[In these extracts scientia, scientificum and cognitio are alike
rendered knowledge, because any distinction between them intended by
the author is not sufficiently obvious to be uniformly indicated in
English. -- Tr.]
Man ought to be fully instructed in knowledges [scientiis
et cognitionibus], since by means of them he learns to
think [cogitare], afterwards to understand what is true
and good, and finally to be wise (n. 129, 1450, 1451,
1453, 1548, 1802).
Knowledges [scientifica] are the first things on which the
life of man, civil, moral, and spiritual, is built and
founded, and they are to be learned for the sake of use as
an end (n. 1489, 3310).
Knowledges [cognitiones] open the way to the internal man,
and afterwards conjoin that man with the external in
accordance with uses (n. 1563, 1616).
The rational faculty has its birth by means of knowledges
[scientias et cognitiones] (n. 1895, 1900, 3086).
But not by means of knowledges [cognitiones] themselves,
but by means of affection for the uses derived from them
(n. 1895).
[2] There are knowledges [scientifica] that give entrance
to Divine truths, and knowledges [scientifica] that do not
(n. 5213).
Empty knowledges [scientifica] are to be destroyed (n.
1489, 1492, 1499, 1581).
Empty knowledges [scientifica] are such as have the loves
of self and of the world as an end, and sustain those
loves, and withdraw from love to God and love towards the
neighbor, because such knowledges close up the internal
man, even to the extent that man becomes unable to receive
any thing from heaven (n. 1563, 1600).
Knowledges [scientifica] are means to becoming wise and
means to becoming insane and by them the internal man is
either opened or closed, and thus the rational is either
enriched or destroyed (n. 4156, 8628, 9922).
[3] The internal man is opened and gradually perfected by
means of knowledges [scientifica] if man has good use as
an end, especially use that looks to external life (n.
3086).
Then knowledges [scientificis], which are in the natural
man, are met by spiritual and heavenly things from the
spiritual man, and these adopt such of them as are
suitable (n. 1495).
Then the uses of heavenly life are drawn forth by the Lord
and perfected and raised up out of the knowledges
[scientificis] in the natural man by means of the internal
man (n. 1895, 1896, 1900, 1901, 1902, 5871, 5874, 5901).
While incongruous and opposing knowledges [scientifica]
are rejected to the sides and banished (n. 5871, 5886,
5889).
[4] The sight of the internal man calls forth from the
knowledges [scientificis] of the external man only such
things as are in accord with its love (n. 9394).
As seen by the internal man what pertains to the love is
at the center and in brightness, but what is not of the
love is at the sides and in obscurity (n. 6068, 6084).
Suitable knowledges [scientifica] are gradually implanted
in man's loves and as it were dwell in them (n. 6325).
If man were born into love towards the neighbor he would
be born into intelligence, but because he is born into the
loves of self and of the world he is born into total
ignorance (n. 6323, 6325).
Knowledge [scientia], intelligence, and wisdom are sons of
love to God and of love towards the neighbor (n. 1226,
2049, 2116).
[5] It is one thing to be wise, another thing to
understand, another to know [scire], and another to do;
nevertheless, in those that possess spiritual life these
follow in order, and exist together in doing or deeds (n.
10331).
Also it is one thing to know [scire], another to
acknowledge, and another to have faith (n. 896).
[6] Knowledges [scientifica], which pertain to the
external or natural man, are in the light of the world,
but truths that have been made truths of faith and of
love, and have thus acquired life, are in the light of
heaven (n. 5212).
The truths that have acquired spiritual life are
comprehended by means of natural ideas (n. 5510).
Spiritual influx is from the internal or spiritual man
into the knowledges [scientifica] that are in the external
or natural man (n. 1940, 8005).
Knowledges [scientifica] are receptacles, and as it were
vessels, for the truth and good that belong to the
internal man (n. 1469, 1496, 3068, 5489, 6004, 6023, 6052,
6071, 6077, 7770, 9922).
Knowledges [scientifica] are like mirrors in which the
truths and goods of the internal man appear as an image
(n. 5201).
There they are together as in their outmost (n. 5373,
5874, 5886, 5901, 6004, 6023, 6052, 6071).
