LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
 
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Physiological 
 
 Correspondences 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN WORCESTER 
 
 BOSTON : 
 MASSACHUSETTS NEW-CHURCH UNION 
 
 169 Tremont Street 
 
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 Copyright, i8Sq 
 By John Worcester 
 
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 CONTENTS 
 
 
 Introduction i 
 
 The Lips, Tongue, and Teeth ...... 3 
 
 The Saliva 27 
 
 The (Esophagus 37 
 
 The Stomach 41 
 
 The Intestines 57 
 
 The Mesentery 75 
 
 The Liver 86 
 
 The Spleen and the Pancreas 108 
 
 The Omentum 122 
 
 The Supra-renal Capsules 131 
 
 The Kidneys 136 
 
 The Peritonaeum • . 144 
 
 The Heart and the Lungs 151 
 
 The Nose 173 
 
 The Organs of Speech 191 
 
 The Pleura 205 
 
 THe Diaphragm 212 
 
 The Muscles in General . 218 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 The Bones 221 
 
 The Cartilages 224 
 
 The Skin 226 
 
 The Hair 245 
 
 The Hands 250 
 
 The Feet 265 
 
 The Ear 273 
 
 The Eye 293 
 
 Generation and Regeneration 317 
 
 The Brain 370 
 
INTRODUCTION, 
 
 1 r I ^HE states of spirits and angels, with all 
 -■- their varieties, can in no wise be under- 
 stood without a knowledge of the human body ; for 
 the Lord's kingdom is like a man." (S. D. 1145^.) 
 " That heaven as a whole is like one man is an 
 arcanum not yet known in the world ; but in heaven 
 it is most certainly known. To know that, and the 
 specific and particular things concerning it, is the 
 chief of the intelligence of the angels there ; very 
 many things also depend upon it, which without 
 that as their general principle do not enter dis- 
 tinctly and clearly into their minds." (H. H. 59.) 
 " The chief of the intelligence which angels have 
 is to know and perceive that all of life is from the 
 Lord, and that the whole heaven corresponds to 
 His Divine Human, and consequently that all angels, 
 spirits, and men correspond to heaven ; also to know 
 and perceive how they correspond. These are the 
 chief things of the intelligence in which angels are 
 above men ; from these they know and perceive in- 
 numerable things which are in the heavens, and 
 hence also those which are in the world." (A. C. 
 
 4318.) 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The correspondence of the whole heaven with 
 the Divine Human, and of individual men with the 
 heavens, is the subject of these studies. 
 
THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH. 
 
 'THO the lips is assigned the three-fold duty of 
 expressing the thoughts and feelings to the 
 sight by means of their motions and changes of 
 form ; of modifying and articulating the voice, and 
 thus communicating the activities of the mind to 
 the ear ; and of receiving and drawing in the food 
 by which the body is nourished. To the last use 
 we will attend first, leaving the others till we have 
 studied the correspondence of the lungs and of 
 the face. 
 
 The use of the lips in receiving food is most 
 evident in infancy, during the period in which 
 nourishment is obtained by sucking. Afterwards, 
 in drinking, they have a similar duty through the 
 whole of life. In these operations the lips apply 
 themselves to the mother's breast, or to the cup, 
 and in conjunction with the cheeks, tongue, and 
 fauces, by alternate expansions and contractions, 
 
4 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 draw out the pliant food, and introduce it into the 
 mouth. 
 
 Such food needs no mastication ; the function 
 of the lips is merely to draw it in and introduce 
 it, and then it is received by the soft parts of the 
 mouth, and is quickly conducted to its destination. 
 The lips have a similar use in laying hold of and 
 drawing into the mouth solid food that is pre- 
 sented to them, and in caring for this they have 
 the further duty, in cooperation with the cheeks 
 and tongue, of pressing it between the teeth, and 
 compelling it to submit to the grinding process by 
 which its interior parts are opened and separated. 
 
 It is, perhaps, worthy of mention also that on 
 the inner surfaces of the lips are little glands, 
 which begin the process of moistening and lubrica- 
 ting the food, to aid in digestion and in its pas- 
 sage to the stomach. Undoubtedly there are also 
 absorbents, by which a small amount of the purest 
 part of the food is taken at once into the circula- 
 tion of the body, and introduced into its life and 
 uses. 
 
THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH. 5 
 
 To see the correspondence of these uses of the 
 lips, on a grand scale and in perfection, we must 
 think of the great community from which men 
 derive their humanity, and which, because it re- 
 ceives the Divine Influence immediately and in the 
 greatest measure, Swedenborg calls the " Greatest 
 Man." (See A. C. 3741.) 
 
 This Greatest Man is the heavens. It includes 
 all good men, recipients of good life from the 
 Lord, who have lived upon any of the earths in 
 the starry universe from the beginning of time. 
 Of these, " the inhabitants of this world are very 
 few comparatively, and almost as a drop of water 
 in comparison with the ocean." (A. C. 3631.) 
 
 Of this Greatest Man the Lord is the Life. It 
 is formed to receive His life, and to live from 
 Him ; and it is Man because He is Man. All its 
 parts are human, and do human uses correspond- 
 ing to the uses of the organs and members of the 
 human body. 
 
 The nourishment of the heavens is of two kinds : 
 they receive an influence of love and wisdom, or 
 
6 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 of warmth and light, immediately from the Lord ; 
 and they receive additions of new members from 
 the earths. 
 
 These two kinds of nourishment are compar- 
 atively like the inflow of life from the soul into 
 the human body, from which every particle of the 
 body draws its gift of human life, and the addi- 
 tions of new particles from the food. Both kinds 
 of nourishment are necessary to useful activity. 
 Continual inflow of spiritual life of course is nec- 
 essary to those who in themselves are dead ; and 
 frequent supplies of new experiences, new subjects 
 of thought, new applications of truth, and new 
 opportunities of use are also necessary, to those 
 whose happiness is by their very constitution made 
 to depend upon eternal progress. 
 
 New things, necessary to the growth and happi- 
 ness of the heavens, are as food supplied from 
 the earths. Like food the comers from the earth 
 must be received by the heavens, examined, sorted, 
 instructed, and trained to heavenly states, as by a 
 kind of digestion, before they can be assimilated ; 
 and this is the function of the world of spirits. 
 
THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH. j 
 
 " The life of man," Swedenborg says, "when he 
 dies, and enters into the other life, is like food, 
 which is received softly by the lips, and afterwards 
 is passed through the mouth, fauces, and oesopha- 
 gus into the stomach ; and this according to the 
 nature derived from his works during the life of 
 the body. Most are treated gently at first, for they 
 are kept in the company of angels and good spirits ; 
 which is represented in food that it is first softly 
 touched by the lips, and afterwards tasted as to its 
 quality by the tongue. 
 
 "The food which is soft, in which is sweetness, 
 [essential] oil, and spirit, is immediately received 
 by the veins, and borne into the circulation ; but 
 food which is hard, in which is bitterness and foul- 
 ness, and little nutritiveness, is more hardly treated, 
 and is cast down through the oesophagus into the 
 stomach, where it is corrected by various methods 
 and tortures. What is still harder, more foul, and 
 worthless, is thrust into the intestines, and at length 
 into the rectum, where first is hell, and at last is 
 cast out, and becomes excrement. 
 
 " Resembling this is the life of man after death. 
 First man is kept in externals ; and because he had 
 lived a moral and civil life in externals, he is with 
 angels and good spirits. But afterwards externals 
 are taken away from him, and then it appears what 
 
8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 he was within as to thoughts and affections, and 
 at length as to ends ; according to these his life 
 remains. 
 
 " As long as they are in this state, in which they 
 are like food in the stomach, they are not in the 
 Greatest Man, but are being introduced ; but when 
 they are representatively in the blood, then they 
 are in the Greatest Man." (A. C. 5175, 5176.) 
 
 The angels, then, who softly receive man at his 
 entrance into the spiritual world, who cooperate 
 with the Lord in drawing him out of the world 
 and introducing him into the spiritual world, are 
 in the province of the lips. Perhaps we see some 
 effect of their presence even before the moment 
 of death, in those whose feelings and thoughts are 
 strongly drawn towards the other world as the 
 time of death comes near ; and especially in those 
 for whom open vision of spiritual things, more or 
 less distinct, produces an anticipation of the peace- 
 ful gladness which we commonly see represented 
 in the face after the natural life ceases. 
 
 Swedenborg says that celestial angels, who be- 
 long to the kingdom of the heart, come to a per- 
 
THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH g 
 
 son at the time of death, and take charge of his 
 affections and thoughts ; and that at their ap- 
 proach an aromatic odor is perceived, and then all 
 spij'its leave the person exclusively to their care. 
 (H. H. 449.) 
 
 The office of the lips and tongue, and of those 
 in the corresponding provinces of the heavens, is 
 twofold : they are organs of speech and organs 
 for receiving food. As organs of speech their use 
 is spiritual, and as organs for receiving food it is 
 celestial. As Swedenborg writes, — 
 
 " The tongue affords entrance to the lungs and 
 also to the stomach ; thus it presents a sort of 
 court-yard to spiritual things and to celestial things ; 
 to spiritual things because it ministers to the lungs 
 and thence to speech, and to celestial things be- 
 cause it ministers to the stomach, which supplies 
 aliment to the blood and the heart." (A. C. 4791.) 
 
 It is noteworthy that the angels who first re- 
 ceive man at death do not speak; but sit silently 
 looking into his face, communicating their own 
 affection. They apply themselves to him from 
 
IO PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 love of introducing him into the joys of heaven, 
 and of adding new members to heavenly societies. 
 From this love they hold his thought fixed upon 
 the future life, and lead it by various happy things 
 into as full sympathy with their own thought as is 
 possible. Then the Lord separates him from the 
 body and he awakes in the world of spirits. 
 
 "Two or three times," Swedenborg writes in his 
 Diary (" Minus," 4702), " I have been sent into the 
 place where is the resurrection of the dead. It is 
 known from this : that something balsamic is per- 
 ceived from the dead when the Lord is present, 
 and celestial angels. And it was said that the 
 Lord is especially present there, and therefore also 
 celestial angels are there ; because without such 
 presence of the Lord, there would be no resurrec- 
 tion of the dead." 
 
 After he is raised up, if the new spirit belongs 
 to the very few who by instruction in heavenly 
 truth and by training in heavenly love and useful- 
 ness are already prepared to enjoy the life of 
 heaven, these angels receive him among them- 
 selves, and by ways in their own societies, like 
 
THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH. n 
 
 the absorbing vessels of the lips, and especially 
 of the tongue, they introduce him at once into 
 heaven, and lead him on the way to his permanent 
 home. 
 
 In this work the angels of the tongue and the 
 cheeks cooperate with those of the lips. If the 
 new spirits be interiorly open, gentle, and good, 
 they are most kindly treated by the angels of 
 these provinces. Those of the tongue, especially, 
 delight to perceive the new varieties of goodness 
 and truth which are introduced from the world, 
 and are eager to convey the pleasing intelligence 
 of their arrival, and if possible the spirits them- 
 selves, to the societies which will be enriched by 
 them ; for the tongue abounds in porous papillae, 
 which erect themselves on the approach of food, 
 to touch it, and to feel its quality ; and if there be 
 in it that which is spirituous and aromatic, to ab- 
 sorb it for the immediate benefit of the brain and 
 the whole system.* "The angels love everyone, 
 
 * The tongue " as an organ of taste signifies the natural percep- 
 tion of good and truth; whereas the smell corresponds to spiritual 
 
12 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 and desire nothing more than to perform kind 
 offices to all, to give them instruction, and to take 
 them into heaven, in which consists their supreme 
 delight." (H. H. 450.) 
 
 The angels of all the societies desire to receive 
 new members ; and being informed by the tongue 
 of the advent of those who are suitable for their 
 respective societies they prepare to welcome them. 
 Their eagerness and desire excite appetite in all 
 the intermediate receiving societies, and all com- 
 bine to invite and guide the new spirits to their 
 destination.* 
 
 With such soft welcomes are good, open-minded 
 spirits received, and especially is such kindly em- 
 brace extended by angels to those who leave this 
 
 perception; for the tongue tastes and relishes meats and drinks, and 
 by meats and drinks are signified good and truth which nourish 
 the natural mind." (A. E. 990.) 
 
 * " Men, after death, as soon as they come into the world of 
 spirits, are carefully distinguished by the Lord; the evil are imme- 
 diately bound to the infernal society in which they were in the world 
 as to their ruling love, and the good are bound immediately to the 
 heavenly society in which they also were as to love, charity, and 
 faith" (H. H. 427). "This is the case with all as to internals; but 
 not yet as to externals." (497-) 
 
THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH 13 
 
 world in infancy and childhood. No harsher treat- 
 ment do they need than to be separated from evil 
 spirits, and taken up at once into heavenly socie- 
 ties, to be made wise with the wisdom of angels. 
 
 The work of reception which we have been de- 
 scribing is done in the province of the mouth of 
 the Greatest Man, in what Swedenborg calls "the 
 first state of man after death" (H. H. 491). And 
 spirits who are interiorly open, and whose thoughts 
 and feelings appear frankly, undergo no treatment 
 less gentle than this. But with the greater part 
 even of good men, at the present clay, the interiors 
 have never been consciously opened. They have 
 done good works, perhaps from good principles ; but 
 they have attended, as others have, only to the 
 appearances of their lives before men ; which, like 
 the hulls and skins of various grains and fruits, 
 must be broken up with some force, that their 
 real life, their purposes and intentions as well as 
 their outward acts, may be disclosed. This disclo- 
 sure is necessary both for a fair judgment of the 
 characters of the new spirits, and as the first step 
 
14 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 towards the separation of good from evil, either 
 in the same or in associated persons. 
 
 The love of introducing good spirits into heaven, 
 and the love of perceiving the interior quality of 
 new goodness and conveying a knowledge of it to 
 the heavens, urge, therefore, the opening of the 
 whole life of the new comers. We see an image 
 of their operation in the action of the tongue and 
 lips upon the food, which they press gently, sub- 
 divide, and examine, and bring into contact with 
 all the soft absorbing surfaces of the mouth. And 
 if in this examination hard morsels are discovered 
 which do not open to gentle pressure, these are 
 quickly conducted between the teeth, by the pres- 
 sure of which they are broken up, and all their 
 contents disclosed for examination ; or, if they can- 
 not be broken, they are rejected as worthless. So 
 the angels who are in the love of receiving good 
 spirits, and conducting them to heaven, presently 
 lead those spirits whose interiors are closely con- 
 cealed by externals into the province of other 
 angels whose function it is to open the interior 
 memory of the life. 
 
THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH. 
 
 15 
 
 These angels whose use is in some respects sim- 
 ilar to that of the gates of pearl, in conjunction 
 with the angels of the tongue, guard the way to 
 the greater part of the world of spirits, and of 
 heaven and hell. They know that all new comers 
 are now to be judged, — not according to their pro- 
 fessions, but their lives. They say to them, there- 
 fore, " None are received here whose quality is not 
 known ; and the quality of every one is known 
 from his life ; now, how have you lived ? what 
 good have you done ? what evil have you resisted ? 
 and what evil have you done and what did you 
 love to do and think ? " Thus they open the 
 whole memory of the life. (H. H. 462.) 
 
 No doubt many other simple truths or facts con- 
 cerning the other life they hold and press home in 
 the same way. They are not in themselves sensi- 
 tive, except to the resistance of spirits to this open- 
 ing. They deal simply with matters of fact. They 
 do not judge of the quality of the things they dis- 
 cover ; this is the duty of the tongue. Their 
 work is, as warders, to compel those who approach 
 
1 6 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 to show their true colors, to warn the tongue and 
 lips if any are present w r ho will not do so, and 
 to assist in shutting out such, and any others 
 whose quality is too repugnant to the life of the 
 Greatest Man. We are told by the Scriptures 
 that some who are admitted will be spewed out 
 of the mouth. No doubt some will be ejected 
 with disgust as soon as their quality is perceived. 
 Perhaps these are the lukewarm, who can be re- 
 ceived neither in heaven nor in hell, but are be- 
 neath the hells, in a state almost without life. 
 (A. R. 204; A. E. 1 1 58.) 
 
 There are some other particulars in regard to 
 the action of the teeth which should be consid- 
 ered before we leave them. The teeth hold the 
 food, and bite it off ; in which they correspond to 
 the truth that all men must die, and that the pur- 
 pose of their life is to be prepared for heaven, 
 and to be added to the heavens. Compared to 
 the gentle drawing of all the thoughts and affec- 
 tions towards heaven, inspired by the angels of 
 the lips, this is stern teaching ; but it is neces- 
 
THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH. jj 
 
 sary for those who cling to the world, and are un- 
 willing to die. It is such truth as we apply to 
 men to separate them from their worldly pursuits 
 and attachments, and to turn them towards heaven. 
 The angels of the incisors must influence us to 
 do this. 
 
 This is the duty of the twice four front teeth, 
 which have no part in the grinding of food, but 
 only in the breaking off. The next four teeth, 
 called " canine," or "eye teeth," are, in man, much 
 like the incisors, and join in their work ; adding, 
 perhaps, a special duty of holding the food and, in 
 the carnivora, of penetrating and rending it. 
 
 Then come the bicuspids (2X4)? whose use it is 
 to break or cut up the food into small pieces, 
 ready for grinding ; and then the molars (2X4+4), 
 which separate all the particles. 
 
 As the incisors correspond to the truth that 
 all must die and enter the spiritual world, the 
 grinding teeth, in their several degrees, represent 
 the further truth that there all are judged accord- 
 ing to their works ; and that therefore the lives 
 
1 8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 of all must there be opened and explored, to show 
 their real quality. Such truth, also, we apply in 
 the world to bring out the fitness or unfitness of 
 men for various uses and positions in society. 
 
 The teeth are in two sets, the upper and the 
 lower. The upper are fixed in the head ; the 
 lower, exactly similar in number and character, 
 are fitted into the movable jaw, and press, each 
 one against its correlative above. The upper 
 teeth correspond to truth founded in the nature 
 of the world they guard ; the lower to similar 
 truth applied to the individual cases presented. 
 The upper say to those who approach, " All men 
 are created for life in the spiritual world ; there 
 are none in heaven who have not once lived upon 
 the earth, and there died." The lower add, "You 
 also are born for the same end ; you too must 
 die." The upper say, " Here all are judged by 
 their life, by what they have done and what they 
 have loved to do and to think." The lower con- 
 tinue in turn, " You, too, are to be judged accord- 
 ing to your lives ; now, what have you done, and 
 
THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH. jg 
 
 what have you loved to do and to think ?" And 
 thus they compel the opening of all the particulars 
 of the life. 
 
 They also have a delicate tact for hypocrisies 
 and concealments ; just as the natural teeth have 
 for even the smallest hard particles which come 
 between them, and they feel just where the pres- 
 sure is necessary. 
 
 Swedenborg speaks of the teeth as correspond- 
 ing to the "sensuals of the understanding' ' (A. R. 
 435), or to truth held merely naturally and obedi- 
 ently, without interior understanding. And the 
 work of those who are in the teeth of the Greatest 
 Man is not the work of intelligence, or of inte- 
 rior perception ; it consists in strong compulsion, 
 and is performed by those who hold Divine Truth 
 firmly and uncompromisingly, but not intelligently. 
 They who are in tender states cannot do this 
 work ; but leave it to those whose life it is to 
 insist upon submission to the rules. They are 
 simple, honest doorkeepers, who admit all who 
 present themselves for admission, on the one con- 
 
20 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 dition that there shall be no concealment of who 
 they are, or what they have done ; but their lives 
 shall be open for judgment. 
 
 Swedenborg often speaks of the disputes of the 
 evil as sounding like gnashing of teeth ; because 
 they hold literal truths or falsities in the mem- 
 ory, and clash them together in a kind of clamor- 
 ous argumentation (H. H. 575). The teeth in the 
 hells seem to be related especially to the cruel, 
 tearing teeth of the carnivora ; and their purpose 
 is to injure others, and to claim all things that 
 can minister to self-love and love of the world. 
 The gnashing of the teeth is the angry clashing 
 of assertions of fact, or of literal statements, by 
 which they urge such claims against one another 
 and against the Lord and the heavens. 
 
 Of some who cause pain in the teeth, he says, 
 " Hypocrites who have spoken holily of Divine 
 things, with affection of love concerning the 
 public and the neighbor, and testified what is 
 just and right, and still have despised these things 
 in their heart, and also laughed at them, when it 
 
THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH. 2 i 
 
 was allowed them to flow into the parts of the 
 body to which they corresponded from the oppo- 
 site, produced pains in the teeth, and on their 
 near presence so severe that I could not bear it " 
 (A. C. 5720). Which appears to have been be- 
 cause the truths which they held in the memory 
 and produced from the memory were like teeth, 
 and their interior contempt for them was like 
 death to the life and support of the teeth. 
 
 Again he says that " those who have been rich 
 in the life of the body, and have dwelt in magnif- 
 icent palaces, placing their heaven in such things, 
 and have despoiled others of their goods under 
 various pretences, without conscience or charity, 
 . . . exhaled a sphere of fetor of teeth " (A. C. 
 163 1). Which, apparently, was because with them 
 a life of pleasures was substituted for a truly 
 heavenly life, and the principles which insist upon 
 interior exploration of those pleasures before they 
 are received into the life were neglected and 
 allowed to become foul and to decay. 
 
 A similar consequence follows from the habit of 
 
22 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 thinking over things that seem pleasant, in an 
 indolent fashion, like food retained in the mouth, 
 and rolled with the tongue, without regard to its 
 rightness or usefulness ; from which our principles 
 decay, as the teeth do when not kept clean and 
 bright. 
 
 The pains and dangers which children pass 
 through in cutting their teeth, correspond to the 
 natural reluctance and difficulty in forming princi- 
 ples by which apparently pleasant things are thor- 
 oughly examined, and the evil resolutely rejected. 
 
 A child's first principles are scarcely more than 
 his parent's words, held without thought. These 
 are succeeded by natural principles better under- 
 stood, as the first set of teeth, lightly rooted, are 
 replaced by those that are larger and firmer. 
 
 When old people pass from the state of parents 
 to that of grandparents, and leaving the disciplin- 
 ary stage of life, pass again into a child-like state, 
 they become indulgent, and lose their teeth spirit- 
 ually as they do naturally. 
 
 In this view, soundness of the teeth would cor- 
 
THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH. 23 
 
 respond with the love of having the enjoyments 
 of life thoroughly good ; especially with the love 
 of thoroughly good work, and not of what merely 
 appears well. And unsoundness of the teeth 
 would correspond to content with good appear- 
 ances, and work that will pass. 
 
 The dentist's work, spiritually, is to point out 
 the carelessness of such principles of judgment, 
 and suggest what is necessary from principles of 
 love to the Lord and the neighbor to make them 
 sound. Such suggestions are like fillings of gold 
 and silver. 
 
 Artificial teeth seem like the conventional stand- 
 ards which must replace the natural when they 
 are gone. 
 
 There is an influx from the heavens into man, 
 and from every province of the heavens into the 
 correlative province of man's mind and the cor- 
 responding organ of his body. It is from this 
 influx that his mind lives and loves and acts, and 
 that the body also lives and performs its func- 
 tions. The desire of the angels to receive new 
 
24 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 members, and introduce them into the uses and 
 the happiness of the heavens, flows into our minds 
 as a desire for the elements of which angelic 
 spirits can be formed in us. It causes us to apply 
 our minds to any source from which we can drink 
 wisdom, and to drink it in for examination. It 
 gives us an interest also in good works, from 
 which we can get instruction and encouragement 
 in regard to good life. It incites us to attend 
 to these things, to receive them, taste them, be 
 affected by the goodness of them, and to absorb 
 this into our affections and lives. Therefore Swe- 
 denborg says that the use which the tongue per- 
 forms in tasting, absorbing, and preparing nutri- 
 ment for the body, " corresponds to the affection 
 for knowing, understanding, and being wise in 
 truths." (A. C. 4795.)* 
 
 That heavenly spirits are formed in us by thus 
 receiving genuine wisdom and the goodness of 
 wisdom is plain to every one. And it is also evi- 
 
 * "Quapropter etiam sapientia, seu sapere, dicta est a sapore." 
 
THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH. 25 
 
 dent that the influx of the angels' love of receiv- 
 ing new angelic spirits must produce in us indi- 
 vidually a desire for the heavenly elements of 
 which such spirits are formed. 
 
 In this influx all angels who belong to the 
 provinces of the digestive organs combine ; and, 
 indeed, in a general way, the whole heaven, since 
 all angels desire to receive new brothers ; and 
 this hunger of the whole heavens for new brothers 
 flows into us, and is felt as a hunger for wisdom. 
 Specifically, those in the province of the lips im- 
 part to us the power of application to new truths ; 
 those in the province of the tongue inspire the 
 capacity for tasting and discerning the quality of 
 new ideas, before we finally adopt them ; and 
 those in the province of the gums and teeth, who 
 cooperate so effectively with the tongue in its ex- 
 plorations, inspire the desire to open the interior 
 quality of whatever is presented, and to receive 
 nothing that we do not thus know, and that does 
 not agree with our life. 
 
 We may hear thoughts which do not especially 
 
26 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 concern us, and may look at them with much or 
 little interest, perhaps merely because others value 
 them ; but not until we think of them as relating 
 to us, and desire to receive them into our lives, 
 and so apply our minds to grasp them and under- 
 stand them, — not till then do we do that which 
 is represented by taking food with our lips, masti- 
 cating it with the teeth, and tasting it with the 
 tongue. And then, if we assent and resolve to 
 adopt it, we spiritually swallow it. Sometimes, 
 also, people swallow what they do not understand, 
 or even what they do not like, with very little 
 mastication. 
 
 Yet, as thorough mastication is essential to good 
 digestion of food, so the thorough understanding 
 of the knowledge of life which we receive is es- 
 sential to its proper assimilation. 
 
THE SALIVA. 
 
 r I "HE office of the salivary glands is to secrete 
 a watery liquid which mingles with the food, 
 softens and moistens it, and reduces it almost to 
 a semi-fluid state, so that it passes easily through 
 the fauces and the oesophagus to the stomach. 
 The saliva has other subsidiary uses, which will 
 be considered presently ; but this is the most im- 
 portant. 
 
 Water is, throughout the three kingdoms of 
 nature, the vehicle of circulation ; it is the means 
 of conveying into the veins of animals, the fibres 
 of plants, and the minute interstices of the rocks, 
 the materials needed for their nourishment and 
 growth. 
 
 As to its cleansing properties, water corresponds 
 to the truth which distinguishes right from wrong. 
 As to its nutritive and mobilizing properties, it 
 corresponds to the same truth teaching what it is 
 
28 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 right to do, and thus giving the means of motion 
 to those desires which, without such truth, would 
 lie helplessly inert. 
 
 The saliva, therefore, which is almost pure water, 
 having only about one per cent, of solid material, 
 represents the instruction first given to new spirits 
 as to the world into which they have come, as to 
 what it is allowable and possible for them to do, 
 and as to the state of their friends who have gone 
 before, — instruction which gives them freedom to 
 go whithersoever they desire. 
 
 The fluid is secreted by large glands lying be- 
 hind and under the lower jaw, and under the 
 tongue, which summon, according to their need, 
 copious streams from the general circulation, which 
 correspond to fresh information concerning the 
 state and wants of the heavenly man and the 
 world of spirits. 
 
 The purer saliva, whose office is to mingle inti- 
 mately with the food, to dissolve such portions as 
 admit of ready solution, and convey them at once 
 into the circulation, and to soften other portions 
 
THE SALIVA. 
 
 to a semi-fluid condition so that they may easily 
 pass to the stomach, corresponds specifically to in- 
 struction concerning heaven and heavenly life, the 
 purpose of which is to introduce immediately into 
 heaven those who are fitted for it, and to assist 
 others on the way to heaven. 
 
 The viscid element of the sub-maxillary saliva, 
 and still more evidently the mucus discharged by 
 the follicles of the mouth, has for its specific office 
 to lubricate the food, so that it may pass easily 
 through the oesophagus to the stomach ; and cor- 
 responds to instruction which serves to introduce 
 spirits to societies in the world of spirits, where 
 they remain for further preparation. The sali- 
 vary glands correspond to societies of spiritual 
 angels who love to acquire and communicate such 
 instruction. 
 
 In regard to this instruction, which, it will be 
 observed, is given immediately after the spirit 
 passes the province of the lips, we read as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
3° 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 "When the celestial angels are with a resusci- 
 tated person, they do not leave him, because they 
 love every one ; but when the spirit is such that 
 he can no longer be in company with the celestial 
 angels, he desires to depart from them ; and when 
 this is the case, angels from the Lord's spiritual 
 kingdom come, by whom is given to him the use of 
 light, for before he saw nothing, but only thought. 
 . . . The angels are extremely cautious lest any 
 idea should come from the resuscitated person but 
 what savors of love ; they then tell him that he is 
 a spirit. The spiritual angels, after the use of 
 light has been given, perform for the new spirit all 
 the offices which he can ever desire in that state, 
 and instruct him concerning the things of the 
 other life, but so far as he can comprehend them. 
 But if he is not such as to be willing to be in- 
 structed, the resuscitated person then desires to 
 depart from the company of those angels ; but still 
 the angels do not leave him, but he dissociates 
 himself from them ; for the angels love every one, 
 and desire nothing more than to perform kind 
 offices, to instruct, and to introduce into heaven ; 
 their highest delight consists in that. When the 
 spirit thus dissociates himself he is received by 
 good spirits, and when he is in their company, also, 
 all kind offices are performed for him ; but if his 
 
THE SALIVA, 
 
 31 
 
 life in the world had been such that he could 
 not be in the company of the good, then also he 
 wishes to remove from them, and this even until 
 he associates himself with such as agree altogether 
 with his life in the world, with whom he finds his 
 life, and then, what is wonderful, he leads a simi- 
 lar life to what he led in the world. This begin- 
 ning of man's life after death continues only for a 
 few days." (H. H. 450, 451.) 
 
 In the posthumous treatise concerning the "Last 
 Judgment," pp. 125-133, we have the following 
 account of the reception and instruction of new 
 spirits : — 
 
 " When a man after death comes into the spirit- 
 ual world, which usually takes place on the third 
 day after he has breathed his last, he appears to 
 himself in a similar life to that in which he had 
 been in the world, and in a similar house, room, 
 and bed-chamber, in a similar dress and covering, 
 and in similar companionship in the house ; if he 
 was a king or prince, in a similar palace ; if a hus- 
 bandman, in a similar cottage ; rustic things sur- 
 round the one, splendid the other. This takes 
 place with every one after death, for the purpose 
 that death may not seem to be death, but a contin- 
 
32 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 uation of life, and that the last state of the natural 
 life may become the first of the spiritual life ; and 
 that from this he may go on to his goal, which will 
 be either in heaven or in hell. . . . When new 
 comers into the spiritual world are in this first 
 state, angels come to them for the sake of wish- 
 ing them a happy arrival, and at first are much 
 amused in conversation with them, since they know 
 that they do not then think otherwise than that 
 they are still living in the former world. There- 
 fore, they ask them what they think about the life 
 after death ; and the new comers answer according 
 to their former ideas ; some that they do not know ; 
 some that they are ghosts or a kind of ethereal 
 beings ; some that they are transparent, aerial 
 bodies ; some that they are flying spectres, either 
 in the ether and the air, or in the waters, or in 
 the middle of the earth ; and some that souls like 
 angels are in the stars ; some of the new comers 
 deny that any man lives after death. After listen- 
 ing to these replies, the angels say, ' Welcome ! 
 we will show you something new w T hich you have 
 not before known or believed, namely, that every 
 man after death lives as man in a body exactly as 
 he lived before.' To this the new spirits rejoin, 
 ' This is impossible ! Whence has he a body ? 
 Does it not lie with all there is of it dead in the 
 
THE SALIVA. 
 
 33 
 
 grave ?' The angels laughingly answer, 'We will 
 give you ocular proof of it.' And they say, 'Are 
 you not men in perfect form ? Examine and feel 
 yourselves ; and yet you have left the natural 
 world. That you have not known this till now 
 is because the first state of the life after death is 
 exactly like the last state of the life before death/ 
 Hearing this, the new guests are astonished, and 
 exclaim from joy of heart, 'Thanks be to God that 
 we are alive, and that death has not annihilated 
 us.' I have very often heard new comers in- 
 structed thus as to their life after death, and glad- 
 dened by their resurrection." 
 
 Then follow examples of instruction by the 
 angels concerning the consummation of the age, 
 the destruction of the world, and the end of the 
 Church ; and, presently, leading the new spirits 
 out, the angels showed them the Sun of Heaven, 
 and beautiful representatives of the instruction of 
 angels and spirits from the Lord in the Sun, and 
 of the possible influx of Divine Truth also to man 
 on the earth. And then also they showed how 
 the evil spirits were multiplying in that time, be- 
 fore the Last Judgment, and cutting off the light 
 of heaven from the minds of men on the earth. 
 
34 
 
 PHYSIOL O GICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 All these things are of the instruction given by 
 angels to introduce new spirits into the life of 
 the spiritual world. 
 
 Those soluble portions of the food which are in 
 a condition to be readily absorbed correspond to 
 spirits who readily receive instruction concerning 
 heaven and are in a state to conform to it at 
 once. The portions not readily dissolved or ab- 
 sorbed correspond to those who need more grad- 
 ual initiation. 
 
 The small amount of organic substance con- 
 tained in the saliva has an important subsidiary 
 use in beginning the preparation of some elements 
 of food which are not yet ready for absorption. 
 The sweetness of fruits is in a form that can be 
 absorbed at once. But the sweetness of sugar- 
 cane needs a chemical combination with a little 
 more water, to be reduced to the same form. 
 Starch and gum also, which are chemically akin 
 to cane-sugar, need the same addition to become 
 food like the sugar of fruit. And the organic 
 substance in the saliva, by its very presence, stim- 
 
THE SALIVA. 
 
 35 
 
 ulates this chemical change, some portions of the 
 sugar and the starch undergoing the change almost 
 instantly upon coming in contact with it. The 
 chemical union of a little more water with these 
 substances can hardly correspond to anything else 
 than the reception of a little necessary truth into 
 life. And the organic substance from the glands, 
 which stimulates this reception, seems to corres- 
 pond w r ith the influence of angels who by encour- 
 agement or by warning immediately open the eyes 
 of some who are already in good to purer truth, 
 and perhaps to humbler acknowledgment, than 
 they had been in before. 
 
 The slightly alkaline quality of the saliva prob- 
 ably represents the checking of all self-assertion, 
 and the enforcing of the acknowledgment that self 
 is nothing, and the Lord everything, in this king- 
 dom. 
 
 By no means the whole of the soluble portion 
 of the food is absorbed in the mouth ; a large part, 
 dissolved or dissolving in the saliva, is carried into 
 the stomach ; much of it goes even further, into 
 
3$ 
 
 PHYSIOL O GICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 the intestines, before it is absorbed. And in cor- 
 respondence with this, no doubt many new comers 
 who are open to spiritual instruction, hasten first 
 to the company of their former friends in the 
 world of spirits, and by a longer way, and through 
 various methods of preparation, are carried into 
 heaven. 
 
THE CE SOPH AGUS, 
 
 P^HROUGH the oesophagus there is a straight 
 road from the mouth to the stomach. Its 
 office is to conduct the food gently and properly 
 from one province to the other. The food does 
 not fall from the mouth into the stomach by mere 
 force of its weight, — we can swallow upward 
 nearly as well as downward ; as we do in drinking 
 from a brook, and as the grazing animals con- 
 stantly do. The oesophagus takes it in charge, 
 and conducts it to the stomach with uniform mo- 
 tion, warming and lubricating it by the way, and 
 thus preparing it somewhat for digestion, and pre- 
 venting its doing injury to the stomach by sudden 
 blows or chills. Perhaps it should be mentioned, 
 also, that in the oesophagus the food first receives 
 the motion of the heart and lungs, which after- 
 wards is a necessity to its life, as long as it i*s a 
 part of the body. 
 
 37 
 
33 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 The mouth is in the province of the head, 
 which constitutes the third heaven ; the stomach 
 is in the domain of the first or natural heaven ; 
 and the heart and lungs belong to the second 
 heaven (T. C. R. 119). By angels of the third 
 heaven spirits are first received, that, at their in- 
 troduction into the spiritual world, they may re- 
 ceive all the care that the kindest and wisest of 
 the angels can give ; and, further, that their qual- 
 ity may be carefully discriminated by the most 
 sagacious angels, through whom the whole heaven 
 may be informed of their presence and quality, 
 and exactly such care may be provided for them 
 as they need. 
 
 Still another advantage arising from the recep- 
 tion of spirits by these angels, is, that the spirits 
 of infants, and of others who have become inno- 
 cent as infants, may be received by the shortest 
 way into heaven, being spared unnecessarily harsh 
 treatment, and carrying at once the treasures of 
 their innocent lives to increase the happiness of 
 the heavenly societies to which they belong. 
 
THE (ESOPHAGUS. 39 
 
 But it is necessary for spirits in whom good is 
 not yet freed from evil or falsity, and those in 
 whom evil still assumes the cloak of piety and mo- 
 rality, to have these elements of their natural char- 
 acter thoroughly made known, and to pass through 
 whatever discipline is necessary to make them 
 homogeneous, before the good can be taken up 
 into heaven or the evil cast down into hell ; and 
 therefore such spirits pass from the care of angels 
 of the third heaven, under the kind and wise 
 direction of those of the second heaven, into the 
 province of the stomach, on the natural plane. 
 
 They do not remain long in company with 
 angels of the second heaven. These serve as 
 friendly guides and introducers ; also they initi- 
 ate the new comers into the flow of thought and 
 affection of the Greatest Man, which they them- 
 selves receive with peculiar fulness by reason of 
 their nearness to and close connection with the 
 heart and lungs of the heavens. 
 
 This heavenly rhythmical motion the same 
 angels, in conjunction with those of the dia- 
 
4Q 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 phragm, impress upon the whole world of spirits ; 
 for the oesophagus is continued into the stomach, 
 upon which the diaphragm also presses from 
 above ; and all their motions they impart in con- 
 siderable degree to the stomach ; and this com- 
 munication is an important element in the train- 
 ing which spirits undergo to fit them for life in 
 the kingdom of heaven, every fibre of which re- 
 sponds to the throbs of the same heart and the 
 respirations of the same lungs. Not fully do the 
 new spirits receive the influence. This they can- 
 not do till the angelic plane of their minds is 
 opened, and they pass once more through this 
 heaven in the circulation of the lungs and heart 
 — where they become angels, and their angelic 
 faculties are opened — on their way to their own 
 societies. As yet they perceive only the general 
 influence of it, so far as it can affect their natural 
 life. 
 
THE STOMACH 
 
 r I ^HE world of spirits is like a forum or place 
 
 -*- of resort, where all are at first assembled, 
 
 and is as a stomach in which the food is at first 
 
 collected ; the stomach, moreover, corresponds to 
 
 that world." (A. R. 791.) 
 
 And again we read : — 
 
 " The world of spirits, which is midway between 
 heaven and hell — into which every man first comes 
 after death, and is there prepared — corresponds 
 to the stomach, in which all the things that are put 
 in are prepared, either to become blood and flesh, 
 or to become excrement and urine." (A. R. 204.) 
 
 "It is known that nourishment or food is worked 
 over in many ways in the stomach, that its interior 
 things which are good for use may be brought out ; 
 namely, those which go into the chyle, and after- 
 wards into the blood ; and that the process is con- 
 tinued in the intestines. Such workings are rep- 
 resented by the first discipline of spirits, which is 
 according to their life in the world, that evil things 
 
42 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 may be separated, and good things, suited for use, 
 may be collected. Wherefore it may be said of 
 souls or spirits soon after decease, or separation 
 from the body, that they come as it were into the 
 region of the stomach, and there are disciplined 
 and purified. They with whom evils have obtained 
 dominion, after they have been disciplined in vain, 
 are borne through the stomach into the intestines, 
 and even to the last, namely, the colon and the 
 rectum, and thence are cast out into the draught, 
 that is, into hell. But they with whom good things 
 have dominion, after some discipline and purifica- 
 tion, become chyle, and go into the blood, some by 
 a longer way, some by a shorter; and some are dis- 
 ciplined severely, some gently, and some scarcely 
 at all : these last are represented by the juices of 
 food, which are immediately drunk in by the veins, 
 and carried into the circulation, even into the brain, 
 and so further. ,, (A. C. 5174.) 
 
 Some of these good spirits, as we have already 
 seen, are taken up into heaven before they reach 
 the stomach, by the way of the ducts of the 
 mouth. But some, of equally tender and pure 
 quality, are more closely connected with worldly 
 affairs and worldly people, and, like the juices en- 
 
THE STOMACH. 43 
 
 tangled among coarser materials, are carried into 
 the general place of assembly for new spirits, 
 where they are soon made spiritually free and 
 are conducted by a little longer way into heaven. 
 
 In the world of spirits, strictly speaking, to 
 which the stomach corresponds (A. R. 791), spirits 
 may remain from a month to thirty years (A. R. 
 866) ; and here are collected a vast multitude who 
 live and work in societies, as in heaven or in hell. 
 The work done here is that of what Swedenborg 
 calls "the second state after death," that is, the 
 state of the interiors ; and consists largely in the 
 opening of the interiors. 
 
 " When the first state is passed through, which 
 is the state of the exteriors, . . . the man-spirit is 
 let into the state of his interiors, or into the state 
 of his interior will and consequent thought, in 
 which he had been in the world when, being left 
 to himself, he thought freely and without restraint. 
 Into this state he slides without being aware of it, 
 in like manner as in the world when he withdraws 
 the thought which is nearest the speech, or from 
 which the speech is, towards interior thought, and 
 
44 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 abides in it ; wherefore when the man-spirit is in 
 this state, he is in himself, and in his own very 
 life; for to think freely from his own proper affec- 
 tion is the very life of man, and is himself. ,, 
 (H. H. 502.) 
 
 "The spirit in this state thinks from his own 
 very will, thus from his own very affection, or from 
 his own very love, and in this case the thought 
 makes one with the will, and one in such a manner 
 that it scarcely appears that the spirit thinks, but 
 that he wills. The case is nearly similar when he 
 speaks, yet w T ith this difference, that he speaks with 
 some degree of fear lest the thoughts of the will 
 should go forth naked, since by civil life in the 
 world his will had contracted this habit/' (H. H. 
 503-) 
 
 In this state the habits of speech and action in 
 which he has presented himself to society are 
 separated from him, as the hulls from wheat, and 
 the cell walls from the starch, sugar, or nutritive 
 juices which they contain ; and his interior affec- 
 tions act freely without any artificial cloak. And 
 it is the dissolving of these cell walls and setting 
 free of the contents which is the principal work 
 of the stomach. 
 
THE STOMACH. 
 
 45 
 
 The food in the stomach is collected in consid- 
 erable quantities, and is rolled in a spiral course 
 around the large end of the stomach, and thence 
 to the neighborhood of the pylorus, and back 
 along the upper curve to the oesophagus. No 
 doubt this takes place with great variety, and por- 
 tions may be delayed in their course, and even 
 drawn apart into the little chambers in the lining 
 of the stomach for special treatment. All the 
 while it is being mingled and worked over with 
 the acid gastric fluids, whose function it is to set 
 the purer parts of the food free and to separate 
 them more completely from the gross and worth- 
 less. 
 
 The gastric fluids are secreted continually during 
 the process of digestion and are continually ab- 
 sorbed again by the coats of the stomach, carry- 
 ing with them food which they have dissolved and 
 returning again for more. The quantity required 
 for digestion it would be impossible for the body 
 to supply except by this process of re-absorption 
 and repeated secretion. And as in the saliva 
 
46 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 there is an organic element, the ptyalin, whose 
 office it is to induce the change of starch and 
 sugar into a form which can be assimilated, so in 
 the stomach there is its peculiar organic substance, 
 called pepsin, mingling with the gastric fluids, and 
 quickening the solution of the " proteids," or 
 muscle-making elements of the food. 
 
 The food thus massed together is like societies 
 of spirits in similar states ; the fluids are instruc- 
 tion concerning good and evil, concerning things 
 that have life and those that are dead and use- 
 less, which is to good spirits the means of in- 
 creased and more joyous activity, and to the evil 
 the means of self-condemnation and rejection. 
 
 "All who have lived in good in the world, and 
 have acted from conscience, as is the case with all 
 those who have acknowledged a Divine and have 
 loved Divine truths, especially those who have ap- 
 plied them to life, appear to themselves, when let 
 into the state of their interiors, like those who be- 
 ing awakened out of sleep come into the full use 
 of sight, and like those who from shade enter into 
 light : they think also from the light of heaven, 
 
THE STOMACH. 
 
 47 
 
 thus from interior wisdom, and they act from good, 
 thus from interior affection. Heaven also flows 
 in into their thoughts and affections with interior 
 blessedness and delight, of which before they knew 
 nothing ; for they have communication with the 
 angels of heaven. Then also they acknowledge 
 the Lord and worship Him from their very life ; for 
 they are in their own proper life when in the state 
 of their interiors ; and they likewise acknowledge 
 and worship Him from freedom, for freedom is of 
 interior affection. They recede also thus from ex- 
 ternal sanctity, and come into internal sanctity, in 
 which essential worship truly consists. Such is 
 the state of those who have lived a Christian life 
 according to the precepts delivered in the Word. 
 But altogether contrary is the state of those who 
 in the world have lived in evil, and have had no 
 conscience, and hence have denied a Divine. . . . 
 By reason of their evil lusts, they burst forth into 
 all abominations, into contempt of others, into rid- 
 icule and blasphemy, into hatred and revenge. ,, 
 (H. H. 506.) 
 
 Physiology says that the starchy elements of the 
 food, and perhaps cane-sugar, are not absorbed in 
 the stomach, but, being acted upon by the saliva, 
 and afterwards by the pancreatic and intestinal 
 
48 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES, 
 
 fluids, are turned into the more readily absorbed 
 sugar, usually called grape-sugar, or glucose, in 
 which form they are taken up by the veins and 
 lacteals ; that fatty materials pass unchanged into 
 the intestine, where, soon after meeting with the 
 bile and the pancreatic fluid, they are reduced to 
 the form of an emulsion, or milky fluid ; the oil 
 being divided into minute particles which are held 
 as if in solution, in a state to be absorbed ; and 
 that the fluids of the stomach dissolve only the 
 muscle-making element of food, — the lean meat, 
 the cheese of milk, and the gluten of grains. A 
 portion of this, when dissolved, is taken up imme- 
 diately by the veins and lacteals of the stomach ; 
 and a portion, needing further purification by the 
 bile and pancreatic fluid, is carried on for a short 
 distance in the intestine. 
 
 And, correspondingly, we should expect to find 
 only a small proportion of spirits, and those the 
 most willing and unselfish in their usefulness, 
 taken up directly from the province of the stomach 
 to the places of instruction. The greater part 
 
THE STOMACH, 49 
 
 need some further preparation. Most persons, 
 Swedenborg says, are in the lower earth before 
 they are taken up into heaven. (A. C. 4728.) 
 
 Of starch and fat we will speak hereafter, when 
 we come to the intestines and the pancreas. 
 
 Sugar corresponds to spiritual sweetness and 
 pleasantness, which is immediately cheering and 
 encouraging, and, in proper proportion to the 
 more substantial satisfactions of good work, is 
 wholesome mental nourishment. And the nitro- 
 genizecl elements of food, which make muscle in 
 the body, correspond to the love of useful work. 
 It is to the assimilation of this that the stomach 
 in the spiritual world especially addresses itself, 
 separating it carefully from routine forms and con- 
 ventionalities, and the many selfish considerations 
 that mingle with every one's love of work, also 
 from habits of indolence and self-indulgence, and 
 rousing in it the desire to do the use in the 
 Lord's kingdom for which it is fitted, and to 
 learn to do it wisely and well. 
 
 The great mass of the good that there is among 
 
5° 
 
 PHYSIOL O GICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 men consists of various kinds of love of work. It 
 may be largely mixed with love of the world and 
 of various selfish rewards, and widely misdirected 
 by mistaken notions of what is useful, and by fool- 
 ish requirements of society ; yet it exists in some 
 form in every mind that feels unhappy without 
 useful occupation, and that prefers good work to 
 large returns : and all such minds are collected 
 and trained and purified in the world of spirits. 
 
 The chief acid of the solvent fluids of the stom- 
 ach is hydrochloric acid, which is the acid of 
 common salt. Salt is a representative of the prin- 
 ciple that good and truth need each other and 
 belong together ; and the active principle of the 
 salt represents a stimulus to every good to seek 
 its truth, and to every truth to seek its good. 
 The passive or alkaline principle may mean that 
 they can do nothing alone. Solution by means of 
 this active principle must mean the shaking off of 
 all hindrances to the diligent learning to do good 
 or to live the truth. And the organic substance, 
 by which this solution is stimulated, must repre- 
 
THE STOMACH. 
 
 sent the personal encouragement or warning of 
 angels who themselves delight in assisting in the 
 union of every good with its truth. (Comp. H. H. 
 425.) The action of the gastric fluids in immedi- 
 ately arresting decay has a correspondence in the 
 fact that a descent into worse evil or greater profa- 
 nation of good than one was in in the world is not 
 permitted. 
 
 By such influence and instruction good spirits 
 are brought into more free and active life and are 
 quickly separated from their worldly habits and 
 desires. And, on the other hand, evil persons, 
 who love self and the world supremely, reject the 
 truth and when they come to those who accept 
 it they repel each other. Swedenborg says of 
 these : — 
 
 "They are generally carried about through a 
 wide circle, and everywhere are shown to good 
 spirits as they are in themselves ; at the sight of 
 them good spirits then turn themselves away ; and 
 as they turn themselves away, so also the evil 
 spirits who are carried about turn themselves from 
 them to the quarter where their infernal society is, 
 into which they are about to come." (H. H. 511.) 
 
5 2 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 Spirits who are good, but have confirmed in 
 themselves some falsity or evil from which they 
 must be freed, also turn away from those who 
 accept the truth, and pass first through another 
 stage of purification. 
 
 The truth which is taught in this state, and 
 which is represented by the general digestive 
 fluids of the stomach, has for its purpose to 
 bring the good into spiritual freedom and to 
 separate evil from them. It is not interior spirit- 
 ual truth ; it is religious and moral truth, such 
 as is drawn from the letter of the Scriptures by 
 those who are in the light of heaven and who 
 love heavenly good. Interior truth, teaching more 
 fully about the Lord and heaven and the spirit- 
 ual sense of the Scriptures, is given to good spirits 
 in their next places of sojourn, described by Swe- 
 denborg as the " places of instruction " into which 
 good spirits come in "the third state after death.'' 
 
 How the Lord guides and controls all spirits, 
 even when they seem mixed and confused, is de- 
 scribed as follows : — 
 
THE STOMACH. 
 
 53 
 
 " There was a numerous crowd of spirits about 
 me, which was heard as something disorderly and 
 flowing. They complained, saying that now a total 
 destruction was at hand ; for in that crowd nothing 
 appeared consociated, and this made them fear de- 
 struction. They supposed also that it would be 
 total, as is the case when such things happen. 
 But in the midst of them I perceived a soft sound, 
 angelically sweet, in which was nothing but what 
 was orderly. The angelic companies there were 
 within, and the crowd of spirits to whom apper- 
 tained what was without order was without. This 
 angelic flowing stream continued a long time, and 
 it was said that hereby was represented how the 
 Lord rules things confused and disorderly which 
 are without from what is pacific in the midst, 
 whereby things disorderly in the circumference are 
 reduced into order, each being restored from the 
 error of its nature." (A. C. 5396.) 
 
 The salivary fluids in the Greatest Man are such 
 knowledge of heaven and of the world of spirits 
 as serves to introduce new spirits into societies in 
 the spiritual world. In the minds of men the cor- 
 respondence of these fluids is with a knowledge 
 of their own states and wants, which is the means 
 
54 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 of bringing new truth into relation with them- 
 selves. If sugar or salt or any other dry solid 
 food be placed upon the dry tongue it is per- 
 fectly tasteless ; but as soon as the saliva or other 
 watery fluid dissolves a portion of it its quality is 
 perceived. So we may hear new truth without 
 any knowledge or thought of its relation to our 
 own states, or to any human states, and it cannot 
 be otherwise than insipid ; but as soon as such 
 knowledge or thought comes into contact with it 
 instantly its agreement or disagreement with the 
 life is felt, and it is received or rejected. Spit- 
 ting upon anything is therefore a correspondential 
 mode of expressing its utter disagreement with 
 one's states of life. 
 
 On the other hand, the spittle of which the 
 Lord made clay, and anointed the eyes of the 
 blind man, represented the simplest truth of His 
 life which, adapted to the states of men, shows 
 the relation between their lives and His and opens 
 their eyes to spiritual things. 
 
 After we have once received and accepted a 
 
THE STOMACH. 
 
 55 
 
 knowledge of what is good and true, which is 
 food for the mind, we may meditate further upon 
 it or we may simply take it home with the deter- 
 mination to live it. The desire to live it, and to 
 incorporate it in our life, will separate the essen- 
 tial goodness from the special forms in which it 
 comes to us and do the work of assimilation as 
 silently as the solvents of the stomach do their 
 work ; and we may know nothing of the process 
 but only feel that we are encouraged and strength- 
 ened for our duties. 
 
 There is a likeness of indigestion when we cram 
 knowledge or terms which we do not understand, 
 and which we long revolve in the memory, vainly 
 trying to get some good out of it. We become 
 weary and disgusted with it and, for a time, with 
 all knowledge. 
 
