866. THAT PHILOSOPHICAL MATTERS SO LIMIT THE HUMAN MIND THAT AT LENGTH IT CAN SEE NOTHING WHATEVER From their first ages, now some thousands of years ago, philosophical matters have consisted solely in terms and syllogisms; and because philosophers yearn after terms alone - as what "form" is, what "accidents", what modes", etc.-nothing else can result than that the mind is terminated in mere ideas without any life, because without light. In this way they excite the universal things of the mind, and concentrate them upon that in which there is no life, and so they are only in material things. Consequently, they form a callus so dense that no light can pass through. For they do not make application to rational things, and those which they do apply are still mere terms; and if they dispute from these, they are like one who learns the words of a language, not for the sake of expressing any meaning by them, but only for the sake of talking.* It is the same also with syllogistic philosophy which so limits the mind's ideas that there is scarcely any opening for the light. Therefore men, wise in such ways, are much more blind, yea, more stupid in spiritual and celestial things, than the least wise among the crowd, or than rustics. 1748, Feb. 18. * In the manuscript the sentence, "For they do not ... sake of talking," is written between the lines over the passage, "In this way they excite ... can pass through." In the Latin Edition these statements are printed in a different order.