MASTER NEGA TIVE NO. 91-80139 MICROFILMED 1991 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES/NEW YORK (4 as part of the Foundations of Western Civilization Preservation Project" Funded by the NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES Reproductions may not be made without permission from Columbia University Library COPYRIGHT STATEMENT The copyright law of the United States ~ Title 17, United States Code ~ concerns the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material... Columbia University Library reserves the right to refuse to accept a copy order if, in its judgement, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of the copyright law. AUTHOR: TAFEL, RUDOLPH LEONARD TITLE: EMANUEL SWEDENBORG PLACE: CHICAGO DA TE : 1867 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES PRESERVATION DEPARTMENT BIBLIOGRAPHIC MICROFORM TARHFT Master Negative # Original Material as Filmed - Existing Bibliggraohir Record 1938.94 Sw3343 Tafel, Rudolph Leonhard, 1831- ^^^ ^^ of scxence. ^J^^^^\^,,ur . 1867. 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I / ^Pi j» J .t I I » 4 I A 'i II i i .1 1* i EMANUEL SWEDENBORG AS A PHILOSOPHER, AND MAN OF SCIENCE. BT RUDOLPH LEONARD TAFEL, PHILOSOPHIC DOCTOR. ». l I CHICAGO: E. B. MYERS AND CHANDLER, 87, Washington Stkebt. 1867. Mr 8. Eh J Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by RUDOLPH L. TAFEL, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of the United States for the Northern District of Illinois. A -7 CAMBRIDGE: PRESS OP JOHN WILSON AND SON. TO THE READER. To remove the stigma cast upon a great and honorable name, to vindicate a true and holy cause, is a duty with the just, as it is a privilege to the generous mind. That his readers may be enabled to perform this duty, and enjoy this privilege, the editor of the present work has undertaken to place before them Emanuel Swedenborg, and the cause which he advocated, in the light in which they appear to those who are entitled, by an honest and faithful study of his writings, to express the judgment which such study alone could render them competent to form. For more than a hundred years the world has freely heard, and readily accepted, the testimony of men who knew neither Swedenborg nor his work, — and has judged him according to this testimony. Now, it is asked to give ear to the witness of those who do know him and his work, and who, from knowledge, are capable of speaking truly and wisely of one of the greatest and best, if not the greatest and best, of mortal men. It is time that this simple act of justice should be done ; that the imaginary picture of Swedenborg, painted by men who never saw him, and who, if they had looked upon him, would still not have seen him, should be exchanged in the world's eye, for another and truer one ; which, however defective in its representation of the whole man, is yet faith- ful to as much as has been seen of him, — and, possibly, as could be seen of him, — by minds so far removed from the majesty of his intellectual proportions. To this end the editor has endeavored to bring together, and arrange in order, the IV TO THE READER. separate and distinct portraitures of Swedenborg in his great and immensely Taried mental activity and labors, as a re- former of science and philosophy, — which have been drawn by men here and there, who have had visions more or less distinct of his noble form and magnificent outlines. And he freely declares his belief, that the scientific mind of the age, however sceptical it may be, when it looks upon him as here portrayed, cannot fail to recognize his great importance to its own work ; nor escape the conviction, — on evidence which only wilfulness can reject, — that a vast deal of the superior light of this enlightened century is contained, in nuce, in his writings, published in the early part of the eighteenth century. He is well aware that the larger number of the men of science of this day, are not prepared for the science of Swedenborg. But he is equally well aware that they will never be prepared so long as they remain in bondage to their senses, and prefer to be instructed by dumb facts, rather than that higher reason by which alone the human understanding can be enlightened. The unmeaning objections, the perver- sions, and prevarications, which have thus far succeeded in preventing the superior light of Swedenborg's philosophical teachings from reaching the facts of the day, surely cannot avail much longer to hide it from the eyes of men, — con- firmed as it is by the thoughtful, sober wisdom of a century, enffaffed in examining and scanning the claims of this illus- trious philosopher. The fact must be palpable to every unprejudiced reader of the Second Part of this work, that many of the most notable discoveries of modern science, which constitute the boast and glory of our present century, are found not only foreshadowed, but even distinctly announced in Swedeuborg^s scientific writings. And all real and earnest seekers after truth must be convinced that Swedenborg's philosophical and scientific theories are a new quantity, which henceforth must enter into the calculations of scientific men, if they wish to keep pace with the movement of the age. If science refuses to acknowledge the claims of Swedenborg, a new rival school t i TO THE READER. V will inevitably arise, which, untrammelled by the cumbrous apparatus and learned formulae of a merely sensual science, will carry facts to that higher rational level, where Sweden- borg has unfolded his systems and theories. To the men of progress especially, who are willing to follow into a new world of principles, disclosed by the rational induc- tions of this truly great man, we would recommend a careful study of his philosophical and scientific works. They will find there some of their noblest aspirations realized. Our object in preparing the present Volume, was not so much to urge upon the learned the claims of Swedenborg as the first expounder of theories that have since been adopted by science ; but rather to enable them to share our conviction that his philosophical and scientific writings are indispensable to any further advance towards a rational induction of those prin- ciples which underlie all true science. These works come before the learned not as those of Leibnitz, Kepler, Bacon and Newton. Theirs are merely works of reference, and have only historical value — their use in science has already been fulfilled ; for the principles and theories established by these men have long since been absorbed by the sciences, and have entered into their composition. But with Swedenborg the case is essentially different. Not one of the principles laid down by him has been adopted by science, or, if adopted, has been 'credited to him. It is astonishing how carefully men have avoided even the mention of him ; so that his scientfic writings may be said to come before the learned of this day as though they had been written but yesterday. And yet they come ushered in by that very same science which more than a hundred years ago had spurned them ; and which is now compelled to acknowledge that many of the leading theories and principles established within the last hundred years by the combined labor of all the scientific men of the world, are for the most part literally contained in them, though pub- lished more than a hundred years ago. Shall we wait until, at the expiration of another hundred years, the twentieth century, gathering up the theories and principles developed \i ▼1 TO THE READER. ,y the nineteenth, declares that all ^-^^X^^ C ''"'^'::TS^^^^^on..il.^r.s new, science cannot go "' ' T u l!nrirs already indicated by Inn.. They rest on beyond the tj-^^^^^^^, i^^.table, because they are pHnc:ples wh eh a- fi™ ^^^^^ .^ .^ ^^.^_^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ true ; and the more oi however, as it ignores H draws to these prmc.pWs So^^n ^^^^^^ ^^^^,^^ ^.^ his work, and plods on m its o , j^^^asurably in ,,htand ^^^:^Z:^^ between the sensual advance of it. ihe ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^s to be imbued :^:t^^ -- -->' -- --^ " "-'-^ ^""^ a great gulf Axed. .-g^iution is requisite to enable ^'° rr TL iUus ous of the senses, and to place faith one to shake off the Uus.o ^^^^^ .^^^^ .^ ^^^^^^^ , - the -=^72^" T^ without resolution, and it cannot but men of science are ^^^^ ^^^^^ ,g but be that many^ bejou" ' w ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ distinctly presented fo-" J^ ^ ° ; ^^^, theirbelief to reason raAer than to ^^^ ^^^^^^_ For such the scientific ''o^^s oi With a firm faith ^^^t^^:^;.^^ of Swe- its representatives ° "^^ ^"^j^ ,, ^.e use which will be denborg, trusting ^^^f f""^ .,.^^ of this century, the next made of them, tha at the «P-;^^° .^ f„, having " bound ,ni not rise «P >n ^"^^-rVhrf lould have put it out to up its talent in a napkin, when ^ ^ ^^ usury. Si. Loms, January 29, 1867. W f" i« 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I EMAinJEL SWEDENBORa AS THE PHILOSOPHER. ^^^ I. Swedenborg in Advance of his Age . • • • ^ n. His Greatness III. His Character ^^ IV. His Style ^^ V. His Science ,i ^ * VI. Importance of his Physiological Works, especially for the Medical Profession ...••• VII. Importance of the Physical and Mineralogical Works of Swedenborg .,1 ... loJs VIII. His Philosophy IX. His Theology ; X. The published and unpublished Scientific and Philoso- phical Works of Swedenborg ^^^ PART II. EMANUEL SWEDENBORG AS THE MAN OF SCIENCE. Introduction I. Swedenhorg's Theories of Form, 1. The Doctrine of the Spiral Form 2. The Doctrine of Leasts 221 . 223 . 229 Vlll TABLE OF CONTENTS. II. Swedenhorg^s Physiological Theories, and Anatomical Discoveries. Page 1. Introduction 234 2. The Vitality of the Blood 236 3. The Motion of the Brain 237 4. The Moving Powers employed in the Circulation of the Blood 238 6. Endosmosis and Exosmosis . 239 6. Swedenborg's Theory of Respiration . . . . . 240 7. The Poramen of Monro 242 III. Swcdcnhorg^s Chemical Tlieories. 1. Science of Crystallography 244 2. Relation of Water to the Salts, Acids and Bases . . . 245 3. Swedenborg's Theory of the Actives, Finitcs, and Elements of Creation 251 (a) The Simple, or Natural Point 252 (b) The First Finite 253 (c) The First Active and Second Finite .... 254 (d) The First Element out of which Suns and Stars are formed 255 (e) Other kinds of Actives, Finites, and Elements . . 256 4. The Compound Nature of Atmospheric Air . . . . 257 6. The Composite Nature of Water 268 IV. Swedenborg's Magnetic Tlieories. 1. The Law of Magnetic Intensity 278 2. Mean Latitudinal Positions of the two Magnetic Poles and Equator 280 3. Southern Magnetic Axis longer than the Northern . . 282 4. The Revolution of the North Magnetic Pole speedier than TABLE OF CONTENTS. r that of the South Magnetic Pole 283 IX Page 5. The Attractive Force of the South Magnetic Pole greater than that of the North Magnetic Pole .... 285 6. Identity of the Magnetic Streams forming the Aurora, and those influencing the Magnetic Needle .... 286 7. The Northern Light and Magnetic Storms .... 288 8. Professor Gauss's Theory Identical in Principle with Sweden- borg's Magnetic Theory 291 V. Swedenior^s Astronomical Tlieories. 1. Introductory Notes 295 2. The Cosmical Structure of the Starry Heavens . . . 298 3. Translatory Motion of the Stars along the Milky Way . . 301 4. The Sun's Position among the Stars 308 6. The Stability of the Solar System 310 6. Nebular Theories of Swedenborg and La Place . . . 313 (a) History of Nebular Theories 313 (b) Comparison of Swedenborg's and La Place's Theories . 316 (c) Origin of Rotary Motion, according to La Place . .317 (d) Swedenborg's Theory discussed 320 (e) Formation of the Solar Mass or Sun from Nebulous Matter . 322 (f) Formation of the Solar Crust, and its Disruption into Planetary Bodies 324 (g) Distribution of Orbs in the Solar System . . . 326 PAET I. EMANUEL SWEDENBORG AS A PHILOSOPHER. I. SWEDENBORG IN ADVANCE OF HIS AGE. 1. " Every new age has distinctive scenery, features and views, with prominent aspirations and hopes uprising above the ordinary level, and dimly undulating the distant horizon, thereby forming the culminating point of man*s intellectual progress. He, therefore, who first approaches and attains this summit, is in advance of his age, and can behold there- from the distinctive features, views, and scenery, beyond and appertaining to the next age ; but which will be presented to and cover the forthcoming field of view. Such a one, in advance of his fellows, was Emanuel Swedenborg. We need not wonder, then, at his having sketched out so faithfully the religious and scientific views of the new era now dawning upon us : we need not Avonder that, waiting our approach to the same eminence, he calmly sat down (Prinjcipia, Part III. Appendix*) to record the neio views on the next field of vision, then never dreamt of, but now familiar to us, and to sketch out that new horizon for mankind Avhich ere long, as we advance, will loom into being." — Samuel Beswick, the Commentator of Swedenhorg's '^ Principia," in ^'Intellectual Repository;' for 1850, p. 213. 2. " One hundred years ago Emanuel Swedenborg lived, wrote and died. He made no noise in the Avorld ; he did not thrust himself prominently forward ; he labored quietly, firmly, * This extract will be found at large in our n. 60.— Editor. 2 SWEDENBORG IN ADVANCE OF HIS AGE. •Hlncrlv . The truths he taught, unheeded in ?.,i L* .p™. fro", ■».... » n,ou,., from h-i*' •» ^1 XT- If" T W Fletcher, ..t; .. f ---r sir:;-;: SWEDENBORG IN ADVANCE OF HIS AGE. 5 esteemed visionary, his scientific were thrown by as rubbish. How false this decision is may be proved by the slightest reference to his scientific works (now in course of able trans- lation) ; and the exactitude and mathematical clearaess of his reasoning powers must be acknowledged, when it is known that he introduced to his country the first knowledge of the differential calculus." 8. From Fraser^s Magazine, Feb. 1857. " It is impossible, in the present state of mental science and religious philosophy, to arrive at any quite satisfactory theory of Emanuel Swedeuborg. This inexplicability would, of itself, render him an interesting phenomenon in an age which understands so well as ours does, that the proper study of mankind is man ; but there are other and better reasons why all persons professing to be ' well informed,' should have given at least a passing glance at this extraordinary personage — the ' man of ten centuries,' as Coleridge has called him, and has thereby made unexamining ridicule of his life and writings simply impertinent. " Probably not one in fifty of our readers has ever read a book of Swedenborg's. One of the advantages of anonymous writing is, that ' we ' may confess to having done queer things. For example, we admit tliat we have carefully read and re- read some six or seven of the fifty or sixty of Swedenborg's octavos, each of which is a good week's work. The result has been a conviction that far more of our modern light has come from Swedenborg than the world, which enjoys it, has in general any idea of. In this, as in many other cases, the light which has notably helped to change the face of the moral and intellectual world, has not reached it directly at all, but only by reiterated reflection and refraction, like the rays of the sun in a clouded spring. " A few of the most original of recent great men — ^Words- worth, Coleridge, Flaxman, and Blake, among others — have admitted openly, or betrayed in their works unmistakably, a direct acquaintance with the Swedish mystic's writings.' » 1* 6 SWEDENBORG IN ADVANCE OF HIS AGE. 9. From Boston Medical and Surgical Jouimal, for April, 1846. " From the evideDces presented iQ this great work, ('Animal Kingdom/) it is clear that Swedeuborg was neither under- stood nor appreciated in his own age, and he certainly is not in our own. His researches in Vol. II. are exceedingly pro- found. Teeming, as the elementary works of anatomy do, with curious and striking descriptions of individual organs, and physiological deductions, we have seen nothing superior to this learned author. He has laid all nature under severe contribution, and left nothing of much importance to be detailed in regard to the subjects discussed in this bibliographi- cal monument of personal industry, and truly scientific research." In a later number we read, — " Without fear of contradic- tion, we honestly say that Swedenborg, as a physiologist and natural philosopher, is either not known or appreciated by those who have access to his works, or a studied injustice still keeps him from being acknowledged, universally, one of the most extraordinary men that have appeared since the dawn of true science." 10. Mr, George Dawson, M.A., of Birmingham, who is, or was, reckoned about the best of the English lecturers, had been lecturing on Swedenborg, in the Manchester Athenceum, one of the first literary institutions in Great Britain, over which, at successive anniversaries, Mr. Dickens, Mr. Sergeant Talfourd, Mr. D'Israeli, and Lord Morpeth have been pre- siding. The following notices of his lectures on Swedenborg appeared in the Manchester Guardian, January 16 and 23, 1847 :— " In commencing his first lecture, Mr. Dawson observed that in this instance he had some advantages over those he possessed in considering the other characters. It might be said of the lectures he had already delivered, (on Carlyle, Cromwell, etc.,) that he was merely adding his small meed of praise to some men who had been already praised ; but the man whom he was to consider that night was one of whom SWEDENBORG IN ADVANCE OF HIS AGE. 7 almost total ignorance prevailed. He met in society with few men who knew anything of Swedenborg, except those who honor him, and bear his name. Indeed, he remembered no case where a man had written works so important, or exercised an influence over the chosen few so great, of whom the people were so entirely ignorant. Having given a brief notice of the life of Swedenborg, Mr. Dawson proceeded to a consideration of his writings, observing that, in all his works, there would be found a resolute attempt to press into the unknown, laying this down as one of the distinctive marks of true wisdom in a man. His aim appeared to be to use his insight into nature, that he might penetrate thereby nearer unto the Maker of nature, and by the contemplation of the pure, not only as it exists in nature, but in the Divine mind, be elevated into that morality which Pythagoras calls divinity. The great effort for which he struggled was to make science religious. Philosophy and religion had been too long separated, and made distinct. Swedenborg turned to natural science, to metal- lurgy, chemistry, anatomy, and various other sciences, to see whether they were not one with religion. . . . The 'Principia' of Swedenborg might be ranked with the works of Des Cartes and Leibnitz, making for themselves a new theory of cosmogony. . . . This book had received the honor of being placed in the Index Expurgatorius at Rome. " At the close of his second lecture, Mr. Dawson observed that all he had done was to rescue a man : neglected, because he was not known, abused most by those who knew him the least ; and to show that this man, denounced as a mere dreamer and enthusiast, ought to be reconsidered by every thoughtful and studious man." 11. From The Critic, 1847, p. 133. " Few know that Swedenborg was a patient and compre- hensive investigator, a bold innovator, a great discoverer in almost every science, before he appeared as a theological reformer. It was only in his fifty-seventh year that those fertile religious fantasies began to stir within him, which he regarded as the divinest of revelations, whatever the opinion that others might form respecting them. And this alone 8 SWEDENBORG IN ADVANCE OF HIS AGE. should lead to much caution in pronouncing on his theological tenets ; for it cannot be supposed that a man, comparable to Leibnitz in scientific acumen, and far surpassing him in scientific variety, should sink into a dreamer of foolish dreams, the moment he ventured on the noblest subject of human inquiry. In speaking thus, we are pronouncing neither for nor against Swedenborg's theology, with which we are very imperfectly acquainted, and which, from the exces- sive voluminousness of the works containing it, does not incite to study. We merely contend that Swedenborg's theological pretensions deserve a serious and tliorough examination, on the ground of his scientific eminence, if on no other ; and that so philosophic a mind should not be brushed contemptuously aside as a visionary that stuffed ponderous folios with his hallucinations. At all events, whatever the treatment that his theological system meets with, the time is come when his scientific experiences and theories m\ist he viewed as something more and something grander than cumbrous incongruities" 12. From the Monthhj Review^ for 1844. " Men of slender pretensions, and even those taking high rank among the peritissimi of the day, have been accustomed to dismiss with a sneer, or condemn with a scowl, all mention of, or reference to, Emanuel Swedenborg. The enthusiast, visionary, monomane — the man who affected to converse with beings of another world — the cabalistic, mystic qui naviget Anticgram dignus — in short, 'the madman dreamy.' 'A person,' say they, ' who pretended to enjoy intercourse with invisible beings, who affected to be able to converse with tlie spirits of the departed, and who indulged in the delusive fancies of a heated, if not distempered brain, can surely lay no claim to the title of a man of science, or pretend to be expositor of the all but hidden laws of nature. It is not con- sonant with the views which we entertain of the sanity of men's minds, to admit Swedenborg among the penatcs of our literary mythology. We can have no feeling in common with a man who assumes the possession of such superior gifts, that were he indeed possessed of them, or did we admit his pre- tensions, we miist immediately j^bandon all, or nearly all, the SWEDENBORG IN ADVANCE OF HIS AGE. 9 principles which have hitherto guided us in the contemplation and study of nature, for such a man would be only not a god because he is, or was, a creature.' "This, or something like this, is the opinion either expressed or implied of most persons with whom we have conversed respecting Swedenborg and his works ; and it is not derogatory to us to say, that until we perused some of his works — such is the influence of early academic prejudice — that we were just as much inclined to unite in the general censure, as are those to whom we have just alluded. That Swedenborg was really a learned, scientific, studious, and highly gifted man, few seem to know, and fewer stop to inquire. That he was of a highly respectable family, his father being Bishop of Skara, and his mother, Sarah Behm, the daughter of Albert Behm, Assessor of the Board of Mines ; and that he filled some of the most honorable offices in his own country, and retired only to London to devote himself to his theological pursuits, are facts little known even to those whose business is literature. Let it, therefore, be our duty on this occasion to put these facts fully before our readers, and in the light in which we think they ought to be placed, with a view to attract that attention to the work, the title of which (' The Animal Kingdom ' ) is placed at the head of this article, which we think its importance demands, and its merits secure." - After giving a very lengthy sketch of Swedenborg and the work before him, the reviewer says : "In conclusion we record our opinion, positively, and not relatively : wholly, and without reservation, that if the mode of reasoning: and explanation adopted by Swedenborg be once understood, the anatomist and physiologist will acquire more information^ and obtain a more comprehensive view of the human body^ and its relation to a higher sphere, than from any single hook ever published; nay, we may add, than from all the books which have been written, (especially in modern times,) on physiology, or, as it has been lately named, transcendental anatomy. " Swedenborg reasons not on any hypothesis, not on any theory, not on any favorite doctrine of a fashionable school, but on the solid principles of geometry, based on the immu- table rock of truth : and he must and will be Considered at no 10 SWEDENBORG IN ADVANCE OF HIS AGE. distant period the Zoroaster of Europe, and the Prometheus of a new era of reason, however, at present, the clouds of prejudice may intervene, or the storms of passion obscure the coruscations of his intellect." 