816# 我询问汉堡人在灵性世界中可在哪里找到；有人告诉我，他们并不显现为在某处聚集成一个群体，更不用说形成某座城市，而是分散并混杂在各个区域的德国人中间。当我追问原因时，得到的回答是：这是因为他们的心智不断向外察看，仿佛总在自己的城市之外游历，而极少停留在城内；因为人在自然世界中心智的状态如何，他在灵性世界中的状态也如何。人的心智就是他的灵，也就是人在离开物质身体之后继续存活的遗后之人。
816# 在灵界，我打听在哪里能找到汉堡人，被告知，他们在哪里都没有聚集在一个社群里，更不用说聚集在任何一个州了，而是分散在各个地区，与德国人混杂在一起。当被问到原因时，有人说，这是因为他们的心智不断向外看，仿佛在自己的城市之外漫游，很少在城市之内。人心智的状态在自然界如何，在灵界也如何；因为人的心智就是他的灵，或离开物质身体后仍活着的死后之人。
816. I asked where the people from Hamburg live in the spiritual world. I was told that they are not gathered together into any particular community, let alone a whole city. They are scattered and live among other Germans in various different areas. When I asked why, I was told that people from Hamburg are constantly focused elsewhere, and mentally, if not physically, traveling outside their city; they pay little attention to the city itself.
Whatever our state of mind is like in the physical world determines our outward conditions in the spiritual world. Our mind is our spirit; it is the part of us that survives death and lives on after being withdrawn from the physical body.
816. I enquired where the people of Hamburg are to be found in the spiritual world. I was told that they are nowhere to be found gathered into one community, much less into one state, but scattered around and mixed with Germans in various regions. When I asked the reason, I was told it was because their minds are continually, looking around and as it were travelling outside their own city, and taking little note of things within it. For the state of a person's mind in the natural world determines its state in the spiritual world. A person's mind is his spirit, or the surviving personality which lives, on after leaving the material body. 1
Footnotes:
1. 816a, which appears here in the printed text, has been removed to the end of this work and renumbered 853.
816. I asked where the people of Hamburg were to be found in the spiritual world, and was told that they are nowhere now gathered together in one society, still less in any civil community, but are scattered about and intermingled with the Germans in the various quarters. And when the reason was asked it was said that it arose from their continual mental introspections and wanderings, as it were, outside of their own city, and very little within it; for such as the state of man's mind is in the natural world, such it is in the spiritual world; for man's mind is his spirit, or the posthumous man that lives after his departure from the material body.
816. On making inquiry as to where the people of Hamburg are to be found in the spiritual world, I was informed that they nowhere appear assembled in one society, and still less in any of the states, but that they are dispersed and mingled with Germans in various quarters. The reason was stated to be that their minds are continually looking abroad, and traveling, as it were, beyond their own city and very little within it. In the spiritual world the state of a man's mind is such as it is in the natural world; for a man's mind is his spirit, or the posthumous man who lives after his departure out of the material body.
816. Quaesivi ubinam Hamburgenses in Mundo spirituali inveniuntur, ac dictum est, quod nullibi appareant collecti in unam Societatem, et minus in aliquam Civitatem, sed quod sint circumsparsi et intermixti Germanis in variis plagis; et dum inquisita est causa, dicta est haec, quod sit ex continuis mentium illorum inspectionibus et quasi peregrinationibus extra suam Urbem, et perparum intra illam: nam qualis est status Mentis hominis in Mundo naturali, talis est ejus status in Mundo spirituali; Mens enim hominis est ejus Spiritus, seu posthumus homo post excessum ejus e materiali corpore vivens.