YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Gift of

STARLING W. CHILDS
YALE 1891

SWEDENBORG,
A HERMETIC PHILOSOPHER.
BEIKG A SEQirEL TO
REMARKS ON ALCHEMT AND THE ALCHEMISTS.
SHOTTING THAT
EMAUXTEL SWEDENBOEG WAS A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEK
AND THAT HIS ¦57EITINGS MAT BE INTEEPKETED
FEOM THE POINT OF VIE'W" OP
HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHY.
WITH A
CHAPTER COMPARING S'VVEDENBOEG AND SPINOZA.

BY THE ATJTHOE OF
REMARKS ON ALCHEMT AND THE ALCHEMISTS.

" One truth openeth. the way to nnother,'

NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON & COMPANY,
846 & 848 BEOAD'VTAT.
1858.

Enteked according to act of Congress, in the year 1868, by
D. APPLETON & CO.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the
Southern District of New York.

ADVERTISEMENT

The writer of the followuig pages desires to say
that, in preparing the work, it has been no part of
his design to express his individual opinions upon
the topics discussed. His purpose has been to sug
gest the opinions of others, especially of a class of
men scarcely recognized as existing in the world.
The art they profess, called after the name of
Hermes, Hermetic Philosophy, is so little known at
the present day that the name of it by no means in
dicates it. The adepts profess to be, or to have been,
in possession of a secret, which they call the gift of
God. The art has been prosecuted under many
names, among which are Alchemy, Astrology, and
even Chiromancy, as well as Geomancy, Magic, &c.,
under aU of which names it has had deluded follow
ers, who have been deceived, as those who claim to
be true artists say, not by the art itself which never

ADVEETISEMENT.

" did betray the heart that loved it," but by their
o^wn selfish passions, which play the Asmodeus with
so many that the few who escape delusion are mysti
cal, not to say mythical, beings who are supposed to
have lived upon dreams.
I propose now, without pretending to solve the
problem, to suggest the true difficulty in the study,
which I take to be this, that the Alpha in the art is
also the Omega, and the Omega the Alpha, and the
two are one. Hence the difficulty is something like
that of finding the commencement of a cii'cle. An
other mode of suggesting the difficulty is by saying
that the object is analogous to an attempt to discover
the place of that force in nature called gravity or
gravitation. In mechanical calculations this force or
power is referred to a certain centre, called the centre
of gravity ; yet every one knows that the absolute
centre is a mere point and physically nothing at aU,
yet there is no particle of matter free from the influ
ence of this power, and every, the most infinitesimal
particle, has its cwn centre. So is it with what the
Hermetic philosophers call their Mercury, which they
say is everywhere seen in action, but nowhere in
essence. I am aware of the fact that some speculative
spirituaUsts of the present day have much to say of
what they call imponderables, but I am not as' yet
convinced that any actual iking in the universe can

ADVKETISEMENT. 5
be an imponderable, except possibly those invisible
things called thoughts and affections; yet even
these, in some sense, seem to be the most powerful
and ponderable of influences, moving the entii'e be
ing of man in spite of prejudices and of ignorance
the most absolute and immovable in themselves.
It is to little or no purpose to give a mere name
to a subtle influence whose mode of action is im-
kno^wn, and whose existence is only recognized
through an observation of disconnected effects, our
knowledge of which is chaotic and remains chaotic
because no principle of action is discovered, and yet,
how many of us know what life is, except precisely
in this way ? "We see it everywhere, " the birds of
the air fly -with it, the fishes of the sea swim "with it,
we carry it about with us everywhere," yet we know
not what it is.
Let it be merely supi^osed now, that a recluse
proposes to himself the problem. What is Life? —
but, as this word is common and is imagined to car
ry some meaning with it, while yet the student enters
upon the study confessing his ignorance, it is thought
convenient to assume another name. Let it then be
called Mercury, from some remote analogy of this
sort ; that, if a small portion of this mineral be
dashed upon a smooth extended surface, it "wiU separ
rate into an infinity of little globules, each one of
which has the entire properties of the whole, and like

6 AD'VEETIBEMENT.
so many mirrors reflects so many imiverses, all simi
lar to each other.
Any other word in place of Mercury, as Salt for
example, may be used, or a word may be invented
"without any meaning at all, as Hileg, to represent the
subject sought for, which is to be found not by the
mere definition of a word, but by the properties or
principles ofthe thing, which are to be admitted, not
upon authority, but by observation and experience
in hfe, always keeping in "view " the possibility of na
ture," on the principle that though the artist may err,
" nature when rightly handled cannot err."
With these preliminary remarks I shall proceed
to the object I have in view.
E. A. H.
New Toek, A^igust, 1858.

SWEDENBORG,
A HERMETIC PHILOSOPHER.

OHAPTEE I.
It is more than probable that, on reading
the title-page of the following "work, some may
ask, "what is meant by Hermetic philosophy ? I
think proper, therefore, to premise a few "words
on that subject, not to explain it in detail, but to
indicate some of its principal features.
I published last year a small volume of
Rema/rJcs wpon Alchemy,^ the object of which
"was to show that the so-called Philosopher's
Stone, so much sought after by the Alchemists
of the Middle Ages, 'was a mere symbol, the
genuine Alchemists being in fact Hermetic
philosophers — a class of men 'who have never
* Memarhs on Alchemy and ihe Atckemists, &o. : Crosby,
Nichols & Co. Boston, ISSY.

8 SWEDENBOEG, [Oh. L
been clearly defined to the general reader,
owing, in great part, no doubt, to the nature of
their studies and convictions. Many attempts,
indeed, have been made to unveil them, and to
describe their philosophy, but without results,
so far as I have seen ; the subject being so remote
from the ordinary avocations of life, and because
also of the common prepossessions of man in
respect to what constitutes the true knowledge
of God, and the beatitude of man.
In my BemarTcs, I did not attempt to point
out precisely the nature of this philosophy, as
such an attempt would have been the height of
presumption. That "which I chiefly intended,
was simply to show from Alchemic books, some
of the conditions set forth by the Alchemists
themselves, though very mystically and obscure
ly, as indispensably requisite in him who "would
possess the philosopher's stone.
A mere accident — a very casual circumstance
— some three or four years ago, threw into my
hands a small volume on Alchemy, the preface
to which alone satisfied me that there must have
been two classes of Alchemists : and the perusal
of the book assured me that, -while some "money-
loving sots " employed themselves in experiments
upon all sorts of metals and other materials in

Ch. I.] A HERMETIC PHILOSOPHEK. 9
search of gold, there was another class of men
in pursuit of the philosopher's stone by very
different means : — by devout contemplation upon
the nature of God and of man — upon the human
soul and its capacity for knowledge, for happi
ness, and for immortality ; — and the object "was
a discovery of the means for attaining the true
end of man ; not an ephemeral pleasure, but a
permanent beatitude — not a good for a day, but
for all time. The impression derived from read
ing this one work on alchemy induced me to
look further, and without much effort I obtained
a considerable number of volumes, over three
hundred, of a strange character, ou the philoso
pher's stone and hermetic philosophy ; some of
which are of course worthless, but all of which
show, beyond the possibility of doubt, that the
philosopher's stone was a mere symbol for human
perfection, or for something supposed to be
essential to that perfection. There is not a
single volume in my possession that could have
been written by any one in pursuit of actual
gold, though many of the works show that their
authors had but very crude opinions as to the
real object of the philosophers.
It is not my purpose now to comment at
length upon this subject. Eeferring the reader
1*

10 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. I.
to my Eema/rhs, I will simply say, that after
much study, I came to the opinion that, while
Man was the subject of alchemy, and his per
fection was the object of the art, that object
required for its attainment certain means, which
were, however, as carefully wrapped up in sym
bolism as the end itself. At length, I became
convinced that those means were as clearly stated
in Scripture as the use of human language "wiU
allow. In short, all of my studies di-ew my at
tention to the declaration of the Lord in the
Sermon on the Mount ; — " Blessed are the pure
in heart, for they shall see God : " — ^for it appeared
very clear that the philosophers had in some way
connected the perfection of man "ndth a knowl
edge of God, the former leading to the latter,
yet the latter being as a sign of the former. But
this knowledge of God was not a mere outward
belief in the existence of a great but undefined
power over nature, which even the most ignorant
savages acknowledge, but an inward experience
or spiritual sight, by which the subject of the
experience was brought into some sort of com
munion with the Spirit of God, so as to realize
the knowledge as a possession.
When the object was thus far recognized, as
I considered, my attention was gradually cai-ried

Ch» L] a HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 11
upon the means of attaining it, as obscurely in
dicated by these writers, and I could not fail to
see them chiefly in the text just recited.
I found in alchemic and hermetic books one
pervading doctrine, common to all of them,
though expressed very obscurely; and it was
this — that, while every writer made use of a
word of his own choosing to designate the un-
described matter of which the philosoplier's
stone was to be made, they all prescribed as a
first step in the work of making the stone, a pro
cess of purification. Whatever other directions
are given, they all tell us to wash the matter, to
ipwrify the matter, &c., and they have much to
say of what they call the philosopher's soap, the
socup of the wise, or the vinegar of the wise, &c.
After comparing many books together, and
weighing carefully the circumstances obscurely
hinted at, I became convinced that the matter
of the philosophers was man, and that the soap
referred to, the vinegar, the oil, &c., was no
other than the conscience ; but the conscience,
acting freely and not under external and violent
influences. While the conscience is one thing
itself, it takes a great variety of names according
to the condition of the subject upon which or in
which it acts. To one it is a messenger of peace

12 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. I.
and of joy inexpressible, while to another it
whispers woe unutterable, and pours out "vials
of wrath upon the terrified and doomed soul ;
and this it does, independently of the power of
man, who has no control whatever over this aU-
pervading and ubiquitous spirit. This is the
spirit that is " in the midst " when two or three
are gathered together in the name of God, and
which can neither be kept out nor in, by " shut
doors " ever so strongly bolted.
At first, indeed, it seemed a very simple thing,
altogether insufiicient, as a basis, for so many
books and for such results as appeared to be
claimed for it ; but I observed that the philoso
phers, as they call each other, speak of their art
as both simple and difficult : — ^like all other arts
perhaps, easy to those who are skilled in their
practice, but difficult to the uninstructed ; or like
the yoke of Christ, easy in one sense, to the will
ing and obedient, — but a fearful labor to the selfish
and the obdurate.
Be this as it may, I kept my attention upon
it, and, continuing to read Hermetic books, I
found that the unenfor'oed and natural office of
the conscience served as a key for the explana
tion of many otherwise inexplicable passages in
Hermetic writings ; and I finally rested in the

Ch. I.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 13
conviction, that whatever the truth might be in
itself, the Hermetic writers intended to indicate
that a pure heart, or what the Psalmist calls a
" right spirit," is the way to the philosopher's
stone, if it is not the stone itself, — the pearl of
great price ; for this pearl is not a mere hope, no,
not even the hope of heaven, but it is heaven
itself. I had long seen, as I thought, that the knowl
edge of God is essential to the peace of man, and
that this knowledge must be something different,
as I have said, from the mere recognition of an
unknown powerful being over nature, which "the
strong seeks to conquer, and the weak to avoid ; "
and seeing, as I thought I did, that the object of
the Hermetic philosophers was the perfection of
man, and that this perfection was to be found in
some knowledge of God in a peculiar sense, and
that the way to this knowledge lay through the
purification of the heart, I was carried, I say, to
the text of Scripture just recited, yet in such a
manner as to see the operation in something like
a circle y for it appeared that while the pm'e in
heart are said to see God, this condition itself is
not attained but by the agency or power of the
Spirit of God. This " circular " operation is es
pecially referred to by the alchemist, or Hermetic

14 S"WEDENBOEG, [Ch. I.
philosopher, ArtepMas, as stated, page 90 of my
Eemarhs. It is, as I consider, the very same
point in philosophy which is so much insisted
upon in religion, where we are told that, while
faith is essential to salvation, it is not attainable
by the " natural man," unassisted by the grace
of God. There is much injudicious preaching on
this subject, however well intended, by which
many honest minds are greatly pei-plexed and
severely tried without benefit; and, still worse,
many hasty and bold wits are driven to take
refuge in a sort of logical infidelity, out of which
it is extremely difficult to extricate themselves.
I will not now dwell upon this point further
than to say, that the difference between the desire
of happiness and the desire of being worthy of
happiness, or the difference between the love of
God's blessings and the love of God, &c., may
show the difference between the conditions of
different men, so as to indicate who may and who
may not feel that they are tending to that state
to which the Lord referred in the text I have re
cited. If now I should say that the blessing and the
condition necessary for its attainment, were be
lieved to be the gifts of God, not attainable by
the unassisted efforts of man, without uro-incv

Ch. I.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 15
metaphysical reasons for it, I should imdoubtedly
state one of the reasons why a certain class of
men, appearing in all ages, have drawn a veil
over what they have to say on this subject. They
have felt that all the instruction man is able to
give to man, on the subject of God and of God's
blessings, must terminate in referring man to
God, as the author and finisher of a faith which
is said to partake of his very nature.
In popular estimation religion and philosophy
seem to stand opposed to each other ; but this
results chiefly from regarding the forms and cere
monies of religion as its substance, on the one
side, and considering mere learning, or memory
knowledge, as philosophy on the other. But if
philosophy be defined as wisdom, and philoso
phers be regarded as lovers of wisdom, we may
see a channel through which the philosopher may
come into harmony with one in whom religion is
not a ceremony but a sentiment. But this is not
the place for an essay on this subject.
In my volume of BemarTcs upon alchemy I
undertook to show, by citations from the writings
of alchemists and Hermetic philosophers, as I
have already said, that the svhject of the Hermetic
art is Man, and that the object of the art is the
perfection of man. I demonstrated that the Her-

16 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. I.
metic writers communicated with each other by
means of a conventional language, writing of
salt, sulphur, and mercury ; of Mercury, Sol, and
Luna, &c., &c., through an endless variety of
expressions, instead of man, or of body, soul, and
spirit ; and that by the transmutation of metals,
the genuine alchemists meant the transformation
of man from a state of nature to a state of grace.
I made it appear, by abundant extracts "with easy
interpretations, that the Hermetic "wi'iters had, in
fact, but one subject ; and that it was, or shall I
say it is, Man, — including his relation to nature
on the one side, and to God on the other, an in
separable trinity : — that, though their science or
art is obscure in itself, and is disclosed, or rather
hidden, in exceedingly dark, metaphorical, and
figurative language, they nevertheless all treat of
Man ; — of his mind as a spirit, and of his body as
an earth ; — that they used a multitude of expres
sions, seemingly pointing to other things, espe
cially to chemistry, but in reality explicable by
a due knowledge of man, as the image of God,
and the central and most important being of
God's creation.
I endeavored to point out some of the reasons
why those writers concealed themselves from
general observation by their enigmatic modes of

Ch. I.] a HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 17
writing, of which there were many, and expressed
the opinion that no reason now exists for not
making them known in their true character, —
that of religious philosophers ; somewhat, it may
perhaps be justly thought, too much given to
mysticism, especially if measured by what are
called the practical tendencies of our age.
I admitted that there were pretenders to the
Hermetic art, who brought disrepute upon the
art itself, by practising their impostures upon the
simple, easily deceived, and upon the avaricious,
whose cupidity drew them to a study, the first
priaciple of which excludes every thing selfish,
base, and mean.
I also admitted that many, with no evil de
sign, assumed the garb or outward dress of the
Hermetic writers, who were not masters of the
art, and that these also contributed to bring the
proper subject or object ofthe writers into disre
pute, by attempting to carry a purely moral de
sign into the field of physical science, vainly striv
ing to make the Hermetic key supply the absence
of patience and study in the pursuit of the natural
sciences, into which no short road of entrance is
likely ever to be discovered, so as to dispense
with the necessity of industry and continuous ap
plication.

18 6"WEDENB0EG, [^H- I-
I pointed to the conscience as the true natural
instrument, provided by God, for a healthy reno
vation of man, to the exclusion of the passions,
especially the degrading passion of fear, which
ought only to be used when gentle means faU, —
as we read that stones were resorted to when
tufts of grass failed to bring the " rude boy "
from the forbidden fruit.
In admitting, as I did, that mistakes were
made by some who imagined themselves in pos
session of the Hermetic secret, my mind did not
fully and clearly rest, at the moment, upon
Emanuel Swedenborg, a man of immense learn
ing and unexceptionable personal character, who
has risen in this age to be the head of a consider
able body of Christians who believe that the
New Jerusalem has recently descended upon
earth, or is about to come do"wn from heaven to
bless the world.
As I desire to guard against being misunder
stood on a subject which I am sure is important,
and wish above all things not to mislead any one,
I must explain that, by referring to the conscience
as the natural instrument of the purification of
man, I do not mean to be underetood as saying
that this is the peculiar secret of hermetic phi
losophy ; but that it is the way to it. The secret

Ch. I.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 19
itself, we are told, has never been discovered,
and never will be discovered by any one until,
by a suitable moral and spiritual discipline, the
seeker shall feel in a condition to staiid un
abashed in the presence of God under the simple
but momentous text of Scripture, " Blessed are
the pure in heart, for they shall see God ; " — ^not
that the wicked do not see God also, but they
see him as another personage.
I suppose I must attribute the opinion I have
recently adopted with respect to Swedenborg, in
part, at least, to a habit of looking beyond the
letter, in the interpretation of obscure and mysti
cal "wiitings, acquired ov practised in the prepara
tion of my Bema/rTcs on Alchemy a/nd tlie Alche
mists. Whatever the cause may have been, I
was surprised, a few weeks since, on looking into
Swedenborg's Heammily Arcana, at being re
minded of the use made by many of the hermetic
philosophers (the alchemists of the middle ages)
of the first verses of Genesis, and I was there
upon induced to look a little further into the
resemblances to be found between the writings
of Swedenborg and those of the hermetic philoso
phers. The result has been — without denying
the genius and knowledge of Swedenborg — a
decided opinion that he was a follower of the

20 SWEDENBOEG, [Oh. I.
hermetic class of writers, and that his -writings
are to be judged and interpreted from the stand
point of hermetic pliilosophy, however difficult
it may be to acquire the right position for that
purpose; for it is no easy matter.
A mere isolated coincidence of expression or
thought on a particular point, between the writ
ings of Swedenborg and those of the alchemists,
would be of little or no importance ; but if it
shall appear that, besides many remarkable points
of identity between Swedenborg and the mystic
class of 'writers to which. I refer, \h.e principle of
interpretation employed by Swedenborg upon
the first books of Moses, and especially upon the
first verses of Genesis, can be substantially point
ed out in the writings of the alchemists, though
not applied precisely as Swedenborg applied it,
it cannot fail to surprise many, and must be of
importance in estimating the claims of Sweden
borg to special illumination, — whether those
claims be made by himself, or by his admirers or
followers in his behalf.
If there was a hermetic secret, or somethino-
passing under that name, as the philosopher's
stone, for example, and no one doubts this, it is
exceedingly improbable, that the secret should
not, in some form or other, come to the surface.

Ch. I.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 21
That it did exhibit itself in many forms during
the middle ages, and even very lately, can be
easily shown ; so that there is no natural pre
sumption against the position I take, that Sweden
borg's mystical writings are modelled after those
of the hermetic writers, and may be interpreted
from the standpoint of hermetic philosophy ; and
this, too, 'without assuming that Swedenborg was
what was called an adept in the fullest sense.
According to my understanding of hermetic
books, the true secret of the hermetic art cannot
be written — ^it can only be written about ; and
the attempt to write about it' directly, is a very
sure method of losing one's self in a cloud of
words conveying to the judicious no genuine in
struction. It amounts to this, and I say it with
all possible reverence, that when God speaks in
man, the man (in man) must be silent ; and not
only this, the man must be silent that God may
speak, — which we may suppose the true ground
of the much talked of Pythagorean silence.
We have an immense field of natural inquiry
open before us, in which all of our natural facul
ties may be employed usefully, both in learning
and in teaching ; but it is said that there is one
subject which God reserves to himself, and
teaches only to a " select few of the simple and

22 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. I.
true," who may not at all be acquainted 'with the
sciences commonly so called ; not that ignorance
of any kind can be an advantage to us, but that
no kind of natural science or knowledge can
supersede the conditions necessary for the at
tainment of what is called the knowledge of God.
It may be said that there is no mystery or secret
in this ; that every one admits it ; yet the more
considerate may see in it the very mystery of
godliness, the profoundest secret of life, — the
secret about which the hermetic writers employed
themselves, and in -view of which, as I intend to
show, Swedenborg wrote his mystical books,
dropping the terms of salt, sulphur, and mercury,
in favor of ens, canise, and effect, yet substantially
writing in the vein of the hermetic art, treating
of man as a spirit ; or, as man on the one side a
spvrit, and on the other an earth; of man as, by
nature, an "inchoate" production, tending to
perfection, but needing the help of a divine art
to advance him thereto.
We have now a large class of Christians,
generally, as I believe, of more than ordinary in
telligence, and, as I also think, usually distin
guished for gentleness and amiability, who are
known as Swedenborgians, though I believe they
prefer to be called members of the New Church

Ch. I.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 23
or members of the New- Jerusalem Church. They
have grown in numbers and importance very
gradually; unlike niany sects, in this respect,
that have sprung into being from the local
preaching of some entbusiastic fanatic, whose
appeals to the passions have overborne the rea
son, and through the imagination and the feel
ings, have effected organizations of great extent,
and even considerable duration. Swedenborg
was not a preacher, nor do we know historically
that he was an oral teacher to any great extent.
He was a writer, and a very voluminous one.
In his early years he was employed in practical
life, and in the acquisition of knowledge, espe
cially scientific knowledge, and was, without
doubt, one of the most learned men of his
age. Swedenborg was born at Upsal, or, as some
accounts say, at Stockholm, in 1688, and died at
London, at the age of 84, or 85 — for there is a
question as to the precise year of his birth.
Somewhere near the middle period of his life
his thoughts and labors took a decidedly reli
gious turn. In referring to the occasion of it, he
speaks of the opening of his internal sight, as if
something like a supernatural influence had been
exerted upon him, which he attributed to the

24 SWEDENBOEG, [Oh. I.
LoED, a name of vast importance in Sweden
borg's writings.
After the opening of his internal sight, as
Swedenborg called it, he 'wrote almost exclusive
ly upon the subject of religion, and left behind
him a library of volumes of his o-wn works, con
taining his opinions upon religion, and his inter
pretations of Scripture — not according to the
letter, but according to the spirit, that is, accord
ing to his own spirit, as many may say ; or, as some
believe, according to the teaching of the Lord, by
means of the opening of his internal sight.
The sect of Swedenborgians, as I 'will caU
them, has grcwn up, as I have said, gradually ;
and the members are generally well-informed
and sincere ; for the most part, reading and
thinking people ; as, indeed, they are measur
ably obliged to be, because the doctrines of the
sect, next to the Scriptures, are to be found in
books written with a vast deal of thought, and
without the slightest appeal to the passions.
Among the many works left us by Sweden
borg, throughout which his principles are scatter
ed without much order, and repeated in every
variety of form, it is difficult to name any one
in particular in which his doctrines are comprised
as a whole ; but I should refer to the work en-

Ch. I.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 25
titled Angelic Wisdom concerning Divine Love
and Divine Wisdom, as likely to give a student
an insight into his most abstruse principles.
His work concerning Heaven and Hell,
" from things heard and seen," is perhaps the
most characteristic application of the doctrines.
As a systematic last thought, perhaps his
work entitled the True Christian Religion might
be first read with advantage, by one desiring a
general understanding of Swedenborg's opinions.
It was the last, or one of the last works he pub
lished.

26 SWEDENBOEG, Ch. II.]

CHAPTER II.
I OUGHT in candor to express my opinion that
there is an underlying principle throughout Swe
denborg's writings, which a mere reading of his
works will hardly give.
I would indicate the direction in which it is
to be sought, in some degree, by desiring his
reader to consider that Swedenborg, in his inter
pretation of Scripture, professes to have looked
beyond the letter to the Spirit by which the letter
was dictated. He, of all men, appropriated and
applied the declaration of St. Paul, or at least the
first part of it, that the letter killeth, but the
Spirit giveth life ; and the reader of Swedenborg's
interpretations must not suppose that he is ex
empt from that necessity which lay upon Swe
denborg himself, of finding the Spirit of Truth,
as essential in the comprehension of mystical and
symbolical writings.
We too must use the Spirit ; and surely it is
an undeniable right to mete out to Swedenbora

Ch. II.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 27
the measure he applied to others. He would
have us do so, if I understand his writings ; and
his friends must not deny us a license in reading
his works, which he dared to take with the Holy
Scriptures. But by what spirit shall he be
judged? Here lies the only difficulty in the
case. This difficulty will be measurably overcome,
when the student receives into his mind the idea
which, in Swedenborg's mind, bore the name of
the Lord; for words are the names of ideas and
images in the mind, and can only be intelligibly
used when apprehended with precision for the
ideas and images they express. To what purpose
can any one speak of the Lord, and yet have in
his mind no idea represented by that word ? or
how can any one read of the Lord, and under
stand what he reads, without having in his mind
the idea expressed by that word ? We see the
importance of this principle in mathematics and
in other subjects, and why not in theology ? The
mathematician affirms the principles of a triangle
with the idea of a triangle in his mind, and not
the idea of a circle ; and the student of mathe
matics apprehends the properties of a triangle
with the idea of a triangle in his mind, and not
the idea of a circle.

28 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. II.
With Swedenborg, the reception of the idea
of the LoED was the opening of his internal sight.
That idea working in the mind of Swedenborg
produced or educed that spirit, or was the seal to
it, which represented the spirit of truth, and which
became for him the measure by which he judged
of all things. It gave him what was to him a
knowledge of the substance of all things, or in
other words the knowledge of God.
It might be expected from any one proposing
to give any account of Swedenborg, that some
effort would be made to explain the sense in
which he understood the expression, the Loed, so
freely used in his writings ; but it is exti-emely
difficult to do so.
I advertise the reader that this word, the
Loed, or Swedenborg's understanding of it, is the
key-note to his whole philosophy, — so far as one
word can express it.
It is not enough to say, popularly, that by
this word he meant Jesus Christ ; for although
he so used the word as to be applicable to the
Son of God, he understood it in a sense not often
met with in the ordinary preaching of the day ;—
nor is it sufficient to refer to the Woed, as used
by St. John, for the same reason ;— nor do we

Ch. II.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 29
reach a complete idea of it by a mere verbal
declaration that he meant the second person of
the Trinity ; — neither do we learn his meaning
by saying that by the Loed Swedenborg meant
the Divine-human, the God-man.
We might as well at once, yea better adopt
his own expressions, and study the meaning
through the synonyms he uses and the application
he makes of them.
¦ We should bear in mind, however, that the
truth precedes the expression of it, and must
underlie and interpret it, while the expression, at
the same time, should carry us to the truth ex
pressed. He says, then, that the Lord is [a] man ; also,
that the Lord is God, and that the Lord is Life,
the Life of all things.
The student wiU hardly see this as Sweden
borg seems to have done, until he sees in the idea
of the Lord, that is, of Life, the death of death ;
for death, in Swedenborg's sense, is not the end
of life, but an event in life : man being, in the
Lord, not in himself, ever-living.
It will be difficult to find in Swedenborg's
writings any elucidation of the opening words of
John : — In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God.