 There was also a likeness of indigestion in the 
 heavens when there long remained and accumu- 
 lated in the world of spirits those who were good 
 externally and evil internally, and whose internals 
 could not be opened until the time of the Judg- 
 
56 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 ment. Then by the solvents of the new truth 
 taught, the externals were broken through, the 
 good internals were gathered into heaven, and 
 the evil were cast down. 
 
THE INTESTINES. 
 
 W 7HEN the work of the stomach is done, 
 and by the dissolving of cell walls the nu- 
 tritious contents are set free, and as much as pos- 
 sible of the muscle-making elements of the food 
 is dissolved, the work of digestion is continued in 
 the intestines. But in the intestines the modes 
 of action upon the food are changed according to 
 the form and nature of the organ. The food is 
 no longer revolved in a large mass, but is distrib- 
 uted into little pockets or chambers formed by 
 the folds of the lining membrane of the intestine, 
 and receives treatment adapted to the character 
 of its various elements. It is mingled with a 
 variety of pungent fluids, from the liver, the pan- 
 creas, and the intestinal glands, and is worked 
 over in little handfuls much more urgently and 
 severely than was possible in the general stomach. 
 During the process of stomach digestion the 
 
 57 
 
5 8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 door between stomach and intestine is not wholly 
 closed ; but those portions of the food which need 
 the intestinal treatment, and will not be benefited 
 by that of the stomach, are constantly passing 
 out ; and some of them, as fat and starch, are 
 quickly changed by the bile and the pancreatic 
 and intestinal fluids, and absorbed by the lacteals 
 from the intestinal wall. A considerable mass, 
 however, remains in the stomach and undergoes 
 its utmost powers of digestion, without perfectly 
 yielding to the influences which would make fluid 
 the good elements and separate them entirely 
 both from the useless and from those that need 
 severer treatment. But when all that the stomach 
 can do is done this large remainder rapidly passes 
 out and all its elements meet the bitter and acrid 
 bile. This precipitates at once the nitrogenized 
 portion of the chyme, and delays it for solution 
 again and absorption, while the other materials 
 pass on, — the remaining fat and starch to be con- 
 verted into an emulsion and sugar respectively, 
 and then absorbed, and the worthless materials to 
 be rejected. 
 
THE INTESTINES. ^ 
 
 This great mass corresponds to the spirits long 
 delayed in the world of spirits, many of whom 
 are in the main good and charitable, disposed to 
 good uses but confirmed in some falsity, or at- 
 tached to other persons who appear well as to 
 worship and life, yet in heart love evil of life and 
 the false doctrines that permit it. These need to 
 meet together the sharp corrections of spirits who 
 love to bring out and punish all the evil of heart 
 and thought that they can find, thus thoroughly 
 exposing the wicked and causing them to flee, 
 when the humbled and chastened good, fearing 
 that they also shall be rejected, desire more earn- 
 estly to be instructed and taken up into heaven. 
 The solvents of the stomach are mildly acid and 
 perhaps, like the acids of fruit, represent instruc- 
 tion that is altogether pleasant and friendly but 
 stimulating and quickening. The solvents of the 
 intestine are acrid and alkaline, and, like the alka- 
 lies used in soap, and formerly used instead of 
 soap, seem to represent reproving, chastening in- 
 struction by which good and evil are separated. 
 
60 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 " Who they are who constitute the province of 
 the intestines in the Greatest Man, may be mani- 
 fest in some measure from those who relate to the 
 stomach ; for the intestines are continued from the 
 stomach, and the offices of the stomach there in- 
 crease and become more harsh, even to the last in- 
 testines which are the colon and rectum. Where- 
 fore they who are in these are near to the hells 
 which are called excrementitious. In the region of 
 the stomach and intestines are they who are in the 
 lower earth, who because they have brought with 
 them from the world unclean things which are 
 fixed in their thoughts and affections, are kept 
 there for some time, until such things are wiped 
 away, that is, are cast aside. After this is done, 
 they can be taken up into heaven. They who are 
 there are not yet in the Greatest Man ; for they 
 are like aliments let down into the stomach, which 
 are not introduced into the blood, thus into the 
 body, until they are purified. They who are de- 
 filed with more earthly dregs are under these in 
 the region of the intestines ; but the excrements 
 themselves which are discharged correspond to the 
 hells which are called the excrementitious hells." 
 (A. C. 5392.) 
 
 There are many kinds of persons who need 
 
THE INTESTINES. 6 1 
 
 such discipline ; among them are those who have 
 contracted strong personal friendships without re- 
 gard to the good or evil in one another. These, 
 Swedenborg teaches us, — 
 
 " cannot like others be separated according to order, 
 and assigned to the society correspondent with their 
 life ; for they are bound together interiorly as to the 
 spirit, nor can they be severed, because they are 
 like branches engrafted into branches. Therefore 
 if one as to his interiors is in heaven, and the 
 other as to his in hell, they remain fast to each 
 other, much like a sheep tied to a wolf, or a goose 
 to a fox, or a dove to a hawk ; and he whose inte- 
 riors are in hell inspires the infernal things belong- 
 ing to him into the one whose interiors are in 
 heaven. For among the things that are well known 
 in heaven is also this, that evil may be inspired 
 into the good, bat not good into the evil ; this is 
 because every one is by birth in evils. Conse- 
 quently the interiors are closed in the good that are 
 thus joined with the evil ; and they both are thrust 
 down into hell, where the good man suffers hard 
 things, but after a lapse of time is taken out, and 
 then first is prepared for heaven. It has been 
 granted me to see such bindings, especially among 
 brothers and relatives, and also between patrons 
 
62 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 and their dependants, and of many with flatterers, 
 among whom were contrary affections and unlike 
 genius ; and I have seen some like kids with leop- 
 ards, and they were then kissing one another, and 
 swearing to their former friendship. And I then 
 perceived that the good were absorbing the enjoy- 
 ments of the evil, holding each other by the hand, 
 and together entering into caves where crowds of 
 the wicked were seen in their hideous forms, though 
 to themselves, from the illusion of fantasy, they 
 seemed in lovely forms. But after a while I heard 
 from the good mournful cries of fear, as if on 
 account of snares, and from the wicked I heard 
 rejoicings like those of enemies over spoils; be- 
 sides other sad scenes. I have heard that the 
 good, when taken out, were afterwards prepared 
 for heaven by reformatory means, but with greater 
 difficulty than others.'' (T. C. R. 448.) 
 
 Closely allied to these evil friends, who drag 
 those who are attached to them down with them, 
 seem to be "the judges of friendship and bribes," 
 who could see nothing but what favored their 
 friends, whom Swedenborg saw " in the lower 
 earth, next above hell," and who were afterwards 
 cast out (C. L. 231). There also were those called 
 
THE INTESTINES. 6$ 
 
 " learned," because they were able by ingenious 
 reasonings to throw doubt upon the real existence 
 of every thing ; who also, because they perpetu- 
 ally argue upon the surface of things, from appear- 
 ances, are likened to " shells around almonds, 
 without the kernel," and to " rinds around fruits, 
 without the pulp." These likewise were cast out. 
 (C. L. 232.) 
 
 A third class seen in the same region were the 
 " confirmators," called "wise" because they could 
 make anything whatever appear to be true, no 
 matter whether it were reasonable or unreason- 
 able, true or false ; but they had no genuine wis- 
 dom or understanding (C. L. 233). All three of 
 these classes would be likely to drag down with 
 them some who were simple minded, or strongly 
 attached to them for various reasons, and to bring 
 them into states of great suffering, from their evil 
 associations in that lower earth. 
 
 Of the lower earth, as he usually calls it, Swe- 
 denborg says that in the world of spirits it is 
 " next beneath the feet, and the region round 
 
64 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 about to a little distance ; there most persons are 
 after death, before they are taken up into heaven. 
 . . . Beneath it are the places of vastation, which 
 are called pits ; below these places, and round 
 about to a great distance, are the hells " (A. C. 
 4728). He more commonly speaks of the places 
 of vastation, by which are meant the places of 
 severer trials by which the good are freed from 
 evil clinging to them, as in the lower earth. He 
 says, — 
 
 " In order that I might see the torments of those 
 who are in hell, and also the vastation of those 
 who are in the lower earth, I was sometimes let 
 down thither. ... I perceived plainly that, as it 
 were, a kind of column encompassed me ; that col- 
 umn was sensibly increased, and it was insinuated 
 to me that this was the wall of brass spoken of in 
 the Word, formed of angelic spirits, in order that I 
 might be let down safely amongst the unhappy. 
 When I was there I heard miserable lamentations, 
 and indeed this cry, i Oh God, Oh God, be merci- 
 ful to us, be merciful to us ' ; and this for a long 
 time. It was granted to me to discourse with 
 those miserable persons for some time. They 
 
THE INTESTINES. 
 
 65 
 
 complained chiefly of evil spirits, as burning with 
 a continual desire only to torment them ; and they 
 were in a state of despair, saying that they believed 
 their torments would be eternal ; but it was granted 
 me to comfort them." (A. C. 699; Comp. 4940.) 
 
 Of the purpose of the vastation, he says, — 
 
 " Man, by reason of actual sin, brings with him 
 into the other life innumerable evils and falsities, 
 which he accumulates and joins together. This is 
 the case even with those who have lived uprightly. 
 Before they can be elevated into heaven, their evils 
 and falsities must be dissipated ; and this dissipa- 
 tion is called vastation. There are many kinds of 
 vastation, and the times of vastation are longer 
 and shorter; some are taken up into heaven in a 
 very short time, and some immediately after death." 
 (A. C. 698.) 
 
 " There are many who while they were in the 
 world, through simplicity and ignorance, imbibed 
 falsities as to faith, and formed a certain species 
 of conscience according to the principles of their 
 faith ; and did not live, as others, in hatred, re- 
 venge, and adulteries. These in the other life, so 
 long as they are in what is false, cannot be intro- 
 duced into heavenly societies, for thus they would 
 defile them ; therefore they are kept for some time 
 
66 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 in the lower earth, in order that they may put off 
 the principles of falsity. The times of their stay 
 there are longer or shorter according to the na- 
 ture of the falsity and the life contracted from it, 
 and according to the principles confirmed in them- 
 selves ; some endure hard things in that state, 
 others not hard. These are what are called vasta- 
 tions, whereof much mention is made in the Word. 
 When the time of vastation is over, they are taken 
 up into heaven, and are instructed as novitiates in 
 the truths of faith ; and this is done by angels by 
 whom they are received." (n. 1106.) 
 
 " There are some w T ho willingly endure to be 
 vastated, and thereby to put off the false princi- 
 ples w r hich they had brought with them out of the 
 world. (It is not possible for any one to put 
 off false principles in the other life, except after 
 some length of time, and by means provided by 
 the Lord.) During their stay in the lower earth 
 they are kept by the Lord in hope of deliverance, 
 and in the thought of the end, that thus they may 
 be amended and may be prepared to receive heav- 
 enly happiness." (n. 1 107.) 
 
 " In those places are they who have ascribed all 
 things to nature, and little to the Divine. I con- 
 versed with them there, and when the discourse 
 was concerning the Divine Providence they attrib- 
 
THE INTESTINES. 
 
 67 
 
 utcd all things to nature. Nevertheless those there 
 who have led a good moral life, when they have 
 been detained there some time, successively put off 
 those principles and put on principles of truth." 
 (n. 4941.) 
 
 " In the lower earth, beneath the feet and the 
 soles of the feet, are also they who have placed 
 merit in good deeds and works ; some of them ap- 
 pear to themselves to cut wood ; the place where 
 they are is rather cold, and they seem to them- 
 selves to acquire heat by their labor. With these 
 also I conversed, and it was given to ask them 
 whether they wished to come forth from that place. 
 They said, that as yet they had not merited it by 
 labor ; but when that state has been passed through 
 they are then conveyed away thence. These also 
 are natural, because to wish to merit salvation is 
 not spiritual. And moreover they prefer them- 
 selves to others ; some of them even despise others. 
 These, if in the other life they do not receive joy 
 above others, are indignant against' the Lord ; 
 wherefore when they cut wood it sometimes ap- 
 pears as if somewhat of the Lord was under the 
 wood, and this from indignation. But whereas 
 they have led a pious life, and have acted thus from 
 ignorance, in which there was somewhat of inno- 
 cence, therefore occasionally angels are sent to 
 
68 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 them and console them." (n. 4943 ; also n. 11 10; 
 the grass-cutters, 1 1 1 1.) 
 
 "They who come out of the world from Chris- 
 tian lands, and have led a moral life and had some 
 degree of charity toward the neighbor, but have 
 had little concern about spiritual things, for the 
 most part are sent into the places beneath the feet 
 and the soles of the feet ; and are kept there until 
 they put off the natural things in which they have 
 been, and are imbued with spiritual and celestial 
 things as far as they can be according to their life; 
 and when they have become imbued with these, 
 they are taken up thence into heavenly societies. 
 I have seen them at times emerging, and their joy 
 at coming into heavenly light." (n. 4944; also 
 others to 4950.) 
 
 All these states of vastation appear to be accom- 
 plished in those parts of the lower earth corre- 
 sponding to the intestines, and from thence the 
 chastened good spirits are taken up as chyle is 
 absorbed by the veins and lacteals. Xo doubt the 
 modes of correction and vastation are all repre- 
 sented in the methods by w r hich the chyme is 
 sorted, some of which we have briefly touched 
 
THE INTESTINES. 69 
 
 upon, and others will appear more clearly when 
 we study the liver and the pancreas. 
 
 The intestines are generally distinguished into 
 two, — the large and the small; and these are 
 each subdivided into three or more. The small 
 intestine is long, much convoluted, and freely sup- 
 plied with absorbing vessels. Into this the imper- 
 fectly digested food first passes from the stomach, 
 and almost immediately meets the bile, the pan- 
 creatic fluid, and the intestinal fluids. 
 
 By the bile a large part of the muscle-making 
 chyle is immediately precipitated, and thus sepa- 
 rated from impurities and held for solution by the 
 pancreatic fluid ; also a part of the fat is turned 
 into soap, in which form it is readily absorbed. 
 The pancreatic fluid, besides effecting the solution 
 of the albuminous precipitate, quickly makes a 
 milky emulsion of the remaining fat, at least in 
 reasonable quantity, and also, with the fluid of the 
 intestinal glands, quickly completes the transform 
 ation of the starch into sugar, in which forms re- 
 spectively both fat and starch are readily absorbed. 
 
7° 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 The remainder of the chyme, together with such 
 portions of these good materials as have not com- 
 pleted their metamorphoses, passes rapidly on, 
 subjected to more and more severe treatment, 
 and parting at every turn with its good particles, 
 till by the time it reaches the large intestine, 
 called the colon, there is scarcely anything in it 
 which can serve any good use in the body. 
 
 In the colon the residue is no longer treated as 
 food to be redeemed to good uses if possible ; 
 but is compacted for rejection, and undergoes the 
 last wringing to rescue from it the small re- 
 mainder of possibly nutritious fluids. 
 
 That any spirits can be saved who, in the cor- 
 responding treatment in the lower earth, so long 
 resist both kindness and chastisement, and remain 
 as companions with the wicked until their loath- 
 someness is so fully exhibited, shows the infinity 
 of the saving mercy of the Lord, which does not 
 permit the least thing in a human spirit to be 
 lost that can possibly be saved to heavenly life. 
 There are spirits, Swedenborg tells us, "who have 
 
THE INTESTINES. 
 
 71 
 
 lived an evil life, and yet have some remains of 
 good concealed in them. These remains cause 
 them to have a little spiritual life after many ages 
 of vastations." (n. 5561.) 
 
 These, perhaps, are taken up from the province 
 of the colon. Others, corresponding to the con- 
 tents of the colon, some of whom are saved, are 
 described as delighting in rapine and slaughter, 
 yet having a little humanity, (n. 5393.) 
 
 As to those who correspond to the walls of the 
 intestine, and are a part of the Greatest Man, 
 they must be such as take pleasure in correcting 
 and punishing, yet from justice and for the sake 
 of reformation. They who correspond to the small 
 intestine, especially the upper part of it, from 
 which chyle is most freely absorbed, are especially 
 delighted to rescue the good from the evil, by 
 sharp reproof if necessary, and to introduce them 
 among heavenly companions. But they who are 
 in the large intestine, and especially those who 
 correspond in their uses to the rectum, take pleas- 
 ure in punishing and confining the evil; yet always 
 
72 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 with an interior satisfaction in protecting the good 
 from them. 
 
 Of course they who have absolutely no love of 
 good, and no childlike remains, but are wholly de- 
 voted to self, have no basis for heavenly develop- 
 ment. To make angels of them would be to de- 
 stroy them utterly, and create new spirits. They 
 are not destroyed, but are permitted to enjoy such 
 vile pleasures as they can without injuring other 
 spirits. 
 
 " They who in the life of the body have made 
 voluptuous pleasures their end, and have loved only 
 to indulge their natural propensities, and to live in 
 luxury and festivity, caring only for themselves 
 and the world, without any regard to things Divine, 
 and void of faith and charity, these after death are 
 at first introduced into a life similar to what they 
 have lived in the world. There is a place in front 
 towards the left, at a considerable depth, where all 
 is pleasure, sport, dancing, feasting, and light con- 
 versation ; to this place such spirits are conveyed, 
 and then they know no other but that they are 
 still in the world. But after a short time the scene 
 is changed ; for then they are carried down to 
 
THE INTESTINES. 73 
 
 hell . . . for such pleasure, which is merely cor- 
 poreal, is, in the other life, changed into what is 
 excrementitious ; I have seen them there carrying- 
 dung, and lamenting." (A. C. 943.) 
 
 In the other life, the quality of spirits is made 
 sensible by odors ; and " they who have indulged 
 in mere sensual pleasures, and have lived in no 
 charity and faith, exhale an odor like that of ex- 
 crement. The case is the same with those who 
 have passed their lives in adulteries ; but the odor 
 of these is still more offensive." (15 14.) 
 
 Those also who have lived in intense self-love, 
 with no charity or humanity towards those who do 
 not favor them, also those who have delighted 
 solely in avarice, or in cruelty, or robbery, or mere 
 selfish indolence, or any other form of evil, of 
 necessity are entirely separated from the heavenly 
 man. 
 
 In us as individuals, the operation of the intes- 
 tines, as regards the digestion of food and the 
 absorption of good material, is scarcely felt. And 
 the like is true of the operation of the mind in 
 
74 
 
 PHYSIOL GICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 absorbing strength from the true and good things 
 we learn and adopt. That the process does go on, 
 however, and that we do continue for a time to 
 gather strength from such spiritual food is evident. 
 But much of the truth we receive is contained 
 in forms and formulas which are themselves of no 
 account; and the mind which is healthily growing 
 in wisdom extracts the wisdom from them, and 
 lets the mere learning pass into oblivion. And, 
 again, the mind is recreated by pleasant natural 
 things, which are correspondences of good affec- 
 tions and thoughts. Music, beautiful scenery, and 
 pictures, pleasant food, and other things agreeable 
 to the senses, may serve this purpose. A healthy 
 mind loves these for their use, and then lets the 
 sensual impressions pass away ; but an unhealthy 
 mind clings to these with a kind of indolent fas- 
 cination, retaining them in the thoughts long after 
 their use is over, and grows spiritually stupid and 
 unhappy from them. 
 
THE MESENTERY, 
 
 L^ROM stomach and intestines the chyle is ab- 
 sorbed both by veins and by lacteals. That 
 which is taken up by the blood-vessels is carried 
 forward by the portal vein to the liver, there to 
 be sorted, trained to the activities of the body, and 
 distributed in several ways according to its quality. 
 That which is absorbed by the lacteals is carried 
 through a labyrinthine network, knotted by many 
 glands, called the mesentery, and is then collected 
 into a vessel about the size of a finger, situated 
 on the right side of the spinal column, just under 
 the diaphragm, called the receptacle of chyle. 
 Here it is. mingled with the lymph returned by 
 the lymphatics from all the viscera of the abdo- 
 men and the thorax ; and then, through an irreg- 
 ular tube called the thoracic duct, it ascends nearly 
 to the neck, emptying usually into the vein that 
 returns the blood from the left arm to the heart. 
 
 75 
 
7 6 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 Of those who constitute this receptacle and 
 duct, Swedenborg says, — 
 
 " They who constitute this province are of a two- 
 fold kind ; some are modest enough, some are for- 
 ward. The modest are they who have desired to 
 know the thoughts of men, with the intent of at- 
 tracting and binding them to themselves ; for he 
 who knows what another thinks is acquainted with 
 his secrets and his interiors, which cause them to 
 be conjoined together ; the end regarded is con- 
 versation and friendship. They desire only to 
 know the good things and explore them, and put 
 a good interpretation upon the rest." (A. C. 5180.) 
 
 Of a similar quality in general must be the 
 angels of all the lacteals of the mesentery. 
 
 We can imagine these gentle angels, loving con- 
 versation and friendship, receiving the new spirits, 
 who by various chastenings have come to desire 
 instruction in the truth of heaven and a life ac- 
 cording to it, walking with them by intricate ways, 
 calling out their good thoughts, explaining away 
 their troubles, leading them hither and thither 
 according to the wants they discover in them, in- 
 
THE MESENTERY. 
 
 77 
 
 troducing them to quick and gentle changes of 
 state, that their sympathies may be quickened and 
 variously extended, and bringing them to one 
 gland-like community or another, as it may seem 
 useful to associate them with other new spirits, or 
 to give them the benefit of angels' teaching, and 
 finally escorting them to the great road in which, 
 with thousands of redeemed, rejoicing spirits, they 
 ascend toward the warm heart of the heavens. 
 
 This initiation into heavenly companionship and 
 heavenly thought is a preparation of the good for 
 heaven. The mesentery, therefore, corresponds to 
 places of instruction for a part of the new spirits 
 in their progress toward heaven ; as is confirmed 
 by the following passage : — 
 
 " It may be known in some measure from the 
 gyres to what province in the Greatest Man, and 
 correspondently in the body, spirits and angels be- 
 long. The gyres of those who belong to the prov- 
 ince of the lymphatics are slender and rapid as a 
 watery element gently flowing, so that scarcely any 
 gyration can be perceived. They who belong to 
 the lymphatics are afterwards conveyed into places 
 
7 8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 which they said have reference to the mesentery, 
 and it was told me that there are as it were laby- 
 rinths therein, and that they are next taken away 
 thence to various places in the Greatest Man, that 
 they may serve for use as chyle in the body. ,, 
 
 (5181.) 
 
 The winding ways by which men are taught by 
 the Lord, even in this world, are also likened by 
 Swedenborg to these mesenteric paths, — 
 
 " Every one is from infancy brought into that 
 Divine Man whose soul and life is the Lord ; and 
 in Him, not out of Him, he is led and taught from 
 His Divine love according to His Divine wisdom. 
 But as freedom is not taken away from man, a 
 man cannot be led and taught otherwise than ac- 
 cording to reception as by himself. They who re- 
 ceive are borne to their places by infinite windings, 
 as by meandering streams, almost as the chyle is 
 carried through the mesentery and its lacteals into 
 its receptacle, and from this through the thoracic 
 duct into the blood, and so to its destination. They 
 who do not receive are separated from those who 
 are within the Divine Man, as the faeces and urine 
 are separated from man." (D. P. 164.) 
 
THE MESENTERY. 
 
 79 
 
 The glands of the mesentery are of great inter- 
 est in their correspondence. The fibres of the 
 network of lacteals run from one gland to another, 
 having also threads which pursue their course with 
 more directness ; so that it is possible for the chyle 
 to pass through several glands, or, perhaps, to 
 enter none at all, on its way to the receptacle. 
 
 In the glands it meets arteries and veins and 
 nervous fibres. The arteries bring fresh blood 
 from the heart, and the nerves bring spirit from 
 the brain. The purpose of the glands is evidently 
 to prepare the new chyle more perfectly to enter 
 into the uses of the body ; and this purpose they 
 must fulfil by modifying the chyle, either through 
 the forms of their little vessels, or by communica- 
 tion of vital elements to it from the arteries and 
 the nervous fibres ; perhaps it performs its office 
 in both ways. "The mesentery elaborates the 
 chyle, and the liver the blood " (D. P. 336). It is 
 believed also that the white corpuscles, which are 
 an active element in the blood and which are rap- 
 idly multiplied after a meal, are formed in part in 
 these glands. 
 
80 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 Now the chyle of the Greatest Man is composed 
 of good spirits freed from their association with 
 the evil and from evil influences, tender in feel- 
 ing, and eager to learn. The blood of the arteries 
 is composed of angelic spirits, prepared for heaven, 
 but not yet fixed in their own societies ; also in 
 part, apparently, of "subject" angels sent from 
 their societies for special service elsewhere. And 
 the nerve influence, direct from the brain, is the 
 direct influence or presence of wise angels of the 
 third heaven. 
 
 If, then, we should read of good, intelligent 
 spirits, eager to be instructed, being trained to 
 angelic thought under the care of angels and 
 the direct supervision and inspiration of angels of 
 the third heaven, we should conclude with reason 
 that we had found a place marvellously like a mes- 
 enteric gland. 
 
 In n. 132, of the work on " Conjugial Love," we 
 read, — 
 
 " I once conversed with two angels ; one was 
 from the eastern heaven, the other from the south- 
 
THE MESENTERY. 
 
 ern heaven ; who . . . said, ' Do you know anything 
 of the Exercises of Wisdom in our world?' I an- 
 swered that I did not yet. And they said, ' They 
 are numerous, and those who love truths from spir- 
 itual affection, or truths because they are truths, 
 and because by means of them is wisdom, come 
 together at a given signal, and canvass and con- 
 clude those things which are of more profound un- 
 derstanding.' They then took me by the hand, 
 saying, ' Follow us, and you shall see and hear ; to- 
 day the signal for meeting is given.' I was led 
 across a plain to a hill ; and, behold, at the foot of 
 the hill was an avenue of palms, continued even to 
 its top. We entered it and ascended. And on 
 the top or summit of the hill was seen a grove, the 
 trees of which, upon an elevation of ground, formed 
 as it were a theatre, within which was a plain sur- 
 face covered with little stones variously colored. 
 Around it, in a square form, were placed seats, 
 upon which the lovers of wisdom were sitting ; and 
 in the middle of the theatre was a table upon 
 which was laid a paper sealed with a seal. Those 
 sitting upon the seats invited us to the seats as 
 yet vacant. And I answered, 'I was led here by 
 the two angels to see and listen, and not to sit.' 
 And then those two angels went into the middle 
 of the plain surface to the table, and loosed the 
 
82 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 seal of the paper, and read, in the presence of those 
 sitting, the arcana of wisdom written upon the 
 paper, which they were now to canvass and un- 
 fold. They were written by angels of the third 
 heaven, and let down upon the table. There were 
 three arcana : First, What the image of God is, 
 and what the likeness of God, into which man was 
 created ? Second, Why man is not born into the 
 knowledge belonging to any love, when yet beasts 
 and birds, as well the noble as the ignoble, are born 
 into the knowledges belonging to all their loves ? 
 Third, What the tree of life signifies, and what the 
 tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and what 
 the eating from them ? 
 
 " Under these was written, * Conjoin these three 
 into one opinion, and write this upon a new paper, 
 and lay it upon this table, and we shall see it ; if 
 the opinion when weighed appears right and just, 
 there shall be given to each of you a reward of 
 wisdom.' 
 
 " These things being read, the two angels with- 
 drew, and were taken up into their own heavens. 
 And then those sitting upon the seats began to 
 canvass and unfold the arcana proposed to them." 
 
 After an orderly and enlightened discussion, 
 their conclusions were combined into one series, 
 as follows, — 
 
THE MESENTERY. 
 
 83 
 
 " That man is created that he may receive love 
 and wisdom from God, and yet in all likeness as of 
 himself ; and this for the sake of reception and 
 conjunction ; and that therefore man is not born 
 into any love, nor into any knowledge, and also not 
 into any power of loving and being wise from him- 
 self ; wherefore if he ascribes all good of love and 
 truth of wisdom to God, he becomes a living man ; 
 but if he ascribes them to himself, he becomes a 
 dead man. 
 
 "These they wrote upon a new paper, and placed 
 this upon the table ; and, behold, suddenly angels 
 were present in shining white light, and carried 
 away the paper into heaven ; and after it was read 
 there, those sitting upon the seats heard thence the 
 words, 'Well, well, well ' ; and forthwith there ap- 
 peared one thence as if flying," and distributed to 
 all the company beautiful rewards of wisdom. 
 
 If this admirable exercise did not take place in 
 the mesentery, it certainly illustrates the processes 
 which must there be accomplished. 
 
 Other similar lessons are also described by Swe- 
 denborg. 
 
 Somewhat similar are the schools taught by the 
 ancient wise men of Greece. "All the Athe- 
 
84 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 nians," St. Luke tells us, " and strangers which 
 were there, spent their time in nothing else but 
 either to tell or to hear some new thing.' ' (Acts 
 xvii. 21.) 
 
 In the neighborhood of Athens also were the 
 schools of philosophy taught by Pythagoras, Soc- 
 rates, Plato, Aristotle, and many others, in which, 
 from the new things told, wise lessons of morality 
 or philosophy were deduced ; and from which have 
 come down to us, in the form either of allegory or 
 of direct instruction, almost all the remains we 
 have of the wisdom of the Ancient Churches. 
 
 The desire of these wise men to learn new 
 things, and to instruct in true wisdom, was not 
 diminished but increased and enlightened by their 
 change to the spiritual world. It is not, therefore, 
 a matter of surprise to find them, in Swedenborg's 
 descriptions, receiving modest and intelligent new 
 comers with the greeting, "What news from the 
 earth ? " — inquiring especially about the thoughts 
 of men concerning eternal life, and then wisely 
 
THE MESENTERY. 
 
 85 
 
 instructing the spirits in the nature of heavenly 
 
 life and happiness. 
 
 These things are set forth at length C. L. 151- 
 154, 182, 207. 
 
THE LIVER 
 
 n^HAT part of the chyle which is taken up by 
 the lacteals is initiated into the quick and 
 gentle flow of the mesentery, is modified, and, as 
 it were, instructed in the mesenteric glands, and 
 then is carried to the receptacle of chyle, and 
 through the thoracic duct and the left subclavian 
 vein to the heart. 
 
 The portion of the chyle which is taken up 
 from the stomach and intestines by the veins, is 
 collected in the great portal vein, where it mingles 
 with the blood returned from all the viscera of 
 digestion, and then by the portal vein it is con- 
 ducted for its training, instruction, and purification 
 to the liver. 
 
 The portal vein enters the liver side by side 
 with the hepatic artery which brings fresh blood 
 from the heart, the bile duct which returns its 
 peculiar secretion to the intestines, and a coating 
 
 86 
 
THE LIVER. 
 
 87 
 
 of cellular tissue which appears to be the origin 
 and home of a host of lymphatic vessels. 
 
 These proceed together, dividing and subdivid- 
 ing again and again, till their minute twigs en- 
 close in their embrace minute little lobes or 
 lobules. The walls of these lobules are composed 
 of small tubes running inward, and lined with 
 cellular matter peculiar to the organ. 
 
 To these the portal vein and the hepatic artery 
 offer their burdens of chyle and blood, both fresh 
 and refuse ; and the tubuli, with sensitive percep- 
 tion adapted to their use, drink in from them the 
 harmonious elements which will combine in a rich, 
 wholesome current for the use of the body, and 
 this they offer to the open mouths of the hepatic 
 veins. These veinlets open in the cavities of the 
 lobules, and there receive, and thence convey to 
 the vena cava, for the heart, whatever the liver 
 may present to them. The lighter portion of the 
 chyle and lymph, not needed for the present use 
 of the blood, flows quickly on its pleasant lym- 
 phatic path, and joins its companions in the chyle 
 
88 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 receptacle. The hard and obstinate particles 
 which cannot conform to the requirements of the 
 tubuli, and would be of no use elsewhere in the 
 body, are remanded to the bile ducts and the gall 
 bladder ; the worst of them to be cast out, the 
 better for a low use in the intestines. 
 
 " There are gyres into which recent spirits must 
 be inaugurated, that they may enter into consoci- 
 ation with others and may speak and think to- 
 gether with them. There must be concord and 
 unanimity of all, in the other life, that they may 
 be one ; as all things in man, which, although 
 they are everywhere various, yet by unanimity 
 make one, so in the Greatest Man. For this end 
 the thought and speech of one must agree with 
 that of others. It is a fundamental thing that the 
 thought and the speech should in themselves be in 
 concord in every member of a society ; otherwise 
 something discordant is felt as a harsh noise which 
 affects the minds of others. Every thing discor- 
 dant also is disunient and is an impurity which 
 must be rejected. This impurity from discord is 
 represented by impurity with the blood and in the 
 blood from which it must be defecated. This def- 
 ecation is effected by vexations, which are nothing 
 
THE LIVER. 
 
 else than temptations of various kinds, and after- 
 wards by introduction into gyres." (A. C. 5182.) 
 
 As there is a flow of thought and affection 
 in every heavenly society peculiar to itself, so 
 there are forms and motions in every organ of 
 the body peculiar to itself, to which all fluids and 
 particles which are introduced must conform, or 
 they will be immediately rejected. If they do not 
 agree with the little tubes, either in size or shape, 
 or do not flow readily or smoothly through their 
 windings, the tubes refuse to admit them, or 
 contract and expel them. And in this they 
 are guided by an exquisite, unerring sensitive- 
 ness, given them continually in kind and degree 
 adapted to their use. 
 
 The liver may be regarded as a very large gland 
 whose primary use it is to prepare good blood 
 for the general uses of the body. It receives its 
 supplies from the portal vein which brings new 
 chyle and older blood from the abdominal viscera, 
 and from the hepatic artery which brings fresh 
 blood and old from the heart. It selects from 
 
9° 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 these the materials demanded by the wants of the 
 body, examines them thoroughly, carefully strains 
 and sorts them, makes intimately acquainted and 
 combines the new and the old, and thus mingles 
 wisely a stream rich and wholesome and suited 
 to its use, which it sends through the hepatic 
 veins and the vena cava to the heart. A second- 
 ary secretion of fresh, lively fluid, suited to re- 
 plenish the streams returning from the left side 
 of the head and the left arm, it sends thither 
 through the lymphatics and the thoracic duct. 
 And a third secretion of materials, not suited to 
 the general circulation, but still capable of doing 
 service in the digestion of new food, it despatches 
 to the intestines through the hepatic duct and the 
 gall bladder. 
 
 It is also regarded as an important function of 
 the liver to reduce the surplus of sugary material, 
 not immediately needed in the work of the body, 
 to a starch-like condition, in which form it is 
 called glycogen, and store it up until it is wanted 
 for use. In the form of glycogen it remains un- 
 
THE LIVER. 
 
 9 1 
 
 changed until it is summoned, and then is quickly 
 changed again into sugar. While it is proper to 
 mention this use here, the consideration of its 
 significance will be deferred till we study the 
 omentum. 
 
 The noble use of the liver to the body corre- 
 sponds to a noble spiritual use of a vast province 
 to the heavens. The province is large ; for the 
 liver is larger than any other viscus, if we except 
 the whole mass of the intestines. And its use is 
 to assimilate to the life and uses of the heavens 
 newly-arrived spirits, especially those with a zeal 
 for usefulness ; to instruct, also, and expand the 
 minds of others drawn from various provinces of 
 the heavens ; and to separate from the system per- 
 verse individuals and affections. 
 
 " It has been given me to perceive the gyres 
 of those who belong to the province of the liver, 
 and this for a space of hours. Their gyres were 
 gentle, flowing around variously, like the operation 
 of that organ. They affected me w T ith great de- 
 light. Their operation is diverse, but it is in gen- 
 
9 2 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 eral orbicular. That their operation is diverse is 
 represented also in the functions of the liver, that 
 they are diverse ; for the liver draws to itself 
 the blood, and separates it ; pours the better part 
 into the veins, that of a middle sort it remands to 
 the hepatic duct, and the vile it leaves to the gall 
 bladder. 
 
 " (It is thus in adults ; but in embryos the liver 
 receives the blood from the mother's womb, and 
 purifies it ; the purer part it infuses into the veins, 
 that it may flow by a short way to the heart. It 
 then acts as a guard before the heart.)" (n. 5183.) 
 
 " By the liver is signified interior purification; 
 for the liver purines the blood, but the intestines 
 those things of which the blood is composed. . . . 
 In other cases by the liver is signified the external 
 good of innocence, such as appertains to infants ; 
 by reason that infants, before the rest of the vis- 
 cera are fully formed to their use, as is the case 
 when they are embryos, are nourished through the 
 liver; for all the nutritious juice is brought thither 
 through the placenta and the navel from the womb 
 of the mother ; this juice corresponds to the good 
 of innocence." (n. 10031.) 
 
 A part of the spirits newly received into the 
 spiritual world are conducted into heaven by the 
 
THE LIVER. 93 
 
 
 way of the lacteals, being trained in the flow and 
 varieties of heavenly thought and affection in the 
 devious paths of the mesentery, and examined and 
 instructed in the schools represented by its glands. 
 Another, and probably the larger, part ascend by 
 the way of the veins, — not yet fairly in the cir- 
 culation, for they have yet to be trained and in- 
 structed in the province of the liver and then 
 received and sent forth by the heart. 
 
 As the treatment received by these two portions 
 of the chyle is so different, it may be well to con- 
 sider briefly the materials of which they consist. 
 Nearly all the elements which enter into their 
 composition they have in common, with the 
 marked exception of the red globules which are 
 already in the veins. There are white globules 
 in the lacteals as well as in the veins, and even 
 imperfect red globules soon appear. The chief 
 difference seems to be in the proportions in which 
 they are mingled. There are fibrine and fat, 
 sugar, water, and salts, in both ; but very much 
 more of fibrine and sugar in the veins, and very 
 
94 
 
 PHYSIOL GICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 much more of water and fat, and probably of some 
 salts, in the lacteals. From the comparative red- 
 ness and solidity of the contents of the veins, it 
 would appear that they represent those who are 
 more in the love of goodness and of usefulness, 
 which love is especially represented by the fibrin- 
 ous, muscle-making element of the blood ; the 
 sweetness of the stream also represents the sweet- 
 ness of character of those who have suffered hard 
 things, and perhaps the enjoyment in the love of 
 goodness in those in whom this love has been 
 purified. And from the whiteness and wateri- 
 ness of the contents of the lacteals, it seems 
 plain that they represent those who are more in 
 the love of truth and the good life which truth 
 teaches. The considerable quantity of fat con- 
 tained in the lacteals may seem to conflict with 
 this, since fat has a celestial meaning. But the 
 fat in this case may represent the celestial of the 
 spiritual, — that is, the kindness and good-will of 
 those who are in the love of truth ; as the but- 
 ter of milk represents the mother's love for the 
 children whom she teaches. 
 
THE LIVER. 
 
 95 
 
 It seems safe then to conclude that they who 
 ascend by the portal way to the province of the 
 liver are those who are especially in the love of 
 goodness, and in the desire to be trained and in- 
 structed in angels' uses. They walk in company 
 with those who have been sent to assist in the 
 preparation of new spirits, and who now, delighted 
 with their docile companions, discourse with them 
 of heavenly employments, inspire into them their 
 own love of use, and enter, together with them, 
 the great province of instruction. 
 
 Thither come also, by the way of the heart, 
 other new spirits who have entered the circula- 
 tion by shorter ways, and angels from all prov- 
 inces of the body who need to be relieved of 
 opinions and feelings too narrow for their present 
 uses, and initiated into broader views and quicker 
 sympathies ; and possibly also some spirits who, 
 by reason of their urgency, have been permitted 
 to enter heaven unprepared, and by this way are 
 cast out, if evil, or have an opportunity for in- 
 struction if good. (A. R. 611). Perhaps it is not 
 
9 6 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 by chance that Swedenborg describes some of 
 both of these kinds in the midst of his descrip- 
 tion of the places of instruction. (H. H. 518.) 
 
 "The third state of man, after d^ath," Sweden- 
 borg says, " is a state of instruction ; this state 
 appertains to those who come into heaven and be- 
 come angels, but not to those who come into hell, 
 since these latter cannot be instructed " (H. H. 
 512). We should, therefore, look for the places 
 of instruction in some province through which the 
 chyle passes after it is separated from worthless 
 materials in the proper digestive organs, and be- 
 fore it reaches the heart. The only organs thus 
 situated are the mesentery and the liver. The 
 province of the mesentery appears to serve for 
 this use, or at least for initiation into exercises 
 of wisdom for a part of the new spirits ; but the 
 chief places of instruction and of introduction to 
 heavenly uses evidently must be situated in the 
 province of the liver. 
 
 "Those places of instruction," we are told, "are 
 to the north, and are various, arranged and distin- 
 
THE LIVER. 
 
 97 
 
 
 guished according to the genera and species of 
 heavenly goods, that each and every person may 
 there be instructed according to his particular 
 temper and faculty of reception. Those places 
 extend in all directions there to a considerable dis- 
 tance. The good spirits who are to be instructed 
 are conveyed thither by the Lord, when they have 
 passed through their second state in the world of 
 spirits, but still not all ; for they who had been in- 
 structed in the world were there also prepared by 
 the Lord for heaven, and are conveyed into heaven 
 by another way ; some immediately after death ; 
 some after a short stay with good spirits, where 
 the grosser thoughts and affections which they con- 
 tracted from honors and riches in the world are 
 removed, and thus they are purified ; some are first 
 vastated, which is effected in places under the soles 
 of the feet, which are called the lower earth, where 
 some suffer severely ; these are they who have con- 
 firmed themselves in falsities, and still have led 
 good lives ; for falsities confirmed inhere w r ith much 
 force, and until they are dispersed truths cannot be 
 seen, thus cannot be received." (H. H. 513.) 
 
 "All who are in the places of instruction have 
 distinct habitations there ; for every one as to his 
 interiors is connected with the society of heaven to 
 which he is about to come ; wherefore since the 
 
9 8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 societies of heaven are arranged according to a 
 heavenly form, so likewise are the places where 
 instructions are given ; it is on this account that 
 when those places are inspected from heaven, there 
 appears then as it were a heaven in a lesser form. 
 They extend themselves there lengthways from 
 east to west, and breadthways from north to south ; 
 but the breadth to appearance is less than the 
 length. The arrangements, in general, are as fol- 
 lows : In front are those who died infants, and have 
 been educated in heaven to the age of first adoles- 
 cence, who, after completing the state of their in- 
 fancy with the females appointed to educate them, 
 are brought thither by the Lord and instructed. 
 Behind them are the places where they are in- 
 structed who died adults, and who in the world 
 were in affection for truth from the good of life. 
 Behind them are they who have professed the 
 Mohammedan religion, and in the world have led 
 a moral life. . . . Behind these, more to the north, 
 are the places of instruction of various Gentile na- 
 tions, who in the world have led a good life in con- 
 formity with their religion. . . . These in number 
 exceed all the rest ; the best of them are from 
 Africa." (n. 514.) 
 
 They who have been educated from infancy in 
 heaven are here instructed by angels of the inte- 
 
THE LIVER. 99 
 
 rior heavens ; they who have died adult mostly by 
 angels of the lowest heaven ; Mohammedans by 
 angels who once were Mohammedans ; and gen- 
 tiles by their respective angels, (n. 515.) But the 
 " instructions differ from instructions on earth in 
 this respect, that knowledge is not committed to 
 memory, but to the life." "The affection for 
 truth for the sake of uses of life is continually in- 
 spired ; for the Lord provides that every one may 
 love the uses suited to his particular genius, which 
 love is also exalted by the hope of becoming an 
 angel." "Truth is thus implanted in use, so that 
 the truths which they learn are truths of use. 
 Angelic spirits are thus instructed and prepared 
 for heaven." (n. 517.) 
 
 It may have nothing to do with the four depart- 
 ments of the places of instruction, that there are 
 two larger and two smaller lobes of the liver ; but 
 it may be worth bearing in mind. Undoubtedly 
 it is true that the lobes have their respective char- 
 acteristics, and draw from the supplies accordingly, 
 and furnish correspondingly varied products. 
 
IO o PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 " After the spirits have been prepared for heaven 
 in the above-mentioned places by instructions, 
 which is effected in a short time, by reason that 
 they are in spiritual ideas which comprehend 
 many things together, they are then clothed with 
 angelic garments, which for the most part are 
 white, as of fine linen, and thus they are brought 
 to the way which tends upwards toward heaven." 
 (n. 519.) 
 
 " There are eight ways which lead from the 
 above places to heaven, and by which the novitiate 
 angels are introduced, two from each place of in- 
 struction, one going up towards the east, the other 
 to the west ; they who come into the Lord's celes- 
 tial kingdom are introduced by the eastern way, but 
 they who come to the spiritual kingdom are intro- 
 duced by the western way. The four ways which 
 lead to the Lord's celestial kingdom appear adorned 
 with olive trees and fruit trees of various kinds ; 
 but those which lead to the Lord's spiritual king- 
 dom appear adorned with vines and laurels. This 
 is from correspondence, because vines and laurels 
 correspond to the affection for truth and to its uses, 
 whilst olives and fruits correspond to the affection 
 for good and its uses." (n. 520.) 
 
 May not this distinction be represented in the 
 body by the distinction between the veins and the 
 
THE LIVER. ioi 
 
 lymphatics of the liver. For these are the only 
 two kinds of vessels by which there is ascent to 
 the heart ; they both go from every part of the 
 liver, and also from every gland in the mesen- 
 tery ; and the lymphatics do go up to the left, 
 and the veins to the right. 
 
 The rejoicing of the new angelic spirits in their 
 salvation from evil, and their enjoyment in the 
 uses of heavenly life, may be represented in the 
 abundant sugar which is found everywhere in 
 the liver and in the fresh blood which it sends 
 to the heart. The warmth of the liver, said to be 
 greater than that of every other organ in the 
 body, may represent that supreme exaltation of 
 love which angels feel in initiating new spirits 
 into heavenly joys. 
 
 But, besides the angelic spirits who ascend from 
 the places of instruction, rejoicing in new life, 
 there are some, corresponding to the bile, who 
 reject the wise and kindly instruction given in 
 this province, adhere obstinately to their own 
 opinions, are embittered because they are not re- 
 
102 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDENCES. 
 
 ceived into heaven by reason of the natural de- 
 pravity which they have done nothing to over- 
 come, and therefore delight to find fault and to 
 punish. (H. H. 518.) (Compare A. R. 611, 839, 
 where is described the casting down of such in 
 the neighborhood of the places of instruction of 
 good boys.) These are permitted to go by the 
 way of the hepatic duct to the intestines, where 
 they may do a use in exposing evil, and in the 
 vastations of the good who have some confirma- 
 tions of evil and falsity ; and as they go they are 
 warned and threatened and guarded lest they 
 should punish more than is useful. (A. C. 5185.) 
 Perhaps the best of them, who love to punish for 
 the sake of rescuing the good, may return with 
 them to the safe places of instruction, and again 
 go forth upon similar errands ; as the better ele- 
 ments of the bile are absorbed by the veins and 
 lacteals, and are again separated by the liver. 
 Possibly some such may be said to be subjects 
 of the liver sent to perform this use, as the sol- 
 vents of the stomach were said to be subjects of 
 that organ. 
 
THE LIVER. 
 
 103 
 
 Swedenborg believed that the worst of the bile 
 was deposited in the gall bladder ; and either this 
 is true, or the bile after it is carried there is 
 severely wrung out, the lighter portions being car- 
 ried away by veins or lymphatics, and the denser 
 and bitterer portion being left, of course to be 
 discharged into the intestine at suitable times. 
 The bladder itself is tough and membranous ; its 
 inner surface being wrinkled and knotted. Its 
 neck is furnished with a spiral staircase, by which 
 bile is assisted in passing up from the hepatic 
 duct as by the turns of a hollow screw. Through 
 the same spiral way, by a reversal of the turns, 
 the bile descends to the intestine, and possibly it 
 is exercised by being driven alternately one way 
 and then the other, which exercise well corre- 
 sponds with the mode of discipline described by 
 Swedenborg as peculiar to the province. 
 
 Swedenborg describes those who are represented 
 by the bile as loving to punish ; the worst of them 
 hardly being willing to desist. He says, " their de- 
 lights are in punishing, and thus doing good ; nor 
 
io4 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 do they abstain from filth" (A. C. 5185). Those 
 in the bladder itself cooperate in the use, moder- 
 ating and restraining too great severities, and per- 
 haps quickening the slow in the manner presently 
 described. Of those in the gall bladder, he says, — 
 
 " They are those who in the life of the body 
 have despised what is honorable and in some de- 
 gree what is pious, and also who have brought 
 them into discredit." (n. 5186.) 
 
 " A certain spirit came to me inquiring whether 
 I knew where he might stay. I thought that he 
 was honest, and when I told him that possibly he 
 might stay here, the vexatory spirits of this prov- 
 ince came, and vexed him miserably, which I was 
 sorry for, and in vain desired to prevent. I then 
 observed that I was in the province of the gall 
 bladder. The vexatory spirits were of those who 
 despised what is honorable and pious. It was 
 given to observe one kind of vexation there, which 
 was a compulsion to speak with a rapidity exceed- 
 ing that of the thoughts, which they effected by an 
 abstraction of the speech from the thought, and 
 then by compulsion to follow their speech, which 
 is done with pain. By such vexation the slow are 
 inaugurated into greater quickness of thinking and 
 speaking." (n. 5187.) 
 
THE LIVER. IO c 
 
 From the "Spiritual Diary," nos. 1012-1014, it 
 would appear that in general it is the spirits who 
 have despised spiritual and heavenly things who 
 are thus dealt with, and who are represented by 
 the bile. Excessive slowness has the effect of 
 unwillingness and sullenness ; if it can be over- 
 come by temporary suffering the subjects will be 
 forever happier and more useful. 
 
 Perhaps some who intend well in the main, but 
 are obstinately slow, — too slow to be initiated 
 into the gyres of the liver, — are brought here 
 for a time, and then are again taken up by the 
 lacteals, more willing to be instructed, and them- 
 selves giving useful warnings to others. 
 
 The influx from the province of the liver of the 
 Greatest Man into our minds must produce a de- 
 sire and capacity, first, to assimilate the knowledge 
 we have loved and received to the uses of our 
 life. As particles of fat and mucilage and gluten 
 cannot always remain in the circulation as fat 
 and mucilage and gluten, but must be combined 
 with the fluids of the body into one homogeneous 
 
106 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 fluid, ready to turn its hand to any use that may 
 be required of it, so the knowledge of good works 
 that others do, of the goodness of the Lord and 
 of the uses that He desires us to do, cannot re- 
 main in the mind in those forms, but must be 
 transformed into thought and love of what it is 
 good and right for us to do, and so enter the life 
 current of our will. And this initiation of new 
 ideas and intentions into the life of the spirit is 
 done to a great extent in the province of the mind 
 corresponding to the liver. 
 
 A secondary, though very important, effect of 
 that influence is to separate and expel from the 
 current of our thoughts, ideas and opinions which 
 prevent harmonious cooperation with others, espe- 
 cially such as are self-asserting, bitter, and fault- 
 finding. If the liver of the body does not act 
 efficiently, and separate such effete materials, the 
 body becomes heavy and sleepy, suffers much pain 
 and general discomfort, and digests new food im- 
 perfectly, or rejects it altogether. And if the cor- 
 responding mental faculty does not faithfully do 
 
THE LIVER. IO y 
 
 its duty in removing vain regrets and bitter fault- 
 finding, the mind loses its living relation to pres- 
 ent circumstances ; it adheres tenaciously to its 
 own ways and opinions, refusing new ideas and 
 affections, and becomes morose, stupid, and mis- 
 erable. 
 
THE SPLEEN AND THE PANCREAS. 
 
 /^"^LOSE under the lower ribs, on the left side 
 of the body, just outside the stomach, lies 
 the spleen, — a body about the size of the thick 
 part of the hand, though nearly twice as thick ; 
 of soft, spongy structure, composed of what is 
 called the spleen pulp, together with very numer- 
 ous arteries, veins, and lymphatics. The spleen 
 receives a considerable quantity of blood through 
 the splenic artery, and returns it through the 
 splenic vein more fluid and lively than when it 
 came. It sends also a considerable quantity of 
 lymph by the lymphatics through the omentum 
 to the chyle receptacle ; but discharges no other 
 peculiar secretion. 
 
 Its purpose is to modify the blood and prepare 
 it for the winnowing of the liver, whither the 
 blood returned by the spleen is immediately sent 
 through the portal vein. At the extremities of 
 
 108 
 
THE SPLEEN AND THE PANCREAS. 
 
 109 
 
 the arteries in the spleen, the blood appears to 
 circulate among the cells of the pulp, unconfined 
 by the usual capillary walls, and to be collected 
 from this pulp circulation by the veins. During 
 this process the mischievous adhesions among its 
 particles are broken up, the worn-out globules are 
 disintegrated, the worthless particles are set free, 
 so as to be easily sifted out by the liver, and the 
 good elements also are set free, so that they may 
 meet and combine with the new chyle with more 
 ready sympathy and greater power for usefulness. 
 All the lymph that can be spared is sent off to 
 the receptacle ; for the good blood is on its way 
 to meet the new chyle, which will need all its 
 power of absorbing and assimilating. 
 
