3890. About Dippel
Dippel spoke with me, and I asked what his belief had been concerning spirits. He said he had certainly believed that the spirit lives after death, but an obscure life. So he said that he had not been able to believe otherwise than that if the life of the body were withdrawn, what would remain would be obscure - that he was unable to think otherwise, since he considered life to be bodily life, and yet acknowledged the spirit, of which he had no other conception than that of a specter. Then because he lived in such an obscure life, he was told that the angels enjoyed the highest light, the highest intelligence, wisdom and happiness, or the highest enjoyments arising from the feelings of goodness. 1748, 6 Nov. He supported his opinion in bodily life because he saw that wild animals also had a life almost like that of humans, and because he acknowledged the spirit, and that something was supplemented to man beyond wild animals, which was something obscure. His mental image of it did not penetrate any deeper.
3890. CONCERNING DIPPEL.
Dippel spoke with me and I asked him what had been his belief respecting spirits. He said he had believed that the spirit lived indeed after death, but that it lived an obscure kind of life. He observed that he could not believe otherwise, because if life is abstracted from the body, that which should remain would be obscure. He could not well but think thus, inasmuch as he had placed life in the life of the body, though he acknowledged a spirit, of which, however, he had no other idea than of that of a larva. Inasmuch as he then lived in such an obscure life, it was said to him that [the spirit] was in fact in the highest light, in the highest intelligence, in wisdom and in felicity, or in the highest delights arising from the affections of good. - 1748, November 6. He confirmed his opinion while in the life of the body from his seeing that brutes also have life almost like men, and because he acknowledged a spirit as a something superadded to man above the brutes, but still a something which was obscure; his idea did not penetrate more interiorly.
3890. De Dippelio
Loquutus mecum Dippel, et interrogabam quid crediderit de spiritibus, dixit quod crediderit quidem spiritum vivere post mortem, sed vitam obscuram, ita non aliter potuisse credere dixit, quin si abstraheretur vita corporis, id quod remansurum obscurum foret, quod non aliter cogitare potuit, cum in vita corporis poneret vitam, et tamen spiritum fassus, cujus non aliam ideam habuit, quam larvae; quia tunc in tali obscura vita vixit, ei dictum quod [angeli vivant] in summa luce, in summa intelligentia, in sapientia et in felicitate seu delectationibus summis oriundis ex affectionibus boni. 1748, 6 Nov. Confirmabat opinionem ejus in vita corporis, quia vidit quod bruta quoque vitam haberent paene sicut homines, et quia fassus spiritum, et quod aliquid superadditum esset homini prae brutis, quod aliquid obscurum esset; interius ejus idea non penetravit.