4、此外，我与灵人讨论时曾说过，人们从以下事实可推断出，宇宙不止一个星球：整个星空如此浩瀚，包含不计其数的星星，其中每一个在其本位，或自己的星系都是一轮太阳，类似于我们的太阳，尽管大小不同。凡仔细权衡这些事实的人必得出以下结论：如此浩大的一个整体必是服务于创世终极目的的一种手段，这个目的就是天国，以便神性能在天国与天使并人类同居。因为可见的宇宙，或闪耀着无数星辰，也就是如此多太阳的天空，只不过是创造星球和其上人类的一种手段，以便天国能从人类形成。一个理性之人从这些事实必被引导思考，为如此宏伟目的所设计的如此浩大的手段，不可能只是为了出自一个星球的人类福祉和由此而来的天堂。因为上万，甚至成千上万的星球对无限的神性来说算得了什么呢？所有居民如此渺小，几乎可以忽略不计。
4. Further, I have talked with spirits about the fact that if people consider how incredibly vast the starry heaven 1is and how incalculably huge the number of stars in it is-and each star is a sun in its own realm, has its own solar system, and is much like our sun, though it may vary from it in magnitude-they can come to believe there is more than one inhabited world in the universe. Anyone who ponders this in the right way will conclude that all this immensity must be a means of achieving the ultimate purpose of creation, which is a heavenly kingdom in which the Divine can dwell with angels and with people [still in the physical world]. The whole visible universe, the sky studded with stars beyond number, each and every one of which is a sun, is just a means of producing planets with people on them, people who are the source of that heavenly kingdom.
The only conclusion rational individuals can draw from this is that a means so vast for a purpose so great was not brought into being so that a single planet could then produce the human race and the heaven it populates. How would that satisfy the Divine, which is infinite, for which thousands or even millions of planets full of people would amount to so little a thing as to be almost nothing?
Footnotes:
1. The Latin here translated “starry heaven” is caelum astriferum, literally, “star-bearing heaven.” The original reference is to the penultimate (eighth) sphere of the heavens in the Aristotelian-Scholastic cosmos, beyond the separate spheres that carry the planets (see, for example, Pseudo-Aristotle On the Universe 392a19-30 [= Aristotle 1984, 627]). Swedenborg seems to be using this adjective partly in this medieval sense-that is, to distinguish the stars from the solar system-and partly in order to distinguish “sky” from “heaven,” which are both indicated by the same word (caelum) in Latin. Thus when the Latin refers to telluribus in coelo astrifero (literally, “earths in the star-bearing heaven”), the current translation employs the more idiomatic rendering “extrasolar planets,” because the obvious function of the Latin phrase is merely to distinguish these farther planets from the planets of our solar system. In the main title of the work, “deep space” has been used on the same principle instead of “star-bearing heaven.” [SS]
4. I have moreover discussed with spirits the argument that one can be led to infer that the universe contains more than one world from the fact that the starry sky is so immense and contains countless stars, each of which is a sun for its own region or system, resembling our sun, though differing in size. Anyone who correctly weighs these facts must conclude that the whole of this immense structure is a means to serve the ultimate purpose of creation, the establishment of a heavenly kingdom in which the Deity can dwell with angels and human beings. For the visible universe, that is, the sky shining with countless stars, each being a sun, is but a means to the creation of worlds, and human beings to live on them, from whom the heavenly kingdom may be formed. These facts must inevitably lead a reasonable person to think that so immense a means designed for so great a purpose could not have been made for the benefit of the human race, and the heaven from it, coming from one world. How would this appear to the Deity, who is infinite, to whom thousands, or rather tens of thousands, of worlds, all full of inhabitants, would seem trifling and almost negligible?
4. Moreover, when I have spoken with spirits, I have said that men may believe that in the universe there are more earths than one, from this, that the starry heaven is so immense, and the stars therein are so innumerable, each of which in its place, or in its world, is a sun, and like our sun, in various magnitude. Whoever duly considers, concludes that so immense a whole must needs be a means to an end, which is the ultimate of creation, which end is the kingdom of heaven, wherein the Divine may dwell with angels and men; for the visible universe, or the heaven resplendent with stars so innumerable, which are so many suns, is only a means for the existence of earths, and of men upon them, of whom may be formed a heavenly kingdom. From these things a rational man must needs be led to conceive, that so immense a means, adapted to so great an end, was not constituted for a race of men and for a heaven thence derived from one earth only; for what would this be to the Divine, which is infinite, and to which thousands, yea, ten thousands of earths, all full of inhabitants, would be small and scarce anything.
4. Insuper cum Spiritibus loquutus sum, quod ab homine credi queat, quod in universo sint Tellures plures quam una, ex eo, quod Caelum astriferum tam immensum sit, ac tot innumerabiles ibi stellae, quarum unaquaevis in suo loco seu in suo mundo est Sol, ac instar nostri Solis, in varia magnitudine: qui rite expendit, is concludit, quod totum illud tam immensum non possit non esse quam medium ad finem, qui ultimus creationis, qui finis est Regnum caeleste, in quo Divinum cum angelis et hominibus habitare potest: universum enim aspectabile, seu Caelum illustre tot innumerabilibus stellis, quae sunt totidem Soles, est modo medium ut existant Tellures, et super illis homines, ex quibus Regnum caeleste. Ex his rationalis homo non aliter cogitare potest, quam quod tam immensum medium ad tantum finem non factum sit pro humano genere et inde Caelo ex una Tellure; quid hoc foret pro Divino, quod infinitum, cui parum et vix aliquid essent millia, imo myriades Tellurum, et omnes plenae incolis?