Spiritual Experiences (Buss) n. 1604

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1604. But an abuse arises from the fact that philosophers abide in terms, and dispute concerning them without coming to an agreement, from which all idea of the thing itself perishes, and the comprehension of the man is rendered so limited that he at length ceases to know anything but terms. Accordingly when such persons would master a subject by their terms they do nothing but heap them up, obscuring the whole matter, so that they can understand absolutely nothing of it, and even their natural lumen is extinguished. Thus an unlearned man has much more extensive ideas and sees truth better than the philosopher; for such an one sticks in the mire like a swine, on which account he was represented to make the figure of an animal of that kind, of the wild species, for he becomes a wild boar in the woods, ranging about like such a beast, in truths which he mutilates and slays.


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