30 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. II.
The same was in the beginning with God. All
things were made by Him, and without Him was
not any thing made that was made.
And the Word was made flesh.
How did Swedenborg understand this im
portant doctrine? Are we to suppose that he
looked first to God and then to the Word as the
Lord ? or did he look to the Lord and then to
God? Did he look to the Lord and then to
man ; and then by a reflex idea, return from man
to the Lord, and thence to God, with the amazing
inference that God is a man, or dropping the
article — that, God is man ?
Can we consider that man is the nearest being
to man, and thence the starting-point of study ?
Can we say that man is a natural being, and then
invert the terms, and say that he is a being of
nature ; and finally, under the notion that every
particular expresses the universal, can we pro
ceed further and say that man, not as an individ
ual, but as a universal, is ihe being of natm-e ;
and then, can we say, that life is the being of
nature, and that life is the Lord, and the Lord is
God, and, thence, that God is man ?
Can we say that man is an intellectual being,
and thence, by a similar process, affirm that man,
not individually but universally, is the being of

Ch. IL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 31
intellect or of intelligence ; and thus posit intelli
gence in the Lord as a spiritual world of which
the Lord is God, and so again affirm that God is
man? Or yet further, can we say that man is a
spiritual being, or individually a being of spirit ;
and, universally, the being of spirit ; and then
say that the spirit is life, that life is the Lord, and
the Lord is God, and thus again reiterate that
God is man ?
Or, can we say that man is a living being, a
being of Life, living not in himself but in the
Lord and thence in God, and that, as the image
declares the pattern, therefore God is [a] man ?
Can we say that man is a being in existence,
individually, and that universally he is the Being
of existence ; or, in other words, that he is the
substance of all things ; and, when regarded in
God, the self-existent substance ; and that God is
the Lord, and the Lord is Life, the Life of man,
who is nothing of himself ; and thus, do we touch
the essence of the doctrine, that man must deny
himself individually to live universally, that is,
before he can realize in himself the life of God :
and can this doctrine be so presented to man as
that he may attain to it through his rational
nature, or must he receive it, if he receives it at

32 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. U.
all, as the gift of God, the gift of the Lord, the
gift of Life, the Life of God in the soul ; and does
this reception constitute what is called regenera
tion,— and does it carry with it the idea or
sense of a secret inaccessible to the natural
man? Can it assist us in seeing into this important
subject, to consider a few texts of Scripture
where the truth lies hid in the letter ?
The WoED which was with God and was God,
was made flesh, and was seen of men. The
WoED spake and said, I and my Father are one.
And the Woed prayed : " Sanctify them,
tlirough thy truth : Thy Woed is truth."
And the Woed prayed: "That they all may
be one ; as thou. Father, art in me, and I in
thee, that they also may be one in us : that the
world may believe that thou hast sent me."
"And the glory which thou gavest me have-
I given them ; that they may be one, even as we
are one : "
"I in them, and thou in me, that they may
be made perfect in one ; and that the world mav
know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved
them, as thou hast loved me."
"Aud the Word said: "It is expedient for
you that I go away : for if I go not away, the

Ch. II.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 33
Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I de
part, I will send him unto you."
" But when the Comforter is come, 'whom I
will send unto you from the Father, even the
Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the
Father, he shall testify of me."
" Howbeit, when the Spirit of Truth is come,
he will guide you into all truth."
And St. Paul says : "I am crucified with
Christ : nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me."
From these few texts I will, with the leave
of the reader, make a transition to an alchemic
work by an Arabian, Alipili. " I admonish
thee, whosoever thou art, that desirest to dive
into the inmost parts of nature, if that thou seek-
est thou findest not within thee, thou wilt never
jmd it without thee. If thou knowest not the
•excellency of thine own house, why dost thou
seek and search after the excellency of other
things ? The universal orb of the world contains
not so great mysteries and excellencies as a little
man, formed by Qod to his own image. Aud he
who desires the primacy amongst the students of
nature, will nowhere find a greater or better field
of study than himself. Therefore will I follow
the example of the Egyptians, and from my
2*

84 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. II.
whole heart, and certain true experience proved
by me, speak to my neighbor in the words of the
Egyptians, and with a loud voice do now pro
claim : O Man, know thyself; in thee is hid the
treasure of treasures^
What is this treasure? Perhaps it is the
knowledge of the Woed ; the knowledge of the
Lord ; the knowledge of God ; and its possessor
may possibly be able to say 'with St. Paul, —
" Henceforth know we no man after the flesh : yea,
though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet
now henceforth know we him no more."
It may possibly assist the reader to form some
idea of Swedenborg's understanding of the ex
pression the Lord, as life, and as one thing, to
read an extract from the alchemic tract, De
Manna Benedicto, to wit :
" My intent is, for certain reasons, not to prate
too much of the matter, which yet is but one
only thing, already too plainly described; nor
of the preparation, which is the second and
greatest secret : But I have constituted these lines
for the good of him that shall make the Stone
[shall find the Word that was made fiesh ?] if it
shall fall into the hands of such a one ; for to
him it shall show and set down in plain terms,
as plain as possibly my pen can write to the very

Ch. n.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 35
letter, such magical and natural uses of it, as
many that have had it never knew nor heard of;
and such as when I beheld them, made my hnees
to trerrMe, and my heart to shake, and I to sta/nd
amazed at the sight of them.''^
I have many reasons for believing that Swe
denborg's knees had also trembled, that his heart
had quaked, aud that he had stood amazed, when
he discovered, or thought he discovered, in him
self the " secret of the Lord," which then became
for him an open secret, called by him the opening
of his internal sight.
This gave to him, as I suppose, what was for
him a miniature" representation of all things un
der one idea, which he called the Lord.
Many efforts have been made to describe or
express this idea, but without conveying the idea
itself. It has been said by one writer to contain
the ideas of all things, almost like so many
seeds. Another has compared the mind, in possession
of this idea, to the most exquisitely polished cor
ner of a diamond, placed in light, giving an image
of all things against it. Others have compared
the mind to a mirror, — though few can " hold it up
to nature," because the images returned are af-

36 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. II.
fected by the condition of the mirror, as Plotinus
has said, and Lord Bacon after him.
Whatever view be taken of this, there is no
reason to doubt that Swedenborg had what
seemed to him a clear opinion upon this subject,
as an underlying principle, from which his
thoughts all flowed, as a river from a fountain,
and unless this idea can be mastered, it will not
be an easy matter to judge of Swedenborg's writ
ings. The reader cannot be too careful in keeping
distinct from each other things or questions that
differ from each other. It is one thing to deter- •
mine or ascertain the principle of a man's thought,
— his love, as Swedenborg would say ; — it is an
other and a very different question, to determine
the value of that principle. Swedenborg called
his principle, — the principle from which he wrote,
— the opening of his internal sight ; and I must
urge upon his student that in this he presents us
a problem, calling for solution before his writings
can be read with intelligence ; for it seems very
plain, that if we accept his simple declaration on
this point, and fall short of a comprehension of
it, we must necessarily subordinate our principle
of life to that of another man ; and then we must

Ch. II.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 37
detei"mine upon some other ground why we ac
cept Swedenborg's declarations or revelations of
truth, and reject those of other men, — those of
Jacob Behmen for example, — who have claimed
an authority as high as Swedenborg could have
pretended to ; for there are many competitors in
this field, vast numbers of men having lived,
written and died in the belief of their being the
subjects of special illumination.
I will now proceed to show wherein Sweden
borg appears to have drawn some of his doctrines,
seemingly by inference from the alchemic and
Hermetic writings, occupying most of my space
with extracts, for I wish the read,er to judge for
himself.

38 SWEDENBOEG, Ch. III.]

CHAPTEE III.
The first point of similitude to which I shaU
refer, between Swedenborg and the Hermetic
writers, may assist the reader in forming some
idea of what the Swedish Philosopher understood
by the expression the Lord, already, though im
perfectly, examined. I refer to it with some
timidity, being fully aware of the delicacy of the
questions connected with it. It touches upon
what may be regarded as tlie Secret of the Her
metic writers, and while I am of the opinion that
Swedenborg drew his doctrine of the Lord, in
part at least, from those writers, I feel disposed
to protest against its being supposed that what
the alchemists, or Hermetic philosophers, consid
ered their Secret, has been openly declai-ed in
any part of Swedenborg's writings. I desire to
express the opinion that Swedenborg did not
precisely apprehend the Secret of Alchemy,
while yet, as I must believe, he thought he had
entered upon its possession, and a large part of

Ch. III.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 39
his philosophy rests upon that supposed posses
sion. That he appropriated the idea in part from
the Hermetic writers I cannot doubt, but I feel
very sure that he misapprehended a point in con
nection with it which has led him astray in some
important particulars. I do not say this in a
presumptuous spirit, as if I knew the Secret of
Hermetic philosophy, and had it in my power to
improve the representations of so great a man as
Swedenborg. It is possible I presume for a very
humble man to perceive some mistakes even of a
very great man.
I do not wish to appear as assuming to know
the Hermetic Secret, nor do I intend it to be un
derstood, by a pretence of modesty, that I could
reveal the secret if I would. I plainly declare,
without pretence, that I have some idea of what
lies at the root of the Hermetic Art, but I do not
feel at liberty to attempt to state it. If I am
right in my supposition about it, the art will take
care of itself without the help of man ; and,
moreover, it will remain in the world though all
the books about it should be destroyed.
In referring now, as I intend to do, to what
Swedenborg, as I believe, thought was the Her
metic Secret, I wish it to be understood that I do
not endorse his representation of it, while I re-

40 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. HI.
peat nevertheless that he was a follower of the
Hermetic class. No Hermetic writer has 'written
the hundredth part of what Swedenborg -wrote,
and this alone might lead any one to suspect that
he did not precisely touch upon the veritable se
cret, which seems everywhere to have closed the
lips of the adepts. His friends may suppose that
this is surrendering the point I am endeavoring
to establish, and thus affirm that his position is
an independent one, in no manner connected
with the Hermetic philosophers ; but it should
be remembered that Calvin and Arminius both
took their doctrines from the Scriptures, and yet
differed from each other on a vital point.
But to come now to the parallel.
Paragraph 3483, Heamenly Arcana. " What
soever anywhere appears in the universe, is
representative of the Lord's Kingdom, insomuch
that there is not any thing contained in the uni
versal atmospheric region of the stars, or in the
earth, and its three kingdoms, but what in its
manner and measure is representative ; for all
and singular the things in nature are ultimate
images, inasmuch as from the Divine proceed the
celestial things appertaining to good, and from
these celestial things the spiritual things apper
taining to truth, and from both the former and

Ch. ni.] A HERMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 41
the latter proceed natural things. Hence it may
appear how gross, yea, how terrestrial, and also
inverted, human intelHgence is, which ascribes
all and singular things to nature separate or ex
empt from influx prior to itself, or from the effi
cient cause. They also who so think and speak,
seem to themselves to be wiser than others, when
yet angelic wisdom consists in ascribing nothing
to nature, but all and singular things to the Lord,
thus to a principle of Life, and not to any thing
dead. The learned know that subsistence is per
petual existence, but still it is contrary to the
affection of what is false, and thereby contrary
to the reputation of learning, to say that nature
continually subsists, as it originally had existence,
from the Lord. Inasmuch now as all and singu
lar things subsist from the Divine, that is, con
tinually exist, and all and singular things thence
derived must needs be representative of those
things whereby they had existence, it follows,
that the visible universe is nothing else but a
theatre representative of the Lord's Kingdom,
and that this latter is a theatre representative of
the Lord himself."
" 3484. From very much experience I am in
structed, that there is but one single source of
life, which is that of the Lord, and that this Life

42 SWEDENBOEG, [Oh, HI,
flows in and causes man to live, yea, causes both
the good and the wicked to live ; to this life cor
respond forms which are substances, and which
by continual divine influx are so vi-vified, that
they appear to themselves to live by or from
themselves. This correspondence is that of the
recipient organs with the life received ; but such
as the recipient organs are, such is the life which
they live. Those men who are principled in love
and charity are in correspondence, for the life
itself is received by them adequately ; but they
who are principled in things contrary to love and
charity are not in correspondence, because the
life itself is not received adequately ; hence they
have a life existing with them according to their
quality. This may be illustrated by the case of
natural forms into which the light of the sun is
influent ; such as the recipient forms are, such
are the modiflcations of that light ; in the spirit
ual world the modifications are spiritual ; there
fore in that world such as the recipient forms are,
such is the intelligence and such the wisdom of
tlie inhabitants."
In this last paragraph Swedenborg sets forth
life, the life of the Lord, as the one thing in all ;
and, as I must believe, he thought that life to be

Ch. m.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 43
the one thing to which the alchemists have re
ferred in so many ways, as the one only thing
required in their work, — the work of making the
philosopher's stone ; — the one thing, as Sweden
borg evidently thought, essentially to be known
in the acquisition of wisdom or the celestial life.
The allusions to the one thing, without de
scribing it, may be found in any Hermetic work
whatever, for I think there is not one Hermetic
writer who does not refer to the " one thing need
ful ;" but I would not recommend any student to
be hasty in concluding that he knows precisely
what this is, nor need he be forward in determin
ing the wonders it works ia the world.
I will cite now a few passages from alchemic
or Hermetic books, in which reference is made
to the one thing, and I must leave the reader to
form his own opinion as to whether Swedenborg
thought he had " laid hold of it," in his notion of
the one life in all, the life of the Lord, as he calls
it. But I must ask the reader to excuse me for
suggesting his taking the matter into his own
thought, under an appeal to God for protection
against error ; for the opinion of no man living
or that ever has lived can stand him in stead on
such vital questions, in the day of trial.

44 SWEDENBOEG, [Oh. HE.
" Tliere is no road but one to find the quick
sulphur," — quoted in Zoroaster's Cave.
I must beg the reader to believe that this lan
guage was not invented and used by thoughtless
people, much less by triflers who were careless
of the honor of God. It must be attributed to
reverence for what were regarded as sacred mys
teries, especially the mystery of godliness. By
quick sulphur was symbolized the spirit of God,
or the life of God, to find which is salvation to
man. In the following passage the same thing is
called water :
" Thou needest but one thing, namely water,
and one operation, to wit, decoction, to white and
red, in one vessel, — understand, of one nature."
— Zoroaster's Cave.
Again : " Although the wise men (meaning
Hermetic writers) have varied their names, and
perplexed their sayings, yet they would always
have us think of but one thing, one disposition,
one way. The wise men know this one thing ;
and that it is one they have often proved." — Ibid.
Again : " In the midtiplicity of things our art
is not perfected. For it is one stone, one medi
cine, in vihidx consists the whole magistery; to
which we add nothing extraneous, nor take away

Ch. III.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 45
any thing, but only, in our preparation, that which
is superfluous." — Ibid.
Again : " White and red proceed from the
same root, without any other nature intervenient.
For it dissolves and conjoins itself, makes itself
black and citrine, white and red ; espouses itself,
conceives, brings forth, and does all to the per
fect end." — Rhasis.
Again : " Our water, gilded with solwr sul
phur, is the secret of the Egyptians, Chaldeans,
Arabians, Persians, and Greeks." — Anonymous.
In the above passage, by our water, may be
understood our spirit; and by solar sulphur,
that which in a preceding extract is called guick-
sulphur ; indicating that man is perfected by the
spirit of God ; the one thing, which Swedenborg
called the life of the Lord.
Again: "Mercury alone perfects the work.
In it we find all that we need: to it we add
nothing extraneous." — Thos. Aquinas.
Again : " The stone is one : yet this one is not
one in number, but in nature." — Zoroaster'' s Cave.
Again : " This mystery is wont to be made
of one only thing : therefore put this in thy mind,
for thou needest not many things, but one only
thing." — Morien.
When Morien is represented to have said

46 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. III.
this, he at the same time told his pupil, who was
an eastern king, that the one thing was in him
self. The Hermetic writers caU it by an endless
variety of names, constantly warning us, how
ever, that it is but one only thing.
If the reader has seen the volume of " He-
marks upon Alchemy," he may the more easily
perhaps understand these extracts, to which I
will add several more without further explana
tion, my purpose being simply to show that
Swedenborg thought the one thing (in all) is the
life of the Lord ; and to show also, that he adopt
ed his form of writing most likely from Hermetic
books. Again : " And know for certain, that the phi
losophers cared not for the names, but one name,
and one action ; to wit, to seethe the stone, and
bring forth his soul ; because their stone is always
one." — Avicen.
Again : " The matter of this work, according
to all authentic philosophers, is one only thing,
containing in itself all necessaries for the accom
plishment of its own perfection." — Ripley.
Again: "And know that the philosophers
declare, that the permanent water is taken out of
light ; but the light maketh fire, and the light

Ch. III.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 47
shining and transparent, becometh like one stray
ing seeking lodging : but when light is conjoined
unto light, it rejoiceth ; because it came out of
it, and is converted into it." — Mireris.
The author of th^ Revelation of ihe Secret
Spirit has a succession of extracts, with remarks
on this point, of which the following is an ex
ample: " One saith, ' our stone is no other but salt ;
who worketh in this art without salt, is like unto
him who would shoot a bow without a string.
If the omnipotent God had created no salt, the
art of alchemy had not been. Salt is coprose,
and coprose is salt ; all lesser and greater miner
als truly are nothing else but salt: nothing is
more fluxible than salt : nothing more piercing
than salt, and his nature : nothing cleaner, purer,
more spiritual, and more subtle, than salt and his
nature. Nothing stronger than salt and his na
ture ; nothing more incombustible than salt and his
nature ; nothing more volatile than salt and his
nature ; nothing sweeter than salt and his nature ;
nothing more sour than salt and his nature!'
" These passages, (says the author,) seem to
be repugnant to each other — sweet and sour ; —
but they are to be understood, sour before prepa
ration, and sweet after." [Said of man.]

48 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. HI.
" And following it is said, ' nothing is nearer
to the fire than salt and his nature ; nothing more
lasting and, fit to preserve things from putrefac
tion than salt and his nature.'
" Then, seeing that salt, even as he is, without
other preparation, is of such virtue that it pre-
serveth things from putrefaction, as we see by
experience, what will it do, when the elements
are separated from it, and it shall be reduced into
a fifth essence ? I think with myself that it shall
be that, which our philosopher understandeth to
be the secret spirit.
" But the philosopher saith, ' Salt is the life
of all things : ', and Morien saith, ' But this stone
is not a vulgar stone, because it is more precious
— without which nature worketh nothing at any
time, and its name is One.'
" Therefore, whoso knoweth salt and his dis
solution, knoweth the secret of the ancient "wise
men. Therefore set thy mind upon Salt. Think
not upon other things. For in it only is hid the
science, and the chief mystery, and the greatest
secret of all the ancient philosophers."
Thomas Norton (1477) in his Ordinal of Al-
cheiny, speaks of the one thing under the name
of magnesia, and describes it by what he calls its
colors, which, he tells us, may assist in enabling

Ch. III.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 49
US to discover the "principal agent" (in the work
of making the stone). He concludes what he
says ot colors by comparing magnesia to a crys
tal, which appea/rs to have the color of any and
every object over which it is placed ; — meaning
to indicate that it is one thing seen seemingly
under the varieties of all things. This is an il
lustration taken from the sense of sight. Norton
goes through aU of the senses in the same way,
smelling, hearing, &c., as if they gave us notice
of some one thing in fact, under infinite forms.
This one thing Swedenborg calls life, the life
of the Lord.
Sandi/oogius describes the One thing under
the name of nature, but takes care to tell us that
the nature to which he refers is invisible, though
she works, he says, visibly. He describes it as
one thing, taking the form or character of the
" place " where it is, and he illustrates it by say
ing : " Let there be set a vessel of water upon a
smooth, even table, and be placed' in the middle
thereof ; and round about it let there be laid di
vers things, and divers colors, also salt, and every
one apart: then let the water be poured forth
into the middle, and you shall see that water to
run abroad here and there ; and when one stream
is come to the red color, it is made red by it ; if
3

50 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. III.
to the salt, it takes from it the taste of the salt,
and so of the rest. For the water doth not
change the place, but the diversity of the place
changeth the water."
He says that " Natm-e is one, true, plain, per
fect, and entire in its own being, which God
made from the beginning, placing his spirit in it:
but know (he continues) that the bounds of nature
is God himself, who is also the original of nature.
For it is certain, that every thing that is begun
ends nowhere but in that in which it begins. I
say it is that only alone, by which God works all
things : not that God cannot work without it (for
truly he himself made nature, and is omnipotent),
but so it pleaseth him to do. All things proceed
from this very nature alone ; neither is there any
thing in the world without nature."
u * * •» Moreover, nature is not -visible,
although she acts visibly : for it is a volatile
spirit, which executes its office in bodies, and is
placed and seated in the will and mind of God.
Nature in this place serves us for no other pur
pose but to understand ]i&t places, that is, to un
derstand how to join one thing to another, ac
cording to nature. * * The place of nature
is no other than, as I said before, what is in the
will of God," &c.

Ch. III.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 51
That which Sam,divogius calls nature, ex
pressly taking the word from under its common
signification, saying, among other things, that it
is invisible, is what Swedenborg intends by the
Avord Life ; but what I desire to say is that, either
he did not precisely apprehend the sense of the
alchemists, or his readers are in precisely that
predicament with respect to himself; for who
knows, from reading Swedenborg, what life is ?
If he had himself an idea of it, he has not been
able to communicate it to others.
To show stUl further a probable source of
Swedenborg's idea of life, and of its submitting,
as it were, to the character of the subject in which
it acts, or what he calls its recipient, I will recite
an additional passage from the alchemist Norton,
where he treats of what he calls the concords,
which, as he says, are necessary in the work (of
making the stone.) But I will go so far as to say
that the ^Zace« referred to by Norton are different
sorts of men, some of whom are adapted to the
work, and others not, — no great mystery surely,
when openly stated ; for who does not know that
men differ from each other in their capacity for
goodness, truth, piety, &c. ?
" The Fourth Concord is full notable
Between this Arte and places eonveiiable,"

52 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. HI.
[For places convenable, let the reader under
stand men suitable for the work.]
" Some places must needs be evermore dry,
Close from air, no ways windy; "
[i. e. free from passions.]
" Some must be dark and dim of sight,
In which sun-beams none may light; "
[i. e. by sun-beams we may understand Rea
son, which scarcely finds entrance at all in some
men whose " affections are dark as Erebus, — the
motions of whose spirit are dull as night."]
"But for some Places, the truth so is,
They cannot have too much brightness :
Some Places must needs be moist and cold
For some works, as authors told ;
But in our 'Works in every place,
¦Wind [passion] will hurt in every case :
Therefore for every work in season,
Ye must ordain Places by Reason.
Philosophers said by their engine, [ingenuity, genius,]
How it [the Stone] should be wrought -within locks
nine:
[This nine refers to an old notion of the five
senses and four virtues in man, (see Philo,) in
whom the philosopher's work is perfected.]

,Ch.III.] a HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 53
" Astrologers said it was a grace,
To flnd a chosen working Place ; "
[i. e. a grace, to find a man so perfect in body
and mind, as to be a suitable subject to be car
ried forward into what the philosophers called a
plusquam perfection.]
" For many things will wonders do
In some Places and elsewhere not so.
But contrary wonders be of one thing
In contrary countries wrought without leasing ;
[lying,]
Whereof no other cause may appear.
But only contrary Places of the sphere :
¦Wherefore wise men which for this Art sought,
Found some Places [some men] concordant, some
Places nought ;
Truly such Places where Lechery is used
Must for this Art be utterly refused."
In Ashmolis Theatrum Chemicum Britanni-
cum there are many passages which seem just
enough to point to life as the one , thing — to de
lude a hasty reader. The language is very anti
quated, and would not be quoted for its beauty ;
but a lover of truth does not rest upon mere
words.

54 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. HL
" Our Stone is made of one simple thing.
That in Him hath both Soul and Life ;
He is Two and One in kinde [in nature,']
Married together as man and wife :
Our Sulphur is our Masculine,
Our Mercury is our Feminine,
Our Earth is our 'Water clear ;
Our Sulphur also is our Fire,
And as Earth is in our "Water clear.
So is Air in our Fire.
Now have ye elements four of might,
And yet there appeareth but two of sight ;
¦Water and Earth ye well may see,
Fire and Air be in them as quality :
This Science may not be taught to every one,
He were accurst that should so done." Page 352.
At page 381, in a conversation between Father
and Son, the Father tells the Son, who asks where
the "one thing doth grow" —
" In every place (Son) you shall him well find ;
By Taste and by Color thou shalt him well know;
¦ Fowls in the air with it do fly,
And Fishes do swim therewith in the sea :
¦With Season of Angels you may it discern," &c.
In this passage I consider that the allusion to
angels — the Reason of Angels — is precisely in
Swedenborg's sense, to be explained hereafter.

Ch. III.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 55
The reader shall also see that the Hermetic
writers had a secret language called Lingua An-
gelorum. The following passage seems to set out with
verbal accuracy Swedenborg's doctrine of the
Lord, yet let the reader beware of supposing that
mere words can teach this " selcouth thing."
" My beloved Son I command thee.
As thou wilt have my love and blessing,
That thou to God kneel on thy knee,
And to Him give laud and thanking,
For these gifts of grace given unto thee.
To have true knowledge of this worthy science.
That many men seek by land and sea,
Yet cannot find it for any expense :
I shall shew thee my Son here a hid secret,
Because thou art virtuous in thy living,
Of me else shouldst thou never it weet \Jcnow],
And for thou art wise in thy council keeping,
And therefore I charge thee on my blessing.
Not to shew it to any man living,
For it is the first principle of our blessed atone,
Through which our noble work is relieved ;
Note well that I shew to thee my Son,
If sulphur be absent our work is deprived [<?««(£] ;
Our Sulphur, my Son, is 'Water and Fire,
Constraineth the Body till it be dead ;
Of them thou hast never thy desire,
Till he be blue as any Lead ;

56 S"WEDENBOEG, [Ch. III.
After all this he doth revive.
That in his Vessel before was dead;
I can no better in my reason contrive.
Than to figure him to the great God-head.
For as there died no more than one,
Howbeit that there be Persons Three,
The Father, the Son by might is One :
The Holy Ghost make our full Trinity :
A similitude like unto our Stone,
In Him are things Three which are concluded all in One ;
Our Sulphur is likened to the Holy Ghost,
For He is Quick [living] called the Spirit of Life,
In His working of might he is most.
He raiseth our Body from death to Life,
Many, my Son, with Him do rise.
The Holy gospel therein is expert,
The number my reason cannot contrive." Page 383.
In Salmon's commentary on Hermes the one
thing is affirmed in many ^'ays, of which the fol
lowing is an example : —
The patter of our Stone is but one; and
therefore nothing can be more alien from the
Art than to seek for it in many things ; Nature
is not mended or made better, but by a nature
of its o"wn kind. As vinegar makes vinegar, — so
our Art begins with mercury, and with the same
mercury it is finished. [Swedenborg's " Life."]
It is a kind of Proteus, which, ci'eeping upon the

Ch. III.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 57
earth, assumes the nature of a serpent ; but being
immersed in water, it represents a fish ; presently
taking to itself wings, it ascends aloft, and flies
like a bird ; yet notwithstanding it is but one and
the same Mercury. * * * Till you have pu-
trified the matter [i. e. brought about a true hu
mility], you have not made one step in the true
way ; but that being done, you have accom
plished the first sign of the Art, as Hermes
testifies. The following additional passage from Swe
denborg will show the similarity of idea to which
I refer — yet "with a difference, for I am unwilling
to allow that Swedenborg attained the veritable
idea : —
" In regard to the Life of every one, whether
man, or spirit, or angel, it flows in solely from
the Lord, who is essential Life, and diffuses him
self through the universal heaven, and even
through hell, consequently into every individual
therein, and this in an incomprehensible order
and series ; but the Life which flows in is re
ceived by every one according to his prevailing
principle; good and truth is received as good
and truth by the good ; whereas good and truth
is received as evil and the false by the wicked,
3*

68 SWEDENBOEG, [CH. III.
and is even changed into evil and the false in
them. This is comparatively as the light of the
sun, which diffuses itself into all objects on the
face of the earth, but is received according to
the quality of each object, and becomes a beauti
ful color in beautiful forms, and of an ugly color
in ugly forms." Par. 2888, Heavenly Arcana.
Any number of passages like the above might
be recited from Swedenborg, unifying the whole
of life, so to say, and in that, as I believe, Swe
denborg thought he saw the truth as the Her
metic writers saw it ; but it is certain that he but
partially saw it ; and making his partial vision a
ground of reasoning and philosophy, it was una
voidable that he should expand himself, as it
were, into inconsistencies, as he certainly has
done, notwithstanding his vast knowledge and
genius. He is at fault as to the nature of what
he calls the recipient, ihe proprium, and the will,
and conveys no clear knowledge of them, or of
what he calls Life either.
Swedenborg is not perfectly consistent with
himself, — ^not absolutely consequential. He says
at times that the soul makes its own organ ; and
then in other places, he speaks of the organ as the
recipient of life, as if it was something of itself;

Ch. in.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 59
then, again, he will refer all things to God, in
cluding the recipient : but, a page or so after
wards we come again perhaps upon the notion
that the recipient in man is something itself, and
while theoretically denying all independent real
ity to it, he calls it the proprium, the root of self,
and, so far, he calls it altogether evil. In short,
Swedenborg does not appear to have clearly con
ceived the precise unity, so as to merge the dual
ity ; and in this, as I suppose, he did not reach
the Hermetic point of view of the Stone, the one
thing. He often speaks of the Lord as the One,
the one life in all, and says he is in Heaven and
in Hell also. Then he says something similar of
the Grand-Man, as a comprehensive word in
cluding all men, good and bad, that is. Human
ity ; then he tells us, in other places, that those
only are in the QrandrMan who are in love to
the Lord and in charity towards the neighbor,
these being in Heaven ; while those who are in
the love of self and the love of the world, &c.,
are out of the Grand-Man, and are in Hell. He
tells us that Hell is from man, as is also Heaven ;
that e"vil men are in Hell, and constitute it, and
yet that evil comes from hell ; and he so buries
this circle of reasoning in words, that a hasty
reader does not perceive that he is learning

60 S"WEDENB0EG, [Ch. HI.
nothing on the subject. He is even more wide
of all rational representation on the subject of
the will. Swedenborg sets forth the doctrine of
the omnipotence of the Lord as extending to all
things, including the human will, and yet con
tends strongly for the freedom of will in man.
On this subject the Swedish philosopher gives us
no light whatever, but is on a footing with the
most ordinary pretenders to philosophy among
us. God is all in all, and yet man has a free
will ; but how this is to be understood, Sweden
borg does not explain. He tells us that man
must act " as if" he was free, but must know that
he can do nothing without God. In plain words,
he must endeavor to put something like a decep
tion upon himself, and cheat himself into the be
lief of his freedom, knowing all the time that he
is nothing of himself, and must refer all power
to God. The reader will flnd nowhere, as I believe, so
close an examination of the question of Being
and non-being — God and man — as in Plato's
Sophist, a model of a Hermetic work, where
Plato indicates the Supreme as the one true and
genuine Sophist, all others being imitations, some
nearer and others more remote, the nearest being
what he calls the " scientific imitator ; " — ^imita-

Ch. in.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 61
tor of what ? — of the true invisible Sophist, who
sometimes, as Plato says, " exhibits himself as
the instrument of the thing " exhibited.
This opinion may strike most readers of Plato
with surprise ; but that I cannot help.
Plato, in the Sophist, beyond all question, has
intimated his opinion that God may appear in
man ; and he was perhaps better prepared by
his studies and contemplations, to acknowledge
God in Christ, than any other man that ever
lived, except the Apostles themselves.

62 SWEDENBOEG, Ch. IV.]

CHAPTEE IV.
S"WEDENBOEG was not mad, nor was he under
any peculiar hallucination. His doctrines are
everywhere disclosed with the calmness of sci
ence, and there is no sign of enthusiasm in any
part of them except in the form of earnestness in
behalf of truth, or of what he considered as such.
There is very little that can be regarded as con
troversial in his writings, and nothing of asperity,
unless occasionally a word may show something
of it, when refen-ing to the Koman Catholic High-
Priest, or to the particular tenet of the Athana
sian creed which asserts a trinity of persons in the
divine nature, Swedenborg contending for the
unity of God, of one person, but of three essences,
or three somethings which I will not undertake
to deflne. Among the many volumes wi-itten by Swe
denborg, we have one work in English, entitled

Ch. IV.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 63
Heavenly Arcana, extending to twelve volumes
octavo, one object of which is to give the spiritual
or internal sense of the books of Moses, — or of
Genesis and Exodus, for the interpretation ex
tends no farther. He has written five large vol
umes upon the Apocalypse, and many other
works in exposition of his doctrines and opinions.
The principle upon which the Heavenly Ar
cana, and many of Swedenborg's other works
were written, is usually called that of correspond
ence. It is stated, repeated, and enforced in many
places throughout his writings ; — most briefly
perhaps, yet most formally, in the True Christian
Religion, page 267, thus : There is not any thing
in the mind to which something in the body does
not correspond : and this which corresponds ma/y
be called the embodying of that.
It might require a volume to expound this
principle, — to do it justice, — to show its founda
tion and explain its application : and then it might
call for another volume to refute the doctrine, or
show that, if true even, it is beyond the power of
man to apply it to any use : and, when thus re
futed, it would not stay refuted, but would again
come to the surface in some form or other, and
remain, as it will, a subject of controversy in the
woi'ld to all time ; — the reason of which lies in the

64 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. I"V.
nature of man, as a compound being of thought
and body.
I do not understand, myself, that a knowledge
of this principle of correspondence was claimed
by Swedenborg as a revelation in any special
sense, but that the application of it, that is, the
power to use it, grew up out of or under the in
fluence of some special light from the "Lord,"
Swedenborg calling this influence the opening of
his internal sight.
The principle of correspondence itself is sup
posed by many to be in Plato. The spiritual
world, in Swedenborg's sense, seems very similar
to what is understood by Plato's intelligible world,
or world of ideas, as being the types or patterns
of all material things in the universe, common
articles of furniture included, " beds," &c.
This doctrine has had its advocates and its
opposers ever since the days of Plato, and was no
doubt the ground of the controversy which pre
ceded Plato, and was chai-acterized by him as a
giants^ war. In the middle ages the war was
carried on under the names of realism and nomi
nalism. It will be definitively settled when the
nature of man shall be known, and it shall be un
derstood in what sense he is a spiritual being, and
in what sense he is a material being, and not before.

