1641. And it could not be otherwise. Of this anyone can be convinced by everything that meets our outer vision. Although this vision appears to us to be very sharp, there is in fact hardly any faculty so dull and dim. This is plainly evident, beyond any possible doubt, when one considers all the objects exposed to the sight.
Our inward sight, which we think of as subtle, is very dense, as I have at times said to spirits who believed their thinking so sharp that no one understood it. It is so dense, I said, that if they thoroughly looked at just one mental image, and saw how much was in it, troops of elephants, or armies and phalanxes of snakes would be portrayed if it were opened up. This spirits cannot believe, either, because like most people on earth, they consider as the sharpest among them the one who is the least sharp of all. 1748, 23 March.
1641. That the case cannot be otherwise, everyone may be convinced from [his consciousness in regard to] all things presented to his external sight, which sight, however acute it may appear to us, is yet dull and obscure to the greatest degree, as is too manifest to admit of doubt from the experience of that sense in relation to external objects. Our interior sight, which we think so subtle, is yet so gross, that, as I have often said to spirits, who imagined themselves capable of thinking so acutely as to baffle all attempts to apprehend their thoughts, if they should see what was comprised in a single idea - if its interior could be fully laid open - they would perceive whole cohorts of elephants, and armies, and regiments of serpents, representatively exhibited. This, however, the spirits cannot believe, as they, like many persons on the earth, regard their most acute perceptions as having relation to the most minute things [instead of objects so large]. - 1748, March 23.
1641. Quod nec aliter esse queat, unusquisque potest persuaderi ex iis omnibus quae visui externo objecta sunt, qui visus, tametsi nobis tam acutus apparet, usque tam hebes et obscurus est, ut vix obscurius, sicut ex omnibus quae usquam visui objiciuntur ita manifeste constare potest, ut nemo possit dubium fovere: visus noster interior, quem putamus subtilem, tam crassus est, ut-sicut 1
aliquoties dixi spiritibus, qui putabant se acute cogitare, sic ut nemini intelligeretur- 2
si unam modo ideam, quantum ei inesset, conspicerent, inibi cohortes elephantorum, exercitus et phalanges quando serpentum repraesentarentur, si patescerent: quod spiritus nec possunt credere, quia minimum eorum putant, sicut homines plerique in terris, esse omnium acutissimum. 3
1748, 23 Martius.
Footnotes:
1. The Manuscript has ut, sicut
2. The Manuscript has intelligeretur, quod
3. The Manuscript has minimum acutissimum...minimum fortasse erronee pro minimum... minimum acutissimum