13. From Monthly Magazine, for May, 1841. "We would not conceal that Swedenborg's merits have been ridiculously underrated. Too long has there been a fashion, at once unphilosophical and irreligious, of branding with the epithets of fool, madman, impostor, a man of blame- less sanity and undoubted genius,— who, if he lost anything for himself by not taking another path than that he followed so perseveringly, yet made the world a gainer, at once, by putting it in possession of his own remarkable case, and by achieving the consummation of all Scientific Theory, — perhaps, we might add, of all inductive science whatever." 14. " Hitherto I have known nearly nothing of Sweden- borg ; or indeed I might say less than nothing, having been wont to picture him as an amiable but inane visionary, with affections quite out of proportion to his insight ; from whom nothing at all was to be learned. It is so we judge of extra- ordinary men. But I have been rebuked already ; a little book, by one Sampson Reed, of Boston, in New England, which some friend sent hither, taught me that a Sweden- borgian might have thoughts of the calmest kind on the deepest things ; that, in short, I did not know Swedenborg, and ought to be ready to know him."— Carlyle in a lettei', quoted hy Dr. Wilkinson. 15. From the Southern QuaHerly Review, October, 1843. " There has been a singular timidity evinced, even by bold thinkers, in respect to the very perusal of Swedenborg's works. They have been read by stealth, away from com- pany—free from the curiosity of the prying eye. Persons have been afraid, as if they were engaged in some necro- mantic orgies, to breathe a word to their friends of their peculiar and forbidden occupation. They have come to their teacher, as Nicodemus came to the Saviour, in the night-time, SWEDENBORG IN ADVANCE OF HIS AGE. 11 and have listened to his instructions with equal incredulity and equal wonder. The ridicule levelled at the celebrated Swede, by Dr. Southey, more than a quarter of a century ago, in his « Espriella's Letters,' has led many to turn with indifference and contempt from his works — works full of light and consolation— lest they, too, if detected in their perusal, should come in for a share of the sarcasm of some lively and witty satirist. The style in which these compositions are clothed — in some degree eccentric and unique — but deriving its singularity rather from the elevated character of the subjects treated of, than from any want of tact and skill in the writer, has deterred others, who have commenced the exami- nation of them, from proceeding much beyond the threshold. Prescriptive authority— educational biases— pride of opinion — of opinions imbibed in other schools — long entertained, and mistaken for truth — these have stood in the way of others." 16. From the Journal Encydopedique, Sept. 1, 1785, Vol. VI, Part 2. " As Swedenborg, to a profound and universal knowledge, joined the purest virtue and the sweetest manners, he might be expected to meet with detractors ; he accordingly has had them, and he has them still. I have often heard him publicly decried, but always from one of the three following, motives, and with the intention of preventing his works from being read. Some attributing everything to chance, and believing in nothing but nature, are afraid that the luminous works of the greatest naturalist, and the sublimest theosophist that has yet existed, would give the last blow to their tottering system. Others having borrowed from him without acknowledjrine grandeur of *«;°f;^',™;tlLs of literature, he ,.yle. One of the ""-— le'^C of ordinary scholars. is not to be measured by ^^»'°'<'^'' J „f .^e merits of his No one man is perhaps ^^^^^ o ^^^.^e^o^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^,^^^^^ .orks on so -J"y ;"^^\^^' „t,, ,,„t.,y, anticipated in as- ""^' rtrdil'yof^" seventh planet; anticipated the troiiomy the discovery generation of essential «-f -'^ ' ' J^ 'f, J^Ti^ their law, in likeness of man who budt It. He saw thin s ^^„,„^ ^„a ^"f'^^triryThis^rX tirhahitual proceeding of order in Ins deli\ery oi i earnestness and the mind f-- -7;';;^.;™; without one swell of ::S;,r;;;tok^:oXn'auy^ommon form o.Uterary ..foul material forms" whic^ are ^"f ,,„gMcd in the contrary, it seemed to us *!"» ^'^ "" ^^^j^ ^f his wonderful epio - description of celestial f-^i 7!^^;* cason why, in his illustrations .. The Worship and Love of God. J- ^ ^„i fo^ms, he was tit- r;.:S-:™i" "i z ... r„ .. ..«. bears w'tn^ of our sunken human nature. pride ! A theoretic or speculative man, but whom no practi- cal man in the universe could afford to scorn. Plato is a gownsman : his garment, though of purple and almost sky- woven, is an academic robe, and hinders action with its voluminous folds. But this mystic is awful to Caesar. Lycurgus himself would bow." And again, " Swedenborg's 'Economy of the Animal Kingdom '°is one of those books which, by the dignity of thinking, are an honor to the human race. ... He is systematic and respective of the world in every sentence : all the means are orderly given ; his faculties work with astro- nomical punctuality, and his admirable writing is^pure from all pertness or egotism. ... His varied and solid knowledge makes his style lustrous with points, and shooting spicula of thought ; resembling one of those winter mornings when the air sparkles with crystahr-'Bepresentative Men. 26. "Swedenborg, by hereditary disposition, by early training and habit, was studious and laborious in an eniinent degreed His mind was intensely active in the acquisition of knowledge on all subjects ; no branch of science or knowledge 'escaped his attention, or surpassed his powers of investigation. Gifted with an ardent love of learning, carefully instructed and trained in the best of schools, and wisely encouraged and directed in the pursuit of knowledge, his understanding. was gradually developed and expanded in directions which are but seldom found in combination in the same mind. . . . We find in him a quality of analysis, so searching and discrim- inative, as to be altogether microscopic in its character and application, united to a most wonderful power of generaliza- tion. By these faculties of his mind he was enabled to order and arrange all the particulars of scientific discovery and rational deduction, into the harmonious forms of general systems ; and by a clear analytic and synthetic comparison of every whole with its parts and of the parts with the whole, as well as of the analogies existing between the various systems and their component members, to deduce the laws of order governing each, and so to communicate a rational idea of their several uses, and of their relation to the uni- 3 26 swedenborg's greatness. • versal use of creation. By these means he accomplished what was never done before, and what has never been done equally well, if at all, since his day ; he brought the sensual scientific principle into harmony with the rational, and thus opened science to the light of reason, or elevated it mto^ its true position, as the servant of a rational philosophy. — Rev. W. H. Benade, Report on the Nature of Swedenhorg s Illumination, 27. From the Corsair, 1839, New York. " Emanuel Swedenhorg was, and the reader ought to know it, one of the greatest and most respectable of men. He was also more than this. He was deeply versed in every science —a first-rate mechanician and mathematician— one of the profoundest of physiologists— a great military engineer . . . —a great astronomer— the ablest metallurgist of his time, and the writer of vast works, which even at this day are of sterling authority on mining and metals. Then he was a poet, and a master of ancient and modern languages, and a metaphysician who bad gone through all the mazes of reflective philosophy, and clone" besides what metaphysicians seldom do, for he had found his way out of the mazes, and got hack to realiiy again. In short, as far as natural sciences go (and we include among them the ' science of the mind'), it is much more difficult to say what he was not, than what he was, '^ He was fifty-five years in being, and doing the things we have just recorded. Having thus laid an immense basis for his mind in nature, and a knowledge of the actual, and yet only a basis, he now, like a stately pyramid, rose into the ideal. He pierced through the cloudy curtains of Space and Time. Nature became to him but the mantle of living souls, giving fixed images to the Reason, and distinctness of object to the Will. The whole of his theological works, which have con- signed him, for the present, to a neglect he anticipated and h^d no care for, were now produced. The spiritual world was the olject, as well as the subject of his thought, and this produced what may be called the Realism of his Psychology. In his mind, Imagination and Sentiment, properly so-called, had no place, but instead of Imagination there was Reason swedenborg's greatness. 27 producing itself in images ; instead of Sentiment, affections torming themselves into Reasons. Hence, there is at once the greatest boldness, and the greatest method in his thou-hts —one startling proposition developing itself after another, °and each coming forth by the most fixed rules of genesis— a super- ficial formality, an internal freedom." This article was reprinted from the ''London True Sun," ^S, "Of Swedenhorg himself, there should be but one opinion. He was a man of prodigious genius. ... As a philosopher, he was distinguished for perceiving identity or sameness in things,-for his insight into the ' fine secrets that little explains large, and large little ; ' his doctrine of scale or degrees ; his belief in the symbolical meaning of the universe ; and that a dread, necessary, noiseless morality pervades it all' from the minutest to the largest objects. He was in a certain sense a seer, but of those broad principles which constitute the trunk and branches of the tree of the world."~GEORGE Gilfillan, Christianity and our Era : A Booh for the Times Edinburgh, 1857. 29. From the National QuaHerly Review for March, 1865. ^ " It is well known that the earlier period of Swedenborg^s hfe, when men are most liable to be led astray by their imaginations, was devoted to chemical, mathematical, and philosophical researches, which must have effectually pre- cluded all vagaries ; nor did his illumination commence until he had established a literary reputation so irreproachable that his assertions were accepted as truth. If we regard him as an impostor, his whole life is a living refutation of the accusa- tion. That a man so unobtrusive, so regardless of honor and wealth, should have imposed upon the credulity of friendship falsehoods which could in no way subserve his interest, would be a phenomenon witliout parallel in the history of the world. If we question his sanity, we are met by the assurance that in all cases the insane are found incapable of prolonged, con- nected mental effort, so that the books Swedenhorg Avrote, the languages he learned, the correspondence he has lift, all bear conclusive evidence that his mental powers were unimpaired. 28 swedekborg's greatness. In -B-hatever aspect we regard this man, he is stiU a mystery." , , . . „_ After giving an account of Swedenborg, and his mmor philosophical works, the writer proceeds :— " All these testimonials of Swedenborg's mental wealth seem to have dropped from his overburdened pen rather as a relief to his own intellectual plethora, than from those ambitious aspirations that are supposed to inspire most authors. He is a wise man who can render himself necessary to his superiors by being useful to his equals. Swedenborg seldom, if ever, solicited patronage, nor docs he appear to have given much thought to liis literary productions after having prepared them, to the best of his ability, for the benefit of his fellow-men. Fortunately, thev fell at the feet of an appreciating public, creatin- for him an edal, despite his modesty, making him noble against his democratic will. Various and brilliant as these labors had been, they were but the lesser pyrotechnics with which he attracted the attention, not only of Sweden, but of all Europe." . , Speaking of his " Opcro PMlosophka et Mmerdogica, he ** "^in this work, sparkling throughout with mental brilliants, Swedenbor" has vindicated his claim to an intellectual peer- age, and is supposed to have originated many discoveries in philosophy, wliich, owing to his works being at one period much neglected, have not been attributed to him. In it he endeavors to unlock the mysteries of the causes and origin of the phenomena of the universe, asserting that in all her opera- tions nature is governed by one general law, and is always self-consistent ; while experience, the power of arrangement, and the ability to reason are sufficient to enable us to solve her most intricate problems." Of the " Economy of the Animal Kingdom," he says : — "Whether or not we endorse the conclusions which his subtle reasonings led him to embrace, we cannot but admire the unflinching temerity of mind and purpose with which he plunges into the labyrinth of symbols, and endeavors to wrest from heaven the secrets of the soul." swedenborg's greatness. 29 30. From the Family Herald, London whi^ff '%°°V'k'' '^ r^'^'^^^'^S^ *he immeasurable talent whHjh he (Swedenborg) has displayed in his most voluminous writings which form a little world of themselves, sufficient to occupy the whole life of any ordinary man, merel^ to di eov J their contents and analyze their doctrines " His works seem to be boring their way even into Catholic The Book of Tears, lately published by the AbhS Constan de Baneour we find the following sentence : ' We may venture o say that the problen, is already solved, and that the whJe truft IS found ,a the writings of the admirable Sweden- 31. Frovi the Southern Quarterly Review, October, 1846 of that extraordinary man, Emanuel Swedenborg.-certainlv the earth. Seventy-four years have elapsed since his death This period has constituted the mere sunrise of his fame-the dawn of a meridian splendor that is yet to bless the nations. By his far-seemg contemporaries he was considered, and was pronounced and justly too, the greatest man of hi; couZ and age whether regard were had to the herculean powers of mmd with which Providence had endowed him, his laborLus researches into the mysteries of the universe his pinrnd as those of the ancient philosophers, the light whicli he shed over every known department of science by his fearless invls- beauty of a lifo sanctified by the sincerest piety, and -lowin" Cv %T:' '"• ™"; '''"''"-'' andU'natingii;! thropy. No author, since the discovery of the art of printin•- f^-e-S^ Bv 11;' "" 'P'""'""" *'"' •« y^' *° Mess the nations. By his far-seeing contemporaries he was considered, and was pronounced and justly too, the greatest man of hi couZ and age, whether regard were had to the herculean powers of r" rt: ^r'!"''^,^-''^-- -'1 -lowed him, his'lab o„ researches into the mysteries of the universe, his profound biowledge o human nature, acquired in travels as exten ive as those of the ancient philosophers, the light which he shed over every known department of science b/his fcarles inves- eC:"oValY"°°':-f i''""'''™^' •"• «-"^' '•>« —rug beauty of a hfo sanctified by the sincerest piety, and ..lowing th on t^'f "" ""'' ^"'^--S-l -'1 fascinating°Xn- thropy. No author, since the discovery of the art of print. n. many books-or so many good ones-books that will survive successive generations of men, whatever language they may 30 SWEDENBORG*S GREATNESS. speak, and wherever and whenever they may appear, to take their place and act their part on the great theatre of life. "Who ever thought so profoundly on great and noble themes as Swedenborg ? What patriot was ever more just, generous, considerate and active ? What merely finite human being was ever so highly favored by the Almighty ? Illustri- ous sa^e ! A true saint ! if there ever was a saint, and yet one who never desired to be canonized. An apostle of truth, but one whose message, unfit for the market-place, was never heard in louder tones than in those of a deep and solemn conviction — a co-worker together with the Creator in the achievement of the grandest designs of Providence, but who regarded the title of His servant, if justly acquired, the highest glory to which man can aspire. The fame of Bacon and Newton and Locke — of Milton and Shakespeare and Scott, pales and grows dim before the brighter glory that clusters around the name and acts of this renowned individual ! They acquired distinction for the splendor of tlieir success in particular departments of inquiry, and in certain spheres of intellectual labor, but it was reserved for the more fortunate and celebrated Swede to master, not one science, but the whole circle of the arts and sciences, and to understand and reveal the gi-eat connecting links that subsist between mind and matter, time and eternity, man and his Maker, in a far clearer manner, than any of the most gifted and inspired of his predecessors. " The world may be challenged in vain to produce, in the history of any single individual, such a combination of gigantic and well-balanced powers of mind, with such vast and mag- nificent attainments of all sorts. If TuUy w\as thought to have bestowed high and immortal praise on the great Plato for saying that he brought down philosophy from the skies to dwell among men amid cool and shady retreats, where, in fact, it has been sullied and profaned by human passions, how- much higher, and how much more immortal praise belongs to Swedenborg, who, with the spirit of an angel, has carried philosophy up to the skies, the birth-place and home of the just, where it glitters all over with the beautiful and brilliant rays that emanate from the Sun of Righteousness ! Proceeding swedenborg's greatness. 31 from the outer and earthly, he has penetrated to the inner and heavenly worlds proper to man, has revealed their mysteries, and promulgated the laws of the great Legislator which govern them. The whole universe, in its general aspects, is the object of his meditations and study, and, not omitting particulars, he finds as profound and beautiful significance, and sees as speaking a manifestation of the power and love of the great Creator in the pebble on the sea-shore, or the leaf that waves in the breeze, as in a star of the first magnitude that decks the firmament. He did not look upon the world around him with the eyes and feelings of ordinary men. AVith religious veneration, and in the spirit of a true philosophy, he at all times connected the finite with the infinite, and saw in everything that exists in the animal, the vegetable and the mineral kingdoms of nature, as well as in that kingdom which is above nature, — the spiritual, — some image or shadow of a great and Divine Providence." 32. " Swedenborg, as we shall presently show, makes great demands on our faith, but none on our charity. In the great and glorious roll of worthies who have ennobled humanity, there is no one that recurs to our memory just now wlio can stand a criticism with less fear of the ordeal than he can. Newton is a giant in science, but an old woman in theolo^^v : and if report speaks truly, not free from a moral weakness and timidity. Bacon, the prince of philosophers, has his fingers tainted with corruption, which always makes us sad when we think of it. And what shall we say of others — of the fierce language of Milton and Luther, or the dark and damning deed of Calvin, to say nothing of the failings of Byron, Coleridge, Dryden, or Cranmer. We excuse these men on account of the age in which they lived, the circum- stances by which they were surrounded, the force of human passion, and the weakness of our common humanity. Even prophets and apostles make these appeals to our sense of justice, or our feeling of compassion. But you may lay all this aside when you come to Swedenborg. Measure him as a man of science with Newton, and you will find him his equal in point of intellectual greatness. With Bacon and Plato he 32 SWEDENBORG's GREA.TNESS. is great, amongst the greatest of the philosophers. With Boerhaave and Haller, he is in the first rank of the physiolo- gists. With the theological writers and Bible commentators, from Origen to Adam Clarke, and who has equalled him? All this is'^easily conceived and said, but who shall picture the innocence and purity of his life, the sublimity of his moral nature, the simplicity of soul which, whilst believing himself to be the chosen messenger of Heaven and the companion of angels, left the company of the great and learned, sat quietly to think and write in his study, or walked into Cold Bath Square to chat with the children. The resigning of one-half of his pension, and retiring from the brilliant and fascinating society of Court, is one of the finest instances of contented greatness that the world has ever seen, and can only be paralleled in Shakespeare's going home to Stratford-upon-Avon with his well-earned modest competence." — John Mill, M.D., in a lecture "On the Claims of Swedenborg," delivered in London^ 1857. 33. From the "Idler," for June, 1856 : London. " Whatever may be our opinion of his doctrines, we cannot avoid revering, if not loving the man : so simple, yet wise ; so humble, yet gifted ; so intensely devoted to the service of God, and so sincerely anxious to aid in the salvation of men. The remarkable industry of his life, the wonderful variety of his knowledge, the acuteness of his intellect, the grandeur of his imagination, and the strange passage of his soul through so many varying moods of thought, make him truly a wonder among men. How wide the sweep of his mind, how power- ful his gi-asp over scientific thought, how brilliant his speculations in those theologic domains which he has rendered so peculiarly his own ! " 34. From Fraser's Magazine, February, 1857. " Heaven, or at least as much as our liearts can contain of it, is revealed to us in the visions of childhood and of early love. . . . Men of genius seem to be those who have been happy enough to retain rtiore than others have retained of this ' ori<»inal ' virtue and intuition, and who have preserved in swedenborg's greatness. 33 their lowest ebbs of spiritual life, and in their highest crises of material enjoyment and activity, an inviolated faith in that heaven which ' lies about us in our infancy,' and of which the commonly very faint recollection constitutes a chief mean whereby we are enabled to apprehend, and raise to the force of a motive, an idea of the heaven beyond the grave. Swedenborg, far beyond all modern men, seems to us to have preserved in his heart and spirit the wisdom of childhood ; the wisdom which even those who have denied and despised it in themselves, delight to recognize and to re-appropriate, as fiir as possible, when they hear it boldly spoken by the man of genius." 35. " Swedenborg was not so much a scientific man, as a man thoroughly master of the sciences. In Anatomy and Piiysiology he deserves the appellation of a Raphael or a Stoddart. ^ Everything he knew ministered to his sublime Art. It might be said of him that he had been carried out, like Ezekiel, in the spirit of the Lord, and set down in the midst of the valley of dry bones, and that he had been com- manded to prophesy and say unto them,— ' Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live ! ' He seems to have instinctively felt, what a French author remarks,— that the Church, which at first contained all the elements of social life, had gradually become unpeopled — that every century had seen a multitude leave the sanctuary under some particular banner ; and that every schism was summed up in that greatest and hitherto most irreconcilable of all— the schism and defection of science. For he now began to observe that those who never accepted anything but what they could really understand, were all gone astray, and were hourly sinking deeper in the terrible negation of spiritual things." — E. Rich, a Sketch of Swedenborg and his Writings. Americ. edit. p. 49. 