Ch. IV.] A HERMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 65
Professor Butler, late of the Dublin Univer
sity, has left some lectures expounding the Pla
tonic doctrine very fully, and with as much clear
ness perhaps as the subject admits.
The professor's namesake, the immortal author
of Hudibras, has ridiculed the doctrine in the
person of one of his types of man, of whom he
says : — " Th' intelligible world he knew,
And all men dream on't to be true,
That in this world there's not a wart
That has not there a counterpart ;
Nor can there, on the face of ground.
An individual beard be found
That has not, in that foreign nation,
A fellow of the self-same fashion ;
So cut, so color'd, and so curl'd,
As those are in the inferior world."
Eidicule is a powerful weapon, well calculated
to drive away shallow pretenders to an art not
understood, 'tis said, by one in a million ; whose
truth nevertheless is affirmed and evidenced by
all the tokens of sincerity that man can give, in
cluding the renunciation of fame and of 'n^ealth,
and even by the sacrifice of life itself; — though
all this, it is admitted, can prove nothing but sin-
cerity. But to return to Swedenborg.

66 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. IV
He refers to the doctrine of correspondence,
distinctly, in his work on the Animal Kingdom
(vol. i., p. 451), written before he came into the
spiritual light ; and if I mistake not, his Hiero
glyphic Key, exhibiting many examples of the
doctrine, was also among his earlier works.
In the application of the doctrine, I under
stand that Swedenborg's friends claim for him
something like a special illumination, using this
word as a sort of compromise expression, imply
ing something very extraordinary and uncom
mon, but not precisely supernatural in the sense
of the miraculous.
He tells us himself in the first pages of the
Heavenly Arcana, that he will disclose something
never before published.
But I expect to show that \h.e principle of this
doctrine of correspondence was known, and, to
some extent applied, at least by implication, to
the interpretation of the first part of Genesis, by
the Alchemists or Hermetic Philosophers, before
Swedenborg was born.
Without going into minute details with re
gard to the interpretations themselves, I will
simply say that his principle declares, that the
letter of the Mosaic record encloses a spiritual
sense, which can by no means be gathered by a

Ch. IV.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 67
literal reading of those records ; and, particularly,
that the opening verses of Genesis are not to be
understood as referring to the creation of the
natural world, but to the re-creation, that is, to
the regeneration of man.
The process of the regeneration of man, Swe
denborg affirms, is signified in the first verses of
the book of Genesis.
Those who 'wish to satisfy themselves, as to
details or particulars, may consult the first pages
of the Heavenly Arcana, where the doctrine of
correspondence is stated and applied.
'It is my purpose to show that the alchemists,
the mystic seekers after the philosopher's stone,
who were in fact spiritual philosophers chiefly
busy about the new birth or the regeneration of
man, virtually put the identical interpretation
upon the opening verses of Genesis that Sweden
borg did, though not with the direct purpose of
interpreting the book of Genesis.
I desire to say, however, before proceeding
any farther, that I do not undertake to decide
upon the validity or the value of the interpreta
tion. It is my vocation to bring to light a curi
ous question, which I am sure is worthy the ex
amination of considerate men, but every one must
make a decision upon the question for himself.

68 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. IV.
Thomas Vaughan,'^ under the name of Euger
nius Philalethe, about the middle of the seven
teenth century, published a number of works on
Alchemy or Hermetic Philosophy, in nearly
every one of which the author has something to
say of the interpretation of Genesis, referring the
reader to the spirit and not to the letter ; that is,
calling his attention away from the letter to the
spirit. I find it difficult to select among many
passages, those which may indicate in the least
compass the principle to which I have refen-ed
as the basis of the doctrine of coiTcspondence,
but I will commence with a work entitled Magia
Adamica, published in 1650. In this work there
is a long discussion, the object of which is to
prove that Moses was a natural Magician, by
* Dean Swift pronounced one work by Vaughan — Anthropo-
Sophia Theomagica — to be 'most mtolerable fustian;' but this
judgment la of little value, coming from a professed wit, whose
disappointments in life, working ou a selfish nature, drove him to
ridicule, not the follies of men, but the very race itself; inso
much that, in most cases, whoever laughs at the Dean's wit is
unconsciously laughing at himself. Swift had no idea of the
class of writers to which Vaughan belonged, and from the very
nature of his Ufe, if we can rely upon the history we have of
him, was necessarily shut out, " by a wonderful providence," from
all knowledge of the Hermetic Art. Vaughan, however, is not
classed among the adepts, and was set down as not having
reached " the greater pyrotechny.''

Ch. IV.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 69
which was meant' that he was by nature a wise
man ; — a proper derivation from the ancient use
of the word magi; and, further, to prove that he
¦wrote of magic [wisdom] under a veil; and by
magic Vaughan understood Alchemy or Hermet
ic Philosophy ; that is, the Philosopher's Stone ;
the StoTic being man, the object of the art being
the perfection of man, as I have set forth in my
Kemarks on Alchemy and the Alchemists.
Philalethe affirms that in Genesis Moses
"hath discovered many particulars [beyond
what appears in the letter] and especially those
secrets that have most relation to this [Hermetic
or Alchemic] art. For instance, he hath discov
ered [that is, made known] the Minera of man,
or that substance out of which ma/n, and all his
fellow creatwes were made. This is the First
Matter of the Philosopher's Stone.. Moses some-,
times calls it water, sometimes earth; for, in a
certain place I read thus : And God said. Let the
waters bring forth abundantly the moving crea
ture that hath life, a/nd fowl that mayfly above
the earth in the open firmament. But elsewhere
we read otherwise, thus : And out of tlie ground
the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and
every fowl of the air. In this latter text we read
that God made every fowl of the air out of the

70 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. IV.
ground; but in the former it is written, that he
made them out of the water. Certainly Aristotle
and his syllogism can never reconcile these two
places ; but a little skill in magic [wisdom] will
make them kiss, and be friends without a charm.
Tllis substance then (continues Philalethe) is both
earth and water, yet neither of them in their
common characteristics, but it is a thick water
and a subtle earth. * * * The Philosophers
call it water and no water, ea/rth and no earth ;
and why may not Moses speak as they do ? or
why may they not write as Moses did ? This is
the true Damascen earth, out of which God made
man." ***** "But this is not all
that Moses hath written to this purpose ; I could
cite many more magical and mystical places;
but in so doing I should be too open ; wherefore
I must forbear."
The author then imdertakes to show some
thing of what he calls the practice (of Moses) cor
responding to the art of the philosophers in mak
ing what the Hermetic 'wiiters called aurum
potabile ; and then makes this important dec
laration : —
" If I should insist in this place on the Mosa-
ical Ceremonial Law, with its several reverend
shadows, and their significations, I might lose

Ch. IV.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 71
myself in a wilderness of mysteries, both divine
and natural ; for, verily, that whole system is but
one vast skeeen, or a certain majestic umbrage
drawn over two worlds visible and invisible.
But these are things of a higher speculation than
the scope of our present discourse will admit of.
I only inform the reader that the Law hath both
a shell and a kernel ; it is the letter that speaks,
but the ^irit interprets."
It must be recollected that the author was a
Hermetic philosopher, and will tell us nothing
openly. He, too, speaks through the letter, and
leaves the reader to gather his meaning as he
best can by the exercise of patience, judgment,
candor, and ingenuity ; or, it may be, "with those
who are blessed -with it, by the help of the Spirit.
He proceeds next to show that the "manifest"
part, that is, the letter, was intended for the gen
eral mass of men, "whose thoughts (says he)
were fixed here below, [in the senses and upon
sensuous blessings,] but the hidden, for the few
only, whose minds aspired upwards to heavenly
things." It might fatigue the reader, or I- could cite a
dozen pages or more to show that the alchemists
regarded the books of Moses as a screen, needing
the spirit for an understanding of the " internal

72 SWEDENBOEG, [Oh. IV.
sense," as Swedenborg calls it; and that the
opening verses do not refer to the natural or
material world, but to the regeneration of man.
The reader has seen that Vaughan distinctly
speaks of the "writings of Moses as a screen. Let
us now see if we can discover what the Hermetic
Philosophers thought was behind it. But we
must remember that we are dealing with Her
metic writers, who write " before and behind,"^
" within and without." They suggest, but rarely
tell us any thing openly. Their writings are fuU
of obscm-ity, because it was thought that the
common people could not endure the truth, or
would misuse and abuse it. But the common
people of this age would have been uncommon
people when Hermetic books were written. The
subject, I warn the reader, is of more real im
portance than any other one thing that can enter
the mind of man. But to proceed.
Sandivogius was an alchemist of perhaps as
high repute as any of the seekers of the mystic
stone, with a new name written upon it, " which
no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." I
cannot give the date of his works in Latin; but,
a part of them appeared in English in 1650, and
a second edition in 1674, with the title :— " A
New Light on Alchemy, taken out of the Foun-

Ch. rv.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 73
tain of Nature and Manuel Experience : To
which is added a Treatise on Sulphur."
In the " Address to the Keader," the trans
lator takes the ground that Philosophy and Di
vinity are one and the same ; in proof of which
he says : —
" Can any deny that Hermes, Plato, and
Aristotle, though pure naturalists, were not most
deep divines ? Do not all grant, that the two
first chapters of Genesis are true divinity ? I
dare affirm that they are the most deep and the
truest philosophy. Yes, they are the ground and
sum of all divinity and philosophy : and if right
ly understood, will teach thee more knowledge
of God, and of thyself, than all the books in the
world besides."
This particular writer says no more on this
point ; but we shall soon see to what that under
standing rightly of Genesis refers, and that it is
the regeneration of man, which is consummated
when the fiat of the Eternal sends " light " into
the soul of man. The reader will please observe
and remember the vast importance attached by
the alchemist to the two first chapters of Genesis,
when rightly understood.
The next work on alchemy to which I will
refer, has so remarkable a title that I will copy
4

74 SWEDENBOEGj [Ch. IV.
it entire, desiring the reader to notice the claim
to inspiration therein set up, by the publisher,
not by the writer, by which it may be seen that
Swedenborg had a forerunner on this point. The
Swedish mystic (?) had predecessors in his own
peculiar walk. The title runs : —
" Secrets Revealed : Or, an Open Entrance to
the Shut Palace of the EMig. Containing the,
greatest Treasv/re in Chymistry [Alchemy] never
yet so plainly discovered [made known]. Com
posed by a most famous Englishman, styling
himself Anontmus, or Eyroeneus Philaletha Cos-
mopolita : who, by Inspieation and Readiiig, at
tained to the Philosopher's Stone at the age of
twenty-three years. Anno Domini, 1645."
This work was published in 1659 ; and the
5th chapter opens as follows : —
" Let the Son of the Philosophers hearken to
the Sophi unanimously concluding, that tins
Work [that is, the work of making the Philoso
pher's Stone] is to be likened to the creation of
the universe. Therefore, In the beginning God
created the Heaven and tlie Earth, and the Earth
was void and empty, and darkness was upon the
face of the deep ; and the SpiHt of the Lwd
was carried upon the face of the waters, and God
saM, Let there be Light, and there was Light.

Ch. IV.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 75
" These words (says this author) are sufficient
for a Son of Art, for the Heaven ought to be con
joined with the Earth upon a bed of friendship
and love," &c. In the conclusion of the chapter
the author exclaims, in the language of Holy
writ, "Good God! How wonderful are thy
works ! 'Tis thy doing, and it seems miraculous
in our eyes. Father, I thank thee, that thou hast
hidden these things from the wise, and revealed
them to babes."
What can the reader understand by this lan
guage, but that the 'writer had been the subject
of some extraordinary experience ; and to what
can it be referred with so much probability as to
that known in Scripture usually under the name
of the new birth ; that is, the regeneration of
man? And yet the work is illustrated by a di
rect reference to the first verees of Genesis, which
another alchemist tells us 'will teach us, if rightl/y
understood, more than all the books in the world
besides. Let the language of Eyrseneus be con
sidered also in connection with the declaration
of Vaughan, that the books of Moses have both a
shell and a kernel, and that the letter of the Pen
tateuch is one vast screen drawn over two worlds,
visible and invisible: — what must then be in-

76 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. IV.
ferred ? To answer this truly, one may perhaps
need to flnd, first, the Philosopher's Stone.
Here is another passage, and I take it from
Espagnbt's " Arcanum, or, the grand Secret of
Hermetic Philosophy, wherein the Sear ets of War
tni/re and Art, concerning the matter and manner
of making the Philosopher'' s composition, are or
derly and methodically manifested^ (1650.)
" The generation of om- Stone (says this writer)
is made after the pattern of the creation of the
world; [let the reader consider that it is man,
passing through the process of regeneration :—
from a chaotic state of darkness, ignorance, and
passion, to a state of light, knowledge, and free
dom, under the teaching and guidance of nature
and God,] for it is necessary (says Espagnet) tliat
it have its chaos and first matter, wherein the
confused elements do fluctuate, until they be
separated by the fiery spirit : they being sepa
rated, the light elements are carried upwards,
and the heavy downwards. The Light [knowl
edge] arising, the Darkness [ignorance] recedes.
The waters are gathered into one, and the dry
land appears. At length the two great lumina
ries arise, and mineral virtues, vegetable and ani
mal, are produced in the Philosopher's Eaeth."
That is, in the Man, who is the subject of this

Ch. IV.] A HERMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 77
regeneration, for this is the " earth which is no
earth, and water which is no water," — the most
wonderful product of the universe.
The above passage, it is true, simply compares
the work to that of Genesis; but this mode of
¦writing is very common with the Hermetic phi
losophers. They often compa/re the Stone to man,
saying that, like man, their Stone has a body, a
soul, and a spirit ; meaning thereby that the at
tentive reader shall understand that the subject of
the work is man. Occasionally some of the writ
ers express themselves quite openly, but in such
a manner that they appear to be indulging in a
digression, leaving the subject of the Stone aside.
They attribute a trinity to man, and in this
also Swedenborg is in harmony with them, for he
describes man as having a natural, a spiritual,
and a celestial nature, — sometimes called outward,
inward, and inmost, — which, he says, are suc
cessively " opened " in man, under certain condi
tions. To have the inmost " opened " is to be in
the celestial state, where principles and eternal
truths are contemplated, and facts are seen in
their principles, out of relation to either time or
place. This places a man in what Swedenborg
calls the third heaven, and constitutes him an
angel. Here he disputes with no one [see para-

78 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. IV.
graph 270, Heaven and Hell] : all is light and
truth, and the individual in this state constitutes
" a heaven in its least form." A society of such
men is heaven in a larger form, while the whole
race, or mankind, if it could come into this state,
would constitute the universal heaven, where all
would " appear as one man before the Loed,"
who is the Divine Humanity of God, the Wobd,
the Eternal Truth, the Life.
I am speaking only of what I understand to
be the theory of Swedenborg, and in the most
general manner. His principal works may be
easily had by those who desire to become ac
quainted with his system more in detail.
I find still another reference to the books of
Moses in Espagnet, on this point, which I will
copy. The writer brings into requisition for Her
metic illustration, in addition to Genesis, a iev
verses from Deuteronomy, and I will not curtail
the passage, though a part of it is a repetition of
what has been already recited.
" Some have sought (says Espagnet) for the
latent philosophical earth by calcination, others
by sublimation ; many among glazed vessels, and
some few in vitriol and salt, even as among theii'
natural vessels : others enjoin that it be sublimed
out of lime and glass.

Ch. IV.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 79
^^ But we have lea/rned of the Prophet that: —
' In the beginning Qod created the heaven and the
earth ; and the earth was without form^ and void,
and darkness was upon the face of the deep : and
the Spirit of Qod moved upon the waters ; and
Qod said. Let there be light, and there was light ;
and Qod saw the light, that it was good, and he
divided the light from the darkness,^ &c.
"And Joseph's blessing, spoken of by the
same prophet, will be sufficient for a wise man
(Deut. 33) :—
" ' Blessed of the Lord be his Land, for the
APPLES qf heaven, for the dew, and for the deep
that lieth beneath ; for the apples of fruit both of
SUN and moon ; for the top of the ancient moun
tains ; for the apples ofthe everlasting hills^ " &c.
Upon which Espagnet says : " Pray the Lord
from the bottom of thy soul, my son, that he
would bestow upon thee a portion of this blessed
LandP
By land, here spoken of, Espagnet evidently
supposes was meant what in the sixth chapter of
Secrets Eevealed is called — " the waters enclosed
within, which do shun our sight, and yet really
and truly are. These are those waters (says Es
pagnet) that the author of the New Light speaks
of, to wit, which are, and do not appear until the

80 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. IV.
Artist pleaseth." This Aetist (of man) is again
referred to in the same chapter, in which the
work of regeneration is still spoken of figuratively.
Thus : — " Let Diana be propitious unto thee, who
knows how to tame the wild beasts [the 'wild pas
sions] ; whose two doves [the so-called two himi-
naries] shall temperate the malignity of the air
with their feathers ; then the youth [the philo
sophical child] enters easily in through the pores,
presently shaking the waters above, and stirs up
a ruddy and rubish cloud : — ^Do thou bring in
the water over him even to the brightness of the
moon, and so the darkness which was upon the
face of the abyss [the unregenerate man] will be
discussed by the spirit which moves itself in the
waters [the same man] : thus by tlie command
of God [the sole aetist in this spiritual work]
light shall appear: separate the light from the
darkness the seventh time, and then this sophic
[wise] creating of thy Mercury [thyself] shall he
complete, and the seventh day shall be to thee a
Sabbath of rest."
This may all appear very mystical, and, taken
literally, no doubt it is so: but to the considerate
reader it may indicate the point I am endeavor
ing to establish ;— that the Hermetic philosophers
interpreted the writings of Moses, I mean, tbe

Ch. IV.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 81
opening verses of Genesis, as symbolical of the
regeneration of man, which Swedenborg, in vio
lation of the Hermetic law of secrecy, has openly
asserted as his own understanding of those writ
ings.

82 SWEDENBOEG, Ch. V.]

CHAPTEE Y.
To show that I do not speak at random in
comparing Swedenborg's doctrines to those of the
Alchemists, 'with respect to the three natures in
man, I will refer here to a work by Philalelie,
entitled Anthroposophia Theomagica (published
in 1650), page 38, where the author says : —
" As the great world consists of three parts,
the elemental, the ccelestial, and the spiritvd,
above all which God liimself is seated in that in
finite inaccessible light, which streams from his
own nature ; even so Man hath in him his eartU^
elemental parts, together with the codestial and
angelical natures, in the centre of which moves
and shines the Divine Spirit."
No one need look far into Swedenborg's writ
ings without finding the above doctrine, only
slightly varied perhaps in the phraseology used
in stating it. For example : —
" There are three principles in man, which

Ch. v.] a HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 83
concur and unite together, — the natural, the
spiritual, and the celestial. The natural princi
ple never receives any life except from the spirit
ual, nor the spiritual but from the celestial, nor
the celestial unless from the Lord alone, who is
Life itself." — Heavenly Arcana, par. 880.
This is sufficiently clear for my purpose, and
perhaps I ought not to oppress the reader with
long extracts in further illustration of this doc
trine and its application. Swedenborg changes,
indeed, the terms employed and the order of
them, but the meaning is changed 'with them,
maintaining the same sense, or nonsense, if the
reader chooses, though there appears to be some
sense in this view of a very abstruse and myste
rious subject. I would have the reader notice
the use of the word angelical by the alchemist,
corresponding to Swedenborg's use of the word
celestial, as the third state or nature of man ; be
cause Swedenborg himself, as I have already
stated, speaks of man as an angel when in this
third state, or when his "interior sense" is
" opened to the third degree." This can hardly
be called an accidental coincidence.
Hermetic writers constantly refer to the doc
trine of the Trinity in unity, while treating of

84 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. V.
their Stone, but they wrote so obscurely that
they overshot themselves; for while intending
by this obscurity only to withdraw their books
from the merely ignorant and from the profane,
they have for the most part closed them from the
learned and from the -weU disposed also. They
never speak of the Stone as Man, directly ; but
they often compare it to man, meaning that the
attentive reader shall understand that man is the
real subject. The following passage from "Eip-
ley Revived " (1678) will show what I here refer
to:— " Our Stone is likened to Majst, who although
he have a wife different from him in sex, yet she
is one Avith him in nature ; and in this sense man
is called the microcosm, or less- world : for indeed,
next to man, who is the image of God, the Stone
is the true little system of the great world. * *
" This Stone is also called Trine, or Trinity in
unity, from the homogeneity of the matter : — as
Trevison saith : Our Stone is made of one root,
that is, of t"wo Mercurial Substances, &c. This
Trinity is discerned in the components ; for first
there is the Body, which is Sol; and the water
oi Mercury ; in which, besides its mercuriaUty,
there is a spiritual seed of Sulphur, wliich is the
Secret Fire. This is the Trinity, and these

Ch. v.] a HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 85
are called the Body, the Soul, and the Spirit :
the Body is the dead Earth, which increaseth not
without the celestial virtue; the Spirit is the
Soul of our Air or Chamelion, which is also of a
two-fold composure, yet made one inseparably ;
the Soul is the Bond of Mercury, without which
our Fire never appears, nor can appear, for it is
naked." * * -» * "Thus is the Trinity
proportionable, to wit, three natures in the first
mixture. The Work is carried to perfection ac
cording to the virtue of a Body, Soul, and Spirit :
for the Body would never be penetrable, were it
not for the Spirit, nor would the Spirit be per
manent in its super-perfect Tinct/ure, were it not
for the Body ; nor could these two act one upon
another without the Soul, for the Spirit is an in
visible thing, nor doth it ever appear without
another gaement, which garment is the Soul."
I might insist here, and illustrate at length,
that this GAEMENT (in alchemy) is what is under
stood in Swedenborg to be the Spiritual Body
of Man, the true Man. In the natural man, so
called, this soul is supposed to be chaotic, and it
needs to be touched by the Spirit ; which never
theless it bears within itself, as yet unknown to
itself, and it remains unknown until the " Artist,"

86 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. V.
God, pleaseth. And here the text is often re
peated, the wind bloweth as it listeth, &c.
With respect to this garment, I will adduce
another passage in which it is still more plainly
indicated — from the same writer, — ^remarking, hy
the way, that it was the notion of the Spiritml
Body as represented by Swedenborg, that first
attracted the attention of a learned professor in
New York, who published a volume on the sub
ject announcing himself a Swedenborgian.
"Thus (says Cosmopolita), thy Work is
brought to the true Touch-stone, and that is
Trinity in Unity; for in this pondu^ of your
Mercury [yourself, reader, — ^for the subject is
man] you have a potential Body [Swedenborg's
Spiritual Body], which is one part of three of the
Mercury [of the man] which may by Art be
made to appear. [This Art they call divine.]
This potential Body is to be reckoned to your
actual Body, and that makes 'with it two ; and
so, inpotentia, you have two of the Body to one
of the Spirit, which is three to three, and one to
one. And this potential Body is at first spiritual
and volatile, in manifesto, for the unity sake ;
for without it there could be no unity. Thus
then a potential Body but an actual Spirit, is
joined with an actual Body, by which means the

Ch. v.] a HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEK. 87
actual Body, when it is actually dissolved and
made no Body, but a Spirit or Spiritual Body,
this potential Spiritual Body, which was in the
water before, receives this potentialized Body,
and both unite and congeal together, and is en
dowed with a double nature and virtue, that is.
Spiritual and Corporeal, Heavenly and Earthly.
And thus is made an union of which the propor
tion of the water in its first preparation, and its
due mixing with its Body, was the moving cause,
really though hiddenly enforcing the compound
by the necessity of- its end, which it could not
have done had it not been so proportioned."
The reader may decry this subject as much as
he pleases, and may ridicule the idea that the al
chemists were religious philosophers ; but who
ever will take the pains to look into their mysti
cal writings may easily see their true subject,
and with some patient study may learn something
of their arcane opinions ; and then he cannot fail
to see, if acquainted ¦with Swedenborg's writings,
that the Swedish Philosopher trod in the foot
steps of Philaletha Cosmopolita, and others of
the mystic Stone seekers.
Swedenborg says that the end (object, aim, or

88 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. V.
purpose) of the Lord, is a universal heaven
through man ; that the angels of heaven were all
once men ; that Heaven is constituted or com
posed of men in the angelic or celestial state.
Tllis doctrine is abundantly found in Hermet
ic books, though, as the "waiters express them
selves obscurely, it requires some acquaintance
¦with their manner of 'writing to perceive their
pui-pose ; but I may possibly make it appeal- to
the attentive reader.
There is scarcely any one principle or dogma
more frequently referred to in Hermetic works
than one to be found in what is called the Sma-
ragdine Table, attributed to Heemes, — a work
comprised in about a page of ordinary printing,
written by nobody knows who, and nobody knows
when, to wit :
" That which is above is as that which is be
neath, and that which is beneath is as that which
is above, to work the jniracles of one thing.''''
This principle is, in truth, the very root of
Swedenborg's doctrine of cori'espondeiice, and
shows also its connection with his doctrine of the
Loed ; for the " above " and the " beneath," are
the spiritual and natural worlds of Swedenborg ;
and the " one thing " is the Lokd, the Life of the
two worlds. In Swedenborg's lano-uaffe the

Ch. v.] a HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 89
Lord is the End, the spiritual world the Cause,
and the natural world is the Effect ; yet the Ef
fect contains the Cause, and both express the
Life. CaU these Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury,
and we shall express the same thing in alchemic
language. The natural world, so called, meaning
the visible, is a world of effects, and symbolizes
or " corresponds " to the spiritual world, and
would be nothing without it, as the spiritual, in
its turn, would be nothing without the Life, the
" one thing " in all.
It is common in the world, as I know very
well, that a doctrine obscurely stated is for that
very reason imagined to enclose extraordinary
arca/na of undefined and inexpressible impor
tance, — a remark I think proper to make that the
reader, if necessary, may be put on his guard
against trusting his imagination in the interpreta
tion of mysteries.
I would have no one accept any interpreta
tion that shall not appear rational. It is much
better to forbear making an interpretation alto
gether than to devise a merely fanciful and ficti
tious one, under a vague notion that we are
obliged to understand every thing, for there are
many things that we cannot understand at all.
No temporary convenience or imaginary satisfac-

90 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. V.
tion can compensate for adopting an error as the
substantial truth.
This doctrine or dogma of Hermes appears in
many forms in the Hermetic 'writings. In one
form it reads, translated from the Coptic, as al
leged : " Heaven above, Heaven beneath ;
Stars ahove, Stars beneath;
All that is above is also beneath :
Understand this and be happy."
In commenting upon these dark hints, Phila
lethe says : —
" To speak plainly, Heaven itself was origi
nally extracted from Inferiors [out of man, says
Swedenborg], yet not so entirely, but that some
portion of the Heavenly natures remained still
below and are the very same in essence and sub
stance with the separated stars and skies. Heav
en here below differs not from that above but in
her captivity, and that above differs not from this
below but in her liberty. The one is imprisoned
in matter, the other is freed from the gi'ossness
and impurities of it ; but they are both of one
and the same nature, so that they easily unite ;
and hence it is that the Superior descends to the
Inferior to visit and comfort her in this sickly in
fectious habitation."

Ch. v.] a HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 91
This descent of the superior to the inferior,
the reader can hardly fail to perceive, does not
refer to the physical stars, visible in the heavens.
He will come nearer to the true design of the
writer by considering Swedenborg's point of
view, by which man is placed, as it were, in the
middle, between two extremes of nature and
spirit, communicating with both : — with the natu
ral world by or through his sensuous nature (the
" outward "), and with the celestial world by his
" inmost " natm-e. By stars is simply figured the
principles of the superior, that is, the spiritual
world. The Hermetic writers often refer to the
lovers of their art, as seekers after stdla/r secrets,
— meaning heavenly secrets ; — simply the more
unseen and divine portions of the nature of man.
The coiTespondence of superiors with inferiors
is referred to, precisely in Swedenborg's sense, by
Philalethe in Dumen de Lumine in these words :
" There is not an herb here below, but he hath a
star [that is, a spiritual principle] in Heaven
above." But, by above, is meant inward.
In the so called spiritual world, inward and
outioard answers to what is called, in the natural
w^orld, above and below. And as the inward
world has its central principle, it is called a sun,
by ' similitude ' to the visible sun as the princi-

92 SWHEDENBOEG, [Ch. V.
pal object of control in the natural world. Yet
the student would make a great mistake in im
agining that this is any thing but a simiHtude ;
for these writers, I mean Hermetic writers, Swe
denborg included, are any thing but materialists.
In Swedenborg's "view, man, as he is sensu
ous, or according to his sensitive nature, is the
natural man in St. Paul's sense, and is in the
lower or outer world : as he is inteUectual, he is
in the second heaven ; as he is celestial {angeli
cal, as the alchemist would say), he is in the
third heaven, that is, the superior or inmost
world, — even here in the body ; — ^for this is the
doctrine ; but in every case, according to the
Divine Laws of " order," which under no circum
stances are ever violated, as they have their ex
istence in the unchangeable nature of God.
I state this as my understanding of Sweden
borg's theory, and so far as words can express
any thing upon so difficult a subject, the theory
may be substantially found in the Hermetic "writ
ings : the difference being that Swedenborg un
dertook to develop the doctrine more fully and
to write more openly than any genuine Hermetic
philosopher has ever felt at liberty to do, though
Swedenborg liimself has exhibited his opinions
under a veil.

