62、木星居民对智慧的定义是：良善、公正地思考生活中发生的一切事。他们从小就从父母那里吸收这种智慧；这智慧接连传给后代，并因他们对智慧的爱而增长，因为等他们成为父母时，这爱也会增长。他们不知道，也不想知道有关我们世界所拥有的科学知识的任何事，并称这些为幽暗，把它们比作遮蔽太阳的乌云。他们之所以对科学知识形成这种观念，是因为我们地球的一些灵人向他们吹嘘科学所带来的智慧。
从我们地球来的如此吹嘘的灵人是那些将智慧视为纯粹记忆的人，例如：各种语言，尤其希伯来语、希腊语和拉丁语的知识，文献所记载那些事的知识，以及评论、实验数据、专业术语，尤其哲学术语的知识，诸如此类。他们没有将这类知识用作获得智慧的手段，反而将智慧置于这类知识本身。这种人因没有将他们的知识用作发展自己的理性能力、获得智慧的手段，故在来世，他们只有极少、有限的觉知能力。事实上，他们只能识别专业术语，并出于术语争论；对那些看不到其它事物的人来说，这类事物就像灰尘或乌云，遮蔽了理性视线(参看38节)。那些以这种学问为骄傲的人所拥有的觉知更少，而那些以科学知识为手段来破坏和毁灭属于教会和信仰的事物之人则完全摧毁了他们的理性能力，以致他们像猫头鹰那样在黑暗中将虚假看作真理，将邪恶看作良善。
与这类灵人的交谈使得木星灵得出这样的结论：科学知识会造成模糊和盲目。但他们被告知，在我们地球，科学知识是打开理性视觉的手段，这种视觉依赖于天堂之光。但由于诸如属于纯属世和感官生命的那类事物占据主导地位，故这些科学知识对我们地球人来说，反而沦为变得疯狂的手段，也就是说，变成赞成自然而非神，赞成世界而非天堂的证据。
他们还被告知，科学知识本身是属灵的财富，拥有科学知识的人就像那些拥有世俗财富的人；因为这些知识既是为自己、自己的邻舍和国家提供服务的手段，也是作恶的手段。此外，它们好比衣服，既有用，也具有装饰性；对那些想唯独因它们而得荣耀的人来说，还是一种骄傲的资本。木星灵完全明白这些事，但感到惊讶的是，他们身为人类，却在手段中停止不前，偏爱通向智慧的事物胜过智慧本身；而且没有发现，将心智沉浸于这类事物，而不是将它提升至它们之上，就会使心智陷入幽暗，把它弄瞎。
62. Wisdom, for the inhabitants of Jupiter, is thinking well and fairly about the situations they encounter in the course of their lives. From early childhood on they eagerly learn this kind of wisdom from their parents and pass it on to the next generation, and since they love it because it belonged to their parents, it grows.
They know nothing whatever of the kinds of academic knowledge we have on our planet and have no desire to know them. They call them “shadows” and liken them to clouds between us and the sun. They got this negative impression of academic knowledge from some spirits from our planet who bragged to them about the wisdom they had developed from book learning.
[2] These boasting spirits from our planet were people who had equated wisdom with nothing more than the contents of memory-for example, languages they knew, and in particular Hebrew, Greek, and Latin; accounts of events familiar to the world of the well-read; critical reviews; mere experiments; terminology (especially philosophical terminology); and other such things-all without using these as means to wisdom, because they equated the information itself with wisdom. 1Since they had not used their learning to cultivate their rational ability, in the other life they have very little perceptiveness. Because their [mental] vision is restricted to terminology and is based on it, the information they have is like dust to people of this sort, or like clouds in front of their intellectual sight (see 38 above). The ones who had become proud as a result of their learning are even less perceptive. Further, the ones who had used academic learning to undermine and destroy the teachings of the church and of faith had utterly destroyed their own intellects. Like owls, they see in darkness [rather than light]; they see falsity as true and evil as good.
[3] On the basis of their conversations with people like this, the spirits from Jupiter drew the conclusion that academic learning causes obscurity and [mental] blindness. However, they were told that on our planet academic study is a means to opening an intellectual sight that makes it possible to see things in the light of heaven. 2Nevertheless, because things that concern nothing more than earthly and sensory life have become predominant here, academic pursuits have become a means to insanity, that is, a means of convincing ourselves to believe in nature rather than the Divine and in this world rather than heaven.
