1770. That great sensory illusion whereby humankind imagines that it lives from itself, originates in the love of self. When that love prevails, there can be no belief in the Lord, which belief alone, because the Lord Alone, causes one both to know this, and to see it inwardly.
It was desirable to make this more clear to spirits, for those who are truly angels know it and plainly see it inwardly. Knowing is as if outside of them, seeing is within them. So it was shown to them by an experience I hardly dare to bring forward because hardly anyone could believe it, but I would like to tell if only because it has occurred frequently. When any spirit listens to the hoofbeats of a horse and is speaking simultaneously, it is heard exactly as if the hoofs of the walking horse were speaking. This experience has sometimes displeased spirits when it was accompanied by the thought that this is a sensory illusion, the same as the illusion in thinking that one can live from oneself. 1748, 28 March.
For whatever sound they attend to, and listen to with imagination, such as the beats of hammers and other tools, they likewise hear talking - not that there is any talking, but the illusion is such that they cannot tell but that there is talking.
[1770 1/2.] About laws of nature
Angels are amazed that on this earth scholars, as they call themselves, dispute and even quarrel about the principles of natural law, and that a great many trace them back to self, thus to the love of oneself, of one's own breed, one's own possessions-not, as does the universal heaven, to the Lord's Love and therefore loving the neighbor as oneself. Yet the Lord called this principle "the first of all the commandments" [Mark 12:29-31]; and besides, everything in heaven and everything in the world and on the earth decrees it.
1770. The exceeding fallacy of sense, involved in a man's thinking that he lives from himself derives its origin from the love of self, which when it reigns makes it impossible that there should be faith in the Lord, though this alone, inasmuch as the Lord is alone, causes the knowledge and perception of that fact. And in order that this might be more clearly evinced to spirits - for the genuine angels know it and perceive it very manifestly (to know is, as it were, without them, to perceive is within them) - it was shown them by an experience which I scarcely dare produce, as scarcely anyone would believe it; but inasmuch as it occurred frequently, I would simply observe that when any spirit fixes his attention upon the walking of a horse and speaks at the same time, he is heard precisely as if the steps of the walking horse spoke - an experience at which the spirits were sometimes indignant, while the thought at the same time arose that the fallacy of sense in this case was similar to that in man's supposing himself to live from himself. - 1748, March 28. To whatever sound spirits apply their attention and direct their hearing and their imagination, whether to the strokes of hammers or other things, the speech is heard as having a similar sound; not that the speech is actually there, but such is the fallacy that it cannot be known but that the sound does speak.
CONCERNING THE LAW OF NATURE [jure naturae].
(The angels wonder that the learned on this earth, as they call themselves, should dispute and wrangle concerning the principles of natural law, and that many should derive those principles from themselves, consequently from the love of self, of kindred, and of their own possessions, and not, as does the universal heaven, from the love of the Lord, and thus from love towards the neighbor as towards one's self, when yet the Lord calls that principle the primary of all precepts, not to say that everything in heaven, in the world, and on the earth dictates the same thing.) 1
Footnotes:
1. This paragraph has no number in the original, and was probably intended for number 1777. - S.B.
1770. Quod magna fallacia sensus sit, quod homo putet semet ex se vivere, trahit originem ab amore sui, qui cum regnat, nulla dari potest fides in Dominum, quae sola, quia Dominus Solus, facit [eum] id et scire et percipere: utque id clarius constaret spiritibus, nam vere angeli id sciunt et percipiunt manifeste-scire 1
est quasi extra eos, percipere, est intra eos-monstratum 2
est iis per experientiam, quam vix ausim proferre, quia nemo vix credere possit, sed quia frequenter facta, solum narrare velim, quod dum spiritus aliquis intendit gressui alicujus equi, et simul tunc loquatur, quod audiatur prorsus sicut ungulae gradientis equi loquerentur, qua experientia quandoque indignati sunt spiritus, dum simul cogitatum, quod haec sensus fallacia, similis sit fallaciae, quod omo putet ex se vivere. 1748, 28 Martius. Cuicunque enim sono, sicut impulsibus malleorum, aliisque adplicant attentionem, et dirigunt auditum cum imaginatione, similiter loquela auditur, non quod ibi sit loquela, sed quod talis sit fallacia, ut non sciri aliter possit, quam quod loquatur.
De jure naturae
1770a. Mirantur angeli, quod in hac tellure eruditi, ut se vocant, quod disputent, ac litigent quoque de principiis juris naturalis, quodque plerique derivent ea a semet, proinde ab amore sui, suorum, et suarum possessionum, non autem sicut universum coelum ab Amore Domini, et sic ab amore erga proximum, sicut erga semet; cum tamen Dominus id principium vocaverit "primarium omnium praeceptorum" [Marc. XII: 29-31], ac praeterea, quod quicquid in coelo, et quicquid in mundo, ac in tellure id dictet.
Footnotes:
1. The Manuscript has manifeste, scire
2. The Manuscript has eos, monstratum