[7] Influx is not physical but spiritual, that is, influx
is from the internal man into the external, thus into the
knowledges of the external; and not from the external into
the internal, thus not from the knowledges [scientificis]
of the external into truths of faith (n. 3219, 5119, 5259,
5427, 5428, 5478, 6322, 9110).
A beginning must be made from the truths of doctrine of
the church, which are from the Word, and those truths must
first be acknowledged, and then it is permissible to
consult knowledges [scientifica] (n. 6047).
Thus it is permissible for those who are in an affirmative
state in regard to truths of faith to confirm them
intellectually by means of knowledges [scientifica], but
not for those who are in a negative state (n. 2568, 2588,
4760, 6047).
He that will not believe Divine truths until he is
convinced by means of knowledges [scientificis] will never
believe (n. 2094, 2832).
To enter from knowledge [scientificis] into the truths of
faith is contrary to order (n. 10236).
Those who do so become demented respecting the things of
heaven and the church (n. 128, 129, 130).
They fall into the falsities of evil (n. 232, 233, 6047).
In the other life when they think about spiritual matters
they become as it were drunken (n. 1072).
More respecting the character of such (n. 196).
Examples showing that things spiritual cannot be
comprehended when entered into through knowledges
[scientifica] (n. 233, 2094, 2196, 2203, 2209).
In spiritual things many of the learned are more demented
than the simple, for the reason that they are in a
negative state, which they confirm by means of the
knowledges [scientifica] which they have continually and
in abundance before their sight (n. 4760, 8629).
[8] Those who reason from knowledges [scientificis]
against the truths of faith reason keenly because they
reason from the fallacies of the senses, which are
engaging and convincing, because they cannot easily be
dispelled (n. 5700).
What things are fallacies of the senses, and what they are
(n. 5084, 5094, 6400, 6948).
Those that have no understanding of truth, and also those
that are in evil, are able to reason about the truths and
goods of faith, but are not able to understand them (n.
4214).
Intelligence does not consist in merely confirming dogma
but in seeing whether it is true or not before it is
confirmed (n. 4741, 6047).
[9] Knowledges [scientiae] are of no avail after death,
but only that which man has imbibed in his understanding
and life by means of knowledges [scientias] (n. 2480).
Still all knowledge [scientifica] remains after death,
although it is quiescent (n. 2476-2479, 2481-2486).
[10] Knowledge [scientifica] with the evil are falsities,
because they are adapted to evils, but with the good the
same knowledges are truths, because applied to what is
good (n. 6917).
True knowledges [scientifica] with the evil are not true,
however much they may appear to be true when uttered,
because there is evil within them (n. 10331).
[11] An example of the desire to know [sciendi], which
spirits have (n. 1974). Angels have an illimitable longing
to know [sciendi] and to become wise, since learning
[scientia], intelligence, and wisdom are spiritual food
(n. 3114, 4459, 4792, 4976, 5147, 5293, 5340, 5342, 5410,
5426, 5576, 5582, 5588, 5655, 6277, 8562, 9003).
The knowledge [scientia] of the ancients was the knowledge
[scientia] of correspondences and representations, by
which they gained entrance into the knowledge
[cognitionem] of spiritual things; but that knowledge
[scientia] at this day is wholly lost (n. 4749, 4844,
4964, 4965).
[12] For spiritual truths to be comprehended the following
universals must be known [scientur]. (i) All things in the
universe have relation to good and truth and to their
conjunction that they may be anything, thus to love and
faith and their conjunction. (ii) Man has understanding
and will; and the understanding is the receptacle of truth
and the will of good; and all things in man have relation
to these two and to their conjunction, as all things have
relation to truth and good and their conjunction. (iii)
There is an internal man and an external man, which are as
distinct from each other as heaven and the world are, and
yet for a man to be truly a man, these must make one. (iv)
The internal man is in the light of heaven, and the
external man is in the light of the world; and the light
of heaven is Divine truth itself, from which is all
intelligence. (v) Between the things in the internal man
and those in the external there is a correspondence,
therefore the different aspect they present is such that
they can be distinguished only by means of a knowledge
[scientiam] of correspondences. Unless these and many
other things are known [scientur], nothing but incongruous
ideas of spiritual and heavenly truths can be conceived
and formed; therefore without these universals the
knowledges [scientifica et cognitiones] of the natural man
can be of but little service to the rational man for
understanding and growth. This makes clear how necessary
knowledges [scientifica] are.