Ch. v.] a HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 93
Notwithstanding the obscurity of these mystic
writers, they contrive to suggest indirectly theii-
subject. They discuss at large the properties of
the magnet, and then show what they intend by
comparing the magnet to man. Thus says one :
" I may well presume to compare the load
stone, in disposition with Man, considering the
admirable virtues and dignity of the one in the
animal kingdom ; and the miraculous operations
and mystical properties of the other in the min
eral region. As for Man, there is such a super-
eminent and wonderful treasure hidden in him,
that wise men have esteemed that the perfect
wisdom, of this world consisteth in the knowledge
of a man's self, namely, to find out that secret
mystery which doth lurk within him." [Let this
treasure and this mystery be supposed to be the
" one thing " referred to by Hermes in the Sma-
ragdine Table, or the life of the Lord, as ex
pressed by Swedenborg, as something really in,
but yet to be discovered by the so-called natural
man, and the importance of the subject will be
sufficiently appreciated. But to resume.] "For
man (says my author) is said to be the centre of
every creature, and for that cause he is called
microcosmus, or the little world ; centrum et mi-
raculum mundi, the centre or miracle of the

94 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. V.
world, containing in himself the properties of all
creatures, as well celestial as terrestrial, aud con
sequently of the load-stone:'' [This is the author's
mode of telling his readers that what he says of
the load-stone is to be applied to man.] " Man is
(continues this writer) Templum Dei, the TempU
of Qod; Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ;
Habitaculum Spiritus Sancti, the Habitation of
the Holy Ghost, as the apostle hath taught us.
Neither verily may it be imagined, that God
would make choice of an unworthy dweUing-
place. And therefore, in the consideration there
of, and our inquiry after so great a mystery, we
have need to proceed "with our exactest discretion
and judgment, from the visible things of man to
the invisible, that is, to penetrate with the sharp
est edge of our "wit by demonstration, d posteriori;
or from the external man, into the bowels of his
secret, mystical and internal being; wherefore
we proceed thus : Seeing that Man is rightly re
ported by Hermes to be the son of the world, as
the world is the Son of God, being that it is
framed after the image of tlie Archetype, for
which cause he is termed the Little World, it will
be requisite to understand that he is in like man
ner divided into a heaven and earth, as the great
worid was, and consequently containeth in itself

Ch. v.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 95
no otherwise his heavens, cii-cles, poles, and stars,
than the great world doth. And also, as we find
that the spiritual image of the heavens, with their
circles and poles, are delineated also in the earth,
and every particular thereof, as it appeareth in
the load-stone and iron, so the character of the
inward man is deciphered and portrayed out in
the outward man, no otherwise than we may
judge of the fashion of the kernel by the shell."
This writer then proceeds to place the true
pole of man in the east, where Swedenborg also
placed the true north in what he called the spirit
ual world. This j?oZe of man is the " one thing,"
the Lord, the Ufe, — the discovery of which in
himself Swedenborg called the opening of his in
ternal sight, and thence, in Hermetic language,
he wrote of heaven and of earth in the sense of
the above writer, without going out of himself,
and his writings will never be properly under
stood except from this point of view.
This same writer expresses the very principle
of Swedenborg, as follows : " There is nothing
in the lower world, but hath his like in the starry
world [meaning the spiritual world], whose beams
and influences it receiveth."
I must now be so candid as to say that this
writer is no other than the much-abused Robert

96 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. V.
Fhidd, the too open Hermetic author of a work,
the express aim of which was to prove that the
Mosaical History was " grounded upon the Essen
tial Truth or Eternal Sapience," published in
1659. The people of his day were not satisfied
that he should believe in Moses, but required him
to believe in Moses as they did, and upon their
grounds, and would not allow him to point ont
what he deemed much higher and surer grounds,
such as might allow a man, " while giving honor,
to retain his o-wn honor." Swedenborg is stiH
more open, but he addressed what he considered
more enlightened times ; but he too is a Hermetic
philosopher nevertheless.
No genuine Hermetic writer has ever hoped
to make that clear to the ordinary and unassisted
understanding of man, which is, as they assert,
the express work of the Spirit of God upon the
heart of man, by which (as the phrase is) he be
comes a " new creature." They have the au
thority of St. Paul for this ; but I may as well
state at once that conversion, in the sense of the
Hermetic philosophers, is a rare spectacle in the
world, and is not usually a product of camp-meet
ing excitements ; but I should be too bold if I
undertook to define it. The nature of the opera
tion carries M-itli it what the Hermetic writei-s

Ch. v.] a HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 97
call the Secretum Artis, the incommunicable se
cret : on which point I will cite one or two passa
ges from Hermetic books.
These "writers say that there are three princi
pal stages or steps in the progress of man towards
the perfection of his nature. In the two first,
man works or may work co-ordinately with na
ture ; that is, in the development of his sensuous
and of his intellectual nature : but " in the third
God works alone," and man can only be a recipi
ent observer. The third and last step man is not
supposed to take by any kno-wn natural power
proper to him as an individual ; but he is a pas
sive recipient from a power above him, when in
a proper state for " reception." This state or
condition, suitable for reception, does not exist so
long as man is devoted to things of time, and in
love, not with God, but with the created things
of God. " The world does not know me," says
the personified principle in one of the Hermetic
books, " because it loves not me, but mine."
It is a common doctrine : it is preached every
sabbath throughout Christendom, to numberless
inattentive and heedless hearers, who are said to
be heedless because they are of the world, and
love the things of time before the things of eter
nity. One main difference between the ordinary

98 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. V.
teaching and that of the Hermetic philosophers
is, that the latter make no direct attempt to ex
ercise the prerogative of God. They say that the
"third state" cannot be taught, as ordinary
knowledge is taught ; and, acting consistently
with this doctrine, they do not aim directly to
teach it ; neither do they allow that that state it
self is subject to the ordinary reason of man, who,
without the Light they speak of, is wanting in
the very grounds of an argument on the subject
" Certainly (says Philalethe) I cannot yet con
ceive how reason may judge those principles,
quorum Veritas pendet d sola revelantis authori
tate, whose certainty wholly depend on God, and
bj' consequence is indemonstrable without the
Spirit of God. But if I should grant that, which
I will ever deny, verily, I shall still say, that a
true faith consists not in reason, but in love ; for
I receive my principles, and believe them being
received, sola erga Revelan-tem amoi'e, only ont
of my affection to Him that reveals them. Thus,
our Saviour would have the Jews to believe him
first /(??• his own sake, and, when that failed, for
his works' sake ; but some divines believe, only
for Aristotle's sake : if logic rendei-s the tenet
probable, then it is creed ; if not, 'tis Alcoran." *
• For celestial angels do not know what faith is except it be

Ch. v.] a HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 99
By reason, in this passage, I understand, the
process of reasoning, which, simply, cannot cre
ate its own data. Keasoning may be ever so ac
curate, considered as a process, yet if its basis or
foundation be not firm, — and this the process of
reasoning cannot give — the reasoning itself is but
a castle in the air. The point is, that there is
something in man, truly, the divine in man —
which nevertheless needs development — which is
not reasoning, but the principle of Beason itself;
most commonly calledya^'^A, yet something quite
different from belief.
Now this/ffli^A, which is so necessary to man,
which translates him into the so-called celestial
(or angelical state), which transmutes his soul and
transports him out of the lower world into a
higher region, as the doctrine alleges, and which
cannot be attained by the unassisted will of the
natural man, is the incommunicable secret to
which Philalethe refers in the following passage,
to wit ; — after indicating darkly and obscurely
the external and internal means deemed to be
necessary for placing a man in the right position
for receiving a blessing from above, he pro
ceeds :
of love ; and the universal heaven is of love, no other life being
existent in heaven but the life of love. — Heavenly Arcana, § %2.

100 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. V.
" There is nothing now behind but that which
the Philosophers call Secretum Artis: a thing
that was never published, and without which you
will never perf orm, though yon know both Fire
and Matter."
Speaking of the failures of Flammel and oth
ers, for the want of this secret, the author brings
in an adept as saying of his own labors and stu
dies, that, " after the sixth year, I was entrusted
with the Ejey of Power by secret Revelation
from the Almighty God. This Fey of Power
was never put to paper by any Philosopher what
ever." The object of the Hermetic writers in these
obscure allusions and insinuations is to throw the
reader off from a dependence upon mere outward
teaching for a knowledge which is only acquired
through, as they say, the alone Spirit of God,
touching, as by a divine fire, the heart of man.
Hence the designation of some of these writers as
"Philosophers by Fire," as others are said to
have been " baptized by Fire."
The same thing is referred to in the following
passage :
" But that we may come at last to the scope
proposed : God the Father is the metaphysical,
supercelestial -Sun: The Second Person is the

Ch. v.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 101
Light ; and the Third is Amor Igneus, or a Dir
vine Heat proceeding from both. Now, without
the presence of this Heat, there is no reception
of the Light, and by consequence no influx from
the Father of Light:'
This sounds so much like Swedenborg, who
has so much to say of a Sum, of the spiritual
world, and of light, heat, influx and reception,
that I think it necessary to say that I am reciting
this passage from the Alchemist Philalethe, and
not from the Swedish Philosopher : and will pro
ceed with the extract :
" For this Amor (says Philalethe) is the tnedi-
um which unites the Lover to that which is be
loved, and probably 'tis the Platonic's Dmmon
Magnus, qui conjungit nos spiritum prcefecturis.
I could speak much more of the offices of this
Loving Spirit [Does not John say that God is
Love f~\, but these are Magnalia Dei, et Naturae,
and require not our discussion, so much as our
reverence. Here also I might speak of that Su-
pernatu/ral generation, whereof Trismegistus :
Monas gignit Monaden, et in se suum refiectit
Ardorem. But I leave this to the Almighty
God as his own essential mtsteet."
Surely these mystic Philosophical Stone seek
ers have been strangely ignored or misunderstood

102 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch, V.
in the world ; but sure I am also that, in then-
day, they were despised and condemned only by
the " younger sort," or by the worldly minded
who needed a caution, to be found in the 10th
Book of Plato's Laws.
That which the Hermetic Philosophers call
the Secretum Artis, or the incommunicable se
cret, — the essential mystery of God, Swedenborg
called the opening of his internal sight, but with
out the smallest attempt at explanation.
If what is thus far adduced fails to indicate
the class to which the Swede belonged, I should
be much disposed to say, that none are so bUnd
as those who wUl not see. Yet I by no means
intend to say that Swedenborg di-ew his doctrines
entirely from the Hermetic Philosophers. Every
student, to some extent, depends necessarily upon
the labors and studies of his predecessors, and is
in some degree bound to consult them and profit
by them ; but the labors of fallible men do not
carry their own key with them. That must be
found elsewhere, or we read blindfolded.
There is a coincidence between Swedenborg
and the Alchemists, which many may think
merely accidental and unimportant ; but I will
point it out, since I am upon the subject.
Swedenborg wrote a work entitled, " Outlines

Cn. v.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 103
of a Philosophical Argument on the Infinite," in
which he speaks of the infinite and the finite as
SO opposed to each other in their nature, that they
can by no possibility unite, but by means of a
third something, which he calls a '^Nexus." By
this theory he thus prepares himself to receive
the doctrine of the Divine-human, the God-man,
that is, Jesus Christ, as that nexus, or means, in
short, of uniting God and man.
It is unnecessary to state this more in detail,
as the work of Swedenborg may easily be had
and consulted by those who choose.
In a Hermetic volume by Cambachius, enti
tled Sal, Lumen et Spiritus Mundi Philosophici :
or, the Dawning of the Day, &c., published in
English in 1657, the author commences the sec
ond chapter thus :
" The body of the world lies open to our sen
ses, but its spirit lies hid ; and in the spirit its
soul, which cannot be united to its body, but by
the mediation of its spirit ; for the body is gross,
but the soul is subtle, far removed from all cor
poreal qualities. For the union of these two, we
must find some third, participating in both na
tures, which must be, as it were, a corporeal
spirit, because the extremes cannot be conjoined
without an intervenient ligament, that hath affin-

104 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. V.
ity with both. The heaven, we see, is high, the
earth low ; the one pure, the other corrupt : how
then shall we exalt this impure corruption, and
conjoin it vrith that active purity without a mean?
God, we know, is infinitely pure and clean; man
extremely impure, and defiled with sins. Now
these could never have been conjoined and rec
onciled, but by the mediation of Christ Jesus
God-man, that true attractive glue of both na^
tures," &c.
In the statement of the doctrine, the alche
mist may seem to have the advantage, by avoid
ing the express use of the 'wovA. finite in reference
to man ; and Swedenborg might be asked how,
upon his theory, his Nexus, if either infinite or
finite, can instrumentally unite the two extremes,
absolutely opposed to each other in their natures,
by supposition. For if the Naxus be finite, it
cannot unite with the infinite, and if infinite, it
cannot unite with the finite, and would thus fail
to answer the demand of the theory.
With the terms Spirit and Body, the difficulty
does not appear to be so great, while we have,
in fact, a palpable instance of their union as we
suppose in Man, bespeaking therefore the theo
retic possibility of a god-man, — called the Lokd
throughout Swedenborg's writings.

Ch. v.] a HEKMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 105
I will here add one or two minor points, to
establish a connection between Swedenborg and
the alchemists, drawn, I admit, from bare allu
sions, which however are to my mind very de
cided, to wit :
In Swedenborg's Angelic Wisdom concern
ing Divine Providence, I find the following
]>aragraph :
" 36. The wisdom which comes to perception,
is the perception of truth from the love of it,
especially the love of spiritual truth ; for there is
civil truth, moral truth, and spiritual truth : those
who are in the perception of spiritual truth from
the love of it, are also in the perception of moral
and civil truth ; for the love of spiritual truth is
the soul of the latter. I have sometimes spoken
with the angels concerning wisdom, who said
that wisdom is conjunction with the Lord, be
cause the Lord is wisdom itself; and that he
comes into that conjunction who rejects hell
from himself, and so far into it as he rejects:
they said that they represent wisdom to them
selves as a magnificent and most highly furnished
Palace, into which one ascends by Twelve Steps ;
and that no one comes to the first step, except
from the Lord by conjunction with Him ; and
that every one ascends according to conjunction ;
5*

106 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch.V.
and that as he ascends he perceives that no one
is wise from himself, but from the Lord ; also
that the things upon which he is wise, compared
with the things upon which he is not wise, are
as a few drops to a great lake. By the twelve
steps to the Palace qf Wisdom are signified
goods conjoined to truths, and truths conjoined
to goods." Before pointing out to what the allusions in
the above paragraph refer, I think it necessary
to say, that Swedenborg considered man, as to
his intei-nal nature or spirit, as in the spiritual
world, his outward nature or form being in the
natural world, and hence man is said to be in the
spiritual world, not figuratively but literally.
In keeping with this, I read in Philalethe :
" I look upon this life as the progress of an
Essence Royal : The soul but quits her court to
see the country. Heaven hath in it a scene of
Earth ; and had she been contented with ideas,
she had not travelled beyond the map. But ex
cellent patterns commend their mimes. Nature
that was so fair in the type, could not be a slut
in the ana,glyph. This makes her ramble hither
to examine the medal by i'he flask, but while she
scans their symmetry, &\i.e forms it. [The reader
is requested to remember here, that Swedenborg

Gh. v.] a HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 107
speaks of the body as an organ of wi^, formed by
the soul.] Thus (continues Philalethe) her de
scent speaks her original : God in love with His
own beauty frames a glass to view it by reflec
tion ; but the frailty of the matter excluding
eternity, the composure was subject to dissolu
tion. Ignorance gave this release the name of
death, but properly it is the souVs birth, and a
charter that makes for her liberty : She hath
several ways to break up house, but her best is
without a disease. This is her nvystical walk,
an exit only to return."
Upon this view it is, that man is said to be,
by Swedenborg, or according to his doctrine, in
Heaven or in Hell, or between these as two ex
tremes, as to his spirit, and according to the state
of his spirit. Heaven and Hell, in Swedenborg's
sense, are not places but states ; that is, states of
the spirit of the man who is the subject, of whom
Heaven and Hell are predicated ; Heaven and
Hell, in fact, having no existence but in relation
to man. Now, all the ideas a man may have are said
to be in the spiritual world; or, it may be
said, that he who understands the truth of his
own nature, knows that by, or through, or in his
ideas he is in communication with, or rather is

108 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. V.
in, the spiritual world, and so far as he has ideas
he sees into the spiritual world.
When these ideas bring into his presence the
members of a certain " society," referred to by
Swedenborg in many places, — meaning perfected
men, or, in other words, regenerate men, — the
man, if a (mystical) member of that society him
self, is said to be in communication with angels ;
and whatever is thought in the view of such men
is called a conversation in the spiritual world.
This is the precise ground of Swedenborg's
memorable relations, which are nothing in the
world but his individual opinions of men and
things under a slight veil, and this is entirely in
accordance with the spirit (?) of Swedenborg's
own statements, made apparently to guide his
reader in understanding him.
To return now to the paragraph cited from
Swedenborg : — he tells us that he has spoken
with angels concerning Wisdom, — of their speak
ing of it as a Palace, — and, finally, of twelve steps
leading to it.
If Swedenborg had explained his own mean
ing, we should have been bound to accept, so far
as he is concerned, his own explanations, but he
has merely told us that the first step is taken by
man " from the Lord," and that all of the other

Ch. v.] a HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 109
steps are taken by " conjunction with the Lord."
The mysticism would have been removed, by the
way, if he had said, that the steps are taken by a
strict adherence to the truth, which he does
indeed, substantially say in the same para
graph. But to what did he refer in this allusion to
angels, to a Palace, and to twelve steps leading
to it? I answer, without the slightest suspicion of
en-or, that the angel who spoke to him of a Pal
ace was no other than the alchemist Cosmopolita,
who left a work behind him entitled, " An open
entrance to the shut Palace of the King ; " or, in
other words, to a knowledge of the wisdom of
God. He spoke to Swedenborg through his
book. And the twelve steps is an allusion to one or
both of two of the most noted Alchemic or Her
metic books extant; one by the Monk George
Eipley, and the other by a monk also, Basil Val
entine. Ripley's work is entitled, " The com
pound of Alchemy, or the ancient hidden Art of
Alchemy : containing the right and most perfect
means to make the Philosopher's Stone, and Au
rum Potabile, with other excellent experiments.
Di/oidsd into Twelve Gates." This work was

110 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. V.
written in the reign of King Edward the Foui-th,
and was dedicated to him.
Basil Valentine's work was published in Eng
lish in 1670. I know not when it was written.
It is entitled, " A Practical Treatise, together with
the TwEL"vE KJETS and Appendix, of the Great
Stone of the Ancient Philosophers:'
These Twelve Gates, and Twelve Keys, are
the TwEL'VB Steps to the Palace ; that is,- to a
knowledge of the wisdom of God ; — to that -wis
dom, be it remembered, which is whispered by
the Spirit of God to the lo-ving soul that ap
proaches his infinite presence in humility.
The sharpest eye will detect nothing in the
writings of Swedenborg, voluminous as they are,
in contradiction to any thing here advanced, in
explanation of his mystical mode of writing.
One of the properties — one of the boasted or
pretended properties, it may be, — of the Philoso
pher's Stone, is to confer youth upon the aged :
it not only gives inexhaustible wealth, but insures
perpetual youth. Here I find another and a de
cided point of connection between Swedenborg
and the Alchemists ; and, as the Hermetic writ
ers say that " one book openeth another," the
readers of Swedenborg's writings may possibly
be in the best position, if they underetand his

Ch. v.] a HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. Ill
writings, for interpreting the paradoxes of the
still more obscure writers.
In paragraph 414 of the work on Heaven and
Hell, Swedenborg says, that "to grow old in
Heaven is to grow young." The angels of Swe
denborg, then, must be considered as in posses
sion of the Philosopher's Stone.
Throwing aside all studied obscurity, what is
the meaning of this ? Swedenborg says that the
love of man is his very life ; and, as is the love,
so is the life. Now man is in the midst between,
as it were, God and the world, the one eternal,
the other perishable. If we consider this theo
retically, we may suppose that the love which is
directed to the eternal may share its perennial
nature, that is, a man in this love enjoys perpet
ual youth, — not in his body indeed, for this is of
the 'world and must perish, but in his spiritual
nature. But to love the perishable, or in other
words the world, is to live in a succession of dis
appointments, since the objects of love are per
petually perishing, and to live in this state is to
grow old indeed, not merely in years, but in
cares. Are we then to abandon the world, in order
to attain this state ? Not so : this is a long-since
exploded doctrine, and we know now that God is

112 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. V,
not to be loved and served by 'withdrawing from
the world and living as hermits, but by living in
the world and attaining that middle point, so dif
ficult to see and understand, — of "loving the
world as not loving it," or of using the world as
not abusing it, 1 Cor. 'vii. 30, 31. The difficulty
of the discovery may be great ; but, when made,
it may be the finding of the Philosopher's Stone,
and prove that Swedenborg thought himseK in
possession of it, under the sense of the opening of
his internal sight, which was to him the secretvm
artis of the Alchemists.
I do not regard the opinion of Hermetic 'writ
ers on the subject of creation as belonging to
their peculiar doctrines, but on this point also
Swedenborg and the Hermetic philosophers oc
cupy the same ground. Swedenborg says that
God created the world "ont of [a] substance
which is substance in itself ; " but as he says that
substance in itself is God, his doctrine is plain
from this alone, and there is no question that his
opinion was that God created or made the world,
not from nothing, but from Himself. His fol
lowers contend strongly for this opinion, and
earnestly defend it against the charge of Pan
theism. On this point the younger Van Helmont

Ch. v.] a HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 113
expresses himself as follows, in the form of a
Query :
"Seeing then that Man, the Little World,
being created by God, must come to such a state,
wherein continually without ceasing he may be
melioriated, and raised from one degree of glory
to another, and so become still more and more
God-like, (if I may so speak,) or be incessantly
advanced ; — because, by this continual revolu
tion and glorification, he still comes nearer to
God, and yet can never come to an end of his
approaches, (forasmuch as in God there is neither
beginning nor end,) but this melioration and
glorification must continue without end :
" Will it not follow from hence, that Man, as
being a compendium of all the creatures of God,
hath had no absolute, though a respective be
ginning ; — because, if otherwise, they must also
have an end : and because also, that, if they have
a beginning, before the same, they were not,
and consequently that they sprang and came of
nothing? Now, seeing this cannot be, because
by this means, a Nothing must be conceived to
be in God ; whereas indeed He is the Eternal
Being of all beings, blessed for ever !
" They indeed, (continues Van Helmont,
speaking openly on this point,) who imagine to

114 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. V.
themselves a creaturely God, and according to
their gross conceptions, or their outward senses^
shut up God in a determinate place or circum
ference, consistently with this their imagination,
must suppose that a Nothing (which neither is;
nor can be conceived of, or comprehended by
themselves or others) before the creation of the
world, did exist together with God. For what
soever is beyond the bound which they have set
themselves, that they call a Nothing. Or else
they must assert that God made a Nothing out
of which he afterwards created all things ; which
is a contradiction, because a Nothing cannol; be
made, for whatsoever is made or is, must be some
thing. Moreover, according to this assertion
God must have made himself to a Nothing (be
cause there was nothing then but God) which is
very absurd."
I wiU just remark, in passing, that Plato en
deavors to show, in the Sophist, that we can
not conceive of Nothing, the idea of which is
formed (he says) by first necessarily concei-ving
something, and then mentally negating or deny
ing it ; so that in the idea of Nothing there is
always the idea of something.
I cannot suppose that the opinions I have

Ch. v.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 115
thus far expressed of Swedenborg will be favora
bly received by those who, upon full considera
tion, as they believe, have adopted an opinion of
him and his writings implying a special illumina
tion in his case, inaccessible to other men ; but
these views will not offend the class of men re
ferred to by Swedenborg himself, in a letter of
the 15th of July, 1771, to the Landgrave of
Hesse-Darmstadt, to whom he sent a copy of his
True Christian Religion, requesting that those
only might be selected to judge of it, " who love
the ti-uth, and who love it only because it is
truth." " If you take others (says he) they will
see in this work no light but only darkness."
Everywhere in Swedenborg's writings appeal
is made to a love of the truth, for the sake of the
truth alone, as the proper pre-requisite in him
who would sit in judgment upon the truth. He
makes no appeal to the passions and denies that
there were any miraculous interpositions in his
day. For my own part I find no insuperable diffi
culty in understanding Swedenborg's writings, at
least to as great an extent as can be to any use or
benefit in life. For this purpose I need but one
liberty, a liberty to which he could take no ex
ception were he living, and to which his follow-

116 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. V.
ers have no right to take any exception. Ow,
single liberty alone is required, and Swedenborg's
writings 'will be brought within the field of natu
ral comprehension, and they "will be found full
of truth and wisdom, — of love to God and charity
to all mankind ; — so full of wisdom as to place
their author among the foremost lights of the
world, though shining in darkness. And what is
that liberty ? It is simply the pri'vilege of em
ploying the rule of intei-pretation upon his 'writ
ings which he employed upon the sacred Scrip
ture ; — the privilege of measurably disregarding
the letter and looking to the spirit for the sense
of what he 'wrote.
I say that Swedenborg was a Hermetic Phi
losopher, and purposely wrote obscurely; and
that he was not in a di-eam, but in a state of per
fect " wakefulness," — to use his own language.

Ch. VI.] A HEEMETIC PmLOSOPHEE. 117

CHAPTER VI.
The zealous friends of the Swedish philoso
pher, without much judgment as it appears to
me, have collected a considerable body of tradi
tions, called " documents concerning Sweden
borg," — published in New York in 1847, — calcu
lated, if to be relied upon, to take him out of the
pale of humanity ; but among all those stories I
see nothing to impress me through my marvel
faculty, while some of his acknowledged letters
and declarations explicitly deny all miraculous
intervention in his case, the opening of his inter
nal sight not being a special miracle in his favor,
but an experience possible for other men, — no
doubt of an extraordinary character.
In a letter to Dr. Oetinger (Nov. 11, 1766),
he gives reasons why no miracles need be expect
ed in his day, to wit, that miracles only " con
vince an outward belief," which, according to
Swedenborg's theory, is not efficacious in salva-

118 SWEDENBOEG, [Oh. VI.
tion. He might have urged that there is no
necessary connection between the exercise of
power and the truth of a doctrine.
He further tells Dr. Oetinger, in the same
letter, that he had been chosen from & philosopher
to the office of a teacher, " to the end, that the
spiritual knowledge," revealed in his day, "might
be reasonably learned and rationally understood,"
— a plain declaration, surely, that he appealed
only to our natural faculties, and laid no tax upon
our mere credulity-
Yet he uses some strange language in this
same letter : He says, for example, in answer to
a question proposed by Dr. Oetinger, as to
whether he had "spoken with the Apostles,"
that he had " spoken one whole year with Paul,
and also of what is mentioned in the Epistle to
the Romans, 3. 28. I have spoken (he continues)
three times with John, once with Moses, and I
suppose a hundred times with Luther, who owned
to me that, contrary to the warning of an angel,
he had received the doctrine of salvation by faith
alone, merely with the intent that he might make
an entire separation from Popery. But with an
gels (he goes on to say) I have conversed these
twenty-two years, and daily continue to do so."
How are we to understand these declarations 1

Ch. VL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 119
Certainly, for this purpose, we cannot adopt a
more ready or secure plan than to follow the ex
ample of Swedenborg himself, and seek him in
the spiritual world, and obtain satisfaction from
himself. That this may be done without much diffi
culty, I have it fortunately in my power to show,
in the clearest manner, having conversed with
Swedenborg myself in the S23iritual world, and it
is only necessary for me to " relate " the particu
lars of what passed between us. I have in fact
had not merely one conversation with him, but
have met him many times, and have questioned
him very closely ; and although there are some
few points on which he has shown very little dis
position to be communicative, yet, on the whole,
I have much reason to be thankful for fuU expla
nations on other points.
I was chiefly induced to make the acquaint
ance of Swedenborg by certain encomiums upon
him by his friend Mr. Wilkinson, whom I met
in the spiritual world also, some twelve or thir
teen years ago, and who, in fact, introduced Swe
denborg to me. The philosopher had a veil over
his face, and it was some time before I could ob
tain a clear view of his features. At length.
however, I could see that this veil became less

120 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VI.
and less opaque, until finally it was almost trans
parent, which he explained to me by saying that
he was not in the habit of allowing every one to
see his face, but only those who sought his ac
quaintance from a pure regard for the truth, and
not from idle curiosity. He teUs me that he
never makes himself known to those who seek his
acquaintance with any sinister pm-pose, and not
even to those whose chief desire is to get to
heaven ; for he assures me that the way to truth
is not through heaven, but contrarily the way to
heaven is through the love of truth. He says
this is the only thing valued in heaven, and that
no one is admitted there who is 'without it. I
have spoken with him several times with regard
to his letter to Dr. Oetinger, and he has " owned"
to me that, in what he says in that letter of hav
ing spoken with Paul, he merely meant that he
had studied Paul's epistles for a whole year:
that, in what he says of Luther, he only intended
to express an opinion, derived from the study of
Luther's works, and from a consideration of the
relations he held to the church of Rome, and to
the time in which he lived.
As to what he says in that letter of talking
with angels, he assures me that, when in the
worid, he belonged to a " Society wherein things

Ch. VI.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 121
relati/ng to heaven and to the soul were the only
subjects of discourse and entertainment " [see
Swedenborg's own account of himself, 1769] ; that
he referred to the members of that society as an
gels, because of the innocency, simplicity, and
truthfulness of their lives. He further assures
me, that in all of his writings he has endeavored
to set forth the love of truth, for the sake of the
truth, as the true test of knowledge ; and he
seemed very confident that those who have that
love of truth will understand his writings with
out serious difficulty. — \Concludi/ng paragraph of
Heaven and Hell.']
He referred me to many declarations in the
course of his work on Heaven and Hell, and else
where, to prove that by Angels he merely meant
regenerate men, who have forsaken, not their du
ties in the world, which are never to be neglected,
but the love of the world, and who have vowed a
life of perfect innocency before God and man.
He has told me — and this may surprise some of
his followers — ^that he had some difficulty with
himself in selecting the title for his work on
Heaven and Hell ; that he thought of calling it a
work on the Happiness and Misery of Man ; but
as he reflected that such ordinary expressions

122 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VI.
would not be likely to arrest attention, he adopted
the other, which means the same thing.
He has explained to me, that his memoroMe
relations, to be found in two or three of his works,
were only introduced because he thought that
such " remarkable particulars " might "probably
excite the reader to their first perusal." [Letter
to the Swedish Ambassador, 'without date, page
166 of the Documents.]
I told him that a great many stories had been
put in circulation about him, supposed to show
that he had miraculous powers ; but he assured
me that nearly all of them are " fictions " in
vented by " foolish novelists," [Letter to the
Landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt, July 1577], and,
as to those that are true, they should " not be re
garded as miracles." [Same Letter, and also Let
ter to M. Venator, July 18, 1771.]
I asked him in one of om- conversations, how
he came to use so strange a mode of writing,—
by which, said I, many people have been de
ceived ; — he answered by saying, — ^that they are
not deceived as to doctrine, which every man
must receive upon his own conscience, and not
upon the conscience of another : and that such a
mode of writing has been in use among wise men
from the earliest period of time, of which fact he

Ch. 'VI.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 123
said he had taken especial care to warn his read
ers again and again in his writings, on purpose to
guard against being understood literally.
I told him I thought it doubtful whether he
would be held excusable for adopting the form
of writing he had used : — upon which he looked
very grave, and said that he hoped no one would
be injured by any thing he left behind him in the
world ; that his purpose was always to serve and
benefit mankind ; that, as he himself had not de
pended upon a literal reading, even of the Scrip
tures, he could not imagine that any one would
lean upon the literal sense of his writings, and
forego the practice of charity, which he had taken
so much pains to inculcate. He referred me to
the concluding paragraph of his Letter to M.
Venator, where I find he says that — " Every truth
in the word shines in Heaven ; and comes down
from thence into this world, to those who love
t/ruth lecaMse it is truth; " and he said that by
the use of the word those he intended to include
all men -who love trufh for the sake of truth, and
not from the hope of reward ; — adding that truth
is its own evidence in the same sense as that vir
tue is its own reward ; and that neither the one
nor the other can be possessed but by a life of
truth and charity.