36. From the Veterinary Record, April, 1845. " It may be observed that Swedenborg's ' Animal Kingdom,' although differing ^0^0 ca2?o from the 'Bridgewater Treatises,* is an endeavor to show ' the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness 34 swedenborg's greatness. of God' as displayed in the organic <^^^::;^:S. this end Swedenborg has investigated, on entirely f are attributable to man , ana lo na n 1 ,.-;^iom nnd nower themselves, in nne, views of j]joodness, wi&dom, anci pu^^ p ,i • , u,,* m rirk Is not an atte.npt to lead men out of athe^n bn^ to lift them above theism into revealed rdujion. In this it dittcrs eslentl^ly from every other treatise of apparently s.m.lar ^tnlr-lme subject, says the editor of the MontUy Magazine:— ■ -^.^^uv accordin.' to Swedenborg, u Revelation and P^'l'^'^P'^y.' ^''^"/'^"r^We of perceiving could never be contranous Man is -pah P ^^^^.^^,^, • ri"^:irrsr%::;::d:r ^ why reasons gil to mi: is, ' that he may perceive that God is, and know that he ought to be worshipped.' ' 37 » It is futile to assert that philosophy is not connected ^in!"theio.?; since the contrary is demonstrated by Sweden- : : a tlri; as any law of matter is demonstrated by Ston For Swedenborg took facts representing integ.al it re ;nd investigated them, and the order and mechanism o tr cture, and the pervading use or function, -.fou^ to be such as in every case to furnisli truths -^'^'-S ° ^ .™° ^ c ^ Tii^u WIS the ijisue ot a scientnio or social existence of man. ilus A\as ui« k» ; oce^, from which imagination was r^o-ously excU^^^^^^ What inference is possible but that the inner P-^-oJ^^^^^^^^^^ represent humanity ; such representation being ^1^^;^"^^^^^^^^^^^^ Z of thin..? It was not Swedenborg that made the tlwlblenell in the two co-ordinates ; he -e^y^^^^^^^^ what existed already.* Bacon's hypothesis that final causes *» Swedenborg appears to have been ^;--|^^. ^f j)"^J,\'^^ result. In treating of the kidneys CAmmal Kingdom, Part I. n. SWEDENBORG*S GREATNESS. 35 have no place in the doctrine of nature, was overthrown by this result ; for the mechanism of those causes was explained, and the connection between spirit and nature stood intuitively demonstrated therein. Neither did 'the doctrine of final causes turn out to be barren, as Bacon imagined ; for the end of creation being no longer a bodiless figment, but consisting of the noblest organic creatures, it furnished the most power" ful of analytic organs for arming the mental sight, and 293,) he has the following, which exhibits somewhat of the naivete of one who has come upon a truth unexpectedly :— *293. As the blood is continually making its circle of life, that is to say, in a constant revolution of birth and death; as it dies in old age, an J is regenerated or born anew ; and as the veins solicitously gather together the whole of its corporeal part, and the lymphatics, of its spirituous part ; and successively bring it back, reflect it with new chyle, and restore it to the pure and youthful blood; and as the kidneys constantly purge it of impurities, and restore its pure parts to the blood;— so likewise Man, who lives at once in body and spirit while he lives in the blood, must undergo the same fortunes generally, and in the progress of his regeneration must daily do the like. Such a perpetual symbohcal representation is there of spiritual life in cor- poreal life ; as Ukewise a perpetual typical representation of the soul in the body (u). In this consists the searching of the heart and reins, which is a thing purely Divine. ' (u) In our Doctrine of Representations and Correspondences, we shall treat of both these symbolical and typical representations, and the astonishing things which occur, I will not say in the living body only, but throughout nature, and which correspond so entirely to supreme and spiritual things, that one would swear that the physical world was purely symbolical of the spiritual world : insomuch that, if we choose to express any natural truth in physical and definite vocal terms, and to convert these terms only into the corresponding spiritual terms, we shall by this means elicit a spiritual truth or theo- logical dogma, in place of the physical truth or precept ; although no mortal would have predicted that anything of the kind could possibly arise by bare literal transposition ; inasmuch as the one precept, con- sidered separately from the other, uppears to have absolutely no relation to it. I intend hereafter to communicate a number of such correspondences, together with a vocabulary containing the terms of spiritual things, as well as of the physical things for which they are to be substituted. This symbolism pervades the living body ; and I have chosen simply to indicate it here, for the purpose of pointing out the spiritual meaning of searching the reins.' " gg swedenborg's greatness. enablin.^ it to discover the more in the less, and the great in the il : in short it authorized .nan to look upon nature from definite principles, and thus to become the mage and Werent of God in the scientific sphere. Those who had a Stpossibility were again shown to be ^^l^^-<';^^ indeed they have been from the beginning. They sa d that Ince wa'passionless and inflexible ; that it l>ad nothmg to do with philosophy or theology ; that ,t observed sequencs and made answerable formulas, or had a me hod, but not a s^ul ; tha it excluded all but material explanations and .deas_ Butswedenborg appealed to the same facts - ^^y, and w.h a dificrent result. He found nature warm with the same LiTas humanity, and that her sternest laws are plastic when requsthl; hence illiberal logic is not meant to com- Tel end her. Also that nature is no other than philosophy and tlieolo^y embodied in mechanics : or more reverently ZtST^i is the mechanism or means of which truth and Tod Ir^'th end. Moreover, that the series of effects mvolyes f corrcionding series of causes, and this, a corresponding :ZJ^:* and that body or ^^^^^^^ rnvcrtible Into spiritual truths : their convertibility being the SWEDENBORG S GREATNESS. 37 . "9G0 In the animal kingdom, the series, chain, progression and eirCef^L":, involve a corresponaing ^:^-^-^-ZC effects of an end, consequently of a use. nencc ;S ession of uses, as of effects; a similar P™^--™"^ l^^"^^;.^^ I, Causes ; and a f-"arprog.ssi>m of causes as f n s , ^the^s^e™ of ends being m the soul itset^ „^* l^s „ot proceed one hah- rih°lr is^Xr not a S: rmtlest Hb're, or the smallest ret: Cstm trth?::tire fahnc-of an organ, without st« upon " ."r ip^^tgtm'rr ufer ^vj:^^:^:^'^^^ rsrr.::;erL^n.tLg does she r^^^^^^^^^^ ir;^cS:ieTr\;"Ai^:^sx^."voi.i.pp.3.,3:s.) test of their correctness and universal import. All this, we repeat, is so attained by Swedenborg, that science and induc- tion are proper terms by which to characterize it ; wherefore henceforth the connection hehveen science^ philosophy and theology, is itself a scientific fact" — J. J. Garth Wilkinson, Memher of the Royal College of Surgeons of London, in his "Introduc- tion " to Swedenborg's " Economy of the Animal Kingdom," 1846. pp. Ixxvi.-lxxviii. 38. " Swedenborg arose at a time when some manifestation of God was needed by the world — an age of corrupt morals and stagnant faith — an age when the life had exhaled from the churches, and the dry bones rattled, and the ghastly eye- sockets glared unmeaningly upon the mysteries of Time. He came prefigured by no portent, heralded by no convulsions. He did not dash into the theological atmosphere like a blazing comet, attracting all eyes by the strangeness of its advent and the lustre of its fire. He rose like a star, moved steadily in his appointed orbit, and melted off into the light of heaven. From his earliest youth he did diligently and conscientiously that which was set before him. He perfected himself in all human science, and acquainted himself with all the terrestrial developments of Deity. His writings are a library in them- selves, and display the most careful method and the most indomitable energy. He was eminently conservative ; he quarrelled with no church ; he set himself in opposition with no organized body. He did not stand apart in all the loneli- ness of prophetic fury, and denounce vengeance on degenerate man. He was too catholic to found a sect ; he spoke the truth intrusted to him, and left it to permeate the lives and opinions of succeeding ages. His charity was broad as the ocean which rolls its waves on every shore, wide as the firmament which foldeth all the orbs of heaven within its ample bosom. Tlie most magnificent scholar of his age, he was at the same time the humblest Christian. Fo>vored by kings, intimate with nobles and statesmen, and the learned of every land, he was without one particle of vanity, and labored as assiduously and devotedly as the humblest parish priest. And as he was never exalted above measure, so he was never crushed by the terrors and the glories — dark visions, such as Dante never dreamed 38 swedenborg's greatness. —celestial pictures, more magaificent than ever visited the immortal Milton. " Through the trackless paths of time, and the tremendous solitudes of eternity, he pursued his way with a courage that never quailed, and a wing that never tired. His brain never reeled as the nations of the damned rose, rank on rank, in all the ghastly splendor of unfading fire ; his eye never blenched as the long line of sapphire palaces flashed back upon his vision the unutterable glories of Deity. He was, of all men I have met with, the calmest, wisest, deepest. He was a pro- found scholar, a true Christian, a loyal subject, a magnificent poet, an unrivalled philosopher, and a little child. He has dis- solved the darkness that brooded over the Book of Life, and from the tangled web- work of sectarian speculation he has given us again the Word of God. Swept by his fingers, the cathedral organ of the universe, so long silent, has again sent forth a symphony, the reverberations of which are ringing yet in floating notes, and dying falls along the hills of time. He has touched with his magician's wand the dark waters of death, and they sparkle with the scintillations of immortality. He has flung a bridge across the baseless, boundless chasm which separated the present from the to-come, and brought us to an innumerable company of angels, to the church of the first-born, to the spirits of the just made perfect, and to our Redeemer, Father, God. He has elevated woman to her true position, and set once and forever the 'perfect music unto noble words.' He has built up the desecrated temple of marriage, relit heaven's fire upon its sacred sbrine, and round about the porch engraved the sign and seal of heaven. "Wider than Wesley, deeper than Whitfield, truer than Luther, he is the last great captain of the church militant ; and as the army with their blood-flecked banners and their dinted armor defile across the bridge of death, and range themselves, rank on rank, for the grand review by the Lord of Hosts ; — among the foremost, with peace within his eye, and on his brow the morning-star, shall stand the calm, the cloudless, the unconquerable spirit of Emanuel Sweden- BORG." — J. W. Fletcuer, in his Lecture on '' Sivedenhorg" pp. 16, 17. swedenborg's greatness. 39 39. "No wonder that Swedenborg's ethical wisdom should give him influence as a teacher. To the withered traditional church yielding dry catechisms, he let in nature again, and the worshipper, escaping from the vesting of verbs and texts, is surprised to find himself a party to the whole of his religion. His religion thinks for him, and is of universal application. He turns it on every side ; it fits every part of life, interprets and dignifies every circumstance. Instead of a religion which visited him diplomatically three or four times, — when he was born, when he married, when he felt sick, and when he died, and for the rest never interfered with him, — here was a teach- ing which accompanied him all day, accompanied him even into sleep and dreams ; into his thinking, and showed him through what a long ancestry his thoughts descend ; into society, and showed by what ailinities he was girt to his equals and his counterparts ; into natural objects, and showed their oiigin and meaning, what are friendly and Avhat are hurtful ; and opened the future world, by indicating the con- tinuity of the same laws. His disciples allege that their intellect is invigorated by the study of his books. There is no such problem for criticism as his theological writings, their merits are so commanding." — Ralph Waldo Emerson. 40. From Fraser's Magazine, February, 1847. " We are so continually surrounded and so profoundly affected by the appeals of material nature to the senses, that the best Christian may have good cause to thank the writer who succeeds in endowing spiritual facts with fresh interest and novelty of demonstration ; and if ever there was a teacher signally gifted with this faculty, it was Swedenborg. As a preacher, moreover, of universally-admitted Christian doctrines of the most obviously practical import, he stands alone and super-eminent in his way. The inseparable union of charity and faith in the heart of the true believer is dwelt upon and demonstrated with a force and reiteration the profit of which those only Avho have read a good deal of Swedenborg can justly estimate. The connection of spiritual death with sin persevered in, against the remonstrances of the conscience, is 40 swedenborg's greatness. '} propounded with an amount of quiet conviction, and proved with a peculiar force, wliich can scarcely fail to startle into thoujjhtfulness those for whom the accustomed forms of re- ligious teaching have ceased, through repetition and neglect, to exercise any influence. In morality, no writer has ever more effectually impressed upon his readers the juste milieu between asceticism and self-indulgence, between the barren unworldliness, and ' other wcrldliness,' of the anchorite, and the carthly-mindedness of the worldling ; and indeed between each pole of the many pairs of vicious extremes adopted respectively by the unrighteous and the righteous overmuch. That noble and only true moderation which comes of the simultaneous and harmonious activity and inter-recognition of all right motives and impulses, was a very conspicuous merit of Swedenborg's life, and it is not less manifest in his teachings, which are excellent remedies for that morbid con- science, almost worse than no conscience at all, which afflicts its possessor whh innumerable pangs, while its protest is silent or weak where it ought to be clamorous and irresis- tible." III. SWEDENBORG'S CHARACTER. 41. " Reader, might it not seem a wonder, if a person of so extraordinary and apostolical a character should better escape the imputation of madness than the prophets of old ? fie upon those uncharitable prejudices which have led so many, in all ages, to credit and propagate slanderous reports of the best of men, even whilst they have been employed in the heavenly work of turning many from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. Were an angel from heaven to come and dwell incarnate amongst us, may we not suppose that his conversation, discoveries, and conduct of life would, in many things, be so contrary to the errors and preju- dices, the ways and fashions of this world, that many would say, with one consent, that he is beside himself; and where any one of our brethren, through the Divine favor, attains to any high degree of angelical illumination and communications, may he not expect the like treatment ? I forget the name of the philosopher whose precepts and lectures were so repugnant to the dissolute manners of the Athenians : they sent to Hippocrates, to come and cure him of his madness; to which message that great physician returned this answer: that it was not the philosopher, but the Athenians that were mad." — Dr. Hartley, Hector of Wimvick, Northamptonshire : Preface to the First English Translation of Swedenborg^s " Heaven and Helir 42. From the Eidogy on Emanuel Swedenhorg, pronounced in the name of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Stockholm, by M. Samuel Sandel, Counsellor of the Royal Board of Mines, and member of said Academy, October 7, 1772. " Swedenborg's merit and excellent qualities shine with brilliancy, even where we are endeavoring to discover in him 4* (41) 42 swedesbokg's character. the weakness inseparable fro. '^^-^'^^^;:^^:.l'X:^rZ .ere to aefend e.ors ^^t^^^^^^^^ ^- ;;:rar rratsti.-;.^t ... o.e. .^^^ ..e d^Lvered a <1<^«--V fTaro Iw^^^^^^^ '^^ Swedenborg has ^j^f^^l^f^^^^^^ j;:^^^^^^ to his system, knowledge ; which he has »n;°= ' ^^.^„,d ,,ave striven in such order, that the eleinents *«™*«^1"; ^''j^^;,.^ „f knowl- i" vain to tu.n Ui. ont o l„s cours. n- des^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ edge went too far, it at lea^t evm ^^ ^^^^^^ ^ ^^^, to obtain inforu— ^^^-'fl^J'"' J eonceit, of rash- you never find m hun any mark ot P ; „„t to Lss, or of intention ^^^^ ^/^V" .f Ith, he at least be numbered among the . Mp^iler So in his letter to Dr. Gerard at Aberdeen, Dr. MessKer, sneakinn- of Swedenborg's works, says,— » They are the productions of a man whose gocA qualities resulting from his natural and acquired abilities, I can with much tr^itli, from my frequent converse with him, assert, are Tlth ornament to human nature. Credulity prejudice or partiality, seem to have no share in his composition or char- acter ; nor is he in the least influenced by any avunc.ous o. interested views. A proof of this last assertion was off-ered me, by his refusing an offer of any money he might have occasion for while in England, which was made him on a supposal that his want of connections in a place where he was a stranger might prove an obstacle to Lis divine pursuits." 50. Teslimony of Professor von Gorres, Bdative to Sweden- borg's Scientific and Philosophical Character. Giirres was Professor at the University of Munich. He was a man of influence in his sphere, and held in great esteem by a wide circle of admirers. During the progress of the Ltitin and German edition of Swedenborg's works Professor GGiTcs was induced to look into his writings, and to lay the results of his examination before the public. " Amongst the signs of the present time," says tlie Professor, » must, without doubt, be numbered the new edition of Sweden- bora's works, and the movement which, in certain places, is canted by the doctrines he unfolds. Most persons who have only read that portion of his writings to which they have had access, might feel disposed to consider them as the results of a mind involved in an inextricable maze, or bordering even on infatuation ; some also may be disposed to consuier tliem as the results of wilful deception. Others, milder in their judgment, explain, as Herder did, the enigmatical appearance I I ! J swedenborg's character. 51 on flie ground of a powerfully creative imagination, which, actuated by strong impulses, becomes at length habitual, gen- erates in science, as in poetry, wonderful images of a spiritu- alizing enchantment, which sports in the weakened memory of age with the lively visions of youth, and which the incau- tious senses assume for the actual and real perceptions of intellect ; and in this manner ohjedive truth is unconsciously fiilsified by the suhjedive, self-derived productions of the mind. "The case of Swedcnborg, however, is not so easily settled as this two-fold mode of explanation supposes. Swedenbor^r was not a man to he carried away hy an unbridled imagination, still less did he ever manifest, during Ms icliole life, the slightest symptom of mental aherration. His natural disposition was tranquil, equal, thoughtful, meditative; as is the case with most of his Swedish countrymen, the powers of his understandin^r were preponderating, and he had carefully nourished and cuf- livated them, devoted, during the greatest part of his hfe, to naremiued studies. It is therefore not to be supposed that' he in this gross manner, with wakeful eyes, deceived himself, and that what in one moment he himself thought, in another re- garded as chimerical. On the other hand, he was in life and disposition so blameless, that no man dare ever intimate any suspi^ cion of concerted deception ; and '^ — we call the attention of our readers especially to the following passage — " posterity HAVE NO RIGHT TO CALL INTO QUESTION THE UNSUSPECTED TESTIMONY OF THOSE WHO LIVED IN THE SAME AGE AS SWE- 1>ENB0RG, AND WHO KNEW HIM WELL ; IF THIS MODE OF JUDGMENT BE PERMITTED, ALL HISTORICAL EVIDENCE, EVEN THE HOLIEST AND MOST VENERABLE, MIGHT BE REDUCED TO NOTHING. . . . If it be permitted to say of a man, to whose veracity, intelligence, science, irreproachahle conduct, presence of iHind, and fidelity to truth, his contemporaries hear testimony-^ If It be permitted for posterity to say that such a man had either nnprudenlly deceived himself and the world, or had knowingly dealt in mere falsehood and lies, there is an end to the verification of historical events." In relation to Swedenborg's " Principia," the Professor says ; — " Indefatigable in meditating over the wonderful phenomena 52 swedenborg's chakacter. in the created world ; constantly occupied in exploring the Lsin which the manifold variety of these phenomena » XhU Swedenhor, endea^red^t^^^^^^^^^^^^^ f >'n^ % ---: tm'::ich tr :rr;::n, ! r on bv S crcltive spirit and power, might he contem- 'rfl"rnd from wllh the first principles of things might be ^ITn Cviu^TrJm the impulsive force which God has .m- ^X^^i^l^L^T'Ssis of the wor., he continues:- will al^^ ays oe c ^^^auction indicative of profound thought ,n all Its ?'^^^^" Principiaof Natural Philosophy. side of Nev^ton's '"«'';'"«' ^f,™^" 4ini,„t genius of the uSwcdenborg l-'': -f .J' "°'^*^ „f .^ di!, always hit Sf trr^rr :£ tl": inst^d of whl.. however he So::t:L fo.mul., whic^ .e .^^^^^^^ £;te^sr:i\Xrc;2f:^^^^^^^^^^^ :r;:C and l. rather endeavored to direct the who of his efforts to place metaphysics in the provmce of mathe of his cttorts p ^^.^j^ ^ ^^^ ^j perception. mat.cs, and to •"'^'^°."^° JJ" ,^„i,„,„ ,^as rf^ffcn^, pr^ci.e, Tn conduct ng expermients, bwedonooio . . '/ , „u a^e " e, *r J.oi, ; although he may bo -n.mg m h^^^^^^^^^^ Lncc which makes Newton's work on optics a fi^'^l'^/^ «« Tart or of scientific skill. And whilst a greater depth of Ipecu atiou characterizes the work of the Swede, that of the swedenborg's character. 53 Briton is marked by a more widely-extended surface, and is more richly finislied. Hence it is that the work of the former has been hitherto passed over in silence in the history of sci- ence, without making any great impression ; whereas that of Newton, owing to the manifold practical results which have attended it, has formed an epoch in the history of human knowledge. The work of Swedenborg, however, contains, no doubt, a rich treasure of enlarged and profound observations on nature. Many of the ideas unfolded in that work . . . have, siuce Swedenborg's time, been most wonderfully confirmed through the investigations which Herschel has made into the structure of the heavens, and by the discovery of the polariza- tion of light, and of the magnetic operations, performed by the galvanic battery. His spiral motion, which extends to every province in nature, into organic structures and their operations, and even into history, is an extremely appropriate expression by which numerous phenomena can be easily com- prehended ; and it might, in the hand of a person skilled in analysis, be made as fruitful in physics as the doctrine of gravitation has been for astronomy.'* It seems a pity that the Professor had not an opportunity of also studying Swedenborg's works on the Animal Kingdom and its Economy^ in which his philosophical principles are carried out in a most striking manner ; we are certain that the author would have risen still higher in his estimation as a profound and original thinker. The Professor concludes his article on Swedenborg as follows : — " It now remains that we give an impartial judgment on Swedenborg's character and his mental disposition, and on his moral physiognomy, in so far as it shines forth from the series in which his labors as an author were produced ; and here we cannot but award him the most favorable testimony. Throughout the entire career of his learned researches and activity, we everywhere discover the pious and religious man, who, in all his sayings and doings, was intent upon good. In his inmost soul, he was entirely opposed to all those systems of materialism and naturalism which so wantonly prevailed in his time ; and he built his own system on the foundation of an eternal Esse, and on its creating activities [from which, as from 6* 54 swedenborg's character. swedenborg's character. 