 Huxley says that the blood returned from the 
 spleen " is found to contain proportionally fewer 
 red corpuscles and more fibrine than that in the 
 splenic artery ; and it has been supposed that the 
 spleen is one of those parts of the economy in 
 which the colorless corpuscles of the blood are 
 especially produced." Probably some of the worn- 
 
no PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 out red corpuscles are really destroyed by the 
 action of the spleen. It would naturally contain 
 a larger proportion of fibrine, because the lymph is 
 so largely withdrawn, and also because the color- 
 less corpuscles seem to have the power of convert- 
 ing the albuminous materials, dissolved in the 
 blood, into coagulable fibrine, ready to be built into 
 the tissues of the body. Hence also these cor- 
 puscles are especially wanted in the work of re- 
 ceiving and initiating new blood. It should be 
 added that the spleen increases in size immedi- 
 ately after taking food, and continues swollen and 
 active during the process of digestion. 
 
 The office of the spleen is supplemented by 
 that of the pancreas. As the splenic artery runs 
 along behind the stomach towards its goal, it 
 sends little branches continually to a long, thin 
 gland, called the pancreas, whose shape is likened 
 by several authors to that of a dog's tongue. The 
 pancreas also receives supplies from two other 
 abdominal arteries. 
 
 The quality of the blood drawn from the arte- 
 
THE SPLEEN AND THE PANCREAS. 1 T r 
 
 ries by the pancreas may be inferred from the 
 products which it makes of it. These are, first, 
 a thin, watery, alkaline fluid called the pancreatic 
 fluid, or, by Swedenborg, and other old authors, 
 the pancreatic bile, which is discharged into the 
 small intestine through the same orifice with the 
 hepatic bile ; second, a purined i blood which it 
 presents to the splenic vein as this brings back 
 the fluid blood from the spleen ; and third, the 
 lymph and fatty particles which it withdraws as 
 much as possible from the other secretions to fit 
 them for their uses, and despatches to the mes- 
 entery, and probably at times to the omentum. 
 (A. K. 228.) 
 
 The blood returned from the pancreas unites 
 with that from the spleen, and together they pro- 
 ceed to the portal vein and the liver, to be there 
 strained and purified, and then to unite with the 
 new chyle and initiate it into the uses of the 
 blood. 
 
 The pancreatic fluid, in its humbler way, enters 
 upon a lower part of the same use; for it pro- 
 
1 1 2 PHYSIOL GICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 ceeds immediately to the intestine, where it per- 
 forms a prominent part in the digestion of fats 
 and also of starch. Of the fats it quickly forms 
 an emulsion, which is then readily absorbed by 
 the coats of the intestine, and is conducted away 
 by the lacteals and veins. And it assists greatly 
 in transforming the rigid, insoluble starch into 
 soluble sugar, which is taken up principally by 
 the veins. Thus the spleen and the pancreas 
 join hands to assist the liver in the work of pre- 
 paring a stream of good blood for the general 
 uses of the body, and initiating the new chyle 
 into those uses. 
 
 The spiritual uses of the correlative provinces 
 in the Greatest Man must correspond to these 
 natural uses. It is not for a moment to be sup- 
 posed that any angel who has been received into 
 heaven ever becomes useless and is cast down. 
 (T. C. R. 341.) The correspondence of the con- 
 tinual renovation of the tissues and the blood 
 globules of the body is with the continual purifi- 
 cation of forms of thought and affection in the 
 
THE SPLEEN AND THE PANCREAS. II3 
 
 heavens. " It is a known truth," Swedenborg 
 says, "that heaven is not pure before the Lord; 
 it is true, also, that angels are in continual pro- 
 gress towards perfection." (A. C. 2249.) 
 
 " It is worthy of notice, yet it is altogether un- 
 known in the world, that the states of good spirits 
 and angels are continually changing and being per- 
 fected, and thus they are carried on into the inte- 
 riors of the province in which they are, thus into 
 nobler functions ; for there is in heaven a continual 
 purification, and, so to speak, a new creation ; but 
 still it is true that no angel will ever attain abso- 
 lute perfection to eternity ; the Lord alone is per- 
 fect ; in Him and from Him is all perfection." 
 (n. 4803.) 
 
 The worn-out elements of the heavens, there- 
 fore, are not the angels, but their inadequate 
 forms of thought and states of feeling. The plan 
 of the heavens is constantly being enlarged by 
 the addition of new members ; and these mem- 
 bers bring states of life which are new ; conse- 
 quently the angels must have constantly expand- 
 ing sympathies, and enlarging ideas of their mutual 
 
H4 
 
 PHYSIOL O GICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 relations and uses. Any who suffer themselves to 
 be hindered in their usefulness by too strong at- 
 tachments to persons and ways, or by too limited 
 views or set opinions, need to be brought within 
 the influence of the province of the spleen, that 
 their states of life may be taken out of their 
 routine and thoroughly examined. With gentle 
 reproof those natural limitations are there broken, 
 and they are prepared to receive broader views, 
 and more comprehensive, freer affections, more fit 
 for their uses. Sullen, disappointed feelings, and 
 whatever selfish affections there may be mingled 
 with the good, are there exposed and loosened ; 
 and if any cling to such feelings, or if evil persons 
 have forced themselves into the company of the 
 good, they are detached and sent on to the places 
 of instruction, whence they are at once cast out 
 for the sterner warnings of the gall ducts, where 
 all such bitterness is rendered harmless. Before 
 the Last Judgment there were many evil spirits, 
 especially of the dragon ists, who thus intruded 
 themselves ; so that Swedenborg says the province 
 
THE SPLEEN AND THE PANCREAS. 
 
 JI 5 
 
 of the spleen was crowded with them. (S. D. 1005.) 
 But the good angels who receive well the mild 
 discipline of the spleen, made gentler, happier, and 
 more ready for extended sympathy and good use, 
 are gladly received in the province of the liver, 
 and are entrusted with the care and instruction of 
 new spirits just entering upon the life of heaven. 
 This expansion of thought and plan and sym- 
 pathy is continually needed by the whole heaven, 
 especially in the process of assimilating new spirits ; 
 and to obtain such expansion, probably angels 
 from all parts of the heavens are continually de- 
 scending to the places of instruction where new 
 spirits are received. Therefore also the spleen, as 
 well as the liver, is in its highest activity during 
 the process of digestion. 
 
 The pancreas, for its part of the work, sepa- 
 rates from the currents of thought, or of spirits or 
 angels, who come to it, those who are censorious, 
 and unnecessarily disposed to correct others ; and 
 sends such to the intestines, where such work is 
 needed. 
 
1 1 6 PHYSIOL O GICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 No doubt, in both these organs, a similar work 
 is done for those not so much in the love of prac- 
 tical uses as in that of intelligent thought and 
 conversation, who are represented by the lymph. 
 These, too, in the gyres of the pancreas and the 
 spleen are winnowed of the love for mere pleas- 
 ant, idle talk, and also of that for censorious and 
 acrimonious discussion; and made more intelligent 
 by the purification, and more ready to do kindly 
 uses as guides and instructors, they are permitted 
 to offer themselves in such capacity to the noviti- 
 ates ascending through the lacteals and the recep- 
 tacle. 
 
 Enough perhaps has been said of the muscle- 
 making elements of food, the digestion of which 
 is begun in the stomach and completed in the in- 
 testine. Their correspondence, it will be remem- 
 bered, is with the love of useful work ; the stomach 
 digestion of them seems to correspond to the free- 
 ing of them from externals of form and routine, 
 that the inner love of usefulness may appear ; and 
 the subsequent digestion in the intestines seems 
 to represent the purification of this love. 
 
THE SPLEEN AND THE PANCREAS. 
 
 117 
 
 It remains to speak of the digestion of fats and 
 starch, which takes place chiefly in the intestine. 
 
 No doubt some delicate oils are absorbed from 
 the stomach, and even from the mouth. The 
 grosser kinds, as butter and the fat of meat, pass 
 on to the intestine, and meet the acrid biles, by 
 which they are emulsified, and made ready for 
 absorption by the lacteals. They seem to corre- 
 spond to natural goodness and kindness which has 
 paid little attention to spiritual things, and needs 
 a sharp warning to arouse a sense of need of 
 instruction. Possibly they are those who are 
 described by Swedenborg as follows : — 
 
 " They who come out of the world from Chris- 
 tian lands and have led a moral life, and had some- 
 what of charity towards their neighbor, but have 
 had little concern about spiritual things, for the 
 most part are sent into the places beneath the feet 
 and the soles of the feet ; and are there kept until 
 they put off the natural things in which they have 
 been, and are imbued with spiritual and celestial 
 things as far as they can be, according to their 
 life ; and when they have become imbued with 
 
Il8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 these, they are elevated thence into heavenly soci- 
 eties. I have at times seen them emerging, and 
 their joy at coming into heavenly light." (n. 4944.) 
 
 To such good but careless spirits the sharp 
 censoriousness of the pancreatic spirits brings a 
 sudden and wholesome awakening, one effect of 
 which is to fill them with anxiety to be instructed, 
 in which state they are ready to be taken up, 
 and introduced into various exercises of spiritual 
 wisdom. 
 
 A similar use to that which the bile and pan- 
 creatic fluid do for oils is done for starch by the 
 pancreatic and intestinal fluids. Starch is exclu- 
 sively a vegetable product, nearly resembling oil 
 in its elements, but in a stiff, insoluble form. It 
 is also like cane sugar in its composition, and 
 needs only a slight modification to become like 
 the sugar of fruits. Fruits correspond to works 
 of affection, and their sugar to the enjoyment in 
 them. Grains correspond to the duties of life, 
 and their starch, which is in the place of sugar, 
 to the satisfaction in good, faithful work. This 
 
THE SPLEEN AND THE PANCREAS. 
 
 119 
 
 has some sense of merit and virtue in it, which 
 needs to be chastened and humbled, in order that 
 it may work gently and sweetly with other peo- 
 ple ; and this no doubt is represented by the 
 turning of starch into easily soluble sugar by the 
 action of the harsh pancreatic and intestinal fluids. 
 
 They who receive this treatment, perhaps, are 
 the spirits who, conscious of their own merit, 
 saw wood in stern, puritanical style, wanting no 
 assistance, determined to earn their own salva- 
 tion ; and indignant with the Lord that they do 
 not receive more of heavenly joy than other men. 
 (n. 1 1 10, 4943.) 
 
 Some, however, who are represented by the 
 starch of wheat and rice, must be innocent and 
 easily instructed, with a child-like sense of well- 
 doing, only needing to have it clearly shown to 
 them what they are in themselves, and how merci- 
 fully the Lord has dealt with them. 
 
 As the use of the spleen is to prepare the 
 blood so that in the liver the pure, living portion 
 may unite readily with the new chyle, and the 
 
I2 o PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 hard, unelastic particles may be separated and 
 rejected, the spiritual work of the spleen of the 
 mind is to examine the thoughts of the heart, 
 and prepare them to unite readily with new 
 ideas, affections, and satisfactions which come to 
 us in our work and social intercourse with the 
 community. In the spleen of the mind the 
 thoughts are drawn out into a quiet chamber, 
 apart from the busy circulation, and there the 
 feelings and opinions that are beginning to make 
 trouble are candidly inspected, and those elements 
 which do not agree with the practical life of 
 charity are detached from those that are alive 
 and willing, and are made ready for speedy rejec- 
 tion. Their hold upon the mind is loosened, so 
 that when the opportunity for usefulness comes 
 they are immediately given up. 
 
 Minds in which this work is not well done, 
 which adhere tenaciously to by-gones, and there- 
 fore do not come into pleasant relations with new 
 things that are both true and good, but are dis- 
 posed to complain of evils which arise simply 
 
THE SPLEEN AND THE PANCREAS. I2 i 
 
 from their own lack of sympathy and charity, 
 are popularly called " spleeny " ; perhaps from a 
 common perception or tradition of the uses of 
 the spleen surpassing the medical science of the 
 present day. 
 
 The pancreas joins in the work of the spleen 
 by setting aside from the current of thought, in 
 regard to the good and true things we are lov- 
 ing and receiving, all that is unnecessarily acri- 
 monious and severe, reserving this for the com- 
 placent enjoyment of natural kindliness, and the 
 sense of superior merit and virtue, which need 
 some rebuke, and sending forward sympathetic 
 and friendly feelings which will enter heartily, 
 without censoriousness, into good uses. 
 
THE OMENTUM. 
 
 r I ^HE great omentum is a thin membranous 
 bag, quilted as it were into little pockets 
 which are filled with fat ; the whole suspended 
 from the stomach and the transverse colon, and 
 overhanging the intestines like an apron. A 
 smaller and more delicate omentum is stretched 
 between the stomach and the liver. And other 
 still smaller omenta and epiploic appendages, all 
 containing deposits of fat, occupy various crevices 
 among the abdominal viscera. 
 
 Through these omenta arteries ramify, which, 
 when there is a superfluity of fatty material in the 
 blood, deposit it in these convenient places, from 
 which it may as readily be absorbed again in time 
 of want. From their close relation to the lacteals, 
 the mesentery, and the lymphatics of the liver, 
 pancreas, and spleen, it is probable that they re- 
 ceive temporary deposits from all these sources. 
 
 122 
 
THE OMENTUM. 
 
 123 
 
 And these deposits they hold subject at all times 
 to the demands of the liver, the great purveyor 
 for the body ; for this purpose sending all their 
 veins to the portal vein which carries to the liver 
 its supplies. 
 
 That the omentum has other secondary uses 
 Swedenborg explains ; as protecting the viscera 
 from changes of temperature, and distilling an oily 
 vapor to lubricate the surfaces of the viscera, 
 which are perpetually in motion over one another. 
 But its chief use is this, of gathering in the 
 superfluous elements of the nutrition of the body, 
 which otherwise must be cast out ; and then, in 
 time of need, furnishing freely from its stores 
 whatever is wanted. The omenta, and also the 
 other smaller reservoirs of fat, all share in this 
 use. 
 
 In the liver itself the surplus of sugar, or of 
 starch which had been converted into sugar, is 
 reduced to a form of starch called glycogen, and 
 is stored for use as it is wanted. In the omen- 
 tum fatty elements are similarly stored, and both 
 
124 
 
 PHYSIOL GICAL CORRESPOXDENCES. 
 
 deposits are reserves which can be drawn upon at 
 any time for the uses of the body. 
 
 In the chapter on the saliva it was shown that 
 the change from starch to soluble sugar consists 
 in the chemical combination of a little more water 
 with the starch; and that in the application to the 
 heavens this corresponds to the reception by new 
 spirits of the knowledge that opens to them the 
 way to heaven. So, in the reverse of the process, 
 the reducing the sugar again to starch is equiva- 
 lent to saying, "Wait a little; the place for you 
 will be ready presently ; be content and wait 
 patiently without thinking of particular uses in 
 heaven, until the Lord calls you." The fat de- 
 posited in the omentum is similarly reduced from 
 the active state of an emulsion to a passive, wait- 
 ing state, which would represent a return from 
 more active spiritual to quiet, natural states. 
 Therefore Swedenborg speaks of the omenta as 
 representing exterior and interior natural good. 
 
 As this function of the liver and the omentum 
 is a permanent one, it seems possible that spirits 
 
THE OMENTUM. 
 
 125 
 
 are frequently detained in such quiet states for 
 a while, perhaps until they can join friends who 
 come later from the earth, or until the occasion 
 for their full cooperation with angels is fully 
 come. 
 
 Unless specially instructed, we should not know 
 that there could be in the spiritual world quiet 
 resting-places for good spirits, where they may 
 live happily until their final homes are prepared 
 for them. But John says, — 
 
 " I saw under the altar the souls of them that 
 were slain for the Word of God, and for the testi- 
 mony which they held ; and they cried with a loud 
 voice, saying, ' How long, O Lord, holy and true, 
 dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them 
 that dwell on the earth ? ' And white robes were 
 given unto every one of them ; and it was said 
 unto them, that they should rest yet for a little 
 season, until their fellow-servants also and their 
 brethren, that should be killed as they were, should 
 be fulfilled." (Rev. vi. 9, 10, 11.) 
 
 These souls, Swedenborg says, were good spirits, 
 
126 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 "who were hated, reproached, and rejected by the 
 evil on account of their life according to the truths 
 of the Word, and their acknowledgment of the 
 Lord's Divine Human, and were guarded by the 
 Lord lest they should be led away. ... As they 
 were under the altar it is manifest that they were 
 guarded by the Lord ; for all who have lived any 
 life of charity are guarded by the Lord lest they 
 should be hurt by the evil ; and after a last judg- 
 ment when the evil have been removed, they are 
 released from the guards, and are taken up into 
 heaven. After the last judgment I often saw them 
 sent forth from the lower earth and transferred 
 into heaven." (A. R. 325.) 
 
 "The place where they were kept concealed is 
 called the lower earth, which is next above the 
 hells, under the world of spirits ; and there by 
 communication with heaven and by conjunction 
 with the Lord they are in safety. There are many 
 such places ; and they live there cheerfully among 
 themselves and worship the Lord ; nor do they 
 know anything about hell. They who are there 
 are from time to time taken up by the Lord into 
 heaven after a last judgment ; and when they are 
 taken up those who are meant by the dragon are 
 removed. It has very often been given me to see 
 them taken up and consociated with the angels in 
 heaven." (A. R. 845.) 
 
THE OMENTUM. 
 
 127 
 
 
 Before the Last Judgment there were fictitious 
 heavens which at the time of the judgment passed 
 away. They who constituted this heaven, — 
 
 " were seen upon mountains, hills, and rocks in the 
 spiritual world, and hence they fancied themselves 
 to be in heaven ; but they who thus constituted 
 this heaven, inasmuch as they were only in an ex- 
 ternal moral life, and not at the same time in in- 
 ternal spiritual life, were cast down, and then all 
 those who were reserved by the Lord, and con- 
 cealed here and there, for the most part in the 
 lower earth, were raised up and translated into the 
 same places, that is, upon the mountains, hills, and 
 rocks where the former heavens had been, and 
 from these a new heaven was formed. They who 
 had thus been reserved, and were then raised up, 
 were from those in the world who had lived a life 
 of charity, and were in spiritual affection for truth. 
 . . . The elevation of such into the places of those 
 who constituted the former heavens has been often 
 seen by me." (A. E. 391. See also 392.) 
 
 "The reason that the evil were so long tolerated 
 upon the high places, and the good so long de- 
 tained under heaven, was in order that both might 
 be fulfilled or completed, that is, that the good 
 misfht amount to such a number as to be sufficient 
 
1 2 8 PHYSIOL GICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 to form a new heaven, and also that the evil might 
 fall down of themselves into hell." (A. E. 397.) 
 
 "They who were under the altar received white 
 robes, because those robes represented the pres- 
 ence of the Lord with the Divine truth around 
 them ; and the Lord by the Divine truth protects 
 His own, for He surrounds them with a sphere of 
 light from which they have white robes ; and when 
 they are thus encompassed, they can be infested no 
 more by the evil spirits who before infested them, 
 in consequence of which they were hid by the 
 Lord. The case is the same also with those who 
 are raised by the Lord into heaven, who are thus 
 clothed with white robes, which is an indication 
 that they are in Divine truth, and so in safety." 
 (A. E. 395.) 
 
 Very similar things are said of those who were 
 preserved in the safe places of the lower earth at 
 the time of the first coming of the Lord, and who 
 were then raised up by Him into the spiritual 
 heaven. (See A. C. 6854, 7090, 8054.) 
 
 Such quiet places, where hell is not known, and 
 where the good dwell cheerfully together, cannot 
 be in the intestines, through which evil is contin- 
 
THE OMENTUM. 
 
 129 
 
 ually passing, and where painful vastations are 
 always going on. But the omentum covering the 
 intestines, and the various deposits among them, 
 are in nearly the same situation relatively to the 
 stomach, and though very near the evil may not 
 be at all disturbed by them. 
 
 The deposits in the liver, also, though so near 
 the evil in the gall-bladder, are perfectly protected 
 from them, and may well represent a peaceful, 
 gentle life in waiting for freer opportunities. 
 
 Apparently the deposits in the omenta represent 
 spirits like those carried by the way of the mesen- 
 tery ; and the deposits in the liver other spirits 
 like those carried in the portal vein. 
 
 The province of the liver cannot strictly be 
 regarded as in "the lower earth," since it is above 
 the plane of the stomach. But Swedenborg's ex- 
 pression is, that those who are reserved are "in 
 great part," or "mostly" (plerique) in the lower 
 earth ; which implies that they are partly else- 
 where. 
 
 The great omentum I understand to be "the fat 
 
13° 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 covering the intestines" in the Jewish sacrifices; 
 and the smaller omentum, "the fat upon the 
 liver"; of which last, Swedenborg says that it 
 corresponds to a nobler, more interior good than 
 the other, because it is connected with a nobler 
 organ. (A. C. 10,031.) 
 
 In an individual man the omenta must corre- 
 spond to a memory of natural and spiritual good 
 which is reserved for times of temptation and 
 want. 
 
THE SUPRA-RENAL CAPSULES. 
 
 * I "HESE are two conical caps upon the two 
 kidneys. In embryos these capsules are as 
 large as the kidneys ; but after birth they diminish 
 considerably. 
 
 They consist of a yellowish, cortical substance, 
 composed of parallel tubes perpendicular to the 
 surfaces, which are ramifications of superficial arte- 
 ries, and lead inwards ; and an inner, dark-red, soft 
 substance, in the cavity of which open the mouths 
 of a vein much larger than the capsular arteries. 
 They lie on either side close to the aorta, which 
 brings the blood directly from the heart, and the 
 vena cava, which returns it directly to the heart ; 
 and at the point whence the arteries which supply 
 the principal abdominal viscera go off from the 
 aorta. 
 
 Branches from several of these arteries ramify 
 upon the capsules, as well as two small arteries 
 
132 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 of their own direct from the aorta. And one 
 important use which they serve is to draw off 
 and return immediately to the heart as much of 
 the pure, good blood as is not needed by the 
 lower viscera ; so that none shall be wasted or 
 compelled to serve in unnecessarily low offices. 
 
 The capsules are imbedded in a mass of fatty, 
 cellular tissue, by which they are connected with 
 the kidneys and with the cellular coat of the peri- 
 tonaeum, which lines the whole abdomen. Through 
 this cellular tissue circulates a useful serum de- 
 rived from its arteries which is absorbed and again 
 mingled with the blood by the capsules. This is 
 the cause of the large size of their veins com- 
 pared with that of their arteries. The reason that 
 the capsules are so large before birth is that the 
 streams of serum which after birth become defiled, 
 and are sorted and purified by the pancreas, kid- 
 neys, and other viscera, in the innocent state be- 
 fore birth are not foul, but circulate in the viscera, 
 forming them for their future uses, and are by no 
 means to be cast out as worthless ; nor, indeed, 
 
THE SUPRA-RENAL CAPSULES. ^3 
 
 are means of casting them out yet provided ; but 
 they are gathered in and restored to the circula- 
 tion by the capsules, — now necessarily large, soft, 
 and active. 
 
 These two uses, explained at length by Sweden- 
 borg in the "Animal Kingdom," are thus described 
 in the "Arcana" : — 
 
 "There are also kidneys which are called suc- 
 centuriate kidneys, and also renal capsules. Their 
 office is not so much to secrete the serum, but the 
 biood itself, and to transmit the purer blood to- 
 wards the heart by a short circle ; thus to prevent 
 the spermatic vessels, which are in the neighbor- 
 hood, from carrying off all the purer blood ; but 
 they perform their principal service in embryos 
 and in new-born infants." (A. C. 5391.) 
 
 And concerning those who constitute that prov- 
 ince in the Greatest Man, we read, — 
 
 " There are chaste virgins who constitute that 
 province in the Greatest Man ; prone to anxieties 
 and timid lest they should be disturbed, they lie 
 quiet on the left part of the side beneath. If any- 
 thing be thought concerning heaven, and anything 
 
134 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 concerning their change of state, they become 
 anxious and sigh, of which it has sometimes been 
 given me to be very sensible." {ibidem}} 
 
 Their use is to prevent the thoughts from 
 descending to ultimates and to things unclean, 
 and to turn and return all thoughts to heavenly 
 things in which they take delight. It is to be 
 noticed that they lie just below the diaphragm, 
 and stop the thoughts from descending further. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that the same virgins 
 occupy the province perpetually ; but a succession 
 as they approach a marriageable age. No doubt 
 there are with them persons of both sexes who 
 are in the love of educating those in such states ; 
 so that it is a province for the education of girls 
 of a certain age. "They become anxious and 
 sigh when heaven is thought of," because they 
 fear lest they shall not be prepared for heaven, 
 and fear also a loss of the influx of heavenly 
 thoughts which are their life ; "they are troubled 
 when anything not heavenly is thought of," and 
 love especially innocent thoughts like those of 
 infants. (S. D. 968-972.) 
 
THE SUPRA-RENAL CAPSULES. 
 
 !35 
 
 The corresponding province in the mind every 
 one may detect in the conscientious faculty which 
 anxiously prevents the thoughts from descending, 
 and brings them back to pure interior subjects. 
 It is the instinct of delicacy and modesty, regu- 
 lating the flow of thought. The unusually large 
 supply of nerves to the capsules has a correspond- 
 ence with sensitiveness of this kind. 
 
 It is by virtue of this faculty that what Sweden- 
 borg calls "the chaste love of the sex" is possi- 
 ble ; for it makes of the closure of the thorax a 
 tight compartment which can be filled full with 
 affection and pure and friendly thought between 
 the sexes, without descending. (Comp. C. L. 44.) 
 
 Immediately after passing the capsular arteries, 
 the great stream of blood in the aorta is drawn 
 upon by the renal arteries for the impure serum 
 which is to be rejected by the kidneys. And, in 
 like manner, after the capsules of the mind have 
 done their duty in turning the thoughts upwards, 
 impure thoughts are quickly excreted and rejected. 
 
THE KIDNEYS. 
 
 TNDER the renal capsules, separated only by 
 them from the diaphragm, on either side of 
 the vertebral column, toward which their con- 
 cave faces are turned, and lying about two hand- 
 breadths apart, are the kidneys. 
 
 Into their concave sides the large renal arteries 
 enter, beginning their divisions and subdivisions 
 even before they reach the surface of the kid- 
 neys, and continuing them rapidly till their little 
 branches ramify all over the exterior of the organs 
 in company with equally minute veins. In close 
 contact with these capillary vessels are multitudes 
 of little glands and much convoluted tubes which 
 form a layer about the kidneys and are continued 
 into larger tubes. These larger tubes pass in- 
 wards, uniting as they go, and terminating in little 
 papillae, through which the excretion of the kid- 
 
 136 
 
THE KIDNEYS. 
 
 137 
 
 neys is discharged into the basins at the head of 
 the ureters. 
 
 The arteries come off from the aorta just below 
 the branches which supply the stomach, liver, 
 spleen, and the mesentery, and the suprarenal 
 capsules. These have withdrawn a considerable 
 proportion of the thick and the fresh blood, and 
 have left the stream polluted with an unwonted 
 proportion of watery materials and superfluous 
 salts. These the renal arteries suck in as their 
 prey, and send it whirling through their capil- 
 laries, into the convolutions of the renal glands 
 and tubes, over pathways and through gates 
 which none but the elastic living particles can 
 pass, and from which the stale dying particles, 
 slow and reluctant even with sharpest urging, are 
 ignominiously rejected. (A. K. 288.) 
 
 The living, purified blood returns through the 
 veins and lymphatics to the heart. The worth- 
 less serum is caught by the tubes which form 
 the principal substance of the kidneys, and dis- 
 charged through their papillae into larger cavities, 
 
138 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 whence it is expelled by contractions of the 
 kidneys into the ureters, and conducted to the 
 bladder. The attitude of all the parts towards it 
 is that of expulsion. (A. K. 290.) 
 
 Of those in the other life who belong to these 
 provinces we read as follows : — 
 
 " They who constitute the province of the kid- 
 neys, ureters, and bladder, in the Greatest Man, 
 are of such a genius that they like nothing better 
 than to explore and search out the quality of others, 
 and there are also some who desire to chastise and 
 to punish, if only there be some justice in it. The 
 functions also of the kidneys, ureters, and bladder 
 are such ; for they explore the blood thrown into 
 them to see if there be any useless and hurtful 
 serum there, and also they separate it from the 
 useful, and afterwards chastise it, for they drive it 
 down towards the lower regions, and in the way and 
 afterwards they agitate it in various ways. These 
 are the functions of those who constitute the prov- 
 ince of those parts. But the spirits and societies of 
 spirits to which the urine itself, especially fetid urine, 
 corresponds are infernal ; for as soon as the urine 
 is separated from the blood, although it is in the 
 little tubes of the kidneys, or within in the bladder, 
 
THE KIDNEYS. I39 
 
 still it is out of the body, for what is separated no 
 longer circulates in the body, hence it contributes 
 nothing to the existence and subsistence of its 
 parts." 
 
 " I have often observed that they who consti- 
 tute the province of the kidneys and ureters are 
 quick to explore and search out the quality of 
 others, what they think and what they will, and 
 that they are in the desire of finding occasion to 
 condemn, for the end especially that they may 
 chastise ; and I have spoken with them concerning 
 that desire and that end. Many of that kind, in 
 the world, when they lived there, were judges; 
 and then rejoiced in heart when they found cause 
 which they believed to be just to fine, chastise, and 
 punish. The operation of such is felt at the region 
 of the back where are the kidneys, ureters, and 
 bladder. They who belong to the bladder extend 
 themselves towards hell (gehennam), where also 
 some of them sit as it were in judgment." 
 
 " The modes in which they explore or search 
 out the dispositions of others, are very many, but 
 it is permitted to present only the following. They 
 induce other spirits to speak, which is done in the 
 other life by influx, which cannot be described in- 
 telligibly ; if then the induced speech is easily fol- 
 lowed, they judge from it that the spirits are such ; 
 
140 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 they induce also a state of affection. But they 
 who explore thus are among the grosser of them ; 
 and others otherwise. There are some who as 
 soon as they approach perceive immediately the 
 thoughts, desires, and acts of another, also what 
 he has done that he is ashamed of. This they 
 seize upon, and, if they think there is just cause, 
 they also condemn. It is wonderful in the other 
 life, which scarcely any one in the world can be- 
 lieve, that as soon as any spirit comes to another, 
 and still more when he comes to a man, he instantly 
 knows his thoughts and affections, and what he 
 then was doing, thus all his present state, altogether 
 as if he had been long with him, so perfect is the 
 communication. But there are differences in these 
 apperceptions ; some perceive interior things, and 
 some only exterior ; these if they are in the desire 
 of knowing explore the interiors of others by various 
 methods. " 
 
 "The modes in which they punish who consti- 
 tute the province of the kidneys, ureters, and blad- 
 der in the Greatest Man are also various ; for the 
 most part they remove joyous and glad things, and 
 induce such as are joyless and sad. By this pas- 
 sion those spirits communicate with the hells ; but 
 by the justness of the cause, which they seek for 
 before they punish, they communicate with heaven. 
 
THE KIDNEYS. 
 
 141 
 
 Wherefore they are kept in that province/' (A. 
 C. 5381-5384.) 
 
 There is an evident correspondence between the 
 mode of exploration here mentioned, and the most 
 evident mode of the kidneys, — the flow of speech 
 induced by the spirits corresponds to the currents 
 induced in the little tubes, the forms of speech 
 corresponding to the forms of the tubes. The 
 forms no doubt are heavenly forms, and all who 
 love heavenly thought flow into them readily and 
 gladly, while those who are gross and selfish and 
 worldly flow into them unwillingly, if at all, and are 
 quickly condemned and cast out. 
 
 " From these things it may appear what it sig- 
 nifies that it is said in the Word that Jehovah 
 searches and tries the reins and the heart ; also 
 that the reins chasten, as in Jeremiah, * Jehovah 
 that triest the reins and the heart ' (xi. 20). And 
 again, 'Jehovah that triest the just and seest the 
 reins and the heart ' (xx. 12). In David, 'The just 
 God trieth the hearts and reins' (Ps. vii. 9). And 
 again, ' O Jehovah, try my reins and my heart " 
 (xxvi, 2). 'Thou hast possessed my reins ' (cxxxix. 
 
142 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES, 
 
 13). In John, ' I am He Who trieth the reins and 
 the heart ' (Apoc. ii. 23). By the reins there are 
 signified spiritual things, and by the heart celestial ; 
 that is, by the reins are signified those things which 
 are of truth, and by the heart those which are of 
 good. The reason is because the reins purify the 
 serum, and the heart the blood itself; hence by 
 trying, examining, and searching the reins is signi- 
 fied'trying, examining, and searching the quantity 
 and quality of truth or the quantity and quality of 
 faith in man. That this is signified is also evident 
 in Jeremiah, * Jehovah, Thou art near in their mouth, 
 but far from their reins ' (xii. 2). And in David, 
 ' Behold, Thou desirest truth in the reins ' (li. 8). 
 That chastening also is attributed to the reins, is 
 also evident in David, ' My reins chasten me in the 
 nights' (xvi. 7)." (n. 5385.) 
 
 With the heart, as an organ of purification, are 
 included the liver, gall bladder, spleen, and pan- 
 creas, which unite with it in preparing the blood 
 for the body. Even the mouth and the stomach 
 belong to it as to this use (S. D. 1010; A. C. 
 4791). By the mental faculties corresponding to 
 this series of organs, the spirit should be freed 
 from narrow, selfish, indolent feelings and thoughts, 
 
THE KIDNEYS. 
 
 J 43 
 
 also such as are vile and cruel, all of which are 
 opposed to a life of charity. But the reins of the 
 mind expose and separate from the current of 
 thought false things, and such as being merely 
 and pertinaciously natural prevent the mind from 
 thinking spiritually ; also fallacious and deceitful 
 reasonings, excuses, and pretences, designed to 
 cloak a fault or a malicious intention. 
 
 The love and the power to discern these things 
 and separate them from our thoughts flow into 
 our minds from the corresponding provinces of 
 the Greatest Man. The angels of these provinces 
 love to remove such things from heaven and from 
 humanity, and wherever it will be received they 
 give the ability. We receive it from them when 
 we discern and condemn in ourselves anxious 
 thoughts that are opposed to the Divine Provi- 
 dence, unjust or fraudulent thoughts in relation 
 to one another ; and, in general, any falseness 
 toward God or man.* 
 
 * Certain pirates and other deceitful and fraudulent persons cor- 
 responding to urine are described in n. 5387-5390; the ways to 
 hell by the bladder and by the intestines in n. 5380. 
 
THE PERITONEUM, 
 
 r I ^HE peritonaeum is an extensive membrane, 
 thick, soft, elastic, and on its inner surfaces 
 very smooth, lining the walls of the abdomen, and 
 by many folds and pockets investing its viscera. 
 It unites in a common bond all the organs whose 
 use it is to receive new elements for the nourish- 
 ment of the body, to digest, strain, and prepare 
 them for use, and to cast out all that refuse to 
 be assimilated to the elements of the body ; also 
 to purify and sort the blood itself, restoring to 
 the circulation, purer, cleaner, and more lively, 
 whatever is capable of restoration, and straining 
 out and rejecting whatever is worthless. 
 
 All these uses are parts of one use, — the proper 
 nourishment of the body ; and the organs which 
 perform them are combined in relations of mutual 
 help and support by the peritonaeum. Besides 
 serving as a common bond, the peritonaeum com- 
 
 144 
 
THE PERITONEUM. 
 
 M5 
 
 municates to all the abdominal viscera the alter- 
 nate expansions and contractions of the thorax, 
 which are essential to the proper functions of 
 every viscus, and are received by the peritonaeum 
 through the diaphragm. 
 
 It covers and adheres closely to nearly the whole 
 of the under side of the diaphragm ; it applies 
 its cellular coat to the liver, investing it closely, 
 and even following the blood-vessels through its 
 substance — its smooth, serous coat making easy 
 the gentle, hepatic motions, and its connections 
 with the diaphragm helping to support the liver 
 in its proper place. As it passes to the stomach, 
 it embraces the small omentum between its layers. 
 It environs the stomach with a smooth, elastic 
 coat, essential to its -free movements. It encloses 
 in its duplicature the great omentum, protecting 
 it perfectly from the intestines, which lie immedi- 
 ately behind it. It sheathes the spleen and the 
 pancreas ; imbeds the kidneys, the renal capsules, 
 and the receptacle of chyle, in its thickened, cellu- 
 lar coat. It surrounds the great, unruly colon, and 
 
146 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 holds it firmly in its place. It covers the small 
 intestines, and within its folds offers a secure 
 asylum for the mesenteric vessels and glands. 
 It presses upon the bladder and the rectum, per- 
 haps surrounding them with its cellular tissue, 
 ready to concentrate all the power of the viscera 
 upon them, and to assist in expelling their con- 
 tents. It covers the uterus with a firm, elastic 
 coat, and even extends a partial covering to the 
 testicles. And it lines the whole of the front 
 abdominal wall with a polished surface, within 
 which the viscera move with perfect freedom, 
 each according to its own nature. 
 
 The peritonaeum, with its contents, may be re- 
 garded as a single organ, the purpose of which is 
 to prepare and purify nourishment for the body. 
 Materials it receives through the oesophagus and 
 the aorta ; these it digests, strains, and sorts, like 
 one large, complex gland, sending its profitable 
 results to the heart through the vena cava and 
 the thoracic duct, and discharging the unprofitable 
 through the rectum and the bladder. And the 
 
THE PERITONAEUM. 
 
 147 
 
 various abdominal viscera, by the aid of the peri- 
 tonaeum, are enabled to act as one organ, harmo- 
 niously, and with mutual support ; no part either 
 unduly exalting itself, or lying idle through lack 
 of its proper stimulus of supply, demand, and 
 alternate motion. 
 
 With this knowledge of the peritonaeum, we 
 are prepared to see the truth of Swedenborg's 
 description of the good spirits in the correspond- 
 ing province of the Greatest Man : — 
 
 " Certain spirits came to me, but they were 
 silent ; still they afterwards spake with me, yet 
 not as many, but all as one. I perceived from their 
 discourse that they were such that they wished to 
 know all things, and desired to explain all things, 
 and thus to confirm themselves that it is so. They 
 were modest, and said that they do nothing of 
 themselves but from others, although it appears 
 that it is from them. They were then infested by 
 others ; it was said that it was by those who con- 
 stitute the province of the kidneys, ureters, and 
 bladder. They answered them modestly, yet still 
 they infested and attacked them ; for such is the 
 nature of those related to the kidneys. Wherefore, 
 
148 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 because they could gain no advantage against them 
 by modesty, they resorted to something which was 
 according to their genius, namely, to expanding 
 themselves and thus terrifying. Hence they seemed 
 to become great, but only as one, w T ho so enlarged 
 his body that, like Atlas, he seemed to touch the 
 heaven. There appeared a spear in his hand, but 
 still he did not wish to do any harm except to ter- 
 rify. In consequence the kidney spirits fled away. 
 Then there appeared one who pursued them in 
 their flight, and another who flew from in front 
 between the feet of that great one ; and also that 
 great one seemed to have wooden shoes which he 
 threw at the kidney spirits. It was told me by the 
 angels that those modest spirits who so enlarged 
 themselves were they who relate to the peritonaeum. 
 The peritonaeum is the common membrane which 
 encompasses and includes all the viscera of the 
 abdomen, as the pleura all the viscera of the thorax ; 
 and because it is so extensive and respectively large 
 and also expansible, therefore it is permitted them, 
 when they are infested by others, thus to present 
 themselves great in appearance, and at the same 
 time to strike terror, especially towards those who 
 constitute the province of the kidneys, ureters, and 
 bladder ; for these viscera or vessels lie in the folds 
 of the peritonaeum, and are compelled by it. By 
 
THE PERITONAEUM. 
 
 149 
 
 the wooden shoes were represented the lowest nat- 
 ural things, such as the kidneys, ureters, and blad- 
 der absorb and carry off. ... In saying that they 
 do nothing of themselves, they also resemble the 
 peritonaeum, which likewise is such." (n. 5378.) 
 
 " It was also shown representatively how the 
 case is when they who constitute the colon intes- 
 tine infest those who are in the province of the 
 peritonaeum. They who constitute the colon are 
 puffed up, as the colon with its wind. When they 
 wished to assail them, it appeared as if a wall were 
 in the way ; and when they endeavored to overturn 
 the wall there rose up always a new wall ; and thus 
 they were kept away from them." (n. 5379.) 
 
 The spirits of the peritonaeum must be numer- 
 ous, closely connected, and of such a nature that 
 the impressions made upon any of them are com- 
 municated to all. Being intimately connected 
 with the spirits who constitute the other abdom- 
 inal provinces, and receiving impressions from 
 them, they react upon them all, supporting them 
 in their work, providing safe conduct from one 
 province to another, conveying information of the 
 common weal to all the parts, and uniting the 
 
!5° 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 efforts of all to furnish for the whole heaven 
 good and well-instructed accessions, freed from 
 the idle, vicious, and corrupt. They have no inde- 
 pendent plans and wishes of their own, but have 
 a strong love for all who are engaged in this 
 use ; and by holding to them all with generous 
 and just appreciation, they compel them to work 
 together as a band of brothers for a common 
 purpose. 
 
 They combine all the parts of the great prov- 
 ince whose function it is to prepare new spirits 
 for heaven, and to separate from the heavens 
 the evil. It is a work not of the most elevated 
 kind, being mostly performed upon the interior 
 natural plane ; but it is a work of vital impor- 
 tance to the whole heaven and to every society 
 of it. 
 
THE HEART AND THE LUNGS. 
 
 T^HE heart is the motive power by which the 
 blood is sent on its errands of usefulness 
 to all parts of the body. Towards the heart varied 
 streams of fluid from all directions wend their 
 way. From the liver comes a great stream of 
 purified, sugary fluid, gathered from the digestive 
 organs, and loaded with nutritious elements from 
 the food, selected and sorted and partly trained 
 to the motions of the body, ready to be put to 
 useful service. Other great streams descend from 
 the head, bringing, as Swedenborg believed, the 
 freshest results of spirit and lymph from the labo- 
 ratory of the brain ; and side by side with one of 
 them flows the stream of chyle and lymph brought 
 up from the receptacle by the thoracic duct. And 
 besides all these elements, there are the weary 
 currents returning from the limbs and from the 
 muscular system of the whole body, bringing the 
 
*5 2 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 results of labor and experience, and greatly in 
 need of straining and replenishing. 
 
 A motley throng of materials, unacquainted, 
 unaccustomed to one another's ways and quali- 
 ties, yet of abundant good-will and ability to serve, 
 are brought by various channels to the heart, and 
 from them the heart is expected to prepare and 
 send forth a fresh, lively, elastic, homogeneous 
 blood, ready for any good, human use which may 
 be required of it. 
 
 In order that it may rightly perform this excel- 
 lent use, the heart needs the lungs as a means 
 of discriminating among the materials furnished 
 to it, separating those vapors and aerial elements 
 that are unserviceable, and receiving others that 
 are serviceable ; and it consociates the lungs with 
 itself in its work, submitting to their discernment, 
 for correction or encouragement, every particle of 
 blood that it receives. 
 
 The heart is composed of four chambers; the 
 upper pair thin, the lower, thick and muscular. 
 The upper two serve as reception rooms in which 
 
THE HEART AND THE LUNGS. 
 
 153 
 
 the blood may be received and collected during 
 the contractions of the lower pair. The blood 
 comes up through the veins in a quiet, steady 
 current ; but of necessity it is driven out of the 
 heart in pulses. Therefore lest the veins should 
 be burst by the closing of the doors during the 
 contractions of the heart, ante-rooms are provided, 
 in which the blood can accumulate, ready to fill 
 the stronger chambers instantly when the doors 
 are opened with cordial invitation. 
 
 The first ante-room is called the " right auricle," 
 and the first propelling chamber the " right ven- 
 tricle." To the auricle come first all the streams 
 that enter the heart ; and after mingling there a 
 moment they are passed on to the ventricle with 
 gentle urgency, and thence with a strong impulse 
 are sent through the pulmonary arteries to the 
 capillaries of the lungs. These capillaries ramify 
 in the w r alls of air chambers at the extremities 
 of the bronchial tubes. 
 
 Of exquisite thinness though the walls of these 
 air chambers are, they still are double, and find 
 
J 54 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 room between their layers for the minute blood- 
 vessels, which thus spread out, almost in contact 
 with the air, all the treasures of the heart. With 
 a wise discernment all their own, the delicate 
 membranes, in accordance with the desires of the 
 blood, absorb for its benefit pure oxygen, and a 
 considerable amount of fragrant exhalations and 
 vapors which serve to enrich the blood; and, on 
 the other hand, they invite the blood to give up 
 and reject the fouler, grosser gases and vapors 
 with which it came laden, which they then pass 
 out to the general atmosphere. 
 
 Brighter in color, more lively in motion, and 
 rather less in bulk, the blood returns from the 
 lungs, through the pulmonary veins, to the left 
 auricle of the heart, where it waits a moment for 
 the doors of the ventricle to open. Then invited 
 by the ventricle, it presently is sent forth upon 
 its manifold errands of usefulness, with a strong, 
 sustaining impulse which follows it, and whose 
 repetitions are forcibly felt in all the capillaries 
 of the body. Nor is it now in itself an unwilling, 
 
THE HEART AXD THE LUXGS. 
 
 J 55 
 
 sluggish stream. It responds to the impulse of 
 the heart with an elastic bound, and as it goes 
 forward it presses upon the door of every gland 
 and cell and muscular fibre, for opportunity to do 
 good. Neither does it ask in vain ; but is every- 
 where received with welcome according to its 
 quality and the uses that are needed in the 
 several provinces. 
 
 Every part of the body is hungry for the mate- 
 rials necessary for its own nutrition, or for the 
 exercise of its functions ; and in various w r ays it 
 makes its hunger felt, even to the desire of the 
 body for food. It is difficult not to believe that 
 this hunger makes an effective requisition both 
 upon the reserved supplies in the body and upon 
 the newly prepared nutriment ; and that when the 
 heart dismisses its richly endowed companies, con- 
 taining so many elements eager for opportunities 
 to employ their faculties, straightway each is drawn 
 and invited towards the organ that needs it most ; 
 that the noblest blood ascends to the head ; that 
 streams rich with fibrinous elements hasten to the 
 
15 6 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 muscles of the body and limbs ; that the more 
 sluggish, adhesive blood descends to the spleen, 
 and that which is poor and serous to the kidneys ; 
 and that thus to every member and gland the ele- 
 ments best suited to it are despatched by the 
 impulse given from the heart, supplemented and 
 directed by the organ itself. 
 
 We have followed the good spirits from the 
 earth through their introduction into the spiritual 
 world ; and the subsequent opening of the inte- 
 riors of their minds, and the separation from evil ; 
 and then through the places of instruction in 
 which they are prepared for heaven. After this 
 state is completed, Swedenborg says, "they are 
 then clothed with angelic garments, which for 
 the most part are white as of fine linen, and thus 
 they are brought to the way which tends upwards 
 towards heaven, and are delivered to the angel 
 guards there, and are afterwards received by other 
 angels, and are introduced into societies, and into 
 many gratifications." 
 
 The "angel guards there," I understand to be 
 
THE HEART AND THE LUNGS. 
 
 x 57 
 
 at the doors of the heart ; the " other angels" by 
 whom they are received, and the societies into 
 which they are introduced, seem plainly to be 
 those of the chambers of the heart and the lungs ; 
 and the gratifications there enjoyed are those of 
 angels' love and wisdom. 
 
 "Next," Swedenborg continues, "every one is 
 led by the Lord into his own society, which also 
 is effected by various ways, sometimes by wind- 
 ing paths. The ways by which they are led are 
 not known to any angel, but to the Lord alone. 
 When they come to their own society their inte- 
 riors are then opened ; and since these are con- 
 formable to the interiors of the angels who are in 
 that society, they are therefore instantly acknowl- 
 edged and received with joy." (H. H. 519. See 
 also A. C. 1381.) 
 
 To the heart of the heavens the new spirits 
 come rejoicing in their salvation, and in the won- 
 derful things which they have learned of heavenly 
 life. And there they find themselves in the very 
 centre of the angels' sense of the goodness of the 
 
I S 8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 Lord, and of their desire to do good from Him. 
 Angels who are like love itself in form, receive 
 them with affection so innocent and warm that 
 their own hearts are melted, and they too are 
 filled with a sense of the infinite goodness of the 
 Lord as strong as they can bear ; and at the 
 same time with an equally strong desire to do 
 good in every possible way to others, because this 
 is the nature of the love which they receive from 
 the Lord. 
 
 But first the love inspires them with desire to 
 know what they may do, and to find the means 
 of doing good wisely ; by the love itself, whose 
 influence they receive, they are urged to the prov- 
 ince of the lungs, into the society of angels who 
 introduce them into the very wisdom of heavenly 
 life, and "into interior perception and heavenly 
 freedom " (n. 3894^). These are angels who are 
 in clear perception of wisdom from the Lord, who 
 perceive instantly the quality of every affection, 
 and its agreement or disagreement with the pure 
 truth by which the Lord would guide the life of 
 
THE HEART AND THE LUNGS. 
 
 [ 59 
 
 the heavens. Such perceptions they communicate 
 to the angelic spirits who come to them, opening 
 the inner joys and possibilities of usefulness of 
 the heavenly love which is given them, and caus- 
 ing them to see and reject whatever of grosser, 
 natural thought and desire still clings to them. 
 And then again they return with new intelligence 
 and zeal into a state of love for the goodness of 
 the Lord, and for doing good from Him ; coming 
 now under the influence of those who receive 
 most fully the Lord's love for the whole heaven 
 and for every part of it, and His desire to do 
 good to all. Under their influence, inspired from 
 their love with the desire to do all that they are 
 capable of doing to bless at least a few in their 
 Father's heaven, the angelic spirits once more go 
 forth from the heart of the heavens to find their 
 home and their use. Towards those who are 
 interiorly in similar good, and who therefore will 
 most enjoy what they can bring them, the inte- 
 riors of their life are irresistibly drawn ; and to 
 them they go infallibly, the Lord opening the 
 
160 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 way. Arriving at the gates of their own society, 
 they are recognized as members of the society 
 who have been already doing its work upon the 
 earth, of whose coming the society was warned 
 by the angels of the tongue on their very 
 first entrance into the spiritual world, whose 
 approach they have assisted in every possible 
 way, and whom they now welcome as brothers 
 and sisters, sharing with them all their joys. The 
 new angels in turn recognize the life of the soci- 
 ety as that which has given them their inmost 
 satisfaction upon earth, though then perceived 
 obscurely, — the life for which they have interiorly 
 been yearning, and which now fills their cup to 
 overflowing, more than satisfying their desire. 
 The angels, too, seem like brothers and sisters, 
 who come to them at once as their dearest friends. 
 But they have not come merely to receive ; the 
 impulse of the heart of heaven is upon them still. 
 Friends and homes and every good thing that 
 love can suggest are provided for them ; but the 
 best thing of all is good work, helpful to all these 
 
THE HEART AND THE LUNGS. jd 
 
 kind friends, perfectly suited to their capacities, 
 which they find waiting for them to do. 
 
 And not only the pulses of the heart, the respi- 
 rations of the lungs, too, follow into every home 
 in the heavens. 
 
 " For the lungs by their respiration act upon the 
 ribs and the diaphragm, and through these, by 
 means of ligaments and through the peritonaeum, 
 upon all the viscera of the body throughout, and 
 likewise upon all its muscles, and not only involve, 
 but also thoroughly enter them, and so thoroughly 
 that there is not the smallest part of the viscera 
 nor of a muscle, from the surface to the inmost, 
 which does not derive something from the liga- 
 ments, consequently from the inspiration. . . . 
 The heart itself, besides its own, has also a pul- 
 monary motion ; for it lies upon the diaphragm 
 and in the bosom of the lungs, and coheres and is 
 continued to them by its auricles. In like man- 
 ner also what is respiratory passes into the arteries 
 and veins" (D. W. in A. E. vi.). "From these 
 considerations an attentive eye may see that all 
 living motions, which are called actions, and exist 
 by means of muscles, are effected by the coopera- 
 tion of the motion of the heart and of the motion 
 
162 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 of the lungs which is in each, both the general 
 motion which is external, and the particular motion 
 which is internal ; and he who is clear-sighted may 
 also discover that these two fountains of the motions 
 of the body correspond to the will and the under- 
 standing, since they are produced from them. This 
 has been also confirmed from heaven, where it was 
 given me to be present with the angels, who pre- 
 sented this to the life. They formed a likeness of 
 the heart and a likeness of the lungs, with all the 
 interior and exterior things of their contexture, by 
 means of a wonderful and inexpressible flowing into 
 circles, and they then followed the flow of heaven ; 
 for heaven has a tendency to such forms, by virtue 
 of the influx of love and wisdom from the* Lord. 
 Thus they represented all the particulars which are 
 in the heart and all the particulars of the lungs, 
 and likewise their union, which they called the 
 marriage of love and wisdom. And they said that 
 the case is similar in the universal body and in 
 each of its members, organs, and viscera, with the 
 things which are of the heart therein and which 
 are of the lungs therein ; and that when they do 
 not both act, and each take its turn distinctly, 
 there cannot be any motion of life from any volun- 
 tary principle, nor any sense of life from any intel- 
 lectual principle." (ibidem?) 
 
THE HEART AND THE LUNGS. 
 
 With every society and every angel of heaven, 
 in correspondence with these things, the impulses 
 of the heart of heaven continually inspire love 
 from the Lord ; and the respirations of the lungs 
 of heaven constantly interpret this love in forms 
 of useful love to the neighbor. For the heart sup- 
 plies the fluid and the pressure by which every 
 gland and fibre is filled ; and from the lungs is 
 continued the sheathing by which the quality of 
 the fluid received is determined, and the alternate 
 motion of expansion and contraction by which 
 reception is effected ; and the sheaths of the 
 fibres are continued into the tendons by which all 
 motion is directed. (D ; W. x. 4.) 
 
