1763. When souls having such defects come into the world of spirits - for they are able to slip in before it has become plain what they are like - they cannot be tolerated. They would infect a multitude of spirits along with themselves.
For this reason they first undergo the following punishment: several of them together are rotated around from the left to the right, at first in a flat orbit, which gradually swells during the spinning. Next, that lump-like orbit is pressed down and becomes a hollow, while the speed is increased.
In the meantime, while spinning around they are examined to see whether they are persisting in being like they are. The rotation takes place in the world of spirits overhead, a little toward the front, and was applied to spirits of that character. And because they persisted, they were rolled around and hurled behind, under the back of the head.
But a different spinning process also occurred, in which the lump-like orbit was raised up quite high, then bent into a hook, and that hook was likewise rolled up; thus it was a mixed rolling. The orbit was even turned around to a perpendicular plane, the speed also being increased, even until it appeared solid due to the speed, thus imitating those kinds of abscessed lumps.
1763. 1/2. Later it was shown how such spirits lie as if dead, on their face and belly. Then they were let down into the lower parts of the earth, to pass their life there. So they were thrust out of the world of spirits, consequently out of the body, into the lower parts of the earth to lead a most obscure life there, without companions. For then they are as if dead.
1763. Souls of this vicious stamp, though they come into the world of spirits, and have the power of insinuating themselves before their true quality is made manifest, yet they are not tolerated [there], as they would infect the crowd of spirits with their own vicious state. Wherefore they first undergo this peculiar punishment, to wit: that a number of such are made to rotate from left to right at the outset, in a plane orbit, which presently in the course of circumrotation swells out, and afterwards the swelling is depressed, so that the orbit becomes as it were hollow, and the celerity is increased; while in the meantime and during the circumrotation a process of exploration is going on, whether they will persist in being such as they are. This circumrotation takes place in the world of spirits above the head, a little in front, which is administered to those who were of the character described; and because they persisted they were rolled over and over, and projected to the back under the occiput. There was, however, still another mode of circumrotation in which the swelling or bulging out [tuberositas] was quite prominent, and was turned by flexure into one, and that one was again intervolved, thus rendering the revolving motion confused; in fact, the orbit was inverted to a perpendicular, and the celerity at the same time greatly increased: usque ut propter celeritatem, dum appareret, ... ita ad imitamen talium tuberositatum, seu apostematum. 1
Footnotes:
1. As the reader will perceive, it is extremely difficult from the language employed to form a definite idea of the nature of the punishment here intended to be described. We confess to our entire inability to gather a clear conception of what the writer intended to convey, more especially in the closing sentence, which for that reason we had left untranslated. For the sake of our Latin readers, and in the faint hope that a truer version may be suggested, we subjoin the original:
"Quare subeunt primo eam poenam, nempe quod tales plures circumrotentur a sinistro in dextrum, sicut orbita primum plana, quae mox in circumrotatione extuberant, dein tuberositas ista deprimitur, ut cava fiat ista quasi orbits, et sic augetur celeritas, ac interea in circumrotatione exploratur, num persevenant tales esse; circumrotatio fit in spirituum mundo supra caput antrorsum paulo, quod factum est iis, qui tales fuerunt, et quia persistebant, circumvolvebantur et projiciebantur a tergum sub occipitium; verum circumrotatio fiebat quoque alia, tuberositas elevabatur satis alte, et flectebatur in unum et unus iste iterum intervolvebatur, et sic erat confusa volutio; imo invertebatur orbita ad perpendiculum, et celeriter quoque augebatur, usque ut propter celeritatem, dum appareret, . . . ita ad imitamen talium tuberositatum, seu apostematum."
1763 1/2. It was afterwards shown that all such lie as if dead, with their face and belly downwards, and that they are subsequently let down into the lower parts of the earth, that they may there pass their lives) (being thus detruded at once from the world of spirits and from the body into those lower regions of the earth, where they are to lead a most obscure kind of life apart from companions, being then in fact as if dead.
1763. Dum talis vitii animae in mundum spirituum veniunt, nam se insinuare possunt, antequam quod tales sint, manifestum fiat, 1
non tolerari possunt, nam spirituum turbam vitiarent secum; quare subeunt primo eam poenam, nempe quod tales plures circumrotentur a sinistro in dextrum, sicut orbita primum plana, quae mox in circumrotatione extuberat 2
, dein tuberositas ista deprimitur, ut cava fiat ista quasi orbita, et sic augetur celeritas, ac interea in circumrotatione exploratur, num perseverent 3
tales esse; circumrotatio fit in spirituum mundo supra caput antrorsum paulo, quod factum est iis, qui tales fuerunt, et quia persistebant, circumvolvebantur, et projiciebantur ad tergum sub occipitium; verum circumrotatio fiebat quoque alia, tuberositas elevabatur satis altee et flectebatur in uncum, et uncus iste item involvebatur, et sic erat confusa volutio; imo invertebatur orbita ad perpendiculum, et celeritas quoque augebatur, usque ut propter celeritatem, dura appareret, ita ad imitamen talium tuberositatum, seu apostematum.
1763a. Ostendebatur postea, quod tales jaceant tanquam mortui, facie et ventre deorsum, et dein demittebantur in inferiora terrae, ut ibi vitam agerent, sic e mundo spirituum, proinde e corpore detrusi, in inferiora terrae, ut vitam ibi obscurissimam, absque sociis agant, tunc enim sicut mortui sunt.
Footnotes:
1. The Manuscript has fiat; sed
2. The Manuscript has extuberant
3. The Manuscript has perserverent