124 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VL
He then came close to me, and whispered
something into my ear ; — upon which I told Mm
that I thought he was right, or, at all events, that
as he thought himself so, it was sufficient forme.
In one of our last conversations, I asked him
how he came to write that little work which he
called Ea/rt7is in the Universe. He asked me if
what he said there of different kinds of men, call
ing them Earths, having certain predominant
characteristics, was not true ; and whether it was
not as easy to locate a representation of human
character in Mars or Jupiter — in Venus or Mer
cury, as in London or Paris, in Amsterdam or
Stockholm? He reminded me that man, as to
life, is a spirit, but, as to body, an earth. I then
remembered that the Alchemists designated dif
ferent sorts of men sometimes by metals, as gold,
silver, lead, &c., and sometimes by planets, as
by the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Saturn, &c.,
and I desisted from asking any further questions
at that time.*
* The compiler of a Compendium of the Theological a-nd Spir
itual Writings of Umanttel Swedenborg, published by Crosby 4
Nichols and Otis Clap & Co., 1854, calls attention in a note, page
68, to what appeared a remarkable fact ; that, as a scientific
writer, Swedenborg knew there were more than seven planets ;
but when, afterwards, his spiritual sight was opened, he speaks
of only seven. Tlic explanation of this ig the fact, that the AI-

Ch. VI.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 125
It may be observed that Plato speaks of two
sorts of men, hard to be discerned by the gene
rality of mankind, because they occupy extremes,
one li-ving in darkness and the other in light ;
meaning simply that the generality of men are
of a mixed nature, not very good and not very
chemists used the planets as symbols only ; they did not use
them astronomically. They placed the sun in the midst, with an
equal number of planets on each side, to exhibit, for their pur
pose, a certain equilibrium ; which Swedenborg also speaks of,
especially at the close of his Treatise on Heaven and Hell. If
the reader has a perfect copy of Sir George Eipley's Compound
of Alchemy, he may observe at the end a plate or diagram of the
Alchemic scheme, such as was without doubt in the mind of Swe
denborg. He was not writing of science. Most of the Alchemic
writers refer to these seven planets, the author of the Nevo Light
of Alch,emy (9th Treatise), somewhat minutely, arranging them
first in the following order, to wit ; Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the
Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. The author then proceeds
to arrange them iu triplets, by bringing the extremes together,
with the Sun between each couple ; thus, Saturn, the Sun, and
the Moon ; then Jupiter, the Sun, and Mercury ; and finally Mars,
the Sun, and Venus ; — each exterior couple representing condi
tions of what these writers call the Two Luminaries (active and
passive), with the Sun in the middle, their real sun in this scheme,
however, being invisible.
Whatever may have been their real purpose, they have used
but seven, and Swedenborg, in Ms theological or Alchemic writ
ings, hmited himself to the same number, though, as a man of
science, he knew there were more. They were merely used as
symbols.

126 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VI,
bad, and from the lack of experience, or observa
tion, or both, they do not readily conceive of na
tures much above or much below themselves.
Hence the worst of men are below ordinary con
ception, while the best of men are above it.
The best of men Swedenborg describes as an
gels, and speaks of them as of another earth than
ours ; but he is speaking of men nevertheless, in
our midst, yet men who live to the spirit and not
to the fiesh ; — men who love the truth, and whose
chief delight is in it ; — who love to think of God
and of eternal things ; who are in the habit of
realizing in themselves God's eternal presence,
and thence acquire or enter into a sense of their
o'wn eternity, in the very centre of which they
find themselves as if waking from a dream, in
such a manner that what had seemed most real
becomes shadowy and imaginary, while that
which had been regarded as mystical and vision
ary becomes the only real. Tet all this in the
body and in a state of perfect "wakefulness;"
and such men know that they are no longer in a
dream, though' they feel that to talk of such ex
periences must seem like dreaming to those who
are in the sleep of nature.
It is very plain that no one while in the body

Ch. VI.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 127
can ever, in any strict sense, be said to be out of
the body, though it is easily conceivable that a
man may be in such a state, through the energy
and action of his inner life, as scarcely, if at all,
to feel the pressure of his body, and may hardly
know he has a body : — and this is as possible in
the purely intellectual life as through the affec-
tional or passional nature, where it often occurs.
It has been well said, that we may and do per
ceive those ideas and inner actions of life which
we conceive by the intellect, and know them to
be far more real, though unseen outwardly, than
the so-called outward realities, which are often
known to be shadows while we observe them.
In every point of view, it seems certain that
no man, while in the body, will ever see beyond
his nature considered in its double existence as
inward and outward, and hence no man will ever
travel, we may be sure, to another world, while
in the body, and bring back thence any thing but
what he carries 'with him, or may find here be
fore he sets out upon his journey.
That God, nevertheless, should enlighten the
minds of some men according to their capacity
for reception, ought not to surprise any one in
whom the doctrine of God's omnipresence and
omnipotence is a living truth, and not merely a

128 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. 'VI,
verbal creed practically alien to the life, and ca
pable of being roused only by " storms and earth
quakes" of the inner or outer world. "To see
God only in what seems to disturb the peace of
nature is to see him only in his terrors, and is
scarcely to see him at all."
Swedenborg's memorable relations, as he calls
them, for he does not call them revelations, are
nothing but intellectual exercises, conducted un
der the idea of God's eternal presence, and thinly
veiled 'with a phraseology selected and adopted
for no other pui-pose in the world but to remove
them or show their removal from the sensuous
world. The natural man knoweth not the things
of the Spirit ; they are foolishness to him ; and
therefore he will not listen to them as in this
world, spiritually observed, or, in Swedenborg's
own language, as seen in a " celestial idea ; " but
he will listen to one who teUs him that he has
seen such things, in the spirit, in another earth,
or in some star beyond the sun ! But this is a
fiction, and whoever thinks otherwise is greatly
deceived, and misses the purest benefit of Swe
denborg's writings.
It is but fair and just to interpret Swedenborg
according to the spirit of these remarks, and the
more so as, by jjaragraph 50 of Angelic Wisdom

Ch. VI.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 129
concerning Divine Providence, — and in number
less other places, — ^he seems to tell us in open
plain language how to understand what he says
of angels. "No one (says he) thinks from space and
time when he thinks concerning those who are in
the spiritual world." He says that, " angels and
spii-its are affections which are of love, and
thoughts thence," and that, " when any one [any
one, not himself only] thinks about another from
affection, with the intention that he wishes to see
him, or to speak with him, he is set forthwith
present." (£**«* Space and time make nothing
towards presence, for the reason that affection,
and thought thence, are not in space and time ;
and spirits and angels are affections and thence
thoughts." I find a remarkable coincidence with the idea
or principle here expressed, in a very singular
Hermetic volume, published in English (trans
lated from the French) in 1650, with the title
Unheard of Curiosities concerning the Talis-
manical Sculpture qf the Persians, the Horoscope
of the Patriarches y and the Reading of the Stars.
This is purely a Hermetic book, and though
absolute nonsense to the general reader, it is in-
6*

130 SWEDENBOEG, [Oh. VI.
terlarded with the main doctrines of Swedenborg
enigmatically expressed, especially the doctrine
that God is Man.* The book had passed through
two editions in French before it appeared in
English, which may assure us that it had readers,
* The reader may find a great deal of Swedenborgianism an
ticipated in the writings of the elder Yan Helmont. Van H. in
his Vision of the Soul expressly says that, inasmuch as God
" hath vouchsafed to adopt only the soul of man to the image
of Himself, it appears also a genuine consequence, that the im
mense and ineffable God is also of human figure ; and that, by
an argument drawn A posteriori, if arguments be of any validity
in this incomprehensible subject."
It will be recollected that Swedenborg says again and agiun,
that God always appears before the angels a,s a man.
The doctrine of the grand-man pervades a volume by the
younger Van Helmont, — the father and son were both Hermetic
philosophers, — entitled. Paradoxal Discourses of F. M. Van
Helmont, concerning the Maa-ocosm and Microcosm, or the OreM-
er and the Lesser World, and their Union, pubUshed in English
in 1685. In this work. Hermetic throughout, ch. iii., sec. 1.,
treats oi Matter and Spirit under the symbolic expresaons, Water
and Quick-sand. When the author says that diggers for -metals
everywhere, even under the highest mountains, are sure to come
to Quick-sand, lie means that searchers for truth, in pursuing
their inquiries through nature, always reach a Spiritual limit,
" beyond which there is no farther digging."
At page 65, of the Microcosm, the thoughts of man are called
Spirits, and are classified into good and bad Angels of man.
Swedenborg calls the affections and thoughts thence. Spirits
and Angels.

Ch. VL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 131
whether fools or not. The book is full of learning,
Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and may demon
strate to the curious reader that there was a class
of men altogether out of, if not above the common
order, who cultivated a science or art entirely
unknown to the " common sort." This art was
Hermetic philosophy, which has been cultivated
in all ages though under various names, including
astrology. But, for the coincidence, which it is my object
to bring out :
" Those then (says this author) that are well
skilled in the Secrets [Hermetic Secrets] of the
Theology of the ancients, assure us, that those
that first set up images in their temples, resem
bling the shapes of angels that have appeared
upon earth, had no other design in so doing, save
only the more easily to invite down those blessed
spirits, by the force of the resemblance. And I
know not whether or no, by the very same virtue
of resemblance, which is found betwixt God and
men ; {Fctciamus hominem ad imaginem, et simi-
litudinem nostrum:) it hath not rightly been
affirmed by some Divines, that the Son of God
wouM nevertheless have become man (yet with
out suffering death), though Adam had never
fallen. But speaking of things, as they are now

132 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VI.
at present, we know, that Jesas Christ is found
in the midst of those, that speak, with Faith, of
his name : because that when we speak with afeo-
tion of any one, we represent him to ourselves in
our imagination. When, therefore, speaking of
Jesus Chist we fancy him as he is, he is instantly
present with us, appea/ring to our hearts at the
very instant that we there frame his image by ow
imagination. So true it is, that resemblance hath
the power to work wonders, even upon him that
hath dependence upon no other, and is not under
any power or law. But such conceptions as these
are to be entertained with all piety and humility ;
and proposed with such sanctity, as becomes those
that speak of so adorable a subject."
I will note, in passing, that the identical doc
trine of Swedenborg, as expressed in paragraph
50, Divine Providence, is in the 10th book of the
Pymander of Hermes, whose very name has been
given to the philosophy cultivated by Sweden
borg. See, especially, paragraphs 117 to 124 in
clusive. But, upon refiection, as the Pymander
is out of print and scarcely kno-wn, I will copy
these few paragraphs, which the reader may at
his leisure compare 'with the doctrine of Sweden
borg. 117. " All things are in God, not as lying in a

Ch. VI.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 133
place ; for place is with a body, and immoveable,
and these things that are there placed, have no
motion. 118. "But they lie otherwise in that which is
unbodily, than in the fantasy, or to appear
ance. 119. " Consider Him that contains all things,
and understand that nothing is more capacious
than that which is incorporeal, nothing more
swift, nothing more powerful : but it is most ca
pacious, most swift, and most strong.
120. "And judge of this by thyself; com
mand thy soul to go to India, and sooner than
thou canst bid it, it will be there.
121. " Bid it likewise pass over the ocean, and
suddenly it will be there ; not as passing from
place to place, but suddenly it will be there.
122. " Command it to fly into Heaven, and it
will need no wings, neither shall any thing hin
der it ; not i\iefire of the Sun, not the ether, nor
the turning of the spheres ; not the bodies of any
of the other stars ; — ^but, cutting through all, it
will fly up to the last and furtherest body.
123. " And if thou wilt even break the whole,
and see those things that are without the world
(if there be any thing without), thou mayest.
124. "Behold how great power, how great

134 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VI.
swiftness, thou hast ! Canst thou do all these
things, and cannot God ?
Let these passages be compared with Sweden
borg's doctrine of space and presence, and with
the power of resemblance, &c., and they will be
seen to be the same.
K we will take Swedenborg's own description
or designation of what he understood by orngeh
and spirits, and not imagine full-faced little
cherubs with wings, there need be no difficulty.
According to Swedenborg, man is inwardly,
or as to his spiritual nature, in the spiritual
world ; but externally, or as to his sensuous na
ture, he is in the natural world.
Here is a passage from Divine Love and Wis
dom, which assuredly ought to tell us how the
author would be understood, when speaking of
angels. " All that is here said of the angels, and of
their turning to the Lord as a sun, is also to be
understood of man, as to his spint ; for man, as
to his mind, is a spirit, and if he be in love and
wisdom, he is an angel; wherefore also after
death, when he puts off his externals, which he
has derived from the natural world, he becomes
a spirit or an angel : and since the angels con-

Ch. VI.], A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 135
stantly turn their faces eastward to the sun, con
sequently to the Lord, it is also said of the man
who is in love and wisdom from the Lord, that
he sees God, that he looks to God, and that he
has God before his eyes ; by which is meant [I
italicise this] that he leads the life of an angel.
Such things are said in the world, as well because
they actually exist in Heaven, as because they
actually exist in man's spirit. In prayer, who
does not look before him up to God, to whatever
quarter his face is turned.
" The angels constantly turn their faces to the
Lord as a Sun, because they are in the Lord and
the Lord in them, and the Lord interiorly leads
their affections and thoughts, and constantly
turns them to Himself; consequently, they can
not look any otherwise than to the East, where
the Lord appears as a Sun : [I beg the reader,
for his own sake, not to take this in a physical
sense ; but rather think it symbolic of the star
which appeared in the east.] Hence it is evident
(the passage proceeds), that the angels do not
turn themselves to the Lord, but that the Lord
turns them to himself. For when the angels [I
repeat, that Swedenborg is speaking of man, but
under certain conditions rarely met with ; and
therefore the sense is, that when men] think in-

136 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. VI.
teriorly of the Lord, they do not think of him
otherwise than in themselves. Interior thought
itself, does not cause distance; but exterior
thought, which acts as one with the light of the
eyes, does make distance ; the reason is, because
exterior thought is in space, but not interior
thought, and when it is not in space as in the
spiritual world, still it is in the appearance of
space. " The turning of the angels to the Lord is
such, that at every tui-n of their bodies, they look
to the Lord, as a Sun before them : an angel [a
man, when in the right state for it, — ^for it is not
true of the sensuous man] can turn himself round
and round, and thereby see various things which
are about him, but still the Lord constantly ap
pears before his face as a Sun. This may seem
wonderful, but nevertheless it is the truth."
What is this but a mode of speaking of a man
who lives in the idea of God's omnipresence?
Such a man is said to see from a celestial idea,
and though he looks upon the very same things
externally that are visible to the natural man,
they are, by virtue of the " celestial idea," so to
speak, transformed into the spirit ; while yet,
they remain the same externally. Hence Swe
denborg often reiterates that things in the spirit-

Ch. VI.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 137
ual world, as to external appearance, are the
same as in the natural world.
The distinction lies in the nature of man, or
in the different conditions of different men.
But I may be told that in a letter to Dr. Get
inger, of the 8th of Nov., 1768, Swedenborg " sa
credly and solemnly declares that the Lord him
self had been seen of him," and that he sent him
to do what he did, and that for that purpose he
had " opened and enlightened the interior part
of his soul," so that he could " see what is in the
spiiitual world and those that are therein," and
that, " that privilege had been continued to him
for twenty-two years."
The question arises with many, — ^how can
Swedenborg's veracity be maintained, and any
other than a literal interpretation be put upon
such explicit declarations ?
I would answer, that as large a latitude of in
terpretation of Swedenborg's declarations must
be allowed as he himself took with the equally
explicit statements in the Scriptures. Whatever
others might say of this license, neither he, if
living, nor his friends have any right to com
plain. How then does the case stand ?
We read expressly that God spake to Moses

138 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VI.
out of the burning bush, and that the bush
though burning was not consumed. Millions
and millions of the human race, putting faith in
the Scriptures, receive these statements as literal
ly true ; but Swedenborg does not hesitate to in
terpret this burning bush as a symbol of the Lam,
in the letter of which was contained the Spirit of
God, like the fire which burned in the bush but
did not consume it, and he apparently placed no
value upon the literal reading of the text.
But how is Swedenborg to be understood, in
the letter to Dr. Oetinger ?
I would gather an answer by an easy infer
ence from part of a discourse by a celebrated
divine of the last century on Micah, 6. 8. He
hath shewed thee, 0 man, what is good; and
what doth the Lord reguire of thee, but to do just
ly, and to love mercy, cmd to walk humbly with
thy God.
The author, the Eev. John Heylyn, 1770,
prefers the marginal translation, which reads —
"To humble thyself to walk with God;" — upon
which he proceeds to show that pride separates
us from God; that, by pride, men are always
thinking of themselves, so as " to leave no room
for God in their souls ; " that " self usurps his
altar there;" but that Humility dethrones the

Ch. VI.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 139
idol, self, which profaned God's temple, and leaves
"Him his proper place in our affections;" that
God cannot be known to the soul until humility
has cast down all imaginations and every high
thought that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God ; that, God can only be known as the
sovereign good of the soul ; that, not to know
him as infinitely desirable, is to be ignorant of
him ; for that, he is our supreme good, and the
soul cannot be said to know him, who does not
apprehend him as such : — but that, the soul can
not apprehend him as her supreme good while
any created good has the preference in her es
teem. The author then proceeds to show, that,
when humility has prepared the heart for the
knowledge of God, " He graciously vouchsafes to
MANIFEST himself to our souls, causing there a
lively SENSE of his peesence ;" — the author citing
God's promises, Is. 57. 15, and John 14. 21, 23,
to encourage us in humility and the practice of
virtue, affirming that, upon these conditions,
" God will MANIFEST himself unto us ; " that Je
sus Christ and his Father " will come unto us,
and make their abode with us," &c.
I see no need of supposing that Swedenborg
meant any thing more, in affirming that the
" Lord " had been " seen of him," than that, with

140 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VI.
respect to himself, the promises of Scripture to
the truly humble had been fulfilled. The secre
tum artis had, as he thought, been given to him,
and his sense of the magnitude of this " gift of
God " may, in some degree, be estimated by
its consequences, as shown ¦ in liis life and
labors. That the "Lord" had commanded him "to
do what he did," merely signifies, that under the
consciousness of possessing a great truth, he felt
an impulse to work for the good of mankind ;
and, acknowledging this impulse to have pro
ceeded from the author of all good, he did not
hesitate to speak of it as the command of the
" Lord," and feeling it as such he religiously
obeyed it.
The assumption, if it was one, that the Lord
had commanded him to " do what he did," was
common with Hermetic writers during the mid
dle ages. They refer to their knowledge as su
pernaturally acquired, — as acquired by inspiror
tion, — and although they often declare that they
are not permitted by God to reveal or make
known the truth beyond a certain limit, yet up
to that limit they claim to speak by express au
thority, or by the " command " of the Lord. One
or two examples of this will suffice. Basil Vol-

Ch. VI.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 141
entine, after treating of what he calls natural
and supernatural things, says :
" What I have done, has not been done from
a desire of vain and transitory glory ; but I have
been induced thereunto by the command of
Christ the Lord, that his glory and goodness in
eternal and temporal matters, should not be con
cealed from any man, but to the praise, honor,
and glory of his holy everlasting name, — that it
might be exalted, acknowledged, and revealed in
his Majesty by reason of his Highness and Al
mightiness, through the confirmation of his won
derful deeds. And secondly, I have been led
thereunto by Love and Charity towards my
neighbor, — ^for his good as for my own ; * * *
and likewise that the Supremest mystery may
not quite be suffocated in darkness nor be drowned
in overflowing waters, [i. e. suffocated by ignor
ance, or drowned by animal passions,] but be de
livered out of the deep and filthy mire of the
Idiotish Crew by the right appearance of the
true Light — " &c.
Here is enough to show that others besides
Swedenborg claimed to publish their sense of
truth by the command of the Lord.
In the above passage Basil Valentine, an al
chemist be it remembered, refers to the " com-

142 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VI.
mand " of the Lord as his authority for what he
taught. The anonymous Cosmopolita, another alche
mist, and one of the most ingenious among them,
in Ripley Revived (1678), refers to both a com,-
mission and a permission, the latter word being
very frequently used by Swedenborg, as his
readers will remember ; for example, — as (Some
thing) ha,s been unkno'wn to this day, it is peemit-
TED to relate, &g. : — this language is fi-equently
met in the writings of Swedenborg.
Cosmopolita writes ; — " It is to be understood
that the most wise God hath a ruling hand here
in, and all the Sons of Art have their commis
sion as it were given them ; they 'wiite and teach
according to that permission which the Creator
of all things hath given them." But, neverthe
less, as they taught in figures, parables and alle
gories, he continues, as follows :
" And truly it is not our intent to make the
Art common to all kinds of men ; we write to the
deserving only; intending our books to be but
as way-marks to those who may travel in these
paths of nature, and we do what we can to shut
out the unworthy : yet we 'wiite so plainly [so
openly] that as many as God hath appointed to
this Mastery shall certainly understand us, and

Ch. VI.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 143
have cause to be thankful for our faithfulness
herein. This gratitude we shall receive from the
Sons of this Science, whatever we have from
others : Our books, therefore, are intended for
the former ; but we do not write a word to the
latter. Moreover, we write not our books for the
information of the illiterate, as though every vul
gar mecha/nical distiller, alchemist, or sophister,
should readily carry away the Golden Fleece ;
nor do we intend that any covetous man, who
makes gain his utmost ends, shall readily gather
the Apples of the Hesperides ; nor yet, that any,
though learned, should by once or twice careless
and slight reading of our books be straightway
made a philosopher: Nay verily, the Majesty
of this Science [call it the true knowledge of God]
forbids so great impiety ; it is the gift of God,
and not of men : our books are for those who
have been or intend to be employed in the search
of nature ; we hint the way ; prayer to God and
patient persistence in the use of means, must open
these doors. Let, therefore, profound meditation,
accompanied with the blessing of God, Furnaces,
Coals, Glasses, and indefatigable pains, be thy
interpreters, and let them serve for commentaries
upon our writings. So I did ; so I advise thee :

144 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VL
and may the blessing of God attend all studious,
virtuous searchers in this art."
Swedenborg, about a centm-y later than Cos
mopolita, 'wi-ote much more openly than his pre
decessors in the Art ; — and why ? Because he
thought that the world had so advanced in knowl
edge as to receive without injury the strong
" meat," — ^that God is [a] man, and has actually
been "seen" in the world in his humanity;—
that God is the Lord; that the Lord is Heaven;
that Heaven is in man ; that men are the stars
of Heaven, differing indeed in " glory " (St. Paul),
but that in every metal (as the alchemists express
it) there is a little " gold ; " — and that this gold,
" this stone, this wealth, this treasure, though it be
but like to a grain of mustard seed, yet it grows
to be the greatest of all trees, in whose branches
the birds of the air make their nests, and under
whose shadow the beasts of the field dwelL"
Salmon's Commentary upon Hermes.
The absence of quotations, or references to
authorities, in Swedenborg's theological writings,
has been observed, and the reason assigned for it
by his admirers is, that as he derived his knowl
edge directly from the teaching of the Lord
(through the opening of his internal sight) he had

Ch. VL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 145
no occasion to fortify his communications by any
such references.
This also was a pretence of the alchemists.
Thus, in " Secrets Revealed (1669), the author
says, — " I could cite all of the philosophers that
'write of this thing, but I need no witnesses ; be
cause, being myself an Adept, I do write more
plainly than any heretofore."
In another place he says: — "As I 'write these
things for the good of my neighbor, let it be
enough, that I profess there is none that ever writ
in this art so clearly; and that many a time in
writing I laid aside my pen, because I was rather
'willing to have concealed the truth under a mask ;
but God compelled me to write, whom I could not
resist, who alone knows the heart, to whom only
be glory forever."
In another place, still, he says : — " He that
hath this [the Stone] needs no information from
another ; himself now standing in the centre, he
may easily view the circumference, and then ex
perience will be, next to the Spirit of God, his
best guide."
Sandi/vogius, in A New Light of Alchemy,
writes in a similar manner. Indeed, — if the reader
has access to the writings of Basil, Valentine,
Sandi/vogius, Cosmopolita, and — I had almost said
7

146 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. VI.
or — Espagnet, all of them Alchemists, he may de
rive great assistance from them in understanding
Swedenborg ; and, on the other hand, the study
of the Swedish philosopher wiU throw great light
upon their obscure writings.
Whether Swedenborg . was or was not mis
taken, either in regard to his docti-ines, or in his
opinion of the intelligence of the age in which he
wrote, in comparison with that of an earlier pe
riod — see on this subject one of his letters to Br.
Oetinger — is not for me to determine. It is cer
tain that he was a Hermetic philosopher, -m-iting,
not so very obscurely, under the idea that the
Alpha and Omega are one, and intimating that
these two are God and man, and yet but one na-
TtJEE. I have often suggested the importance of sep
arating in our minds the idea of the truth from
the representations of it by those who profess to
teach it ; and on this subject, more than on all
others, it is necessary to have regard to this prin
ciple. Those who are curious in their inquiries
into the nature of Hermetic Philosophy, under
its various names in the world, for it is a very
Proteus, should first seek to learn what its adepts
taught, and then propose to themselves an alto
gether different question, as to the verity of their

Ch. VL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 147
teaching ; and they cannot be too careful as to
what they receive as the truth of God.
As to Swedenborg, he was a man, and no
more ; human, and therefore fallible ; and the
light he speaks of, though always clear in itself,
is never so in what Swedenborg himself calls its
ultimate, especially when this ultimate is a con
catenation of ink-marks called human writing or
printing. Here the light must always shine
darkly. And this induces me to say that possi
bly, — ^though I have no wish to judge him, — pos
sibly, I say, he made a mistake in so far overstep
ping the law of Hermetic silence, as to expose
himself and his writings to be misunderstood as
they have been.
Tet there is no need of misunderstanding him,
if due attention be paid to his own declarations,
adjusted, according to the Hermetic rule, to " the
possibility of nature." It is not contrary to this
possibility, that the " Lord " should manifest
himself to man, though this be the work of the
" Artist " of man, and not of man, an artist. It
is is only an exaltation of nature in or through
man, by which the man is, as it were, taken out
of himself, as an isolated and selfish being, and
elevated into the universal, where he works for

148 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VI
the good of the whole, finding his own happiness
in his labor.
I have already cited a few passages from Swe
denborg to assist in detei-mining how his language
in reference to angels and spirits is to be under
stood. By angels he meant men, but men per
fected in their nature, — perfected in the spirit, if
the reader pleases, — and men too, living or dead,
if he had any idea of them, as I will show pres
ently. They must be or must have been without
guile, — turned inside outwards, as John Isaac
Hollanders expresses it in his Alchemic work
Of Saturn, — to be classed with Angels.
As to the extent or reach of the so-caUed m-
ternal sight or 'view of the spiritual world, we
have some refnarkable testimony from General
Tuxen. Let it be considered.
If the account may be relied upon, it appeai-s
that on one occasion Swedenborg was presented
to the Queen of Sweden, who, says General
Tuxen, expressed her satisfaction at seeing him,
and asked him, " Whether it was true that he
could converse with the deceased ? He answer
ed. Yes. She inquired further. Whether it was
a science that could be communicated to and by
others ? No. What is it, then ? A gift of the
Lord. Can you, then, speak with every one de
ceased, or only with cert.ain persons? He an-

Ch. VL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 149
swered [and the reader should attend to this an
swer], I can not converse with all, but with such
as I have known in this world ; with all royal
and princely persons, with all renowned heroes,
or great and learned men, whom I have known
either personally or from their actions or writ
ings ; consequently, with all, of whom L could
form an idea ; for it may be supposed that a per
son whom I never knew, nor of whom I could
form any idea, I neither could, nor would wish
to speak with."
It would appear, then, that Swedenborg's
knowledge oi facts was not increased by his sight
of or into the spiritual world. His original ideas
remained the same, while his sight into the spirit
ual world continued. What then took place ?
Plainly nothing more than that his ideas under
went an examination from a spiritual point of
view, and inferences and results were derived
from them, which were themselves considered
spiritual ; — ^but only in the sense that the original
ideas were, and Swedenborg's theory places all
of the ideas of man in the spiritual world ; for
man, as to his " interior " spirit (or nature), says
he, " is in the spiritual world."
It was the pretence to greater infusions of
light, the mistakes of excited imaginations, or the
daring impostures of corrupt and wicked men,

150 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VI
that brought out the following eulogy upon
Ralpho :
" His knowledge was not far behind
The knight's, but of another kind.
And he another way came by 't ;
Some call it Gifts, and some New Light.
A lib'ral art that cost no pains
Of study, industry, or brams.
* • * •
But as he got it freely, so
He spent it frankly and freely too.
For saints themselves will sometimes be,
Of gifts that cost them nothing, free.
* * ? *
He could deep mysteries unriddle,
As easily as thread a needle
For as of vagabonds we say,
That they are ne'er beside their way :
'Whate'er men speak by this new Ught,
Still they are sure to be i' the right.
'Tis a dark-lanthom of the spirit,
Which none see by but those that bear it ;
A light that falls down from on high.
For spiritual trades to cozen by :
An ignis fatuus, that bewitches.
And leads men into pools and ditches
To make them dip themselves, and sound
For Christendom, in dirty pond :
To dive like wild-fowl, for salvation.
And fish to catch regeneration.

