... sensuous things and those which by their means enter immediately into the
thought, are fallacious, and all the fallacies which prevail in man are from
this source. It is from these that few believe the truths of faith, and that the
natural man is opposed to the spiritual, that is, the external man to the
internal; and therefore if the natural or external man begins to rule over the
spiritual or internal man, the things of faith are no longer believed; for
fallacies overshadow and cupidities suffocate them.
As few know what the
fallacies of the senses are, and few believe that they induce so great a shade
on rational things, and most of all on the spiritual things of faith, even so as
to extinguish them, especially when the man is at the same time in the delight
of the cupidities from the love of self and the love of the world, the subject
may be illustrated by examples, showing first what are the fallacies of the
senses which are merely natural, or in those things which are in nature, and
then what are the fallacies of the senses in spiritual things.
(1) It is a
fallacy of merely natural sense, or that which is in nature, to believe that the
sun revolves once each day around this earth, and also the sky with all the
stars; and although it is said that it is incredible-because impossible-that so
great an ocean of fire as is the sun, and not only the sun but also innumerable
stars, should revolve around the earth once every day without any change of
place relatively to one another, and although it is added that it may be seen
from the planets that the earth performs a daily and annual motion by rotation
and revolution, the planets also being earths, some of them with moons revolving
around them, and making - as is known by observation - daily and annual motions
like our earth; nevertheless with very many persons the fallacy of sense
prevails, that it is as it appears to the eye.
(2) It is a fallacy of
merely natural sense, or that which is in nature, that there is only a single
atmosphere, and that this is merely successively purer from one portion to
another, and that where it ceases there is a vacuum. When only the external
sensuous of man is consulted, it apprehends no otherwise. (3) It is a fallacy of
merely natural sense, that from the first creation there has been impressed on
seeds a property of growing up into trees and flowers, and of reproducing
themselves, and that from this is the coming into existence and subsistence of
all things. And if it is urged that it is not possible for anything to subsist
unless it perpetually comes into existence, according to the law that
subsistence is a perpetual coming into existence, and also that everything not
connected with something prior to itself falls into nothing, still the sensuous
of the body and the thought from this sensuous does not apprehend it, nor that
each and all things subsist in the same way that they came into existence, by
influx from the spiritual world, that is to say through the spiritual world from
the Divine.
(4) Hence it is a fallacy of merely natural sense that there
are simple substances, which are monads and atoms; for whatever is within the
range of the external sensuous, the natural man believes to be a simple
substance, or else nothing.
(5) It is a fallacy of merely natural sense that all
things are of nature and from nature, and that there indeed is something in
purer or interior nature which is not apprehended; but if it is said that within
or above nature there is what is spiritual and celestial, this is rejected; and
it is believed that if it is not natural, it is nothing.
(6) It is a fallacy of
sense that only the body lives, and that its life perishes when it dies. The
sensuous does not at all apprehend that the internal man is in every particular
of the external man, and that the internal man is within nature, and in the
spiritual world; hence it does not believe, because it does not apprehend, that
the internal man will live after death unless it is again clothed with the body
(n. 5078, 5079).
(7) Hence it is a fallacy of sense that man cannot live
after death any more than the beasts, because these also have a life similar in
many respects to that of man, man being only a more perfect animal. The
sensuous, that is, the man who thinks and draws conclusions therefrom, does not
apprehend that man is above the beasts and has a higher life, because he can
think not only about the causes of things, but also about the Divine, and can by
faith and love be conjoined with the Divine, and also receive influx therefrom
and make it his own, thus that as there is reciprocity in man there is also
reception, as is by no means the case with beasts.
(8) It is a fallacy
thence derived that the very living part of man, which is called the soul, is
merely something ethereal, or flamy, which is dissipated when the man dies; and
that it resides in the heart, or in the brain, or in some part of this, and from
thence rules the body as if this were a machine. That the internal man is in
every part of the external man, and that the eye does not see from itself, nor
the ear hear from itself, but from the internal man, the sensuous man does not
apprehend.
(9) It is a fallacy of sense that light, and also heat, can come from
no other source than the sun or elementary fire. That there is light in which is
intelligence, and heat in which is heavenly love, and that all the angels are in
this light and heat, the sensuous does not apprehend.
(10) It is a fallacy of
sense that man believes that he lives of himself, or that life has been imparted
to him; for so it appears to the sensuous mind. That it is the Divine alone
which has life of itself, and thus that there is only one life, and that the
lives in the world are only recipient forms, the sensuous mind does not at all
apprehend (see n. 1954, 2706, 2886-2889, 2893, 3001, 3318, 3337, 3338, 3484,
3742, 3743, 4151, 4249, 4318-4320, 4417, 4523, 4524, 4882).
(11) The
sensuous man believes from fallacy that adulteries are allowable; for from the
sensuous he concludes that marriages are instituted merely in behalf of order
for the sake of the education of the offspring; and that so long as this order
is not destroyed, it is immaterial from whom the offspring comes; and also that
what is of marriage differs from lasciviousness merely in its being allowed;
thus also that it would not be contrary to order to marry more than one wife, if
it were not forbidden by the Christian world from Holy Scripture. If they are
told that there is a correspondence between the heavenly marriage and marriages
on earth, and that no one can have in himself anything of marriage unless he is
in spiritual truth and good, also that genuine marriage cannot possibly exist
between a husband and several wives, and hence that marriages are in themselves
holy, these things are rejected by the sensuous man as of no account.
(12) It is
a fallacy of sense that the Lord's kingdom, or heaven, resembles an earthly
kingdom in respect that the joy and happiness there consist in one being greater
than another, and hence having more glory than another; for the sensuous does
not at all comprehend what is meant by the least being greatest, or the last
first. If they are told that joy in heaven or to the angels consists in serving
others by benefiting them, without any thought of merit or recompense, this
strikes them as something sad.
(13) It is a fallacy of sense that good works
merit reward, and that to benefit anyone for the sake of self is a good work.
(14) It is also a fallacy of sense that man is saved by faith alone, and that
faith can exist in one who has no charity, and also that it is the faith, and
not the life, that remains after death. In like manner in very many other
instances. When therefore what is sensuous rules in man, the rational
enlightened from the Divine sees nothing and is in thick darkness, and it is
then believed that everything is rational which is concluded from what is
sensuous.
(Arcana Coelestia 5084)