 Swedenborg says, — 
 
 " It was given me to perceive the general opera- 
 tions of heaven as manifestly as any object is per- 
 ceived by any of the senses. There were four 
 operations which I then perceived. The first was 
 into the brain at the left temple, and was a general 
 one as to the organs of reason ; for the left part of 
 the brain corresponds to things rational or intellec- 
 tual, but the right to affections or things voluntary. 
 
1 64 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 The second general operation which I perceived, 
 was into the respiration of the lungs, which led my 
 respiration gently, but from within, so that I had 
 no need to draw breath, or respire, by any exertion 
 of my will. The respiration itself of heaven was 
 then manifestly perceived by me. It is internal, 
 and on that account imperceptible to man ; but by 
 a wonderful correspondence it flows into man's res- 
 piration, which is external, or of the body, and if 
 man were deprived of this influx he would instantly 
 fall down dead. The third operation which I per- 
 ceived, was into the systole and diastole of the 
 heart, which had, on the occasion, more of softness 
 with me than I had ever experienced at any other 
 time. The times of the pulse were regular, about 
 three within each turn of respiration ; yet such as 
 to terminate in and regulate the lungs and what 
 appertains to them. How the alternate changes 
 of the heart insinuated themselves into the alter- 
 nate changes of the lungs, at the close of each res- 
 piration, I was in some measure able to observe. 
 The alternations of the pulse were so observable 
 that I was able to count them ; they were distinct 
 and soft. The fourth general operation was into 
 the kidneys, which also it was given me to per- 
 ceive, but obscurely. From these things it was 
 made manifest that heaven, or the Greatest Man, 
 
THE HEART AND THE LUNGS. 
 
 165 
 
 has cardiac pulses, and that it has respirations ; and 
 that the cardiac pulses of heaven, or the Greatest 
 Man, have correspondence with the heart, and with 
 its systolic and diastolic motions, and that the respi- 
 rations of heaven, or the Greatest Man, have corre- 
 spondence with the lungs and their respirations ; 
 but that they both are unobservable to man, being 
 imperceptible, because internal." (A. C. 3884.) 
 
 On another occasion, he says, — 
 
 " It was given me to "observe the general respira- 
 tion of heaven, and what its nature was. It was 
 interior, easy, spontaneous, and corresponding to 
 my respiration as three to one. It was also given 
 me to observe the reciprocations of the pulses of 
 the heart. And then I was informed by the angels, 
 that all and each of the creatures on the earth de- 
 rive thence their pulses and their respirations, and 
 that the reason why they take place at dissimilar 
 moments, is because both the cardiac pulse and the 
 pulmonary respiration which exist in the heavens, 
 pass off into something continuous, and thus into 
 effort, which is of such a nature as to excite those 
 motions variously according to the state of every 
 subject." (n. 3885.) 
 
 " But it is to be known that the variations as to 
 pulses and as to respirations in the heavens are 
 
166 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 manifest, and that they are as many as all the soci- 
 eties ; for they are according to the states of thought 
 and affection with the angels, and these are accord- 
 ing to their states of faith and love ; but with re- 
 spect to the general pulse and respiration, the case 
 is as above described." (n. 3886.) 
 
 " In heaven, or in the Greatest Man, are two 
 kingdoms, one of which is called celestial ; the 
 other, spiritual. The celestial kingdom consists of 
 angels who are called celestial, and these are they 
 who have been in love to the Lord, and thence in 
 all wisdom ; for they are in the Lord, and are 
 thereby in a state of peace and innocence, more 
 than others. They appear to others like infants, 
 for a state of peace and innocence presents that 
 appearance. Everything there is as it were alive 
 before them ; for whatever comes immediately from 
 the Lord is alive. This is the celestial kingdom. 
 The other kingdom is called spiritual. It consists 
 of angels who are called spiritual ; and they are 
 those who have been in the good of charity toward 
 the neighbor. They place the delight of their life 
 in this, that they can do good to others without 
 recompense ; it is recompense to them to be allowed 
 to do good to others. The more they will and de- 
 sire this, in so much the greater intelligence and 
 felicity are they ; for, in the other life, every one 
 
THE HEART AND THE LUNGS. 
 
 167 
 
 is gifted with intelligence and felicity from the 
 Lord according to the use which he performs from 
 the affection of the will. Such is the spiritual 
 kingdom. They who are in the Lord's celestial 
 kingdom belong all to the province of the heart ; 
 and they who are in the spiritual kingdom belong 
 all to the province of the lungs. The influx from 
 the celestial kingdom into the spiritual is similar to 
 the influx of the heart into the lungs, as also to 
 the influx of all things which are of the heart into 
 all which are of the lungs ; for the heart rules in 
 the whole of the body and in all its parts, by the 
 blood-vessels, and also the lungs in all its parts by 
 the respiration. Hence there is everywhere in the 
 body as it were an influx of the heart into the 
 lungs, but according to the forms there, and accord- 
 ing to the states. Thence exists all the sensation 
 as well as all the action which are proper to the 
 body." (n. 3887.) 
 
 The correspondence of the heart and the lungs 
 in an individual man, is with his love of doing and 
 his love of wisdom ; or, with his will and his un- 
 derstanding. "In the spiritual world," Sweden- 
 borg tells us, " the quality of one's faith is known 
 by his breathing, and the quality of his charity by 
 the beating of his heart." (D. F. 19.) 
 
1 68 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 Every man naturally loves to live a selfish and 
 worldly life, and also to think things that agree 
 with such a life. But by instruction every one 
 becomes capable of thinking what is truer and 
 better ; and if he takes home such thoughts to 
 his heart, he makes his love wiser and better. 
 By wisdom he cleanses his love from its foulness 
 and grossness, and introduces it to spiritual and 
 celestial delights ; therefore by wisdom, if it be 
 applied to the love, the love itself becomes spirit- 
 ual and celestial. (D. L. W. 422.) 
 
 Of this, Swedenborg writes as follows : — 
 
 " Man is born into evils, and hence he loves cor- 
 poreal and worldly things more than celestial and 
 spiritual things ; consequently his life, which is 
 love, is depraved and impure by nature. Every 
 one may see from reason that this life cannot be 
 purified except by the understanding ; and that it 
 is purified by spiritual, moral, and civil truths, 
 which constitute the understanding. Wherefore, 
 also, it is given to man to be able to perceive, and 
 to think affirmatively such things as are contrary 
 to the love of his will, and not only to see that 
 they are so, but also, if he looks up to God, to be 
 
THE HEART AND THE LUNGS. ^9 
 
 able to resist, and thereby remove the depraved 
 and filthy things of his will, which is the same 
 thing as being purified. This may also be illus- 
 trated by the defecation of the blood in the lungs. 
 That the blood admitted there from the heart is 
 defecated, is a thing known to anatomists from 
 this consideration, that the blood flows from the 
 heart into the lungs in greater abundance than it 
 flows back from the lungs into the heart; also that 
 it flows in undigested and impure, but flows back 
 refined and pure ; also that in the lungs there is a 
 cellular texture into which the blood of the heart 
 presses out by separation its useless particles, in- 
 jecting them into the little bronchial vessels and 
 ramifications ; also that . . . the vapor in breath- 
 ing is from that source. From which considera- 
 tions it is evident that the faeculent blood of the 
 heart is purified in the lungs. By these considera- 
 tions what was said just above may be illustrated, 
 inasmuch as the blood of the heart corresponds to 
 the love of the will, which is the life of man, and 
 the respiration of the lungs corresponds to the per- 
 ception and thought of the understanding, by which 
 purification is effected. 
 
 " The life of the understanding also perfects and 
 exalts the life of the will, because the love of the 
 will, which constitutes man's life, is purged from 
 
170 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 evils by means of the understanding, and man, 
 from being corporeal and worldly, becomes spirit- 
 ual and celestial, in which case the truths and 
 goods of heaven and of the church are grafted in 
 his affection, and nourish his soul ; thus the life 
 of his will is made new, and from it the life of his 
 understanding becomes new, so that each is per- 
 fected and exalted. This is effected in the under- 
 standing and by it ; but from the will ; for the will 
 is the man himself. This likewise is confirmed by 
 the correspondence of the lungs and the heart; for 
 the lungs which correspond to the understanding, 
 not only purge the blood of its feculent particles, 
 as was before observed, but also nourish it from the 
 air ; for the air is full of volatile elements and odors 
 homogeneous with the matter of the blood ; and 
 there are likewise innumerable plexuses of the blood- 
 vessels in the pulmonary lobules, which, according 
 to their wont, absorb the neighboring waves, in con- 
 sequence whereof the blood becomes fresh and 
 bright, and is rendered arterial, such as it is when 
 conveyed from the lungs into the left ventricle of 
 the heart. That the atmosphere nourishes the pul- 
 monary blood with new aliments is evident from 
 much experience ; for there are some breezes which 
 are injurious to the lungs, and some which recreate 
 them, thus some which are hurtful, and some which 
 
THE HEART AND THE LUNGS. I7I 
 
 are salubrious. . . . From these considerations it is 
 evident that the pulmonary blood derives nourish- 
 ment also from the atmosphere. Thus also the life 
 of the understanding perfects and exalts the life of 
 the will according to the correspondence. ,, (D. W. 
 x. 3-) 
 
 But if the love refuses to take to itself the 
 admonitions and friendly counsel of wisdom, pre- 
 ferring filthy ideas and gross thoughts, it makes 
 of the understanding a mere purveyor of these 
 things, and drinks them in, to its own further 
 defilement. 
 
 And then, in correspondence with this, the man 
 at least in the spiritual world loves to breathe into 
 his lungs the vile odors that correspond to such 
 thoughts, and to defile his blood with them. Of 
 this, Swedenborg teaches, — 
 
 "That the blood in the lungs purifies and nour- 
 ishes itself correspondently to the affections of the 
 mind, is not yet known, but it is very well known 
 in the spiritual world ; for the angels in the heavens 
 are delighted only with the odors that correspond 
 with their love of wisdom, whereas the spirits in 
 
172 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 hell are delighted only with odors that correspond 
 with love opposed to wisdom ; the latter odors are 
 stinking, but the former odors are fragrant. That 
 men in the world impregnate their blood with simi- 
 lar things, according to correspondence with the 
 affections of their love, follows of course ; for what 
 a man's spirit loves, that, according to correspond- 
 ence, his blood craves and attracts in respiration. 
 From this correspondence it follows that a man is 
 purified as to his love, if he loves wisdom, and that 
 he is defiled if he does not love her ; all a man's 
 purification being effected by the truths of wisdom, 
 and all his defilement by the falses that are opposed 
 to them." (D. L. W. 420. Also D. P. end.) * 
 
 * For "animal heat," compare Dalton, p. 257. and D. L. W. 379. 
 For the " blood globules," see Littell, 1477. For the details of the 
 conjunction between heart and lungs, and their correspondence, see 
 D. L. W. 404. 
 
THE NOSE. 
 
 r I ^HE lungs absorb aerial food composed of pure 
 air and the exhalations and odors of innumer- 
 able mineral, vegetable, and animal bodies. This 
 food is even more important to the life than 
 the grosser food which is received through the 
 stomach. If the supply be cut off even for a 
 few minutes, the body dies ; though it will endure 
 privation from solid and liquid food as many days. 
 The aerial food is also varied in quality very much 
 more than the other ; and the state of the body, 
 especially of the brain and the delicate fluids, de- 
 pends noticeably upon that quality — upon the 
 cleanness or uncleanness of the atmosphere, and 
 upon the odors and exhalations which it bears in 
 it — whether they be fresh, rich, and stimulating, 
 or corrupt, foul, and stupefying. 
 
 At the entrance of the passage to the stomach 
 the mouth stands guard, with its sense of taste. 
 
174 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 And at the entrance to the lungs the nose is 
 stationed, instructed in its use, and intelligent 
 through its sense of smell. 
 
 The mouth tastes the liquid food that is brought 
 to it, and dissolves in its own fluids portions of 
 the solid food that it may taste them also ; the 
 purest and most acceptable portions it drinks in 
 through its own little tubes and veins, and fore- 
 warns the whole digestive apparatus of the nature 
 of the coming aliment, that it may open its pores 
 to receive it freely. It also closes to refuse admit- 
 tance to such as is excessively distasteful, or rouses 
 the stomach to reject that which may be swal- 
 lowed. And so the nose tastes the atmosphere 
 with the various aliments contained in it, dissolv- 
 ing a part in its own fluids, and absorbing a 
 small part of them, at the same time notifying 
 the lungs of the quality of the approaching breath, 
 and preparing all the air cells to receive it rightly. 
 The tongue, "as an organ of taste," Swedenborg 
 tells us, " corresponds to the natural perception 
 of good and truth, but the smell corresponds to 
 spiritual perception." (A. E. 990.) 
 
THE NOSE. 
 
 175 
 
 If the atmosphere be agreeable in quality, and 
 altogether suitable for nourishment, the nose opens 
 wide to receive as much as possible, encouraging 
 the lungs, also, to expand their little chambers 
 and breathe in freely the healthful odors, which it 
 transmits to them warmed and moistened with a 
 vapory saliva. By the combined effect of the 
 opening of the nose and the expansion of the 
 lungs, the air is drawn freely through the upper 
 part of the nose where the olfactory nerves are 
 distributed, that the pleasant refreshment may be 
 more fully recognized and received. 
 
 But if the air be laden with pungent or putrid 
 exhalations, the veinlets and even the nostrils con- 
 tract to shut it out ; a peremptory warning is sent 
 likewise to the lungs, so that they may either 
 refuse to admit it at all, or may expand .with 
 caution, drawing the air slowly through the lower 
 nasal passages, and holding themselves ready to 
 check it entirely, or to expel, by convulsive cough, 
 any particles of unendurable foulness or acridity. 
 
 Besides these peculiar functions of the nose 
 
iy6 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 analogous to those of the mouth, the nose coop- 
 erates with the mouth in its discernment of the 
 quality of food. The mouth alone, by its exquis- 
 ite touch, perceives the quality of saline, sugary, 
 and other comparatively coarse particles ; but the 
 volatile, aromatic flavors or odors are not clearly 
 distinguished by the papillae of the tongue, but 
 are instantly recognized by the nose. They are 
 faintly perceived as the food is presented to the 
 lips, and the perception has much to do with the 
 state of reception induced upon the lips and 
 tongue and other parts of the mouth. Within the 
 mouth these subtile elements seem to be freely 
 liberated — assisted, perhaps, by the warmth and 
 moisture — so as to affect sensibly the back part 
 of the mouth, the pharynx, and even the nose 
 itself with a sort of compound sense which is at 
 least as much smell as taste. It is this which 
 Swedenborg ascribes to spirits instead of taste : — 
 
 " I have discoursed with spirits concerning the 
 sense of taste, which they said they had not, but 
 that they had something whereby they nevertheless 
 
THE NOSE. I77 
 
 know what taste is ; which they compared to smell, 
 but were not able to describe. This brought to my 
 recollection that taste and smell meet in a kind of 
 third sense ; as appears also from animals, which 
 examine their food by the smell to discover whether 
 it be wholesome and suitable for them." (A. C. 
 
 1516.) 
 
 From the frontal sinuses superfluous mucus is 
 discharged into the upper part of the nose. The 
 eyes also discharge their tears upon its lining 
 membranes ; and its own mucous follicles furnish 
 it with additional moisture. These varied fluids 
 are distributed over the undulating surface of the 
 inner nose, where their watery vapors moisten 
 pleasantly the entering atmosphere, and the viscid 
 fluids hold fast to every particle of dust, and carry 
 it whither they themselves are hastened by the 
 cilia lining the nose, through the oesophagus and 
 stomach to the intestine. 
 
 The objects upon which the sense of the nose 
 is exercized are the air and the various odors and 
 spheres that mingle with it. That the amount 
 and variety of these spheres are very great is 
 
i 7 8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 evident from the fact that every existing thins; is 
 giving forth a sphere composed of its own parti- 
 cles. We are aware of a very strong sphere, 
 pleasant or unpleasant, from certain animals, also 
 from some plants, their flowers, fruits, leaves, or 
 wood ; from a few minerals and metals, also, as 
 from copper, iron, and sulphur. Other animals, 
 endowed with more exquisite sense than we, be- 
 cause their life is confined to the body, perceive 
 distinctly odors which to us are obscure ; as the 
 sheep the odors of the plants upon which it feeds ; 
 the dog the faint odors of footsteps upon the sand 
 or grass, even hours after they have passed. That 
 this immense amount of exhalation is scarcely at 
 all detected by chemistry proves nothing; for chem- 
 istry takes cognizance of only the grossest forms 
 of matter, and most of the aerial and etherial 
 fluids with which we are now concerned are above 
 its reach. 
 
 In the chapter on the lungs, we saw that the 
 breathing corresponds to the purification of the 
 life by thinking the truth and applying it to our 
 
THE NOSE. 
 
 179 
 
 affections and natural desires. Swedenborg says 
 that the air corresponds to "all things of percep- 
 tion and thought " (A. R. 708). The pure air 
 must correspond to pure, abstract wisdom of 
 thought, and may be compared to the spirit of 
 truth. Spirit also means breathy or wind ; and 
 the various exhalations with which the air is 
 laden correspond to the spheres of as many 
 states of life, which come to us as perceptions 
 or thoughts of those states. Spheres of life are 
 made sensible in the other world by odors, which, 
 Swedenborg teaches, " spirits perceive much more 
 exquisitely than men" (A. C. 15 14); and, "what 
 is wonderful, odors correspond to those spheres." 
 He gives many instances of particular odors, with 
 the spheres to which they correspond, — 
 
 "The spheres of charity and faith, when they are 
 perceived as odors, are most delightful ; they are 
 pleasant odors, as of flowers, lilies, spices of vari- 
 ous kinds, with indefinite variety." (n. 15 19.) 
 
 "I perceived a winey odor, and was informed 
 that it was from those who from friendship and 
 lawful love speak courteously, but so that there is 
 
180 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 truth in their compliments ; this odor is with much 
 variety, and is from a sphere of beautiful manners." 
 (n. 1 5 17.) 
 
 " They who have cultivated eloquence for the 
 end that all things may contribute to admiration of 
 themselves, when their sphere is made odorous, it 
 is like the smell of burnt bread;" because the 
 instruction is like bread, and the zeal of self-love 
 burns it. " They who have indulged in mere 
 pleasures, and have been in no charity and faith, 
 the odor of their sphere is excrementitious." 
 " Where men have lived in violent hatred, re- 
 venge, and cruelty, their sphere, when changed 
 into odors, has the stench of a dead carcass. 
 Such as have been immersed in sordid avarice 
 give forth a stench like that of mice" (n. 1514). 
 But he says that spheres are not always made 
 sensible as odors, but these are " variously tem- 
 pered by the Lord, lest the quality of spirits 
 should always appear before others." (n. 1520.) 
 
 By these odors of life the minds of spirits and 
 angels are exhilarated and delighted; the good 
 
THE NOSE. 
 
 with the pleasant fragrances of good life, and the 
 evil with the stenches of evil life ; and they are 
 to them manifest perceptions of the life of those 
 whom they meet. 
 
 In the province of the nose we shall find those 
 who excel in such perception. Not the taste, nor 
 the touch, nor even the sight can give so true a 
 revelation of the interior quality of substances 
 presented to it, as the nose ; and they who con- 
 stitute this province in the Greatest Man, must 
 enjoy unerring perception of the quality of the 
 lives and inner thoughts of those to whom their 
 attention is directed. 
 
 "To that province belong those who are in gen- 
 eral perception, so that they may be called Percep- 
 tions. The smelling, and hence its organ, corre- 
 sponds to them. Hence also it is that to smell [a 
 thing out], to get scent of, to be keen-scented, and 
 also [especially in Latin, quick] nostrils are predi- 
 cated in common speech of those who divine a 
 matter accurately, and also who perceive; for the 
 interiors of the expressions of man's speech derive 
 many things from correspondence with the Greatest 
 
1 82 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 Man, because man as to his spirit is in society with 
 spirits, and as to his body with men." (n. 4624.) 
 
 " They who relate to the interiors of the nostrils 
 are in a more perfect state as to perception than 
 they who relate to their exteriors. ... It is per- 
 mitted to relate these things concerning them. 
 There appeared to me as it were a bath with long 
 seats or benches, and heat was exhaled from it. 
 There appeared there a woman, who presently dis- 
 appeared in a darkening cloud ; and also children 
 were heard, saying that they did not wish to be 
 there. Afterwards some angelic choirs were apper- 
 ceived, who were sent to me for the sake of avert- 
 ing the efforts of certain evil spirits. And then 
 suddenly above the forehead appeared little open- 
 ings greater and less through which there shone 
 beautifully golden light ; and in that light within 
 the openings women in snowy white were seen. 
 And there again appeared little openings in another 
 order, through which they who were within looked 
 out ; and again other little openings through which 
 the light did not thus pass. At length a brighten- 
 ing: light was seen. It was said to me that there 
 were the homes of those who constituted the prov- 
 ince of the inner nostrils, for they were of the female 
 sex, and that the keenness of perception of those 
 who are there is represented in the world of spirits 
 
THE NOSE. 
 
 183 
 
 by such openings ; for the spiritual things in heaven 
 are represented by natural, or rather by such things 
 in the world of spirits as are like natural. After- 
 wards it was permitted to speak with them, and 
 they said that by those representative openings 
 they can see exactly the things which take place 
 below ; and that the openings appear turned to 
 those societies which they are trying to observe ; 
 and because then they were turned to me, they said 
 that they could perceive all the ideas of my thought, 
 and also of those who were about me. They added 
 further that they not only perceived the ideas, but 
 also saw them variously represented to them, as 
 the things of affection for good by appropriate 
 little flames, and those of affection for truth by 
 variations of light. They added that they saw cer- 
 tain angelic societies with me, and their thoughts 
 [represented] by things variously colored, by pur- 
 ples as in embroidered tapestry, and also by rain- 
 bows in a darker plane, and that thence they per- 
 ceived that those angelic societies were from the 
 province of the eye. Afterwards other spirits were 
 seen who were cast clown thence and dispersed 
 hither and thither of whom they said that they 
 were such as had insinuated themselves among 
 them for the sake of perceiving something, and of 
 seeing what went on below, but for the purpose 
 
1 84 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 of ensnaring. This casting down was observed 
 as often as angel companies approached, with 
 whom also I conversed. They said that those who 
 were cast down relate to the mucus of the nostrils, 
 and that they are heavy and stupid and also with- 
 out conscience, thus altogether without interior 
 perception. The woman who was seen, as men- 
 tioned above, signified such ensnarers ; with whom 
 also it was permitted to speak, and they wondered 
 that any one has conscience ; they were utterly 
 ignorant what conscience is, and when I said that 
 it is an interior apperception of goodness and truth, 
 and if anything is done contrary to that appercep- 
 tion that it causes anxiety, they did not understand 
 it. . . . The light was then shown me in which 
 they live who relate to the interiors of the nostrils ; 
 it was a light beautifully varied with veins of golden 
 flame and of silver light ; affections for good were 
 there represented by the veins of golden flame, 
 and affections for truth by the veins of silver light. 
 And it was shown further that they have openings 
 at the side, through which they see as it were the 
 heaven with stars in the blue. And it was said 
 that in their rooms the light is so great that the 
 mid-day light of the world cannot be compared 
 with it. It was said moreover that the heat with 
 them is like vernal warmth upon the earth ; and 
 
THE NOSE. 
 
 185 
 
 that there are also children with them, but children 
 of some years ; and that they are not willing to be 
 there when those ensnaring women, or mucuses, 
 approach." (n. 4627.) 
 
 Among the objects to which these keen percep- 
 tions direct their attention, are the new spirits 
 coming from the earths, who at their entrance into 
 the other life are received by the lips. At their 
 first approach, while the lips still wait to receive 
 them, their real quality is perceived in a general 
 way by the angels of the nose ; and lips and 
 mouth and stomach, and indeed all provinces of 
 the body, are notified, and prepared accordingly. 
 In the further exploration of their quality, when 
 the interiors of the memory are opened in the 
 province of the mouth, the same angels assist ; 
 though not manifestly present, they perceive the 
 spheres of the life, as it is opened, and add their 
 more interior perception to the knowledge of fact 
 and form acquired by the tongue. 
 
 From the earths themselves, where this food 
 for the heavens is growing, ascend odors of the 
 
1 86 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES, 
 
 spiritual quality of the people upon them, which 
 come to the manifest perception of the angels of 
 the nose ; thus we are told that from a wife who 
 is tenderly loved, the angels perceive a sphere 
 which is sweetly fragrant. (C. L. 171.) 
 
 To the hells likewise these angels direct their 
 attention, and to any part of the heavens or world 
 of spirits which needs such attention ; and by 
 their perception the whole man is instructed, 
 admonished, or encouraged, and assisted in its 
 general efforts to remove evil, and to promote 
 the growth of all things of heavenly life. 
 
 Besides the duty of perceiving and notifying 
 the body of the quality of odors which come to 
 its sense, the nose has a more constant duty 
 of receiving, tempering, aud transmitting to the 
 lungs the pure air of heaven. As odors corre- 
 spond to the spheres of life of individuals or soci- 
 eties, the pure air corresponds to the sphere of 
 the Lord's life, as accommodated to the state of 
 the heavens ; it is the pure wisdom of the Divine 
 thought, which shows what is absolutely true and 
 
THE NOSE. !8 7 
 
 wise. The purity of this truth the nose perceives 
 and delights in ; but it needs to be tempered and 
 still further accommodated to the general life of 
 the heavens, before it can be received without 
 causing injurious discouragement. And this the 
 angels of the nostrils perform by means of the 
 abundant knowledge of the states of the body 
 which they possess, and which is represented by 
 the moisture of the nose. With such knowledge 
 they temper the application of the pure truth of 
 thought which they admit, and thus prepare it for 
 ready acceptance by the lungs. Grosser thoughts, 
 and spirits who embody them, who desire pure 
 truth for selfish purposes, and not for the uses 
 of heavenly life, also necessarily intrude, but are 
 detected and quickly thrust down to the world of 
 spirits, and then below. 
 
 Similar uses to these which are done for the 
 whole heaven by the angels of the nose are per- 
 formed for each society by angels appointed for 
 the purpose ; for, Swedenborg says, — 
 
1 88 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 " Each society is an image of the whole ; for 
 what is unanimous is composed of so many images 
 of itself. The more comprehensive societies, which 
 are images of the Greatest, have particular societies 
 within themselves, which have like correspondence. 
 I have sometimes conversed with those who, in the 
 society into which I was sent, belonged to the prov- 
 ince of the lungs, of the heart, face, tongue, ear, eye, 
 and with those who belonged to the province of 
 the nostrils, from whom also it was given to know 
 their quality, namely, that they are Perceptions ; 
 for they perceived whatever happened in the soci- 
 ety in general, but not so particularly as they who 
 are in the province of the eye ; for these latter dis- 
 tinguish and consider the things which are of per- 
 ception. It was also given to observe that their 
 faculty of perceiving varies according to the gen- 
 eral changes of state of the society in which they 
 are." (A. C. 4625.) 
 
 Every angel, spirit, and man possesses, in some 
 degree, the same faculty, which is the faculty of 
 perceiving what is abstractly true and wise, and 
 also of perceiving truly the spheres of human life 
 which are presented ;, and it does not deny the 
 use for which the faculty was intended, that it 
 
THE NOSE. 
 
 189 
 
 may be employed to search out the spheres of 
 foul life, and thoughts of unwisdom. 
 
 The things which have been said of the nose 
 relate especially to the sensitive lining of it. Be- 
 sides this, the great body of the nose is composed 
 of cartilages and bones which protect the nerves 
 and expand and support the membranes in the 
 forms and positions which are necessary to their 
 uses. The angels who are in these parts of the 
 nose of the Greatest Man hold strongly and firmly 
 to the right and duty to examine all the spheres 
 of life that come to it, and to admit to the 
 Heavenly Man the sphere of the Lord's genuine 
 truth. 
 
 The same parts in an individual correspond to 
 his hold of the right to think for himself as to 
 the agreeableness or disagreeableness to him of 
 states or spheres of life and thought. Hence a 
 prominent nose indicates a certain degree of inde- 
 pendence of thought and opinion. 
 
 In animals the same faculty appears as the fac- 
 ulty of examining and exploring, chiefly for the 
 
190 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 sake of finding appropriate food. It is a more 
 prominent faculty in them than in man, and is 
 embodied in long noses, snouts, or probosces. 
 The elephant, in which the development of the 
 nose is most remarkable, corresponds to a love of 
 justice. His ivory tusks, from which the throne 
 of Solomon was made, correspond to the truth by 
 which appearances are stripped off, and the real 
 life is exposed ; and the wonderful trunk repre- 
 sents a perception of real quality, of genuineness, 
 or of sham. 
 
THE ORGANS OF SPEECH. 
 
 "\~\ 7E have studied the nose and the lungs in 
 their relation to breathing, and the mouth 
 in its use of eating. Let us now attend to their 
 common use of speaking, in which the larynx and 
 trachea are added to them, and indeed with a 
 leading part. 
 
 The larynx lies behind and below the promi- 
 nence in the throat called the "Adam's apple." 
 This prominence consists of a large cartilage, 
 closed in front but open behind. Just within 
 the open edges behind, and extending below, lies 
 another large cartilage ; and across the space be- 
 tween the Adam's apple in front and the top of 
 the second cartilage in the rear are stretched two 
 membranous chords called the vocal chords. These 
 are attached in front to the middle of the Adam's 
 apple, just where we feel a depression ; but behind 
 they are attached not immediately to the other 
 
 191 
 
192 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 large cartilage, but to the edges of two little car- 
 tilages which are hinged upon the great cartilage. 
 Resting upon this great cartilage, these little car- 
 tilages, as they open and shut, open and shut also 
 the vocal chords, to regulate the amount of air 
 that passes to the lungs ; and the two great car- 
 tilages play upon each other in such a way as to 
 tighten or loosen the chords, and so to vary the 
 pitch of the voice. 
 
 There are several little muscles by which these 
 motions are effected ; and some muscular fibres 
 are said to be attached to the vocal chords them- 
 selves, to regulate their length of vibration, like 
 fingers upon a violin string. 
 
 The tension alone of these chords produces no 
 sound ; but when they are made tense, and the 
 lungs also arouse themselves and forcibly puff 
 upon the chords, they instantly respond with a 
 sonorous tremble, like the reed of an organ-pipe, 
 or the strings of an aeolian harp. Then, the horse- 
 shoe-like cartilages of which the trachea or wind- 
 pipe is composed, and the scarcely less sonorous 
 
THE ORGANS OF SPEECH. 
 
 *93 
 
 elastic membrane by which they are connected 
 together and their circle is completed, all join in 
 the audible vibration, like the pipe of an organ 
 when its reed is blown upon. The tense lungs, 
 also, elastic and made to delight in every kind of 
 aerial motion and vibration, resound like the body 
 of a viol, with a tremble in which the lining 
 membranes of the chest, and even the ribs and 
 the very skin, are compelled to join, and which is 
 communicated by elastic fluids and tissues to the 
 extremities of the body. From the larynx the 
 vibration extends upward, affecting all the parts 
 contiguous to the breathing passages, — namely, 
 the pharynx, the palate, tongue, teeth, and lips, 
 the nose, and the sinuses of the forehead ; indeed, 
 the whole skull and the brain partake of the con- 
 tagious thrill, and join in the song or speech. 
 Nor is their part merely that of passive spectators 
 carried away by enthusiasm ; they all contribute 
 to the quality of the tone, each one modifying it 
 in its own way, as we see plainly in regard to the 
 nose, teeth, tongue, and lips, and as would appear 
 from the other organs observed attentively. 
 
i 9 4 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 There are two kinds of modifications to which 
 vocal utterances are subject, one affecting the 
 quality of the tone as to force, pitch, harshness, 
 or tenderness, and the other producing the articu- 
 lations of speech. The lungs, trachea, larynx, 
 nose, and hones of the head, are concerned espe- 
 cially with the first class, producing and modify- 
 ing the tone of the voice ; the lips and teeth, the 
 palate, and especially the tongue, are principally 
 instrumental in forming words. In singing, tone 
 predominates ; in speaking, articulation ; yet the 
 words of speech are imperfect unless filled with 
 sonorous sound from the lungs and larynx ; and 
 the tones of singing are incomplete until shaped 
 by the mouth. 
 
 The lungs, in their office of breathing, corre- 
 spond to the love of perceiving and thinking truth 
 in its application to the affections ; or, in the 
 Greatest Man, to the states of life of the heavens. 
 In other words, they correspond to the faculty of 
 exploring our own affections and ends, and purify- 
 ing and correcting them according to the pure 
 
THE ORGANS OF SPEECH. 
 
 !9S 
 
 truth from the Lord. And it is meet that the 
 organ which corresponds to the faculty of knowl- 
 edge of the affections and ends, should express 
 that knowledge by means of the very air which 
 corresponds to the truth by which the exploration 
 is made. As vocal organs, therefore, the lungs 
 correspond to the love of confessing the thoughts 
 of the heart. In the heavens it is the love of 
 confessing to the Lord, or from the Lord to men 
 and angels, the thought and the affection of the 
 heavens. 
 
 "There were angelic choirs," Swedenborg re- 
 lates, " which praised the Lord together, and this 
 from gladness of heart. Their praise was heard 
 sometimes as very sweet singing; for spirits and 
 angels have sonorous voices, and hear one another 
 as men do ; but human singing, as to the sweetness 
 and harmony, which were heavenly, is not compa- 
 rable to that. From the variety of the sound I 
 perceived that there were many choirs. I was in- 
 structed by the angels who were with me that they 
 belonged to the province and uses of the lungs ; 
 for they have song, because this office belongs to 
 the lungs ; this also it was given to know by ex- 
 
196 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 perience. It was permitted them to rule my res- 
 piration, which was done so gently and sweetly, 
 and also interiorly, that I felt my respiration scarcely 
 at all. I was further instructed that they who are 
 assigned to the involuntary respiration are distinct 
 from those assigned to the voluntary. It was said 
 that they who are assigned to the involuntary res- 
 piration are present while man sleeps ; for as soon 
 as a man goes to sleep, the voluntary control of his 
 respiration ceases, and the involuntary takes it up." 
 (A. C. 3893-) 
 
 On another occasion, to correct the unfavorable 
 opinion which spirits from the planet Jupiter had 
 formed of the spirits from our earth, choirs of the 
 angels from this earth came to them, one after 
 another. " Choirs," he explains, "are when many 
 think, speak, and act one thing together, in a con- 
 tinuous series ; the celebration of the Lord in 
 the heavens is for the most part by choirs .... 
 Those choirs so greatly delighted the spirits of 
 Jupiter who were with me, that they seemed to 
 themselves to be caught up into heaven. That 
 glorification lasted about an hour. It was given 
 
THE ORGANS OF SPEECH. I97 
 
 me to feel their delights which they derived from 
 it, which were communicated to me. They said 
 that they would tell it to their friends who were 
 elsewhere." (A. C. 8115.*) 
 
 To the larynx are related those members of the 
 community in heaven and on earth whose love it 
 is to catch the shades of affection which come to 
 them, and express them by modulations of tone. 
 The larynx is the only musical instrument in the 
 body ; and the things that relate to the musi- 
 cian's art, which is strictly the art of expressing 
 affection by sound, are there concentrated. A 
 true musician is not led by his ears but by his 
 affection ; the tones that agree with this he seizes, 
 whether they are sweetest to the ears or not. He 
 will be true to his feeling in his playing and 
 in composing. As he writes, his throat sings 
 silently ; and his ears, possessed by the same affec- 
 tion, hear the silent music, and help to guide the 
 throat. If orchestras and choirs are added they 
 
 * For an account of a general glorification in the heavens, see 
 C L. 81. And for further details about choirs, A. C. 3350, 3351. 
 
l 9 8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 are only developments of the larynx, carrying out 
 its efforts ; in which case the original musician is 
 like the sensitive and moving fibres of the larynx, 
 and the rest are like the masses of muscle, carti- 
 lage, and ligament which compose its principal 
 substance. 
 
 The part which the lungs have in this expres- 
 sion in the individual and the Greatest Man, is to 
 furnish the breath, that is the thought, modified 
 by the life of the man, and full of its heart- 
 throbs. They represent the inspiration of exalted 
 thought and feeling, springing from the life of 
 the community, which they of the larynx put into 
 form 
 
 Other organs that are interested in the recep- 
 tion of the breath, as the nose and the mem- 
 branes and passages connected with it, partake 
 of the resonance of the expired air ; and no doubt 
 the angels of the corresponding provinces in 
 heaven join sympathetically and joyfully in the 
 sonorous thought of the lungs of the heavens. 
 
 They themselves sought and examined the truth 
 
THE ORGANS OF SPEECH jgg 
 
 which furnishes the means of thinking ; and they 
 share in the delight of expressing the truth. 
 
 To this the lips, teeth, palate, and especially 
 the tongue, contribute defmiteness of articulation, 
 which corresponds to distinctness and definiteness 
 in the expression of thought, especially from the 
 love of instructing. 
 
 "They who correspond to the mouth," Sweden- 
 borg says, " continually wish to speak ; for in speak- 
 ing they find the greatest pleasure. When they 
 are perfected, they are brought to this, that they 
 do not speak anything but what is of use to their 
 companions, to the community, heaven, and the 
 Lord. The delight of speaking thus is increased 
 with them as the lust of regarding themselves in 
 their speech, and of seeking wisdom of their own, 
 perishes." (A. C. 4803.) 
 
 No argument is needed to show that if the 
 whole heaven ever speaks as one man, it is 
 through those who are in the province of the 
 mouth ; and that if either of the heavens, or any 
 society in heaven, should so speak, it would be by 
 those related to it in this manner. 
 
200 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 Now, the whole heaven does speak to man, or 
 the Lord through the heavens ; for He speaks 
 His Word to man, and He speaks it not immedi- 
 ately, but through the heavens ; thus by degrees 
 accommodating it to man, and forming in it the 
 various heavenly senses. On this subject very 
 much might be quoted from Swedenborg ; but one 
 passage will suffice : — 
 
 "The Lord spoke through heaven with John, and 
 He also spoke through heaven with the prophets, 
 and through heaven He speaks with every one 
 with whom He speaks. The cause is that the 
 angelic heaven in the general is as one man, whose 
 soul and life is the Lord ; wherefore all that the 
 Lord speaks, He speaks through heaven, as the 
 soul and mind of man through his body. . . . But 
 I will declare this mystery : the Lord speaks through 
 heaven ; but still the angels there do not speak, 
 and do not even know what the Lord speaks, unless 
 there be some of them with the man, through whom 
 the Lord speaks openly from heaven, as with John 
 and some of the prophets. For the influx of the 
 Lord through heaven is like the influx of the soul 
 through the body ; the body indeed speaks and 
 acts, and also feels something of the influx ; but 
 
THE ORGANS OF SPEECH. 2 oi 
 
 still the body does not do anything from itself as 
 of itself, but is acted upon. That the speech and 
 all the influx of the Lord through heaven with man 
 is of such a kind, it has been given me to know by 
 much experience." (A. R. 943. See also 6982, 
 6996, 8443, 4677 end, 10033 en d, 8899, 5 121, A. C.) 
 
 Usually the Word of the Lord seems to have 
 been spoken by " an angel of the Lord"; but 
 sometimes by "a great voice out of heaven " with- 
 out the presence of an individual. In either case, 
 it is from the Spirit of the Lord filling the 
 heavens, and expressing His thought and affec- 
 tion through those who are in the organs of 
 speech. During the scenes of the Last Judgment, 
 no doubt Swedenborg had a great deal of experi- 
 ence of the ways in which the Lord speaks in the 
 world of spirits. 
 
 Returning now to the use of the mouth in 
 receiving food, we remember that it corresponds 
 to the use of receiving new spirits into the heav- 
 enly kingdom, and, more generally and abstractly, 
 to the love of gathering in their experiences of 
 the providence and goodness of the Lord ; for it 
 
202 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 is only that which men receive and live of the 
 goodness and wisdom of the Lord, that is food to 
 the heavens. The two uses of the mouth, there- 
 fore, are as closely related as sowing and reaping ; 
 for the Sower soweth the Word, and the harvest 
 is the ripened lives of men. "Twin offices," Swe- 
 denborg calls them — "the office of serving speech, 
 and that of serving nutrition " ; and he adds : "as 
 far as the tongue serves nutrition, it corresponds 
 to the affection of knowing, understanding, and 
 being wise in truths ; wherefore, also, sapicntia, 
 wisdom, and sapcrc, to be wise, are from sapor, 
 taste ; and, as far as it serves speech, it corre- 
 sponds to the affection of thinking and producing 
 truths." (A. C. 4795. See also 4791.) 
 
 Even the silent angels whose special office it 
 is to prepare the spirit to be raised from the 
 body, and thus to receive additions to the heavens, 
 as they sit quietly by his head look into his face 
 with the effort to communicate their own thought, 
 which relates to eternal life in heaven ; and this 
 is the means of doing: their use. 
 
THE ORGANS OF SPEECH. 
 
 203 
 
 The influence of the angels of the mouth into 
 our minds produces therefore not only the love 
 of obtaining useful knowledge, which corresponds 
 to the love of receiving food, but also the love of 
 bringing the thought into good form for expres- 
 sion ; or, more simply, to the love of speaking, of 
 communicating knowledge, and of teaching. (See 
 A. C. 6987.) 
 
 In any company or society of persons associated 
 for some use, there are many w T ho have some per- 
 ception of what should be done ; but it is usually 
 the case that a few speak for the rest, and ex- 
 press their thoughts for them. The feelings and 
 perceptions of the many correspond to the action 
 of the heart and the lungs, and perhaps other 
 interior organs ; and the expression of these feel- 
 ings and perceptions in form, to the action of the 
 mouth. Hence, we not unfrequently call one who 
 speaks, a mouth-piece for others. And if there 
 are any who only wait for the conclusion, that 
 they may know what is to be done, they are like 
 hands and feet to the company. 
 
204 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 In ancient days, before men learned to speak by 
 words, they expressed their feelings and thoughts 
 by changes of the face, and especially by delicate 
 motions of the lips, which in innocent persons are 
 still so expressive. They were taught by angels 
 by similar changes of the face ; and their teachers 
 also were from the province of the mouth, and 
 particularly from that of the lips. (See A. C. 4799.) 
 
THE PLEURA. 
 
 "V\ 7HAT the peritonaeum is to the abdominal 
 cavity, the pleura is to the thorax. It is the 
 common bond of all the organs and vessels which 
 the thorax contains ; and its office is to hold each 
 in its place with the utmost freedom of motion, 
 and at the same time to impart to each the 
 motions and wants of the whole ; so that each 
 may accommodate itself to the necessities of the 
 others, and all may be combined in due propor- 
 tion in the common use. 
 
 The heart and the lungs are not made inde- 
 pendent of support through the nobleness of their 
 office. The other parts of the body depend upon 
 them ; but there is no organ upon which these do 
 not depend for the means of doing their use. 
 Especially do they need the immediate and con- 
 stant support of the pleura. 
 
 The heart lies between the great lobes of the 
 
 205 
 
2 o6 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 lungs ; but its action is not synchronous with that 
 of the lungs ; it expands and contracts three or 
 four times during one respiration ; and, without 
 some means of accommodation, in dilating it would 
 press upon air-cells when they too were in the 
 effort to expand, and the action of both would be 
 impeded. Again, the heart to contract freely and 
 uniformly, must be maintained in the same rela- 
 tive position during all the changes and motions 
 of the body ; and still it must not be attached 
 and bound except at the base, where it gives forth 
 the arteries and veins. And, further, the lungs 
 must be maintained in their proper position, and 
 not allowed in state of collapse to fall upon the 
 heart or to suffer displacement ; and in their place 
 they must be protected from the ribs, and provided 
 with the means of working without friction, freely 
 and smoothly. 
 
 Other needed uses will be mentioned hereafter ; 
 but these are plainly required, and to perform 
 them is the duty assigned to the pleura. 
 
 One can hardly avoid a feeling of affection for 
 
THE PLEURA. 
 
 207 
 
 the friendly ministry of one part of the body to 
 another ; and for none is the feeling stronger than 
 for the modest service of the pleura, which does 
 not pretend to be of the least importance itself, 
 but just helps others to be important, and does 
 for them essential service, perfectly, constantly, 
 and without the slightest intrusion. 
 
 In itself it is composed of two membranes, one 
 thick and fibrous, the other smooth, glossy, and 
 moist. By its fibrous coat it applies itself closely 
 to the lungs, covering every convolution perfectly, 
 yet elasticaliy, and entering between the little 
 lobes even to the minutest air-cells, as if to be in 
 sympathy with and give protection to its inmost 
 thoughts. Its strong outer coat at the same time 
 invests the lungs with an almost metallic smooth- 
 ness, which is rendered more perfect by constant 
 lubrication with delicate oils. 
 
 From the base of the lungs the pleura is re- 
 flected upon itself, and forms two membranous 
 bags loosely enclosing again the already encased 
 lungs. The fibrous membrane of these bags, next 
 
208 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 the walls of the thorax, attaches itself closely to 
 the ribs, and extends its little fibres among the 
 intercostal muscles, even to the fatty tissues of 
 the chest, while the harder, smooth coat presents 
 inwards a polished surface for the investing coat 
 of the lungs to play upon. Thus their easy 
 motion is secured. 
 
 On the lower wall of the thorax the pleura 
 unites with the diaphragm, by the flexibility of 
 which it is enabled to apply its well-oiled coat 
 even to the hollow inner walls of the lobes of 
 the lungs, giving them the support they need to 
 keep them always in position, but not imposing 
 the slightest restraint upon their free motion. 
 
 Between the great lobes the membranous walls 
 of these bags unite, forming a partition in the 
 chest, extending from the breast-bone to the back- 
 bone ; but in this partition the two walls part, and 
 leave space between them for a roomy closet for 
 the heart, which is thus suspended in its place 
 between the folds of the pleura. And in order to 
 protect the heart and the lungs still further from 
 
THE PLEURA. 209 
 
 mutual annoyance, still another fold of pleura, or, 
 as some hold, a little pleura by itself, forms an 
 inner bag of smoothest surface, and loosely en- 
 closes the heart ; which is thus separated from the 
 lungs by two spaces and four thicknesses of mem- 
 brane. 
 
 Besides achieving this apparently impossible 
 duty of giving to these active organs the closest 
 and most intimate support without in the least 
 affecting their freedom, and holding them closely 
 related in their common work but preventing any 
 chance of mutual irritation, the pleura through 
 smaller chambers between its folds, behind that 
 of the heart, furnishes safe conduct to the oesoph- 
 agus on its way to the stomach, to the great 
 aorta as it descends to distribute the life blood to 
 the lower viscera and members, to the great as- 
 cending vein also and the chyle duct ; and it im- 
 parts to them all — and by means of the dia- 
 phragm, to the lower viscera also — the alternate 
 motions of the lungs — motions of alternate recep- 
 tion and action, which are essential to their life 
 and usefulness. 
 
210 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 Many subordinate duties the pleura performs ; 
 but these are its chief and governing uses. 
 
 As the province of the peritonaeum is held by- 
 angels of simple quality (n. 5378), not active of 
 themselves but readily acting from others, and 
 above all things loving harmony, so the angels of 
 the pleura are modest angels delighting in the 
 harmony of the uses of the heart and the lungs. 
 To the angels of these provinces they attach 
 themselves closely, rendering them every support 
 and assistance. With ready sympathy and affec- 
 tion for both, they interpose to receive and accom- 
 modate their strong but not coincident activities ; 
 for the impulses of affection and the thoughts of 
 wisdom are not synchronous ; they need to be 
 accommodated to each other by intermediates who 
 respect and love them both. They interpose also 
 between these and the rougher, less sensitive 
 angels, who, holding merely to the facts of the 
 use and necessity of these vital organs, are like 
 stony walls of protection to them, and constitute 
 the ribs of the Greatest Man; but who would 
 
THE PLEURA. 
 
 grate harshly and injuriously in immediate contact 
 with the angels who are so full of the love of 
 doing the Lord's will that they are unwilling to 
 think of themselves, and those who are intent 
 upon applying the Lord's wisdom to the life of 
 the heavens, and cannot bear to be reminded of 
 their own importance. The support and protec- 
 tion of the facts they bring them, without disturb- 
 ing their unselfish activity; and from full sympa- 
 thy with their life, they impress it upon all comers, 
 new and old, who pass within their domain. 
 
 Our admiration for the pleura is admiration for 
 these modest, unselfishly useful angels ; or, for the 
 generous, devoted love for ministering to others 
 which these receive from the Lord. Other organs 
 of the body partake, even in a greater degree, of 
 the spirit of mutual service ; and in that service 
 they all are images of angels' love, and of the 
 Lord's multiform love of serving, which creates 
 heaven and earth, and is the life of every part of 
 them. 
 
THE DIAPHRAGM. 
 
 'THHE diaphragm forms a partition between the 
 thorax and the abdomen. Its upper side con- 
 sists of the lower part of the pleura, its lower side 
 of the upper part of the peritonaeum. These two 
 membranes come into immediate contact and close 
 union in the central part of the diaphragm, in 
 three spots which are likened to the lobes of a 
 clover leaf ; but from this centre there radiate 
 bundles of muscular fibres between the mem- 
 branes, to the line of attachment at the extremi- 
 ties of the ribs ; two large bundles of fibres reach 
 well down the lumbar vertebrae. 
 
 When the muscular fibres are relaxed, the dia- 
 phragm extends up like a dome into the thorax, 
 lying close to the compressed lungs ; and then 
 the liver, and some other organs of the abdomen, 
 lie partly above the line of the ribs in the thorax, 
 and are then in a state of expansion. But when 
 
THE DIAPHRAGM. 213 
 
 the muscles of the diaphragm contract, they bring 
 down the dome, expand the cavity of the chest, 
 and press the abdominal organs out from it, in- 
 ducing upon them their turn of contraction. 
 
 When the chest is in its state of expansion, it 
 draws in the air from without, and also the fluids 
 of the body from within, sucking upon every vein 
 and lymphatic; and, as the viscera of the abdomen 
 are at the same time compressed, they freely yield 
 up their fluids to the demand of the thorax. And 
 when the thorax contracts, it presses upon arte- 
 ries, lymphatics, and veins, hastening the depart- 
 ure of the streams ready for the nourishment of 
 the body, and retarding the return currents ; and 
 as the abdomen is at that time in a state of 
 expansion, its vessels gladly seize the opportunity 
 to fill themselves full. Liver, spleen, pancreas, 
 kidneys, and even the stomach and intestines 
 depend upon this alternate motion for their power 
 of usefulness ; and their common container, the 
 peritonaeum, secures this motion to them by unit- 
 ing itself with the pleura in the diaphragm. 
 
214 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 We have, then, on the one side the pleura, 
 loving its trust of serving the heart and the 
 lungs, enjoying the free motion of the lungs, 
 and desiring to extend its delightful animations ; 
 and on the other hand the peritonaeum, caring 
 for the common wants of the digestive organs, 
 and here desiring for them the active life of 
 the lungs, and the preparation which that activ- 
 ity ensures to receive the fresh streams of blood 
 from the heart. And these two make a compact 
 to help each other in this common use ; and they 
 unite almost as one membrane in the centre of 
 the diaphragm, availing themselves of the assist- 
 ance of many urgent fibres to bring their purpose 
 into effect. 
 
 Swedenborg's common statement is that the 
 middle heaven includes the body from the neck 
 to the knees ; but the image seen by Nebuchad- 
 nezzar was as to the breast and arms, of silver, 
 as to the belly and thighs of brass, and the legs 
 and feet were of iron. This was a representative 
 of the successive churches, and consequently of 
 
THE DIAPHRAGM. 
 
 2I 5 
 
 the heavens formed from them (n. 10,030), and it 
 marks strongly the division between the chest 
 and the abdomen. 
 
 Also in T. C. R. 119, he says that the highest 
 heaven is the head, the second is the breast, the 
 lowest is the gastric region, and the church on 
 earth is the loins and feet. Perhaps this last 
 statement refers to the heaven before the Lord's 
 coming, when there was no Christian heaven, and 
 the ancient was imperfectly formed. 
 
 Swedenborg says nothing about the angels of 
 this province of the Greatest Man ; but their 
 quality is mirrored in the uses of the organ. 
 They are intermediates between the spiritual and 
 the natural heavens, — between the angels whose 
 delight it is to perceive and appropriate spiritual 
 wisdom from the Lord, and to cherish and exer- 
 cise the love of heavenly uses to the neighbor, 
 and the angels whose duty it is to receive new 
 spirits whose spiritual minds are not yet open, to 
 separate the evil from the good, and to train the 
 good to habits of right thought and action. 
 
216 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 These intermediates on the one hand delight in 
 the activity of spiritual thought and affection, and 
 on the other in the use of preparing new angels 
 to receive that thought and affection. Each class 
 loves first its own use, and then that of the 
 other ; for the use of each is indispensable to 
 the other. There is no purpose in the action of 
 heart and lungs, unless their influence be received 
 beyond their own province ; and there is no sat- 
 isfaction in preparing spirits to receive the life of 
 heaven, unless heavenly wisdom and love, which 
 constitute that life be abundantly provided. And 
 in order that any use may be accomplished in 
 either domain, there must be submission to the 
 universal law of all created beings, alternate recep- 
 tion and communication, expansion, and contrac- 
 tion ; which the lungs, as is becoming to the 
 province of wisdom, perceive most clearly, and by 
 means of the diaphragm impress upon all their 
 associates. 
 