Ch. VL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 151
But what bigot durst ever draw.
By inward light, a deed in law 1
Or could hold forth by revelation
An answer to a declaration 1
For those that meddle with their tools,
"Will cut their fingers, if they're fools."
There is nothing in any of Swedenborg's
writings, justly interpreted by rules to be found
in the 'writings themselves, to give occasion for
such severity.
In what respect, then, was Swedenborg's
knowledge advanced, by his sight into the spirit
ual world ?
His friends might say that it was purified
from image or sensuous elements, and clarified ;
and in proportion as this was done, his knowledge,
from being special, became universalized, living
upon principles, and not merely upon image facts ;
so that, as he says himself, he was not solicitous
about his memory of things, but depended more
upon an intellectual life, where one principle
holds, as it were, a multitude of facts, and is the
test of the truth of all facts having relation to the
principle. With Swedenborg the ordinary tenet, assert
ing God's omnipresence — ^which with most men
is merely a form of words, a mere verbal confes-

152 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VL
sion of faith without influencing the heart and
life — became a living truth. As the Divine is
in all things, as all men say by habit, Sweden
borg, by contemplation, came practically into
such a state as to see all things in the Di'dne ;
but — and it is important to observe this — ^he saw
nothing in the Divine but what he saw, inwardly
or outwardly, in the world, the two worlds, natu
ral and spiritual, being, in fact, but one world
united, as he called it, by correspondence ; which
correspondence is so exact, that all things in the
spiritual world appear as in the natural world ;
" so similar (says he), that as to external aspect
there is no difference." — {Heaven and Hell, par.
582.) Those who fall into, or reach this state of vi
sion, are usually called mystics, though upon what
just ground this is considered a reproach, I con
fess, I do not understand, seeing that such men
do but practically live in the doctrine of God's
omnipresence, which others assert, but practically
deny ; but those who assert the principle, and
yet deride the mystic, do but confess their igno
rance or their hypocrisy, or, if they prefer the
term, their infidelity. He is the infidel, whose
life and practice denies his confession of faith, not
ho in whom the faith and practice are united.

Ch. VII.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 153

OHAPTEE VII.
I HAVE incidentally shown in what manner
many passages in Swedenborg's writings are to be
interpreted, and have indicated some principles
by which most of his writings may be understood.
I will now interpret a few more passages, but the
reader must bear in mind that the Swede was a
Hei-metic philosopher writing under a veil, often
writing of man as man in a natural sense, and
then of man as a spirit, and again as a regenerate
man (calling him an angel) ; and, besides these
different modes of speaking of him, he is some
times called a house, a world, an earth, a temple,
a tabernacle, apalace, the palace of a king, not
made with hands, for nothing is more certain
than that Swedenborg might have cautioned his
readers in the language of Cambachius, the Al
chemist :
" Let me entreat you (addressing the reader)
to take notice, by the way, that when you find
any mention made of heaven, earth, soul, spirits ;

154 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VIL
or our heaven, &c., these are not meant the celes
tial Heaven, or natural earth ; but terms used
by the philosophers to hide their sayings from the
wicked : spoken with all due reverence to the
Divine Majesty; of whose glorious attributes
the true philosophers and astrologers are as ten
der as Classical John; yet this I thought good
to mention, being cautious lest any spark of my
flint should touch the wildfire of his beacons;
but that my salt may rather preserve the hopes
of the intelligent reader, to dive through his
studies to his crowned haven." — {Sal, Lumen,
Spiritus Mundi Philosophici, 1657.)
I will just remark, in passing, that the As
trologers, the true astrologers here referred to,
were not ignorant and pretentious predicting im
postors, but were students of "astral" secrets,
meaning the heavenly principles, or the spii-itual
nature of man, wherein the philosopher sought
his caelum, a place of heavenly peace, to be en
joyed in silence, and not in the noise of the
world, where there is always danger of bringing
its possession into jeopardy.
The reader is now invited to consider a few
passages from Swedenborg's writings.
Paragraph 174, Heaven and Hdl : " When

Ch. VIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 155
it has been given me to be in company with an
gels, the things which were there have been seen
by me altogether as those which are in the world ;
and so perceptibly, that I knew no otherwise
than that I was in the world, and there in the
palace of a king : I also spoke with them as man
with man."
In this paragraph, the World is the universe ;
the Palace is man ; the King is the king of
kings, and the Angels are men perfected in the
spiritual or celestial sense, men who lived, like
Swedenborg, in a constant sense of God's pres
ence, expecting a continuance of that state be
yond this " ti-ansitory and educational scene." I
state this as the theory ; let the worth of it be
examined by every man for himself.
Par. 177, same work : " Because angels are
men and live 'with one another as the men of the
earth do, therefore they have garments, habita
tions, and other like things, yet with the differ
ence that they have all things more perfect, be
cause in a more perfect state."
Why more perfect? Simply because they
are supposed to live to the spirit, and not to the
body, but the angels spoken of are men, never
theless, living in the world, though not of the
world. — John xvii. 16.

156 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. 'VH,
The habitation of the soul, and the soul itself
the habitation of the spirit, is sometimes spoken
of as a garden, a paradisiacal garden, where there
are flowers and fruits, such as are " nowhere to
be seen in the world," and these fruits are said
to be gathered, " according to the good of Love
in which the intelligent are."
The angels are said to "see such things, he-
cause a garden and paradise, and also fi-uit-trees
and flowers, correspond to intelligence and wis
dom." " That such things (he continues) are in
the heavens, is also known in the earth, but only
to those who are in good, and who have not ex
tinguished in themselves the light of Heaven by
natural light and its fallacies ; for they say, when
speaking of Heaven, that such things are there
as the ear hath not heard nor the eye seen."
Any one may see, at least when it has been
pointed out, that Swedenborg here simply dis
tinguishes two classes of men in the world, and
not out of it — one living to the Spirit, and the
other to nature in a subordinate sense ; and that
ihe fruits spoken of are the fruits of the Spirit, as
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, good
ness, faith, meekness, temperance — against which
there is no la.w.— Gal. v. 22, 23. He says that
those who have extinguished in themselves the

Ch. VIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 157
Ught of heaven, still testify their belief in heaven
by saying that such things are in heaven as " eye
hath not seen," &c., and he might have added,
as a recent writer* has done, that " the Heaven
of God is not only that which eye hath not seen,
but that which eye shall never see."
This is the true interpretation, the internal
sense of Swedenborg's reference to the flowers
and fruits of paradise.
Why is it that most men are so willing to
defer the joys of paradise to another world, as if
they were unattainable here ? Is it because, as
we commonly hear or read, they prefer the sen
suous to the spiritual fi-uits, and do not under
stand how they may possess both, by " using the
world without abusing it ? " Is it because they
prefer the present to the future, while yet it is
certain that the future is contained in the
present ?
In paragraph 190, Hea/ven a/nd Hell, we
read —
" The houses in which angels dwell are not
built like the houses in the world, but are given
them gratis by the Lord, to every one according
to their reception of good and truth."
Let this be interpreted by the following pas-
* F. 'W. Robertson, Third Series, Sermons.

3 58 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VIL
sage from Philo, simply understanding that
Philo's theoretic man of virtue is Swedenborg's
angel :
" God has thought fit to give as a reward fo
the virtuous a house thoroughly well built and
well put together from the foundations to the
roof; and the most natural house for the soul is
the body, inasmuch as it does many things neces
sary and useful for life, and especially on account
of the mind which has been purified by perfect
purifications ; aud which, having been initiated
in the divine mysteries [has had its internal sight
opened, as Swedenborg would say], and ha'ring
learnt to dwell only among the motions and pe
riodical revolutions of the heavenly bodies, God
has honored with tranquillity, wishing it to be
completely undisturbed and exempt from any
contact of those passions which the necessities of
the body engender." **->«•" This is the
mind (continues Philo) in which the prophet
[referring to Moses] says that God walks as in
his palace ; for the mind of the 'wise man [Swe
denborg's angel] is in truth the palace and the
house of God." * * * * "But all these
statements are uttered in a metaphorical form,
and contain an allegorical meaning."
I consider Swedenborg a strict rationalist,

Ch. VIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 159
when rightly understood, and not mystical at all
except in the form of his writings.
The concluding passage ofthe work on Heaven
and Hell was no doubt expressly designed as a
caution to the reader, that the whole subject of
the book is to be " reasonably learned and natu
rally understood," as Swedenborg expresses him
self in a letter to Dr. Oetinger.
Par. 603 : " What has been said in this work
concerning heaven, the world of spirits, and hell,
will be obscure to those who are not in the de
light [affection or love] of knowing spiritual
truths, but clear to those who are in that delight,
especially to those who are in the love of truth,
for the sake of truth, that is, who love truth be
cause it is truth ; for, whatever is loved enters
with light into the idea of the mind, especially
truth, when it is loved, because all truth is in
light." Swedenborg might well have concluded his
work in the language of a great man who
flourished a century before him, whose works he
must necessarily have studied, for " he read
every thing," but whom he never alludes to.
" K the way that leads to this [spiritual state]
seem arduous, still, it may be trod : and arduous
it must be, since it is so rarely found. For, if

160 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VII
our supreme good were at hand, and could be
easily attained, how should it be neglected by
almost all ? But aU excellent things are as diffi
cult as rare."
Books of alchemy and Hermetic philosophy
are filled with references to two certain things,
very uncertainly known, called the sun and moon,
which are also called active and passive, agent
and patient, and hundreds of other names ; and
great care is taken to set forth their mystical
unity as an origin, or originating principle, whence
proceed innumerable effects. Thus, also, Sweden
borg has much to say of the marriage of the good
and true and of its happy fi-uits. The two things
are supposed to be attributes of one thing, in an
indissoluble trinity, holding the whole world in
a nut-shell, no larger than the alchemist's egg,
whatever that is.
I cannot positively say that Swedenborg had
reference to the sun and moon of the alchemists
in paragraph 1529, Heavenly Arcana; but in
that paragraph he says, — " It is perfectly known
in Heaven [meaning to men in the angelic state],
but not so in the world of spirits, whence so great
a Light [as he had just been treating of] comes,

CH.VIL] A HERMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 161
¦viz., that it is from the Lord ; and what is sur
prising, the Lord appears in the third Heaven, to
the celestial angels as a Sun, and to the spiritual
angels as a Moon." In the succeeding para
graph he adds, that " the Sun signifies the celes
tial principle [which he calls good], and the moon,
the spiritual principle " [which he calls truth].
He then adds, that, "By virtue of the Lord's
Light in Heaven there appear wonderful things,
which cannot be expressed, being so innumer
able." To understand these expressions, the reader
must study Swedenborg's 'view of the three na
tures in man, the natural, spiritual, and celestial,
the last being in fact a state of grace, when the
soul is, as it were, lifted out of the body, and
death disappears, or so far loses its character that
if it is not entirely lost sight of it becomes a mere
transition event, a " mystical passage," from an
apparent to a real life, from a life in time to
eternal life, the entrance into which involves the
negation of the apparent, or, in other words, self-
denial in accordance with the Scriptures. But
there is a true and a false self-denial. Eenounce
and realize, says the true doctrine ; whereas the
false says, renounce to realize, this latter being no
renunciation at all, but a mere prudential calcu-

162 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. 'VIL
lation of profits. The essence of the distinction
lies in the import of the two words, a/ixd and to,
as above used, the difference having the power
of a differential in the calculus.
Let the student see the sim through the fixed
assymptote, and the moon through the change
able hyperbola, and seize their dependence, one
upon the other, or their connection, one with the
other in the cone, — of course, regarding this as a
figure. If the readers of Swedenborg imagine they
have a clearer idea of Swedenborg's sim and
inoon, than the Hermetic -writers had, or sup
posed they had, of their sun aud moon, I must
think they are mistaken.
Swedenborg should not be taken literally.
TTiose who understand him literally must be ab
solutely stultified. The reader must find the
spirit by which he wi-ote. K he fails in this he
will read to no purpose, except, indeed, that
Swedenborg's external sense (to use his own lan
guage) is good ; that is, he everywhere recom
mends truth and goodness, charity and love. No
one can be injured by reading him literall}', but liis
real sense is as little on the surface as he thought
that of Genesis itself. A general reader woidd
suppose that Swedenborg meant by the expression.

Ch. VIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 163
the other life, some life other than a life in this
world, a life in another world than this in which
we live. But he means the higher life in this
world and not out of it ; a life of reason and con
science, of truth and virtue, of " good and chari
ty," in contradistinction to a life in the lower af
fections and passions.
At the hazard of repetition I must desire the
reader to consider attentively Swedenborg's no
tion of there being three natures in man, and
explain what he says by his own theory. The
whole may be rejected if the reader sees fit ; but
stiU, Swedenborg ought to be judged by his own
rules. Speaking of the three natures, or three
degrees of life, as he sometimes calls them, he
says, par. 3747, Heavenly Arcana :
"I have been instructed concerning these
three degrees of life in man, — that it is the last
degree of life which is called the external or natu
ral man, by which degree man is like the animals
as to concupiscencies and phantasies. And that
the next degree of life is what is called the internal
and rational man, by which man is superior to
the animals, for by virtue thereof he can think
and will what is good and true, and have do
minion over the natural man, by restraining and
also rejecting its concupiscencies, and the phan-

164 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. YU.
tasies thence derived ; and, moreover, by reflect
ing within himself concerning heaven, yea, con
cerning the Divine Being, which the brute
animals are altogether incapable of doing. And
that the third degree of life is what is most un
known to man, although it is that through which
the Lord flows into the rational mind, thus giving
man a faculty of thinking as a man, and also
conscience, and perception of what is good and
true, and elevation from the Lord towards him
self." In The True Christian Religion, page 37,
Swedenborg says, on this same subject :
" The perfection of life consists not in thought,
but in the perception of truth from the light of
truth. The differences of the life 'with men may
be thence ascertained ; for there are some who,
as soon as they hear the truth perceive that it is
truth. [These are in the highest life, or what
Swedenborg calls the celestial life, and they are
his angels, when doctrine and life are united.]
There are others (says he) who do not perceive
truth, but conclude it from confli-mations by ap
pearances. [This is what he calls the middle or ra
tional state, in which men reason about truth and
become skilful in the sciences, where they stand
as it were upon the threshold of the celestial state,

Ch. VIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 165
but do not, in virtue of mere science, enter into
that state, into which the simple and true may
enter even without science. In the celestial state
men do not reason about the truth they see, be
cause it is a possession. The student may flnd
the idea in Plato's Thesetetus. A sense of this
possession constitutes the heavenly or celestial
state, that is, the angelic state. The reader may
dispute the fact of there being such a state, if he
pleases : I am only stating the theory by which
Swedenborg ought to be interpreted. The low
est state of man, in this same connection, Swe
denborg says, is with those " who believe a thing
to be true because it was asserted by a man of
authority." A writer of vast penetration and power of
reasoning had set forth these identical distinc
tions in 1677, a century prior to Swedenborg's
day, in the following words :
' We perceive many things, and form univer
sal notions from single things represented to us
through the senses, mutilated, confused, and with
out relation to the intellect ; and also (we form
them) from signs ; for example, by reading or
hearing certain words, we call things to mind,
and form certain ideas of them like those by
which we imagine things. These I will in futiue

166 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VH.
call knowledge of the first kind, [This, I will
remark, is Swedenborg's lowest kind of knowl
edge, accessible to all men, but full of error.]
Secondly (says this ingenious author), we form
them from our having universal notions and ade
quate ideas of the properties of things, and this I
call reason and knowledge of the second kind.
[This is Swedenborg' middle state, where men of
science are found. The author proceeds :] Be
sides these two kinds of knowledges, there is a
third, which I will call intuitive knowledge.
And this kind of knowing proceeds (or descends)
from the adequate idea of the formal essence of
certain attributes of God, to an adequate knowl
edge of the essence of things."
This last kind of knpwledge is what Sweden
borg calls celestial : its possession is realized as
heavenly, and it elevates a man from the natm-al
and rational state into the celestial, while yet in
the body. Thus he says, speaking of this state,
par. 3884, Heavenly Aa-cana :
"Let it be noted that, although I was in
Heaven, still I was not out of myself, but in the
body, for Heaven is in man, in whatsoever place
he be ; and thus, when it pleases the Lord, a man
may be in Heaven, and yet not be withdra'wn
from the body."

Ch. VIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 167
Here is an explicit statement of fact, as found
ed upon an equally explicit statement of doc
trine, addressed to our experience and faculty for
discovering or verifying truth.
Swedenborg's readers may fancy, while pe
rusing his pages, that they are reading of another
world than this we live in (I do not say on), but
they are mistaken.
In the same way, when Swedenborg speaks
of man in contradistinction to angels, he means
man, not in the highest sense, for in this sense
the Lord is man ; but in the lowest sense, that is,
he means the natural man, as yet unawakened to
the infinite depth of his spiritual nature.
In like manner, when Swedenborg speaks of
what takes place after death, in by far the major
ity of cases, he refers to the transition from a
natural to a spiritual life, when " old things pass
away, and all things become new."
Angels in this sense die to the world, that is,
they have taken leave of the love of the world, as
opposed to the love of God. In this sense the
Alchemists speak of the Stone, as " the cut-throat
of covetousness, ambition," &c. To the " natu
ral man " this may be " foolishness." But if we
would understand Swedenborg, we must take
into view his actual opinions of the nature of man,

168 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. 'VH.
and especially have regard to its higher or inner
developments, and not merely man in his lower
and sensuous character, groping upon the sm-face
of the earth, looking outwardly for that which
can only be found within.
"There appertain (says Swedenborg, par.
1893, Heavenly Arcana) to every man an internal
man, a rational man, which is intermediate, aud
an external man, which is properly called the
natural man." Death is regarded as a bu-th:
thus the lower life is supposed to die as the higher
life is developed. The expression, spirits from
the world, so often used in Swedenborg's writ
ings, means men who have passed from the natu
ral to the spiritual life.
In what Swedenborg says of infants in the
spiritual world, and of their education and growth
into " intelligence and wisdom," he is but com
menting upon the doctrine that the kingdom of
Heaven must be entered as a little child. He is
not treating of another world, but of a changed
state in this world. His reference in such cases
to the " former life in the body," is to the natural
life as distinguished from the spiritual life.
I would have the students of Swedenborg con
sider, wdiile reading his writings, that he was a
man, writing to men of man ; of that man, if the

Ch. VII.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 169
reader chooses, whom he called the Lord, or some
times the grand-man ; and if he asks specifially
as to his meaning in the use of this expression,
the grand-man, I feel disposed to suggest, in ad -
dition to what I have already said, that, in Swe
denborg's view, all the men in the world, all that
have been and all that shall be, are modifications
of one man, invisible in essence, but visible nev
ertheless in every human being ; for, we have
the highest authority for it, the Lord is not far
from any one of us, — in Him we live, and move,
and have our being. We do not live in our
selves. When we think otherwise, we ¦virtually
separate ourselves from the true life, — ^we virtu
ally deny the Lord, — and to that extent are truly
dead while living. This I understand to be Swe
denborg's doctrine. To know the Lord is to be
alive indeed. To be ignorant of the true life is a
species of death, to which we must die in order
to live. The readers of Swedenborg may remember
his description of what he calls the punishment
of the veil, in the spiritual world — paragraphs
963 and 964, Heavenly Arcana; — to understand
which we must consider that, according to Swe
denborg, to be in Heiivep is to be in the presence
of the Lord — that is, of God ; and hence the great-
8

170 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. TU.
est misery is to be shut out from this presence, —
and this misery is even the greater when man is
unconscious of it. Now this ignorance of the
Lord takes place in every man, passing by the
reasons for it, in whom the love of self prevails
over the love of God, and especially in every man
who lives in sin, it being the property of every
delusion of the phantasy, to draw a " veil," as it
were, over the inner eye of the sinner who, thence,
is shut out from the sight of the Lord ; and this
is the punishment, as Swedenborg calls it, of the
veil. In this state men are described as being
sensible of their being under a veil, and as mak
ing efforts to rid themselves of it by " running
hither and thither," and struggling, sometimes
with mighty efforts, to retain the veil, yet see
through it, which is impossible. This merely
means that men are sometimes in love with some
thing which they know is of the forbidden tree ;
but as it is but a little, a very small matter, as
they fancy, they hope to reach Heaven with it,
when the natm-e of Heaven excludes all sin, and
thus excludes those who adhere to any darhng
" phantasy " not admitted there.
The doctrine is simple, and well known ; and
all that Swedenborg says of it is adapted to the
comprehension of a child, only he has thrown an

Ch. 'VIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEK. 171
air of mystery over it, as if he saw beyond this
world and was treating of another. But this
world, in Swedenborg sense, is the world of na
ture, while the " other " is the world of grace,
yet in this world also. The difference is that be
tween a " man of the world," and a holy man,
the former being 'wiUing to secure the supposed
advantages of extei-nal fortune by condescensions
compromising his spiritual life, while the latter
lives in the fear of God even more than in the
hope of Heaven, though Heaven is a fruit of this
very fear.
To enter into wisdom is to enter into inno
cence, and innocence is represented by childhood ;
but Swedenborg distinguishes very sharply be
tween the children of nature and the children of
grace ; — I use this word for convenience, but not
in any fantastical or fanatical sense. To be truly
in grace is to be a true man.
Swedenborg utters, indeed, some very strange
notions about seeing people in the " other life,"
that is, after death ; saying, that they do not
know otherwise than that they are still living in
the world. This may refer to the condition of
some men after a solemn initiation into some so
ciety. I admit also that he seems to give very
positive statements of the condition of the good

172 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VH.
and the bad in a life beyond the grave literally
understood ; but these must be regarded as his
mere opinions, on a level with the opinions of
Plato at the close of the Kepublic, or with the
dream of Scipio. It is highly interesting to know
the opinions of thoughtful men upon such a topic,
but we enter into a voluntary vassalage when we
accept any such representations as substantial ir
refragable truth.
In paragraphs 2308 and 2309, Swedenborg,
as everywhere else in his writings on such points,
merely expresses his own opinions, formed, in
deed, under a sense of the presence of the Lord.
" No one," says he, " ever suffers punishment in
another life on account of hereditary evil, be
cause it is not his ; consequently he is not blam-
able for it," &c., &c. And then he speaks of
" the nature of the education of infants in Heav
en, viz., that by the intelligence of truth, and
the wisdom of good, they are introduced into the
angelic life, 'which is Love to the Lord, and mu
tual Love, in which is innocence ; but how con
trary to this the education of infants on earth is,
may appear from the following example amongst
many others which might be mentioned : On a
time I was in the street of a great city, and saw
little children fighting together ; a crowd of peo-

Ch. VIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE.

173

pie immediately gathered round them, and be
held the sight with much satisfaction, and I was
informed that parents themselves sometimes ex
cite their children to such combats ; the good
spirits and angels, who saw these things through
my eyes [that is, his own feelings and thoughts,
which he nevertheless attributed to the Lord],
held them in such aversion that I was made
[that is, he felt] sensible of the horror they ex
pressed, especially at this circumstance, that
parents should incite their children to such
things ; they [the spirits and angels, that is, his
feelings and thoughts] declared that, by so doing,
parents extinguish in the young bosoms of their
children all mutual love, and all innocence."
This I suppose to be the way to read and
understand Swedenborg. He called his feelings
and thoughts, attributing them to the Lord,
angels and spirits, and these told him thus and
so ; and by the same rule we must- interpret
Swedenborg, for he was one of us, and saw
nothing in the universe but what we may see if
we will lay off the veils which shut the truth
from us. It is the simplest thing in the world ;
but, simple as it is, let the reader be sure it is
sufficiently vast in its consequences.

174 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VIH.

CHAPTEE VIII.
The followers of Swedenborg of the present
day, or many of them, ask how certain portions
of his writings, exhibiting deep truths of life be
yond the reach, as they think, of ordinai-y men,
are to be explained, except on the supposition
that he was especially illuminated from heaven ;
and they ask also, how we can account for many
of the stories connected with his name, which
they think well authenticated and out of the
ordinary course of events, except on the supposi
tion of supernatural aid.
In the* first place, no one is obliged to eaplain
every thing that takes place in the world, or sup
pose a miraculous interposition. There are many
things — an infinity of things — of which men can
give little or no account to themselves or to
others. In the next place, nothing is explained
in a philosophical sense by referring it to super
natural power. This is a pious feeling — a re-

Ch. viii.] a HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 175
Hgious explanation — ^but it extends equally to all
things, and for this reason to nothing in particu
lar. When we say that all things are providen
tially under the government of God, we include
equally the things we know, and the things we
do not know ; — the things which we say, philo
sophically, we understand, and those which we
do not understand. All philosophical knowledge,
strictly speaking, refers to second or intermediate
causes, more properly called conditions, under
which phenomena are observed to take place.
The knowledge of such conditions, or second
causes, does not take our knowledge from under
the veil of mystery involved in the idea of the
one cause which is all in all, both Alpha and
Omega. Nothing is more fallacious, therefore,
than the idea that we are attaining philosophical
knowledge hj ::eiennxxg particida/r things to God,
since all things must be referred to God, both
what we know philosophically, that is, by second
causes, and what we do not know. This may be
easily understood by considering any one species
of knowledge, known to one man and not to
another. It is plain that the knowledge of the
one and the ignorance of the other does not
change the relation of the thing in respect to
God, but this must remain on the contrary, one

176 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. VHI.
thing in relation to God and God's providential
government. Plato refers to this principle in the Dialogue
on the nature of things {Cratylus, under the
Hermetic form of an inquiry into language),
where he calls the disposition to explain things
by the "machinery ofthe gods," used by "writers
of tragedies," the " not very clever evasions ou
the part of him who is not willing (or not able)
to give a reason" for the original nature of
things. In the third place, many things that are very
mysterious to some men are, philosophically
speaking, very plain to others, and may become
so to themselves by experience, study, and con
templation ; and we may remember particularly
that marvels in relation to uncommon men, re
ported by the ignorant and the credulous, are ex
tremely apt to be without foundation.
Tliere is one recourse in determining such
difficulties, entirely open to a man of plain sense,
which the Swedenborgians are in danger of clos
ing up in their desire to exalt Swedenborg above
humanity ; and that is, a belief that he was not
only a fallible man himself, but that he lived
among fallible men, from whom we have received
such relations as appear out of the order of na-

Ch. viii.] a HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 177
ture. In addition to which we, ourselves, who
may feel called upon to judge of these matters,
are fallible also ; and it does not become us to
assign supernatural powers to any mortal man,
as if we could infallibly determine the limits and
powers of nature in man.
No one can, in any proper sense, be said to
be exalted except in his nature, and according to
it. A man may become " more a man " and be
honored accordingly; but he cannot become
more than a man without severing his connec
tion with the race and losing the sympathies of
his brethren.
Swedenborg was a true man, greatly yet alto
gether a man ; a wise man, indeed, but still a
man ; and it is certain that he must have desired
that his doctrines should be studied and received
upon their own gi-ound, and not upon his au
thority. The members of the " Society " of Angels of
which Swedenborg speaks, veiled their doctrines
expressly with a 'view, as one object undoubted
ly, of not veiling nature ; that is, they desired
that no one should appeal to their writings as
authority for etei-nal truth, which can only be
taught by the eternal itself, but should be com
pelled to look through and beyond their writings

178 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VIII.
to the same inexhaustible fountain (the " Foun
tain" of Trevisan, the alchemist) whence they
themselves had drawn a doctrine of life and love.
There is deep significance in the words re
corded in John 16. 7 : It is expedient for you that
I go away : for if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you ; but if I depart I will
send him unto you.
This Comforter is called in the 13th verse of
the same chapter, the " Spii-it of Truth : " [as also
in ch. 14. V. 17.] By this Spirit of Truth we
may now understand, that so long as the apostles
had the bodily presence of Christ with them, and
could look to him for a decision upon all ques
tions concerning truth, they would have no
grounds of teaching from any light, on questions
not specifically settled by him.
To the end, then, that the apostles should
have the infinite source of truth opened to them,
it was necessary that its representative in the
humanity of the Lord should be withdrawn.
It is not otherwise now. We, too, in this
age, need some freedom from the letter, in order
that the spirit may be liberated ; for so long as
any one looks to a record as containing the whole
body of truth, he draws a veil over his eyes, and
the "fountain" of truth becomes invisible.