55 i • the only Origin and Cause, all things are created and pre- served]. And throughout the entire course of his lahors, he seizes every opportunity of pointing to this first great rational cause of all things, and, at the same time, he endeavors to show the absurdity of all opposite opinions. Nor did the sen- sualism of those of his contemporaries, which confines itself to the mere surface of things ; nor did the more refined pan- theistic abstraction of others, although penetrating more deeply below the surface, find any place in his system and works. On the contrary, his philosophy, as to all its principal and lead- ing points, is founded on the eternal principles revealed in the Holy Writ. Throughout his works everything appears sunple and uniform, especially as to the tone in which he writes, in which there is no efibrt at display in the imaginative powers, nothing overwrought, nothing fantastic, nothing that can m the remotest degree be construed into a morbid bias of a pre- vailing mental activity, nothing indicating an idiosyncrasy, or manifesting any peculiarity of a commencing mental derange- ment. Everything he undertakes is developed in a calm and measured manner^ like the resolution and demonstration of a mathematical problem, and everywhere the operations of a mind composed and well ordered shine forth, with conviction as to the certainty of the results of its activity. In the cultiva- tion of science, sincerity and simplicity of heart are necessary requirements to the attainment of durable success. We never observe that" Swedenborg was subject to that pride by the in- fluence of which so many great spirits have fallen ; he always remained the same subdued and modest mind ; and never, either by success, or by any consideration, lost his mental equilibrium. " There nowhere appears in the writings of Swedenborg a self-destroying contradiction, nothing abrupt, disjointed, or un- connected, or arbitrary, or illogical, such as is accustomed to accompany the phenomena of dreams, or the eff*usions of an unregulated fancy ; but everything that he writes is so con- nected and uninterrupted as to present a perfect whole. . . " The editors of the "Documents, &c.," add the following remark : — " No testimony can be more important, both as to impartiality, and as to the position the Professor occupies as a judge of mental productions." They likewise add that " the sentences in the above extracts marked with italics, are so marked in the G-erman from which they have been translated." 51. Another celebrated German professor, and no less a person than Dr. v. Baur, the founder of the so-called "Tu- bingen School of Theology," said to some of his students who visited him at his house, that " Swedenborg was the greatest mortal that ever lived" This statement was made to my father by my late uncle. Prof. Immanuel Tafel, of Tubingen, who likewise added that by the influence of Prof. v. Baur all the original editions of Swedenborg's works were bought for the University Library. 52. Dr. Immanuel Tafel, who was Professor of Philos- ophy and Librarian at the University of Tubingen, gives the following as the result of his investigations into the character and life of Emanuel Swedenborg : — " From all these testimonies it appears that he was a man thoroughly at home in all departments of human science, and that he moved in them as in his own proper sphere. That he was by far the greatest scholar of his country ; that he was a most distinguished poet in his youth, an adept in the oriental and occidental languages, a thorough mathematician, a suc- cessful mechanician, a perfect metallurgist, an accomplished statesman, a profound philosopher, a sound theologian, and a man in whose character were combined noble and pure senti- ments, with a spotless, industrious, virtuous and holy life, and who was adorned with all social virtues, so that he was ven- erated and beloved by all who knew him : a man, in fine, who in all his doings, seems to have been especia-ly favored by Divine Providence." — Preface to his Translation of Sweden^ horg*s Works, p. v. 53. Dr. Oettinger, Prelate of Murrhard, in Wurtemherg^ in his book entitled " The High Priesthood of Christ," pub- lished in 1772, says: — " Swedenborg was from his youth innocent, pious and 56 swedenborg's character. swedenborg's character. 57 exemplary, and by no means addicted to imaginary pursuits. Geometry, Algebra, and Mechanics had guarded him against everything like fantastic studies. Diotrephes barked loudly against John, the beloved disciple of Jesus ; and why should we wonder that Swedenborg is so misrepresented and calum- niated? Satan has his greatest delight, and his most delicious feast, when he can set theologians by the ears, and excite strife and animosity against them. But the Lord will bring to light that which has been concealed in darkness." In another place 'he says, " Swedenborg is, in my estima- tion, the forerunner of a new era." 54. Prof. M. J. Schleiden, of the University of Jena, pays the following high tribute to the private character of Sweden- borg : — " If we are permitted in any man to judge of his innermost hidden worth, we are so in Swedenborg. From the time of his earliest youth to the hour of his death, in his 85th year, there is not one minute that accuses him. In his picture, whether drawn by his friends, by indifferent observers, or even by his theological opponents, (for enemies he had none,) there is not one feature which is not respectable, nay, lovable. Modest even to humility, simple and temperate to the highest degree in his dress and food, even at the time of his greatest opulence ; without any desire for outward honors or pecuniary emoluments, and generally refusing even those which were ottered to him without their being called for. Opposed to making proselytes, never taking the first steps towards col- lecting around himself a school, benevolent and philanthropical everywhere ; of inviolable rectitude in his business and social relations, of incorruptible veracity and fearless frankness — such are the fundamental traits of a character, who never lent his hand to anything that had the slightest bearing to delusion and injustice." — '' Studien" p. 191. And yet Prof. Schleiden endeavored to prove that Sweden- borg had been insane ! ! 55. '' The following is the opinion of Coleridge of the charge so often calumniously alleged against Swedenborg, that he was mad. It is a manuscript note in Coleridge's copy of De Cultu et Amore Dei, on pages 4 to 6, in which Sweden- borg briefly states his doctrine of Forms. 'This,' says Coleridge, ' would of itself serve to mark Swedenborg as a man of philosophic genius, radicative and evolvent. Much of what is most valuable in the philosophic works of Schelling, Schubert, and Eschermayer, is to be found anticipated in tliis supposed Dcmentato, or madman ; O thrice happy should we be, if the learned and teachers of the present day were gifted with a similar madness, — a madness, indeed, celestial, and flowing from a divine mind ! ! ' (S. T. Coleridge, Sept. 22, 1821, Highgate.) " — Coleridge's Literary Remains, Vol. iv. p. 424. 56. " Since Swedenborg's death all terms of ignominy and contempt have been heaped upon him ; all sects have agreed to unite to despise him ; few, few, few indeed have read him ; but how far fewer have studied him. Alas ! in most instances, we denounce the religion or the religious teacher taxing our energies, our thoughts, our affections too much. Religion is, according to some teachers, to be forever and forever a perpet- ually reiterated and reiterating Alphabet ; not so to him who attempts to pass on to the Grammar of Religion, still more to him who dares to attempt to solve the deeper Problems of Re- ligious History, who attempts to sound some of the heights, and depths, and lengths, and breadths of religious emotion and experience, of Religious Knowledge and Doctrine. A thousand times we have been compelled to ask. What, then, is no more religious experience possible? Will the Infinite Light reveal no new Relations — no new Illustrations ? ''Swedenborg was a Mystic! My dear sir, what is a Mystic ? We are all mystics when we engage in some opera- tion our neighbor does not understand. 'Tis an ignorant word. What a shocking mystic is an expert chemist, perhaps more so an expert mathematician. Every art, every trade, every science is mystic to the uninitiated. We are all mystics ; we have all our mystic world ; we all see things temporal and eternal with our own individual eyes ; we all have a world into which our friend and neiglibor cannot enter, and we can 58 swedenborg's character. SWEDENBORG S CHARACTER. 59 I I all see clearly in that world, too, although it is a region of darkness to him. Frequently, when you use the term mystic, you only express your own impoverished and wretched expe- riences. Translated, it means, / never felt that — I never experienced that. Especially all Christian experience is mys- tical. A mystic is one who moves in an orhit larger than his neighhors, from the greater weight and power of his charac- ter. In this sense, Swcdenborg was a mystic. . . . " Yet in another sense Swedenborg was no Mystic ; for a mystic is too self-contained a man, usually; perhaps he com- municates no light ; he travels in his own orb, but he does not illuminate other minds : this is the difference between a Mys- tic and an Apostle. The mystic solitarily absorbs all things within himself; the apostle receives to diffuse from himself. The sin of Idle self-contemplation which we have condemned is the charm of the mystic's life. The apostle is never idle, aud never muses within himself, but the fire burns, impelling to action and energy. The mystic, therefore, from his intense egotism, leaves no light behind him, and has but few follow- ers, perhaps none. Tlie apostle prepares a road for his suc- cessors ; strews it with rich, and new, and obvious ideas; carves his name upon the rocks in the way, in many a noble achievement and high-wrought action ; and erects at many a doubting turning, a faithful and truthful finger-post ; in a word, the life of the mystic is in Speculation —the life of the apostle is in Use. We shall number Swedenborg, not with the mystics, but with the apostles. He broke up new ground ; he dissemi- nated new ideas ; he has never been without a band of fol- lowers ; all his studies and writings were directed to the useful ; his energy was immense; his activity, mental and bodily, indomitable. He was an apostle ! '' One thing has been alleged against Swedenborg, indeed, to which it is very necessary that we now advert, namely, that he was Mad ! The charge of insanity is one very easily lev- elled against a character whose movements we do not clearly understand. ^Ye know against whom the words were used : ' He hath a devil, and is mad, why hear ye him ? ' And to an illustrious reasoner it was once said : ' Paul, Paul, thou art be- side thyself; much learning hath made thee mad.' Strange, that much learning should make a man mad ; might we not rather suppose that learning, of a true and valuable character, opened to the soul so many windows, and spread out before the understanding so many new prospects and fields of spirit- ual light, that to him the occupations and pursuits of the men and women wedded to the world appeai'ed as comparatively insane ? '' But the question occurs, What is insanity ? And we may perhaps reply, without fear of contradiction, the morbid exer- cise of any faculty or power to the exclusion of other fiiculties. There are very few sane people living ; for sanity is the due exercise of our ,avhole manhood — body, mind, and spirit — the frame, the intellect, and the will or affections, — and it is obvious that this high sanity can only be in a state where sin, the great disjointer and deranger of humanity — sin, which is insanity, is excluded. But if we look at Swedenborg's career, we find all his life balanced and harmonized. If ever there lived a man who might claim to present to the world a completed being, he was the man. Can you convict him of Passion ? When you contradicted him, when you rejected his doctrines, when Filenius was traitorous, and Ekbom insolent, did you ever see the wrathful flame mantle on the old man's features ? Milton was one of the most perfect men, and we pay a higher homage to him than to almost any other man : but the anger of Milton sometimes sullies the glory of his pa«-es. •No ! those who have charged our writer with madness, have felt the difficulty of the position, and therefore it has been insisted by some writers, that he must have been possessed by a devil ; to this conclusion the Rev. Mr. Ettrick, M. A., of High Barns near Sunderland, arrives, when he says : ' Swedenborg does not seem to have really labored under any natural derange- mcQt, or vulgar insanity. If madness of any kind can be rationally imputed to him, it can be no ordinary insanity or mere derangement of intellect from bodily or even mental disease.* " * — E. Paxton Hood, Swedenborg ; a Biography, pp. 157-163. * Paxton Hood (pp. 1G3-1C9) shows how this report of Swedenborg's alleged insanity first originated, and he lays it at the door of the cele- brated John Wesley, who first published it in his Arminian Maga- 60 swedenborg's character. swedenborg's character. 61 57. " It has been said by some, and received implicitly, without further examination by others, that Swedenborg, after receiving his extraordinary commission, was mad, and became totally deprived of his rational senses ; but this insinuation is such a palpable contradiction to truth, and such an insult to common sense, being overruled by every page of our author's writings, as well as by every act of his life after that period, that we should have thought it altogether unworthy our notice, were we not aware that it operates powerfully with many, even at this day, to prejudice them agmnst a character which otherwise they would revere, and against writings from wliich they would otherwise receive the most welcome instruction, whilst, in the meantime, they can give no reasonable account of their prejudice, nor trace its origin to any better source than the unjust calumny uttered of old against another respectable name : ' Paul, thou art beside sine for August, 1783, p. 438, on the authority of a Mr. Brockmer, of London, and Mr. Matlicsius, a Swedish clergyman. Mr. Brockmer, when interrogated afterwards by Mr. Hindmarsh, denied positively that he had ever made this statement to Mr. Wesley, and the Swedish clergyman Mathesiu*?, who was known to be a professed enemy of Swedenborg, and with whom the whole plot seems to have origin- ated, became insane himself a short time afterwards. A similar case is recorded by Prof. Immanuel Tafel in his " Open Letter to Prof. Schleiden of Jena," who, as was noticed above, likewise publicly preferred this charge against Swedenborg. Prof. Tafel says : '♦ This charge of insanity, which you regard as a new discovery of your own, is in reality quite old ; it was made by others before, and among these by two academic professors who pubhshed it in their writings, but ended by becoming insane themselves. The first is said to have imagined himself to be a goose ; and the second, who (as I know from the very best of authorities), on passing through Tubingen, exhibited himself there to the professor of Zoology as a natural curi- osity, viz. : as a walking statue with buttocks of steel, died quite recently in a lunatic asylum."— ^'Offenes Sendschreilen, &c.," p. 79. The whole subject of Swedenborg's alleged insanity will be found abundantly discussed, and the slander exposed, in Rev. S. Noble's '' Appeal," (Sect, v., pp. 249-282, Americ. edit.) where he proves that the true cause of the origin and propagation of this slander is this : *' that it is felt to he more easy, by raising the cry of insanity^ to prevent mankind from examining his system, than, when examined^ to prevent it from, being embraced by the candid and well-disposed:' thyself; much learning doth maJce thee mad: — Acts xxvi. 24." Dr. Hurd, History of the Rites and Ceremonies of all Nations, p. 705. 58. From the New American Encydopoedia, " These works (the scientific and philosophical works of Swedenborg) afford evidence of a remarkably well-balanced mind, in which the beautiful and the practical, poetry and ma- thematics, were harmoniously blended together. His writings always breathe a pure devotional spirit ; and persons to whom he was most intimately known, of high and low rank, bear testimony to the excellence of his private character. Tlie fol- lowing Bides of Life were found noted down in several of his manuscripts, evidently intended for private use, as they are nowhere met with in his published works : — 1. Often to read and meditate on the Word of God. 2. To submit everything to the will of Divine Providence. 3. To observe in every- thing a propriety of behavior, and always to keep the con- science clear. 4. To discharge with fidelity the functions of his employments and the duties of his office, and to render himself in all things useful to society." 59. Professor Matter, in alluding to these "Rules of Life," says : — " In these rules of life of Swedenborg, we find that which characterizes best his life : these studies of the sacred texts, which led him to such a rare illumination; this constant vigilance over his soul, which gave to him in reality, besides a clear conscience, an extraordinary serenity of mind ; this constant application to what he calls the decorum of life, which made his intercourse so agreeable to everybody ; this earnest devotion to his public duties, which inspired him with a capacity of doing immense works for his country ; and, I add, which induced him to resign his commission, when he believed himself invested with a new mission, which claimed all his energies, and all his time." — Vie de Swedenhorq, pp. 20-21. . ^ ^^ 6 / S 62 swedenborg's character. 60. Dr. Wilkinson suras up Swedenborg's character, as follows : — " The upper parts of Swedenborg*s character rose from the ground-work of excellent citizenship and social qualities. Naturally inoffensive and conservative, he was at one with the o-eneral polity, and never dreamt of innovations that should interfere with the State. Even his theology was referable, in his view, to an existing authority in the Bible, and in harmony with the earliest creeds of the church, so far as they went. lie lent himself freely to his family ties, but never allowed them to interrupt his justice. As a friend he was staunch, and equally independent. The sentiment of duty ruled him without appeal in his public as in his private affairs : he had no acquaintances but society and his country when their interests were involved. In disseminating his religious ideas, he was open and above-board : placed his books within the reach of the Christian w^orld, and there left them, to Provi- dence and the readers. By no trick did he ever seek to force attention, and intrigue had no part in his character. Notwith- standing his attachment to his first admirers, he kept his own space around him, and was not impeded by any followers. Tender and amicable in nature, he was always distant enough to liave that large arm's-length that so peculiar a workman required. Ambition he must have had in some sense, but so transpierced and smitten with zeal for his fellows, that we can only call it public love. The power of order and combina- tion, is a main feature in his capacious intellect ; those who open him as a visionary, are struck with the masculine con- nection which he everywhere displays. His sensual nature was evidently an obedient though powerful vehicle to his mind. He was perfectly courageous in that kind that his mission needed ; firm, but unobtrusive, in all courts and companies, and ever bending whither his conscience prescribed. Religion was the mild element that governed the rest, converting them past their own natures by its lively flames, and he walked with the constant sentiment of God between him and his fellows, giving and receiving dignity among God's children. His life indeed is not heroic in the old fashion ; but take his account swedenborg's character. 63 of it, and he has travelled far and perilled much : he has seen and been what would bleach the lips of heroes. Whether you receive his account or not, you must own that his struc- ture was heroic, for how otherwise could he have outlived those tremendous ' fancies ' of heaven and hell. But let that pass, and we still claim him as a hero in the new campaign of peace. The first Epic of the Study is the song that will celebrate him. There are many simple problems, but how few dare face them r it is more difficult to be courageous there than before batteries of cannon : it is more impossible to the most to lead the forlorn hopes of thought, discouraged since history began, to victory, than to mount the scaling-ladder in the imminent deadly breach. To do the one requires only command of body ; to perform the other needs courage over the brain itself; fighting against organism and stupidity older and more terrifying than armies. Select your problem, and ask the world round who will besiege it until it cedes the truth, and you will soon find that of all the soldiers there is none who does not straightway show fatigue and sob impos- sible, which are cowardice under its literary name. In these ages there has been no man who stood up so manfully to his problems as Swedenborg, who wielded his own brains so like a spirit, or knew so experimentally that labor rises over death. Therefore we name him Leader of the world's free thouo-ht and free press ; the Captain of the heroes of the writing- desk." — Life of Swedenhorg^ pp. 245-247. In his " Introduction to the Economy of the Animal King- dom^'' Dr. Wilkinson describes Swedenborg's character as manifested in his writings : — "It would be an omission not to notice the dogmatic character of Swedenborg's 'writings generally. ' He speaks as one having authority, and not as the scribes.' What Bacon says is ' the true way,' ' he proposes things candidly, with more or less asseveration, as they stand in his own judgment.'* Yet, notwithstanding this boldness, no writer gives us a gi'eater sense of modesty than Swedenborg. The absence of self from his pages, — the infinitely small consideration which * tt Advancement of Learning," prelim., p. Iviii. 64 swedenborg's character. swedenborg's character. 