 Into this alternation, and thus into the respira- 
 tion of the heavens, all good spirits are introduced 
 
THE DIAPHRAGM. 
 
 217 
 
 in the province of the lungs (n. 3894) ; they are 
 continued in it by the animations of the lungs 
 extended to the remotest parts of the body, and 
 the degree of their vitality and usefulness depends 
 upon the degree in which they partake of this 
 animation. 
 
MUSCLES IN GENERAL. 
 
 nr^HE power of the body is exerted by the 
 muscles, — which represent the love of work 
 in the mind, and, in the heavens, societies of those 
 who love the active uses corresponding to those 
 . of the muscles respectively. Thus, the diaphragm 
 is not a passive means of communication between 
 the thorax and the abdomen ; its active force is 
 essential both to the motions of the lungs and to 
 the communication of those motions to the rest 
 of the body. And the muscles of the diaphragm 
 correspond to the angels who have active pleas- 
 ure in the animations of wisdom and in the com- 
 munication of them through the heavens. They 
 combine and exert an animating pressure upon the 
 provinces of digestion, inviting the expansion of 
 the lungs ; which, without this powerful coopera- 
 tion, would be greatly confined in their action, as 
 in cases of rheumatism of the diaphragm. 
 
 218 
 
MUSCLES IN GENERAL. 2 ig 
 
 The heart itself is almost wholly muscular, and 
 they who constitute it are in the active love of 
 communicating love from the Lord to all whom 
 they can influence, and sending them forth to do 
 the uses of love. So all the active force exerted 
 by the hands and feet, by the mouth in receiving 
 food and in speaking, and by all parts of the body 
 in their several uses, is exerted by muscles ; which, 
 accordingly, represent the active zeal of the prov- 
 inces for those uses. 
 
 In these activities many angels combine, and 
 exert their influence as a one. " How many 
 spirits," Swedenborg says, " concur in one action, 
 was shown me by those who are in the muscles 
 of the face, from the forehead even to the neck. 
 ... It was observed that they were only the 
 subjects of very many, so that in every muscular 
 fibre very many concur. ... In heaven, or the 
 Greatest Man, there are innumerable societies thus 
 unanimous, to which the muscles correspond. ,, 
 (D. S. Index. " Musculus.") 
 
 But the muscles exert their force mostly through 
 
220 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 tendons, or tendinous sheaths, by which they are 
 attached to bones or to other parts of the body, 
 and direct their action. And these tendons or 
 ligaments correspond to passive subjects, who love 
 indeed to receive the influence and to communi- 
 cate it, but do not themselves modify it. 
 
BONES, 
 
 HPHE least living parts of the body are the 
 bones, which are composed largely of earthy 
 material, and seem to have a use like that of the 
 rocks in nature; that is, they serve as a basis 
 and fulcrum for the softer parts, keeping them ex- 
 tended and in their right places, and serving also 
 for protection to the organs that specially need 
 protection. 
 
 The rocks, and likewise the bones, correspond 
 to the fixed facts upon which all other elements 
 of mental life depend ; and, in the Greatest Man, 
 the provinces of the bones are occupied by those 
 who have little other life than that of holding 
 firmly to certain facts of experience which serve 
 for support and protection to those who live more 
 active lives. They serve to preserve the propor- 
 tions and relations of the parts of the man — not 
 
222 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 exerting any force themselves except that of stolid 
 resistance when their facts are in question. 
 
 "The societies of spirits to which the carti- 
 lages and bones correspond are very many; but 
 they are such as have very little spiritual life in 
 them, as there is very little life in the bones rela- 
 tively to the soft parts which they enclose ; as, for 
 example, there is in the skull and the bones of the 
 head compared with either brain and the medulla 
 oblongata, and the sensitive substances there ; and 
 also as there is in the vertebrae and ribs in compar- 
 ison with the heart and lungs ; and so on. It was 
 shown how little spiritual life they have who have 
 relation to the bones ; other spirits speak by them, 
 and they themselves know little of what they say ; 
 but still they speak, having delight in this alone. 
 Into such a state are they reduced who have led 
 an evil life, and still had some remains of good ; 
 these remains make that little spiritual life, after 
 the vastations of many ages. . . . They who come 
 out of vastations, and serve the uses of bones, have 
 not any determinate thought, but general, almost 
 indeterminate ; they are like those who are called 
 distraught, as if not in the body ; they are slow, 
 heavy, stupid, sluggish about everything. Yet 
 sometimes they are not untranquil, because cares 
 
BONES. 
 
 223 
 
 do not penetrate, but are dissipated in their gen- 
 eral obscurity." (n. 5560-5562.) 
 
 He explains that the lack of spiritual life is 
 lack of spiritual intelligence and charity, not nec- 
 essarily lack of natural intelligence. Therefore, 
 in the " Diary," he says, — 
 
 " They correspond to bones, in the other life, who 
 have studied various sciences and have made no 
 use of them, as they who have studied mathematics 
 only to find the rules, and have not regarded any 
 use ; or physics and chemistry only for the sake of 
 experiment, and for no other use ; also philosophy 
 to find its rules and terms, only for the sake of the 
 terms and for no other use ; and likewise other 
 things. They who become bones also, when they 
 reason, hardly discuss anything else than whether 
 it is or is not. Hence it is evident that the greatest 
 part of the learned within the church become bones. 
 They are those who are finally sensual ; the church 
 also is in this state to-day ; hence is its end." 
 (S. D. 5 141.) 
 
CARTILAGES. 
 
 /^"^ARTILAGES are really the receptacles of 
 . the earthy materials of which bones are made. 
 All bones begin as cartilages, and gradually be- 
 come hardened by receiving earthy deposits. Their 
 use, therefore, would be performed in the heavens 
 by spirits who are more simple and pliable in 
 their stupidity than those who represent the 
 bones — by those who know a few general truths, 
 while the bones are those who hold their own 
 particular experiences. Such would much more 
 readily enter into easy relations w T ith others than 
 those who must intrude their small experiences. 
 Hence the bones are capped with cartilage at the 
 joints. 
 
 The breast-bone also terminates in a cartilage, 
 for the sake of greater flexibility in accommoda- 
 tion to the motions of the chest. The angels 
 who belong to this province in the Greatest Man, 
 
 224 
 
CARTILAGES. 
 
 225 
 
 Swedenborg says, are from our moon ; and he 
 describes their dwarfish appearance, but says noth- 
 ing about their character. (E. U. III.) 
 
 In speaking of the various qualities in the 
 Greatest Man, he says, — 
 
 " It has been provided by the Lord that those 
 whom the Gospel has not been able to reach, but a 
 religion only, should also be able to have a place 
 in that Divine Man, that is, in heaven, by consti- 
 tuting the parts that are called skins, membranes, 
 cartilages, and bones ; and that they like others 
 should be in heavenly joy; for it is not a matter 
 of concern whether they are in such joy as the 
 angels of the highest heaven have, or in such as 
 the angels of the lowest heaven have ; for every 
 one who comes into heaven, comes into the highest 
 joy of his heart ; he does not bear a higher joy, for 
 he would be suffocated in it." (D. P. 254.) 
 
THE SKIN, 
 
 ~\~\ 7E are in the habit of thinking of the skin 
 as a covering for the body of a sort of 
 delicate untanned leather, with no great vitality 
 of its own, but serving to protect the more sensi- 
 tive and important organs within. There is some 
 truth in this, — the skin does protect much nobler 
 organs than itself ; and the outer skin is not 
 sensitive ; yet no other part of the body is more 
 sensitive than the inner skin ; which possesses 
 also a delicacy and complexity of structure which 
 will excite our admiration. There exist in nature 
 multitudes of little animals too minute for the 
 unaided eye to perceive, endowed each with organs 
 of sense, of digestion, of circulation, and of action, 
 all contained within a compass too small for us 
 to notice. From Swedenborg's marvellous de- 
 scription it would appear that there is not a 
 point in the inner skin less exquisitely organized 
 than these. 226 
 
THE SKIX. 
 
 227 
 
 The outer layer of the skin, which is the part 
 with which we are best acquainted^ is composed of 
 little horny scales laid one upon another like armor 
 of mail to a greater or less thickness according to 
 the exposure. This is perforated by the hairs and 
 by innumerable little pores, which we shall consider 
 hereafter. This outer skin is detached by blisters 
 and chafings, and then we discover a most tender, 
 sensitive surface under it, which we are glad to 
 protect by a plaster till its proper coat of scales 
 is repaired. Yet even these scales do not rest 
 immediately upon the sensitive skin, though they 
 arc thrown into little ridges and spirals in accom- 
 modation to its papillae. They rest upon a soft, 
 jelly-like vascular membrane [rete mucosum) which 
 encases the papillae of the inner skin, protecting 
 them and combining their sensations. 
 
 The surface of the inner skin, thus protected 
 and encased by two outer layers, is composed of 
 little papillae, finer than needle points, each of 
 which under a powerful glass is seen to be a 
 bundle of still more minute papillary fibres. In 
 
228 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 these papillae are seen looped nervous fibres, and 
 also what are called " tactile corpuscles," both of 
 which serve as organs of touch, and many more 
 nerve fibres are seen splitting into almost invisi- 
 ble filaments. Besides these exquisitely sensitive 
 papillae in which the touch resides, the skin con- 
 tains the roots of the hairs, with their anointing 
 glands, innumerable sweat glands, each one look- 
 ing like a little convoluted intestine — which un- 
 ravelled, it is estimated, would amount to two and 
 a half miles in length in a single person — also 
 arteries, which in states of inflammation are seen 
 in a net-work over the papillary surface, and 
 veins and lymphatics without number. 
 
 So much is commonly known of the skin, and 
 not much more. Microscopic investigation shows 
 some of the nerve fibres ending in the papillae 
 in loops or " tactile corpuscles" but many more 
 divide into little brushes ; and what they do there, 
 or what becomes of them, modern science does 
 not know. And here Swedenborg's more than 
 microscopic insight takes up the subject. " Not 
 
THE SKIN. 
 
 229 
 
 know," he would say, a what the fibres do in those 
 most delicate of fleshy forms, when you know 
 that the vessels are woven from the fibres, and 
 that the intermediates are formed by the ex- 
 tremes ! The nervous fibres are weaving there 
 the beginnings of the blood-vessels, or the fleshy 
 fibres. They coil themselves into minute invisi- 
 ble tubes, called corporeal fibres, and these again 
 into larger tubes which are the finest fleshy fibres 
 of the papillae, and are the last subdivisions of 
 the arteries, too fine in their ordinary state to 
 carry red blood, and these combining extend their 
 delicately woven walls to the lining of the arteries ; 
 and thus through the arteries, the heart, and again 
 the carotid arteries, the nervous fibres return to 
 the brain." 
 
 The idea that the beginning of the arterial sys- 
 tem is in the skin, not the heart, at first may 
 seem surprising ; but it is illustrated by the sim- 
 ilar and well-known fact that the beginnings of 
 the woody fibres of trees are in the leaves, not 
 in the stem or the roots. Through the pith and 
 
2 3 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 the delicate fibres of the bark, nourishment as- 
 cends to expand the first tender leaves, and from 
 these descend the first woody fibres between the 
 bark and the pith, as well as new fibres of bark, 
 and extend themselves to the extremities of the 
 roots. Through these woody and cortical fibres 
 sap afterwards ascends to the leaves, and by their 
 means new buds and leaves are formed, which in 
 turn send down other fibres, and thus the trunk 
 of the tree grows in concentric layers of wood, 
 every fibre of which has descended from the 
 leaves. 
 
 In Swedenborg's view a similar process goes on 
 from the membranes which are the ultimates of 
 the body, and especially from the skin. Before 
 the heart exists in the embryo, ramifications of 
 blood-vessels are seen, which indeed soon unite 
 in the heart and afterwards act from it ; and 
 these undoubtedly assist in the formation of 
 other vessels and tissues, which are, however, 
 everywhere woven from the nervous fibres, the 
 blood-vessels cooperating and afterwards sustain- 
 ing them. 
 
THE SKIN. 
 
 231 
 
 It is a familiar fact that through the skin there 
 are continual exhalation and absorption. There 
 is exhalation of watery vapor, of fatty vapor — as 
 we see by touching the fingers for a moment to 
 clean gla^s — of more subtile effluvia which affect 
 the sense of smell, sometimes pleasantly as from 
 an infant's skin, and of most delicate, perhaps 
 magnetic influence to which some persons are 
 very sensitive, and which is often used in reliev- 
 ing nervous pains ; these exhalations are all of 
 materials no longer needed in the body, but par- 
 taking of the life of the body, and capable of 
 doing more or less use in the extremes or beyond 
 the surface of the body. 
 
 There are also inhalations correlative to these 
 exhalations. It is said that the thirst of exhausted 
 men may be satisfied by immersion in the sea or 
 by wetting their clothes. Nutritious vapors and 
 steam are also absorbed, no doubt in quantities 
 which go far to satisfy hunger. 
 
 The volatile oils of poisonous ivy and of dog- 
 wood, inappreciable by any conscious sense, are 
 
232 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 absorbed by the skin to its great discomfort. And 
 more subtile still, the "animal magnetism," as it 
 is called, the most active but delicate of the ex- 
 halations of a living body, is absorbed by the 
 minutest pores of another body, and is a power- 
 ful agent in restoring disordered or tired nerves. 
 These are things of common experience which 
 show that the skin is a most active agent both 
 in absorbing and in exhaling materials related to 
 animal life of many kinds. Thus the skin has 
 already, upon the surface of the body, some of the 
 properties which are further developed in its con- 
 tinuations which line the stomach and the lungs. 
 
 Throughout the viscera, as well as upon the 
 surface of the body, the mouths of the little pores 
 are in the extremities of the little papillae of 
 touch, which by their exquisite sense perceive the 
 quality of the materials offered for their accept- 
 ance or rejection, and rule over the action of the 
 ducts according to their perception and to the 
 wants of the body. The knowledge they acquire 
 they report in part to the cerebrum, in which 
 
THE SKIN. 233 
 
 dwells the conscious, thinking mind, but in greater 
 part, especially from the viscera, to those nerve- 
 centres which preside over the vital functions of 
 the body without reference to our perverted sense 
 or ignorant reason. 
 
 The sense of touch gives substance and reality 
 to all our sensations. Sight and hearing and 
 smell, without touch, would be almost like affec- 
 tions of the imagination ; their objects would 
 seem forever unreal, unsubstantial, unless they 
 could be touched. By touch they are brought 
 into substantial, satisfactory relations to us ; by it 
 we perceive their substance, their texture, their 
 size, and hardness or softness, their general 
 relation to ourselves. To the sense of touch 
 we apply the term " feeling," which is also the 
 name of the inner sensation produced in our 
 mental organs by contact with thought and af- 
 fection. 
 
 Sight is necessary to correct the very limited 
 impressions of touch, and the inner feelings are 
 modified by the understanding ; but in both cases 
 
234 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 the sense of relation to us comes through the 
 touch. Therefore it is that touch signifies in 
 " spiritual language communication of affection ; for 
 by touch the sensitive papillae are modified in 
 form to agree with the object of contact, and they 
 either extend themselves with pleasure and open 
 their little pores to receive the influence presented 
 to them, or they shrink with aversion and close 
 their doors. Spheres of life, and. of effluvia par- 
 taking of the quality and activity of the life, are 
 both communicated and received through the skin ; 
 and the touch, including the delicate sense of the 
 quality of spheres, guards all the doors. 
 
 At the approach of danger, real or imaginary, 
 it orders the doors to be shut, the armor of the 
 skin to be more firmly held, and even the little 
 hairs to be erected and put forth as feelers. But 
 when agreeable influences are felt, the armor is 
 loosened, the advanced capillary guards withdrawn 
 and laid down, and the doors thrown open wide 
 for sweet interchange of congenial life. Hence 
 the highest use of this sense is with two whose 
 
THE SKIN. 235 
 
 lives are one, and Swedenborg says that it is dedi- 
 cated to marriage. 
 
 Swedenborg says that the coverings of the tab- 
 ernacle of the Israelites, composed successively of 
 fine linen, of goats' hair, of rams' skins, and of a 
 coarser skin outside, represent the four layers of 
 skin which cover the body. (A. C. 9632.) Here 
 he treats as two the papillary layer of the corium, 
 and the fibrous layer beneath. Upon the inner 
 curtains of fine linen were embroidered cherubs, 
 which Swedenborg says represented the guard of 
 the Lord lest the Holy Divine should be ap- 
 proached except by the good of love. (A. C. 9509.) 
 Applied to the heavens this would mean the sensi- 
 tiveness of the heavens from the Lord lest they 
 should be approached or entered except by those 
 who are in love to the Lord and the neighbor. 
 And this sensitiveness resides with those who 
 constitute the inner skin. 
 
 I have been speaking of the spheres of the 
 body and of the mind as if they always acted 
 together as one and were received as one. This 
 
236 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 may be so and may not. In any case the sense 
 of touch properly has to do only with the body 
 and the spheres of the body ; and spiritual sub- 
 stances and influences are perceived by the corre- 
 sponding sense of the mind, which, indeed, is 
 commonly called, in its nice discriminations of 
 mutual relation, " tact " or touch. In the spiritual 
 world, mind and body are in agreement ; and 
 those who have delicate tact, or perception of 
 spiritual relations, have also delicate skins. Swe- 
 denborg says, — 
 
 "The conformation of the interweavings of the 
 skin has been shown me representatively. The 
 formation with those in whom those most external 
 things correspond to the interiors, or the material 
 things there are obedient to spiritual, was a beauti- 
 ful weaving of spirals wonderfully intertwined in a 
 kind of lace-work which cannot at all be described. 
 They were of blue color. Afterwards were repre- 
 sented forms still more elaborate, more delicate, 
 and more beautifully connected. Of such a struc- 
 ture appear the cuticles of a regenerate man. But 
 with those who have been deceitful, these extremes 
 appear conglutinations of mere serpents ; and with 
 
THE SKIN. 
 
 2 37 
 
 those who have used magical arts, like filthy intes- 
 tines." (n. 5559.) 
 
 Of the scarf-skin of the body, he says, — 
 
 "That skin is less sensitive than any other of 
 the coverings, for it is covered over with scales 
 which are almost like delicate cartilage. The soci- 
 eties which constitute it are they who reason con- 
 cerning all things whether it be so or not so, nor 
 do they go any further. [This is like the obtuse- 
 ness of the cuticle which has no life or perception 
 of its own, but merely collects impressions of all 
 sorts, not discriminating among them itself.] When 
 I talked with them, it was given to perceive that 
 they did not at all apprehend what is true or not 
 true, and they who have reasoned most apprehend 
 the least. Still, they seem to themselves wiser 
 than others, for they place wisdom in the faculty 
 of arguing. They are utterly ignorant that the 
 essential thing in wisdom is to perceive without 
 arguing, that it is so or is not so. Many such are 
 from those who in the world were made so by a 
 confusion of good and truth through philosoph- 
 icals ; who have hence the less common sense." 
 (n. 5556.) 
 
 This appears to be said of the horny scarf-skin 
 
2 3 8 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 proper. But in A. C. 5553, it is said that "the 
 societies to whom the cuticles correspond are in 
 the entrance to heaven, and there is given to them 
 perception of the quality of the spirits who ap- 
 proach the first threshold, whom they either reject 
 or admit ; so that they may be called entrances 
 or doorways to heaven." Apparently in "the cuti- 
 cles " he here includes the whole skin in general, 
 and also the linings of the stomach and intestines, 
 and what is said may, in part, refer to these last. 
 (Compare n. 8980.) But it is also true that the 
 orifices of the minute ducts, as to their function 
 of absorbing ethereal aliment for the body, are 
 like portals to heaven, through which they who die 
 in earliest infancy and before the embryonic state 
 is completed, are caught up by the quickest and 
 shortest ways into their appropriate province in 
 heaven.* 
 
 " There are very many societies who constitute 
 the external integuments of the body, with differ- 
 
 * S. D. 1022, 1035, and Index, under " Infans." 
 
THE SKIN. 239 
 
 ences from the face to the soles of feet ; for there 
 are differences everywhere. I have talked much 
 with them. As regards spiritual life they are such 
 that they allow themselves to be persuaded by 
 others that a thing is so ; and when they heard it 
 confirmed from the literal sense of the Word, they 
 altogether believed it, and remained in the opinion, 
 and resolved upon a life, not bad, according to it. 
 Intercourse with them cannot easily be had by 
 others who are not of a similar disposition, for they 
 adhere tenaciously to the opinions they have formed, 
 nor do they suffer themselves to be led away by 
 reaspns. There are a great many such from this 
 earth, because our planet is in externals, and also 
 reacts against internals, like the skin.'' (n. 5554.) 
 
 The people of our earth are like the skin in 
 this, that their whole natures are turned outwards 
 to receive impressions from the world. Therefore 
 the impressions of sense are here organized into 
 sciences which do not exist upon any other earth. 
 Therefore also the Word, by which the whole 
 heaven is made, received its literal sense upon 
 this earth ; and this literal sense can be turned 
 hither and thither, and is composed of facts of 
 
240 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 little or no spiritual life, which understood literally 
 by us convey impressions of far different char- 
 acter to the angels, and serve to ultimate, gener- 
 alize, contain, and suggest the wisdom and spiritual 
 life of the heavens. 
 
 The order of development of the body, from 
 the purest fibres by means of the extremities of 
 the vessels in the skin, and then the interiors, 
 must also be the order of development of the 
 Greatest Man, consisting of the heavens and the 
 church, and also of the Word itself. Swedenborg 
 says, — 
 
 " The Lord flows in from firsts through lasts, 
 thus from Himself into the natural sense of the 
 Word, and calls out or evolves thence its spiritual 
 and celestial senses, and thus illustrating, teaches 
 and leads the angels." (S. S. Post. 18.) 
 
 "The Word in ultimates is the sense of the 
 letter ; the Word in firsts is the Lord, and the 
 Word in interiors is its internal sense which is per- 
 ceived in the heavens. . . . Man in ultimates is 
 the church on the earths, man in firsts is the Lord, 
 man in interiors is heaven, for the church and heaven 
 before the Lord are as one man." (A. C. 10,044.) 
 
THE SKIN. 
 
 241 
 
 Before there were angels, men were created 
 upon the earths by the Lord, and by their interior 
 development the heavens were filled with angels. 
 And before the Divine truth could be taught to 
 the heavens, it must have been taught in a very 
 pure, simple, literal sense of the Word, given im- 
 mediately from God to men. From this literal 
 sense were evolved the spiritual truths which 
 make the heavens ; and these were received in 
 the minds of men who became angels ; and these 
 angels were the mediums of making still further 
 revelations of the Lord to men, which again were 
 the beginnings of new heavenly forms ; and thus 
 the man grew, every new growth springing from 
 life from God through the internal, first received, 
 lived, and fixed in the external. 
 
 It is a knowledge of the mere letter of the 
 Word which is like the insensible cuticle ; a per- 
 ception of the natural goodness of God in dealing 
 with men, of His providence, and of His wisdom, 
 belongs to the sensitive papillae beneath the cuti- 
 cle. Of the varieties of these Swedenborg says 
 
242 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 nothing, and very little of their uses of absorp- 
 tion and perspiration ; but I cannot doubt that 
 they have relation to the loves of receiving the 
 spirit which breathes through the letter of the 
 Word, and which is genuine truth for the deepest 
 thought ; and of separating from the thought that 
 which has done its use, and should no longer 
 circulate in the thought. 
 
 Of the mode of action of those in the Greatest 
 Man whose duty it is to accept the true and to 
 separate the useless thought, Swedenborg says, — 
 
 " There are spirits who when they wish to know 
 anything say that it is so, thus one after another 
 in society ; and thus, when they say it, they ob- 
 serve whether it flows freely, without any spiritual 
 resistance ; for when it is not so, they generally 
 perceive a resistance from within ; if they do not 
 perceive resistance, they think that it is so, and do 
 not know it in any other way. Such are they who 
 constitute the glands of the skin." (n. 5558.) 
 
 Swedenborg often speaks of the skin as corre- 
 sponding to those who are in truths of faith only, 
 and not in goods of charity, and who act there- 
 
THE SKIN. 243 
 
 fore not from a love of good in themselves but by 
 direction from without : " they who are such even 
 to the end of life, after death remain in that 
 state, nor can they be led out to a state in which 
 they will act from affection of charity, thus from 
 good, but from obedience. These in the Greatest 
 Man, which is heaven, constitute the things which 
 serve the interiors, like the membranes and skins." 
 (n. 8990.)* For, after all, the skin is a passive 
 sort of agent, which loves to absorb, to test, and 
 to excrete, but not to do or to produce ; and it 
 must correspond to those who are of like charac- 
 ter. As a covering, also, it goes where it is car- 
 ried, touches what it is made to touch, and has 
 no power of seeking or shunning, but merely of 
 warning others. 
 
 Life is covered with forms and usages which 
 are neither good nor bad in themselves. To do 
 away with these neutral things, and make every 
 thing a matter of conscience, is like removing the 
 
 * See also n. 8588, 8870, 8980, 9959. 
 
244 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 cuticle and exposing the cutis to pain from every 
 touch. 
 
 If we are very sensitive about things which 
 are of little importance in themselves, we are 
 what is called thin-skinned, and in associating with 
 others we are continually getting hurt. It is the 
 wise way in such cases to withdraw our life from 
 such really unimportant things, let them become 
 dead and like callosities, which can bear friction 
 without pain. But to become indifferent and cal- 
 lous about things of real importance to spiritual 
 life is to become stupid. 
 
THE HAIR 
 
 T "FAIRS grow from the skin, and in a sense 
 constitute a part of the skin. In themselves 
 they have very little life or sensitiveness, though 
 they may be strongly and sensitively held by the 
 skin. They play a great part in the adornment 
 of the person, and they have an important use 
 in the protection of the more living surfaces, 
 especially of the head, beneath them. 
 
 They correspond to the formalities and courte- 
 sies of thought and of life, which are of small 
 account in themselves, and yet add greatly to the 
 beauty of life, and certainly present a most useful 
 shield to the more sensitive feelings beneath. 
 They may indeed be presented with perfect sin- 
 cerity, and may rightly interpret the feelings ; but 
 it is easier to meet in pleasant formalities about 
 which we are not very sensitive, than to be 
 always exposing our feelings, and receiving per- 
 sonal affronts and injuries. 245 
 
246 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 "As is the correspondence of the bones and 
 cuticles, so is that of the hairs, for these put forth 
 from roots in the cuticles. Whatever has corre- 
 spondence with the Greatest Man, this the spirits 
 and angels have ; for each one represents as an 
 image the Greatest Man ; therefore the angels 
 have hair, arranged becomingly and in order. Their 
 hair represents their natural life and its corre- 
 spondence with their spiritual life. . . . There are 
 many, especially women, who have placed every- 
 thing in elegancies, nor have they thought higher, 
 and scarcely anything concerning eternal life. This 
 is pardoned to women until the age of womanhood, 
 when the ardor which is wont to precede marriage 
 ceases ; but if they persist in such things in adult 
 age, when they can know better, then they con- 
 tract a nature which remains after death. Such 
 appear in the other life with long hair spread 
 over their face, which also they comb, placing ele- 
 gance in it ; for to comb the hair signifies to ac- 
 commodate natural things so that they appear 
 becoming. From this they are known by others ; 
 for spirits can tell from the color, length, and 
 arrangement of the hair, what the persons were 
 as to natural life in the world. 
 
 "They who have believed nature to be everything, 
 and have confirmed themselves in this, and there- 
 
THE HAIR. 247 
 
 fore have lived a careless life, not acknowledging 
 any life after death, nor any hell or heaven ; such, 
 because they are merely natural, when they appear 
 in the light of heaven, do not seem to have any face, 
 but instead something bearded, hairy, unshorn ; 
 for, as was said above, the face represents the 
 spiritual and celestial things interiorly in man, but 
 hairiness the natural things." (A. C. 5569-5571.) 
 " That the hairs of the head and of the beard 
 correspond to the Word in its ultimates, may seem 
 wonderful, when it is first seen and heard ; but that 
 correspondence derives its cause from this, that all 
 things of the Word correspond with all things of 
 heaven, and heaven with all things of man ; for 
 heaven in its complex is before the Lord as one 
 man. . . . That all things of the Word correspond 
 to all things of heaven, has been given me to per- 
 ceive from this, that the chapters of the Word cor- 
 respond respectively to the societies of heaven ; for 
 when I ran through the propheticals of the Word, 
 from Isaiah to Malachi, it was given me to see that 
 the societies of heaven were aroused in their order 
 and perceived the spiritual sense corresponding to 
 themselves. From these and from other proofs it 
 was evident to me that there is a correspondence 
 of the whole heaven with the Word in a series. 
 Now, because there is such a correspondence of 
 
248 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 the Word with heaven, and heaven as a whole and 
 in detail corresponds to man, therefore the ultimate 
 of the Word corresponds to the ultimate of man ; 
 the ultimate of the Word is the sense of the letter, 
 and the ultimates of man are the hairs of the head 
 and of the beard. Hence it is that men who have 
 loved the Word even in its ultimates, after death, 
 when they become spirits, appear in becoming hair 
 as the angels do; the same also, when they become 
 angels, let their beards grow. But, on the other 
 hand, they who have despised the sense of the let- 
 ter of the Word, after death, when they become 
 spirits, appear bald, which also is a sign that they 
 are without truths ; wherefore also lest it should 
 seem to others disgraceful, they cover their heads 
 with turbans." (De Verbo, 10.) 
 
 Swedenborg describes a certain council called 
 in the world of spirits, in which "on the right 
 stood those who in the world were called Apostolic 
 Fathers, and who lived in the ages preceding the 
 Nicene Council ; and on the left stood men re- 
 nowned in succeeding ages for their books, printed 
 or written out by scholars. Many of the latter 
 had their faces shaved, and their heads covered 
 with curled wigs made of women's hair, . . . but 
 
THE HAIR. 
 
 249 
 
 the former had long beards, and wore their natural 
 hair" (T. C. R. 137). And it appeared that the 
 shaven men had no regard for truth ; but the 
 bearded men were angels from heaven. 
 
 The beard seems to represent the clothing in 
 which one expresses his rational thought — the 
 generalities which one advances as it were tenta- 
 tively, indicating his thought but not making it a 
 matter of personal feeling. 
 
 Women have no beards, for when they speak 
 they usually express their feelings ; but they have 
 beautiful hair, for they love to make this expres- 
 sion decorous and agreeable. 
 
 Such uses as these are evidently performed for 
 the Word by its literal sense. Expressions of 
 affection are there, in graceful, poetic language, 
 which both adorns and protects them ; and the 
 wisdom by which the heavens were made, and are 
 daily led in goodness, is there also ; but it is 
 clothed in neutral expressions which may be re- 
 jected without much harm, but which if understood 
 rightly, reveal the Divine thought of the Lord. 
 
THE HANDS. 
 
 HHHROUGH the hands is expressed the love 
 of doing, of forming for use, and of com- 
 municating. The working strength of the body 
 is exerted by them ; also its skill or wisdom of 
 work. 
 
 "To speak well," Shakspeare says, " is a kind 
 of good deed " ; and it is a kind that is per- 
 formed by the tongue. But the words of the 
 tongue have for their purpose to affect the works 
 of others' hands, by filling them with wiser thought 
 and better feeling, if not by changing their form 
 or direction ; and even words are expressed more 
 perfectly and permanently by the hand, in writing, 
 than by the tongue ; and, moreover, they who 
 speak express their personal life and love more 
 fully by what they do with their hands than by 
 their words.* 
 
 *See D. L. W. 361. 
 
 250 
 
THE HANDS. 
 
 2 5 J 
 
 The use of the arms is almost exclusively to 
 make the hands effective. The upper arm, to 
 the elbow, including the muscles of the shoulder, 
 raises, extends, and gives broad, sweeping motions 
 to the lower arm and hand. The lower arm adds 
 to the variety of motions of the hand that of rota- 
 tion, and also contains in itself the strong muscles 
 which extend and those which contract the fingers. 
 The compact upper part of the hand, with its bones 
 strongly and almost immovably bound together, 
 gives firmness and solidity to all the deeds which 
 require the action of the whole hand. The skin 
 of it, especially upon the palm, though firm and 
 thick, is exquisitely sensitive and very porous, and 
 thus is peculiarly fitted as an instrument to re- 
 ceive and to communicate such influences as can 
 be communicated through the skin. Here, also, 
 snugly packed between the bones, lie the little 
 muscles which give quick, light motions to the 
 fingers ; and, of course, through this part of the 
 hand pass the tendons which convey the power of 
 the fore-arm to the fingers ; and all are bound 
 
252 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 down and protected by smooth, strong, sinewy 
 sheaths, which no one can see without admiration. 
 Each hand terminates in four fingers and a 
 thumb. The fingers, from their flexibility and 
 quickness, perform most of the light, skilful mo- 
 tions of the hand, guiding its smaller tools, or 
 striking the keys of its instruments by their sepa- 
 rate motions, or combining to grasp the imple- 
 ments which require their united strength ; and 
 the thumb takes upon itself the task of holding 
 within the grasp of the fingers and subject to 
 their operations the objects upon which, or the 
 instruments by which, they are to do their work. 
 For this purpose the thumb has the power of op- 
 posing itself to each finger separately, and pressing 
 a small object, as a pencil, a needle, a bit of paper 
 or cloth, upon its point ; and also of opposing 
 them all, and retaining a larger object, as a cane 
 or an- axe or the hand of a friend, within their 
 grasp. And both fingers and thumbs share, per- 
 haps in even larger measure, the sensitive open- 
 ness of skin of the palm. The papillae arrange 
 
THE HANDS. 253 
 
 themselves at the tips in beautiful spiral sweeps, 
 which were Swedenborg's delight, expressing to 
 him the perfection of their structure, and the 
 infinite variety of their possible adaptations. 
 
 This beautiful apparatus for expressing the love 
 of doing and communicating is itself very much 
 modified by its work. By some kinds of w T ork in 
 which great strength is exerted, the cuticle is 
 thickened and made hard and firm to protect the 
 tender parts ; at the same time, the muscles and 
 even the bones are enlarged, and the shape of 
 the hand is broadened and thickened. By other 
 kinds of work the cuticle is made thin and flexible, 
 and the hands themselves slight and delicate. By 
 long continued exercise of the fingers in sepa- 
 rate motions, as in playing upon an instrument, 
 the little muscles of the fingers are separated 
 from one another, and acquire great freedom of 
 motion ; and even, in some cases, new little acces- 
 sory muscles may be formed ; while in work which 
 exercises all the fingers jointly, there is a tendency 
 to combine the muscles for mutual support ; at 
 
*54 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 least, they often do grow together to such a de- 
 gree that the power of separate motion is very 
 much diminished. 
 
 Every employment has its own peculiar motions 
 to which the hands and fingers must be trained ; 
 and by training they acquire skill and deftness. 
 No doubt it is true, also, that the kind of love 
 which is put into the work, whether gentle and 
 considerate or selfish, affects the motions and even 
 the organic forms of the hands. We are not 
 skilled to judge of interior things from the hands ; 
 but Swedenborg says, that an angel can read from 
 the hand the whole of a man's life, what it has 
 been exteriorly and interiorly ; which means that 
 all the affection and thought from which a man 
 has lived are actually worked into the forms of his 
 hands. 
 
 Possibly it is true, also, that the delicate forms 
 of the fibres and papillae of the hands are affected 
 by the outflow and the reception of the effluvia 
 which constitute the spheres of human lives. Cer- 
 tain it is that the love of doing throws all its 
 
THE HANDS. 
 
 255 
 
 power into the hands, and expresses itself there 
 not only in works, but by a helpful and strength- 
 ening communication of itself, and thus of the 
 life of the man. 
 
 We read that when John in the vision saw the 
 Lord in the midst of the seven golden candle- 
 sticks, he fell at His feet as dead ; by which is 
 signified a sense of his own lifelessness in the 
 presence of the Lord ; and then the Lord laid 
 His right hand upon him, and communicated His 
 life to him. Of this, Swedenborg says, — 
 
 "That the Lord laid His right hand upon him 
 is because communication is effected by the touch 
 of the hands ; the reason is that the life of the 
 mind and thence of the body puts itself forth into 
 the arms and through them into the hands ; there- 
 fore it is that the Lord touched with His hand 
 those whom He raised from the dead and those 
 whom He healed ; and that He also touched His 
 disciples when they saw Him transfigured, and fell 
 upon their faces." (A. R. 55.) 
 
 In all these cases, the Lord's Divine love of 
 doing good and giving life was actually put forth 
 
256 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 through His hand, and was received according 
 to the state of the recipient. For a like reason, 
 when we desire to express sympathy, and to help 
 one who needs it, we naturally stretch out our 
 hand. 
 
 On this subject, Swedenborg further writes, — 
 
 "That to touch is communication, translation, 
 and reception, is because the interiors of man put 
 themselves forth through the exteriors, especially 
 through the touch, and thus communicate them- 
 selves to another, and transfer themselves into 
 another, and as far as the will of the other agrees 
 and makes one, so far they are received. This is 
 especially manifest in the other life ; for there all 
 act from the heart, that is, from the will or love, 
 and it is not allowed to express by actions separate 
 from these, nor to speak with simulating lips, that 
 is, separately from the thought of the heart. It 
 is manifest there how the interiors communicate 
 themselves to another, and transfer themselves into 
 another by the touch ; and how the other receives 
 them according to his love. The will or the love 
 of every one constitutes the whole man there, and 
 the sphere of his life flows thence from him like a 
 breathing or vapor, and surrounds him, and makes 
 
THE HANDS. 
 
 257 
 
 as it were himself around him, hardly otherwise than 
 like the exhalation about plants in the world, which 
 also is perceived at a distance by odors ; also about 
 beasts, which is exquisitely perceived by a saga- 
 cious dog. Such exhalation also pours out from 
 every person, as also is known by much experience. 
 But when man lays aside his body, and becomes a 
 spirit or angel, then that effluvium or exhalation is 
 not material as in the world, but it is the spiritual 
 flowing from his love ; this then forms a sphere 
 about him, which causes his quality to be perceived 
 at a distance by others. . . . This sphere is com- 
 municated to another, and transferred into him, and 
 is received by the other according to his love." 
 (A. C. 10,130.) 
 
 This sphere of life comes forth with special 
 strength from the hands, because it comes from 
 the love which is the life, and which concentrates 
 its active power in them. Upon this is founded 
 our custom of shaking or pressing hands when we 
 meet as friends, by which a mutual interchange of 
 spheres of life is not only represented but effected. 
 Sensitive persons perceive in the touch of the 
 hands a sense of pleasure when the states of life 
 
258 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES, 
 
 are in harmony, and a peculiar feeling of contrac- 
 tion of the fibres and closing of the pores, when 
 they disagree, even though they do not know the 
 state of the person they meet, nor the cause of 
 their feeling. 
 
 As all the power of one's life throws itself into 
 the hands and expresses itself through them, so 
 the life of the heavens and their power to do 
 good operates through the angels who are in the 
 province of the hands. 
 
 "In the Greatest Man," Swedenborg says, "they 
 who correspond to the hands and arms, and also to 
 the shoulders, are they who are in power by the 
 truth of faith from good [which is the same as 
 saying that they are in the Lord's wisdom of life 
 from good love] ; for they who are in the truth of 
 faith from good, are in the Lord's power ; for they 
 attribute all power to Him, and none to themselves, 
 and the more they attribute all power to Him and 
 none to themselves, the greater power they are in ; 
 hence the angels are called Powers and Abilities. 
 That the hands, arms, and shoulders in the Greatest 
 Man correspond to power is because the forces and 
 powers of the whole body and of all its viscera con- 
 
THE HANDS. 
 
 2 59 
 
 centrate themselves there ; for the body exerts its 
 forces and powers by the arms and the hands." 
 
 " A naked arm bent forward, has been seen by 
 me, which had in it so great force and at the same 
 time such terror that not only was I terrified, but 
 it seemed as if I might be crushed to atoms, and 
 even as to inmosts ; it was irresistible. Twice this 
 arm has appeared to me ; and hence it has been 
 given me to know that arms signify strength, and 
 hands power. There was also felt a warmth ex- 
 haling from that arm. That naked arm is presented 
 to view in various positions, and according to them 
 strikes terror; and in the position just mentioned 
 incredible terror ; for it appears able to break to 
 pieces in an instant the bones and the marrows. 
 They who have not been timid in the life of the 
 body, are nevertheless in the other life driven into 
 the greatest terror by that arm." (A. C. 4932-4935.) 
 
 This arm, we are told, in H. H. 231, is presented 
 from those who are in the province of the arm, 
 and is an embodiment of their power ; but their 
 power is not theirs separate from the rest of the 
 heavens ; they are in the practical truths of the 
 uses of the heavens, and "into their truths good 
 flows in from the whole heaven," and hence is 
 
2 6o PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 their power. They exert their power in doing the 
 work of the heavens, especially for those who are 
 out of the heavens. " In general," Swedenborg 
 says, " angels of every society are sent to men, 
 to keep them, to withdraw them from evil affec- 
 tions and thoughts, and to inspire good affections 
 as far as they receive them freely, by which also 
 they rule the deeds or works of men, removing 
 as far as possible evil intentions." (H. H. 391.) 
 Again he says, — 
 
 " The will and understanding of man are ruled 
 by the Lord, by angels, and spirits ; and because 
 the will and understanding, also all things of the 
 body are so ruled, since these are thence. And if 
 you will believe it, man cannot even move a step 
 without the influx of heaven. That it is so has 
 been shown me by much experience ; it has been 
 given to angels to move my steps, my actions, my 
 tongue and speech as they would, and this by in- 
 flux into my will and thought ; and I found that I 
 could do nothing of myself. They said afterwards 
 that every man is so ruled, and that he might know 
 this from the doctrine of the Church and from 
 the Word, for he prays that God will send His 
 
THE HANDS. 261 
 
 angels who may lead him, guide his steps, teach 
 him, and inspire what he should think and what 
 he should speak, and other such things ; although 
 when he thinks in himself apart from doctrine, he 
 says and believes otherwise. These things are re- 
 lated that it may be known how great power angels 
 have with man. 
 
 " But the power of angels in the spiritual world 
 is so great, that if I were to publish all that I have 
 seen about it, it would exceed belief. If anything 
 there resists, which must be removed because it is 
 contrary to Divine order, they throw it down and 
 overturn it merely by an effort of the will and a 
 look. I have seen mountains which were occupied 
 by the evil, thus cast down, and overthrown, some- 
 times shaken to pieces from one end to the other, 
 as is the case in earthquakes, rocks also rent in the 
 middle even to the deep, and the evil who were 
 upon them swallowed up. I have also seen some 
 hundreds of thousands of evil spirits scattered and 
 cast into hell. Multitude avails nothing against 
 them, neither arts nor cunning nor combinations ; 
 they see all and in a moment dispel it. . . . Such 
 power they have in the spiritual world. That angels 
 have similar power in the natural world also, when 
 it is granted, is manifest from the Word ; as that 
 they gave whole armies to slaughter, that they 
 
262 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 caused a pestilence of which seventy thousand men 
 died ; of which angel it is thus written, f The angel 
 stretched out his hand against Jerusalem to destroy 
 it, but Jehovah repented Him of the evil, and said 
 to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough ; 
 stay now thy hand. And David saw the angel who 
 smote the people.' . . . Because the angels have 
 such power, they are called Powers ; and it is said 
 in David, ' Bless Jehovah ye His angels, most pow- 
 erful in strength.'" (H. H. 228, 229.) 
 
 We could hardly ask for a plainer account of 
 the work of the hands of the heavens. They 
 bring forth, and are the instruments of the 
 angelic love of doing good to men. They rule 
 the spirits that are with men, removing the evil 
 and strengthening the good. They are about us 
 as the organs of the Lord's Providence to protect, 
 guide, and care for us ; and through them the 
 whole heavens reach forth to share with men 
 their love and power to do good. We see their 
 work in the protection from danger which we ex- 
 perience daily and hourly ; in the leadings which 
 we so often follow away from unseen danger, or 
 
THE HANDS. 263 
 
 to unknown good ; in the sense of strong support 
 which comes in trouble ; and especially in the lift- 
 ing of the mind above the pains of the body and 
 the cares of the world even to the gates of heaven, 
 as the time of death gradually approaches. 
 
 They inspire the strength of a just cause, giv- 
 ing both protection and power to individuals and 
 to armies. They are an irresistible power present 
 with us, which can do anything that it is wise to 
 do for the benefit of mankind. 
 
 " All the powers of the life of the Greatest Man, 
 or heaven, terminate in the two hands and two feet ; 
 and the hands, as also the feet, terminate in ten 
 fingers or toes." (A. E. 675 end.) 
 
 The power of the Lord through heaven is ex- 
 erted through the angels of these provinces ; and 
 it is of them in a special sense, as the means of 
 the Lord's protection and providence about men, 
 that the Scriptures say, " The eternal God is thy 
 dwelling-place, and underneath are the everlasting 
 arms." (Deut. xxxiii. 27.) 
 
 The general functions of this kind are exercised 
 
264 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 by the hands as a whole ; particulars of the func- 
 tion are performed by individual fingers. The 
 angels of the thumb, like the thumb itself, can 
 have no leading part, but are effective in cooper- 
 ating with all those in the fingers. 
 
 The nails are of hair-like structure, protecting 
 and stiffening the ends of the fingers. They have 
 a correspondence with literal truths or precepts 
 concerning the uses to be done, held not intelli- 
 gently, but resolutely and inflexibly — thus for the 
 support of those who are sensitive and yielding. 
 
THE FEET 
 
 HTHE feet have many points of resemblance to 
 the hands ; their general structure is similar, 
 with some modifications, so that in cases of neces- 
 sity they are taught to do in some degree the 
 work of hands, and the hands are degraded to 
 the work of the feet. But they are not formed 
 for so great a variety of motions ; their solid part 
 is larger and firmer, and the movable divisions are 
 shorter and with much less capacity for varied and 
 quick movements. Their thumbs, also, or great 
 toes, are not intended to meet and assist the indi- 
 vidual motions of the other toes, but step squarely 
 with them, bearing a great part of the burden, 
 and merely balancing the others. As to touch, 
 again, though the feet are perhaps more sensi- 
 tive than the hands to impressions from without, 
 they have far less power of examining and individ- 
 ualizing the sources of those impressions. It is 
 
266 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 enough for them to know quickly that they are 
 there, and, if injurious, must be avoided or re- 
 moved. They leave it to the hands to examine 
 into the nature of them and do the work of re- 
 moving. Their work is to support the body, and 
 carry it firmly from place to place. They are not 
 intended to express and communicate what is in 
 us, nor to operate upon objects outside of our- 
 selves. They are simply to carry ourselves for- 
 ward, feeling the ground as they go, and stepping 
 firmly. 
 
 Swedenborg makes a curious statement in re- 
 gard to the sensitiveness of the feet, which ought 
 to be presented here. He says, — 
 
 " I wish also to add that those papillae or glands 
 which provide the sole of the foot with an acute 
 sense of touch, appear to be woven of fibres from 
 the cerebrum itself, which flow down the length of 
 the spinal cord, even to its extremity, and after- 
 wards go off in the nerves ; so that the sense of 
 touch of the sole itself communicates more imme- 
 diately with the cerebrum than the touch of ofher 
 parts of the body, whence there is a more acute 
 
THE FEET. 267 
 
 sense in the papillae, and their changes of state 
 are instantly presented to the cerebrum ; thus also 
 the lasts are connected with the firsts in the cor- 
 poreal system." (A. K. Part vii. p. 27.) 
 
 In treating of the correspondence of the hands 
 and the feet, Swedenborg says that " the hands 
 signify the interiors of the natural, and the feet 
 the exteriors of it" (n. 7442); also, "To lift the 
 hand signifies power in spiritual things ; and to 
 lift the foot signifies power in natural things," and 
 he explains, " By spiritual is meant that in the 
 natural which is of the light of heaven, and by 
 natural that which is of the light of the world." 
 (n. 5328.) 
 
 In describing the position of the heavens in the 
 Greatest Man, he states that "the highest heaven 
 forms the head even to the neck, the second or 
 middle heaven forms the breast to the loins and 
 the knees, and the lowest or first heaven forms the 
 feet even to the soles, and also the arms to the 
 fingers" (H. H. 65). To this he adds, "The church 
 on earth corresponds to the soles of the feet " 
 
268 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 (A. E. 606). And again, "The church not con- 
 joined to the church in the heavens is meant by 
 4 under the feet'; but when it is conjoined it is 
 meant by the feet." (A. R. 533.) 
 
 In explaining the words concerning the Two 
 Witnesses, that the Spirit of Life from God en- 
 tered into them, and they stood upon their feet, 
 he says, — 
 
 " By the Spirit of Life from God is signified 
 spiritual life, and by standing upon the feet is 
 signified natural life agreeing with spiritual, and 
 thus vivified by the Lord. That this is signified 
 is because by the Spirit of Life is meant the in- 
 ternal of man, which is called the internal man, 
 which regarded in itself is spiritual ; for the spirit 
 of man thinks and wills, and to think and to will 
 in itself is spiritual. By standing upon the feet 
 is signified the external of man, which also is 
 called the external man, which in itself is natural ; 
 for the body speaks and does what its spirit thinks 
 and wills, and to speak and do is natural. . . . 
 Every man who is reformed is first reformed as to 
 his internal man, and afterwards as to the external ; 
 the internal man is not reformed by merely know- 
 ing and understanding the truths and goods by 
 
THE FEET. 269 
 
 which man is saved, but by willing them and lov- 
 ing them ; but the external man by speaking and 
 doing the things which the internal man wills and 
 loves ; and as far as it does this, so far the man is 
 regenerated. That he is not regenerated before is 
 because his internal is not before in effect, but 
 only in cause, and the cause unless it be in the 
 effect is dissipated. It is like a house built upon 
 the ice, which falls to the bottom when the ice is 
 melted by the sun ; in a word, it is like a man 
 without feet upon which he can stand and walk ; 
 such is the internal or spiritual man unless it is 
 founded in the external or natural." (A. R. 510.) 
 
 The two witnesses were the acknowledgment of 
 the Divine Human of the Lord, and a life accord- 
 ing to the Commandments ; and they stood upon 
 their feet full of the spirit of life from God when 
 these two essentials of the New Church were fully 
 received by Swedenborg and the angels associated 
 with him, and were brought down into the world 
 in his life. (See A. E. 665.) 
 
 In general, to walk is to live ; and, in a good 
 sense, it is to live in the Lord's ways, and to 
 carry the spirit into the new states to which His 
 
270 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 ways lead. As the hands, therefore, are the love 
 of communicating and doing good, the feet are 
 the love of obeying and of doing right. 
 
 The provinces from the knees to the feet are in 
 this love of obedience ; and men on earth are in 
 conjunction with them and live with their power 
 when they love above all things to live the Com- 
 mandments from the Lord. Through this love 
 the Lord leads the race into new states and con- 
 ditions of life. In the heavens the experiences 
 acquired here are better understood, and attain 
 fuller development ; but here the advance is made 
 into the new conditions and applications of truth, 
 which is appropriately done by those in the prov- 
 ince of the feet. 
 
 If we may trust Swedenborg's statement about 
 the connection between the sensitive soles of the 
 feet and the cerebrum, we should infer that not 
 only are they who love the commandments living 
 in unity with the lowest heaven, but they receive 
 also the immediate attention and care of the angels 
 with whom the Lord is most sensibly present, the 
 
THE FEET. 
 
 271 
 
 wisest of the angels, who thus are enabled to 
 care for their state with all the resources of the 
 heavens, especially by commanding for their ser- 
 vice the provinces of the hands and arms and legs 
 and feet. 
 
 I will add only a word in regard to the differ- 
 ence between the right and the left sides. " The 
 things which are on the right side," Swedenborg 
 tells us, " correspond to good from which are 
 truths, and the things of the left side correspond 
 to truths by which is good/' (A. C. 10,061.) 
 
 The right hand, therefore, responds to the call 
 of the will, and expresses the power of the will ; 
 but the motions of the left are made with thought 
 and comparative difficulty, and are also weaker. 
 
 But in walking, the left foot is by common 
 usage made the leading foot, and Swedenborg 
 declares that evil spirits turn their bodies about 
 from right to left, but good spirits from left to 
 right. (D. L. W. 270.) The cause of this he as- 
 cribes to the direction of the heavenly gyres in 
 the good, and the contrary direction in the evil. 
 
272 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 But the cause of this may be that it is good and 
 heavenly for the will to be guided by the under- 
 standing, and to learn to love what is true and 
 right ; but it is infernal for the will to compel the 
 understanding to think from and to confirm the 
 natural desires and impulses. 
 
THE EAR. 
 
 HPHE external ear is an organ for receiving and 
 collecting the vibrations which we recognize 
 as sound. This outer ear is composed of elastic, 
 vibratory cartilage, covered closely with a protect- 
 ing skin, and thrown into sweeping folds, no doubt 
 conforming to the natural sweeps of aerial undu- 
 lations, and designed to catch them all, coming 
 from every direction, and conduct them to the 
 inner ear. This is a conduction of vibrations, not 
 of air; and it is accomplished partly by the recep- 
 tion of the vibrations by the cartilage itself, and 
 partly by the reflection and concentration of these 
 vibrations into the column of air leading into the 
 auditory tube. No doubt the vibrations of the 
 cartilage and those of the adjacent air make one ; 
 and as the cartilage reflects and turns the little 
 waves towards the inner ear, it accompanies them 
 with sympathetic tremblings to the bony passage, 
 
2 74 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 and, on the under side, even half-way through the 
 passage; nor does it leave them till it has had 
 time to impart its tremulous sympathy to the 
 bone itself, with which it is strongly and closely 
 connected. 
 
