4628. About the soul
About the life after death, how much the conceptions of the educated differ from the conceptions of the uneducated is obvious. The educated, that is, those who are equipped with knowledge, from theories concerning the soul and their own resulting thought about these, have made the soul out to be either something ethereal, or something flaming, or something fiery, or something made of thought, and thus able to reside in some part of the body, either in a small gland or in the corpus striatum, or in the stomach or in the heart. From this they have gotten an idea of the soul from which they can never acquire faith that it will live after death, but rather that it will be dissipated, and they confirm themselves in this with their knowledge.
But the uneducated who possess goodness have no care for such reasoning, but say that they will live after death, thinking nothing about the soul. Into this thought [about their life after death], a thought not entangled and contaminated by such ideas, the thought is secretly insinuated that they are going to live there in a body, like the angels, for into such a thought flows such a perception, whereas the inflow into the perception of the educated is to the effect that the soul, because it is such, cannot possibly live after death, and that if it does, it must be again in a material body.
[2] That the educated are of this character is because they learn the sciences for the sake of a reputation for learning in order to be promoted to honors and thus to gain profit, but not so that they may grow wise through the sciences. For the sciences are a means for growing wise, but to those who learn them for those reasons, they are a means of becoming insane; and when they are raised to honors, they live sensuously, just as others. That is why most of the educated, if you except a few, ascribe all things to nature and believe that they will die just like the wild beasts and will have no life after the death of the body. For sensuous people trained in the sciences can confirm themselves in such notions, for they cling to fallacies.
4628. CONCERNING THE SOUL.
(It may be evident how much the perceptions of the learned differ from the perceptions of the unlearned, concerning the life after death. The learned, that is, they who are instructed in the sciences, have, from hypotheses concerning the soul, and from their own thought, thence, concerning it, made the soul either a something ethereal, or a something flamy, or a something fiery, or a something cogitative, and thus [they have made it] to be able to reside in some part of the body, or in a little gland, or in the corpus striatum, or in the ventricles, or in the heart. Hence they have taken up an idea concerning the soul, from which idea they can never acquire for themselves a faith that it is going to live after death, but a notion that it will be dissipated; and this they confirm with themselves, by their science. The unlearned who are in good, however, care for nothing of this sort, but say they are going to live after death; for they exercise no thought touching the soul. Into this thought [that they are going to live after death], not entangled and defiled by such ideas, is secretly insinuated [the truth] that they are going to live there with a body like the angels; for into such perception, there is such an influx. But into the perception of the learned there is the influx, that the soul, because of such a nature, can by no means live after death; and, if it should live, that it would be again in the material body. That the learned are of such a nature, is because they learn the sciences for the sake of a reputation for learning, in order that they may be promoted to honors and so to gain, but not that they may grow wise by means of the sciences: for the sciences are means of becoming wise; but, to those who thus learn them they are the means of becoming insane. And when they [i. e., such learned men] are exalted to honors, they live sensually, wholly like others; hence it is, that very many of the learned, if you except a few, attribute all things to nature, and believe that they are going to die like the beasts, and are going to have no life after the death of the body: for sensual men, imbued with sciences, can confirm themselves in such things; for they apply fallacies [to their confirmation].)
4628. De anima
De vita post mortem, quantum perceptiones eruditorum a perceptione ineruditorum, differant constare potest, Eruditi, hoc est, qui scientiis instructi, ex hypothesibus de anima, et ex sua inde cogitatione de illa, animam vel fecerunt aethereum quid, vel flammeum quid, vel igneum quid, vel cogitativum quid, et sic residere posse in aliqua parte corporis, vel in glandula parva, vel in corpore striato, vel in ventriculis, vel in corde, inde ideam de anima captarunt, ex qua idea, nusquam possunt sibi fidem facere, quod victura sit post mortem, sed quod dissipabitur, et hoc confirmant apud se scientiis suis; at ineruditi qui in bono, illi nihil tale curant, sed dicunt se victuros post mortem, nihil cogitando de anima, in quam cogitationem non ideis talibus intricatam et conspurcatam, insinuatur latenter quod victuri ibi corpore, sicut angeli; nam in talem perceptionem influxus talis est; at in perceptionem eruditorum est influxus, quod nequaquam anima quia talis vivere possit post mortem, et si victura, erit iterum in corpore materiali.
[2] Quod eruditi tales sint, est quia scientias discunt famae eruditionis causa, ut promoveantur ad honores, et sic ad lucra, non autem ut per scientias sapiant, scientiae enim sunt media sapiendi, sed qui ita illas discunt, illis sunt media insaniendi; et cum evecti sunt ad honores, vivunt sensuales prorsus sicut alii; inde est, quod eruditorum plerique, si paucos exemeris, omnia naturae tribuant, et se morituros credunt sicut bestiae, et vitam nullam fore post mortem corporis, nam sensuales scientiis imbuti in talibus possunt se confirmare, fallacias enim applicant.