65 the ego there claims either morally or intellectually, — is the earnest of great humbleness ; and where this is felt, the calmest affirmations lose the character of self-complacency, and are justly taken as but the measure of the love of truth. Besides which, moral ideas, — and it is with these that Swedenborg deals even when it is least apparent, — by their own necessity require positive statement, and introduce even into their correlatives in physics a tone of certainty and digni- fied injunction : even nature, as the exponent of the Com- mandments, partakes of their absoluteness, and dictates her laws to mankind. " The temper of mind apparent in these works is also remarkable. For Swedenborg, the philosopher, w^as read and commended by no one, and still he continued to travel onwards with a benignity unembittered by censure and imdiminished by neglect. His practical labors were received with applause by his countrymen, and even procured him somewhat of a European reputation. But his affections were not committed to them. From youth upwards he conceived and began his peculiar philosophy, and here the favor of the learned ceased, at first declining into faint praise, which was soon exchanged for undisguised opposition. Influence over men's minds he had none ; and judging from the past, it seems that but for his theology, his philosophical works might have perished on the shelf where his immediate contemporaries placed them. But if he failed to impress the world, its apathy did not affect him. He knew the state in which it was sunk,* and only worked the harder when that knowledge w^as confirmed, by his views being treated with contempt or neglect. Amid the surrounding darkness he was cheerful and sunny in heart and mind, and his pages were brightened with his own happy temper. We are therefore sure of his veracity when he avows his carelessness of fame, and his power of waiting to be heard, though centuries should elapse before the public ear was dis- engaged. Not that he was supported by complacent vanity, the insane king of an imaginary kingdom, or with deep pride * Compare the motto which Swedenborg adopted from Seneca, and which is contained in No. 4 of the present collection. despised the opinions and overlooked the immortal concerns of others : but aware of the world's disabilities, which can only be removed by slow degrees, and not answerable for them, he was entitled, on the other hand, to all the delight that an open vision of truth imparts to whoever sincerely obeys and loves it. He knew that he was before his age, and had no quarrel with it, because of its misfortune ; but committed all to Providence, contentedly performing his own allotment of arduous duties. Therefore he says at the close of the 'Principia,' — ' In writing the present work, I have had no aim at the applause of the learned world, nor at the acquisition of a name or popularity. To me it is a matter of indifference whether I win a favorable opinion of every one or of no one whether I gain much or no commendation ; such things are not objects of regard to one whose mind is bent on truth and true philosophy ; should I, therefore, gain the assent or appro- bation of others, I shall receive it only as a confirmation of my having pursued the truth. I have no wish to persuade any one to lay aside the principles of those illustrious and talented authors who adorn the world, and in place of their principles to adopt mine ; for this reason it is that I have not made mention so much as of one of them, or even hinted at his name, lest I should injure his feelings, or seem to impu"-a his sentiments, or to derogate from the praise which others bestow upon him. If the principles I have advanced have more of truth in them than those which are advocated by others ; if they are truly philosophical and accordant with the phenomena of nature, the assent of the public will follow in due time of its own accord ; and in this case, should I fail to gain the assent of those whose minds, being prepossessed by other principles, can no longer exercise an impartial judgment, still I shall gain the assent of those who are able to distinguish the true from the untrue, if not in the present, at least in some future age. Truth is unique, and will speak for itself. Should any one undertake to impugn my sentiments, I have no wish to oppose him ; but in case he should desire it, I shall be happy to explain my principles and reasons more at large. What need, however, is there of words ? Let the thing spe^k for itself. If what I have said be true, why should I be eager 6* 1 66 SWEDENBORG S CHARACTER. to defend it ? — surely truth can defend itself. If what I have said be false, it would be a degrading and silly task to defend it. Why then should I make myself an enemy to any one, or place myself in opposition to any one ? * * And again he observes in the ' Economy,' — ' Of what consequence is it to me that I should persuade any one to embrace my opinions ? Let his own reason persuade him. I do not undertake this work for the sake of honor or emolument ; both of which I shun rather than seek, because they disquiet the mind, and because I am content with my lot : but for the sake of truth, which alone is immortal, and has its portion in the most per- fect order of nature ; hence in the series of the ends of the universe from the first to the last, or to the glory of God, which ends He promotes ; thus I surely know Who it is that must reward me/f Of his sincerity in tliese declarations, as we before remarked, the repose which pervades his books, and the hearty pursuit of his subject at all times, bear incon- testable witness. '-His life,' says Sandel, 'was one of the happiest that ever fell to the lot of man ; ' | and a prolonged observation of his writings enables us thoroughly to believe it. Because he esteemed opinion and fame at only their proper value, and truth as an object far more real, so when the need came, he gladly renounced liis great possessions as a man of learning, and never once looking back, yielded himself to the service of the new cause to which his remaining life was to be devoted. It is therefore not unaccountable, though certainly without parallel, that one who had solved the problems of centuries, and pushed the knowledge of causes into regions whose existence no other philosopher suspected, should at length abandon the field of science, without afterwards alluding so much as once to the mighty task he had sur- mounted. This was in accordance with his mind even in his scientific days : the presence of truth was what pleased him ; and he always joyfully exchanged his light for a gi-eater and * Part iii., Appendix, t Part II., n. 218. X '• Eulogium on Swedonborg," pronounced by Sandel in the name of the Iloyal Academy of Sciences of Stockhohn, October 7, 1772. SWEDENBORG*S CHARACTER. 67 purer, even though cherished thoughts had to die daily, as the condition of passing into the higher illumination. " Furthermore, there never was a man who belonged less than he to his own age or nation, notwithstanding he depended greatly upon the physical knowledge of his contemporaries, was widely read in philosophy also, and made free use of what- ever he found in other writers that was true and to the purpose. But his genius was more than his materials ; ' materiem super- ahit opus.* He wielded with ease the solid masses of learning, and they obeyed new motions and ran in systematic orbits. The naked rocks of science received a quickening climature, and greenness and life came upon them. The season was ripe, and the personal conditions fulfilled, and the willing earth yielded her increase as to the Jews of old. The acquired goodness of the individual became the spring of his genius ; and hence he stood related to the world as the creation of God, and to man as his unrivalled creature, and went out from the soil that bore him, so that Scandinavia was his mother no longer. He became the example of a nobler energy than that which can-ied the Swedish kings over hostile Europe ; an energy which sustained him to bear the lamp of humanizing science into the darkest places of the earth, where the phan- toms of superstition terrify, and obscene atheism flits around on subtlest pinions. He showed a faith in the real God, and in the spiritual existence and interests of mankind, to which the profoundest homage of the North to her mythologic Odin, and her chiefs' and wan'iors' fastest belief in the promised Walhalla, are but weak, shadowy and unsubstantial. The triumphs he gained in the name of truth, and that his writings will gain in the coming ages, are fraught with importance which far eclipses the proudest victories of his martial coun- trymen. For it was his happy lot, not to fight temporal battles for Protestantism, or to be the prop of an old religion, whose very victories often precluded its communion with the Prince of Peace ; but to be the means of averting destruction from the whole race of man, and of securing to all a hold on Christianity that can never fail ; and in the course of this instrumentality, to walk undismayed in that other world which has been lost to knowledge for thousands of years, or pre- 68 swedenborg's character. served only in the unwritten parts of imagination, the misun- derstood depth of ancient fable, or the narrations of the earlier poets. Hence he is the first of the moderns to penetrate the secrets of nature, the first also to be admitted to the hidden things of the spiritual world : the two spheres of knowledge being realized at once ; wherefore henceforth he is our earnest, that since we are now on the right track, and the works of God arc become our heritage, the progression in both may be practical and unending." — ^^Introduction to the Econormj of the Animal Kingdom" pp. Ixxxvi-xc. IV. SWEDENBORG'S STYLE. 61. "Accustomed as we are to the scientific style in cur- rent use, Swedenborg's works may seem imaginative from richness of illustrations ; from the decoration clothing his ideas ; from the unexpected beauty which often comes forth during a serious argument ; and from the frequent recourse to analogies. For the usual mode of presenting knowledge is abstract, naked, passionless, and solitary. But herein Swedenborg follows nature with greater reverence than the orthodox student. For as in objects there is no dryness like what pervades the descrip- tions in books, so the latter are imaginative, by reason of the mean dress superinduced upon the subject ; meanness of imag- ination being imagination still. Only if the planet were an unvaried Sahara, could such descriptions be other than imag- inative. Nature, on the other hand, in the real world, is liberal and lovely, adorned as beseems the destined bride of humane philosophy. Thus she is rich in collateral illustrations, be- cause every series contains numerous elements that are su"-- gestive of other series, and which serve for links with other series ; all things being involved in all things, as Anaxagoras wisely intimated. Nature is also clothed in ornament ; and all things of good use tend to ornament ; so that beauty is a portion of her works ; and it comes out ever and anon, like a bright flower from a sober stem, when we least expect it : whence also surprise and wonder, as incitements to man, are distinct intentions in nature. Moreover nature is a world of analogies ; for every fact and substance is a distinct propor- tional between certain others, which it combines in a rational equation ; so that nature resolves the discords of things by innumerable middle terms ; and especially does she suggest (69) • s \ A 70 swedenborg's style. swedenborg's style. 71 infinite analogies to the mind of man, because this is tlie greatest analogical term or proportion that can exist; the medium between soul and body, spirit and matter, the highest sphere and the lowest ; reason or ratio being no other than the constant balance of the inward with the outward ; or that which reconciles variety with unity, fact with theory, the world with heaven ; or which sees one principle in many things, or in all things; and in all things a brotherhood, co-ordination or analogy by virtue of their common paternity in the one omuific b'eginning and end. On these grounds we suggest that any meanness in tone or manner of scientific works, amounts to unworthy treatment of nature, and is chargeable to the score of imagination, substituting its dreams for the face of creation, and preferring barrenness, so it be its own, to that various beauty which is the child of God.'*— J. J. Garth Wilkinson. in his Introduction to the ''Economy of the Animal Kingdom,'' p. Ixxiii. 62. From a Swedish periodical entitled " Mimer.** The following ably drawn sketch of Swedenborg, as the Expounder of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, is written by Prof. Atterbom, of Upsal, one of the most celebrated poets of Sweden : — " Three celebrated men in Sweden have distinguished them- selves by writing sublimely and beautifully on the beautiful; Sivcdenhorg, to whom LovE was everything, as well as the relation establish^ by love between the True and the Good ; Thorild, to whom Natltie was everything, as well as the relation established by nature between Power and Harmony ; Ehrensvdrd, to whom Art was everything, as well as the rela- tion established by art between Genius and the Ideal. In the paper before us, the theosopher Swedenborg is considered chiefly as a thinker and writer on the heautiful. The cesthetic views of Ehrensvard and Thorild are easily accessible, partly from their own writings, and partly from extracts and exposi- tions, which have lately appeared. But Swedenborg's views are not so easily accessible : the cause is in a twofold diffi- culty ; first, because his aesthetic view of the world cannot be properly seen, before we have become acquainted with his views in general ; and secondly, because he has not devoted a particular work or section to the subject. From a multitude of extensive works, written in Latin, we must bring together what he has said on this subject. His ideas on this topic are scattered in his treatises on his principal doctrines, especially concerning Life as being Love ; on God and his unity, as being the original, prototypal, one only divine Man, from whom all finite created men derive that which constitutes them men ; on the creation of all beings and substances, as receptacles of Life and Love, and on the destination of man, who, created with a ivill for the reception of the Divine wisdom, has a finite esse and existere, corresponding, when constituted in order, to tlie infinite esse and existere in God ; on the Good and the True ; on the Spheres, Degrees, and Correspondences of cre- ation : on the relation between the different circles of life, descending by degrees from the highest to the lowest of created existences, and connected together in one universal harmonic whole by the laws of analogy and correspondence ; but espec- ially in that part of his writings in which he represents mar- riage as the emblem of the eternal unfon in God of Love and Wisdom, and likewise of the conjunction between himself and his church as grounded in that union established in the minds of men. In describing this delightful union, which is the ground and source of all virtue and happiness to the intel- ligent universe, Swedenborg says much respecting the angels, and the state of harmony and bliss in which they live. In treating of these subjects, he was led to exhibit loveliness and beauty in its objective form in the persons of angels, who were once men upon earth, but who, becoming regenerate, that IS, filled as to their wills with the divine love, and as to their understandings with the divine wisdom, are in the enjoyment of that state in which all is harmony, perfection, and bliss, and which is properly called heaven ; for all the affections and dispositions of the soul are imaged and reflected in their per- sonal forms of loveliness and beauty. It is here where the heautiful in mind, in nature, and in art, has its origin, whence descending into the ultimate spheres and regions of creation, called the natural world, it gives rise to every thing beautiful and lovely we behold. Swedenborg thus traces the origin of 72 SWEDENBORG*S STYLE. science aud art to the great first Cause, and to see the relation which they bear to the Divine Wisdom is the parent of all knowledge, science, and genuine philosophy. . . . " The most beautiful, as to style, which Swedenborg ever wrote, is the ' Worship and Love of God,* which is a kind of middle thing between a philosophic treatise and romance, on the origin of the earth, on the golden age of nature, and of man, on paradise, on the birth, youth, education, and love of Adam and Eve. This, of all Swcdeuborg's works, is that in which the Beautiful is most conspicuous. It is not only written in a brilliant and harmonious latinity, but with so much poetic life and inspiration, that if divided amongst a dozen poets, it would be sufficient to fix every one of them on the heaven of poesy as stars of the first magnitude. This, at least, is certain, that the more we consider his writings in relation to Philosophy and Aesthetics, the more we must admit, that amongst much dross,* there is considerable quantity of pure and solid gold. The holy and exalted state of mind in which he comprehended and contemplated the structure and order of Hie universe, and the pure and lofty, yet simple and intelligible manner in which he has treated his subjects and presented his views, are perfectly worthy of a divinely inspired seer. ... In proportion as we learn properly to understand the writings of Swedenborg, we shall find them full of scientific worth, rich in materials of the beautiful for poetry, and highly honorable to his native country." 63. The following beautiful sketch of Swedenborg's " Wor- ship and Love of God" from the pen of Dr. Wilkinson, is a good specimen of his style, and substantiates the declaration of Mr. Emerson, who said that this author was among the foremost of English writers, now living. (See also Fraser's Magazine, February, 1857, on the same subject.) * "From this it plainly appears that the author of this paper is no receiver of the Theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg, otherwise he would not speak of dross ; we must consequently consider his judgment as so much the more impartial." — (Editor of the "Docu- ments.") swedenborg's style. 73 " Nothing can be more vernal than the earlier portion of this work ; °the reader is guided deeper and deeper into a delicious embowerment, and treads the carpets of a golden acre. Every clod and leaf, grove, stream, and a multitude of rejoicino- inhabitants, all the dews, atmospheres, and skyey influences, the very stars of the firmament, busily mmister with a latent love, and each with a native tact and understand- in-, to the coming heir of the world, the son of earth, the mhid in a human form, who can look from the paradise of earth to the paradise of heaven, and venerate and adore the Creator, returning to God immortal thanks for himself and all things. At last, in the central grove, in the most temperate re-ion of the earth, where the woven boscage broke the heat of^day, and so ' induced a new spring under the general one * ; and where the gushing streamlets veined the area, and lifted by the sun in kindliest vapors, hung upon the leaves, and descended in continual dews,— in this intimate temple of the general garden, lo, the tree of life, and the arboreal womb of the nascent human race. Truly a bold Genesis ; but the steps that lead to it, though beautiful as sylvan alleys, are also of lo-ical pavement, and the appreciating reader, for the time at any rate, is carried well pleased along in the flow and series of the strong-linked narrative. ... It is in the philoso- phical narrative that Swedenborg has shown truly surprising powers which we may challenge literature to surpass : so far as this extends, the work is a great and rushing inspiration." — Li/e of Swedenborg, pp. 64-65, American edit. 64. We shall now hear E. Paxton Hood descanting upon the same theme : — " In this work Swedenborg throws away the crucible, the mathematical instrument, and the dissecting knife, and sings, so to speak, a lofty hymn in honor of the creation. This work is the most exalted in its style of all Swedenborg's works ; the imagination and the fancy flame and blaze over its pa-es, and, indeed, it gives forth in poetry what the ' PHncipia' and the ' Animul Kingdom' have given m prose. ... In reading it we walk along as through a vast tropical forest. We feeUhe warm, warm sun of the young world T 74 swedenborg's style. even through the thick massive folicage ; the leaves quiver and rustle with a wonderful and Eolian music. And what gorge- ousness in the spicy and gummy trees,— the ground too, how soft and mossy ; we see around us the flashing of innumerable pinions of birds, bright, swift and glancing in their plumage. We cannot read the first chapters without feeling that we are transported to the rich and vernal solitudes of Young Time, * When the radiant morn of creation broke, And the earth in the smile of God awoke ; And the empty realms of darkness and death Were moved thro' the depths by His mighty breath.' " And we like the idea of the Perpetual Paradise, and would not wish the argument for the swift flight of the infant world around the sun destroyed. '' A forest world ! a forest of beauty ! But a forest of truths too. The aphorisms hang upon the pages of the book like the luscious ripe fruit upon the trees. Truly among the works of Swedenborg it occupies a very inconsiderable place ; for its province is rather imagination than logic, — rather the poetry of Truth than truth itself; but it is a rich pomegi\anate, golden without, blood-red beauty within. It is a book of seeds, of seminal principles and figures,— the languages gush along in lines of light and fire. And how alive it is— how the world is peopled by the poet — how the mind itself is peopled by distinct beings and inhabitants and actors ; and the book is balanced in all its parts by the weight of the strong iudixment which everv imaginative intellect possesses." — Swedenborg : a Biography, &c., pp. 88, 94-95. 65. Concerning the style of Swedenborg in his scientific works generally, Dr. Wilkinsok has the following : — " Wc find increased life in Swedenborg's style as we pro- ceed with his works. The Principia is clear, felicitous, though somewhat repetitious, and occasionally breaks forth into a beautiful but formal eloquence. The ancient mythology lends frequent figures to the scientific process, and the author's treatment would seem to imply the belief that in the genera- tion of the gods, there was imbedded a hint of the origin of swedenborg's sttle. 75 the world. Occasionally subjects of unpromising bok are 'vested with sublime proportions, as when he hkens the iematical or natural point to a ' two-faced Janus, wh.eh ^oks on either side towards either universe, both mto infin e and into finite immensity.' The manner of the Outhr^ofthe 5«.c is not dissimilar to that of ^'Ae Pnnap-, on^ ess elaborate, and somewhat more round and hberal. The style of ne Eco,^omy, however, displays the full cour.hness of a ma<.ter -free, confident, confiding; self-complacent, but l;ys aspiring; at home in his thoughts, tho"Sl. voya;,mS throu.'h uutravelled natures ; then most swift in mot, on onwards when most at rest in some great attainmen ; not visibly subject to second thoughts, or to the devils palsy ot self-approbation ; flying over great sheets of reason wi h easy stretches of power ; contradicting his predecessors point-blank, without the possibility of offending their houored manes : in these and other respects the style of The ^conon^yoce^ new ground of excellence. The latter portion of the .vork particularly ' On the Human Soul,' is a sustained expression of the loftiest order, and in this respect won the comnieuda- tions of Coleridge, who was no bad judge of style. ^bce our extract, n. C6.) " The Animal Kingdom, however, is riper rounder, and more free than even the last-mentioned work; more intimately methodical, and at the same time better constructed. The treatises on the organs, themselves correspondently organic, are like stately songs of science dying into poetry ; it is surprising how so didactic a mind carved out the freedom and beauty of these epic chapters. It is the same with The Worship and Love of God, the ornament in which is rich and flamboyant, but upborne on the colonnades of a living forest of doctrines. We observe then, upon the whole, this peculiarity, that Swedenborg's address became more intense and ornamental from the beginnmg to the end of these works ; a somewhat rare phenomenon in literature, for the imagination commonly burns out in proportion as what is termed sober reason advances, whereas with this author his imagination was kindled at the torch of reason, and never flamed forth freely untU the soberness of his maturity had set 76 SWEDENBORGS STYLE. it on fire from the wonderful love that couches in all things." — lAfe of Swedenhorg, pp. 65-66, Americ. edit. 66. " It is well known, that Coleridge read the philosophi- cal works of Swedenborg with much pleasure and admiration. His notes on many passages in the (Economia Regni Animalis^ and in the De Cultu et Amore Dei, evidently indicate and prove this to have been the fact. We will here adduce a few of his notes which he appears to have penned as he was read- in"' through the (Economia Regni Animalis. On the nn. 208 to 214 inclusive, he observes, — ' I remember nothing in Lord Bacon superior, few passages equal, either in depth of thought, or in richness, dignity, and felicity of diction, or in the weightiness of the truths contained in these articles.' — (S. T. Coleridge, May 27, 1827.) " On 251, he observes, that it is 'Excellent ; so indeed are all the preceding in the matter meant to be conveyed ; but this paragraph is not only conceived with the mind of a master, but it is expressed adequately, and with scientific pre- cision.' " — Literary Remains of Coleridge^ Vol. IV., p. 424. V. SWEDENBORG'S SCIENCE. 