De betoverde weereld ... in vier boeken

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Why is it commonly said that I myself do the very thing that I rebuke in everyone else? The truth is that those who accuse me of this are themselves guilty of it. Because they see me explaining so many passages differently than they are used to doing out of a stubborn attachment to the common sense, it immediately comes to their minds that this change in me must arise from a similar cause. And this is the reason why they say that I bedzaarse misuse/distort the Schifture Scripture. It is not the Scripture that I distort; it is their interpretations, to which I am not bound. No: but I have, they say, a presupposition that is false; and I then arrange the scriptural passages accordingly, to make them understood in a way that agrees with my false position. How then do I treat the Holy Scripture, that I arrange it so? It is necessary that I speak somewhat more distinctly on each point.

The ground which they say I presuppose is that a spirit cannot act upon a body, or upon other spirits without a body. This is the common refrain: "Bekker says so." And it is said so strongly that even friends believe it, for it still comes before me every day. This is once again a strong prejudice, which one person takes over from another, and with which they begin the reading of my book. Not entirely, from beginning to end, as is proper; but a little here and a little there; especially in such places as one person points out to another, as being those where I dispute over the operations of the Spirits. But among those who have read through my work with attention, I have found very few who said that of it; but rather (as is true) the opposite.

I appeal to all those who have read it through, that they should once show me where I state, and that as the foundation of my opinion concerning the Devil, that a Spirit is not active upon any body, nor upon other spirits. From where, then, does that saying come to me, which is so strong and general, and from which the most conflict arises? It comes from the firm and general prejudice upon which the common interpretation of scriptural passages in this matter rests: that a Spirit as spirit, and therefore all the more because it is a spirit, can act upon all kinds of bodies, and upon other spirits without a body. Here I now demand proof: and because that demand appears very unexpected and unusual to them, as they were never much prepared for it, they take that

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for a denial. But as there is also such a ground established, which is commonly not doubted, so I first examine the reason upon which they themselves confirm such an opinion, or would have to build it, according to the concept they have of Spirits.

I say, according to the concept they have of Spirits, namely those who are distinct from our Souls. For whether they distinguish their nature from a body more neatly than others, after the style of des Cartes Descartes; or whether they crudely apply something corporeal to them: nevertheless, they both end up including the outward activity, whether upon spirits or upon bodies, within the very essence of the spiritual nature, and enclosing it in the mental image that they make of it. Although the former referring to the Cartesians establish no other ground than God's will, by which they act upon one or another body, even the soul upon its own: not that God has placed anything in the essence of the Spirit that brings about such an operation. Whereby they also regard the Body, instead of considering it as a necessary, or at least a suitable instrument of the Spirit, much more as a hindrance to the free and powerful operation of the spiritual nature. It is from this that they cry out variously against me: one that the Cartesiaansche Filosofie Cartesian Philosophy has misled me, and that this is the fruit of it, so as to make that philosophy loathed; the other, who is himself Cartesian-minded with that same prejudice, says that I do not understand the philosophy of Descartes René Descartes. But whatever I understand or not, I speak to the intelligent: let them judge what I teach.

And although I believe myself to be well-grounded in this piece, nevertheless the foundation of my opinion does not consist in it. I have only drawn this out so much more deeply in the second book beforehand, to point out that beneath this ground which lies in the Scripture, none is to be found in the Nature of Spirits, which they presuppose, upon which the common opinion can in any way rest. Therefore, were it so that all I wish to say of the nature of Spirits could be refuted; my book would nonetheless be my book and my opinion my opinion.

Special Opening of the Second Book.

I maintain this order in my second book, that I first examine the right truth with the utmost care, and then form the conclusion,