Ch. vm.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 179
Lord Bacon thought it an injury to the pro
gress of knowledge when any science became re
duced into formularies supposed to embrace the
whole body of the science. If this is so of a
special science, what must be thought of the at
tempt to put limits upon the science of science,
the queen of the sciences ? This science emphat
ically refuses to be confined in old bottles and is
forever bursting them.
What then is the true " fixation " of the mat
ter of the Philosopher's Stone, — of which so
much is said in Hermetic books ? What is it but
the "law of liberty," wherewith the Spirit of
Christ doth make us free ; by which we are free
even to remember that Christ himself, the great
est teacher the world ever saw, left no writing
behind him whatever.
In this spirit, as it appears to me, the Her
metic philosophers, one and all, virtually say to
'us : Read our writings, indeed ; we have written
them for you, but " test them by the possibility
of nature " [Sandivogius] ; and " do not attempt
to practise upon our bare words" [Eyrseneus
Philaletha]. In one word, every man dies alone. We
brought nothing into this world, and it is certain
we can carry nothing out. This ought to warn

180 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VIH.
US that nothing in this world can have any other
than an instrumental value, and among the things
of this world are the books of so-called philoso
phers. When we make them other than instru
ments and depend upon them as the substantial
truth, we lean upon broken reeds or upon reeds
that shall surely be broken.
But every one must determine for himself the
difference between liberty and license, — ^between
genuine freedom and positive slavery.
Here lurks the peculiar danger of semi-en
lightened times, when men attain light enough to
distinguish or to suspect error, but want the
power of discovering truth. This condition is
perfectly described in the 7th book of Plato's
Kepublic, under the story of the supposititious
child, — nurtm-ed and protected by those who were
not his parents, for whom his respect declined
when he discovered the cheat ; while yet, unable
to find his true parents, he fell a victim to " flat
terers," and was ruined.
A very useful volume might perhaps be writ
ten on interpretation, but for the single difficulty,
that such a volume might need to be intei-preted.
Indeed, our libraries are already filled with works
of this kind, — critical works, and commentaries
without number, with commentaiies upon com-

Ch. viii.] a HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 181
mentaries. The readers of Swedenborg's inter
pretations may fancy that those writings are ex
empt from the universal law, yet many books
have already appeared on the exposition of Swe
denborg's works.
It was the same with the Mysterium Magnum
of Jacob Behmen, which is an interpretation of
the Pentateuch and other parts of the sacred
writings. Jacob Behmen wrote as magisterially, claim
ing an inspired insight, as any one who ever at
tempted an explanation of any part of the Holy
Scriptures. He claimed an illumination from at
least as high a source as Swedenborg could pos
sibly pretend to, and yet who has ever looked
into his interpretations, without feeling at once the
need of an intei-preter of the interpreter ? The
Pentateuch is light itself compared to the dark
ness of Jacob Behmen's interpretations.
In what now do Swedenborg and Behmen
agree ? Certainly in nothing but a mutual denial
of the letter. But in this respect they were both
preceded by multitudes of interpreters, equally
denying the letter with themselves,* and yet who
has given us a light to be depended upon ?
With regard to the letter, who has been more

182 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. 'Vm.
absolute in its denial than Origen, who tells us,
addressing us from the middle of the third cen
tury, that " the source of many e'vils lies in ad
hering to the carnal or external part of Scripture !
Those who do so (says he) shall not attain to the
kingdom of God. Let us seek therefore after
the spirit and substantial fruits of the Word,
which are hidden and mysterious ; " and he says
also that " the Scriptures are of little use to those
who understand them as they are written."
In this view Origen flooded his time with roHs
of books to interpret the Scripture, not according
to the letter, but according to the spirit; — ^but
according to what spirit ? Here lies the original
question, which neither Origen nor any other
man has ever settled or can settle, except for
himself. In truth, any book whatever, that is read at
all, calls for and meets 'with some sort of inter
pretation, which in the last resort is the judgment
of the individual reader. When individual opin
ions are multiplied in favor of any work, it be
comes a standard work : if a work be generally
condemned, it disappears, unless in cases where
it has a depth of real meaning beyond the pene
tration of ordinary readers. In this case, an ap
proval from half a dozen thinkers in each age

Cn. VIII.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 183
may carry the work down to the latest posterity,
and in its pi-ogress it may be said to accumulate
testimonials in its favor, so as largely to outnum
ber any one generation. That any work should
live for many ages is undoubtedly something in
its favor ; and yet Lord Bacon has compared
time to a river, which carries down the scum, but
allows the more weighty and valuable substances
to sink to the bottom.
The oldest books in the world, — Hindoo, Per
sian, Egy]Dtian, Jewish, — are all obscure, and ad
mit of various interpretations, and this may be
one reason for their preservation ; for a dark,
mystical book tasks the inventive faculties to dis
cover its meaning, an agreeable exercise in itself,
and as vagueness allows a latitude of interpreta
tion, more individuals may thus please themselves,
perhaps the chief secret of approbation, by as
signing a meaning to it ; and under such circum
stances it is not strange that approving interpret
ers are multiplied.
All of the great poems in the world are more
or less allegorical, and are addressed to both the
reason and the imagination of man, where inter
pretations are multiplied according to the variety
of tastes and states of cultivation brought to the
task, or the pleasure, as may be, of interpretation.

184 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VHL
No one at all acquainted with Homer imagines
that the interest he commands in the world is at
all due to the historical element found in him, the
reality of which has, indeed, been plausibly denied
without diminishing in the least the interest in
his great poems, where his classical admirers find
pictures of life including both worlds, the seen
and the unseen. There has always been a class
of his admirers who see in the Hiad and the
Odyssey both religion and philosophy, and this
class will continue in the world ; and yet if those
who see religion in Homer could be brought to
gether, they would not at all agree among them
selves, while each would not the less insist that
his own opinions are fully shadowed out by the
Grecian bard.
What vast numbers, in like manner, have been
called, or have allowed themselves to be called,
Platonists, or admirers of Plato ; while yet if a
party of such admirers could be brought together,
scarce any two individuals would propound the
same views of the great Grecian intellectual real
ist, who is, by some, considered the most mysti
cal of idealists.
If we take the Sacred Scriptures, what a field
is open for this sort of inquiry ! The so called

Ch. VHL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 185
Jewish Cabala was nothing but a sort of tradition
ary secret interpretation of the ancient Hebrew
Scriptures, — itself capable of expansion and con-
ti-action according to the genius of the class
amidst whom it might fall. Much of the Cabala,
it is supposed, was never written. Much that was
written is supposed to have been lost, but we
have one remarkable work of Jewish interpreta
tion in the 'writings of Philo. He denies the let
ter as emphatically as Swedenborg, and interprets
it according to his spirit. Does his interpretation
and that of Swedenborg agree ? Certainly, in but
very few particulars, unless we force them into
harmony by interpretations of our own. It is
true that Philo regards the Israelitish history as
symbolical of the progress of the natural man to
the spiritual man — ^from Egypt as the Land of
Darkness, to the Holy Land as the Land of Light,
— and gives us many very acceptable intei-preta-
tions of the books of Moses ; — a little too diffuse,
indeed (like Swedenborg in this respect), often
tedious, and frequently very far-fetched ; but in
many instances, as I have said, very acceptable
as making sense of what otherwise seems very
unimportant. He, too, as well as Swedenborg,
uses the sun, by similitude, for the " mind" or
says that Moses so used it. The wicked idolaters

186 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. 'Vm.
and inhabitants of Canaan, who were to be ex
terminated, are the bad passions and affections
of the natural man, which must be eradicated,
says Philo, before the divine possession, the Holy
Land, can be entered upon. But where the two
writers differ from each other, who shall decide ?
We must not allow Swedenborg to claim pre
cedence upon his own assertion that his internal
sight was opened by the Lord. This is merely
his own declaration, and possibly Philo had what
was to him as complete authority, but was too
modest to place it upon extraordinary grounds, —
appealing only to reason.
How are we to judge between them? Philo
was a learned Hebrew, acquainted with the
writings of his fathers, and possibly in possession
of time-honored traditions received from the re
puted wise men of his nation. Shall his inter^
pretations be thrown aside and those of a modern
philosopher accepted on his mystical declaration
that the Lord had opened his internal sight and
pri'vileged him to look into what he called the
spiritual world ?
It is plain that this is a case where every man
is thrown upon his own spirit and must interpret
the interpreters, and it is not possible in the na
ture of things to supersede this necessity either

Ch. 'VIII.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 187
by volumes of interpretations themselves or by
works on the principles of interpretation. Those
who cannot understand the original may be de
luded by either Philo or by Swedenborg, or by
commentators in turn upon either of these.
In short, we cannot think by the intellect of
others any more than we can see by their eyes.
We may do both under certain conditions and
limitations ; but in • the last resort, every man
must judge for himself.
As to interpretation — every discourse, every
sermon upon a text of Scripture, is in some sense
an interpretation of Scripture, and what are all
organized sects in Christendom but expressions
or exponents of interpretations of Scripture ?
Luther interpreted the Scripture ; Calvin inter
preted the Scripture ; Arminius, John Enox,
Wesley — what are all these, and hundreds of
others, but interpreters of Scripture ? And
amidst this vast crowd Swedenborg comes for
ward and interprets the Scripture, claiming for
this purpose a special Light from the " Lord " —
denying, however, that there was any thing mi
raculous in his age.
This diversity may show that if the Scriptures
are taken literally they do not yield an open
sense equally accessible to all who may be equally

188 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. VflL
earnest in their efforts to read aright ; or, if taken
metaphorically or symbolically, the spirit of in
terpretation is not universally recognized.
The Catholic Church has acted upon the
opinion of Origen and others. Fathers in the
Church, and at one time refused to allow the
laity access to the letter of the Scripture. Many
have attributed this to sinister motives, and have
proclaimed it a mere artifice to gain power and
accumulate wealth. But it had no such origin.
The Fathers of the Church, observing the vast
diversity of individual opinions, sought first a
remedy through the judgment of a council, by
which certain books were set apart as authentic
and canonical, and all othei-s had the mark of
Cain put upon them, by which they fell into dis
repute, and ceased to furnish materials for heresy.
But this was found to be only a partial remedy ;
for disputes arose upon the sense of the retained
books, and these disputes it was thought expe
dient to have determined by the decisions of
councils also, until finally the authority of the
Church took precedence over both indi-vidual
opinions and the literal reading of the canon.
But this was not the product of either ambition
or avarice. Those who think otherwise know

Ch. vm.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 189
but little of the spirit of such men as Origen and
St. Augustine. It was merely the result of that
sort of moral necessity, under which many men
labor, of looking to others, supposed to know, for
a decision upon questions involving eternal in
terests, under a sense of inability to decide for
themselves. Nowhere in the world has a sense
of this inability been more deeply felt than in
the Church itself, as evidence of which the writ
ings of St. Augustine alone are sufficient.
As the Church on earth is composed of men,
it was impossible to exclude from it human ele
ments and human infirmities, which in the course
of time manifested themselves from a double
cause — a decline of earnestness and wisdom in
the Church itself, and an advance of intelligence
and spirit among the laity. It was unavoidable
that this should in time bring into question the
doctrine of the infallibility of the Church, and
thence it followed with the same certainty and
necessity that the old questions arose, questions
that occupied the Grecian sages, and have equally
been the subject of study upon the banks of the
Nile and those of the Ganges.
The reformation was no doubt a necessary
product of the ages, but its effects are not con
fined to the reformers. It has worked back upon

190 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. VHI.
the Catholic Church, and reformed that also;
for, in enlightened countries, the Catholic Church
is not now what it was prior to the days of
Luther. Among the reformers we find a vast variety
of sects, and the number seems constantly in
creasing, while, in our day, a feature formerly
unknown has become very prominent. I refer
to the Congregational organizations containing
an element of independence, by which, while they
acknowledge the authority of the sacred Scrip
tures, they separate almost altogether from hie
rarchical domination and creeds, giving fi-eedom
to the spirit — carefully preserving at the same
time educational infiuences full of good fruits.
Amidst all this variety of sects, organizations,
and individual opinions, the philosophers being
also divided into sects, there being no system of
philosophic doctrine generally received, a writer
comes forward with a learned work in our age,
with this opening passage :
"Wherever a religion, resting upon written
records, prolongs and extends the sphere of its
dominion, accompanying its votaries thi-ough the
varied and progressive stages of mental cultiva
tion, a discrepancy between the representations
of those ancient records, referred to as sacred, and

Ch. 'VIIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 191
the notions of more advanced periods of mental
development, will inevitably sooner or later arise.
In the first instance, this disagreement is felt in
reference only to the unessential, — the external
form : the expressions and delineations are seen
to be inappropriate ; but by degrees it manifests
itself also in regard to that which is essential : the
fundamental ideas and opinions in these early
writings fail to be commensurate with a more ad
vanced civilization. As long as this discrepancy is
either not in itself so considerable, or else is not so
universally discerned and acknowledged, as to
lead to a complete renunciation of these Scrip
tures as of sacred authority, so long will a system
of reconciliation by means of interpretation be
adopted and pursued, by those who have a more
or less distinct consciousness of the existing in
congruity." This is an ominous commencement of a crit
ical examination, and would prepare almost any
reader for a work of destruction. Many have
hailed it 'with joy, and have been fully prepared
to accept conclusions, whose first effect might
seem to be unalloyed freedom : — ^but some few,
very few perhaps, not satisfied with the letter,
still less satisfied with what seem fanciful and fal
lible interpretations, are yet least of all satisfied

192 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. 'VTH.
to see violently assailed a system upon which the
" human heart has nourished itself for ages."
These become silent and reserved. They with
draw from all public demonstration of then- opin
ions, become thoughtful, and enter into solemn
resolutions with themselves, to take no active
part for or against any externally marked system,
— ^to perform punctually all the duties of hfe
'without ostentation, — to lead perfectly innocent
and blameless lives, and see whether time and
the blessing of God will not bring to them some
kind of solution of the great problems that have
always occupied the attention of man.

Ch. IX.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE, 193

CHAPTER IX.
Can it be thought strange, amidst the confu
sion of the world on the subject of religion, that
a class of self-secluded men should come into ex
istence, the individuals of which, through con
templation, reading, and observation, — the duties
of life being all punctually performed, — should
reach a satisfactory condition, accompanied with
the conviction, that others will not attain to it so
long as they remain partisan advocates of a more
or less externally formalized creed ?
From this class, some of whom may be found
in all enlightened countries, has come a small
body of Hermetic philosophers, — a very few of
whom have written, though very obscurely, of
certain principles attained in secret, and main
tained in secrecy ; for, if published at all, it has
always been under a veil,
9

1 94 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. K.
Many men have sprung up from time to time
with the idea that they had reached the secret of
this doctrine, and have audaciously and presump
tuously written books to publish it to the world,
affecting obscurity in imitation of the genuine
writers, as if obscurity was the badge of truth,
and a virtue in itself. For the most part, these
men have known nothing of the secret.
Most of the real adepts have written nothing
at all, while those who have published any thing
have limited themselves to very small tracts, pub
lished, not so much with the object of making
known a doctrine, as to indicate to the initiated
their claim to brotherhood, and these works have
almost invariably been anonymous.
From the nature of the case, the members, to
call them such, of this " society" (referred to so
frequently by Swedenborg) are scattered, both as
to time and space, there being a few in every
age, but not many in any age ; and from the
same necessity they do not and cannot form an
organized body, for this would be to put limita
tions upon that which in its nature is absolutely
free. Tet they truly exist, and know each other
by signs more infallible than can be made effect
ual by any organized society whatever ; and why?
— because they live in the fear of the Lord, and

Ch. IX.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 195
have become the depositors of his secret (Ps.
25, 14).
The members of this society have in former
times communicated with each other by a secret
language, which has had many forms, and will
have many more, but which can never utterly
perish. " It is not unknown to you (says the trans
lator of An Easy Introduction to the Philoso
pher's Gold, addressing the reader) that there is
a certain tongue, which is the tongue of mys
teries, called by Ficinus Lingua Magica, and
sometimes Lingua Angelorum ; and, indeed, it
is Lingua Ipsius Ternarii Sancti; for almost
all the Hagiography is in it; all the Cabalism
of the Hebrews, and, without the ambit of that,
there is nothing that is admirable. This tongue
is not only absolutely necessary, and wisely fitted
to veil nature's secrets from the unworthy and
profane, but is also bravely proportioned to the
Olympus or the intellectual imaginations of
man ; — ^Tliat Man — ^who is descended from God,
who has in himself a sense of Him, and turns
his mind towards him — might, like a generous
scholar, be taught by mystic words. — And yet it
is not every artist who has attempted this tongue
that has a right felicity in the use of it ; nay, in-

196 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. IX.
deed, not very many out of the whole Sacra
Corona can be shown who have offered so much
as a Rose to the true Venus of the language, the
sweet and secret Cytheria."
We have all heard of Roger Bacon as a Ma
gician. He was indeed an Alchemist — a Her
metic Philosopher — and wrote many works him
self in the mystic vein of that mysterious class
of men, and in one of his works {The Admirable
Force of Art and Nature) he has taken such es
pecial pains to prepare his reader for his mystical
writing, that it seems wonderful how the subject
at least of his treatise should have escaped ob
servation, as it appears to have done. He recites
many species of secret writing, and explains, as
openly as need be, why they were adopted, ex
pressly telling us that he himself will use some
of them. The first part of the Treatise is devoted
to purely natural things, designed to show the
power of Art, " using nature as an instrument."
It is in this work that the monk gives us reason
to believe that he was acquainted with the com
position of (gun) powder, and seems to predict
the use of steam power, both for propelling ships
and railway carriages. He speaks of what we
now call the hydraulic press, and of the diving

Ch. IX.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 197
bell ; he describes the kaleidoscope as if he had
one before him, and foretells the making of " in
struments to fiy withal, so that one sitting in the
middle of the instrument, and turning about an
engine by which the wings, being artificially
composed, may beat the air after the manner of
a flying bird." One object of this Tract appears
to have been to defend himself from the accusa
tion of magic, and to give reasons for his own use
of secret writing, of which he gives us an ex
ample ; for he says :
" Thus, having produced certain examples,
declaring the power of Art and Nature, to the
end that out of those few we might collect many,
out of the parts gather the whole, out of particu
lars infer universals, we see how far forth it is
altogether needless for us to gape after Magic,
whereas Nature and Art are sufficient. Now I
intend to prosecute every one of the aforesaid
things in order, and deliver their causes, and the
method of working them particularly. But, first
of all, I consider that the secrets of nature con
tained in the skins of goats and sheep [he is
speaking of ineri] are not spoken of, lest every
man should understand them ; as Socrates and
Aristotle commandeth. For Aristotle, in his
Book of Secrets, affirmeth, that he is a breaker

198 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. IX.
of the celestial seal that maketh the secrets of Art
and Nature common ; adding, moreover, that
many evils betide him that revealeth secrets.
And in the book entitled Nodes AtticcB, in the
comparing of wise men together, it is reputed a
greq,t folly to give an Ass lettuce, when thistles
will serve his turn ; and it is 'written in the book
of Stones, that he impaireth the majesty of things
who divulgeth mysteries. And they are no
longer to be termed secrets, when the multitude
is acquainted with them — Shaving regard to the
usual division of the multitude, which evermore
gainsay the learned. For that which seemeth
[appeareth] unto all, is true, as also that which is
so judged of by the 'wise, and men of best ac
count. But that which seemeth only to the
many, that is, to the common people, so far forth
as it seemeth such, must of necessity be false.
" I speak here of the common sort, in that
sense, as they are distinguished from the learned.
" For in the common conceits of the mind,
they agree with the learned, but in the proper
principles and conclusions of arts and sciences
they disagree, employing themselves about mere
appearances, and sophistications, and quirks, and
quiddities, and such like trash, of which wise men
make no account.

Ch. IX.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE, 199
" In things proper, therefore, and in secrets,
the common people do err, and in this respect
they are opposite to the learned ; but in common
matters they are comprehended under the law of
all, and therein do agree with the learned. And
as for these common things, they are of small
value, and not worthy to be sought after for
themselves, but only in respect of their use for
things particular and proper.
" Now, the cause of this concealment among
all ¦wise men, is, the contempt and neglect of the
secrets of wisdom by the vulgar sort, who know
not how to use those things that are most excel
lent. Or if they do conceive any worthy thing,
it is altogether by chance and fortune, and they
do exceedingly abuse that their knowledge, to the
great damage and hurt of many men, yea, even
of whole societies ; so that he is worse than mad
that pnblisheth any secret, unless [by mystical
writing, is meant] he conceal it from the multi
tude, and in such wise deliver it that even the
studious and learned shall hardly understand it.
" This hath been the course which wise men
have observed from the beginning, who by many
means have hidden the secrets of wisdom from
the common people.
" Some have used characters and verses, and

200 g-WEDENBOEG, [Ch. IX.
divers other riddles and figurative speeches, as
Aristotle witnessed in his book of Secrets, where
he thus speaketh : ' O Alexander, I wiU show
thee the greatest Secret in the world : God grant
that thou mayest keep it close, and bring to pass
the intention of the Art of that Stone, which ia
no Stone, and is in every man, and in every place,
and at all seasons, and is called the end of all
philosophers: " And an infinite number of things are found
in many books and sciences obscured with such
dark speeches, that no man can understand them
without a teacher.
" Thirdly, some have hidden their Secrets by
their modes of writing; as, namely, by using
consonants only : so that no man can read them,
unless he knows the signification of the words : —
and this is usual among the Jews, Chaldeans,
Syrians, and Arabians, yea, and the Grecians
too : and, therefore, there is a great concealing
with them, but especially with the Jews; for
Aristotle sayeth in the above-named book, that
God gave them aU manner of wisdom, before
there were any philosophers, and all nations bor
rowed the principles of philosophy from them.
And thus much we are plainly taught by Alba-
masar in his book named the Larger Introdu^itory,

Ch. IX.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 201
and by other philosophers, and by Josephus in
his Eighth Book of Antiquities.
" Fourthly, things are obscured by the ad
mixture of letters of divers kinds ; and thus hath
Ethicus the astronomer concealed his wisdom,
writing the same with Hebrew, Greek, and Latin
letters, all in a row.
"Fifthly, they hide their Secrets, writing
them in other letters than are used in their own
country, to wit, when they take letters that are
in use in foreign nations, and feign them accord
ing to their own pleasures. This is a very great
impediment, used by Artephius [an alchemist]
in his book of the Secrets of Nature.
"Sixthly, they make certain forms, not of
letters, but such as used by diviners and enchant
ers, which according to the diversity of arrange
ment have the power of letters : and these like
wise hath Artephius used in his Science.
"Seventhly, there is a yet more cunning
mode of concealment by the help of Art notary :
an Art whereby a man may write or note any
thing, as briefly as he will, and as swiftly as he
can desire. And in this sort have the Latin au
thors hidden many Secrets.
" I deemed it necessary to touch these tricks
of obscurity, because haply myself may be con-
9

202 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. IX.
strained, through the greatness ofthe secrets which
I shall handle, to use some of them, so that, at
the least, I might help thee to my power. I give
thee therefore to understand, that my purpose is
orderly to proceed in the exposition of those
things, whereof I made mention before ; as, to
dissolve the philosopher's egg, and search ovi the
parts of a philosophical man. And this shall
serve for a beginning to the rest."
One would think that here is a sufficient warn
ing not to understand literally what follows :
" Take salt (says he, and I wiU tell the reader
that Bacon here, like other Hermetic philoso
phers, is writing of man, and intends to indicate
a method of making him 'the salt of the earth'),
— Take salt, and rub it diligently with water —
[wash the matter, say all these philosophers] and
purify it in other waters; afterwards by divers
contritions, rub it with scdts, and bum it 'with
sundry assations, that it may be made a puee
EAETH, separated from the other elements — which
I esteem worthy of thee for the stature of my
length. Understand me if thou art able : for it
shall undoubtedly be composed of the elements,
and therefore it shall be apart of the stone, which
IS no stone, and is in every inan ; which thou shalt
find at all times of the year in his mon place''

Ch. IX.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 203
&c., &c. But here is enough. The reader may
think more than enough.
I might perhaps have satisfied myself with a
simple reference to these writings, but I desired
to show decisively the fact, that in former times
there existed secret modes of writing, and some
thing of the reasons for them, that the reader
may credit me in the assertion of the fact, and
be in a better position to understand something
of those reasons.
Sandivogius addresses the Courteous Reader
as follows :
" Seeing that I may not write more clearly
than other philosophers have written, haply thou
mayest not be satisfied with my writings ; espe
cially since thou hast so many other books of phi
losophers already in thy hands : but believe me,
— 1 have no need to write books, because I seek
neither profit nor vain-glory by them. To con
clude, if you will not be wise and wary by these
my 'writings and admonitions, yet excuse me, who
desire to deserve well of thee : I have dealt as
faithfully as it was lawful for me, and as becomes
a man of a good conscience to do. If you ask
who I am, — I am one that can live anywhere.
If you know me and desire to show yourselves
good and honest men, you shall hold your tongue.

204 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. K.
If you know me not, do not inquire after me.
* * * Now I do not wonder, as before I did,
why philosophers, when they have attained to
this medicine, have not cared to have their days
shortened; because every philosopher hath the
life to come set as clearly before his eyes as thine
may be seen in a glass. And if God shall grant
thee thy desired end, then thou ¦wilt believe me,
and not reveal thyself to the world."
While I feel obliged to declare my opinion,
as I have in the foregoing pages, that Sweden
borg was a Hermetic philosopher, I feel equally
bound not to place him in the foremost rank
among those men. I believe that he had studied
the writings of the Hermetic class, and had im
bibed some principles from them ; but I am sure
that he did not precisely " lay hold " of the very
secret itself. If he had fully possessed the art,
he would have 'written less, and especially he
would not have attempted to disclose the hidden
sense of the books of Moses, in which attempt he
has most assuredly departed from the Hermetic
practice, and has placed himself on the footing
of Philo and other allegorists.
The Hermetic writers do indeed assert that
the letter of the Mosaic books is a veil; but their

Ch. IX.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 205
reference to the first verses of Genesis is rather
to illustrate or hint, perhaps I ought to say, the
nature of their own doctrine, than to set forth
openly a secret sense of those verses. Sweden
borg here mistook their design, and, departing
from the genuine Hermetic rule, he undertook a
vast work, which would have remained incom
plete, had he lived and labored to this day. I
am disposed to say, therefore, that, although Swe
denborg had caught a glimpse of Hermetic doc
trine, and 'wrote under its influence, he was not,
as I must believe, in a condition to breathe the
prayer, " Father, I thank thee that thou hast hid
den these things from the wise, and revealed
them to babes."
If Swedenborg has justly expounded the Ti-ue
Christian Religion, in his work with this title, it
is certain that none but the deepest students can
penetrate the docti-ine, and the general mass of
mankind can be but little benefited by the
preaching which is to derive its life through or
by means of a comprehension of the principles
discussed in that work. Swedenborg's doctrine
of substance, of discrete and continuous degrees,
of time, of space, and even of love itself, will
never be generally acknowledged and made

206 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. EX.
popular ; and therefore, as a fruit of study, can
never become generally useful.
Is not this, it may be asked, still less likely to
result from the Hermetic writings, which have
already fallen into deserved oblivion? It may
be so ; but there is this to be said of those 'writ
ings — ^No one can attain to any doctrine from
Hermetic books as a result of direct teaching.
The consequence is, that whatever be derived
from those works can be said only to manifest
the individual character of the student ; hence
no one can be said, in any proper sense, to be or
to have been injured by that sort of reading.
The Hermetic books may be said to have been
written purposely as enigmatical as nature itself,
and every one who comes to their study brings
with him a certain design or intent. Now this,
for the time being, expresses the very essence of
his life, and will work itself out. If this inteni
be the truth, the student wiU not be misled by
Hermetic books, for their aim is to throw the
student upon the truth itself for a solution of its
problems, and they do not aim to fm-nish a solu
tion which may be carried, folded up, in one's
pocket. The result of reading Hermetic writings
is not to enable tlieir readers to m-ge that they.
say thtis and so ; but that (something) is, thus

Ch. IX.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 207
and 60. But, for the most part, the readers of
Swedenborg seem content to know that he, the
Swedish seer, says thus and so. In other words,
a doctrine is received by the Swedenborgians, or
at all events by many of them, because " the
master has said it." Tbey look to him and not
to the author of all truth, and some of them are
in danger of forgetting that Christ, while in the
body, would not allow even his followers to call
him good. " There is none good but one, that
is, God." Still, I desire to bear my testimony in favor
of Swedenborg's writings as of immense instru
mental value. His influences are good, and his
followers, so far as I have observed, are amiable,
excellent citizens, people to be loved and ad
mired. But they should be on their guard
against the error of imagining that Swedenborg
understood the doctrine of life better than John,
or that there is any positive need of twelve oc
tavo volumes in exposition of only two books of
the Pentateuch, Genesis and Exodus.
The doctrine of Christianity cannot need large
and learned volumes to expound it. The princi
ple by which it may be understood lies much

208 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. IX.
nearer home : — " Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God."
" Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out
of it are the issues of life."