67. From SandeVs Eulogy on Swedenborg, " The scientific works of Swedenborg are so many incontes- tible proofs of a universal erudition, which attached itself in preference to objects which require deep reflection and pro- found knowledge. None can reproach him with having wished to shine in borrowed plumes, passing off as his own the labors of others, dressed out in a new form and decorated with some new turns of expression. It must be acknowledged, on the contrary, that without ever taking up the ideas of others, he always follows his own, and often makes remarks and appli- cations which are not to be found in any precedmg author. Nor was he at all of the same class as the generality ot universal geniuses, who, for the most part, are content with merely skimming over the surface of things. He apphed the whole force of his mind to penetrate into the most hidden things, to connect together the scattered links of the great chain of universal being, and to trace up everything m an order agreeable to its nature, to the great First Cause. Neither did he proceed in the manner of certain Natural Philosophers and Mathematicians, who, dazzled by the light whicli they have been in search of, and have found, would, were it pos- sible, eclipse and extinguish, to the eyes of the world, the Only True and Great Light. He, in the course of his meditations on the universe, and on creation, continually found new occa- sions for rising in love and adoration towards the Author of Nature , c j i. " I think I shall not be mistaken if I assert that Swedenborg, from the time when he first began to think for himself, was animated by a secret fire, and ardent desire to attam to the discovery of the most abstract things 7* (77) 78 swedenborg's science. " He contemplated the great edifice of the universe in gen- eral. He afterwards examined such of its parts as come within the limits of our knowledge. He saw that the whole is arranged in a uniform order, and governed by certain laws. He took particular notice, in this immense machine, of every- thing that can be explained on mathematical principles. He doubted not that the Supreme Creator bad arranged the whole, even to the most complete mutual agreement : and this agree- ment, as a mathematical philosopher, he endeavored to develop, by drawing conclusions from the smallest parts to the greatest, from that which is visible before our eyes, to that which is scarcely discoverable, even by the aid of optical glasses. He thus formed to himself a system founded upon a certain species of mechanism, and supported by reasoning — a system, the ar- rangement of which is so solid, and the composition so serious, that it claims and merits all the attention of the learned : as for others, they may do better not to meddle with it. Accord- ing to this system, he explains all that the most certain facts and the soundest reasoning can offer to our meditations. » 68, Concerning the repute in which Swedenborg's scientific works are held at present among the learned, we extract the following from the " Southern QuaHerly Eeview" vol. x. pp. 314-15: — " These works are in the very highest repute among learned men, and are daily increasing in reputation, of which the new translations, and costly editions, recently issued from the Lon- don press, afford evidence. It is now beginning to be discov- ered and acknowledged how much even the present enlightened age is indebted to the herculean labors and rare discoveries of this transcendent genius — a concession which would have been sooner made, had it not been that his greatest works were composed and published in a dead or foreign tongue, unfamiliar to the generality of readers ; besides that, his claims as an illuminated expounder of Divine Revelation have thrown a temporary cloud over his literary reputation, which is now being dissipated by the force of truth ; and we may add, that the great body of scholars of the present century have been too much occupied with modern works of value, to pay that swedenborg's science. 79 attention to the labors of their illustrious predecessors, which their merits challenge at their hands. A period of literary repose of long continuance, and freedom from the distraction of wars and political convulsions, has, however, latterly furnished them with leisure for more thorough investigations, and enabled them to be more just to the claims of illustrious persons who have passed off the stage." 69. From the Christian Examiner, July, 1843. " We shall now endeavor to take a brief review of Sweden- borg's scientific progress, with particular reference to method, principles, and doctrines. His proper career may be dated from the publication of the ' Prodromus Principiorum ' (Prin- ciples of Chemistry) . In this work he attempted to account for chemical combination, by a theory of the forms and forces of the particles of bodies ; and to resolve chemistry into natural geometry, that it might have the benefit of first principles, and the rank of a fixed science. Of these forms he gave many delineations " The rules which he proposed for investigating the consti- tution of the magnetic, luminous, and atmospheric elements, come next under our notice. 1. That we take for granted that nature acts by the simplest means, and that the particles of elements are of the simplest and least artificial forms. 2. That the beginning of nature is the same as the beginning of geometry ; that natural particles arise from mathematical points, precisely as lines, forms, and the whole of geometry ; and this because everything in nature is geometric ; and vice versi, 3. That all the above elements are capable of simultaneous motion, in one and the same place ; and that each moves natu- rally without hindrance from the others. 4. That ascertained facts be the substratum of theory, and that no step be taken without their guidance. '' From these rules we pass to their application, in the out- set, to which Swedenborg boldly averred that the records of science, accumulated as they had been for thousands of years, were suflScient for an examination of things on principles, and a priori ; that a knowledge of natural philosophy does not pre- suppose the knowledge of innumerable phenomena, but only 80 SWEDENBORG S SCIENCE. of principal facts which proceed directly, and not of those which result obliquely and remotely, from the world's mechan- ism and powers ; and that the latter species of facts confuse and disturb, rather than inform the mind. Also, that the rest- less desire from age to age for more facts, is characteristic of those who are unable to reason from principles to causes, and that no abundance would ever be sufficient for such persons." We shall pass over the reviewer's statement of the doctrine of the elemental world as proposed in the " Principia." " In approaching the human body, Swedenborg again in- sisted on the necessity for principles and generalization, with- out which, he said, ' facts themselves would grow obsolete and perish;' adding that 'unless we were much mistaken, the destinies of the world were leading to this issue.' A knowl- edge of the soul became the professed object of his inquiry, and he entered the circus with a resolve to examine thoroughly the world, or microcosm, which the soul inhabits, in the assurance that she should be sought for nowhere but in her own kingdom. In this search he repudiated synthesis, and resolved to approach the soul by the analytic way, adding, that he believed himself to be the first investigator who had ever commenced with this intention ; a surmise in which he is probably correct. We shall here content ourselves with a brief illustration of one of these doctrines which, with the most intense study, he elaborated for his guidance ; we mean the ' doctrine of series and degrees.' Each organ, he observed, commences from certain unities or least parts which are pecu- liar to it, and derives its form from their gradual composition, and its general function from the sum of their particular func- tions. The mass is therefore the representative of its minute components, and its structure and functions indicate theirs. The vesicles, or smallest parts peculiar to the lungs, are so many least lungs ; the biliary radicles of the liver, so many least livers ; the cellules of the spleen, so many least spleens ; the tubuli of the kidneys, so many least kidneys ; and the same function is predicable of these leasts, as of their entire respec- tive organs, but with any modification which experience may declare to be proper to the minuter structures. This new method of analysis, in which the greatest things were presumed swedenborg's science. 81 to indicate the least, with just such reservation as our experi- ence of the least necessitates, was designed to throw light on the intimate structure and occult offices of single organs, — the same way it identified the higher with the lower groups of organs, — the cranial with the thoracic, and both with the abdominal viscera. Whatever is manifested in the body is transferable to the brain, as the source of all functions and structures. If the abdominal organs supply the blood with a terrestrial nourishment, the thoracic supply it with an as rial, and the brain with an ethereal food. If the first mentioned organs, by the urinary and intestinal passages, eliminate excre- ments and impurities, so the lungs by the trachea, and the brain through the sinuses, reject a subtler defilement. If the heart and blood-vessels are channels of a corporeal circula- tion, the brain and nerves, or spirit-vessels, are channels of a transcendent or spirituous circulation. If the contractility of the arteries and of muscular structures depends on the ner- vous system, it is because that system is itself eminently con- tractile, and impels forward its contents in the most perfect manner. If the lungs have a respiration rising and falling, and the heart a contraction and expansion, so the brain has an animatory movement, which embraces both the motions of the lower series. Thus every function is first to be traced to its essential form in the bosom of its own organ, and thence, tlirough an ascending scale to the brain, ' which is eminently muscle, and eminently gland ; in a word, which is eminently the microcosm, when the body is regarded as a microcosm.' " 70. The reviewer closes with the following words of the " Penny Cyclopedia " : " On the whole, we may admit these works to be a grand consolidation of human knowledge ; an attempt to combine and reorganize the opinions of all the scliools of medicine since the days of Hippocrates. The doc- trines of the fluidists, of the mechanical and chemical physic- ians, and of the vitalists, and solidists, as well as the methods of the dogmatics and empirics, and even the miscellaneous novelties of the present day, have each a proportion and a place in the catholic system of Swedenborg. His works, how- ever, are a dead letter to the medical profession, or known 82 swedenborg's science. only to its erudite members through the ignorant misstate- ments of Haller." 71. From the Monthly Magazine^ 1841. " In his anti-theological career, the course of Swedenborg was a scientific one ; and it has in it the unparalleled wonder of a man devoting himself undeviatingly for twenty-five years, to natural facts, and yet always having in view, and as an end, the highest objects. No writer ever kept more closely to the matter In hand of his several treatises (and these embrace nearly the circle of luiman knowledge), with a purpose which altogether transcended each present effort. There is, in fact, no discursiveness, no anticipation of the next step in the pro- cess, but a steady and legitimate evolution. This gives to his works the character of a great series, and makes them at any rate powerfully persuasive ; at the same time that the real end he had in view, the knowledge of spiritual things, forces him to the ultimate, to the very liighest, physical deductions in each particular case. Nothing can be more opposed than this to the spirit of modern science, dwelling, as it ever does, in proximate inductions, and treating its own first principles as absurd and visionary. We read, the other day, of a medical author Avho declared that he would sooner learn a new way of making a poultice, than enter on a physiological theory ; a dictum which is a very correct exponent of the present reach of the scientific spirit — but Swedenborg had other ideas of science. *' Swedenborg's aim iu his Avork on the Principles of Chem- istry, was to arrive at the ultimate law of chemical combina- tions, which he saw intuitively could be no other than a definite form and correspondent force in the atoms of combining bodies. This form, he asserts, is pointed at (indigitari) by every pro- perty of material masses ; that, for instance, all the chemical effects of a quantity of acid on a quantity of metal, are but the aggregate of myriads of mechanical and geometrical rela- tions°between the ultimate particles of these two substances ; and that it is the business of the scientific man, in the gross result, to read the special cause, — in the relations and qualities of the whole, — to discern the casual form and force of the atom. If his method, in this work, be induction, the process, at any SWEDENBORG S SCIENCE. 83 rate, is not given. He has delineated, as it would seem, intuitively, the shapes of the particles of numbers of substances, testino' his positions a posUriori by known facts of the union of bodies, which bear him out, it must be confessed, in a won- derful manner. His general doctrine seems to be, that solids have been originally generated in the interstices of fluids, and have, therefore, the shapes of those interstices ; the fracture and combination of these shapes, giving rise to all the varieties of inert substances. There is the clearest anticipation by Swedenborg, in this work, of the whole doctrine of the atomic theory ; nay, he has even laid down, geometrically, the com- posite nature of water, and stated the chemical equivalents of its components at the admitted values of 8 and 1, always call- ing water 9. By the result of this inquiry, he seeks to marry the merely experimental sciences to the fixed, and to elevate them on the wings of geometry. Let us admit, that even every deduction which has been elicited by him be false, this spirit is a valuable one to work in. "But Swedenborg, following his chief doctrine, that the greatest things instruct us of the least, — the largest visible of the smallest invisible, next proceeds to a theory of the for-, mation of the universe. We cannot trust ourselves to launch into the ocean of his ' Principia,* but must be content with a brief, and not very satisfactory or intelligible analysis of it, in the German ^Real-Encyclopedia;* (vol. 10. Leipz. 1839,) which, liowever, so far as we know, is the only one before the public. This analysis, as being wholly inadequate, we shall here omit. " We find Swedenborg, after having gauged the height and depth of physics ; after having carried the physical facts of his day, to the last possible deductions, turning his attention to the human microcosm. He mastered the whole of the ana- tomical materials necessary for his purposes ; and now pro- ceeded to construct a grand system of physiology. Here we see the same unity and precision, as in in his previous works, and the same serial character and relation in his proceedings ; his physical man is an exactly fitted inhabitant of his finite universe ; organ is adapted to object, and object to organ ; and 84 swedenborg's science. SWEDENBORG*S SCIENCE. 85 the world within and the world without are in kindly and indispensable relation. In his (Economia Begm Ammahs he gives his analysis of the blood-globule-a mechanical and geometrical analysis -building upon it, as a basis, the struc- tures and functions of all the sanguineous organs. Beginning from a knowledge of the blood, he holds in his hand the end and principle of all the flibrics which generate that fluid ; seein- their uses from an almost prophetic point of vision. Here°he also commences to treat of the Motions of the human body; a subject of whicli, indeed, he may be consid- ered the discoverer. He demonstrates tliat the brain has a respiratory motion, a rising and falling, synchronous with the inspirations and expirations of the lungs, by means of which fallin-, the nervous fluid, {flaidum spirituosum,) is propelled all ov^er the system, while the expansion of the brain draws the same fluid from the blood (of which it is the life) through the capillaries of the carotids, into the cortical substances (corcula cerehri), and so back into the nervous circulation het the hrain in motion^ says he significantly, ' and you will see the uses of all its parts: This motion generates the motions of the lun-s, which react upon those of the brain, and serve as a subsidiary and external attractive cause of the circulation of the nervous fluid, of Avhich the motions of the brain serve as the internal cause. Nor is respiration confined to the lungs, but by their means, as well as by the brain, is introduced mto all the viscera ; the whole being in a state of alternate swell and subsidence; which constitutes their life and activity and excites them perpetually into the performance of their func- tions Thus, with Swedenborg, definite structure has defi- nite function ; and definite function is none other than definite motion—' Qualis determinatio suhstantiarum, talis accidentium et motuum, qui suhstantias, sicut stratos ponticulos percurrunL (As is the determination of substances, so is that of the acci- dents and the motions which run through the substances, like little paved bridges.) Every fibre has its own fluxion, " In fact the human body, in its inmost recesses, in those manifold functions, which are ordinarily called vital, is but the realization of a transcendental geometry. All its operations take place in obedience to high mathematical laws, which rule in its stupendous forms. If the circle and triangle have certain properties, on which the powers of mechanical instru- ments in these forms are dependent, so the spirals and ever- lastin- vortices of the brain, the vessels, the intestines, have also inalienable properties of their own, in which the corporeal organization lives, moves, and has its being. This leads us to°say a few words of Swedenborg's Doctrine of Forms : — a doctrine of the principles by which Nature ascends from the mineral to the body of man." .... This doctrine we prefer to state in Swedenborg's own words, as contained in '' The Worship and Love of God," 2d Americ. edit. pp. 17, and 18: " The lowest form, or the form proper to earthly substances, is that which is determined by mere angular, and at the same time by plane subjects, whatsoever be their figure, provided they flow together into a certain form ; this, therefore, is to be called an^ANGULAR Form, the proper object of our geom- etry. From this form we are enabled to contemplate the next superior form, or the form perpetually angular, which is the same as the Circular or Spherical Form ; for this latter is more perfect than the other in this respect, that its circum- ference is, as it were, a perpetual plane, or infinite angle, be- cause totally void of planes and angles ; on which account also it is the measure of all angular forms, for we measure angles and planes by sections and sines of a circle ; from these considerations we see, that into tliis hitter form something in- finite or perpetual has insinuated itself, which does not exist in the former, viz., the circular orb, whose end and beginning cannot be marked. In the circular or spherical form, again, we are enabled to contemplate a certain superior form, which may be called the perpetual circular, or simply the Spiral Form ; for to this form is added, still further, somewhat per- petual' or infinite, Avhich is not in the former, viz., that its diameters are not bounded or terminate in a certain circum- ference of a circle or superficies of a sphere, which serves it instead of a centre, and that its diameters are bent into a species of a certain curve, by which means this form is the measure of a circular form or forms, as the circular is the measure of the angular. In this spiral form we are enabled 8 86 swedenborg's science. to view a still superior kind of form, which may be called the perpetually spiral or Vortical Form, in which again some- what perpetual or infinite is found which was not in the former : for the former had reference to a circle as to a kind of infinite centre, and from this, by its diameters, to a fixed centre as to its limit or boundary ; but the latter has reference to a spiral form as a centre, by lines perpetually circular ; this form manifests itself especially in magnetics, and is the meas- ure of the spiral form for the reason above mentioned concern- ing inferior forms. In this, lastly, may be viewed the highest form of nature, or the perpetually vortical form, whicli is the same with the Celestial Form, in which almost all boundaries are, as it were, erased, as so many imperfections, and still more perpetuities or infinities are put on ; wherefore this form is the measure of the vortical form, consequently the exem- plar or idea of all inferior forms, from which the inferior de- scend and derive birth as from their beginning, or from the form of forms." Thus far Swedenborg. We continue in the words of the editor of the " Monthly Magazine : " " This scale of forms, with the motions which ascend and descend through them, ' like so many little paved bridges,' everlastingly is the one grand law of nature ; all organization deriving its perfection from being constituted in the higher forms and motions ; all body, taking its properties from the lower. Thus Swedenborg makes Geometry co-extensive, per- haps synonymous, with nature. His physiology is indeed the Euclid of the human body, which he would persuade us is not an occult and alchemistic thing, but supremely mechanical, — a law and shape infinitely distinct and perfect. " Another remarkable position is his Doctrine of Series. All substances, including organized substances, are composed of least parts exactly similar to themselves in all their prop- erties, with only the reservation, that the least things are much more perfect, and more potent in their sphere than the greatest. The activities of masses are but general and gross results, presenting an image and shadow of the interior activities of their compound unities. These unities must not, however, be confounded with particles, supposed to be infinitely small, since swedenborg's science. 87 . X . PT.tirelv ne-lects the idea of infinite divisibility, Swedenborg enti^V^^^^^^^^ On the contrary, they stand T T' LZ.M are least in any series, and enter the f TtS^Sristii. essential parts, and which are pecu- form of that senes as ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ;T '^:Z^:^^ vesicle is the unity of the to It. To exemp y, F ^^^ ^.^.^re then- activ- lungs, from which the iun s ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ capillaries and nerves, ^/^ ^n-ound-work of the entire ^^^^^i::::;:;^ ^^^^ ^he mngs, constitu^ng, body. ihe\esicie lut: produces from Itself, all the powers ^^^^^ ^^^^^,g . gate. I"*h;f"::ry tS eyrieasrUidneys; each the spleen of least spleens t e K y _^ ^^^^^ part of least exemplars of itselt. Lilar to itself.' F-^.;^-'^, ^^/^ I'.eSo theVgans progression and composmou J t - -Ue ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ '-'' 1 Z ::: r 1 tlton o^jeet, the understanding 'Tnw this do tie, is entitled to prcdiea.e in transcendental guided by this doctrine, ^^^ ^^^ ^^jj,,,^ pcrfeetion of those par s ofmir frame ^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^^ to become objects at all. Wha a key i ^^^. • • ■v.^^ 1 Thp terminus of sight is tue De^iuum^ .nvisible The term o^ ^^^.^.^^ of structures, it will standing! Jhe doc .^ ^ ^^^,^,„ ^^^ be perceived, info''"'=<^^ . , j^ analytical results which form into the living Ix^^y ' ^"Y"° ^" f ^^.^ „i„ut Meed Swedenborg has procured thereby, aie, as we m.