[4] They were also told that in and of itself academic learning is spiritual wealth and that people who possess it are like people who possess worldly wealth. In both cases the wealth can be of benefit to themselves, their neighbor, and their country, but can also be used to do harm. This learning is also like clothing, which can be useful and attractive, but can also be a source of pride for people who want to be respected simply because of the way they dress.
The spirits from Jupiter understood this well, but it still puzzled them that during life in the physical world these people stayed with the means, attaching more importance to the building blocks of wisdom than to wisdom itself, not seeing that immersing their minds in these concerns and failing to raise them any higher was causing them darkness and blindness.
Footnotes:
1. The distinction Swedenborg draws here between mere information and wisdom accords with the distinction he makes among the three levels of the thinking mind. Each of these levels is associated with one of three particular ways of knowing: sapientia, intelligentia, and scientia, traditionally translated “wisdom,” “intelligence,” and “knowledge,” respectively. Wisdom forms the inmost level, intelligence the middle level, and knowledge the lowest level (Secrets of Heaven 1226; Revelation Unveiled 351; Revelation Explained [= Swedenborg 1994-1997a] 1170, 1186). Swedenborg gives various definitions of the three terms. In general, wisdom involves a love of using what is true to serve God and one’s neighbor; intelligence involves a rational appreciation of what is true as a functional whole and its applicability to useful service; and knowledge involves a simple awareness of various things that are true-what might be called “facts” or “data” in contemporary terms-which also includes an interest in their usefulness. For various definitions and explanations of wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge, see Secrets of Heaven 5287, 10331; Heaven and Hell 346-356; Marriage Love 130. For more on scientia, see note 1 in New Jerusalem 27. [LSW]
2. On the light of heaven and how things appear in it, see note 2 in Last Judgment 38 and note see note 2 in New Jerusalem 24. [Editors]
62. The inhabitants of the world of Jupiter define wisdom as good and fair thinking about the events which happen in the course of living. This wisdom they absorb from their parents as children, and this is successively handed on to their descendants. The love of wisdom also contributes to it, since this increases when they become parents. They neither know nor wish to know anything about the sciences we have in our world. They call these shadows and liken them to the clouds which obscure 1the sun. They formed this idea of the sciences from some spirits of our world, who boasted to them of the wisdom the sciences had given them.
[2] The spirits from our world who made such boasts were those who regarded wisdom as merely a matter of memory, for instance, a knowledge of languages, particularly Hebrew, Greek and Latin, of experiences recorded in literature, of criticism, of experimental data, of technical terms, especially those of philosophy, and other things of the same sort. They had not used such knowledge as a means of acquiring wisdom, but regarded wisdom as consisting in the possession of such knowledge. Since they had not employed their knowledge as a means of improving their rational faculty, they have limited powers of perception in the next life. They can only discern technical terms and argue from them, and to those who see nothing else, such things are like dust or clouds obscuring the sight of the intellect (see 38 above). Those who were proud of this kind of learning are still less perceptive, while those who used their scientific knowledge as a means to undermine and annihilate the beliefs of the church have totally destroyed their intellectual faculty, so that their vision is like that of owls in pitch darkness, when they mistake falsity for truth and evil for good.
[3] Talking with such spirits made the spirits of Jupiter conclude that sciences produce obscurity and blindness. However, they were told that in this world sciences are the means of opening up the sight of the intellect, which depends on the light of heaven. But because of the dominance of matters concerned only with natural life, the life of the senses, these sciences serve them rather as means to madness, that is, proofs which favour Nature rather than God, and the world rather than heaven.
[4] They were further told that sciences are in themselves spiritual riches, and their possessors resemble the possessors of worldly riches; for these are likewise the means of performing services to oneself, one's neighbour and one's country, and also the means of doing evil. They can also be compared with clothes, which are both useful and ornamental, and are also a matter of pride to those who want to be respected for them alone. The spirits of the world of Jupiter quite understood this, but they were surprised that, while still living as human beings, they had stopped at the means, and preferred the things which lead to wisdom to wisdom itself, failing to see that plunging the mind into means without rising beyond them is putting it in the shade and blinding it.
Footnotes:
1. [Reading intercipiunt for inter. -TR.]
