859. # # Continuation on the spirit confessing God the Creator of the universe he understood how people on the antipodal side of the earth can walk, when, from our point of view, their heads point down. (For when this is portrayed in a spiritual manner, and a person is placed in the opposite region of the globe, spirits almost detest it, and suddenly vanish, because they do not understand it, as has sometimes happened.)
Then he denied any such thing, but when I convinced him that nothing is truer, as all experience testifies and proves, then this is what he had to admit: that he did not understand it, even though it is true, and he therefore ought by all means to believe it.
859. 1he perceived how those at the antipodes can walk, when, in respect to us, their heads point downwards - for such a situation is so represented spiritually that a man may be placed in an opposite region of the globe. This was, as it were, abhorrent to the spirits [whom he served as a subject] and because they did not perceive it they suddenly vanished, as sometimes happens. He then denied that it was so; but I convinced him that nothing is more true, for all experience testifies and clearly shows it; also that it was something respecting which he ought to confess that he did not perceive it, although it is true, and therefore that he ought by all means to believe it.
Footnotes:
1. In the manuscript, percipit [he perceived] commences a new page, and since it stands out in the margin, and has the heading, "Continuation concerning the spirit acknowledging God the Creator of the universe.", Swedenborg when later numbering the paragraphs took it to be a new paragraph and numbered it accordingly.
859. # # Continuatio de spiritu fatente Deum Creatorem universi perciperet quomodo antipodes possint ambulare, cum respectu nostri capita eorum deorsum tendunt-tale 1
enim repraesentatum spiritualiter, sic ut ponatur homo in opposita globi regione, quasi abhorrent spiritus, et subito evanescunt, quia non percipiunt, quod aliquoties contigit-tunc 2
is negavit, quod tale sit, sed cum evincerim, quod nihil verius, quia omnis experientia id testatur et convincit, tunc id erat, quod fateri debuit: quod id non perciperet, tametsi verum sit, ideo, quod omnino deberet 3
credere.
Footnotes:
1. The Manuscript has tendunt, tale
2. The Manuscript has contigit, tunc
3. imperfectum in the Manuscript