 Across this bony tube, at a distance of a little 
 less than an inch from the surface of the skull, 
 is stretched a membrane commonlv called the 
 drum of the ear. It is really a triple membrane, 
 composed of a fibrous layer in the middle stretched 
 from bone to bone, covered outside by a delicate 
 continuation of the skin which lines the tube, and 
 inside by another delicate membrane continuous 
 with the lining of the middle cavity of the ear. 
 
 Upon this drum, or tympanum, are concentrated 
 all the motions which have been gathered from 
 the atmosphere, which are now imparted to the 
 drum by the air itself, which is in contact with 
 it ; by the lining membrane of the tube, which 
 forms the outer skin of the drum ; and by the 
 tremblings of the bone in which the circumfer- 
 ence of its middle layer is inserted. 
 
THE EAR. 
 
 275 
 
 The sounds that thus come to the drum of the 
 ear are a confused mass, in immense variety as to 
 force, pitch and quality, mingled together appar- 
 ently in hopeless perplexity. It is like the stream 
 of fluids brought to a gland — as, for instance, by 
 the portal vein to the liver — there to be strained 
 and sorted ; the worthless to be cast out, the better 
 sort to be put to a low use, and the pure, refined 
 stream to be sent into the circulation for the bene- 
 fit of the life of the body. 
 
 In the ear the stream to be examined is not 
 a stream of fluid, but of motion ; and we must 
 look not for open passages, but for conductors of 
 vibrations. 
 
 In the drum of the ear, with its adjacent bony 
 wall, the expectant mass of vibrations is collected, 
 searching for avenues of entrance. Conspicuous 
 among these avenues is .a chain of three small 
 bones, one end of which is attached to the middle 
 of the drum, at the point of greatest motion, and 
 the other, in shape like the flat plate of a stirrup, 
 is continuous as to its periosteum with another 
 
276 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 little membranous window on the opposite side of 
 the chamber across which the chain is extended. 
 That inner membranous window is the entrance 
 to another chamber, properly called the inner ear, 
 whose wonderful structure w 7 e w r ill consider pres- 
 ently. The chamber crossed by the chain of bones 
 is called the middle ear. The bones are arranged 
 as a series of levers in such a manner that what- 
 ever motion is imparted to them by the drum is 
 carried to the inner window with a somewhat 
 diminished range of motion, but proportionately 
 increased force. They seem capable of receiving 
 and transmitting every variety and form of atmos- 
 pheric tremble ; but, however rapidly the trem- 
 blings may succeed one another, only one pulsation 
 can be conveyed at a time, and thus the pulsations 
 to be examined are in a degree strained of their 
 conflicting elements, arranged in a sequence, and 
 transmitted distinctly to the inner ear. Other 
 vibrations not thus conveyed successively and dis- 
 tinctly by the bones, are transmitted more ob- 
 scurely by the air which fills the middle ear, and 
 
THE EAR. 
 
 277 
 
 also by its lining membrane and bony walls, and 
 are received obscurely by the free rim of the 
 membranous window to which the chain is applied, 
 by another membranous window, called the round 
 window, and by the bony wall of the inner ear. 
 The most violent vibrations, which, if allowed to 
 act with unmodified force would injure the inner 
 ear, are as it were rejected by the way of the 
 Eustachian tube, which leads from the middle ear 
 to the pharynx ; and perhaps are neutralized in 
 part by the air of the large air-cells in the mas- 
 toid process, which opens into the middle ear 
 opposite to the Eustachian tube. 
 
 The particular stream of pulsations which shall 
 be received by the little bones is in a considerable 
 degree determined by small muscles, which, by 
 pulling upon the bones, regulate the tension of 
 the membranes, and thus tune them to receive 
 most distinctly the sounds selected. In this, too, 
 the ear resembles the glands, every one of which 
 draws to itself a stream of such materials as it 
 desires. 
 
278 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 It is in part because the ear has this power 
 of selection that the Lord commands us, " Take 
 heed what ye hear." 
 
 It is by the action of these muscles that we 
 are enabled to attend to the sounds of a single 
 instrument in an orchestra, one part in a choir, 
 one voice in a company, an individual bird or 
 cricket in the chorus of a summer's day ; which 
 sound thus chosen is carried to the inner ear dis- 
 tinctly by the chain of bones, and is accompanied 
 obscurely by the other sounds. 
 
 Arrived at the oval window of the inner ear, 
 the current of pulsations finds ready admittance, 
 and permeates with its successive thrills a delicate 
 fluid which fills all the chambers of the inner ear, 
 containing freely suspended in itself minute stony 
 particles. And, first, it is received in a somewhat 
 spacious ante-room, or vestibule, whose wall is 
 loosely lined with an inner wall of membrane plen- 
 tifully supplied with fibres of the auditory nerve. 
 
 As the pulsations advance successively to the 
 inner chambers, their more subtile elements will 
 
THE EAR. 279 
 
 be disclosed and set free ; but here at the entrance 
 their general quality is first perceived, as to its 
 loudness or softness, continuity or interruptions ; 
 to which general perception the simple form of 
 the anteroom is well adapted. 
 
 From the part of the vestibule sometimes called 
 " the utriculus," open three semi-circular canals. 
 These, like the vestibule, enclose loose membra- 
 nous linings which repeat their own forms, and 
 which, in a bulb-like swelling at one end of each 
 canal, contain a large supply of nervous fibres. 
 
 At present the scientific view of these canals is 
 that their use is not as organs of hearing, but as 
 means of preserving the equilibrium. No doubt 
 they have this use ; but it is not so easy to believe 
 that they have no part in the function of hearing. 
 The eyes, also, in some persons, are an important 
 means of equilibration ; but no one can doubt that 
 this is secondary to their function of sight. In 
 the eyes, however, the assistance in preserving the 
 equilibrium is dependent on the sight ; but this 
 service from the canals does not at all depend 
 
2 8o PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 upon the hearing, but upon the motion of the 
 fluid contents. 
 
 The membranous canals exist in fishes, and 
 their bony walls also in reptiles, which have 
 scarcely a trace of the inmost part of the ear, 
 the cochlea, which receives its full development 
 only in warm-blooded animals, and especially in 
 mammals. 
 
 If the canals do have any part in the hearing, 
 probably it is to distinguish articulations ; for the 
 first process in analysis should be to measure 
 the last modification given to the tones, which, in 
 speaking, is by the mouth in forming words. It 
 seems as if the canals lying on three sides of a 
 cube could measure any form that could be given 
 by the mouth. 
 
 Having received from the stream of sound the 
 impression of force and quantity in the vestibule, 
 and possibly of the forms of its articulations in 
 the canals, there remain to be distinctly perceived 
 its pitch and musical quality, and those more deli- 
 cate thrills within the tones, which express the 
 
THE EAR. 281 
 
 interior affection of the speakers or singers, and 
 which are commonly attributed wholly to the 
 " overtones," but may in part have another origin. 
 For this analysis, we have left an instrument of 
 exquisite adaptation to the purpose called " the 
 cochlea." 
 
 Into the hollow centre of a spiral staircase, 
 resembling in its outer covering two and a half 
 turns of a snail-shell, enters a large nerve, which 
 extends its fibres plentifully over the elastic, bony 
 stairs. These delicate plates of bone are attached 
 at their inner ends to the core of the shell. At 
 the lower part, where the diameter is large, they 
 are long ; but they diminish with the spiral to the 
 top, like the diminishing teeth of the comb of a 
 musical-box. At their outer end they are free, 
 but there the membranes which cover them above 
 and below separate, and leave a triangular space 
 between them as they run divergently to the 
 outer wall of the shell. In this little spiral 
 chamber, coiled at the outer edge of the stairs, 
 is a most delicate apparatus of nervous fibres 
 
282 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 and cells and hairs, almost too minute for the 
 microscope, called the " organ of Corti." 
 
 We must not forget to notice that the shell is 
 filled above and below the staircase with conduct- 
 ing fluid, which passes freely from one side to 
 the other through an opening over the stairs ; 
 that the space over the staircase opens immedi- 
 ately into the vestibule ; and that under the 
 .staircase is the membrane of the round window, 
 communicating with the middle ear. 
 
 The elastic, bony fibres of the staircase are 
 sufficient in number and variety to harmonize in 
 vibration with musical tones of any shades of 
 pitch which we have the power to appreciate ; 
 and at their extremities lies an apparatus dis- 
 tinctly more minute and exquisite, capable of ap- 
 preciating an inner music within the music, if 
 such there may be. 
 
 The organ of Corti does not exist in birds ; 
 though they undoubtedly can distinguish varia- 
 tions of pitch quickly and accurately. 
 
 It is still a question among physiologists, whether 
 
THE EAR. 
 
 283 
 
 the vibrations which arc perceived as sound affect 
 the bones and fluids of the ear as to their masses 
 or as to their particles, — whether for example, the 
 little chain of the middle ear is shaken as a chain, 
 or communicates the thrills of sound by the vibra- 
 tions of the particles of bone and membrane of 
 which the chain is composed. 
 
 Swedenborg believed that both motions existed, 
 — that the larger forms of motion and of sound 
 were communicated by the general motions of 
 the bones and fluids, and that a more subtile 
 tremor permeated the very substance of the bones, 
 membranes, and fluids. 
 
 The things extracted or secreted from the stream 
 of sound by the laboratory of the ear are not fluids 
 or solids, but motions ; they are not even forms 
 of fluids or solids, as are the impressions received 
 by the organs of touch, taste, and smell ; but they 
 are forms of living activity. And these varieties 
 of living motion are distinctly communicated to 
 the fibres of the auditory nerve, and by them 
 imparted to the brain. 
 
284 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 The portion of the brain which is the seat of 
 the conscious reception of sounds through the 
 ear, lies quite near, in what is called the superior 
 tempero-sphenoidal convolution. But an impor- 
 tant part of the auditory nerve goes direct to the 
 cerebellum, which is the seat of the affections of 
 the life, and of involuntary motion, and there has 
 a tendency to produce immediate impulsive action 
 in response to its impulses. 
 
 The optic nerves are cerebral nerves, having no 
 direct communication with the cerebellum. They 
 minister, therefore, primarily to the intelligence ; 
 but the auditory nerves minister directly to the 
 affections as well as to the intelligence. Probably 
 the conscious hearing, with intelligent reception of 
 the ideas conveyed by the sounds, is in the con- 
 volution of the cerebrum especially devoted to this 
 sense. Other effects of warning or guidance or 
 direction, are produced through the cerebellum, 
 and by indirect communication with other parts 
 of the cerebrum. 
 
THE EAR. 
 
 285 
 
 "The things which enter by the sense of sight, 
 enter into man's understanding and enlighten him ; 
 . . . but the things which enter by the sense of 
 hearing, enter into the understanding and at the 
 same time into the will ; wherefore by the hearing 
 is signified perception and obedience. Hence it is 
 that in human language it is a received form of ex- 
 pression to speak of hearing any one, and also of 
 giving ear to any one ; likewise of being a hearer, 
 and of hearkening ; and by hearing any one is un- 
 derstood to perceive, and by giving ear to any one 
 is meant to obey ; as also by being a hearer; and 
 both are signified by hearkening. This form of ex- 
 pression has flowed down from the spiritual world, 
 in which the spirit of man is ; but whence this is 
 in the spiritual world shall also be explained. They 
 who, in the spiritual world, are in the province of 
 the ear, are forms of obedience from perception ; 
 . . . and the province of the ear is in the axis of 
 heaven, and- therefore into it, or into those who are 
 there, the whole spiritual world flows, with the per- 
 ception that it must so be done ; for this is the 
 reigning perception in heaven ; hence it is that 
 they who are in that province are forms of obedi- 
 ence from perception. 
 
 "That the things which enter by hearing, enter 
 immediately by the understanding into the will, 
 
286 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 may be further illustrated by the instruction of 
 the angels of the celestial kingdom, who are the 
 wisest. Those angels receive all their wisdom by 
 hearing, and not by sight ; for whatever they hear 
 of Divine things, from veneration and love, they 
 receive in the will and make of their life. . . . From 
 these things it is manifest that hearing is given to 
 man chiefly for receiving wisdom, but sight for 
 receiving intelligence ; wisdom is to perceive, will, 
 and do ; intelligence is to learn and perceive." (A. 
 
 E. 14.)* 
 
 " The spirits who correspond to the hearing, or 
 who constitute the province of the ear, are they 
 who are in simple obedience, that is, who do not 
 reason whether a thing be so, but because it is so 
 said by others, they believe that it is so. . . . There 
 are many varieties of the spirits who correspond to 
 the ear, that is, to its functions and offices ; there 
 are those who relate to each little organ in it, to 
 the external ear, to the membrane which is called 
 the drum of the ear, to the interior membranes 
 which are called windows (fenestrate), to the malleus, 
 the stapes, the incus, the canals, the cochlea, and 
 to parts still deeper, even to those substances which 
 are nearer to the spirit, and which at length are in 
 
 * Also H. H. 270, 271. 
 
THE EAR. 287 
 
 the spirit, and lastly are intimately conjoined with 
 those who belong to the internal sight, from whom 
 they are distinguished by this, that they have not 
 so much discernment, but assent to them as if 
 passive." (A. C. 4653.) 
 
 " There was a spirit who spoke with me at the 
 left auricle, at its hinder part, where are the elevat- 
 ing muscles of the auricle ; he told me that he was 
 sent to say that he does not at all reflect upon the 
 things which others say, provided he takes them 
 in with his ears. ... It was said that such as attend 
 little to the sense of a thing, are they who belong 
 to the cartilaginous and bony part of the external 
 ear." (n. 4656.) 
 
 "To the interiors of the ear belong those who 
 have the sight of the inner hearing, and obey what 
 its spirit there dictates, and express its dictates 
 fitly." 
 
 After describing some who seem to have been 
 perversions of the faculty, he says that one came 
 to him who was said to have been " a person of 
 the highest reputation in the learned world, and it 
 was given me to believe that it was Aristotle." 
 
 Sweclenborg perceived that the things which he 
 had written were from interior thought, and that 
 
288 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 the philosophical terms which he invented were 
 not mere terms with him, as they were with 
 many of his followers, but were descriptive of in- 
 terior things ; " and that he was excited to such 
 things by the delight of affection and the desire 
 of knowing the things which were of thought, and 
 that he followed obediently the things which his 
 spirit had dictated ; wherefore he applied himself 
 to the right ear." 
 
 After relating some intelligent conversation with 
 him concerning analytical knowledge, and about 
 the Lord, Swedenborg continues, — 
 
 " A woman appeared to me, who stretched out 
 her hand, wishing to stroke his cheek ; when I 
 wondered at this, he said that when he was in the 
 world such a woman often appeared to him, who as 
 it were stroked his cheek, and that her hand was 
 beautiful. The angelic spirits said that such women 
 sometimes appeared to the ancients, and were called 
 by them Pallades, and that she appeared to him 
 from spirits who when they lived as men in ancient 
 times, were delighted with ideas and indulged in 
 thoughts, but without philosophy, and because such 
 spirits were with him, and were delighted with him 
 
THE EAR. 
 
 because he thought interiorly, they presented rep- 
 resentatively such a woman." (n. 4658.) 
 
 These things are said to illustrate the quality 
 of men who relate to the inner ear, namely, that 
 they have an interior perception of truth as if 
 it were told to them ; and that they speak and 
 write it obediently, delighting in it, and perceiv- 
 ing that it is true because it agrees with their 
 interior life. 
 
 In the Greatest Man they are in the outer ear 
 who love to receive by hearing and impart what 
 they receive without discrimination of quality, 
 though as they are a part of heaven, they must 
 have greater general delight in receiving and 
 faithfully repeating good things. The drum of 
 the ear loves to collect in a summary, in which 
 all particulars are fairly and fully presented, all 
 that comes from the outer reporters, The bones 
 love to draw from that summary whatever coheres 
 in a sequence, and with an inflexible stiffness 
 to prevent anything from passing which will not 
 make part of a receivable sequence. The vesti- 
 
290 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 bule loves to perceive and to transmit to the 
 brain and to the whole heaven its impressions 
 of the power and quantity of the truth received. 
 As organs of equilibration, the correspondence of 
 the semi-circular canals is perhaps indicated by 
 the common expression " to keep a level head," 
 that is, to keep a clear sense of our position and 
 relation to circumstances, and of what is to be 
 done. If they have any part in the hearing, as 
 suggested, it is likely to be a part relating defin- 
 itely to what is to be done, and this, perhaps, is 
 the discernment of articulation. And the cochlea 
 loves to know the inner wisdom and purpose of 
 the instruction, in its effect upon the harmony 
 of the heavens and their openness to receive in- 
 terior life from the Lord, which effects conjunc- 
 tion with Him. 
 
 All the desire of the heavens for these things 
 is concentrated in the ears ; and the ears, in turn, 
 transmit to the desiring angels the instruction 
 they receive, with their own love for it, and 
 desire to obey it. 
 
THE EAR. 
 
 291 
 
 As to whence come the sounds to the angels 
 of the ears, we have no instruction. But they 
 may come in part from spirits and men outside 
 of the heavens ; for we read that the thoughts 
 of these from affection are heard in heaven : — 
 
 "The supplication, although tacit, of those who 
 supplicate from the heart, is heard as a cry in 
 heaven. This is the case when men only think, 
 and more when they bemoan themselves, from a 
 sincere heart. ... It is the same with those who 
 mourn ; (do lent for do cent) they are heard in heaven 
 as crying. Not only the thoughts, but more espe- 
 cially the affections, which are of good and truth, 
 speak in heaven. . . . Affections for evil and falsity 
 are not at all heard in heaven, even if the man who 
 supplicates from them cries aloud with his hands 
 tightly closed, and raises them and his eyes to 
 heaven. These are heard in hell, and there also as 
 cries if they are ardent." (A. C. 9202.) * 
 
 Affections and prayers that are only individual, 
 we should suppose would be heard only by indi- 
 viduals or small societies ; but those that express 
 
 * Also see S. D. 4821. 
 
292 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 general states of the community might be heard 
 by larger bodies. 
 
 Also those in the province of the ears maybe 
 affected by the speech of those in the provinces 
 of the lungs and the mouth, who utter the Word 
 of the Lord and thoughts of Divine wisdom from 
 it. 
 
 To the inner ear, besides the interior wisdom 
 received from this source, may there not come 
 also interior perceptions of wisdom from the Lord 
 Himself, as we now receive them from spirits and 
 angels ? 
 
THE EYE. 
 
 U HT*HE light of the body is the eye." Through 
 the eye the light affects the body, informs 
 the brain, and through the brain all other organs 
 of the body. And in the brain it meets the 
 mind, which there delights in the forms of life 
 which the eye presents to it, and flashes forth 
 through the eye a responsive, spiritual light, ex- 
 pressive of intelligence and love of knowing. 
 
 With a peculiar tenderness, the body guards and 
 protects its delicate organ of light, enclosing it in 
 a strong, bony socket, just beneath the brain, 
 which socket it softly wads, and then lines with 
 smooth and carefully lubricated membranes. It 
 shades it and protects it from blows by project- 
 ing the roof over it like eaves, and turns away 
 the descending moisture of the forehead by the 
 capillary eaves-trough of the eye-brows. 
 
 It closes and rests the eyes with smoothly- 
 
294 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 fitting, elastic shutters, which are provided each 
 with a reservoir of tears, and are ever on the 
 watch to remove with moistened touch every par- 
 ticle of dust, and to keep the surface of the eye 
 bright, clear, and moist. 
 
 As to these protecting parts, there is slight 
 analogy between the eye and the ear ; for the ear 
 deals with the undulations of the air and needs 
 protection only from the insects and coarser par- 
 ticles which fly in the air; its protective organs 
 are therefore limited to a few hairs and the adhe- 
 sive cerumen which guard and moisten the audi- 
 tory passage. But the eye is concerned with the 
 undulations of the ether, and needs protection . 
 from the drying, chilling, and chafing of the air 
 itself as well as from all the foreign particles 
 contained in it. 
 
 Internally the structure of the eye is more 
 closely analogous to that of the ear, and we may 
 obtain valuable aid from the grosser organ in 
 tracing the sequence of uses in the more delicate. 
 
 First, in the ear, we observe the visible auricle 
 
THE EYE. 
 
 2 95 
 
 with its convolutions turned every way to catch 
 and concentrate the vibrations of the air. In the 
 eye the correlative function is performed by the 
 cornea, — a totally different organ in appearance, 
 but perfectly qualified to receive and concentrate 
 upon the inner parts of the eye the undulatory 
 rays in the ether. 
 
 In the ear next we find the tympanum, which 
 receives in a confused mass all the sounds gath- 
 ered by the outer ear, and begins the work of 
 assorting them; first by neutralizing the most vio- 
 lent shocks, with the help of the inner air-cham- 
 ber, the mastoid process, and the Eustachian tube, 
 and then by transmitting its central undulations in 
 a successive stream to the little chain of bones. 
 
 The multitude of rays of light gathered by the 
 cornea from various directions are received simi- 
 larly upon the iris, which immediately absorbs 
 and neutralizes by its own pigment cells and dark 
 lining membrane the rays that are too divergent 
 and scattering for service, also cutting off by the 
 closing of its pupil those that are too intense, 
 
296 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 and transmits through its centre — the pupil of 
 the eye — the rays that are most fit to form 
 distinct images. 
 
 Over the bones of the ear are communicated 
 successively, one by one, the vibrations of the 
 air, to the window of the inner ear, where the 
 first branches of the auditory nerve are expanded, 
 and the sense of hearing properly begins. And 
 through the pupil and the lenses of the eye — 
 aqueous, crystalline, and vitreous — are brought to- 
 gether upon the surface of the retina, or the first 
 general expansion of the optic nerve, the rays that 
 proceed successively from the same objects, and 
 are capable of leaving a distinct impression of 
 their form and colors. The ear has the power 
 of selecting the series of sounds to which it will 
 attend, as the notes of a single instrument in an 
 orchestra, by attuning in agreement with them the 
 tympanum and the window of the inner ear, by 
 means of the little muscles attached to the chain 
 of bones ; and those sounds to which it is attuned 
 are transmitted distinctly, but others obscurely. 
 
rim e ye. 
 
 297 
 
 And so the eye has the power of adjusting its 
 sequence of lenses to receive and concentrate dis- 
 tinctly the rays that come from a particular object, 
 at the same time that they transmit obscurely 
 those that come from other objects. This power 
 it has partly from the muscles which turn the 
 head, and the smaller muscles which direct the 
 eye-ball in a particular direction ; but especially 
 from the ciliary muscle which encircles the crys- 
 talline lens, and by increasing or diminishing the 
 convexity of its face, attuning it, as it were to the 
 rays that come from different distances, according 
 to the desire of observing. 
 
 Within the inner ear we traced in order the 
 apparatus for distinguishing quantity or intensity 
 of sound, articulation, pitch (including harmony 
 and melody), and pathos. And the greater part 
 of this apparatus is on a comparatively large scale, 
 because the undulatory forms which it measures 
 are those of the lowest atmosphere, which is the 
 air. 
 
 The correlative qualities of light, which the eye 
 
298 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 measures, are those of light and shade, or inten- 
 sity — which seem to correspond to the qualities 
 perceived in the vestibule of the ear, and which 
 first strike a child's eye, or our own half-closed — 
 then the particulars of form, corresponding to 
 those of articulation ; and then the varieties of 
 color, to which we apply the term harmony. 
 
 The instruments by which these qualities are 
 appropriately received, and their properties of 
 varied motion are conveyed to the brain, must 
 be as delicate as the vibratory forms of the 
 ether. It is no wonder that, except as to their 
 most general structure, they have so long escaped 
 observation. The closely-woven, nervous net-work, 
 from which the retina has its name, has, until 
 recently, been the only sensitive part of the appa- 
 ratus described ; but now, behind the retina, and 
 extending from its fibres outward to the layer 
 of pigment cells of the choroid coat of the eye, 
 is described a minute and highly complicated ner- 
 vous structure of granules and fibres and inter- 
 lacings, terminating in a closely set apparatus of 
 
THE EYE. 299 
 
 minutest rods alternating with cones. It is like 
 an exquisitely organized velvet nap standing upon 
 the expanded tissue of the optic nerve. 
 
 The precise functions of the several parts of this 
 structure are not known ; but it is plain that we 
 have here presented forms sufficiently varied and 
 delicate for the wonderful work required of them. 
 
 The nerves of sight seem to be connected espe- 
 cially with the convolution of the brain which is 
 called the " angular gyrus," and also to have con- 
 nection with the whole of the occipital lobes. If 
 any part of these is in good order, and the con- 
 nection undisturbed, the sense of sight is possible. 
 No doubt there is indirect communication with 
 other parts of the brain ; but not such as to give 
 the sense of sight. 
 
 The auditory nerve, as has been said, as to 
 one important branch, communicates directly with 
 the cerebellum, and is the means of affecting the 
 feelings directly as well as the intelligence. The 
 nerve of sight affects the intelligence, and the feel- 
 ings only through the intelligence. 
 
300 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 There is a further difference between the ani- 
 mations of sound and those of light, as between 
 generals and particulars. For the ether by its 
 compositions produces the air, as materials of the 
 air again are consolidated into water. The activi- 
 ties of the ether, therefore, affect the minute 
 forms of the brain of which the generals are com- 
 posed, or the single glands by the combination of 
 which are formed composite glands. 
 
 As, therefore, through the air and by the ears, 
 general animations are communicated, through the 
 ether and by the eye are given particulars which 
 fill those generals, and which never can be de- 
 scribed to the hearing. We know this to be true, 
 practically, in regard to scenery and to every work 
 of nature ; and Swedenborg says that in heaven 
 the angels express to the eye by the curves and 
 points of their writing, ideas which cannot be 
 communicated by sound. 
 
 The hearing corresponds to the love of being 
 instructed, guided, and affected obediently; and 
 the correspondence of the sight is with the love 
 
THE EYE. 
 
 301 
 
 of obtaining clear, distinct ideas, of being intelli- 
 gent in spiritual things and wise in heavenly 
 things. t 
 
 Swedenborg says, — 
 
 "That the sense of sight corresponds to the 
 affection of understanding and being wise, is be- 
 cause the sight of the body altogether corresponds 
 to the sight of its spirit, thus to the understanding. 
 For there are two lights, one which is of the world 
 from the sun, and another which is of heaven from 
 the Lord ; in the light of the world there is no 
 intelligence, but in the light of heaven there is in- 
 telligence. Hence as far as the things in man 
 which are of the light of the world are illuminated 
 by those which are of the light of heaven, so far 
 man is intelligent and wise ; that is, as far as they 
 correspond.'' (A. C. 4405.) 
 
 " The eye is the most noble organ of the face, 
 and communicates with the understanding more 
 immediately than the other sensory organs of man. 
 It is also modified by a more subtile atmosphere 
 than the ear." (n. 4407.) 
 
 " It has been made plain to me by much experi- 
 ence that the sight of the left eye corresponds to 
 truths which are of the understanding, and the 
 right eye to affections of truth which also are of 
 
302 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 the understanding ; hence that the left eye corre- 
 sponds to truths of faith, and the right eye to good 
 
 things of faith." (n. 4410.) 
 1 
 
 Perhaps we might interpret these words as 
 meaning that the left eye corresponds to the 
 understanding of things that we clearly perceive 
 to be so ; and the right eye to the understanding 
 of things that we love ; or that the left eye cor- 
 responds to the understanding of what is true, 
 and the right eye to the understanding of what 
 is good. 
 
 "All things in the eye have their correspond- 
 ences in the heavens ; as the three humors, aqueous, 
 vitreous, and crystalline ; and not only the humors 
 but the coats also, — yea, every part. The more 
 interior things of the eye have the more beautiful 
 and pleasant correspondences, but differently in 
 each heaven. The light which proceeds from the 
 Lord, when it flows into the inmost or third heaven, 
 is received there as good which is called charity ; 
 and when it flows into the middle or second heaven, 
 mediately and immediately, it is received as truth 
 which is from charity ; but when this truth flows 
 into the lowest or first heaven, mediately and im- 
 
THE E YE. 
 
 303 
 
 mediately, it is received substantially, and appears 
 there as a paradise, and elsewhere as a city in 
 which are palaces. Thus the correspondences suc- 
 ceed one another even to the external sight of the 
 angels. Likewise in man, in the ultimate of sight, 
 which is the eye, it is presented materially through 
 the sight, whose objects are the things of the visi- 
 ble world. Man w r ho is in love and charity, and 
 thence in faith, has his interiors such ; for they 
 correspond to the three heavens, and he is in form 
 a very little heaven." (n. 441 1.) 
 
 " There was a certain person who was known to 
 me in the life of the body, but not as to his dispo- 
 sition and interior affections ; he has occasionally 
 conversed with me in the other life, but a little 
 at a distance. He usually manifested himself by 
 pleasant representatives ; for he could present such 
 things as were delightful, as colors of every kind, 
 and beautiful colored forms ; he could introduce 
 infants beautifully decorated, and very many like 
 things which are pleasant and enjoyable. He acted 
 by a gentle and soft influx, and this into the coat 
 of the left eye. By such means he insinuated him- 
 self into the affections of others, with the end of 
 making their life pleasant and delightful. It was 
 said to me by the angels that such are they who 
 belong to the coats of the eye, and that they com- 
 
3°4 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 municate with the paradisal heavens where truths 
 and goods are represented in substantial form." 
 (n. 4412.) 
 
 These paradisal heavens, or societies, I infer 
 are in the eyes of the lowest heaven, and com- 
 municate by correspondence with the same prov- 
 inces of the interior heavens. 
 
 The eyes of the inner heavens are delighted 
 with the perception of interior goodness and truth, 
 presented in simplest forms; but the eyes of the 
 lower heavens love to see and to cause others to 
 see the same things in full representatives. Of 
 these Swedenborg further teaches, — 
 
 " The eye, or rather its sight, corresponds espe- 
 cially with those societies in the other life, which 
 are in paradisal things, which appear above, a little 
 to the right, where are presented to the life gar- 
 dens with so many genera and species of trees and 
 flowers that those in the whole world are respec- 
 tively few. In every object there, there is some- 
 thing of intelligence and wisdom which shines 
 forth, so that you may say that they are at the 
 same time in paradises of intelligence and wisdom. 
 
THE EYE. 
 
 305 
 
 These are the things which affect those who are 
 there from the mmosts, and thus gladden not only 
 their sight, but also at the same time their under- 
 standing. Those paradisal things are in the first 
 heaven, and in the very entrance to the interiors 
 of that heaven, and are representatives which de- 
 scend from the higher heaven when the angels of 
 the higher heaven converse together intellectually 
 concerning the truths of faith. The speech of the 
 angels there is by spiritual and celestial ideas, which 
 to them are forms of expression, and continually by 
 series of representations of such beauty and pleas- 
 antness as cannot at all be described. These beau- 
 ties and pleasantnesses of their discourse are what 
 are represented as paradisal things in the lower 
 heaven. This heaven is distinguished into several 
 heavens, to which correspond the particulars which 
 are in the chambers of the eye. There is the heaven 
 where are the paradisal gardens which have been 
 spoken of ; there is a heaven where are variously 
 colored atmospheres, where the whole air glitters as 
 if from gold, silver, pearls, precious stones, flowers, 
 in minute forms, and innumerable other things ; 
 there is a rainbow heaven, where are most beau- 
 tiful rainbows, great and small, variegated with 
 most splendid colors. Every one of these things 
 exists by the light which is from the Lord, in which 
 
3°<5 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 are intelligence and wisdom ; hence there is in every 
 object there, something of intelligence of truth and 
 of wisdom of good, which is thus presented repre- 
 sentatively." (n. 4528.) 
 
 Swedenborg also describes " beautiful shrub- 
 beries and most pleasant flower-gardens of im- 
 mense extent," in which everything shines with 
 the changeful light of intelligence and wisdom. 
 And he adds, — 
 
 "They who are in the intelligence itself and the 
 wisdom, from which those things originate, are in 
 such a state of happiness that the things which 
 have been mentioned are esteemed by them of but 
 little importance. Some also who had said when 
 in the paradisal things that they exceeded every 
 degree of happiness, were therefore taken more 
 toward the right into a heaven which shone with 
 still greater splendor, where was likewise the bles- 
 sedness of the intelligence and wisdom which was 
 in such things ; and then when they were there, 
 speaking with me again, they said that the things 
 which they had seen before were respectively noth- 
 ing. And at length they were taken to that heaven 
 where from the satisfaction of interior affection they 
 could scarcely subsist ; for the satisfaction pene- 
 
THE E YE. 
 
 307 
 
 trated to the marrows, which being as it were dis- 
 solved by the satisfaction, they began to fall into 
 a holy swoon." (n. 4529.) 
 
 Here are described, apparently, those who con- 
 stitute the successively interior parts of the eye. 
 Possibly they who are in the first sensitive coat 
 and the adjacent humor love the paradisal repre- 
 sentatives ; those in a more interior province de- 
 light in the intelligence and wisdom represented; 
 and those in an inmost department are satisfied 
 with the interior affection from which that wisdom 
 exists. 
 
 These provinces, as here described, appear to 
 have been near together and closely related — not 
 in widely separated heavens. Probably they were 
 all in the inmost Christian heaven, the situation 
 of which agrees with what is said of these para- 
 disal heavens. 
 
 Here, also, in the eyes of the Christian heaven, 
 are the homes of those who now die as infants. 
 (A. R. 876.) They are in the province of the 
 eyes (H. H. 333) ; those of a celestial disposition 
 
3 o8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 in the right eye, and those of a spiritual nature 
 in the left, " directly in the line or radius in 
 which angels look to the Lord." (H. H. 332.) 
 "They are surrounded by atmospheres according 
 to the state of their perfection ; . . . especially 
 there are presented to them atmospheres as of 
 playing infants in least inconspicuous forms, but 
 perceptible only by an inmost idea ; from these 
 they receive the heavenly idea that all the things 
 about them are alive, and that they are in the 
 life of the Lord, which affects them with inmost 
 happiness." (A. C. 2297.) "They are instructed 
 by representatives ; . . . and these are so beauti- 
 ful, and at the same time so full of wisdom from 
 within as to surpass belief." (H. H. 335.) Indeed, 
 by simplest representatives they are instructed in 
 the holiest things of the Lord's mercy and provi- 
 dence, which they perceive very clearly, though 
 in a simple and infantile manner. And in their 
 delightful gardens, the flowers of which flash glad- 
 ness through their glowing colors (n. 337), they en- 
 joy delightful perceptions of innocence and charity. 
 
THE EYE. 309 
 
 It is impossible not to see the likeness of infants 
 in the transparent humors of the eye, full of the 
 forming images of light. And among these humors 
 that most delicate fluid immediately under the cor- 
 nea, receiving all light, but without distinctions, is 
 unmistakably like the first state of infancy, open 
 to all impressions, yet seizing none but the most 
 general — even in regard to sight, being content 
 with the light, and scarcely discriminating even 
 the brightest colors. The next medium is the 
 crystalline lens, which is strongly characterized 
 by the effort to receive distinctly the light from 
 particular things, and seems plainly to correspond 
 to infants in their effort to fix their attention, 
 to discriminate, and to recognize particular ob- 
 jects. The vitreous humor continues the effort 
 to concentrate the light in distinct images, and 
 lies all around in contact with the retina, upon 
 which such images are formed. Is not this the 
 heaven in which children are taught by elabo- 
 rate representatives, carefully and fully presented ? 
 Here also must be the paradises in which are so 
 
3io 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 many perfect forms of human intelligence and 
 affection. 
 
 It is in the different heavens corresponding 
 to the chambers of the eye, that the beautiful 
 atmospheres appear. It is in one of these, pos- 
 sibly the outer chamber, that "the universal aura 
 glitters as if from gold, silver, pearls, precious 
 stones, flowers in their least forms, and innumer- 
 able things." (A. C. 1621.) In an inner heaven, 
 which seems beautifully like the crystalline cham- 
 ber surrounded by the iris, "the whole atmosphere 
 appears to consist of very small, continued rain- 
 bows. . . . Around is the form of a very large 
 rainbow, encompassing the whole heaven, most 
 beautiful, being composed of similar smaller rain- 
 bows, which are images of the larger. Every 
 single color thus consists of innumerable rays 
 constituting one general, perceptible ray, which is 
 as it were a modification of the origins of light 
 from the celestial and spiritual things which pro- 
 duce it, and which at the same time present to 
 the sight a representative idea." (n. 1623; see 
 also n. 4528.) 
 
THE EYE. 
 
 3" 
 
 With the children in these beautiful heavens 
 are the mothers and maidens who care for them, 
 themselves in sympathy with the open innocence 
 of the children, but wise to guide them in their 
 heavenly sports. And penetrating everywhere 
 through the humors are said to be, and no doubt 
 there are, delicate tubes and fibres, as transparent 
 as the humors, keeping them constantly changing 
 according to their needs and the requirements of 
 the eye. 
 
 The objects of delight to the eyes, and sight 
 and enlightenment to the heavens, are revelations 
 of truth and goodness from the Lord Himself, 
 with the representatives of them. These revela- 
 tions have a general ultimate in our Scriptures, 
 just as all possible human uses and relations 
 have a general representative in the human body. 
 Divine wisdom concerning the development of 
 human life is contained in the Word, and shines 
 from it as light to the eyes of angels, or can be 
 presented as beautiful representatives of human 
 affection and thought. There are no beautiful 
 
312 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 things in heaven or on earth that are not rep- 
 resentatives of these. 
 
 " The Word of the Lord, when it is read by a 
 man who loves it and who lives in charity, and even 
 by a man who from a simple heart believes what is 
 written, having formed no principles contrary to 
 the truth of faith contained in the internal sense, 
 is displayed by the Lord to the angels with such 
 beauty and with such pleasantness, accompanied 
 also by representatives, — and this with an inex- 
 pressible variety according to the whole state of 
 the angels at the time — that every particular is 
 perceived as if it had life." (n. 1767.) 
 
 "The angels have a clearer and fuller under- 
 standing of the internal sense of the Word when 
 it is read by little boys and girls than when by 
 adults who are not in the faith of charity. The 
 reason is, as was told me, that little children are in 
 a state of mutual love and innocence, consequently 
 their vessels are most tender and almost heavenly, 
 so as to be pure faculties of receiving, which there- 
 fore are capable of being disposed by the Lord, 
 although this does not come to their perception 
 except by a certain delight suitable to their genius. " 
 (n. 1776.) 
 
 " In the literal sense, scarce anything appears 
 
THE EYE. 
 
 3^3 
 
 but a something without order ; still, when it is 
 read by man, particularly by a little boy or girl, it 
 becomes by degrees, as it ascends, more beautiful 
 and delightful, and at length is presented before 
 the Lord as the image of a man, in and by which 
 heaven is represented in its complex, not as it is, 
 but as the Lord wills it to be, namely, as a likeness 
 of Himself." (n. 1871.) 
 
 From this that is said of children in this world 
 we can have an idea of the use of the province 
 of children in heaven ; for children here are asso- 
 ciated with children in the other world, and their 
 uses are one. 
 
 To children in heaven comes the light which is 
 the Word, representing before them good ways of 
 life and lovely varieties of human affection and 
 thought from Himself, such as the Lord desires 
 the heavens to receive from Him. These the 
 children perceive in their childlike way ; but from 
 their very perfect childlike ideas, angels corre- 
 sponding to the optic nerves, of quickest and 
 most interior perception, whose special delight it 
 is to receive new desires from the Lord, perceive 
 
314 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 the Lord's desires and plans for the formation and 
 perfection of the heavens. 
 
 This pure and beautiful wisdom they communi- 
 cate to the societies of the whole inmost heaven 
 (or brain), by whom it is adapted and sent forth 
 to all other parts of the heavens, according to 
 their functions. 
 
 Swedenborg's description of children in heaven 
 is so full and sympathetic as to show a remark- 
 ably minute acquaintance with them. And there 
 are other things which show- his familiarity with 
 the province of the eyes. His account of the visit 
 of the ten strangers to the heavenly society, where 
 they were instructed in the nature of heavenly joy, 
 seems like the account of an eye-witness. And in 
 that society were seen children with their nurses. 
 Its emblem, also, was an eagle brooding her young 
 at the top of a tree ; which seems perfect as rep- 
 resenting those who are in clear sight, and engaged 
 in the education of children. The nearness of 
 Swedenborg's own state to this is evident from 
 the remark that " a man who draws wisdom from 
 
THE EYE. 3 ! S 
 
 God is like a bird flying on high, which looks 
 about upon all things that are in the gardens, 
 woods, and villages, and flies to those things that 
 will be of use to it." (T. C. R. 69.) It will be 
 remembered that the angels of the nose perceived 
 that the angelic societies with Swedenborg were 
 from the province of the eye. (A. C. 4627.) 
 
 A few words only remain to be said with regard 
 to the correspondence of weeping, — 
 
 " That weeping (or lamentation — fletus) is grief 
 of heart, may appear from this consideration, that 
 it bursts forth from the heart, and breaks out into 
 lamentations through the mouth ; and that shed- 
 ding of tears (Jacrymatid) is grief of mind, may 
 appear from this consideration, that it issues forth 
 from the thought through the eyes. In both, as 
 well weeping as shedding tears, water goes forth, 
 but bitter and astringent, which goes forth by in- 
 flux from the spiritual world into the grief of man, 
 where bitter water corresponds to defect of truth 
 on account of falsities, and hence to grief." (A. E. 
 484.) 
 
 The proper function of the tears is to keep 
 the eye moist and clear, and they correspond to 
 
316 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 thoughts from the love of clear sight. Tears of 
 joy correspond to thoughts from delight in per- 
 ceiving good things ; tears of sorrow, to bitter 
 thoughts in not perceiving what is loved ; " bitter 
 tears of disappointment" is a common expression. 
 
 
GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 
 
 PHERE are heavenly societies to which cor- 
 ■*- respond all and each of the members and 
 organs allotted to generation in each sex. Those 
 societies are distinct from others, as also that prov- 
 ince in man is properly distinguished and separate 
 from the rest. That those societies are heavenly 
 is because marriage love is the fundamental love 
 of all loves. ... It excels the rest also in use, and 
 consequently in delight ; for marriages are the sem- 
 inaries of the whole human race, and also the sem- 
 inaries of the Lord's heavenly kingdom, for heaven 
 is from the human race. They who have loved 
 infants most tenderly, as mothers who do so, are 
 in the province of the womb and of the organs 
 round about, namely in the province of the neck 
 of the womb, and of the ovaries ; and they who 
 are there, are in the sweetest and most delightful 
 life, and in heavenly joy above others." (A. C. 
 5053, 5054-) 
 
 Of these heavenly societies we read further, — 
 
 " They who are there are in peace beyond all 
 
3 1 8 PHYSIOL O GICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 others. Peace in the heavens is comparatively like 
 the spring season in the world, which gives delight 
 to all things ; it is the heavenly itself in its origin. 
 The angels who dwell there are the wisest of all, 
 and from innocence appear to others as children. 
 They also love infants much more than their fathers 
 and mothers do. They are present with infants in 
 the womb, and by them the Lord takes care that 
 infants there shall be nourished and perfected. 
 Thus they have charge over those who are with 
 child." (A. C. 5052.) 
 
 " It was told me that the organs of generation 
 form a distinct kingdom by themselves, as in man 
 also they are distinct or separate." (S. D. 499+.) 
 
 This province is said to be separate from the 
 rest of the heaven as the corresponding organs 
 of the body are ; and although in position the 
 lowest of the abdominal provinces, the angels who 
 compose it are said to be the wisest and best of 
 the angels. And this is because they constitute 
 the ultimate in which the Lord is immediately 
 present, and through which He produces the medi- 
 ates. By means of these provinces the minds of 
 men are formed, even to their inmosts in which 
 life from the Lord is immediately received ; there- 
 
GENERA TION AND REGENERA TION 3 1() 
 
 fore there is a greater fulness of the Divine Life 
 here than elsewhere. And, as we shall see pres- 
 ently, here in the ultimate the three heavenly 
 degrees exist simultaneously. 
 
 Swedenborg says that "the spirits who are below 
 heaven wonder very much when they hear and 
 see that heaven is below as well as above ; for 
 they are in a similar faith and opinion with men 
 in the world, that heaven is nowhere else than 
 above ; for they do not know that the situation 
 of the heavens is as the situation of the mem- 
 bers, organs, and viscera in man, of which some 
 are above and some below." (H. H. 66.) 
 
 The world of spirits, in which are the spirits 
 who wonder thus, is in the plane of the stomach ; 
 and some provinces are above and some are below 
 that plane. The position of the organs of gener- 
 ation, below that plane, seems to be referred to in 
 Psalm cxxxix., where it is spoken of as "the lowest 
 parts of the earth." 
 
 "Thou hast possessed my reins : Thou hast cov- 
 ered me in my mother's womb. 
 
3 2 ° 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 "I will give thanks unto Thee; for I am fear- 
 fully and wonderfully made. 
 
 " Wonderful are Thy works ; and that my soul 
 knoweth right well. 
 
 "My frame was not hid from Thee, when I was 
 made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest 
 parts of the earth. 
 
 " Thine eyes did see my unperfect substance, 
 and in Thy book were all my members written, 
 which day by day were fashioned, when as yet 
 there was none of them." (v. 13-16.) 
 
 This position of the organs is like that of the 
 altar of burnt-offering in the court at the door of 
 the tabernacle ; and all the worship at that altar 
 had a correspondence with processes of regenera- 
 tion, and these correspond to natural generation. 
 More will be said of this correspondence presently. 
 
 It is necessary that these provinces should be 
 in immediate relation with men on the earth, 
 because both generation and regeneration must be 
 effected, or at least begun, in the natural world. 
 Like the work of the hands and the feet, this is 
 one of the ultimates of the work of the heavens, 
 in which they act together with men upon the 
 earth. 
 
GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 
 
 321 
 
 As the work of regeneration is a work of purifi- 
 cation from evil, as well as of reception of new 
 life from the Lord, the corresponding organs of 
 generation are also organs of excretion ; for the 
 beginnings of new life from the Lord are received 
 as false and evil things are repented of and re- 
 jected, and the sense of reception is in the faculty 
 of rejection. The embryo is matured between the 
 bladder and the rectum ; and so the things of re- 
 generate life are nourished and grow in the midst 
 of efforts to control and put away evil and falsity. 
 
 In approaching the more particular explanation 
 of the uses and correspondences of these things, 
 we are met by the difficulty which Swedenborg 
 expresses as follows : — 
 
 " But who and of what quality the societies are 
 which pertain to the particular organs of genera- 
 tion, it has not been given me to know ; for they 
 are more interior than can be comprehended by 
 one who is in a lower sphere. They also relate to 
 the uses of those organs, which are concealed, and 
 also are withdrawn from knowledge for a reason 
 which also is of the Divine Providence, lest such 
 
3 22 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 things as are in themselves most heavenly should 
 be hurt by unclean thoughts of lasciviousness, scor- 
 tation, and adultery, which thoughts are excited 
 with very many when those organs are only men- 
 tioned." (A. C. 5055.) 
 
 We shall, however, I trust, be able to describe 
 and interpret the uses in general ; and I have 
 hope that the innocent and holy thoughts that 
 will appear to belong to them, will be permanently 
 associated with them in our minds, and be a 
 lasting influence for purity and protection. 
 
 Natural prolification is from spiritual, and they 
 help to illustrate each other. Swedenborg says, — 
 
 "The seed of man is conceived interiorly in the 
 understanding, and is formed in the will, and thence 
 is transferred into the testicle, where it puts on a 
 natural covering ; and so it is carried on into the 
 womb, and enters the world." (T. C. R. 584.) 
 
 It is inmostly the masculine perception of truth, 
 which is formed in the will by the intent to 
 propagate it. In regard to spiritual propagation — 
 truth to be propagated must first be clothed and 
 
GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 
 
 3 2 3 
 
 expressed. In its purest state it is only the form 
 of love ; its purest clothing is that of ideas of 
 thought ; then follow illustrations or formulated 
 thoughts which can be retained in the memory ; 
 and then words. When thus triply clad, it can be 
 expressed and communicated. And upon reach- 
 ing a receptive mind there is a correlative series 
 of unclothings. First, the words or natural ex- 
 pressions are cast aside, and the illustrations or 
 formulas are understood ; then the pure ideas are 
 seen interiorly, and received ; and then the love, 
 which affects the mind inmostly. 
 
 There is a corresponding series of clothings and 
 unclothings of the seed which embodies naturally 
 the spiritual truth. 
 
 Its first natural embodiment is in the pure ani- 
 mal spirit separated in the testicle ; without being 
 too sure of the exact series of clothings, it appears 
 to be true that this receives a first clothing in 
 the epididymes, which are a series of much con- 
 voluted tubes attached to the testicles ; the second 
 clothing is apparently imparted in the seminal 
 
3 2 4 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 vesicles, where the seed may be stored, like ideas 
 in definite thoughts, until ready for utterance ; and 
 the last is added in the very act of ejection, by 
 the prostate gland. 
 
 But when received, this outer clothing appears 
 to be separated, or absorbed, by the neck of the 
 womb ; the second, by the womb itself, before the 
 entrance into the Fallopian tubes ; and the third by 
 the Fallopian tubes, setting free the pure spirit to 
 enter the ovum. Thus, if I understand the par- 
 allel correctly, the ovum answers to the testicle, 
 and receives only the pure spirit secreted by it ; 
 the Fallopian tubes answer to the epididymes ; the 
 womb to the seminal vesicles ; and the neck of 
 the womb to the prostate gland. It may be that 
 in the ovum even the first natural embodiment 
 of the spiritual substance from the mind is sepa- 
 rated, and the mental substance is set free for an 
 entirely new embodiment from the mother ; for 
 Swedenborg says that " all the spiritual which man 
 has is from the father, and all the material is 
 from the mother." (T. C. R. 92.) 
 
GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 
 
 3 2 5 
 
 There seems to be in this successive clothing a 
 series of degrees answering to the degrees of the 
 heavens ; the inmost answering to the state of 
 wisdom of the inmost heaven, which is love and 
 the perceptions of love, rather than thought ; the 
 clothing of the epididymes answering to the intel- 
 ligence of the angels of the second heaven ; that 
 of the vesicles answering to the representatives, 
 or the formulas of knowledge in the memory, of 
 the first heaven ; and that of the prostate to the 
 literal expressions. 
 
 Of the angels of the inmost heaven we are 
 told many beautiful things ; the following (from 
 A. E. 828) illustrate what has just been said of 
 the inmosts of this province : — 
 
 "They appear before the angels of the lower 
 heavens as infants, some as children, and all as 
 simple. They also go naked. They appear as 
 infants and as children because they are in inno- 
 cence, and love to the Lord from the Lord is inno- 
 cence ; hence also by infants and children in the 
 Word innocence and also love to the Lord is signi- 
 fied. They appear simple because they cannot 
 
326 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 speak about the holy things of heaven and the 
 church ; for they do not have them in the memory, 
 whence is all thought, but in the life, and thence 
 in the understanding — not as thought, but as affec- 
 tion for good in its own form, which does not come 
 down into speech, and if it did descend it would 
 not speak, but only sound ; and they who cannot 
 speak of such things, appear to themselves and to 
 others as simple ; and also they are in humility of 
 heart, knowing that it is wisdom to perceive that 
 what they know is scarcely any thing compared 
 with what they do not know. They go naked be- 
 cause nakedness in the spiritual sense is innocence, 
 and because garments signify truths clothing good, 
 and the truths which clothe are in the memory and 
 thence in the thought ; but with these, truths are 
 in the life, thus hidden, and do not manifest them- 
 selves except to the perception whilst others speak 
 them, and their ministers preach them from the 
 Word." (Also see H. H. 178, 179; S. D. 5179.) 
 
 The three degrees are present simultaneously 
 in the ultimates, in the giving of the Word, and 
 in the prolification which corresponds to it. But 
 the ultimate of prolification, which corresponds 
 to the propagation of wisdom, is not a communi- 
 
GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 
 
 3 2 7 
 
 cation of words, or of distinct thoughts, but of 
 the living soul itself — of the specific modifications 
 of which, thoughts and words are the interpreta- 
 tion. (See C. L. 220.) 
 
 If it were a propagation of definite thoughts, 
 children would be born thoughts ; but as it is a 
 propagation of soul they are born affections for 
 wisdom or goodness, with an aptitude for thoughts 
 of wisdom and enjoyments of goodness. 
 
 " Children born of parents who are in true mar- 
 riage love, derive from their parents the faculty of 
 marriage of good and truth, from which they have 
 an inclination and faculty, if sons, to perceive the 
 things of wisdom, and if daughters to love the 
 things which wisdom teaches." (C. L. 202.) 
 
 And so, also, if there were a propagation of 
 distinct thoughts, the wife would receive from her 
 husband such definite thoughts. It is evident that 
 she does not ; but receives such affection for wis- 
 dom as keeps her in sympathy with him, and in 
 a state to understand and enjoy such spiritual 
 wisdom as he enjoys. 
 
328 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 In marriages in the heavens there is no beget- 
 ting of separate human beings ; but there is the 
 multiplication of spiritual affections and percep- 
 tions in the minds of the partners. On earth 
 there is this spiritual prolification, and also a nat- 
 ural prolification ; the spiritual prolification is from 
 the actual reception of the soul of the husband 
 by the wife, and her cherishing of it in herself 
 and in him ; and the natural prolification is from 
 the reception of the propagations of his soul in 
 the ova which are cherished and nourished, even 
 till the time of birth, in the womb. 
 