62. The inhabitants of the earth Jupiter place wisdom in thinking well and justly of all things that happen in life. This wisdom they derive from their parents from infancy, and it is successively transmitted to posterity, and increases from the love they have for it because of its belonging to their parents. Of sciences, such as are in our earth, they know nothing whatever, nor do they wish to know. They call them shades and compare them to clouds which hide the sun. This idea concerning the sciences they have conceived from some spirits from our earth who boasted that they were wise from sciences. The spirits from our earth who thus boasted were such as made wisdom to consist in things appertaining merely to the memory, as in languages, especially the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, in a knowledge of the things related in the literary world, in criticism, in mere experiments, and in terms, particularly such as are philosophical, with other things of a like nature, not using such things as means leading to wisdom, but making wisdom to consist in those things themselves. Such persons, because they have not cultivated their rational faculty by the sciences, as by means leading to wisdom, have little perception in the other life; for they see only in terms, and from terms, in which case those things are as clods and clouds obstructing the intellectual sight (see above, n. 38); and they who have been proud of their erudition therefrom, have still less perception; but they who have used the sciences as means of invalidating and annihilating the things appertaining to the church and to faith, have totally destroyed their intellectual faculty, and like owls they see in the thick darkness falsity for truth, and evil for good. The spirits of Jupiter, from the conversation they had with such, concluded that sciences induce shade and blindness. But they were informed that on our earth the sciences are means of opening the intellectual sight, which sight is in the light of heaven; but because such things as appertain to the mere natural and sensual life reign, therefore the sciences to the men of our earth are means of becoming insane, namely, of confirming them in favor of nature against the Divine, and in favor of the world, against heaven. They were further informed that the sciences in themselves are spiritual riches, and that they who possess them are like those who possess worldly riches, which in like manner are means of performing uses to himself, his neighbor, and his country, and also means of doing evil. Moreover, that they are like garments, which serve for use and ornament, and also for pride, as with those who would be honored for these alone. The spirits of the earth Jupiter understood these things well; but they wondered that, being men, they should rest in means, and prefer things leading to wisdom before wisdom itself; and that they should not see, that to immerse the mind in such things, and not to elevate it above them, was to becloud and blind it.
62. Incolae Telluris Jovis sapientiam ponunt in cogitando bene et juste de rebus quae in vita obveniunt; sapientiam illam hauriunt a parentibus ab infantia, quae successive in posteritatem transfertur, et ex amore ejus quia apud parentes crescit. De scientiis, quales in nostra Tellure sunt, prorsus nihil sciunt, nec scire volunt; vocant illas umbras, et comparant nubibus quae infra solem: ideam hanc de scientiis duxerunt ex aliquibus e nostra Tellure, qui se coram illis venditarunt sapientes ex scientiis. Spiritus e nostra Tellure, qui se ita venditarunt, fuerunt qui sapientiam posuerunt in talibus quae sunt merae Memoriae, ut in Linguis praecipue hebraea, graeca, et latina, in Memorabilibus quae sunt Orbis literarii, in Criticis, in nudis experimentalibus, inque terminis imprimis philosophicis, et similibus aliis, nec illis ut mediis ad sapiendum usi sunt, quoniam in illis ipsis sapientiam posuerunt; hi quia per scientias, ut per media, non excoluerunt facultatem suam rationalem, in altera vita parum perceptionis habent; nam solum vident in terminis et ex terminis, ac illis qui ita vident, sunt illa sicut grumi, ac sicut nubes ante visum intellectualem (vide supra 38); et qui fastuosi fuerunt ex eruditione inde, adhuc minus percipiunt; ac qui scientiis usi sunt ut mediis infirmandi et annihilandi illa quae Ecclesiae et fidei sunt, illi Intellectuale suum prorsus destruxerunt, ac vident in caligine sicut noctuae, falsum pro vero et malum pro bono. Spiritus Joviales ex conversatione cum talibus concluserunt, quod scientiae umbram inducant et occaecent: sed illis dictum est, quod in hac Tellure scientiae sint media aperiendi visum intellectualem, qui visus est in luce coeli, sed quia regnant talia quae sunt vitae mere naturalis ac sensualis, ideo scientiae illis sunt media insaniendi, nempe confirmandi pro Natura contra Divinum, et pro Mundo contra Coelum: porro dictum est, quod scientiae in se sint divitiae spirituales, et quod ii qui possident illas, sint sicut qui possident divitias mundanas, quae similiter sunt media usus praestandi sibi, proximo, et patriae, et quoque media malefaciendi; tum quod sint sicut vestes, quae pro usu et ornatu inserviunt, et quoque pro fastu, ut apud eos qui ab illis solis volunt honorari. Spiritus Telluris Jovis haec bene intellexerunt; sed mirati sunt, quod, cum homines essent, substiterint in mediis, ac praetulerint talia quae ad sapientiam ducunt, ipsi sapientiae; et quod non viderint quod immergere illis mentem, et non ultra se elevare, esset inumbrare et occaecare.