444、我曾与一个活在世上时相信灵没有维度的人交谈过；他在作出这个假设时，拒绝接受任何暗含维度的词语。我问他现在他对自己是怎么想的，因为现在他是一个灵魂或灵人，拥有视觉、听觉、嗅觉和敏锐的触觉，以及渴望和思维，以至于他以为自己似乎仍在肉体中。他被限制在他在世上如此思想时所持守的观念中，声称灵是思维。但我被允许反问他，活在世上时，难道他不知道没有一个视觉器官，即眼睛，就不可能有肉体视觉吗？那么内在视觉，即思维，又当如何呢？难道它就不需要某种器官性的物质来进行思考吗？这时，他承认他活在肉身时受累于错觉，以为灵是纯粹的思维，没有任何器官性或维度类的东西。我接着说，如果灵魂或灵人是纯粹的思维，那么人就不需要这么大的脑袋了，因为整个脑就是内部感觉的器官。若非如此，头骨可能会空空如也，而思维却仍在它里面扮演灵的角色。从这一点考虑，以及灵魂进入肌肉运作产生如此多的动作，他应该清楚，灵是器官性的，也就是说，是器官性的物质。闻听此言，他承认了自己的错误，并为过去自己如此愚蠢而感到惊讶。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]444. I talked with another individual who during life in the world had not believed the spirit had any extension in space. On this principle, he had refused to accept any word that involved dimension [to describe the spirit]. I asked him, "What do you think now, as a soul or spirit, about the fact that you possess sight, hearing, smell, sensitive touch, desires, and thoughts, so much so that you feel exactly as if you were still in your body?"
Restricted to the picture he had formed when thinking about the subject in the world, he said, "The spirit consists in thought."
"You once were alive in the world," I was allowed to reply. "Don't you know that physical sight cannot occur without the visual organ — the eye? How can thought, which is inner sight, do so? Doesn't it require an organic substance in order to operate?" He then acknowledged that during the life of the body he had labored under the delusion that spirit is simply thought, without any organic matter or dimension.
"If the soul or spirit was only thought," I added, "we would have no need for a brain the size we have, since the brain is nothing but an organ for our interior senses. If that were not its function, the skull could be hollow and still provide a place for our thoughts to do the work of the spirit. This alone should have convinced you that the spirit is organic, or made of organic substance. And had you considered what impressive activities result when the soul operates on the muscles, it might also have convinced you." He confessed his error and wondered how he could have been so foolish.{*1}
Footnotes:
{*1} The man in question seems to have been an adherent of Cartesian dualism: Descartes affirmed "that the mind or soul of man is entirely different from the body." He also contended that, unlike the body, mind does not possess the quality of extension in space, that is, dimensionality or divisibility (Descartes [1641] 1968, 162-164). Swedenborg indicates in the following section that these ideas would lead one to believe that the soul is extinguished after death. [RS] Compare Swedenborg's Dynamics of the Soul's Domain (Swedenborg [1740-1741] 1955), part 2, 216. [SS]
Potts(1905-1910) 444
444. Conversing with one who while he lived in this world had believed that the spirit has no extension, and on that ground would admit of no word that implied extension, I asked him what he now thought of himself, seeing that now he was a soul or spirit, and possessed sight, hearing, smell, an exquisite sense of touch, desires, thoughts, insomuch that he supposed himself to be exactly as if in the body. He was kept in the idea which he had when he had so thought in the world, and he said that the spirit is thought. I was permitted to ask him in reply, whether, having lived in the world, he was not aware that there can be no bodily sight without an organ of vision or eye? and how then can there be internal sight, or thought? Must it not have some organic substance from which to think? He then acknowledged that while in the bodily life he had labored under the delusion that the spirit is mere thought, devoid of everything organic or extended. I added that if the soul or spirit were mere thoughts man would not need so large a brain, seeing that the whole brain is the organ of the interior senses; for if it were not so the skull might be hollow, and the thought still act in it as the spirit. From this consideration alone, as well as from the operation of the soul into the muscles, giving rise to so great a variety of movements, I said that he might be assured that the spirit is organic, that is, an organic substance. Whereupon he confessed his error, and wondered that he had been so foolish.
Elliott(1983-1999) 444
444. On one occasion I spoke to someone who when he lived in the world believed that the spirit was undimensional. In making this assumption he refused to entertain any term which included dimensional connotations. I asked him what he now felt about himself, considering that he was a soul or spirit, who possessed sight, hearing, smell, a perfect sense of touch, desires, thought, insomuch that he supposed himself to be just as if still in the flesh. He was restricted to the ideas that he had had when thinking in this manner in the world, and said that the spirit was thought. But I was allowed to reply that having lived in the world, did he not know that bodily sight was impossible without an organ of sight, the eye? What then of inner sight, which is thought? Did this not possess some organic substance through which it functioned? At this point he admitted that during his lifetime he had been labouring under the delusion of supposing that the spirit was simply thought devoid of anything organic or dimensional. I went on to say that if the soul or spirit were simply thought, man had no need of so large a brain, seeing that the whole brain serves as the organ of the inner senses. If it were not so, the skull could be an empty hollow and thought could still play the part of the spirit within it. From this one consideration, as well as from the activity of the soul into the muscles causing so many movements, it ought to have been clear to him that the spirit was organic, that is, was organic substance. Once he had heard this he admitted his mistake and was amazed that he had been so stupid.
Latin(1748-1756) 444
444. Locutus cum quodam qui dum vixit in mundo, credidit spiritum non esse extensum, ex quo principio nec ullam vocem admittere voluit qua involveret extensum; quaesivi quid nunc sentiat de se, qui est anima aut spiritus, quod visum habeat, quod auditum quod olfactum, quod tactum exquisitum quod cupiditates, quod cogitationem, usque adeo ut se putet prorsus quasi in corpore: tenebatur in idea in qua fuit cum ita cogitavit in mundo; tunc dixit quod spiritus sit cogitatio; sed ei respondere dabatur, sicut vixisset in mundo, anne sciat quod visus corporeus non possit existere absque organo visus seu oculo; quomodo visus internus seu cogitatio; annon ei substantia organica, e qua: tunc agnovit quod in vita corporis phantasia ea laboraverit, quod putaverit spiritum modo esse cogitationem absque omni organico seu extenso: addebatur si anima seu spiritus cogitatio modo esset, quod non homini opus tanto cerebro, cum totum cerebrum sit organicum sensuum interiorum; si hoc non foret potuisset cranium esse excavatum, et cogitatio usque inibi agere spiritum; ex solo hoc, tum ex operatione animae in musculos, usque ut motus tanti existant, constare ei potuerat quod spiritus sit organicus seu substantia organica; quare fassus errorem suum et miratus quod tam fatuus fuerit.