897. About inward sight and conviction
Souls and spirits can never understand that a person can see and be convinced from the Lord, what should be thought, spoken and done; for they do not believe any other insights are possible than those which spring from themselves or from what is their own. Thus they never wanted to acknowledge that such inner sight exists - even those who were quite sharp, or clever, in the life of the body, and in the afterlife, and seem to themselves able to penetrate and to understand every single subject.
Whenever this sight and conviction came under discussion, they could not conceive otherwise than that if their own or proper self were absent, then they would no longer exist, but that it would be someone else who was thinking, speaking, doing, so that one would be like a kind of implement, in which there was nothing living, like a wooden machine or something of that kind. For they cannot conceive of any life other than the life that is their own, thinking that if this were taken away, they would either not be alive at all, or, as one is now saying, be too stupid ever to be a soul or spirit.
897. CONCERNING INTERIOR PERCEPTION AND PERSUASION
Souls and spirits can never perceive that from the Lord man can perceive and be persuaded what he ought to think, speak and do; for they suppose that no other perceptions can be given than those which spring from themselves, or from what is their own. Thus they were never willing to acknowledge that a perception like this is possible, not even those who in the life of the body and in the life afterwards had been quite acute and clever, and who seemed to themselves to be able to penetrate into and understand each and all things. Whenever there was conversation concerning this perception and persuasion, they could conceive no otherwise than that if their proprium or self were absent, they would then no longer exist, but it would be another who thought, spoke and acted, and one would thus be as an organ in which there is no life, such as a wooden machine or the like. For they cannot conceive that any other life is possible than that which is proprial, and they suppose that if this were taken away they would be either entirely without life, or, as a certain one is now saying, so stupid that he would never be a soul or spirit.
897. De perceptione et persuasione interiori
Animae et spiritus nequaquam possunt percipere, quod percipere possit, et persuaderi homo ex Domino, quid cogitandum, loquendum, et agendum, nam perceptiones alias non dari putant, quam 1
quae ex iis seu ex proprio scaturiunt; sic ut nequaquam agnoscere vellent, quod similis perceptio detur, etiam qui acutiores, seu ingeniosiores in vita corporis, et in vita postea essent, ac sibi videntur omnia et singula penetrare, et posse intelligere; quoties de hac perceptione et persuasione sermo fuit, tunc non aliter potuerunt concipere, quam si proprium seu suum abesset, quod tunc non existerent amplius, sed quod alius esset, qui cogitaret, loqueretur, ageret, sic ut esset tale organum, in quo nihil vitae, sicut machina lignea aut similis, non enim possunt concipere dari aliam vitam, quam quae eorum propria sit, qua ablata putant se prorsus vel nullum vivum, vel ut quidam nunc dicit, ita stupidum, ut nusquam sit anima vel spiritus.
Footnotes:
1. This is how it appears in J.F.I. Tafel's edition; the Manuscript has quae