 To speak first of the spiritual effects : In a true 
 marriage the husband is in the love of doing good 
 to the wife, of sharing his life with her, and 
 increasing her life. What might have been a 
 selfish and lustful thing is changed to this pure 
 and beneficent thing; and he ceases to act from 
 any mere selfish motive. The wife, also, is in the 
 love of receiving the life of her husband, and 
 making it delightful to him, which she does by 
 her bosom-love. And in both, in this interchange, 
 
GENERA TION AND RE GENERA TION 329 
 
 there is a sense of openness to the Lord, and of 
 reception of life from Him, as in no other act. 
 This is so with those who are in marriage from 
 religion, and with an interior acknowledgment of 
 the Lord. In such marriage there is a full ultimate 
 of the marriage of the Lord and the church (A. E. 
 984), and a fuller sense of union with Him than 
 is possible otherwise. It comes down from within, 
 and opens all the vessels of mind and body to the 
 reception of life from the Lord. 
 
 Interiorly this is called the marriage of good 
 and truth ; for it is a marriage between the love 
 of receiving wisdom from the Lord and the love 
 of the goodness of that wisdom. A true man of 
 the church is in love for the Lord's love, and for 
 the wisdom that reveals that love. And a true 
 woman of the church is stirred by the nobleness 
 of that wisdom, and by a sense of the goodness 
 to which it will lead in life. And when they unite 
 in loving the wisdom and the goodness of it, and 
 doing the good works which it teaches, they are a 
 full recipient and embodiment of the Lord's love ; 
 
33° 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORPESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 and He unites them to Himself, and Himself to 
 them, filling them with the sense of life from Him. 
 In such marriage, it is the state of the wisdom of 
 love in the husband which arouses the love of the 
 wife, and the love of the wife which makes it 
 delightful to the husband, and incites to the attain- 
 ment of more wisdom. Each has his enjoyment 
 from the other, and each communicates that which 
 is essential to the happiness of the other ; and in 
 both is the sense that all that makes them happy 
 is from the Lord, and that the life of the Lord is 
 in it all. Such marriage love is therefore the very 
 spring whence comes the growth of the church 
 and of heaven in man, and the increase of the 
 marriage between the Lord and the church. (C. L. 
 65 ; A. E. 993.) 
 
 This growth and increase have an outward em- 
 bodiment in the multiplication of men; but in- 
 wardly they consist in the increase of perceptions 
 of wisdom and of joys in goodness. Perceptions 
 of wisdom are spiritual sons, and joys in goodness 
 are spiritual daughters. 
 
GENERATION AND REGENERATION 
 
 33* 
 
 In the begetting of sons, spiritual and natural, 
 the masculine mind is in the perception of truth ; 
 in the begetting of daughters, it is in the percep- 
 tion of the goodness of that truth, which is made 
 sensible to it by the love of the wife. The soul 
 is from the father in both cases, and its sex 
 depends upon the state of the father ; but in the 
 one case his state is masculine, and in the other 
 it is relatively feminine. It is masculine when he 
 is in the attitude of perceiving and expressing new 
 truth ; it is relatively feminine when he is in the 
 perception of what is good. Swedenborg says, 
 " I inquired, ' How is what is feminine produced 
 from a male soul ? ' and I received for answer, that 
 it was from intellectual good ; because this in its 
 essence is truth ; for the understanding can think 
 that this is good, thus that it is true that it 
 is good. It is otherwise with the will ; this 
 does not think what is good and true, but loves 
 it and does it." (C. L. 220.) A daughter born of 
 such perception — that "it is true that a thing is 
 good" — when she hears things that are true and 
 
33 2 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 wise, perceives and feels the goodness of them, 
 and thus is wholly feminine towards them. The 
 church as a whole is feminine toward the Lord, 
 and in that relation every member of it is femi- 
 nine. In relation to one another every one is 
 masculine when he is propagating new truth ; and 
 every one is feminine when he is receiving such 
 truth from another and perceiving the goodness of 
 it. Sons thus begotten from the love of truth, 
 have " the faculty of perceiving the things of 
 wisdom," and are in the love of reaching out for 
 true things that are beyond the reach of sense, 
 and bringing them down to the apprehension ; and 
 daughters love the good of the things of wisdom 
 when thus brought down to affect the feelings. 
 (See C. L. 168.) 
 
 The temporary clothing of the communicated 
 soul is from the husband, and for the sake of 
 communication only. The permanent clothing is 
 from the wife. As to that which is received and 
 absorbed by her, she herself is the permanent 
 clothing. The angels say that " the prolific things 
 
GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 
 
 333 
 
 imparted from the husbands are received univer- 
 sally by the wives, and add themselves to their 
 life ; and that thus the wives lead a life unani- 
 mous, and successively more unanimous, with their 
 husbands ; and that hence is effectively produced 
 a union of souls and a conjunction of minds. 
 They declared this to be because in what is pro- 
 lific from the husband is his soul, and also his 
 mind as to its interiors which are conjoined to 
 the soul. They added that this was provided from 
 creation, in order that the wisdom of the man, 
 which constitutes his soul, may be appropriated 
 to the wife, and that thus they may become, ac- 
 cording to the Lord's words, one flesh." (C. L. 
 127.) 
 
 For the soul which is to make a separate human 
 being, the mother furnishes a permanent clothing 
 in the ovum, which passes back through the Fallo- 
 pian tube to the womb, and there is nourished to 
 its full development by means of the placenta. 
 The children that are brought forth may be 
 thought of as having the father's state of wis- 
 
334 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 dom as their life, clothed by the mother with 
 her thought of the practical usefulness of it. 
 
 We have thought of the seminal vesicles as 
 answering to the use of clothing ideas in illustra- 
 tive thoughts. The womb is the feminine correla- 
 tive, answering to the clothing of the wisdom 
 received, not with illustrative thought, but with 
 thought from the circumstances of life in regard to 
 its applications and usefulness, — thought which 
 embodies it in a plan for usefulness, which is 
 brought forth in useful work. It is in accordance 
 with this that the animating fire or zeal of one's 
 life is from the father ; and the ability of practi- 
 cal application is from the mother. The clothing 
 from the mother is the means by which the soul 
 works. If wholly inadequate, it may wholly pre- 
 vent its development and expression in this world, 
 and modify it permanently ; but if of great power 
 and ability, it may make the very most of even 
 a little spiritual energy. 
 
 In the quotation above from C. L. 172, it is said 
 that in what is from the father " is his soul, and 
 
GENERA TION AND RE GENERA TION 
 
 335 
 
 also his mind as to its interiors which are con- 
 joined to the soul." We are taught, also, that 
 " the soul which is from the father is the man 
 himself, and the body which is from the mother 
 is not the man in itself but is from him. This 
 is only his clothing, woven from such things as 
 are in the natural world ; but the soul from such 
 things as are in the spiritual world. Every man 
 after death lays down the natural which he has 
 taken from the mother, and retains the spiritual 
 which is from the father, together with a certain 
 covering about it from the purest things of nature." 
 (T. C. R. 103.) 
 
 This purest covering from nature must be added 
 by the mother ; otherwise the seed of the father 
 would alone produce permanent offspring. That 
 it is essential to permanence and thus to propa- 
 gation is shown in D. L. post., VIII. 
 
 The child when born is nourished by milk from 
 its mother's breasts ; and the milk is a correspond- 
 ence of the instruction from a mother's love, by 
 which a child is nurtured. There is also a real 
 
33 6 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 communication with the mother's milk, not of 
 thought, but of affection, which nourishes in the 
 child its love of knowing, and other things of its 
 natural disposition, so that it is common to say 
 that a child imbibed this or that love or taste 
 with its mother's milk. 
 
 In regard, also, to the soul of the father not 
 separately developed, but received by the wife, and 
 added to her soul, there is a similar affection for 
 nourishing it through the breasts. And there is 
 an actual nourishing of the soul of the husband 
 by the love of the wife imparted through her 
 breasts. Her love thus adds itself to his life as 
 the enjoyment and delight of it. " Their inti- 
 mate union," Swedenborg says, "is like that of 
 the soul and the heart ; the soul of the wife is 
 the husband, and the heart of the husband is the 
 wife ; the husband communicates his soul and con- 
 joins it to his wife by love in act ; it is in his 
 seed, and the wife receives it in her heart ; hence 
 the two become one, and thus everything in the 
 body of one regards its mutual in the other." 
 (A. E. 1004.) 
 
 
GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 
 
 337 
 
 This is the very process of the increase of 
 heavenly life, by which the two become a more 
 and more full recipient of life from the Lord. 
 The reception of wisdom from the Lord by the 
 husband produces a love for its goodness in the 
 wife, and her love makes it delightful to him. In 
 the bodily union his state of wisdom is communi- 
 cated to her, and her love for it comes back 
 through the heart to him. Thus the members of 
 generation are means of developing receptacles of 
 the life of the Lord in the partners, and thus are 
 means of regeneration ; and if used for this end 
 they are holy and innocent, and full of the 
 heavenly life for which they form receptacles. 
 
 There are other aspects of the work of regen- 
 eration, all of which have relation to natural gen- 
 eration, and are illustrated by it. In the " Arcana 
 Coelestia " we read as follows : — 
 
 " Man knows nothing of how he is regenerated, 
 and scarcely that he is regenerated ; but if he de- 
 sires to know this, let him attend only to the ends 
 which he proposes to himself, and which he rarely 
 
338 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 discloses to any one ; if the ends are good, namely, 
 that he cares more for his neighbor and the Lord 
 than for himself, he is then in a state of regenera- 
 tion ; but if the ends are to evil, namely, that he 
 cares more for himself than for his neighbor and 
 the Lord, let him know that he is in no state of 
 regeneration. Man by the ends of his life is in 
 the other life ; by ends of good, in heaven with 
 angels, and by ends of evil, in hell with devils. 
 Ends with man are nothing else than his loves ; 
 for what a man loves, that he has for an end ; and 
 inasmuch as ends are his loves, they are his inmost 
 life. . . . Ends of good with man are in his rational, 
 and these are what is called his rational as to good, 
 or the good of the rational. By ends of good, or 
 by good therein, the Lord disposes all things which 
 are in the natural ; for tlie end is as the soul, and 
 the natural is as the body of that soul. Such as 
 the soul is, such is the body with which it is en- 
 compassed ; thus, such as the rational is as to good, 
 such is the natural with which it is invested. It 
 is known that the soul of man has its beginning in 
 the ovum of the mother [it being there first perma- 
 nently clothed], and is afterwards perfected in her 
 womb ; and is there encompassed with a tender 
 body, and this of such a nature that by it the soul 
 may be able to act suitably in the world into which 
 
GENERATION AND REGENERATION 
 
 339 
 
 it is born. The case is similar when man is born 
 again, that is, when he is regenerated. The new 
 soul which he then receives is the end of good, 
 which has its beginning in the rational, at first as 
 in an ovum there, and afterwards it is there per- 
 fected as in a womb. The tender body with which 
 this soul is encompassed, is the natural and the 
 good therein, which becomes such as to act obedi- 
 ently according to the ends of the soul. The truths 
 therein are like fibres in the body ; for truths are 
 formed from good. . . . Hence it is evident that an 
 image of the reformation of man is exhibited in his 
 formation in the womb ; and, if you will believe it, 
 celestial good and spiritual truth, which are from 
 the Lord, are also what forms him, and thus im- 
 presses an ability to receive each of them succes- 
 sively, and this in quantity and quality according as 
 he, like a man, has respect to the ends of heaven, 
 and not like a brute animal to the ends of the 
 world." (n. 3570.) 
 
 "The angels have life from good, and have form 
 from truths, w T hich is the human form." (A. C. 
 9043 ; see also T. C. R. 583.) 
 
 The end of good has a form in the definite 
 thought of what is good. The beginning of con- 
 scious regeneration is in such definite thought with 
 
34° 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 desire and determination. The clothing of this 
 seed is by meditation upon it in regard to its 
 application to the uses of life, and from truths 
 which conduce to this application. And the birth 
 is in the life. 
 
 But this end of good, which is the beginning 
 of new life, is from the Lord's love and is com- 
 municated to man by the Word. The seed of 
 the heavenly life is sown by the Son of Man. 
 And this seed, or revelation of the Divine, con- 
 tains the Divine love clothed successively in the 
 several senses of the Word, and at last in the lit- 
 eral sense. It is received by the church, and is suc- 
 cessively unclothed by her — variously, of course — 
 until the Divine love is perceived in it. This love 
 becomes an end of good in those who perceive 
 it and would live from it. The " ovum in the 
 rational" which receives it, is from the remains 
 implanted by the innocent angels who are most 
 in love to the Lord in the earliest stages of in- 
 fancy. "The natural and the good therein " which 
 "afterwards encompasses it as with a body," is 
 
 
GENERA TION AND RE GENERA TION 
 
 341 
 
 from the later remains laid up in childhood and 
 youth, and even in maturer life. From these it is 
 nourished interiorly by goodness and truth relat- 
 ing to the Lord and heaven and heavenly life, 
 and exteriorly by goodness and truth relating to 
 moral and civil life, until the man openly begins 
 to live a good spiritual life. And afterwards he 
 is further nourished and sustained by the affection 
 and instructions of the church. 
 
 This circle of life is thus described by Sweden- 
 borg : — 
 
 "When man is regenerated, the truths which 
 must be of faith are insinuated by hearing and 
 sight, and are implanted in the memory of his 
 natural man ; from that memory they are brought 
 into the thought which is of the understanding, 
 and those which are loved become of the will ; and 
 so far as they become of the will, they become of 
 the life, for the will of man is his very life ; and so 
 far as they become of his life, they become of his 
 affection, thus of charity in the will and of faith in 
 the understanding. Afterwards from that life, which 
 is a life of charity and faith, he speaks and acts, — 
 from charity which is of the will goes forth the 
 
342 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 speech of the mouth, and also the acts of the body, 
 both by an intellectual way, thus by the way of faith. 
 From these things it is plain that the circle of the 
 regeneration of man is like the circle of his life in 
 general ; and that it is similarly established in the 
 will by influx from heaven from the Lord. Hence 
 also it is evident that there are two states in man 
 who is regenerated, the first when the truths of faith 
 are being implanted, and conjoined to the good of 
 charity, and the second when from the good of 
 charity he speaks by means of the truths of faith, 
 and acts according to them ; so that the first state 
 is from the world through the natural man into the 
 spiritual man, thus into heaven, and the second 
 from heaven through the spiritual man into the 
 natural, thus into the world. . . . This circle is the 
 circle of man's regeneration, and hence is the circle 
 of his spiritual life." (A. C. 10,057.) 
 
 The subject is further illustrated by the repre- 
 sentation of the altar of burnt-offering with its 
 offerings and sacrifices ; which in all particulars 
 has relation to purification from evils and falsi- 
 ties, the reception of good and truth, and the 
 conjunction of good from the Lord with truth ; 
 thus to the processes of regeneration. 
 
GENERA TION AND REGENERA TION 
 
 343 
 
 Swedenborg says, — 
 
 "The place where the door of the tent of meet- 
 ing was, represented the marriage of Divine good 
 with Divine truth ; for by the altar, which also was 
 placed at the door of the tent, was represented the 
 Lord as to Divine good, and by the tent of meet- 
 ing was represented the Lord as to Divine truth. 
 Hence by the place at the door of the tent was rep- 
 resented the conjunction of good and truth, which 
 conjunction is called the heavenly marriage." (A. C. 
 10,001 ; see also 10,143, 10,053, 10,124.) 
 
 " By burnt-offerings and sacrifices in general was 
 represented purification from evils and falsities ; and 
 since purification was represented, the implantation 
 of good and truth from the Lord, and likewise their 
 conjunction, was also represented; for when man 
 is purified from evils and falsities, which is effected 
 by their removal, then good and truth from the 
 Lord flow in, and so far as good and truth in that 
 state flow in, so far they are implanted, and so far 
 conjoined; for the Lord is continually present with 
 good and truth in every man, but he is not received 
 except so far as evils and falsities are removed, thus 
 so far as man is purified from them ; the conjunc- 
 tion of good and truth is regeneration." (A. C. 
 10,022.) 
 
344 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 " By the altar is also signified heaven and the 
 church as to the reception of Divine good from the 
 Lord there ; for it is the Divine of the Lord that 
 makes heaven and the church, inasmuch as the 
 Lord dwells there in His own, and not in the pro- 
 prium of man. Hence also it is that by the altar 
 is likewise signified the man himself in whom is 
 heaven, or in whom is the church, thus in whom is 
 the Lord ; and abstractly from person the altar de- 
 notes the good itself which is from the Lord with 
 the angels of heaven and with the men of the 
 church." (A. C. 10,124.) 
 
 It is on account of this representation by the 
 altar of the conjunction of the Lord and the 
 church, that the altar is called the Holy of Holies, 
 " which signifies," we are told, "the celestial king- 
 dom, where the Lord is present in the good of 
 love. . . . That celestial good is the Holy of 
 Holies, and spiritual good Holy, is because celes- 
 tial good is the inmost good, thus also that good 
 is the good of the inmost heaven ; but spiritual 
 good is the good proceeding from it, and there- 
 fore is the good of the middle heaven ; and this 
 good is so far good, and therefore so far holy, as 
 
GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 
 
 345 
 
 it has in it celestial good ; for this flows into the 
 other, and conceives it and produces it as a father 
 a son. By celestial good is meant the good of 
 love from the Lord to the Lord, and by spiritual 
 good is meant the good of charity towards the 
 neighbor from the Lord. The good itself of love 
 to the Lord from the Lord is the Holy of Holies, 
 because the Lord by it conjoins Himself immedi- 
 ately ; but the good of charity towards the neigh- 
 bor is Holy, because the Lord by it conjoins 
 Himself mediately; and He so far conjoins Him- 
 self as it has in it the good of love to the Lord." 
 (A. C. 10,129.) 
 
 Thus the altar of burnt-offering, and the wor- 
 ship there, though situated in the court of the 
 tabernacle and at the door of entrance, was the 
 most holy thing of the representative worship 
 because it represented the reception of life from 
 the Lord in the ultimates of life, and the multipli- 
 cation of good and true things in the church by 
 that life. The coals from the altar were carried 
 into the tabernacle, and laid in the censer upon 
 
346 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 the altar of incense, and the smoke of fragrant 
 spices ascended from it, as the love of a faithful 
 wife goes forth from her heart, and also the 
 prayers and praises of a faithful church. 
 
 To return again to the correspondence of these 
 things with the heavens, we read, — 
 
 " All the members dedicated to generation, in 
 both sexes, especially the womb, correspond to so- 
 cieties in the inmost or third heaven. The reason 
 is that true marriage love is derived from the 
 Lord's love for the church, and from the love of 
 good and truth which love is the love of angels of 
 the third heaven. Wherefore marriage love, which 
 descends thence, like the love of that heaven, is 
 innocence, which is the very esse of all good in the 
 heavens. Hence embryos in the womb are in a 
 state of peace, and infants after they are born are 
 in a state of innocence, as also their mother in rela- 
 tion to them. Since there is such correspondence of 
 the genital members of both sexes, it is evident that 
 they are holy from creation, and therefore dedicated 
 solely to chaste and pure marriage love, and that 
 they ought not to be profaned by unchaste and im- 
 pure love of adultery ; by this man turns the heaven 
 in himself into hell ; for as marriage love corre- 
 
GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 
 
 347 
 
 sponds to the love of the highest heaven, which is 
 love to the Lord from the Lord, so the love of 
 adultery corresponds to the love of the lowest hell. 
 The love of marriage is so holy and heavenly be- 
 cause it begins from the Lord Himself in the in- 
 mosts of man, and according to order descends to 
 the ultimates of the body, and thus fills the whole 
 man with heavenly love, and induces upon him the 
 form of the Divine love, which form is the form of 
 heaven, and is the image of the Lord." (A. E. 
 
 985.) 
 
 "The angels of the inmost heaven are innocences. 
 In the next * and the interior heavens there are also 
 innocences, but not the same ; those innocences 
 constitute as it were their inmost, or as it may be 
 called their centre, like an axis or nucleus. Nor 
 can any heaven subsist unless its centre, or inmost 
 as it were, is innocence, and other things are like 
 circumferences into which comes innocence from 
 the centre ; for no one can be in heaven unless he 
 has something of innocence. So also the inmost 
 heaven communicates with the next by means of 
 its centre, namely innocences, and so the inmost f 
 
 *"In crelo intimiori et interiori." " InHmius" seems to mean 
 " comparatively inmost," but not the positively inmost, 
 f " Intimum per intimius cum interiori/' 
 
348 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 through the next with the interior. From this may- 
 be understood the quality of the communication 
 from the inmosts and from the Lord according to 
 the order instituted by the Lord." 
 
 " It is the inmost heaven through which the 
 Lord insinuates marriage love ; the beginning or 
 origin of this is from the inmost heaven, also 
 through the centre of the lower heavens. From 
 this also is parental love ; for the celestial angels 
 of the inmost heaven so love infants, much more 
 than fathers or mothers. Indeed they are present 
 with infants and take care of them ; and, as has 
 been told me, they are present in their mother's 
 womb, and take care of them that they may be 
 nourished; thus they have charge over those who 
 are with child." (S. D. 1200, 1201.) 
 
 " They who most tenderly love infants, so that 
 they be only foetuses or infants, are as most tender 
 mothers, so that they can scarcely live unless they 
 are in a state where the tender love of infants 
 reigns. These constitute the province in the situ- 
 ation of the testicles and organs thence depending; 
 and, in woman, the neck of the womb, and the 
 womb, with the ovaries and the things annexed. 
 They who are in this province live in the sweetest, 
 most delightful, and happy life, such as cannot be 
 described ; only its state is gentleness and sweet- 
 
GENERA TION AND REGENERA TION 349 
 
 ness. Their province is between the loins (inter 
 lumbos)" (S. D. 3152.) 
 
 They are innocent because innocence consists in 
 the acknowledgment from the heart that we are 
 nothing, and that the Lord is all ; and these prov- 
 inces are more than others in the perception that 
 all of life is from the Lord ; and in the love of 
 receiving life sensitively from Him, and communi- 
 cating it to others. From them comes the sense 
 of new life from the Lord to all the heavens, 
 and thus also the sense of conjunction with Him. 
 And, as will be seen presently, they also are the 
 means of multiplying recipients of His life. 
 
 It would seem that those who are in the prov- 
 ince of the testicles are primarily in the love of 
 receiving sensitively and imparting the Lord's life 
 in forms of wisdom, and they who are in the 
 province of the ovaries and the womb are prima- 
 rily in love for protecting and defending the things 
 of wisdom, and showing the goodness of them. 
 (See C. L. 127.) 
 
 That the organs of both sexes have their corre- 
 
35° 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 spondence with societies in heaven, and yet the 
 heaven is one man, may perhaps be illustrated by 
 the following teaching : — 
 
 " There are married partners there who are in 
 such marriage love that the two can be one flesh, 
 and also are one when they will, and thus they ap- 
 pear as one man. I have seen them and talked 
 with them, and they said that they have one life, 
 and that they are like the life of good in truth, and 
 the life of truth in good, and that they are like the 
 pairs in man, namely, like the two hemispheres of 
 the brain covered with one membrane, the two 
 chambers of the heart within a common covering, 
 and likewise the two lobes of the lungs ; which, 
 although they are two, still are one as to life, and 
 the exercises of life, which are uses." (A. E. 1004.) 
 
 As this is the most perfect form of man, and 
 the whole heaven is more full and perfect than 
 any individual in it, we may conclude that the 
 heavens are such a one, and that the intercom- 
 munication is constant (compare A. E. 992) ; and 
 we may think of the uses and the joys of mar- 
 riage love as affecting the whole heaven through 
 these provinces, as in such a married pair. 
 
GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 
 
 35 1 
 
 In them is chiefly the innocence of the heavens 
 (A. E. 996), or the sense that all of life even to 
 ultimates is from the Lord alone. There is also 
 the sense of the reception of life from the Lord 
 in states of wisdom, and of joy in the goodness 
 which wisdom teaches, and in the delight of the 
 union of wisdom and goodness, in which is the 
 fullest reception of the Lord. 
 
 The male provinces are in the actual reception 
 of wisdom from the Lord to increase the life of 
 the heavens ; and the female, in love for the good- 
 ness of this wisdom, and in the desire to bring 
 it to full fruition.* 
 
 There are in these provinces the three degrees 
 of communication, as in individuals, answering to 
 the several planes of life in the heavens. In the 
 inmosts are those who have the inmost sense of 
 the reception of wisdom and love from the Lord, 
 and of the oneness of them ; in the outer parts 
 
 * Spiritual prolification is described in A. E. 991; H. H. 382; 
 C. L. 52. 
 
35 2 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 are those who are in intelligence concerning these 
 things of wisdom and love, and the marriage of 
 them in the Lord and in men. And in the out- 
 most are those who are in natural fondness for 
 infants and for professions and forms of marriage 
 love (S. D. 3704) ; and some there are with very 
 little spiritual life, who yet serve as guards and 
 for protection. (S. D. 3390; see also on circum- 
 cision, A. C. 4462.) 
 
 Through these provinces the whole heaven, and 
 every individual in the heavens, are affected with 
 the delight of the union of love and wisdom 
 from the Lord ; and this delight extends through 
 all the forms of marriage love. But everywhere 
 the chief influence received is that of innocence, — 
 of the sense that life is from the Lord alone, and 
 also every living form of love and wisdom ; and 
 from this comes the delight in new births of love 
 and wisdom from the Lord for the increase of the 
 life of the heavens. 
 
 To the earths also the influence of these prov- 
 inces descends for the uses of generation and 
 
GENERA TION AND REG EN ERA TION 
 
 353 
 
 of regeneration ; for without them there would be 
 upon the earth neither love nor power for propa- 
 gating either the race or the truth. The life of 
 the heavens and of every angel in it, also of every 
 man that is born, is the Lord's love for man. 
 From this love, through the Divine wisdom, all 
 things are created. The Divine wisdom from the 
 Divine love has in view an Infinite heaven, and 
 provides means for creating it. In the continual 
 increase of the heavens, it operates through the 
 heavens that already exist, expanding and develop- 
 ing them forever towards the Infinite ideal. The 
 angels that are in these provinces of the heavens 
 receive the Lord's love and wisdom for the in- 
 crease of the heavens most fully. They also per- 
 ceive in the states of all the heavens their need 
 and desire for increase and development, and not 
 only inspire into them the love and wisdom that 
 they are capable of receiving, but inspire the same 
 into the souls of men on earth, to form new 
 recipients. And the inspiration from the Lord 
 through these provinces is the very desire and the 
 
354 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 ability to propagate the soul, and the wisdom 
 which is the substance of the soul. In a discus- 
 sion in the spiritual world concerning the origin 
 of marriage love and, its ability, a wise African 
 said : " You Christians deduce marriage power or 
 ability from various causes rational and natural ; 
 but we Africans deduce it from the state of man's 
 conjunction with the God of the universe. This 
 state we call the state of religion, but you call it 
 the state of the church ; for when the love is de- 
 rived from that state, and is stable and permanent, 
 it must needs produce its own power, which re- 
 sembles it, and thus also is stable and permanent. 
 True marriage love is known only by those few 
 who live near to God ; consequently the ability of 
 that love is known to no others. This ability is 
 described by the angels of heaven as the delight 
 of a perpetual spring." (C. L. 113.) 
 
 Through them descends the desire and ability 
 of propagation to man, and is received by him 
 according to the state of his life, purely or per- 
 versely. But inmostly in it there is ever the life 
 
GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 
 
 355 
 
 of the Lord, and the love and wisdom of the 
 inmost heaven. It is not possible for a soul to 
 live and be born but from this love and wisdom 
 for the development of the heavens ; and thus it 
 is not possible for one to be born without capacity 
 for doing a use in the heavens, and making them 
 a more perfect man. 
 
 " It is provided by the Lord," Swedenborg says 
 (E. U. 9), "that whensoever there is a deficiency 
 in any place as to the quality or quantity of corre- 
 spondence, a supply be instantly made from another 
 earth, to fill up the deficiency, so that the propor- 
 tion may be preserved, and thus heaven be kept 
 in due consistence." This may refer only to the 
 transfer of men from the natural world to the 
 spiritual ; but I think it refers also to the produc- 
 tion of such as are needed. The sense of need 
 would affect the heaven. In every society there 
 must be a sense of delightful uses to be done, 
 which yet they are not able to do, and a desire 
 that they should be done, and to love and support 
 those who can do them. And this is itself a love 
 
356 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 of propagating, which can only be effective through 
 those who are in the function of prolification, and 
 are operating upon man ; and it is like the supply 
 of pure fluids furnished to those provinces from 
 the brains and the gen.eral circulation for the sake 
 of their use. 
 
 The perverseness of the externals through which 
 these heavenly things of the soul come down, in- 
 creases the difficulty of developing and expressing 
 them, but does not destroy them. Even an evil 
 man has in him the inmost of the soul in which 
 the Lord dwells immediately, also the celestial 
 and spiritual planes of the mind, all of which are 
 beyond his reach, and therefore unperverted. If 
 it were not for these, there would be no propaga- 
 tion of his soul. The angels of these provinces 
 arouse to activity both the internals and the ex- 
 ternals, though the man is wholly unconscious of 
 the heavenly possibilities of the internals, and per- 
 ceives only the perverse possibilities of the ex- 
 ternals. They also operate upon the concealed 
 processes of the interiors of the body, of which 
 
GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 
 
 357 
 
 the man knows nothing, that they may act accord- 
 ing to the order of right development. " Many 
 nerves of the cerebellum/' Swedenborg says, "come 
 together in the region of the loins, for the sake 
 of propagation. . . . For propagation is exempt in 
 almost all respects from the voluntary things of 
 man." (S. D. 3862.) 
 
 And during and after conception, they are pres- 
 ent with the new soul in the ovum and through 
 all its life in the womb, to remove from it evil 
 influences, as far as possible, and to nurture in it 
 all the possibilities of good ; that there may never 
 be lacking in the new being the power, to see and 
 to love and to do the uses for the sake of which 
 he is created, and the love of which is his inmost 
 life from the Lord. 
 
 As in a man the soul acts upon the body, and 
 the body reacts of itself, with a degree of inde- 
 pendence — and this because the body lives from 
 the general influx of the heavens — so in the womb 
 the body must be formed by this general influx 
 of the heavens, reacting to the life which is in 
 
358 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 the soul from the Lord. The angels of the male 
 organs of the heavens are with the father cooperat- 
 ing in the propagation of the interior receptacles 
 of life of which he knows nothing, and in the 
 clothing of these spiritual forms so that they may 
 be communicated to the wife. The angels of the 
 female organs are with the mother, cooperating 
 with her in receiving these spiritual forms, and in 
 giving them a permanent clothing. And through 
 the angels of the womb the whole heaven is pres- 
 ent, forming the body of the child in response to 
 and accord with the life from the Lord in the 
 soul ; and this in such a manner that the influence 
 of every province of the heavens forms the corre- 
 sponding organ of the body ; and thus, being 
 formed in response to the impulses of life from 
 the soul, it continues to react to them afterwards. 
 When the time of regeneration arrives, and 
 "the end of good," which Swedenborg says is the 
 life of the spiritual man, comes to the rational per- 
 ception, the capacity for perceiving it is from the 
 very love of use which from the Lord through 
 
GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 
 
 359 
 
 the angels formed from the beginning those facul- 
 ties which he now first exercises consciously. And 
 the angels who have attended him in the womb 
 have had perception of this, and labored to pro- 
 vide for the right development of his organs of 
 thought and sense and action so that he might 
 have all the means of receiving the truth and 
 bringing it forth in good life. 
 Swedenborg says, — 
 
 "I have spoken with angels, concerning the pro- 
 gression of truth to good, thus of faith to charity : 
 that there is joy with the angels when a child or 
 a boy on earth from affection learns and receives 
 truths, thus when truths become knowledge, and 
 that there is still greater joy, when from knowl- 
 edge they become of the understanding — then 
 there is joy with the angels of the Lord's spiritual 
 kingdom ; and still greater joy w T hen from the un- 
 derstanding they become of the will — then there 
 is joy with the angels of the Lord's celestial king- 
 dom ; and when from the will they become of the 
 act, then there is joy with the angels of the three 
 heavens. How great are the joy and the enjoy- 
 ments in that progression, cannot be described, be- 
 
360 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 cause it is ineffable ; for thus a man enters more 
 and more into heaven, and becomes a heaven in the 
 least form. I have perceived this, in speaking with 
 the angels, from the progression of the enjoyments 
 of marriage love even to the ultimate effect by 
 which man is propagated ; such is the progression 
 of the conjunction with heaven, that is, with the 
 Lord; and such is the new creation of man, and the 
 formation of heaven, or of an angel, in him ; for 
 heaven is the form of the Divine truth thus pro- 
 gressing ; from this a man becomes love, and in no 
 other way is the marriage of good and truth formed 
 in him." (S. D. 601 1.) 
 
 In regeneration the good seed is from the wis- 
 dom of the Divine love, successively clothed in 
 the several senses of the Word, even to its ulti- 
 mate precepts (A. E. 1066, 1072). The reception 
 and successive unclothing is by the natural and 
 the rational thought of man, even until the love 
 within is perceived. The development is through 
 the gathering and arrangement of truths which 
 are the means of bringing the good end to pass, 
 and the new birth is the bringing forth of the 
 end in words and works. In every step of this 
 
GENERA TION AND RE GENERA TION 3 6 1 
 
 work the influence of the angels of these prov- 
 inces, and their love for the reception of the 
 Lord's love and wisdom, is the nurturing influ- 
 ence which makes the work possible. And in 
 the completed work of regeneration their inno- 
 cence finds its delight in the state of the man 
 who has learned the truth which is the very 
 receptacle of innocence, that man has nothing of 
 goodness and truth of his own, but all is from 
 the Lord.* 
 
 In thinking of the Word as the successive 
 clothing of the Divine wisdom by which regener- 
 ation is effected, and the heavens are multiplied, 
 it appears to be true that the states of the 
 
 * In A. C. 5056, S. D. 875, E. U. 79, we read of one who was 
 intensely eager to enter heaven, and when prepared was in the 
 province of the seminal vesicles. He was of the chastising spirits 
 from the planet of Jupiter, was in the love of truth, acknowledged 
 himself to be vile in himself, and was eager to be admitted into a 
 better state and better uses. Apparently he was in such a stage of 
 regeneration that he was ready to receive with benefit and delight 
 the influence of those who are in the love of the good things which 
 wisdom teaches, and to mature under their influence a fuller heavenly 
 life. 
 
362 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 church in which this clothing was effected were 
 masculine as to their function, and the states of 
 the church in which the unclothing is or will be 
 successively effected, are relatively feminine ; or, 
 in other words, that the ages down to the time 
 of the coming of the Lord, were relatively mas- 
 culine, and those since His coming are feminine. 
 
 We may even go further than this, and say that 
 the giving of the Word in its successive cloth- 
 ing from inmost to outmost was from the mascu- 
 line in the Divine, and the opening of the inner 
 meanings of the Word and manifesting the good- 
 ness of them was from the feminine in the Divine ; 
 for, as will be seen presentlv, the Divine Human 
 is feminine relatively to the inmost Divine. 
 
 It was by the unfolding of the real meaning 
 of the Word, and bringing forth the good of it in 
 His human life, that the Divine marriage was 
 accomplished in the Lord. For "the union of 
 the Divine Essence with the Human, and of the 
 Human with the Divine," we are taught, "is the 
 Divine marriage of good with truth, and of truth 
 
GENERA TION AND REGENERA TION 363 
 
 with good, from which is the heavenly marriage." 
 (A. C. 2803.) 
 
 "The Divine marriage of the Lord is not be- 
 tween Divine good and Divine truth in His Divine 
 Human, but between the good of the Divine Hu- 
 man and the Divine Itself, that is, between the 
 Father and the Son ; for the Divine good of the 
 Lord's Divine Human is what is called in the Word 
 the Son, of God, and the Divine Itself the Father." 
 (A. C. 3952.) 
 
 " From the Divine marriage, which is the union 
 of the Father and the Son, or of the Divine Itself 
 of the Lord with the Divine Human, comes the 
 heavenly marriage. The heavenly marriage is what 
 is called the kingdom of the Lord, and also heaven, 
 and this because it exists from the Divine marriage, 
 which is the Lord." (A. C. 3960.) 
 
 The church which would enter into this heaven- 
 ly marriage must learn from Him the truth of 
 heavenly life, which is the truth of His own hu- 
 man life, and herself live it, and become a form of 
 the good of it ; and so far as she does this, the 
 Lord unites Himself with her, and her with Him- 
 self ; for He says : "As the Father hath loved me, 
 
364 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 so have I loved you; continue ye in my love." 
 The fruits of this marriage of the Lord and the 
 church will be truths rationally seen and naturally 
 expressed ; and good works, heavenly in their 
 spirit, natural in their embodiment. The first 
 fruits of it were in the first Christian acknowl- 
 edgment of the Lord as the one God, Who ful- 
 filled the Scriptures and established a heavenly 
 kingdom. And the bringing forth of this doc- 
 trine the Lord compared to the pains of birth : 
 "A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow 
 because her hour is come ; but as soon as she is 
 delivered of the child, she remembereth no more 
 her anguish, for joy that a man is born into the 
 world. And ye now therefore have sorrow ; but I 
 will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, 
 and your joy no man taketh from you." 
 
 The birth of the doctrines of the New Church 
 is also likened in the Apocalypse to the birth of 
 a man-child from a woman clothed with the sun, 
 and having the moon under her feet. These doc- 
 trines were derived from the Scriptures interiorly 
 
GENERA TION AND RE GENERA TION 
 
 365 
 
 and truly understood, and the birth of them is a 
 type of the continual births of wisdom and good- 
 ness with which the church will be multiplied 
 and perfected, as she receives into herself the 
 interior things of the Scriptures, and from them 
 receives the Lord's life and adds it to her own 
 life. 
 
 The Lord began the unfolding of the real mean- 
 ing of the Word in His teaching ; in His own 
 thought and life there was a perfect unfolding of 
 it ; and He has given the means of a perfect un- 
 folding now to the New Church. The very life of 
 the New Church will come from her opening the 
 inner meanings of the Word, even till the love 
 and wisdom of the Lord Himself are perceived 
 in it, and she receives these into her heart, and 
 adds them to her life. The marriage of the Lord 
 and the church is thus effected by means of the 
 opening and living by her of the inner meanings 
 of the Word. And it is possible only so far as 
 the church is in the acknowledgment of the 
 Divine Human of the Lord ; for with no other 
 
3 66 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 idea of Him is conjunction possible, and no other 
 opens the Divine Love and Wisdom in the Word, 
 the union of which constitutes this heavenly mar- 
 riage. Therefore, also, we are taught that no true 
 marriage love is possible except with those who 
 are in the acknowledgment of the Divine Human 
 of the Lord ; for only thus can the love and wis- 
 dom be received, the union of which is the origin 
 and essence of marriage love. (C. L. 70; A. E. 
 
 995-) 
 
 Some confirmation of this view of the Word, 
 and of the churches before and after the coming 
 of the Lord, may be had from these considera- 
 tions : The age of the Race when the Lord came, 
 answers to the time of youth, when the desire 
 for marriage begins. (See A. E. 641.) Sweden- 
 borg also says of the Word : — 
 
 " Since the members of generation in each sex 
 correspond to societies of the third heaven, and the 
 love of a married pair to the love of good and truth, 
 therefore also those members and that love corre- 
 spond to the Word. The reason is that the Word 
 is Divine Truth united to Divine Good proceeding 
 
GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 
 
 367 
 
 from the Lord ; hence it is that the Lord is called 
 the Word. From this also there is in every part of 
 the Word the marriage of good and truth, or the 
 heavenly marriage." (A. E. 985.) 
 
 Besides the marriage in every part of the Word, 
 there appears to be a marriage between the Old 
 and the New Testaments. In the Old Testament 
 we have the Truth from God descending and 
 clothing itself successively even to ultimates. In 
 the New Testament we have the beginnings of 
 the unfolding of this truth, and the explanation 
 of the real goodness in it, at first on the natural 
 plane. And then in the Apocalypse we have a 
 prediction of the future unfolding of the same 
 Scriptures for the purification of the church and 
 the establishment of a New Church which shall 
 be the Bride, the Lamb's Wife. 
 
 The Lord's kingdom includes both heaven and 
 the church; and "the Word is the medium of 
 conjunction" (C. L. 128) between the Lord and 
 the whole. When man reads the Word in its 
 ultimate, the literal sense, the heavens succes- 
 
368 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 sively evolve instantaneously their several senses, 
 even to the inmost in which the Love and Wis- 
 dom of the Lord are most distinctly perceived. 
 (T. C. R. 234-239.) There is thus a conjunction 
 of the Lord with His whole Kingdom, through 
 the letter of the Word. And while this is the 
 fullest reception of the Lord and conjunction 
 with Him, in every individual who reads and 
 looks to the Lord and lives according to His 
 precepts there is in his degree a similar unfold- 
 ing of the interiors of the Word, by his natural 
 thought, his spiritual thought, and his reception 
 of the Lord's love into his soul, where it becomes 
 new ends of good life. 
 
 And so far as one is thus conjoined to the 
 Lord, from this heavenly marriage descends the 
 love of the marriage of good and truth, and thus 
 a heavenly marriage love, into all the degrees of 
 his thought and feeling and life. It is a love 
 which none can have " but those who go to the 
 Lord, and love the truths of the church, and 
 practise its goods " (C. L. 70) ; because no others 
 
GENERA TION AND RE GENERA TION 
 
 369 
 
 can receive from Him the sense of His merciful 
 
 saving love, and the love of the truth of heavenly 
 
 life, which are united in the heavenly marriage. 
 
 Of such marriage love Swedenborg says: — 
 
 " It is in its first essence love to the Lord from 
 the Lord, and hence also it is innocence ; therefore 
 also marriage love is peace, such as the angels have 
 in heaven ; for as innocence is the very esse of all 
 good, so peace is the very esse of all enjoyment of 
 good, consequently it is the very esse of all joy be- 
 tween the married two. Now because all joy is of 
 love, and marriage love is the fundamental love of 
 all the loves of heaven, therefore peace itself resides 
 principally in marriage love. Peace is the blessed- 
 ness of heart and soul arising from the conjunc- 
 tion of the Lord with heaven and the church ; thus 
 also from the conjunction of good and truth, when 
 all strife and combat of what is evil and false with 
 what is good and true cease. . . . And because 
 marriage love descends from those conjunctions, 
 therefore also all the enjoyment of that love de- 
 scends and has its essence from heavenly peace." 
 (A. E. 997.) 
 
THE BRAIN. 
 
 T 
 
 HE form of man at first conception was rep- 
 resented to Swedenborg by the angels as — 
 
 "a most minute image of a brain, with a deli- 
 cate delineation of a face in front, without any 
 appendage. This first form was, in the upper pro- 
 tuberant part, a collection of contiguous globules 
 or spherules, and each spherule was composed of 
 others still more minute, and each of these in like 
 manner of the most minute of all : thus it was of 
 three degrees. . . . The angels said that the two 
 inner degrees, which were in the order and form of 
 heaven, were receptacles of love and wisdom from 
 the Lord ; and that the exterior degree, which was 
 in opposition to the order and form of heaven, was 
 the receptacle of infernal love and insanity ; because 
 man by hereditary degeneracy is born into evils of 
 every kind, and these evils reside in the outmosts 
 there; and this degeneracy is not removed unless 
 the higher degrees are opened, which, as was said, 
 are the receptacles of love and wisdom from the 
 Lcrd. And because love and wisdom are man him- 
 
 370 
 
THE BRAIN. ^ 1 
 
 self, for love and wisdom in their essence are the 
 Lord, and as this first form of man is a receptacle 
 of them, it follows that there is in this first form a 
 continual effort towards the human form, which also 
 it successively assumes." (D. L. W. 432.) 
 
 Of the development of this form we read fur- 
 ther as follows : — 
 
 "All things in man relate to the will and the 
 understanding, and the understanding is a recepta- 
 cle of the Divine Truth, and the will of the Divine 
 Good. Therefore the human mind, w r hich consists 
 of those two principles, is nothing else than a form 
 of the Divine Truth and the Divine Good spirit- 
 ually and naturally organized. The human brain 
 is that form ; and because the whole man depends 
 upon his mind, all things in his body are appen- 
 dages which are actuated and live from those two 
 principles." (T. C. R. 224.) 
 
 "Man's life in its beginnings is in the brain, and 
 in its derivatives in the body." (D. L. W. 365.) 
 
 "The will and the understanding are called re- 
 ceptacles because the will is not a spiritual abstrac- 
 tion, but it is a substantial thing, formed for the 
 reception of love from the Lord ; neither is the un- 
 derstanding a spiritual abstraction, but a substan- 
 
372 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 tial thing formed for the reception of wisdom from 
 the Lord. They actually exist. Although they 
 are concealed from sight, yet they are within the 
 substances which compose the cortex of the cere- 
 brum, and also are scattered in the medullary sub- 
 stance of the cerebrum, especially in the corpora 
 striata, also within in the medullary substance of 
 the cerebellum, and in the spinal medulla, of which 
 they compose the central portion. There are there- 
 fore not two receptacles, but innumerable, and every 
 one twinned, and also in three degrees. . . . They 
 are the beginnings and heads of all the fibres by 
 which the whole body is woven. From the fibres 
 put forth from them are formed all the organs of 
 sense and motion, for they are their beginnings and 
 ends. . . . Those receptacles in infants are small 
 and tender; they afterwards increase and are per- 
 fected according to the knowledge and the affec- 
 tion for it. They are sound according to the intelli- 
 gence and the love of uses ; they soften according 
 to the innocence and love to the Lord, and are 
 solidified and hardened by the opposites. Their 
 changes of state are affections, their variations of 
 form are thoughts ; the existence and permanence 
 of these is the memory, and the reproduction is 
 recollection. Both taken together are the human 
 mind." (D. W. post. V.) 
 

 THE BRAIN. 
 
 373 
 
 " From the cortical substances proceed little 
 fibres, the first of which are invisible, and are after- 
 wards bundled together, of which is produced the 
 medullary substance of the whole cerebrum, cere- 
 bellum, and medulla oblongata. From this medul- 
 lary substance are put forth visible fibres, which 
 united are called nerves, by which the cerebrum, 
 cerebellum, and spinal medulla form the whole 
 body and all things in it ; and therefore it is that all 
 things of the body are ruled by the brains. From 
 this it is evident that the will and understanding, 
 which in one word are called the mind, and there- 
 fore also intelligence and wisdom, reside in the 
 brains, and are there in their first forms ; and that 
 the organs which are formed to receive sensations 
 and to perform motions are derivations from them, 
 altogether like streams from their fountains ; . . . 
 and that those derivations are such that the brains 
 are everywhere present, almost as the sun is pres- 
 ent by its heat and light in all parts of the earth. 
 Hence it follows that the whole body, and all things 
 in it, are forms under the observation, guidance, 
 and control of the mind, which is in the brain, and 
 so constructed in dependence upon it that the part 
 in which the mind is not present, or to which it 
 does not give its own life, is not a part of the life 
 of the man." (A. E. 775.) 
 
374 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 The fibres gather to themselves and animate the 
 grosser materials contained in the blood; and in 
 order that these may be conveyed wherever they 
 are wanted, and so may be always at hand, the 
 little blood-vessels are the first things formed in 
 the body, and from them the heart to superintend 
 their helpful service. (See D. L. W. 370, 400.) 
 
 We have become familiar with the idea that 
 "the Lord does not operate from first principles 
 through mediates intc ultimates ; but from first 
 principles through ultimates, and so into medi- 
 ates." (A. E. 1086, also 1087; D. W. post. xii. 5 
 end.) This is true o f the creation, in that the 
 heavens were not made first, and through them 
 the earths ; but the earths were made by means 
 of atmospheres from the sun of heaven, and upon 
 the earths the successive creations natural and 
 spiritual were built up. At the same time it is 
 true that when the heavens were formed, they 
 cooperated in producing further developments up- 
 on the earths. Similar things are true also of 
 the Word, of which we read: — "The Lord flows 
 
THE BRAIN. 375 
 
 in from first principles through ultimates ; thus 
 from Himself into the natural sense of the Word, 
 and calls out or evolves from thence its spiritual 
 and celestial sense ; and thus illustrating, He 
 teaches and leads the angels." (S. S. post. 18.) 
 And yet it is true that when man reads the Word 
 the angels who are associated w T ith him understand 
 far more of its interior meaning than he does, and 
 that their influence tends to enlighten and expand 
 his understanding ; and thus the doctrines by 
 which the interiors of the Word are opened, are 
 said to have descended from God out of heaven. 
 And so it is in the formation of the body by 
 the brains. They do not first form the heart and 
 lungs and other viscera, and then extend the 
 blood-vessels to the skin ; but they send their 
 fibres directly to the skin, and there form the be- 
 ginnings of arteries and veins, which presently 
 come together to form the heart. And then the 
 heart and the arteries and veins cooperate with 
 the fibres in the formation of all the other viscera 
 and memberSo 
 
376 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES, 
 
 We have already spoken about the innumerable 
 cells, or beginnings of the fibres, "which compose 
 the cortex of the cerebrum, and also are scattered 
 in the medullary substance of the cerebrum, es- 
 pecially in the corpora striata, also within in the 
 medullary substance of the cerebellum, and in the 
 spinal medulla, of which they compose the central 
 portion." There are also small collections of these 
 cells in nervous ganglia in other parts of the body; 
 as in the cardiac plexus, which has immediate con- 
 trol of the movements of the heart and lungs ; 
 the solar plexus, which presides over the organs 
 of digestion ; the sympathetic nerve with its gan- 
 glia, connecting the functions of all the viscera. 
 In the spinal medulla there are enlargements 
 caused by special groups of cells having charge 
 of particular organs and members ; the lowest, or 
 sacral ganglia, preside over the organs of genera- 
 tion ; the lumbar, over the motions of the legs ; 
 the dorsal, over the motions of the arms. Cells 
 are origins of fibres ; and wherever there are cells, 
 there are origins of movements or operations by 
 
THE BRAIN. 
 
 377 
 
 means of the fibres. The acts of these ganglia 
 are not determined by our voluntary effort, nor 
 are they the result of conscious sensations ; 
 though the sensations that cause them may also 
 come to consciousness, and the acts of the ganglia 
 may to some extent be controlled by voluntary 
 effort. For example, if our hand accidentally 
 touches a hot iron, it is instantly twitched away ; 
 and not till afterwards do we become conscious 
 of the pain. If the hand had to wait for this 
 consciousness and the voluntary movement of the 
 muscles, it would be badly burned. It has com- 
 parative safety through the nearness and the 
 promptness of the spinal ganglia which are in 
 immediate charge. Yet, after the sensation is 
 felt, we may, if we will, hold the hand to the 
 burning iron, notwithstanding the effort of the 
 ganglia to withdraw it — the larger brain exercis- 
 ing its authority over its subordinates. 
 Of these ganglia Swedenborg says : — 
 
 " There are many centres and bases in each 
 heaven ; by them there is immediate communica- 
 
378 
 
 PHYSIOL O GICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 tion among the heavens, and with God the Messiah. 
 They are in a most tranquil state, and cannot be 
 compared more aptly than to the ganglia of the 
 human body, and the nodes in the brain, into which 
 flow innumerable fibres, and are there as it were 
 formed anew, and so the things which are around 
 are disposed according to the ends in the begin- 
 nings, and thus all these in most perfect order and 
 form, by God the Messiah alone." (S. D. 305.) 
 
 "From the series of fibres in the body it may be 
 seen how it is in the lowest heaven ; for there are 
 incomprehensible fascicles, as those that are about 
 the heart, and those in lower regions, where all con- 
 join themselves wonderfully. One fibre flows into 
 another, and also weaves itself with others in a 
 wonderful way ; it flows in and out, and blends 
 itself with others, and again into others, also into 
 ganglia, where they enter into other combinations, 
 and flow out thence to their functions. How these 
 things are done no one can comprehend ; they are 
 disposed according to the heavenly form. Such 
 are the cardiac plexus, the hepatic, and other plex- 
 uses, and special plexuses in every viscus." (S. D. 
 
 5780.) 
 
 These that have been described are the sim- 
 plest ganglia, having immediate relation to the 
 
THE BRAIN. 
 
 379 
 
 extremes of the body. Another set, larger and 
 more comprehensive, combine the sensations of 
 the lower body with those of the head, especially 
 those received through the eyes, and direct the 
 motions of the body accordingly. These are four 
 small bodies at the base of the brain, called the 
 corpora quadragemina ; with a fifth, closely asso- 
 ciated with them, called the pineal gland, which 
 exercises some control over the secretions of the 
 brain. It is by virtue of these bodies that we 
 can walk over a rough path, even when the mind 
 is so occupied as to pay no attention to the way. 
 Many operations of the hands and of other parts 
 of the body are similarly controlled by them, 
 without any conscious effort of the mind. 
 
 Lying near these, and more important than 
 any other subordinate ganglion, is the medulla 
 oblongata ; a body which serves as the lieutenant 
 of the cerebellum, in controlling the vital func- 
 tions of the body — the beating of the heart; the 
 circulation through arteries, capillaries, and veins ; 
 the operations of all the glands of the body ; the 
 
3 8o 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 respiration, so far as it is involuntary ; and even 
 the processes of eating, swallowing, crying, and 
 speaking, so far as these also are involuntary. 
 It also combines the fibres of the cerebrum, which 
 are the instruments of conscious sensation and 
 voluntary action, with those of the cerebellum, 
 which keep the unconscious life informed of the 
 state of every point in its kingdom, and distrib- 
 ute its commands accordingly. Both cerebrum 
 and cerebellum may be wanting ; if this medulla, 
 with its group of cells, be sound, these vital func- 
 tions will be attended to as long as its powers 
 suffice. Its animating power is small ; but it 
 holds the reins of all the vital functions of the 
 body, and will guide them safely as long as the 
 life holds out. 
 