„ expect, amazing. , „+ nnrl rertainlv the most its own series, from least to „ greatest to least, but are S'^^^''^'^.^^"* f .^J^^^oeeeds from 88 S\VEDENBORG*S SCIENCE. (perhaps the same difficulty) as the connection between nature and spirit. In order, therefore, to leap from one series to another, some new guidance was necessary ; and this he found in the Doctrine of Degrees. The brain, says he, is All in a super-eminent sense — it is the essential gland — the essential muscle — the essential lungs — the essential heart. In this point of view, the body is the mere weaving and tissue of its brain ; each organ is but a lapse from its supreme form. The brain presents all other structures in the highest degree ; as tlie spirituous fluid which it circulates, presents all other fluids. The nervous fibre in the body is the brain again in a lower form, and the muscular fibre in a lower still ; or vice versa^ as we stated before, the brain is the essential muscle ; acting or contracting spontaneously, as muscle acts by delega- tion from the activity of the brain. In this manner the understanding is to trace the influx from superior into inferior forms and their connections — but not by the mere analysis of the inferior per se — inasmuch as, in the very generation of the latter, the higher has put off the properties by which we would recognize its presence. In fine, this doctrine would seem to import, that in touching the lower, we touch another /orwi of the higher, (in which, however, that higher has been rendered latent,) and that thus, to the understanding, the T^exws between, or rather, perhaps, the identity of the two stands revealed. Of course the Doctrine of Degrees being rendered necessary by the imperfection of the eye, does not contemplate making the ultimate connection between a posterior organ and its causal nerve, a fact visible for the senses. These degrees, by which Nature ascends and descends, are of two kinds, the one con- tinuous^ comprising the mere difference of larger and smaller, grosser and finer ; the other distinct, (or, in the technical lan- guage of Swedenborg, discrete,) comprehending the differences between prior and posterior, universal and less universal, essential and formal. " We have now hastily traversed some of Swedenborg's principles; but we should be likely to mislead, did Ave not say a few words respecting his power of reading/ads and treating details. With too many speculatists, all particular facts lose their individuality under the glare of some eclipsing theory. swedenborg's science. 89 This was not the case with Swedenborg. On he went, m patient analysis, through structure after structure, and organ upon onran, treating their smallest points with all the rcAxrence of the mere anatomist. He chiefly took his data from the best authors of his time, superadding, however, actual dissections and occasional experiments of his own. Time has proved that he had a happy faculty of selecting only the sterling materials from these authorities ; and accordingly his deductions have been in no degree perilled, but rather confirmed by the boasted ^ march of science.' It may be further observed, that Sweden- bor-'s highest abstractions are ever allied to practical facts; thaUiis doctrines occur as continual inferences from his details, and are not presented in a strictly consecutive order. u Here Swedenborg ceases for us a professedly scientific man, his next phases exhibiting him in the transition from natural things to spiritual. This we see in his ' The WcrsUp and Love of God; which contains only the essence and elixir of his physical doctrines, sublimated into an analytic intellectual philosophy from which there was a direct highway to theology. The fir«t part of ii describes in gorgeous pomp of Latin, the creation of the planets from the Solar fire, and their procession in spiral gyrations from their parent, until they reached their present orbits. Then comes the birth of the first paradisal vegetable kingdom from the mineral kingdom and, m like minner, and in succession, of the first animal from the first vegetable kingdom; and last of all, from the centre of the P^adisus in Paradiso ; the inmost of the vegetable kingdom, or Arbor Vitce, the production of the ovum of the First Man. We shall not now touch on the mental half of this work, the 'delitium et coronis^ of Swedenborg's science, but conclude a branch of our subject by extracting, as an average specimen of his Latinity at this time, a magnificent passage on the inspiration of life into the corporeal initiament of the l^irst Be'jfotten. ... « , i i. Then follows a lengthy extract in Latin from the last men- tioned work of Swedenborg. This carefully written article is signed by the editor of the " Monthly Magazine, J. A. Heraud. 8* V 90 swedenbokg's science. 72 On account of the importance of Swedcnborg's scien- tific doctrines for the proper understanding of his works we insert liere Dr. Wilkinson's entire exposition of these doc- trines from his " Introduction to the Animal Kmgdom " :— " It is impossible to understand either the Word or the works of God without doctrines, which in both cases require to be formed by ' one who is enlightened.' * The doctrines made use of by Swedenborg in the ' Animal Kingdom, are the Doctrines of Forms, of Order and Degrees, of Series and Society, of Influx, of Correspondence and Representation, and of Modification. These doctrines themselves are truths arrived at by analysis, proceeding on the basis of general experience; in short, they are so many formulas resulting from the evolu- tion of the sciences. They are perpetually illustrated and eluci- dated throughout the ' Animal Kingdom,' but never stated by Swedenborg in the form of pure science, perhaps because it would have been contrary to the analytic method to have so stated them, before the reader had been carried up through the legitimate stages, beginning from experience, or the lowest sphere. Each effect is put through all these doctrines, in order tliat it may disclose the causes that enter it in succession, that it may refer itself to its roots and be raised to its powers, and be seen in connection, contiguity, continuity, and analogy with all other things in the same universe, t They may be com- pared to so many special organs, which analyze things appar- ently homogeneous into a number of distinct constituent principles, and distribute each for use as the whole requires. To deny any of these doctrines, or to give them up in the presence of facts that do not range upon them at first sight, is to nullify the human mind as the interpreter of nature. " The Doctrine of Forms teaches that ' the forms of all things, like their essences and substances, ascend in order and by degrees from the lowest to the highest. The lowest form is the angular, or, as it is also called, the terrestrial and corporeal. The second and next higher form is the * Arcana Ccelestia, n. 10589. t By a universe, Swedenborg appears to mean any complete series as referable to its unities. swedenbokg's science. 91 circular, which is also called the perpetual-angular, because the circumference of the circle involves neither angle nor rectilinear plane, being a perpetual angle and a perpetual plane ; this form is at once the parent and measure of angular forms. The form above this is the spiral, which is the parent and measure of circular forms, as the circular, of angular forms. Its radii or diameters are not rectilinear, nor do they conver.-e to a fixed centre like those of a circle ; but they are variously circular, and have a spherical surface for a centre ; wherefore the spiral is also called the perpetual circular. This form never exists or subsists without poles, an axis, loci, a greatest circle, and lesser circles, its diameters ; and as it a-fain assumes a perpetuity which is wanting in the circular f;rm, namely, in respect of diameters and centres, so it breathes a natural spontaneousness in motion. There are still higher forms, as the perpetual-spiral, properly the vortical the perpetual-vortical, properly the celestial;* and a highest, the perpetual-celestial, which is spiritual, and in which there is nothing but what is everlasting and infinite.' There is then a scale of forms, whereof the higher are relatively more universal, more perfect, and more potent than the lower. The lower again involve the higher and the highest, and are generated by them : so that where there is an angular body, there is a circular form and force intimately present as its ..round ; where there is a circle, it is the limit of an interior spiral ; and so forth. For nature operates from the very principles of geometry and mechanics, and converts them all [o actuality and use. The purer substances m creation gyrate through the higher forms ; the less pure circulate through the lower%r are fixed in the lowest. All the essentials of the angular form are opposed to each other, whence the origin of gravitating and inert matter, intrinsically unfitted for motion. But the other forms, according to their eminence, are more and more accommodated to motion and variation. . « Swedenborg here uses the term celestial, not in the sense which is pecuu:r to it in bis theological writings, but more with tlie mcanmg attaciied to it in the phrase • celestial globe,' as pertaimng to tlie form of the universe." 92 swedenborg's science. i> > ^^ '. \ ~„ ,,,:, niicstion by the following pas- . Considerable light is thrown on *!^J"^'™" /A„i„al Kingdom," same time the atmospUres !f°\'J'°^''^^ atmospheres and their .m m other.- After -entio ng the d^ ren^ ^ .^^^ P^^ .^ ^^ ^^^_ modifications, he says: These tningi ^articles of each atmo- osophical Principles, .here ^^if^'"'^ %^^/Z^^ J, ^nii.. io. ^i''-«-f„t:f;r1t::: come^rraUafion; I pass over our present purpose, -tf. i>uw . .v^orP " all descriptions, for they are ^^^^f ^^^f '^^^^^ investigations were Swedenborg's cosmological and physiological inve s 106 SWEDENBORG*S SCIENCE. published his Animal Kingdom in 4to, Parts I. and II., at the Hague, Part III. in London. ... We shall now give a brief general account of his contributions to philosophical anatomy, including under our remarks the whole of his treatises in this department. '• The Economy of the Animal Kingdom treats of the blood and the organs which contain it, of the coincidence between the movements of the brain and lungs, and of the human soul ; The Animal Kingdom, of the organs of the abdomen, of those of the chest, and of the skin. The descriptions of the best anatomists are admirably selected as a basis of facts for each chapter, and prefixed thereto, after which follows the author's induction or theory, and next a comment upon it, illustrated by the previous facts. The method obviously is, to state and study the facts first ; thus to elicit from them a vintage of first principles ; and then to keep and refine this wine of truths within the vessels of the facts, amplifying it wherever possible to the unfilled capacity of the latter, ft is difficult to conceive a more excellent method for philosophical anatomy, or one which keeps the stages of truth-making more distinct, or more profitable to each other. There is one%essel which is all facts ; there is a second which is all principles ; thus carried on simultaneously ; for the sole purpose for which his Principia were written, was, according to his own declaration, that he might gain an insight into the mechanism of the eye. His anatomical and pliysiological studies were thus commenced at a much earher period than even Dr. Wilkinson had supposed ; and while Swcden- borg, on the one ! and, was investigating by a geometrical method the different atmospheres, finitcs, actives and elementaries whicli are dis- cussed in his Principia, he examined, on the other, very carefully whether the results at which he arrived by his macrocosmical investigations, squared with those which he obtained by his microcosmical examina- tions. The peculiar excellence of this method is manifest ; for Sweden- borg, by its means, had a practical test of the truth of his deductions. When his macrocosmical and microcosmical results harmonized, there was a strong presumptive proof of their truth, but when they did not harmonize, it was impossible for them to be true. This method, therefore, furnishes another very powerful argument in favor of the truth of Swedenborg's theories. swedenborg's science. 107 there is a third in which the two come together, and the principles suggest new experiments, and the facts enlarged principles. The method is a little image of the grand cir- culation of the sciences, from facts or confused general truths, through universal truths, to particular or clear general truths. There is not one of such truths but becomes a fact before the method has done with it. . . . , -, • i " Swedenborg did not attempt to enter the body either abruptly or without assistance, but only after gathermg up all his mind, and marshalling his forces, from the first generalizations, in which every childhood is fruitful, down to the last, which his maturity supplied. He advanced, m fact under all the discipline and with all the machinery and strategy of his age and of his own genius, and with the name of the God of Battles and the Prince of Peace distmctly emblazoned on his tranquil banners. There is something really hushing and imposing in the measured tread of his le-ions, in the formal music which drills the very air where his staff of general truths is in the field, and in the absence of passion in so firm a host advancing to such important conquests. j i n " ' I intend to examine,' says he, ' physically and philo- sophically, the whole anatomy of the body; of all its viscera, abdominal and thoracic ; of the genital members of botk sexes ; and of the organs of the five senses. Likewise, ' The anatomy of all the parts of the cerebrum, cerebellum, medulla oblongata, and spinal marrow. ^ ' Afterwards, the cortical substance of the two brains, and their medullary fibre ; also the nervous fibre of the body, and the muscular fibre, and the causes of the forces and motion of the whole organism : diseases, moreover, those of the head particularly, or which proceed by defluxion from the brain. ' I purpose afterwards to give an introduction to Rational Psychology, consisting of certain new doctrines, through the assistance^ of which we may be conducted from the material orc^anism of the body, to a knowledge of the soul which is immaterial; these are the Doctrine of Forms ; the Doctrine of Order and Degrees ; also, the Degrees of Series and Society ; and Doctrine of Influx ; the Doctrine of Corres- 108 swedenborg's science. pondence and Representation ; lastly, the Doctrine of Mod- ification. ' From these doctrines I come to the rational psychology itself, which will comprise the subject of action, of external and internal sense, of imagination and memory, also of the affections of the animus ; of the intellect, that is to say, of thought and the will ; and of the affections of the rational mind ; also of instinct. ' Lastly of the soul, and of its state in the body, its inter- course, affection and immortality ; and of its state Avhen the body dies. The work to conclude with a Concordance of Systems. 'From this summary or plan, the reader may see that the end I propose to myself in the work, is a knowledge of the soul ; since this knowledge will constitute the crown of my studies. This, then, my labors intend, and thither they aim. ... In order, therefore, to follow up the investigation, and to solve the difficulty, I have chosen to approach by the analytic way ; and I think I am the first who has taken this course professedly. ' To accomplish this grand end I enter the circus, designing to consider and examine thoroughly the whole world or microcosm which the soul inhabits ; for I think it is vain to seek her anywhere but in her own kingdom. . . . ' When my task is accomplished, I am then admitted by common consent to the soul, who, sitting like a queen in her throne of state, the body, dispenses laws, and governs all things by her good pleasure, but yet by order and by truth. This will be the crown of my toils, when I shall have completed my course in this most spacious arena. But in olden time, before any racer could merit the crown, he was commanded to run seven times round the goal, which also I have determined here to do. . , . ' I am, therefore, resolved to allow myself no respite, until I have run through the whole field to the very goal, or until I have traversed the universal animal kingdom to the soul. Thus I hope, that by bending my course inwards continually, I shall open all the doors that lead to her, and at length con- temjplate the soul itself: hj the divine pei-mission,* swedenborg's science. 109 ''One of his MS.* again places these designs in a clear lio-ht. ' I have gone through this anatomy,* says he, ' with the single end of investigating the soul. It will be a satisfaction to me if my labors be of any use to the anatomical and med- ical world, but a still greater satisfaction if I afford any light towards the investigation of the soul.' The whole course of the sciences, he observes, has aimed at this effect. ' The learned world has striven hither without any exception ; for what else has it attempted, than the ability to speak from general principles, and to act synthetically on the lower sphere ; such, however, is angelic perfection, such is heavenly science ; such also was the first natural science, and such ambition is, therefore, innate in ourselves ; thus we too strain towards the integrity of our first parent, who concluded from principles to all effects, and not only saw universal nature- beneath him, but commanded its subject spheres. All science by this account is the way back to a divine magic and a spirit- ual seership. Hence,' he adds, 'our mighty interest in attaining to the principles of truth.' He concludes by avowing that ' he knows he shall have the reader's ear, if the latter be only persuaded that his end is God's glory and public good, and not his own gain and praise.' " His object, then, was to open a new way through natural knowledge to religious faith, and to transfer to Christianity the title-deeds of the sciences." To the Two Parts of the Economy of the Animal Kingdom^ the contents of which have been noticed above. Dr. Wilkinson has added a third, left in manuscript by our Author. This part has not yet been translated into English, but we expect to embody a translation of it in a future American edition of the author's Complete Works. This part treats principally De Fihra—oi' the Human Fibre. " A title at which," Dr. Wilkinson says, '• the physiologist may possibly smile, though the unlearned reader will know better ; for is it not given in common language, that there is a- lax fibre, an ♦ " Published by Dr. Tafel as the Seventh Tart of The Animal Kingdom'* 10 no SWEDENBORG*S SCIENCE. irritdbh fibre, a firm fihre, and so forth, lying at the basis of particular temperaments and constitutions ? " He then proceeds to give us an idea of the contents of the volume. " This Third Part of the Economy,*' he says, " expounds the various manners in which the beams and timbers of the body are laid ; specifically the construction of the frame ; somewhat as the Principia unfolds the elementary construction of the universe. It also considers the different kinds of fibres ; the form of their fluxion, and the Doctrine of Forms generally ; and lastly, in a most masterly style, nay, with a power of observation and analysis new in medicine, the Diseases of the Fibres. In the weightiness of its truths, in sustained order of exposition, in felicity of phrase, and in finish and com- pleteness, it is not surpassed by any scientific work that the author published : moreover, it contains so much that is pecu- liar, as to form an indispensable addition to his other volumes." Connected with the same period of Swedenborg's life as the Economy, is another volume of MSS., edited by Dr. Wilkinson, both in Latin and English, under the title of " Posthumous Tracts" the Latin title being, " Opuscula quaedam Argumenti PMlosophici" — Tiiese tracts are for the most part condensed statements of the subjects and arguments of the larger works, to the study of which they furnish good introductions. Another manuscript which belongs to the same series with the Economy, and is mentioned in the Tliird Part of that work as the Part on Correspondences (n. 378), is the •' Meroglyphic Key,'' which is likewise edited in the original language, and translated into English by Dr. Wilkinson. This tract is an attempt to eli- minate a natural doctrine of correspondences, and to show its application by examples. After taking a survey of all the works belonging to tliis phase of Swedenborg's philosophical and scientific life. Dr. Wilkinson speaks of the execution of the '' Animal Kingdom " in the following terms : — " This, the last produced, is the noblest of Swedenboro-'s works on the human frame. The first two Parts of this trea- tise appeared in the author's 55th, the Third Part in his 57th year. There is in it the clearness of the faultless logician ; the utmost severity of the inductive reasoner ; the order of the swedenborg's science. Ill consummate philosophical architect ; the beauty, freedom and universal cordiality of the mighty poet ; the strength of the aiant, the playfulness of a child. Never was the path of science so aspiring, or strewn with such lovely and legitimate flowers, as in these astonishing volumes. But praise is a needless tribute to their goodness : they point only to applications and works, and beseech us not to stand long in the stupefiiction of amazement, but to gather up our energies and summon our understanding for whatever the arts and sciences have yet to contribute to the true advancement of our race. Those only follow their spirit, who are actively endeavoring to extend their principles in new fields, unexplored even by Swedenborg. " These are among the great works which revolutionize our consciousness, and engender new wants, and a new mind, in the human soul. And yet it is surprising how little Sweden- borg was controversial or directly critical : with the exception of his Fragment on Leibnitz, he scarcely wages formal battle with another writer. Neither scolding science for its servility, nor metaphysical philosophy for its artful obscurations, he sup- plies elevated truths on the stage of his own mind, and leaves them to gain their prevalence without a syllable of literary recommendation. Verily a safe and great, yea, and the only course, for these principles inhabit a region where they have no opponents ; nay, where the old falsities are clean out of their senses, and, without being aware of the consequences of the admission, confess to nothing at all" -^Popiilar Sketch, etc. Dr. Wilkinson continues in his Life of Swedenborg :—■ " Swedenborg's observations and fticts are as superior to the ordinary foundations, as his method is better than the procedures which are still in vogue. His power of remark is more phys- iognomical than in any previous writer with whom we are acquainted. Other collectors of facts rushed at once into dis- section and violence, and broke through the speaking face of things in their impatience. He, on the other hand, proceeded cautiously and tenderly, and only cut the skin when he had exhausted its looks and expressions, conversing first with the lace, then with other parts of the surface, and at last with the inner inexpressive parts, the poor dumb creatures, which were the sole company of the anatomists. He was the most grandly 112 SWEDENBORG*S SCIENCE. superficial writer who had then arisen, — a rare qualification in its good sense, and which gives the benefit of travel to the sciences, enabling them to take liberal views of their materials ; a qualification, moreover, which is the preparative for depth, for the whole surface alone leads us to the centre, and when complete is itself an apparent sphere, the most perfect of sci- entific forms. Accordingly, when Swedenborg goes upwards or inwards, he is guided to the sun, or the core, by myriads of rays from the translucent skin, and ubiquitous fingers invite and beckon him into tlie depths. Such is nature's privilege for those who beseech her permissions, and read the wishes of her broader lineaments. " In illustration of these remarks we have only space to allude to one fact and doctrine made use of by our author in the foregoing works, but that one is of the utmost value both in his system and history ; we mean his doctrine of respira- tion. Let any reader think for a moment of what he expe- riences when he breathes, and attend to the act. He will find that his whole frame heaves and subsides at the time ; face, chest, stomach, and limbs are all actuated by liis respiration. His sense is, that not only his lungs but liis entire body breathes. Here is a large surface of fact ; the foundation-doctrine of any doctrine of respiration. The most unlearned experience con- tains it as well as the most learned, and often much more vividly, for learning sometimes hinders the breath ; the plethora of science and philosophy confines the heaving to the chest alone, and the learned puff and pant. Now mark what Swedenborg elicited from this fact, because he accepted it as a material for science. If the whole man breathes or heaves, so also do the organs which he contains, for they are neces- sarily drawn outwards by the rising of the surface ; therefore tliey all breathe. What do they breathe ? Two elements are omnipresent in them, the blood-vessels and the nerves, the one giving them pabulum, the other life. They draw then into themselves blood, and life or nervous spirit. Each does this according to its own form ; each, therefore, has a free individ- uality like the whole man ; each takes its food, the blood, when it chooses ; each wills into itself the life according to its desires. The man is made up of manlike parts j his freedom is an swedenborg's science. 