jerusalem 1. [Editors]
2. The Latin words here translated “soul” and “spirit” are anima and spiritus, respectively. The definitions of these two basic concepts have varied widely over the millennia. Typical of Swedenborg’s own definitions are those in Secrets of Heaven 6054:1:
The soul, which is said to live on after death, . . . is nothing but the real person, who lives inside the body; or in other words, the inner self, which operates in the world through the body and enables the body to live. When this self is released from the body, it is called a spirit, and it appears in an entirely human shape.
In the current passage, it is likely that Swedenborg is decrying the definition of the soul as a “vital principle” or as a quasi-material element (for example, the “animal spirits,” or superfine fluid of the soul) that either functions as the spirit’s interface with the body or operates in place of the spirit. Under this kind of definition, it was held that the soul could not function without being reunited with the material body. Aristotle, for example, believed the soul requires a body (On the Soul 403a [= Aristotle 1984, 642]). As for thinkers who made assertions about the location of this quasi-material soul in the body, many examples could be offered; perhaps the most notorious is René Descartes (1596-1650), who placed its main operations in the pineal gland (Descartes [1650] 1985, 340-348). For an account of a memorable occurrence in the spiritual world in which the nature and location of the soul is debated, see True Christianity 697 (also recounted in Marriage Love 315). [SS]
3. On the belief of many Christians that the soul must be reunited with the body after death, see note 1 in Other Planets 165. [Editors]
27. When the spirits of Mercury were with me while I was writing an explanation of the Word in its internal sense, and they could tell what I was writing, they said that what I was writing was extremely gross, almost all the expressions seeming to be material. But I was allowed to reply that people in our world still look upon my writings as so subtle and high-flown, that they are unable to grasp much of them. I went on to say that many people in this world are unaware that there is an inner man which acts upon the outer man and causes him to be alive; but they convince themselves from delusive sense-impressions that the body possesses life. As a result those who are wicked and lacking in faith cast doubt on life after death. They also call the part of a person which survives death not a spirit, but a soul. They dispute what the soul is and where it is located, believing that it must be rejoined to the material body, even though this has been scattered to the four winds, for a person to continue living as a person; and much more of the same sort.
On hearing this the spirits of Mercury asked whether such people could become angels. I was allowed to answer that those who had lived good lives of faith and charity did become angels, being no longer concerned with outward and material affairs, but with inward and spiritual ones. When they reach that state, they enjoy light surpassing that of the spirits from Mercury. To enable them to know that this is so, an angel from the heaven formed from our world, who had lived this sort of life in the world, was allowed to talk with them. More will be said about this later.
27. The spirits of Mercury, who were with me whilst I was writing and explaining the Word as to its internal sense, and who perceived what I wrote: said that the things which I wrote were in a manner gross, and that almost all the expressions appeared as material; but it was given to reply, that to the men of our earth what was written seemed subtle and elevated, and many things incomprehensible. I added, that many on this earth do not know that it is the internal man which acts into the external, and causes the external to live; and that they persuade themselves from the fallacies of the senses that the body has life, and that in consequence thereof, such as are evil and unbelieving entertain doubt respecting the life after death; also, that the part of man which is to live after death is not by them called spirit, but soul; and that they dispute what soul is, and where is its abode, and believe that the material body, although dispersed to all the winds, is to be joined again to it, in order that man may live as man; with many other things of a like nature. The spirits of Mercury, on hearing these things, asked, whether such men could become angels; and it was given to answer, that those become angels who have lived in the good of faith and charity, and that then they are no longer in external and material things, but in internal and spiritual; and then they come into that state, that they are in a light superior to that in which the spirits from mercury are. That they might know that it was so, an angel was allowed to discourse with them, who had come into heaven from our earth, who had been such when he lived in the world, concerning whom more will be said presently.
27. Spiritus Mercurii, cum apud me essent, cum scriberem et explicarem Verbum quoad sensum ejus internum, et perciperent quid scriberem, dicebant quod illa quae scriberem admodum crassa essent, et quod expressiones paene omnes sicut materiales apparerent; sed respondere dabatur, quod homines nostrae Telluris usque videant haec quae scripta sunt, sicut subtilia et elevata, quorum plura non capiunt: addebam quod plures in hac Tellure non sciant, quod internus homo sit qui agit in externum, et facit ut hic vivat, persuadeantque sibi ex fallaciis sensuum quod corpori sit vita, et quod ideo illi, qui mali et infideles sunt, vitam post mortem in dubio ponant: tum quod non vocent spiritum, sed animam, illud hominis quod victurum post mortem corporis; et quod litigent quid anima, et ubinam sedes ejus, credantque, quod ei corpus materiale, tametsi dissipatum in omnes ventos, iterum conjungendum sit, ut homo vivat homo; praeter plura similia. Cum haec audirent spiritus Mercurii, quaerebant an tales possunt Angeli fieri, ad quae respondere datum est, quod angeli fiant qui in bono fidei et charitatis vixerunt, et quod tunc non amplius in externis et materialibus sint, sed in internis et spiritualibus; et cum in illum statum veniunt, quod sint in luce supra illam, in qua sunt spiritus ex Mercurio: ut scirent quod ita esset, dabatur ut Angelus qui in Coelo e nostra tellure, qui talis fuerat cum vixit in mundo, cum illis loqueretur, de quo in sequentibus.