 The great variety of uses performed by the 
 fibres from a single centre has its correspond- 
 ence in the arrangement of the heavens, and is 
 thus illustrated by Swedenborg : — 
 
 " There came a company of spirits who said that 
 they were dissimilar ; and because this seemed to 
 
THE BRAIN. 381 
 
 me impossible, namely, that there should be a so- 
 ciety of dissimilars in the other life, I therefore 
 spoke with them about it, saying that if a common 
 cause moved them in one direction, they still might 
 be consociatecl, because all would thus have one end. 
 They said that they are such that all speak differ- 
 ently, and yet think alike. ... It was perceived 
 that they have relation to the isthmus in the brain, 
 which is between the cerebrum and the cerebellum, 
 through which the fibres pass, and are thence dis- 
 tributed variously, and wherever they go they act 
 diversely in externals. Also that they have relation 
 to the ganglia in the body, into which a nerve flows, 
 and then is separated into many fibres, some of 
 which go one way and some another, and act dis- 
 similarly in ultimates, but still from one principle ; 
 so that in ultimates there is dissimilarity in appear- 
 ance, although there is similarity as to end. It is 
 also known that one force acting in the extremi- 
 ties may be greatly varied, according to the form 
 there. Ends are likewise represented by the begin- 
 nings from which are the fibres, such as are in the 
 brain. Thoughts thence are represented by the 
 fibres from those beginnings, and actions by the 
 nerves which are from the fibres." (A. C. 5189. 
 Nearly the same is in n. 4051.) 
 
382 
 
 PHYSIOL O GICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 Two other pairs of brain-masses lie under the 
 hemispheres of the cerebrum, and are closely asso- 
 ciated with it, called the optic thalami and the 
 corpora striata. The nerves of sense that proceed 
 from the cerebrum pass through the optic thai- 
 ami ; and the nerves of motion pass through the 
 corpora striata. The cerebrum is the organ of the 
 conscious efforts of the mind. It desires to see ; 
 and its desire puts forth the nerve fibres that form 
 the eye, and in the eye receive impressions from 
 the light, and return these impressions to the 
 brain where the reflecting mind resides. But 
 this conscious effort can be directed to only one 
 thing at a time, — to observe, for instance, the 
 difference between black and white, or to distin- 
 guish the form of a letter ; and, if no impression 
 could be received except by this conscious atten- 
 tion, we never could learn to read ; the whole 
 power would be spent upon ever-repeated efforts 
 to make the simplest distinctions. The mind, 
 therefore, forms for itself a depository for the 
 impressions already received, in the optic thai- 
 
THE BRAIN. 
 
 3*3 
 
 ami, which, after a few repetitions, recognize the 
 familiar impressions without the effort or even 
 the consciousness of the cerebrum, and combine 
 them, and communicate the result to the cere- 
 brum. Thus letter after letter, and word after 
 word, are added to their stores of sense-knowl- 
 edge, and the conscious effort is left free to 
 attend to the meaning of the pages. 
 
 In like manner the mind desires to do some- 
 thing, and stretches out nerve fibres charged with 
 this desire, and by them weaves the muscles and 
 the bones of the arms and the hands. And then, 
 according to the circumstances and opportunities 
 of doing, it teaches the fingers to move, to grasp 
 a needle, to take a stitch, or to touch the key of a 
 piano. And if every motion must needs proceed 
 from the direct effort and intention of the mind, 
 the very simplest movements are all that would 
 ever be effected ; and therefore the mind forms 
 for itself lieutenants, who shall be associated with 
 it and cooperate in every effort, perhaps even 
 itself doing the work under direction, and which, 
 
384 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 after a few attempts, shall be able to direct all 
 familiar motions without special charge from the 
 conscious thought. The corpora striata, so called 
 from their alternate layers of cellular and fibrous 
 tissue, are such a lieutenant. They make the 
 familiar stitches, strike the familiar chords and 
 runs, write the letters, and even spell the words ; 
 and the convolutions of the cerebrum, after teach- 
 ing them to look after these things, are free to 
 attend to the use and beauty of the work, the 
 feeling of the music, the sense of the writing. 
 
 It may be true that the fibres proceeding directly 
 from the cerebrum do not themselves extend fur- 
 ther than to these subordinate bodies, but content 
 themselves with forming there the cells proper to 
 them, from which again proceed the fibres which, 
 form the organs of sense and motion ; so that 
 the cerebrum may not receive sensations imme- 
 diately from, nor act directly upon, the body, but 
 may perform both functions mediately through 
 the cells and the fibres of the optic thalami and 
 the corpora striata, respectively. Yet even so the 
 
THE BRAIN. 
 
 385 
 
 secondary fibres are only modifications and exten- 
 sions of the primary, and the effect is the same 
 for most purposes as if the fibres were immedi- 
 ately from the cerebrum ; the only difference being 
 that, if the hypothesis be true, the cells of these 
 subordinate lobes serve as repeating stations for 
 both sensations and impulses, the operators in 
 which stations are able to do of themselves, under 
 the general control of the cerebrum, whatever it 
 has taught them to do. 
 
 All these lower nerve centres, important as they 
 are, are subordinate to the great masses of the 
 brain, called the cerebrum and the cerebellum. 
 These chief organisms of the mind are informed 
 of every act of their lieutenants, and the cause of 
 the act, and have power to control and revise their 
 action. In these great masses of the brain reside 
 the conscious sense, the powers of attention, of 
 reflection, of comparison or choice, of intention, 
 and the human affection. And there are the first 
 receptacles of life from above. 
 
 The cerebrum is much the larger of the two, 
 
$S6 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 and occupies the whole of the upper part of the 
 head ; the cerebellum lying under the hinder lobes 
 of the cerebrum. The cerebrum is divided into 
 two hemispheres, the right and the left, united by- 
 masses of fibres at the base. The cerebellum, 
 though having a right and a left which answer to 
 each other, is not divided. Besides these most 
 general distinctions, the brains, especially the cere- 
 brum, are distinguished into lobes, and the lobes 
 into convolutions of great intricacy and beauty, of 
 which we shall have more to say presently. 
 
 It has already been intimated that the cere- 
 bellum has charge of the vital functions of the 
 body, of which the reflecting mind is unconscious ; 
 and that the cerebrum is the abode of the con- 
 scious sense, effort, and thought. The sense of 
 the cerebrum Swedenborg calls " voluntary " ; and 
 that of the cerebellum "involuntary"; and of 
 these he says : — 
 
 " The voluntary sense belongs to the cerebrum, 
 but the involuntary to the cerebellum. These two 
 general senses are conjoined in man, but still dis- 
 
THE BRAIN. 
 
 387 
 
 tinct. The fibres which go forth from the cere- 
 brum present in general the voluntary sense, and 
 those from the cerebellum present in general the 
 involuntary sense. The fibres of this two-fold 
 origin conjoin themselves in the two appendices 
 which are called the medulla oblongata and the 
 medulla spinalis, and through them pass into the 
 body, and fashion its members, viscera, and organs. 
 The things which encompass the body, as the 
 muscles and the skin, and also the organs of sense, 
 for the most part receive fibres from the cerebrum ; 
 from these man has sensations and also motions 
 according to his will. But the things which are 
 within that enclosure, and are called the viscera 
 of the body, receive fibres from the cerebellum. 
 Therefore man has no sense of them, nor are they 
 under the control of his will." 
 
 The cerebellum shares its control of many func- 
 tions of the body with the cerebrum, during the 
 hours of wakefulness ; but when the cerebrum 
 sleeps, the cerebellum has sole charge. Dreams, 
 therefore, flow in through the cerebellum, and 
 from angels and spirits who belong to that prov- 
 ince. After describing some dreams, pleasant and 
 instructive, Swedenborg says: — 
 
3 88 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 i( They are angelic spirits, who are on the con- 
 fines of the paradisal abodes, who insinuate such 
 dreams ; to whom also is assigned the duty of 
 watching over certain men while they sleep, lest 
 they should be infested by evil spirits. This duty 
 they perform with the greatest delight, insomuch 
 that there is an emulation among them who shall 
 attend ; and they love to affect man with sweet and 
 delightful things which they see in his affection 
 and disposition. These angelic spirits are of those 
 who in the life of the body have delighted and 
 loved to make the life of others delightful, by 
 every means and endeavor. When the sense of 
 hearing is so far opened, there is heard as from afar 
 a sweet modulation of sounds as of singing. They 
 said that they do not know whence such things 
 come to them ; and such beautiful and pleasant 
 representatives ; but it was said that it was from 
 heaven. They belong to the province of the cere- 
 bellum ; because the cerebellum, as I have been 
 instructed, is awake during sleep, while the cere- 
 brum is asleep. The men of the Most Ancient 
 Church had their dreams from thence, with a per- 
 ception what they signified ; from which in great 
 part came the representatives and significatives of 
 the Ancients, under which things deeply hidden 
 were set forth." (A. C. 1977.) 
 
THE BRAIN. 
 
 389 
 
 As has been said, in some parts of the body 
 the voluntary fibres prevail, as in the organs of 
 sense ; and in some the involuntary, as in the vis- 
 cera ; but yet both kinds go everywhere ; for there 
 is no part of the viscera which, in a state of 
 disease, may not make its condition consciously 
 felt by fibres of the cerebrum ; and there is no 
 part of a muscle or a membrane which does not 
 depend for the regulation of its nutrition upon the 
 presence of fibres from the cerebellum. 
 
 " The voluntary things," Swedenborg says, " con- 
 tinually lead away from order, but the involuntary 
 things continually lead back to order. Hence it is 
 that the motion of the heart, which is involuntary, 
 is altogether exempt from the will of man ; like- 
 wise the action of the cerebellum ; and that the 
 motion of the heart and the forces of the cere- 
 bellum rule the voluntary things, lest these should 
 break down beyond limits, and extinguish the life 
 of the body before the time. Therefore the agents 
 of both, as well the voluntary as the involuntary 
 things, go forth in the whole body united." (A. C. 
 9683. Similar things also in S. D. 5781.) 
 
 The cerebellum is said to be the abode of the 
 
3 9 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 involuntary things, in the sense that its actions 
 proceed without the consciousness and effort of 
 man. But this is because they proceed from the 
 love which is his life, of the affections of which 
 he is unaware. The evil genii, who operate upon 
 the cerebellum, are said to flow into the aflections, 
 with the effort to turn them into evil lusts, care- 
 fully avoiding the thoughts lest they should be 
 perceived. (D. P. 310). The cerebellum, there- 
 fore, like the heart, is the organ of the love or 
 the will ; and the cerebrum, like the lungs, is re- 
 lated to the understanding. Therefore the per- 
 verse things also of man's love have their seat 
 in the cerebellum ; and the cerebellum can be 
 instructed, and freed from perversity, by the cere- 
 brum, as the blood from the heart is purified by 
 the lungs. 
 
 A very simple matter illustrates the action of 
 the cerebrum upon the cerebellum. It has been 
 said that the cerebellum rules in the body at night 
 while the cerebrum sleeps. But if, before going 
 to sleep, the cerebrum fixes the hour for waking, 
 
THE BRAIN. 
 
 39 1 
 
 the cerebellum thus instructed awakes it at the 
 time. 
 
 It is possible to see in the character of the 
 dreams a reflection of the natural tendencies of 
 the will ; and to most people they reveal evil 
 tendencies which certainly are not of their choice 
 or intention, and yet they are real tendencies of 
 the natural will, having their abode in correspond- 
 ing forms of the cerebellum. And if, in the prep- 
 aration for the night's sleep, besides the reading 
 of the Word and prayer, which should bring pre- 
 vailing good influences into the dreams, there 
 should be also a distinct condemning of the evil 
 tendencies and a warning of the soul against 
 them, much might be done to make the dreams 
 gentle and pure, and the sleep deeply refreshing. 
 
 We read now-a-days of the experiments of 
 French physicians in what is called " hypnotism/' 
 or involuntary sleep, which is nearly or quite the 
 same as mesmeric sleep. Hypnotized patients are 
 not conscious of anything that is said to them, 
 and remember nothing of it ; and yet they are 
 
392 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 deeply impressed by it, and will do in their natu- 
 ral state, as by a natural impulse upon which they 
 do not reflect, whatever they have been told in 
 their sleep to do. Instances are related in which 
 patients of violent temper and coarsest manners 
 have -been instructed not to do the things which 
 have been habitual to them, but to do good and 
 gentle things instead, specifying particularly what 
 is not to be done and what is to be done, with 
 the result of transforming apparently the natural 
 disposition of the subjects. Evil things also are 
 taught and executed with equal readiness. Now, 
 without delaying to inquire the possible effect of 
 this in regeneration — remarking only that no one 
 is ever condemned or saved by his hereditary 
 character, nor by that which is impressed upon 
 him without his own choice — we may draw this 
 lesson : If while one's own cerebrum is quies- 
 cent, another can so instruct and impress the 
 organ of one's will or natural disposition, through 
 the auditory nerves, one may do the same for 
 himself — may chide himself for evil and warn 
 
THE BRAIN. 
 
 393 
 
 himself not to do it. Foreseeing times of temp- 
 tation, he may resolutely instruct himself in what 
 he is to do ; and when the time of trial comes he 
 will find his natural disposition changing, and if 
 he does not himself undo his own instructions, he 
 will very likely go by in safety ; at least he will 
 find his continued efforts much more effective in 
 securing self-restraint. 
 
 In studying the sense of hearing, we have seen 
 that it has relation to obedience ; and it is inter- 
 esting to remember that the nerves of the ears, 
 besides their extension to their special convolu- 
 tions of the cerebrum, send large branches di- 
 rectly to the cerebellum, having thus a tendency 
 to produce prompt and involuntary obedience, as 
 well as voluntary. In listening to music, the effect 
 upon the feelings, aside from any thinking, is an 
 effect produced upon the cerebellum ; the thought 
 about the words, or about the structure of the 
 music, and even about its beauty of form, is in 
 the cerebrum. 
 
 There were some spirits, professedly Christian, 
 
394 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 but of evil life, who desired to enter heaven. 
 Swedenborg relates that they were brought to the 
 gates of a certain heavenly society, where they 
 were examined by those whose duty it was to re- 
 ceive new comers. 
 
 "And they turned them about, and saw that the 
 hinder parts of their heads were very hollow ; and 
 then they said, ' Depart from here ; for you are in 
 the enjoyment of the love of doing evil, and there- 
 fore you are not conjoined to heaven ; for in your 
 hearts you have denied God, and despised the things 
 of religion.' . . . On the way home, we conversed 
 about the cause that the occiputs of those who are 
 in the enjoyment of doing evil are hollow. And 
 I said that this is the cause : that man has two 
 brains, one in the occiput, which is called the cere- 
 bellum, and the other in the forehead, which is 
 called the cerebrum ; and that the love of the will 
 dwells in the cerebellum, and the thought of the 
 understanding in the cerebrum ; and when the 
 thought of a man's understanding does not lead 
 the love of the will, the inmosts of the cerebellum, 
 which in themselves are celestial, collapse, whence 
 is the hollowness." (T. C. R. 160.) 
 
 It may be supposed that the perverse exterior 
 
THE BRAIN. 
 
 395 
 
 forms of the cerebellum remained, and were recep- 
 tive of evil influx ; but the interiors shrivelled 
 away. That the same was not true of their cere- 
 brums was because the understanding can be sep- 
 arated from the will; and they could know and 
 understand the things of religion and of heavenly 
 life, though they did not believe and love them. 
 How forcibly does this present the consequences 
 of evil life in the very organism of the spirits of 
 men ! They still receive from the Lord the ra- 
 tionality and freedom that reside in the forehead ; 
 they can still understand the truth, and for some 
 external motive of honor or gain can compel them- 
 selves to do it. But their ability really to love it 
 is gone forever : they themselves have destroyed 
 it.* 
 
 The texture of the cerebrum also is affected by 
 the mode of thinking, whether truly or falsely, 
 spiritually or sensually ; and becomes orderly, soft, 
 
 * Similar things are said of some spirits of the Dragon. (L. J. 
 post p. 52.) 
 
396 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 and pellucid, or disorderly, hairy, callous, or bony, 
 accordingly. Swedenborg relates that in the early 
 period of his spiritual instruction there were felt 
 hard places in the left part of his cerebrum, like 
 rather large, hard nuclei, — 
 
 " which," he says, "were affected with a dull or 
 mute pain ; and it was said to me that it was per- 
 ceived from the hardened spots that there were 
 still things which were not truths of faith. Hence 
 it appears that hardness actually exists in the or- 
 ganic forms when there is not faith, and the greater 
 the hardening the less conscience there is ; so that 
 they who have no conscience after death have the 
 brain outmostly hard." (S. D. 1623.) 
 
 " Moreover, when I received only the literal 
 sense of the Word, then the ways were closed to 
 the understanding of interior things. And thus 
 with those who only stick in the literal sense of the 
 Word; the brains are hardened and enclosed, so 
 that there is no way open to an inner sense, and 
 still less to the inmost ; thus a crust is formed of 
 external corporeal or sensual things glued together. 
 It is otherwise when the way is opened to the 
 sense of interior things, or to the spirit ; which 
 way is opened by the Lord alone." (S. D. 1624.) 
 
THE BRAIN. 
 
 397 
 
 "The head of those who know and believe," we 
 are informed, " appears as if human, and the brain 
 orderly, white like snow, and lucid, for heavenly 
 light is received by them." But the brains of some 
 of the wicked, who believed they lived of them- 
 selves, and refused to open their minds to the 
 Lord, were found "rough, hairy, and dark." (A. 
 C. 4319.) Not that the natural brain would so 
 appear, but the spiritual brain when inspected by 
 the angels after death. 
 
 The function of the cerebellum, according to the 
 common idea of modern physiologists, is chiefly to 
 preserve the equilibrium of the body. And this 
 idea is founded upon the observed fact that, in 
 cases of injury to the cerebellum, an animal tum- 
 bles about helplessly. The same is the case with 
 man in less degree. After a time, however, the 
 power of preserving the equilibrium is recovered 
 in great degree, yet at the cost of close attention 
 and much effort. It probably is true that animals 
 walk, and perform many other actions, naturally, 
 without much teaching, and mostly under the con- 
 
398 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 trol of the cerebellum. Man does the same to a 
 much less extent. And when the cerebellum is 
 destroyed, all such natural motion, except as it can 
 be continued by the medulla oblongata, ceases ; 
 and the actions can be continued only by the 
 effort of the cerebrum. Man loses less of the 
 power than animals, because he always moves 
 less by nature, and depends more upon teaching. 
 This part of the function of the cerebellum is 
 more easily observed than the rest ; but a great 
 want of vitality is noticeable in the performance 
 of all the natural functions of the body. 
 
 As the brain forms the body by means of its 
 fibres, it also animates it. For the life that flows 
 into the body to form it continues to flow in to 
 keep it in the power to perform the functions for 
 which it is formed. 
 
 The life also animates the body in the same 
 order in which it formed it. It flows into the cells 
 of the brain immediately, and from them through 
 the fibres into all the tissues of the body. After 
 the body is formed, and the man assumes control 
 
THE BRAIN. 
 
 399 
 
 of it, his thought and affection are exercised in 
 the cells of the brain, and according to the quality 
 of this exercise is the quality of the animation of 
 the body through them. Swedenborg states that 
 the animating influence of the brain is exerted 
 by means of a highly vitalized fluid which he 
 calls "the animal spirits." And he says that one 
 who does not believe in the existence of such an 
 agency, stops in the beginning, and can know 
 nothing of the operation of the spirit in the body. 
 (S. D. 3459.) 
 
 In the cells of the brain the spiritual and the 
 natural substances of the mind meet. (Compare 
 T. C. R. 38.) In thinking the truth, and willing 
 what is good, the very substance of truth and 
 goodness is secreted by the cells of the spiritual 
 body, and in the cells of the natural brain is em- 
 bodied in the pure fluids secreted from the capil- 
 laries, and thence is sent through the fibres, inspir- 
 ing every part of the body in the performance of 
 its functions. And this vitalization is according 
 to the quality of the thinking and willing, noble 
 
4-00 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 if these be noble, and vile if they be vile. From 
 the body there is a return of the purer fluids to 
 the brain, for re-secretion and new combinations, 
 through the blood-vessels. (D. L. W. 316.) 
 
 It is Swedenborg's view that not only are the 
 tissues of the body vitalized directly by fibres 
 from the brain, but the blood itself also receives 
 its portion of spirit which is secreted in the ven- 
 tricles of the brain, together with pure lymph with 
 which it is combined, and impure serosities and 
 adhesive fluids discharged from among the fibres, 
 and from which the brain needs to free itself. 
 These fluids, he says, are directed from the ven- 
 tricles through the appropriate foramina to the 
 infundibulum, under the pineal gland, and thence 
 to the pituitary body, which is really a gland for 
 compounding this vitalizing fluid for the blood, 
 and separating from it the impurities. 
 
 Of the correspondence of these functions with 
 the heavens, Swedenborg has much to say: — 
 
 "There were certain spirits above the head, a 
 little in front, who spoke with me. They discoursed 
 
THE BRAIN. 
 
 401 
 
 pleasantly, and their influx was tolerably gentle. 
 They were distinguished from others by this, that 
 they had a continual eagerness and desire to come 
 into heaven. It was said that they who have refer- 
 ence to the ventricles or larger cavities of the 
 brain, and belong to that province, are of this 
 nature. The reason was also added : that the 
 better kind of lymph which is therein is of such 
 a nature, namely, as to return into the brain ; and 
 hence also is in such an effort. The brain is 
 heaven : the effort is eagerness and desire. Such 
 are the correspondences." (A. C. 4049.) 
 
 " There appeared to me a certain face over a 
 blue window, which face presently betook itself 
 within. There then appeared a little star about 
 the region of the left eye ; afterwards many red 
 stars with a white sparkle. Next appeared to me 
 walls, but no roof, the walls only on the left side : 
 lastly, as it were the starry heaven. But whereas 
 these things were seen in a place where evil spirits 
 were, I imagined that it was something foul which 
 was presented me to see. Presently, however, the 
 wall and the heaven disappeared ; and I saw a well, 
 out of which came forth, as it were, a bright mist 
 or vapor ; it seemed also as if something were 
 pumped out of the well. I inquired what these 
 things signified or represented. It was said that 
 
402 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES, 
 
 it was a representation of the infundibulum in the 
 brain, over which was the cerebrum, which is signi- 
 fied by heaven ; and what was next seen was that 
 vessel, which is signified by a well, and is called 
 the infundibulum ; and that the mist or vapor 
 which arose thence was the lymph which passes 
 through, and is pumped out thence ; and that this 
 lymph is of a two-fold kind, namely, what is mixed 
 with animal spirits, which is among the useful 
 lymphs, and what is mixed with serosities, which 
 is among the excrementitious lymphs. It was 
 afterwards shown me of what quality those are 
 who belong to this province ; but only those who 
 were of the viler sort. They were also seen. 
 They run about hither and thither, apply them- 
 selves to those whom they see, attend to every 
 particular, and tell others what they hear ; prone 
 to suspicion, impatient, restless, in imitation of 
 that lymph which is therein, and is conveyed to 
 and fro. Their reasonings are the fluids there 
 which they represent. These, however, are of the 
 middle sort ; but they who have reference to the 
 excrementitious lymphs therein, are such as draw 
 down spiritual truths to things terrestrial, and 
 there defile them ; as, for instance, when they 
 hear anything about marriage love, they apply it 
 to whoredoms and adulteries, and thus drag down 
 
THE BRAI'N. 
 
 403 
 
 to these the things which belong to marriage love ; 
 and so in other cases." (A. C. 4050.) 
 
 These descriptions seem all to be taken from 
 the Christian heaven before the Last Judgment, 
 thus during the process of its formation and puri- 
 fication from evil spirits. The Ancient heavens 
 would be described very differently, and likewise 
 the Christian heav.en now that it is in order. 
 
 In the Diary we read of those mentioned above 
 as being in the ventricles of the brain, and desir- 
 ing to enter heaven : — 
 
 "They knew not that they had been in heaven, 
 and had been removed from it that they might be 
 the better perfected, and so return into heaven 
 when hetrogeneous things had been cast out from 
 them ; altogether as it is with that serosity in the 
 ventricles, a part of which is absorbed by the cho- 
 roid plexus, as a part also is cast out from it, a part 
 is exhaled from elsewhere, a part passes through 
 the third ventricle under the pineal gland, and so 
 through the infundibulum towards the pituitary 
 body, where it is separated by three ways, and is 
 carried thence by various passages, canals, and 
 sinuses towards the jugular vein, that it may meet 
 
4 04 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 the chyle coming up through the thoracic duct, 
 and they may there be consociated, and borne 
 towards the heart, and thence into the lungs, and 
 back to the left ventricle, and then onwards, a part 
 towards the head through the carotids, a part down- 
 wards through all the viscera of the body ; and all 
 for the end that a purer blood or animal spirit may 
 be formed, and thus the red blood, in order that 
 material things may be united with spiritual and 
 live one life." (n. 831. So also in n. 914.) 
 
 Certain spirits are described, — deformed, cruel, 
 and beastly, — who correspond to foul and poison- 
 ous humors in the brain, and also to deadly tumors. 
 And it is said that "such are they who slew whole 
 armies in the old times, as it is written in the 
 Word ; for they rushed into the chambers of the 
 brain in every one, and inspired terror, together 
 with such insanity that they slew one another." 
 (A. C. 5717) 
 
 Others who are like the gross phlegm of the 
 brain, and produce obstructions, dulness, and many 
 diseases, are described as totally void of con- 
 science, and placing "human prudence and wis- 
 
THE BRAIN. 
 
 405 
 
 dom in exciting enmities, hatreds, and intestine 
 combats, for the sake of ruling." (A. C. 5718.) 
 And still others are described who cause various 
 disorders. (See A. C. 5386, 5724; S. D. 1783, 
 
 I793-) 
 
 It seems strange to think of spirits so perverse 
 as having access to so interior a province of the 
 heavens. Probably it would be impossible now ; 
 but before the Last Judgment there were many 
 evil persons penetrating even to the higher parts 
 of the Christian heaven, and causing much dis- 
 turbance. In the higher heavens, and probably 
 in the Christian heaven now, instead of such evil 
 spirits we might find angels who have some mor- 
 bidness or sluggishness to get rid of, and are there 
 subjected to some purifying processes correspond- 
 ing to those by which evil spirits were separated. 
 
 A view of the brain, to one who looks upon it 
 with the reverence which is its due, excites a feel- 
 ing of awe, arising from the sense of deep mys- 
 tery, and also of wonderful, if as yet unintelli- 
 gible, beauty, Swedenborg says : — 
 
4 o6 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 " When the skull and the integuments about the 
 brain are removed, there appear wonderful circum- 
 volutions and gyri, in which are disposed the sub- 
 stances that are called cortical. From these run 
 forth the fibres which constitute the medulla of 
 the brain. These fibres proceed thence through 
 the nerves into the body, and there perform func- 
 tions according to the command and will of the 
 brain. All these things are altogether according 
 to the heavenly form ; for such a form is im- 
 pressed upon the heavens by the Lord, and thence 
 also upon the things which are in man, and espe- 
 cially upon his cerebrum and cerebellum." (A. C. 
 4040.) 
 
 The exact purpose or distribution of functions, 
 of these wonderful convolutions, is not perfectly 
 known ; yet it is possible to obtain a general view 
 of them which is to be trusted in the main. We 
 have seen that the cerebellum is the organ of the 
 love which is the life of the mind, the seat of its 
 natural affections, and the means by which the 
 organs performing the vital functions in the body 
 are animated and controlled. And in general we 
 have learned that the cerebrum is the habitation 
 
THE BRAIN. 
 
 407 
 
 of the conscious mind, to which the sensations 
 that come to consciousness are reported, and by 
 which the voluntary actions are controlled. 
 
 The cerebrum is divided into two hemispheres. 
 To the right hemisphere, we are taught, they 
 correspond " who are in the will of good, and 
 thence in the will of truth ; but they who corre- 
 spond to the left part of the brain are those who 
 are in the understanding of good and truth, and 
 thence in affection for them." (A. C. 4052.) 
 
 Besides this division into hemispheres, the whole 
 cerebrum may be thought of in general as divided 
 into regions of conscious sense and regions of 
 action ; the regions of sense lying in the hinder 
 and lower part of the cerebrum, and the region 
 of action somewhat overlying this towards the 
 front, and occupying the whole of the lobes imme- 
 diately above the temples. In front of these, both 
 in animals and in men, are the convolutions in 
 which resides the faculty of attention and intelli- 
 gence ; by which animals as well as men can be 
 instructed to some extent, and learn to do things 
 
4 o8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 contrary to their natural inclinations, yet, in the 
 case of animals, under the stimulus of other natu- 
 ral motives. And in the extreme front, furthest 
 removed from the ultimates of sense and action 
 — looking down upon all the impressions of sense, 
 the natural desires, the acquired knowledge, with 
 power to rule and control them all, with power 
 also to abstract itself from these, and to appre- 
 ciate not only abstract qualities, such as warmth 
 and color, but also spiritual qualities of affection 
 and wisdom — reside the human faculties of ra- 
 tionality and freedom. 
 
 In the area obliquely upward and backward from 
 the ears, devoted to the perceptions of sensations, 
 we have a simple arrangement of the convolutions, 
 proceeding from below upward in the natural 
 sequence of the senses from voluntary to intel- 
 lectual. In the large convolutions in the base of 
 the cerebrum, under the great ventricles, resides 
 the sense of touch ; and proceeding thence up- 
 ward behind the line of the ears, and backward, 
 we have successively the convolutions devoted 
 
THE BRAIN. 409 
 
 respectively to taste, smell, hearing, and sight, 
 the last much more extensive than the others. 
 
 No doubt, besides the direct communication of 
 fibres from these several convolutions to their 
 respective organs of sense, there is indirect com- 
 munication with other parts of the brain, the great 
 mass of white substance indicating that there 
 is a multitude of fibres forming a means of inter- 
 communication among all parts of the cerebrum, 
 and especially between all other parts and the 
 frontal lobes ; yet the conscious perception of sen- 
 sations seems limited to their special convolutions. 
 
 Above and in front of the area of sight, lie 
 the convolutions which control the movements of 
 the legs ; then over the ears and somewhat for- 
 ward, those that move the arms ; in the upper 
 part of the frontal convolutions is now the con- 
 trol of the face ; and in the lower part, just above 
 the temples, lies the faculty of speech. 
 
 This relative position of organs of sense and 
 organs of motion is continued in the lower nerve- 
 centres ; for the corpora striata, through which 
 
4io 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 pass the nerves of motion, lie below the convo- 
 lutions of motion, and the optic thalami behind 
 them, under the convolutions of sense. In the 
 spinal medulla also, the columns of sensory fibres 
 lie in the rear, and those of motor fibres in front ; 
 and these are attended by columns of fibres from 
 the cerebellum accompanying them both at the 
 sides, and running everywhere with them. 
 Through the fibres, as Swedenborg says, — 
 
 "the mind, when it is in its thought from the 
 understanding, and affection from the will, has 
 extension into all things of the whole body, and 
 there spreads itself throughout their forms, as do 
 the thoughts and affections of the angels into the 
 societies of the whole heaven. The case is similar, 
 because all things of the human body correspond 
 to all things of heaven ; wherefore the form of the 
 whole heaven before the Lord is the human form." 
 (A. E. 775.) 
 
 Many things are said of the correspondence of 
 the brain with the heavens, and of the influx of 
 the heavens into the brain, which will help fill out 
 and make clear the whole subject. 
 
THE BRAIN. 4II 
 
 The angels who correspond to the enclosing 
 membranes of the brain, like those relating to 
 other covering membranes of the body, are in a 
 passive state, speaking not from themselves, but 
 from others, and thus serving as conjoining me- 
 diums, and for protection. 
 
 They who constitute the dura mater, — 
 
 "were such as during their life as men thought 
 nothing of spiritual and heavenly things, nor spake 
 about them, because they believed only in what 
 was natural, and this because they could not pene- 
 trate further ; nevertheless they did not confess 
 this. They still, like others, worshipped the Di- 
 vine, had stated times for prayer, and were good 
 citizens." 
 
 Among those who — 
 
 " had reference to the outer layer of the dura mater 
 . . . were such as thought about spiritual and 
 heavenly things only from such things as are ob- 
 jects of the external senses, comprehending more 
 interior things in no other way. They were heard 
 by me as of the female sex. They who reason 
 from external sensuals, hence from things worldly 
 and corporeal, concerning those which are of 
 
412 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 heaven and the spiritual things of faith and love, 
 the more they unite and confound those things, go 
 outward even to the external skin of the head, 
 which they represent ; but still they are within 
 the Greatest Man, although in its extremes, if they 
 have lived a good life ; for every one who is in 
 good life from affection of charity is saved." (A. 
 C. 4046.) 
 
 Those of the pia mater, — 
 
 "were as they had been in the world, not trusting 
 much to their own thought, and thereby setting 
 themselves to think anything certain on holy 
 things, but depending on the faith of others, and 
 not considering whether a thing was true. That 
 this was their quality was also shown me by an 
 influx of their perception into the Lord's Prayer 
 when I was reading it ; for all spirits and angels, 
 however many they may be, may be known as to 
 their quality from the Lord's Prayer, and this by 
 an influx of the ideas of their thought into the 
 contents of the Prayer. From this it was per- 
 ceived that such was their character, and moreover 
 that they could serve the angels as intermedi- 
 ates ; for there are spirits intermediate between the 
 heavens, by whom there is communication ; for 
 their ideas were not closed, but easily opened ; 
 
THE BRAIN, 
 
 413 
 
 thus they suffered themselves to be acted upon, 
 and readily admitted and received the influx. They 
 were also modest and peaceful, and said they were 
 in heaven." (A. C. 4047.) 
 
 The sinuses of the brain are large vessels for 
 receiving the venous blood, and are situated in 
 safe and quiet places, where they can relieve the 
 brain of the surplus blood, without themselves 
 partaking in any great degree of its active mo- 
 tions. 
 
 " There was a certain spirit near my head," 
 Swedenborg writes, "who spoke with me. I per- 
 ceived from the tone of his voice that he was in a 
 state of tranquillity, as of a kind of peaceful sleep. 
 He asked this thing and that, but with such pru- 
 dence that a person awake could not have asked 
 more prudently. It was perceived that interior 
 angels spoke by him, and that he was in such a 
 state as to perceive and bring forth what they 
 spoke. I asked about that state, and told him that 
 it was such. He replied that he spoke nothing 
 but what was good and true ; and that he perceived 
 whether anything else flowed in, and if it did he 
 did not admit or utter it. Of his state he said 
 
414 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 that it was peaceful ; and it was given me to per- 
 ceive it by communication. It was said that they 
 are such who have reference to the sinuses or 
 larger blood-vessels of the brain ; and that they 
 who are like him have reference to the longitu- 
 dinal sinus, which is between the hemispheres of 
 the cerebrum, and are there in a state of peace, 
 however the brain on both sides be in a state of 
 tumult." (A. C. 4048.) 
 
 The cells, or glands, which constitute the corti- 
 cal substance of the brain, Swedenborg says, are 
 innumerable ; and he adds : — 
 
 "The multitude of these glands may ... be 
 compared to the multitude of angelic societies in 
 the heavens, which also are innumerable, and in 
 the same order (as was told me) as the glands ; 
 and the multitude of fibrillae proceeding from these 
 glands may be compared to spiritual truths and 
 goods, that in like manner flow from the societies 
 like rays." (D. L. W. 366.) 
 
 "They who are in the principles of good relate 
 to those things in the brain which are the first 
 beginnings there, and are called the glands, or 
 cortical substances ; but they who are in the prin- 
 ciples of truth relate to those things which flow 
 
THE BRAIN. 4I g 
 
 from those first beginnings, and are called the 
 fibres." (A. C. 4052.) 
 
 "The brain, like heaven, is in the sphere of 
 ends, which are uses ; for whatever flows in from 
 the Lord is an end regarding the salvation of the 
 human race. This end is what reigns in heaven, 
 and also what reigns thence in the brain ; for the 
 brain, where is man's mind, regards ends in the 
 body, namely, that the body may serve the soul, in 
 order that the soul may be happy forever." (A. C. 
 4054.) 
 
 In regard to the influx from the heavens into 
 the brain, we read in "Heaven and Hell": — 
 
 "The influx of the Lord Himself with man is 
 into his forehead, and thence into the whole face, 
 since the forehead of man corresponds to love 
 and the face corresponds to all the interiors. The 
 influx of the spiritual angels with man is into his 
 head everywhere, from the forehead and temples 
 to every part under which is the cerebrum, because 
 that region of the head corresponds to intelligence. 
 But the influx of the celestial angels is into that 
 part of the head in which is the cerebellum, and 
 which is called the occiput, from the ears all around 
 even to the neck ; for that region corresponds to 
 wisdom." (n. 251.) 
 
4I 6 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 In A. E. 61, we read as follows : — 
 
 "The Divine Influx from heaven is into man's 
 will, and through the will into his understanding. 
 Influx into the will is into the occiput, because 
 into the cerebellum, and from this it passes to 
 the forward parts into the cerebrum, where is the 
 understanding; and when it comes by that way 
 into the understanding, it then comes also into the 
 sight, for man sees from his understanding." 
 
 And again : — 
 
 " All good is received from behind, and all truth 
 from in front, since the cerebellum is formed to 
 receive good which is of the will, and the cerebrum 
 to receive truth which is of the understanding." 
 (n. 316.) 
 
 To understand these things we must remember 
 that the relation of the cerebellum to the cere- 
 brum is like that of the heart to the lungs ; that 
 the cerebellum causes the cerebrum to be formed 
 and nourished, as the heart does the lungs ; and 
 then, as the blood of the heart is purified by 
 means of the lungs, so the affections of the cere- 
 bellum may be purified by the truth perceived 
 
THE BRAIN. 4I? 
 
 and willed by the cerebrum ; and that in this fac- 
 ulty of perceiving and willing the truth that puri- 
 fies the life's love, consists the true rationality and 
 freedom in which the Lord resides in man ; which 
 faculty lies in the forehead, and is that which 
 knows and acknowledges the Lord, and causes 
 the whole of the man to submit to His influence : 
 and further, as in the case of the heart and the 
 lungs, if the love in the cerebellum is not purified 
 by the thought of the cerebrum, it compels the 
 cerebrum to think only the evil and false things 
 that agree with its own perversity. (Compare D. 
 L. W. 413-425.) In this case, the interiors of 
 the cerebellum are destroyed, but the freedom and 
 rationality still remain, for they are the Lord's in 
 man, and are never destroyed or taken away. (D. 
 L. W. 425.) But in case the love is purified by 
 the truth, then the Lord flows into the will's love, 
 and through this continually incites the under- 
 standing to learn more of the ennobling truth. 
 
 "The angels of the inmost heaven," we read, 
 " correspond to those things in man which belong 
 
4i* 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 to the provinces of the heart and the cerebellum ; 
 but the angels of the middle heaven correspond 
 to those things in man which belong to the prov- 
 inces of the lungs and the cerebrum. . . . But to 
 intermediate angels who are near to both heavens, 
 and conjoin them, correspond the cardiac and pul- 
 monary plexuses, by which the heart is conjoined 
 with the lungs ; also the medulla oblongata, where 
 the fibre of the cerebellum is conjoined with the 
 fibre of the cerebrum." (A. C. 9670.) 
 
 We are told also that the gentle, interior, and 
 sincere spirits from the planet Mars, who are in 
 thought from affection and in the affection of 
 thought, relate to " that middle province which is 
 between the cerebrum and the cerebellum." 
 
 " And because they have such a relation in the 
 Greatest Man, that middle province which is be- 
 tween the cerebrum and the cerebellum corre- 
 sponds to them ; for in them the cerebrum and 
 cerebellum are conjoined as to spiritual opera- 
 tions ; their face makes one with their thought, so 
 that from the face the very affection of thought 
 shines forth, and from the affection, with some 
 indications also from the eyes, the general nature 
 of the thought. Wherefore, when they were near 
 
THE BRAIN. 41 g 
 
 me, I sensibly perceived a drawing back of the 
 front part of the head towards the occiput, thus of 
 the cerebrum towards the cerebellum." (A. C. 
 
 7481.) 
 
 A most interesting account is given, in A. C. 
 n. 4326, of the operation of the two brains upon 
 the expression of the face, in the Most Ancient 
 times and afterwards : — 
 
 14 There was heard a gentle thundering, which 
 flowed down from on high above the occiput, and 
 continued about the whole region of it. I won- 
 dered who they were. It was told me that they 
 were those who relate to the general involuntary 
 feeling. And it was further said that they can 
 perceive well a man's thoughts, but are not willing 
 to set them forth and utter them ; like the cere- 
 bellum, which perceives all that which the cere- 
 brum perceives, but does not publish it. When 
 their manifest operation into the whole province 
 of the occiput ceased, it was shown how far their 
 operation had extended. It was first determined 
 to the whole face, then it withdrew itself towards 
 the left part of the face, and lastly towards the ear 
 there ; by which was signified of what nature the 
 operation of the general involuntary feeling had 
 
420 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 been from the earliest times with the men of our 
 earth, and how it had changed. The influx from 
 the cerebellum insinuates itself chiefly into the 
 face, as is manifest from this, that the disposition 
 is inscribed on the face, and that the affections 
 appear in the face, and this for the most part with- 
 out man's will, — as is the case with fear, awe, 
 shame, various kinds of joy and also of sorrow; 
 besides other things which thus are made known 
 to another ; so that he knows from the face what 
 affections and what changes of the feelings and of 
 the mind there are. These are from the cerebel- 
 lum by means of its fibres, when there is no simu- 
 lation within. Thus it was shown that the general 
 feeling in the earliest times, or with the Most 
 Ancient people, occupied the whole face ; and that 
 successively after those times it occupied only the 
 left part of it, and finally afterwards it spread itself 
 outside of the face, so that at this day there is 
 scarcely any general involuntary feeling remaining 
 in the face. The right part of the face, with the 
 right eye, corresponds to affection for good ; but 
 the left to affection for truth ; and the region where 
 the ear is, to obedience only without affection. 
 For with the Most Ancient people — whose age was 
 called the Golden Age, because they lived in a cer- 
 tain state of integrity, and in love to the Lord and 
 
THE BRAIN. 
 
 421 
 
 mutual love, like the angels — all the involuntary 
 feeling of the cerebellum was manifested in the 
 face ; and then they did not know how to present 
 anything else in the face than according as heaven 
 flowed into the involuntary efforts, and thence into 
 the will. But with the Ancients, whose age was 
 called the Silver Age, because they were in a 
 state of truth, and thence in charity towards the 
 neighbor, the involuntary feeling of the cerebel- 
 lum was manifested, not in the right part of the 
 face, bat only in the left ; and with their posterity — 
 whose time was called the Iron Age, because they 
 lived not in affection for truth, but in obedience to 
 truth — the involuntary feeling was no longer mani- 
 fested in the face, but betook itself to the region 
 about the left ear. I have been instructed that 
 the fibres of the cerebellum thus changed their 
 distribution in the face, and that in their place 
 fibres of the cerebrum were carried thither, which 
 then rule over those from the cerebellum ; and this 
 from an effort to form the expression of the face 
 according to one's own will, which is from the 
 cerebrum. It does not appear to man that these 
 things are so, but it is very manifest to the angels 
 from the influx of heaven, and from correspond- 
 ence." (A. C. 4326.) 
 
 We read also of another remarkable change : — 
 
422 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 " The Most Ancient people, who constituted the 
 Lord's Celestial Church, had a will in which was 
 good, and an understanding in which was truth 
 thence, which two made one in them. But the 
 Ancients, who formed the Lord's Spiritual Church, 
 had a will altogether corrupt, but a sound under- 
 standing, in which the Lord formed by regenera- 
 tion a new will, and through this also a new under- 
 standing." (A. C. 4328.) 
 
 The change that thus took place, suggests a 
 possible explanation of the curious fact that the 
 fibres that pass from the head to the body are 
 crossed in the medullae, so that the fibres from 
 the right side of the head rule in. the left side of 
 the body, and those from the left side of the head 
 in the right side of the body. And yet Sweden- 
 borg, though he mentions the fact in the Diary 
 (nos. 1666, 1667), still in his published works refers 
 the right side of the head and of the body alike 
 to the love of good, and the left side to the love 
 of truth. The body is spiritual relatively to the 
 head ; and the position of the Ancient Church, 
 relatively to that of the Most Ancient, is some- 
 
THE BRAIN. 423 
 
 times likened to that of the body to the head. 
 Now, if the right side of the head may be regarded 
 as representing the will of good and truth in the 
 Most Ancient Church, and this will was so cor- 
 rupt in the Ancient that a new will must be 
 formed by means of the understanding, the influx 
 of the will of good and truth from the Most 
 Ancient into the Ancient must have been into 
 the understanding, and thence into the new will; 
 and when this was done, then there could be in- 
 flux from the understanding of good and truth 
 into the new will. In the head the will to do 
 good leads, the will to understand follows ; but 
 in the body the will to understand leads, and re- 
 ceives influx from the leading faculty of the head, 
 and the will to do follows, and receives influx from 
 the faculty that follows in the head. The will to 
 do, as it descends, must become the will to under- 
 stand for the sake of doing ; and the will to 
 understand, as it descends, must become the will 
 of doing for the sake of the understanding. It 
 may have something to do with this, that the 
 
424 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 primary principle in the Most Ancient Church 
 was love to the Lord, and the secondary mutual 
 love ; and the primary in the Ancient Church was 
 charity to the neighbor, and the secondary was 
 the faith of charity. Also, that in the changes 
 of state of the angels, in the most external state 
 of the celestial angels, their sun passes over to 
 the left, and adds its lustre to that of the moon 
 of the spiritual angels, which then is in its great- 
 est brightness. 
 
 Ends of good, we have learned, prevail in the 
 province of the brain of the heavens ; that is, the 
 Divine ends for the salvation of the human race. 
 The angels of this heaven " have extension into 
 the whole heaven" (H. H. 49); that is, they per- 
 ceive the states of all in heaven — their states as 
 to love and thought. And by the influx of affec- 
 tion and light — also sometimes by representatives, 
 and through intermediate angels, and sometimes 
 by angels sent down from their own societies — 
 they inspire and instruct. 
 
 The influx of the angels of the cerebellum, like 
 
THE BRAIN. 
 
 425 
 
 that of this organ in the body, is a silent influx 
 of the love for the Lord and for doing His will, 
 which is the life of the heavens. They perceive 
 the states of the whole heaven as to the reception 
 of life from the Lord, and the mutual usefulness 
 which is the effect of that life. They control the 
 whole process of receiving, sorting, and training 
 the new spirits from the earths, and preparing 
 them for heaven. They act mediately through 
 others, and not without association with those of 
 the cerebrum ; but their sense of the need of the 
 heavens, and of what is in harmony with its life, 
 governs the whole process. The opening of the 
 understandings of the angelic spirits in the prov- 
 ince of the lungs, is partly under the influence 
 of angels of the cerebrum ; but the final sending 
 forth from the heart of the heavens, with the full 
 inspiration to do all possible good, is from the 
 impulse of the cerebellum. 
 
 From their sense of the state of the whole 
 heaven as to its reception of the Lord, they not 
 only train and assimilate new spirits — as it were 
 
426 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 for the nourishment of every part of the heavens — 
 but they also gather into themselves the sense of 
 need for further uses, and of preparation for new 
 forms of reception of the Divine Wisdom and 
 Goodness ; and this they have from their sense of 
 the Lord's love for uses not yet fully performed. 
 And the life which they receive from the Lord, 
 with this sense of what It would do, they impart 
 to the angels of the province of generation, whose 
 delight it is to assist in preparing receptacles for 
 the Divine life. Thus these angels preside over 
 the reception of the Divine life in the heavens, 
 and the perfecting of the states of reception. 
 
 They flow also in man into all the functions of 
 natural life which take place according to corre- 
 spondence with the heavens, and this they do by 
 influx into his cerebellum. They preside also over 
 his sleep, contribute to the renovation and refresh- 
 ment of sleep, and are in the effort to give sweet 
 and helpful dreams. (A. C. 1977.) To the Most 
 Ancient Church, whose affections were innocent, 
 such dreams were always given, and by them they 
 
THE BRAIN. 427 
 
 were instructed in the general things that they 
 needed for the perfecting of their lives. (A. C. 
 1122.) 
 
 To the province of the cerebrum, which pre- 
 sides over the voluntary sense of the heavens, 
 belongs the duty of attending, not to the states 
 of life, but to the states of thought and inten- 
 tion of all parts of the heavens, and to their actual 
 experiences. It is a part of their duty to attend 
 to and interpret the representatives by which the 
 Lord would instruct the heavens through the 
 angels of the eyes. It is their duty to attend to 
 the states of thought, intelligence, and intention 
 of angels throughout the heavens, and of men on 
 earth — for the Church also is a part of the Greatest 
 Man — and to communicate the truth which the 
 Lord reveals to them for the continual improve- 
 ment of His kingdom, according to the states of 
 reception in all. Even the angels of life in the 
 cerebellum are instructed by the cerebrum through 
 intermediates (H. H. 225; A. E. 831), and by 
 such instruction their perception of life from the 
 
428 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 Lord is made more intelligent ; they are helped 
 to perceive what they had not perceived, to under- 
 stand what had been obscure to them, and thus 
 to impart a nobler life to the heavens. 
 
 Examples of the presence of angels of the brain 
 in lower provinces, we have in the many Relations 
 which represent angels of the third heaven as 
 presiding over the deliberations of the assembled 
 spirits, and receiving their conclusions. (See T. 
 C. R. 48, 162, 188.) 
 
 Of the use of their constant presence and in- 
 fluence in other parts of the heavens, we have 
 the following interesting instruction: — 
 
 " All the wisdom of angels is given by means 
 of the Word, since in its internal and inmost sense 
 is Divine wisdom which is communicated to the 
 angels through the Word when this is read by 
 men, and when they think upon it. But still it 
 is to be known that wisdom is given to them 
 mediately by angels who were from the Most 
 Ancient and Ancient Churches, who were in a 
 knowledge and perception of representatives and 
 correspondences ; these were such in the world 
 
THE BRAIN. 429 
 
 that they knew the internal arcana of the Church, 
 and correspondences, and by means of these wis- 
 dom is communicated, and when it is communi- 
 cated it appears to those who receive it as if it 
 were their own. This is the effect of communi- 
 cation ; and therefore angels of the Most Ancient 
 heavens are dispersed throughout the heavens, that 
 others may have wisdom. " (S. D. 5187; see also 
 5188, 5189, 5194.) 
 
 This presence is like the presence of the brain 
 by means of the nerves in every part of the body. 
 Besides the personal presence, there is abundant 
 instruction by representatives and by influx.* 
 
 The societies of the cerebrum are, of course, 
 arranged in correspondence with the heavenly 
 form of the brain itself. In the hinder part are 
 societies that correspond with the convolutions of 
 sense. It is their duty to observe and perceive 
 and record all things in the state of all parts of 
 the Greatest Man that have relation or corre- 
 spondence with the senses, — the quality of new 
 
 * See A. E. 260, 369, 490; A. C. 1971, 9125, 9139, 9166, 9457, 
 9577- 
 
43° 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 
 
 spirits, as perceived through the angels of the 
 tongue and the nose ; the quality of the lives of 
 men on the earth also, as perceived through smell 
 and sight and touch and hearing; the state of all 
 parts of the heavens also, as manifested to the 
 senses ; the representatives given by the Lord to 
 the transparent provinces of the eyes, with the 
 beautiful representatives which are presented to 
 the inmost heaven by the Lord when men upon 
 the earth are reading the Word ; also, perhaps, 
 the spoken words of the Lord. All these impres- 
 sions it is their duty and their delight to receive 
 and treasure for the general use. 
 
 In the middle and forward part are the societies 
 whose duty it is to direct the voluntary action of 
 the muscles — the motions of the hands and the 
 feet in their cooperation with the Lord's Provi- 
 dence in the care of men and spirits and angels ; 
 the motions of the head and the eyes ; and all 
 other voluntary motions requisite to the proper 
 performance of the duties of the several prov- 
 inces. 
 
THE BRAIN. 
 
 43 1 
 
 And in the extreme front are societies which, 
 more than all others, perceive intelligently the 
 relation of the heavens to the Lord — their entire 
 dependence upon Him, yet their absolute freedom ; 
 their nothingness in themselves ; their possibili- 
 ties of infinite development into His image and 
 likeness, by learning and doing His will, receiving 
 His wisdom and His love which are Himself. To 
 these societies it is given to interpret the impres- 
 sions of sense, which the angels of the provinces 
 of sense communicate to them by intermediates; 
 to understand and interpret the representatives 
 by which the Lord instructs them; to reflect upon 
 all things relating to the state of the heavens in 
 the light of the Lord's own teaching; to instruct 
 the angels who control the action of the heavens 
 as to what should be clone, the angels of the 
 provinces of sense as to what they should ob- 
 serve, and the angels of the love which is the 
 life of the heavens as to the ends which the Lord 
 sets before them, and thus as to the quality of the 
 love which is flowing: from Him to them. 
 
43 2 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 
 
 Through these provinces of the forehead, there- 
 fore, the Lord unites Himself with the whole 
 heaven, and under their guidance the whole 
 heaven unites itself with the Lord. 
 
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