113 aggregate of a host of atomic, organical freedoms. The heart docs not cram them with its blood, but each, like the man himself, takes what it thinks right ; the brain and nerves do not force upon them a heterogeneous life, but each kindles itself with appropriate life, according to what it already has, and what it wants to have. There is character and individuality in every molecule ; and the mind is properly built upon facul- ties analogous to its own, conferred upon material organs. It handles nature by the willing correspondence of nature in this high machine, with its own essential attributes. The body is a mind and soul of flesh. " But furthermore, thought commences and corresponds with respiration. The reader has before attended to the presence of the heaving over the body ; now let him feel his thoughts^ and he will see that they, too, heave with the mass. When he entertains a long thought, he draws a long breath ; when he thinks quickly, his breath vibrates with rapid alternations ; when the tempest of anger shakes his mind, his breath is tumultuous ; when his soul is deep and tranquil, so his respira- tion ; when success inflates him, his lungs are tumid as his con- ceits. Let him make a trial of the contrary : let him endeavor to think in long stretches at the same time that he breathes in fits, and he will find that it is impossible ; that in this case the chopping lungs will needs mince his thoughts. Now the mind dwells in the brain, and it is the brain, therefore, which shares the varying fortunes of the breathing. It is strange that this correspondence between the states of the brain or mind and the lungs has not been admitted in science, for it holds in every case, in every moment. In truth it is so unfailing, and so near to the centre of sense, that this has made it difficult to regard it as an object ; for if you only try to think upon the breathing, in consequence of the fixation of thought you stop the breath that very moment, and only re-commence it when the thought can no longer hold, that is to say, when the brain has need to expire. Now Swedenborg, with amazing obser- vation and sagacity, has made a regular study of this ratio between the respiration and the thoughts and emotions ; he shows in detail that the two correspond exactly, and moreover that their correspondence is one of the long-sought links between 10* 114 swedenborg's science. the soul and the body, whereby every thought is represented and carried out momentaneously in the expanse of the human frame, which it penetrates by vicegerent motions or states. Thus, if the mind is tranquil, the body is similarly tranquil, and the two are as one, that is to say, united ; if the mind is perturbed, the body is likewise so in the most exact similitude ; if the mind loves what is high, the body looks to it and aspires to reach it ; and while the two work for each other, that is to say, so long as health sufficient lasts, there must be connection between them, or the all-knowing soul would not profit by its own tool, its very double in the world. It is difficult to give a more plain or excellent reason of the tie between the body and the souK than that the latter finds the body absolutely to its mind ; while, on the other hand, the living body clings to the soul, because it wants a friendly superior life to infuse and direct its life " Of Swedenborg's contributions to science, w^e have recorded the above as among the most valuable, and as incalculable in its results both upon thought and practice. In stating, how- ever, any one point as remarkable in such a genius, we are in danger of having it understood that his claims in this respect can be enumerated by any critic or biographer. On the con- trary, we should have to write a volume were we to devote but a few lines to each detail of his excessive fruitfulness. Suffice it to say, that there is no inquirer into the human body, either for the purposes of medical or general intelligence, above all, there is no philosophical anatomist, who has done justice to himself, unless he has humbly read and studied — not turned over and conceitedly dismissed — the Economy and Animal Kingdom of Swedenborg. The works, of course, are past as records of anatomical facts, but in general facts that are bigger than anatomy, they have not been excelled, and none but a mean pride of science, or an inaptitude for high reasons, would deter the inquirer from the light he may here acquire, in spite of meeting a few obsolete notions, or a few hundreds of incomplete experiments. •' The reception of Swedenborg's natural philosophy by the world furnishes a negative event of some interest in his biography. So long as he confined himself to the practical swedenborg's science. 115 sphere, his treatises met with a fair share of approval, both in Iiis own country and throughout Europe ; but the moment his own genius appeared, it consigned him, as we said at the outset, to temporary oblivion — a goal at which he arrived after passing through some preliminary opprobrium. The Trans- actions of the Learned, Q Acta Eruditorum') published at Leipsic, was not slow to discover his uncommon qualities, or to denounce them. In February, 1722, the reviewer said of his Chemical Specimens, ' The author has displayed great abilities and equal industry ; but how far he has followed truth in his theories, let others decide.' In 1735, in reviewing his Outlines of the Infinite, the same journal charged him with materialism. And in 1747, it gave a derisive notice of his Animal Kingdom, ending with the significant words: 'So much for Swedenborgian dreams.' " In the same year as the third part of the Animal Kingdom, i.e., in 1745, Swedenborg published in London another work in two parts. On the Worship and Love of God, This work may be regarded as an attempted bridge from philosophy to theology ; an arch thrown over from the side of nature towards the unseen shore of the land of life. As it is to this extent a link, so it has some of the ambiguity which attaches to traus- it.ional things, and accordingly by those who judge it from either side, may be misunderstood. For my part I see in its exuberant lines no want of clear truth, but simply the joy and recreation of one goal attained ; the harvest home of a scien- tific cycle ; the euthanasia of a noble intellect peacefully sink- ing back into its own spiritual country ; the Pentecost thence of new tongues as of fire, in which every man is addressed in his own language wherein he was born,— the language not of words, but of things. For here has science become art, and is identified with nature in the very middle and thickest of her beauty. Here the forgotten lore of antiquity begins to be restored, and principles ratified into truths take body in a mythological narrative, the first creation of the kind since the dawn of the scientific ages. Here the doctrine of Correspon- dences commences to re-assert its sublime prerogative, of bearing to man the teeming spirit of heaven in the cups of nature. This, I think, accounts for the singularity of the 116 swedenborg's science. work ; for its standing in a manner by itself among the author's writings. For the rest, if it be still reckoned scientific or philosophical, we must nevertheless say, that it is an offering up of both science and philosophy upon the altar of religion. Of its merits in this respect there can, I imagine, be but one opinion. Whatever of admiration we have felt for Sweden- borg's former efforts, only increases as we enter the interior of this august natural temple. A new wealth of principles, a radiant, even power such as peace alone can communicate, a discourse of order persuasively convincing, an affecting and substantial beauty more deep than poetry, a luxuriance of orna- ment instinct with the life of the subject ; intellect, imagination, fancy, unitedly awake in a lovely vision of primeval times ; wisdom, too, making all things human : such is an imperfect enumeration of the qualities which enter into this ripe fruit of the native genius of Swedenborg. Whether in fulness or loftiness, I know of nothing similar to it — of nothing second to it — in mere human literature." — Popular Sketch, etc. " The first portion of the work, and for the scientific philo- sopher probably its finest portion, represents the origin and progression of this univferse from the sun, and specifically the origin of our own planet, with the reign of the general spring, and the consequent development of the first mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, one from another in succession ; for nature at the beginning was big with the principles of all things, and the earth was near to its parent sun, with as yet no atmosphere but the serene, supernal ether. Next we are led to the human body, wrought by the infinite in the ovum fur- nished by the Tree of Life, in the innermost focus of the spring, and the paradise of Paradise : creation rising thus in a glorious pile, centre above centre. Thereafter Ave have the infancy and growth of the mind of the first-born in the state of integrity and innocence ; with its elevation into three new kingdoms. Then there is the birth of Eve, and the manner of it, and her education by ministering spirits, and her betrothal and marriage to Adam. And ' this,' as Swedenborg concludes, * was the sixth scene on the world's stage.' And the seventh was yet to come." On taking a general view of Swedenborg's scientific labors, swedenborg's science. 117 and comparing them with the plan which he had laid out for himself in the beginning. Dr. Wilkinson says : " Swedenborg has fulfilled, it is true, but a small portion of his plan, being led to something better than the direct reconstruction of the sciences ; but still it is satisfactory to know, that his manu- scripts, when we can publish them, will give an outline of his views on all the subjects of which he intended to treat. Thus there is, as before noticed, a continuation of the Chemical Specimens ; there is also a continuation of the Animal King- dom, a treatise On the Brain, an important manuscript 0?* Generation, [since published in Latin by Dr. Tafel, and trans- lated into English by Dr. Wilkinson,] a treatise On the Human Mind, namely, the five senses, and the various faculties, both concrete and abstract, the human loves and passions, and whatever follows therefrom [since published in Latin by Dr. Tafel, as Vols. IV. and VII. of the Animal Kingdom, but not yet translated into English]." A list of the unpublished manuscripts of Swedenborg, treating on scientific subjects, will be given in the last chapter of our volume. 74. Some pertinent remarks on Swedenborg's treatment of facts are contained in the " New Church Advocate,** Vol. IL, pp. 236, etc. " In judging of the philosophical facts of Swedenborg, we must not rest in the fact that he was not acquainted with the researches of Faraday, or Davy, or Berzelius or Liebig ; but we must first ask ourselves what his purpose and direction was, then inquire whether the experimental knowledge of his time was sufficient for him in this respect ; and last of all we may endeavor to find out whether particular facts of recent discovery will supply corroborations of his principles. " At first, indeed, . . . it is too likely that not much direct relation will be found to exist between Swedenborg's philosophy and the facts of the day. But in the mean time let us hold that philosophy with an unrelaxing grasp. We have this attestation of its truth — that it is worthy of God and worthy of man : . . . that there are no principles to oppose it, and no general facts: that in God's works *the 118 swedenborg's science. swedenborg's science. 119 highest reason is always the truest/ and that the reasoa given in Swedenborg's writings is the highest yet declai'ed : ihat the contemplation of it tends to make man wiser and i}etter, and to make his 'veneration of the Deity co-extensive with his wisdom, and as constant as the operation of his seases.' * In fact, there is something of the same reason to hold to the philosophy of Swedenborg, even although it appear to lie open to the small fire of science, as there is to hold to Christianity in opposition to the atheists and deists, even although the letter of Scripture involve a host of petty difficulties a'ud seeming contrarieties which no critic has yet been able to solve. Le't us not throw away a mighty good, which is sound to tlie heart's core, because we do not find in it some little detail or details, which science with her microscopic eyes has concluded to be essentials. These may come afterwards, if they are wanted ; or on the other hand, we may attain to more compreliensive states, and find the largeness of things more honest and sig- nificative than the details: we may perchance find all we want in the broad streets of creation. " What we desire to advance is this : that if a priLciple, whether natural, moral or spiritual, approve itself to all the faculties of the mind, excepting the senses, . . . then, in despite of the senses, or faih'ng their corroboration, such prin- ciple must still be maintained ; and must bide its time, aad by incessant rational efforts on our part, it must be used to convert the inverted senses, and their sphere to its side. T!ie senses, therefore, may be made use of to confirm it ; but they are not to be allowed an active power in the case ; nor are they to raise up serpent heads against that which is proved to be good and true in a better region than theirs. " What then is to become oi facts ? Are we prepared to revert to those times when experience, such as we uow have * We may add here as another reason the following statement of Prof, von Gorres : "There nowhere appears in the writin- of Swe- denborg a self-destroying contradiction, notliing abrupt, digljinted or unconnected, or arbitary, or illogical, . . . but every th mi' that he wntes IS so connected and uninterrupted, as to present 'e perfect whole." it, was not in beiiia, and the observations of science were almost coincident with those of daily life ; when the face of nature revealed nearly all that was known of her, and the interiors of things had been scarcely disturbed by the rudely analytic hand of man ? This is clearly impossible. The world cannot undo wiiat it has already done, nor forget what it knows. Yet il tlie truth must be told, facts have yet to obtain their real place, and to be estimated at their proper value. They have yet to be sorted into direct, and remote or oblique facts.* At present, science mingles all together in one confused heap. Let us dwell a little longer upon this division. " First, however, we will venture to affirm, that there were multitudes of facts known in Swedenborg's day, and known moreover to Swedenborg himself, which did not find any direct place in the series of his reasonings. In this respect the present state of science does not differ, in essence, from the state of science in his time ; but only in magnitude and multitude. There is no principle involved in the case as affecting modern science ; but only the circumstance, that there are many more facts now which Swedenborg would not have thought it worth his while to use, than when he wrote his Principia, We indeed admit fully that there are also many which would have fur- nished him with ready corroborations ; but on this it is not our intention to dwell in this review. " To return to Facts, they occupy in the scientific world something like the same place which Property occupies in our Houses of Parliament : they are the only thing, or nearly the only thing, which is legislated for, ' protected,' and declared to have 'rights* in the human mind. They are in truth 'pro- tected * at the expense of our brains Now we think the brains require the protection, at least in this case. ' Is not life more than meat, and the body than raiment ? * " We shall now attempt to say a few things respecting the * The learned writer of the above article will allow us to leave out for the present his allusion to a third kind of facts — " contrarious or inverse facts " — which only complicate the subject, and to call atten- tion only to those two kinds of facts which Swedenborg himself speci- fies in the extract quoted from him below by the writer. 120 swedenborg's science. division among facts. It is stated by Swedenborg in the Prindpia, where he treats of the ' Means conducing to True Philosophy,* that ' in order to acquire a knowledge of natural principles, — in order to conceive the theory of nature, — there is no occasion for such an infinite variety of phenomena as some persons deem necessary : that we need only the more important, or such as bear directly and proximately upon the point ; and that we do not need those that diverge obliquely and remotely from the series and powers of the world : that the latter as being remote and merely collateral, may he safely laid aside as not essential ; and that they would rather tend to divert the mind from the object, than to lead it onward in the great high road of its investigation.' (Part i. chap. i. n. 1.) Now this at once shows the propriety of sifting facts into two classes ; one class comprising those which are in the direct order of creation, . . . the other class consisting of those which are oblique, or divergent from the main line. . . *' If this view be correct, what are we to think of the indis- criminate love of natural facts ? Is it a love of truth, or does it proceed from a love of truth ? Must we not regard it as the case of compound darkness of intellect,— of a state in which the blindness of obscurity is combined with the blindness of error? Must we not counsel our brethren and the world to begin in science the work of separation, preparatory to throwing aside much of the vast heap of facts which is now accumulated ? We are well aware that this will be startling advice. The miser and his money-bags are not easily parted, even though it be plainly proved to him that he cannot use his possessions. The love of property and the love of use are distinct things. Within the last half-century the world has built new barns, and laid up goods therein for many years. It has said : ' Soul, take thine ease ; facts are too multitudinous for any theory to comprehend them : happily in this way thou hast gotten rid of theory and spirituality ; and thy sleep may now be undisturbed after ages of restlessness and discomfort.' But are we to follow this spirit ? Are we to countenance the lazy work of carrying fresh sand and pebbles to the unbuilt mountain of tliem which exists already ? Are we not, on the contrary, to be architects of a new building ; to use what is swedenborg's science. 121 available in the old and new materials ; and without reserve, and without a superstitious reverence for facts, firmly and resolutely to put aside whatever is unfit for our purpose ? Thus philosophy, under the auspices of religion, will raise her head, and elevate science by her side, and the human understanding will no longer be dragged like a slave at the chariot-wheels of circumstance. " But we hear it whispered, that by assuming this discre- tional power over facts, we run the danger of generating new scholasticism ; that we go away from nature, and betake our- selves to chopping endless and fruitless logic; that history presents us with ' dark ages ' as a warning against this course ; and that if we follow it, we shall carry back knowledge into cells and cloisters, and institute a new race of Aquinases, and other most subtle doctors. To this we reply, that the useless aspect of the scholastics was not due to the circumstance of their using their intellects, and making their senses subservient ; it was mainly due to the mistiness of their intellects themselves, and to their having no true principles to guide them in the interpretation of nature, or the Word. They could not instruct the ignorant, or give light to the world at large, because they had no organic ideas in their own heads. Not that they had too many ideas, and too few facts, but that their ideas, having no power of assimilation, were unable to take shape and body in the ultimate world. Instead of being as souls that could realize themselves and present an image of creative order, they were like puffs of wind in the bag of ^olus, blowing indeed where they listed, but developing no good and no beauty such as the common heart or eye could recognize and love. Therefore they could neither concentrate nor diffuse knowl- edge, nor build their house upon that rock of ultimate truths which affords the mind a secure position amid the ceaseless contingency and change of things. But widely different from this was the case with Swedenborg ; as it will also be with those who study his philosophical and scientific doctrines for the sake of use. To them, to use the words of Carlyle, ' this vague, shoreless universe will be a firm city — a dwelling which they know.' We hope we have now emboldened the reader to' think, 11 (( 122 swedenborg's science. that if natural facts are to have votes in matters affecting high truths and principles, yet that this does not necessaril/app1y to all facts, and consequently the suffrage is not universal in this sphere ; that some facts are without present qualification, being dumb and insignificant ; and that others are downright aliens and enemies, and must not vote, because they mean "no good to the human mind. " This is no uncomfortable or illiberal doctrine, but one imperatively necessary for self-preservation and sound progress. If Ave are always to be undermining our buildings in order to inspect the strength of their foundations, to what height can we carry them, or with what safety can we abide within their walls ? The truth is, that when legitimately acquired general experience confirms a principle, it is as if a law had been passed after solemn debate in some great national assembly; no individual can thenceforth successfully question it, nor can it be repealed excepting by the same or similar power to that which called it into existence. So it is with the philosophical and scientific principles of Swedenborg. The learned world, by the eflTorts of ages, had presented him with a certain gen- eral experience ; this he accepted, and still farther generalized and eliminated it ; and when it was thus prepared, he was gifted to impregnate it with true principles of order, and so it grew into an organic human body. The body thus formed has indeed a power of assimilation ; but the condition is, that the food shall submit to the body, and not the body to the food ; and that whatever is useless, or becomes so, shall be put aside, or cast into the drought." 75. " What is the ImpoH of the Scientific System which Swedenborg has left ? " To this question Dr. Wilkinson gives the followin