Ch. X.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 209

CHAPTER X.
The multitude of interpretations that different
portions of the Sacred Writings have met with
might discourage us, if we could not draw from
this very variety a reconciling consideration ; for
what does it prove but the " many-sidedness " of
those Scriptm-es, and their adaptation to the
wants of every condition of life ; while, at the
same time, we may be sure that it is not essential
for us to rest upon any one interpretation exclu
sively; but, if we wiU have explanations, or
whatever they may be called, we are at full liber
ty to cull them from all quarters upon one single
condition, that we domesticate nothing in our
hearts except under the law of conscience.
Those who feel the want of an interpretation
of Genesis, or of the Pentateuch as a whole, may
undoubtedly seek for it wherever it may be found,
and accept such portions of different interpreta
tions as may seem just and rational. Thus, many

210 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. X.
very beautiful interpretations may be found in
Philo, though his criticisms are e'vidently a little
cramped by a theory in great part manifestly
drawn from Plato. Swedenborg also drew from
Plato and others, and had a theory to which the
Mosaic writings were compelled to submit in
passing through his alembic.
It may be that every interpreter, at all ad
vanced beyond the sensuous state, has some theo
ry constantly present in reading mystic 'writings,
or writings having an indeterminate element in
them. The merely didactic mind 'will perhaps
never see in the story of the Garden of Eden any
thing but a veritable history ; but the same story,
under the examination of a genius a little exer
cised in poetry, appears as a mixture of history
and allegory, while many see nothing in the story
but the allegory, and consider it idle to imagine
that it ever had a historical basis of any sort.
It is the same with nearly every part of the
most ancient Scriptm-es ; with, for example, the
Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple of Solomon.
With perhaps the majority of readers the Temple
of Solomon, and also the Tabernacle, were mere
buildings; very magnificent indeed, but still
mere buildings for the worehip of God. But
some are struck with many portions of the ac-

Ch. X.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 211
count of their erection admitting a moral inter
pretation, and while the buildings are allowed to
stand (or to have stood, once), visible objects,
these interpreters are delighted to meet with in
dications that Moses and Solomon, in building
the temples, were wise in the knowledge of God
and of man ; from which point it is not difficult
to pass on to the moral meaning altogether, and
affirm that the building, which was erected with
out " the noise of a hammer, or axe, or any tool
of iron " (I Kings 6. 7), was altogether a moral
building, a building of God, not' made with
hands : — in short, many see in the story of Solo
mon's Temple a symbolical representation of
Maj!t, as the temple of God, with its Holt op
Holies deep seated in the centre of the human
heart. This class of readers or interpreters dismiss
all idea of an external building, and study the
details of the Temple (or of the Tabernacle) as
significant of the nature of Man, with its two
pillars, Jachin and Boaz, used, perhaps, by every
" image " of God in going to and fro in his daily
avocations ; and the Hermetic writers might pos
sibly see their sulphur and mercury, as the attri
butes of their sacred Trinity, symbolized in the
Two Chervbims, from " bet'^yeen " which God, as

212 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. X.
the Spieit, gave his commands to Moses for the
Children of Israel ; or, finally, it may come to
this, that the Temple is Moses himself, whose
conscience speaks forth the commands of Qod, to
om- consciences, where they are verified and ac
knowledged. Thou shalt not kill, said the con
science of Moses, seated in the " midst " of the
Temple of the Lord, from " between " the Soi^
and the Body, as the two cherubims; — and
where is the human heart that does not say,
speaking from the same point. Amen ?
To understand the power and authority of
this Amen, we need only ask ourselves what au
thority Moses would have in the absence of it ; —
or, let us imagine that his commands had 'vio
lated that oracle of God in the human breast !
It is evident that the authority of Moses does not
in the least depend upon the history of the mi
raculous accompaniments at the enunciation of
the commandments ; but, contrarily, the reason
ableness of the commandments has supported a
belief in the miracles.
From this mode of looking at the subject we
may understand why Swedenborg regarded Moses
as a Hermetic philosopher ; — writing, as he says,
in "correspondences," or, in other words, in
Hermetic Symbolism ; for this is the meaning of

Ch. X.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 213
the Swedish philosopher, himself a Hermetic
writer. Swedenborg tells us again and again
that all the ancient wise men wrote in " Corre
spondences" undoubtedly including Moses, — ^for
the interpretation of whose writings, or two books
of them only, he devoted twelve octavo volumes !
Now, this word, "correspondence," can itself
have no other meaning than that of Symbolism.
It is plain, therefore, that, in the estimation of
Swedenborg, Moses was a Hermetic philosopher ;
and Swedenborg, having seized as he supposed
his point of view, comes forward in modern
times as his interpreter, yet without wholly lay
ing off the veil himself. He has, in fact, rather
taken up the mantle of Moses, and assumes to
speak to us as if " the Lord had been seen of
him," — to use his own language.
But does this lessen the authority of Moses ?
Not in the least. On the contrary, it may show
us the true ground of that authority, when we
find it not only in Swedenborg, but in ourselves,
and upon this foundation we may be enabled to
predict the permanent authority of Moses, whose
commandments will live and be respected for
ever ; — and why ? — because they proceeded from
the human heart and speak to the human heart.

214 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. X
We believe in Moses, because we believe in our
selves. To enable the reader to understand these
allusions more distinctly, let him study the real
import of the following citations from Scripture :
Exodus xxv. 17, — And thou shalt make a
mercy seat of pure gold : * two cubits and a haK
shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a
half the breadth thereof.
18. And thou shalt make two cherubims of
gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in
the two ends of the mercy seat.
19. And make one cherub on the one end,
and the other cherub on the other end : even of
the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on
the two ends thereof.
20. And the cherubims shall stretch forth
their wings on high, covering the mercy seat
with their wings, and their faces shall look one
to another ; toward the mercy seat shall the faces
of the cherubims be.
21. And thou shalt put the mercy seat above
Let us, for a moment, consider this mercy seat to he a hu
man heart, and the gold of which it is to he made is that of
which wc read iu Jiev. iii. IS, — " tried in the fire," — said to make
us " rich." With all reverence, be it spoken, this is Alchemic
gold.

Ch. X.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 215
upon the ark ; and in the ark thou shalt put the
testimony that I shall give thee.
22. And there I will meet with thee, and I
will commune with thee from above the mercy
seat, from between the two cherubims which are
upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which
I wiU give thee in commandment unto the chil
dren of Israel.
Numbers vii. 89. — And when Moses was gone
into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak
with him, then he heard the voice of one speak
ing unto him from off the mercy seat that was
upon the ark of testimony, from between the
two cherubims : and he spake unto him.
viii. 1. — And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, &c.
1 Kings vi. 23. — And within the oracle he
made two cherubims of olive tree, each ten cu
bits high.
24. And five cubits was the one wing of the
cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the
cherub ; from the uttermost part of the one wing
unto the uttermost part of the other were ten
cubits. 25, And the other cherub was ten cubits:

216 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. X.
both the cherubims were of one measure and
one size.
26. The height of the one cherub was ten cu
bits, and so was it of the other cherub.
27. And he set the cherubims -within the
inner house ; and they stretched forth the wings
of the cherubims, so that the 'wing of one touch
ed the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub
touched the other wall ; and their wings touched
one another in the midst of the house.
2 Kings xix. 15. And Hezekiah prayed
before the Lord, and said, O Lord God of Israel,
which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art
the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of
the earth ; thou hast made heaven and earth.
Psalm Ixxx. 1. Give ear, O Shepherd of
Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock : thou
that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.
Psalm xcix. 1. The Lord reigneth ; let the
people tremble: he sitteth between the cheru
bims ; let the earth be moved.
Isaiah xxxvii. 16. O Lord of hosts, God of
Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou

Ch. X.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 217
art the God, even thou alone, of all the king
doms of the earth ; thou hast made heaven and
earth. Ezekiel x. 1. Then I looked, and, behold,
in the firmament that was above the head of the
cherubims there appeared over them as it were a
Sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness
of a throne.
2. And he spake, &c. * * *
15. And the cherubims were lifted up. This
is the living creature that I saw by the river of
Chebar. * * •»
19. And the cherubims lifted up their wings,
and mounted up from the earth in my sight * *.
20. This is the living creature that I saw un
der the God of Israel, by the river Chebar ; and
I knew that they were the cherubims.
It cannot be thought strange that with such
descriptions and allusions as these a symbolic
representation should be supposed, to the com
parative disregard of the historical elements,
though without denying them, and that some men
may even yet be living who believe that the
Lord, — the eternal, the unchangeable, — stUl
speaks from " between " the cherubims to those
10

218 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. X.
who enter the temple, and penetrate the seat of
mercy, their own hearts, unveiled. But further,
and still more to this point : —
Exodus xxxiv. 33. And till Moses had done
speaking with them [the children of Israel], he
put a veil on his face.
34. But when Moses went in before the Lord,
to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he
came out. And he came out, and spake unto the
children of Israel that which he was commanded.
35. And the children of Israel saw the face
of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone:
And Moses put a veil upon his face again, until
he went in to speak with him.
St. Paul's commentary upon this veH is re
markable, and might very well excuse us for
supposing it a purely Hermetic veil, and that St.
Paul himself thought no otherwise of it.
2 Cor. iii. 3. Forasmuch as ye are mani
festly declared to be the Epistle of Christ minis
tered to by us, 'wi-itten not with ink, but with the
Spirit of the living God ; not in tables of stone,
but in fleshy tables of the heart.
4. And such trust have we through Christ to
God-ward. 5. Not that we are sufficient of oui-selves to

Ch. X.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 219
tliink any thing, as of ourselves; but our suf-
flciency is of God.
6. Who also hath made us able ministers of
the New Testament ; not of the letter, but of the
Spirit ; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth
life. 12. Seeing then that we have such hope, we
use great plainness of speech :
13. And not as Moses, which put a veil over
his face, that the children of Israel could not
steadfastly look to the end of that which is
abolished. 14. But their minds were blinded ; for nnto
this day remaineth the sa,me veil untaken away
in the reading of the Old Testament ; which veil
is done away in Christ.
15. But even unto this day, when Moses is
read, the veil is upon their heart,
16. Nevertheless when it [the heart] shall
turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.
17. Now the Lord is that Spirit; and where
the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Philo's interpretation of the cherubims is in
admissible, or it needs a fiu-ther interpretation ;
for he says that, " by one of the cherubim is un
derstood the extreme outermost circumference

220 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. X.
of the entire heaven, in which the fixed stars
celebrate their truly divine dance," &c. : — " the
other (he says) is the inner sphere which is con
tained within that previously mentioned, which
God originally divided into two parts : " — ^refer
ring no doubt to the 6th verse of the 1st ch. of
Genesis, or possibly to the 1st verse : " In the be
ginning God created the heaven and the earth."
But Philo's description would seem to refer to
an outer and inner sphere, as if one was con
tained in the other, in which case one would be
larger than the other ; whereas, we read that the
cherubims were of " one measure and size."
Swedenborg's idea of mind and body would
come nearer to the requisitions of the text ; for,
according to him, these may be regarded as the
two extremes of the universe, — of matter on the
one side, and spirit on the other ; — ^yet, so an
swering to each other as to be exactly united, as
he says, by correspondence ; and he further says,
that there is nothing in the one which is not in
the other ; in the midst or " between " wliich we
may suppose to be the place referred to in the
text, which every man carries with him.
The Hermetic Philalethe had two certain
impressions upon his mind, which he refers to in
the following language :

Ch. X.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 221
" When I consider the system or fabric of this
world, I find it to be a certain series, a link or
chain, which is extended a non gradu ad non
gradum : — ^From that which is beneath all appre
hension, to that which is above all apprehension.
That which is beneath all degrees of sense is a
certain horrible, inexpressible darkness ; the ma
gicians call it tenebrcB activce, and the effect of it
in nature is cold, &c. For darkness is vultus fri-
goris, the complexion, body, and matrix of cold,
as light is the face, principle, a,n^ fountain of
heat. That which is above all degree of intelli
gence, is a certain infinite iiiaccessiblefire or light.
Dionysius calls it caligo divina, because it is in
visible and incomprehensible. The Jew styles it
EIN, that is nihil or nothing, but in a relative
sense, or as the schoolmen express it, guo ad nos.
[This nothing is simply no thing, or not a thing.]
In plain terms it is deitas nuda sine indumenta.
The middle substances, or chain between these
two, is that which we commonly call nature.
This is the scala oi the great Clialdee, which doth
reach a tarta/ro ad primum ignem,, from the sub-
tematural darkness to the supernatural fi/re."
This, to be sure, throws no light upon the sub
ject, and I only recite it to show how men's
minds have labored upon a certain two things,

222 S'WEDENBOEG, [Oh. S.
which Moses has shadowed out by two cheru
bims, equal to each other, whose outer wings
touched the extreme outer walls, while their in
ner wings touched each other 'within the home,
from between which God communed vrith Moses,
and gave him his commands for the people of Is
rael, to wit, the " congregation," who, according
to some interpretations, are all of the passions and
affections, and indeed all the capabilities of our
nature, the whole of which are actually ruled by
the Spirit of God, whether we know it or not.
The wise are said to know it ; but the unwise are
ignorant of it, and think they possess and enjoy
an independent life.
The Masonic Society is said to make great use
of the story of the temple of Solomon, as symboli
cal and typical of a temple not made with hands ;
but I am not a Mason, and may be supposed not to
know any thing on the subject ; and yet De. Oii-
vee's Landmarks of Masonry, an authorized Ma
sonic work, very plainly shows how the subject is
understood by the truly initiated -within a lodge.
Dr. Oliver gives a very minute account of a cer
tain rebuilding of the temple, which any one may
see has no reference whatever to a building of
masonry and carpentry.
The second Temple, it appears, must be built

Ch. X.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 223
upon the foundations of the first ; which, inter
preted, means that the man of grace must be
created from the natural man.
" The foundations of the Temple (says Dr.
Oliver) were opened and cleared from the ac
cumulation of rubbish, that a level site might be
procured for the commencement of the building.
While engaged in excavations for this purpose,
THHEE fortunate sojourners [?] are said to have
discovered our ancient stone of foundation, which
had been deposited in the secret crypt by Wis
dom, Strength, and Beauty [Dr. O. has already
told us that these represent the trinity], to pre
vent the communication of ineffable secrets to
profane or unworthy persons. The discovery
having been communicated to the prince, priest,
and prophet of the Jews, the stone was adopted
as the chief corner-stone of the re-edified build
ing ; and thus became, in a new and expressive
sense, the type of a more excellent dispensation.
An avenue was also accidentally discovered,
supported by seven pair of pillars [?], perfect and
entire, which, from their situation, had escaped
the fury of the flames that had consumed the
temple, and the desolation of war which had
destroyed the city. The secret vault, which had
been built by Solomon as a secure depository for

224 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. X
certain valuable secrets that would inevitably
have been lost without some such expedient for
their preservation, communicated by a subter
ranean avenue with the King's Palace [?] ; but,
at the destruction of Jerusalem [?], the entrance
having been closed by the rubbish of falling
buildings, it had been now discovered by the
appearance of a key-stone [?] amongst the foun
dations of the Sanctum Sanctorum," &c.
In reading this account of the rebuUding of
the Temple, it is difficult not to think of the three
sojourners in the " image " of the trinity ; — ofthe
seven virtues, as prudence, temperance, courage,
fortitude, hope, faith, and charity, which in them
selves are indestructible, however much they
may be disregarded by man; — of the passage
through these to the wisdom crowning life ; and,
finally, one may hope that the key is not so abso
lutely lost but that it may be found by the faith
ful, the simple, the true.
While one class of interpreters surrender the
historical character of the first verses of Genesis,
and another disregard the historical accoimt of
the building and rebuilding of the Temple, an
other class of interpreters think it no impiety to
go so far as to deny that there ever was such a
people as the Israelites, and affirm their belief

Ch. X.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 225
that the whole history is symbolical and typical
of the progress of man in the process of regen
eration. A peculiarly earnest and pious writer, Mr.
Thomas Beomlet, evidently a man of great learn
ing, published a very extraordinary volume in
1744, entitled — The Way to the Sabbath of Rest,
or the Soul's Progress in the Work of the New
Birth : together with the Journeys of the Chil
dren of Israel," &c., in which the whole account
of the Exodus is explained as symbolical and
typical, the historical character being, not de
nied, indeed, but entirely disregarded : — and this
account is given purely in the interest of piety.
The wonders at Sinai, the waters of Horeb, the
heavenly quaUs and manna, &c., &c., are all
spiritualized, and may thus be said, in some
sense, to be naturalized. The story itself is
treated as a divine parable or allegory.
The fire in the bush is interpreted to be the
Spirit of God in Moses — God, in Scripture, being
often called a fire ; the waters flow from the stony
heart of man, softened by the Spirit of God ; the
quails and the manna become heavenly truth,
the divine food of the spiritually-awakened man.
The Alchemists, or some of them, symbolize
this truth by dew from heaven ; hence the er-
10*

226 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. X.
roil eons opinion prevailing that the Alchemists
thought that dew was the universal solvent!
They thought that the Spirit of God was the uni
versal solvent, and they tell us, in their jargon,
to gather dew upon the tops of mountains by
spreading clean linen cloths, &c., &c. Tlieir
writings fell into the hands of an unbelieving
generation, and this age has inherited their mis
understandings. The story of Robinson Crusoe has been be
lieved true by those who could in nowise believe
that dew is the universal solvent ! Tet this class
of readers have no difficulty in believing that
quails and manna have been rained from heaven !
But the actuality of the history of the transition
from Egypt — as the Land of slavery and dark
ness — to the Holy Land flowing with milk aud
honey, the Land of Light and peace, is manifest
ly subordinate to the spiritual sense, and without
a spiritual sense would be on a footing with other
histories ; 'whereas, the spiritual sense might re
main in full beauty and power, without a histori
cal basis, and thus free the story from seeming
grounds for captious criticism.
This mode of interpretation has one important
advantage, which many have seen, and which,
in an inquiring age like this, ought by no means

Ch. X.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 227
to be overlooked ; and on this point the Sweden
borgians have just reason to commend their sys
tem. It strikes a fatal blow at one of the strong
holds of the literal reading infidel. This system
of interpretation may be applied to many parts
of Scriptm-e — to the sacrifice of Isaac, for ex
ample. The literal reading infidel cries out against
this story as a dishonor to God, — as imputing to
him a violation of one of the purest instincts of
life, implanted by God himself in the breast of a
loving father. The infidel dwells with exultation
upon the horror of imagining, that the infinite
Father of all could command a loving parent to
butcher his own son, and then burn his remains
upon a funeral pyre, as an offering to himself.
To tell him that the event was in the control
of God, and was not permitted to be consum
mated, — that a substitute was provided, — does
not satisfy him. He insists that this explanation
only changes a dishonorable tragedy into an
equally disreputable farce, absolutely beneath
and derogatory to the divine majesty.
If now this story be classed with other sym
bolic or allegoric illustrations of principle and
eternal truth, what is the truth it poetically
teaches ? It is plainly this : — that there is but

228 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. X.
one object of supreme love for man, and no man is
right-minded towards God, whose entire affections
are centred upon any subordinate being. What
now is stronger than the love of a father for a
son, — ^for an only son, — ^for an only son in his old
age ? These conditions are all seized upon in
this story, and the sacrifice of the son is poetically
put for that of the love which, it was the object
of the allegory to show, should be subordinate to
the love of God. The literal reading may cheer
fully be surrendered to the infidel, but the eternal
truth it teaches will preserve the story as a divine
allegory in the admiration of all wise men.
Philo interprets at great length the story of
the flood, of the ark, and of the preservation of
the "just," as a piece of poetic symbolism. Ac
cording to Philo, man is the ark, his sins are the
overwhelming flood, from which is saved the
principle of truth and good ; — as true to-day as
when the story was written.
It is plain that he did not consider the story
as historical, or, if he did, it is certain that he at
tached no value to it as history.
All such stories are beautiful as allegories,
but when their historic truth is not only insisted
upon, but, as often happens, is made the chief in
terest, it is calculated to drive away from their

Ch. X.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 229
study the more mature intellects, who often thus
lose the beneflt of ancient wisdom altogether.
As in the parables of the New Testament, so
in the allegories of the Old, the truths taught
have no need of historical reality for their support.
That which distinguishes the sacred writings
from all other books, profane books so called, is
not their historical verity, but it is the spiritual
truth enclosed in the divine representations con
tained in the sacred volume. The historical char
acter of the entire record, from Genesis to Reve
lation, may be surrendered without the loss of
one "jot or tittle " of the eternal Woed, by which
it was produced. When Jesus declared that
" Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words
shall not pass away," he did not speak of written
words ; for, as respects what he said, his words
were not then written ; nor did he in a narrow
literal sense refer even to his spoken words, but
he referred to that eternal truth in God, by whose
authority and teaching he represented himself as
speaking ; for he said expressly, " My doctrine is
not mine, but his that sent me ; " and in a great
many forms he is represented as repeating this
declaration, as if it was an important part of his
mission to guard against being misunderstood on
this point.

230 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. X.
Those who are accustomed to dwell upon the
literal reading of Scripture, are apt to fear that
the truth itself is in danger when the literal sense
is brought into question ; but this is to mistake
the effect for the cause, and imagine that the Bi
ble is the cause of religion, instead of a product
of it. Some, still further removed from the truth,
if possible, are of opinion that the preservation
of religion depends upon the building and endow
ment of churches, not seeing that the ancient
temples and modern churches and mosques have
all been produced by what is called the religious
sentiment in man, which can never be destroyed
but with the destruction of his nature. The exter
nal forms and ceremonies of religion may be per
petuated by synagogues, churches and mosques,
but the sentiment or the idea of religion, or what
ever may be the name of the spiritual essence of
religion, can never be lost, nor are churches es
sential to its preservation. Our Lord himself
compared the Old Testament, or its forms and cer
emonies, to old bottles, by which we are taught
to consider that all external appliances for the
preservation of eternal truth are forever growing
old, and are but the shell, the husks, the outside
of religion. To respect these things is the duty
of all good men in every country ; but to insist

Ch. X.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 231
upon them as the essentials of religion, is to rouse
opposition in a certain class of middle intelli
gences, many of whom fancy it an evidence of
high enlightenment to denounce religion as a
dream, when they only mean to repudiate the
show of religion ; for even infidelity itself cannot
destroy the core of religion in the human heart.
To be certain of this, it is only necessary to know
what it is.
But religion is not the only field for allegory
and symbolism. Ti-uly, all the great poems and
romances in the world would be worthless if not
interpreted by the spirit of life. Dante, Tasso,
Ariosto, Milton, — are all allegoric writers. Go
ethe is the great modern master in this art. His
Travels of Meister are nothing but sketches of
the deepest soul experiences that man can know.
To perceive this, let the reader of Meister di
vine the meaning of the chapters in which the
story of Mary and Joseph passes before him, and
of the chapter on the Lily-stalk ; — and then fol
low Meister into the prison with impassable walls,
and study the design of the author through those
mysterious chapters where the hero is so im
pressed by a sense of stillness and sUence ; and
gather the meaning of the songs introduced, and
of the " strange " noise, which " sounded as from

232 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch, X
a distance, and yet seemed to be in the house it
self;" — And then, there is the New Melusina
episode, beautifully illustrating a not uncom
mon course of experience known to men of
genius. The New Melusina (16th chapter in Carlyle's
translation) is a symbolic representation of the
rise and career of an artistic genius ; — its stai-t
from ordinary life (the "cook and landlady");
its joyous elevating power (careering in a car
riage with seemingly inexhaustible " pouches of
gold and silver," imagination and fancy) ; its de
cline under the lowering influences of its employ
ment on inferior subjects ; the doubts raised
about the wisdom of obeying its impulses, and
the reassurances under a decision to employ it
under the guidance of reason (improved " by a
certain balsam ") ; the incompatibUity of its as
sociation with " mofoseness and caprice ;" — and
then is shadowed out the successive develop
ments of "dwarfs" (imagination); "dragons,"
(animal passions); "giants," (intellectual pas
sions, ambition, &c.); — and flnally the "knights"
(reason), the last acquisition in the perfecting line
of life. And then we see how the author has
contrived to " marry " a kiiight and a dwarf ivom.
time to time in the world, as in Shakspeare, in

Ch. X.] A, HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 233
whom reason and imagination seem to have been
in equilibrium. The whole thing is flUed with
characteristic touches ; — the improvidence of the
poetic temperament, commencing a journey with
" extra post, and fronting the end on foot ; " — its
aversion to industry (" ants ") ; the loss of its, the
imagination's, " twin brother " (truth) ; its oppo
sition to mere mechanical views of life and of na
ture ("music-makers"); and its "never doing
any thing in the right-handed way." Finally,
the imagination sets its subject down where it
was taken up, in common life, " with the cook
and landlady."
Goethe's Meister, notwithstanding Jeffrey's
criticism, is a more profound study than Faust
itself, though either of these works hold materials
for many a month's study to any one who looks
beyond the surface, and who reads for something
besides pastime and amusement ; — to any one
who has learned that life is full of vast realities,
which we must face and examine if we would not
be crushed by them.
But the reader of such works, and of all sym
bolic works, should be constantly on his guard
against fictitious interpretations, and no less
against attaching an undue value even to the

234 SWEDENBOEG, [Ca. X.
true unriddling of mysterious writings, for they
are not all of equal value, and some are of no
value at all. Here, in this walk, I know of no
art that can supply the want of genuine good
sense.

Ch. XI.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 235

CHAPTER XI.
It will not be out of place to refer here to
Bouterwek's History of Spanish Literature, —
(translation by Ross, Bohn's Edition).
I find in this work a multitude of allusions to
Hermetic phUosophy, in the extracts from Span
ish writings, apparently not recognized by the
author, showing that the principal writers of the
middle ages in Spain, as elsewhere, were more or
less imbued with a secret science or art, no doubt
greatly modified by the particular genius receiv
ing it, and thus appearing in a great variety of
forms. I do not pretend that all are of equal
value. Many may be worthless, — ^mere carica
tures and absurdities, not deserving so much as
to be named by the side of the Romaunt of the
Rose, one of the most perfect examples of Her
metic writing.
I will adduce but one example from Bouter-
wek, and -will show how the piece is to be inter
preted.

236 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XI.
The historian of Spanish Literature thinks it
would be unjust to the history of Spanish drama
tic poetry during the first half of the sixteenth
century, not to notice two tragedies by Geronimo
Bermudez, a Dominican monk of Galicia, who
published them under the assumed name of An
tonio de Silva. Bouterwek supposes that these
two tragedies were founded upon what he calls
" the well-known story of the unfortunate Inez
de Castro." The " titles " of the two tragedies he says,
" are whimsical and affected : " — though they
will not appear so when properly understood.
" The one is denominated Nise Lastimosa (the
Lamentable Nise, the anagram of Inez) ; and the
second, Nise Laureada (the glorified Nise) ; and
under these titles (says Bouterwek) they are re
printed in the Parnaso Espagnol, vol. vi."
The very titles of these dramas might induce
us to look a little beyond the surface for their
signification. Bouterwek, however, seems to see
nothing in them except some excellence in a
merely literary point of view. He treats them
as belonging to the current dramatic literature
of the time, and as if they had been actually rep
resented ou the stage, though, in my opinion, the
author never intended them for actual scenic rep-

Ch. XL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 237
resentation, but addressed them to a class of
readers more common in the Middle Ages than
is generally supposed, who would distinguish
their spiritual significance without asking for or
desiring a visible exhibition.
To assist the reader in seeing what I shall
urge as the true meaning of these dramas, I will
copy entire all that Bouterwek says of them.
" The first of these tragedies (says he) suffi
ciently proves what may be effected by a drama
tist of even moderate talent, when thoroughly
penetrated with a poetic subject, and at the same
time possessing the power of eloquent expression.
The Nise Lastimosa, it is true, is far from ap
proaching the ideal of tragic perfection ; but
some of the scenes fulfil all that the theory of the
dramatic art can require ; and energy and dignity
of expression are not wanting even in those pas
sages where the action is tedious and the incidents
ill-connected. The plot is simple, and towards
the conclusion its interest declines. But Bermu
dez has introduced, by turns aptly- and inaptly, a
chorus composed of Coimbran women, which is
sometimes interwoven with the action of the
drama, and sometimes quite independent of it.
The unities of time and place the author has to
tally disregarded. The first act opens with a so-

238 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. XL
liloquy by the Infante Don Pedro, in which the
prince deplores his separation from his beloved
wife. This soliloquy is succeeded by a long con
versation between the Infante and his secretary,
in which the latter, with all due courtesy, hints
that the attachment of the prince for a lady, not
of royal birth, is incompatible -with the welfare
of the State. The scene then changes, and the
chorus of Coimbran women is very absurdly in
troduced to moralize on love. Thus closes the
first act. In the second, the scene changes to the
court, and exhibits the king amidst his assembled
council ; the advice of the ministers prevails over
the good disposition of the monarch, and he con
sents to the death of Inez de Castro. A soliloquy
by the king follows, in which he offers up his
prayers. The scene again changes, and the fair
Coimbrans once more appear to moralize on hap
piness. In the third act, however, a new spirit
is infused into the piece, and the chorus partakes
in the action. Inez de Castro appears. The
women of the chorus form her attendants, and
offer her consolation and advice. Inez is inform
ed of the reports that are circulated respecting
her fate ; but throughout this act, the progress
of the story is nearly suspended. The fourth act
may however, be regarded as almost a master-

Ch. XL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 239
piece. Inez, attended by her children, and the
chorus, appears before the king to receive her
sentence. Nothing can be more expressive than
the dignity with which she demands justice, or
more affecting than the tenderness for her chil
dren, which continually breaks forth in her dis
course. At length she pictures to herself in vivid
colors the sorrow that awaits her husband, till,
exhausted by her feelings, she begins for the first
time to think of her own situation, and antici
pating, the horrors of death, she swoons, exclaim
ing, Jesus Maria ! This scene exhibits a picture
so replete 'with real pathos, that it may be truly
said, modern tragic art has seldom attained so
hight a point of perfection. The fifth act is
merely a tedious supplement. The prince is
made acquainted with the death of his wife, and
he vents his sorrow in long lamentations.
" The tragedy of Nise Laureada is far inferior
to that just described. The story is below criti
cism ; and towards the end becomes revolting to
feelings not blunted by inquisitorial horrors, or
sunk to the level of brutality. The Infante Don
Pedro, who has now ascended the throne, orders
the remains of his judicially murdered wife to
be taken from the tomb ; he then, with great so
lemnity, invests the corpse with the dignity of

240 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XI.
queen, and the ceremony of the coronation is fol
lowed by a marriage. Two of the counsellors,
whose perverted and inhuman patriotism had
urged them to sacrifice the unhappy Ines, re
ceive sentence of death, and are executed. This
is the whole plot, if so it may be called ; and
among the acting and speaking characters, the
executioners play a prominent part. The fii-st
act contains many beautiful passages ; but when
the last judicial ceremonies commence, horror
and disgust fill the mind of the reader. The
hearts of both culprits are extracted from their
bodies, the one through the breast, and the other
through the back. The most brutal exclama
tions accompany the execution of the royal sen
tence, and the chorus utters shouts of joy, while
the executioner discharges his barbarous task.
That these horrors might be regarded as pathetic
incidents by the Spaniards of that age, accus
tomed as they were from early childhood to stifle
every sentiment of humanity, and to allow fanati
cal exultation to overcome the natural emotions
of the heart, whenever a brutal sentence was
pronounced by ecclesiastical or royal authority,
is, unfortunately, but too probable. Had it not
been for this perversion of feeling, a people,
otherwise so noble-minded, could not have at-

Ch. XL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 241
tended the cruel festivals of their church, and
witnessed the burning of Jews and heretics with
as much pleasure as the exhibition of a bull fight."
What now do these tragedies signify ? They
never could liave been intended for representa
tion upon a stage. They shadow out the au
thor's opinion of the fall of man, and of his res
toration : — his fall is represented under a sym
bolic figure, by turning away from the love of
truth, the true wife, to the false ; — to a lady not
of royal descent; that is, to an object not ap
proved by truth and reason, which is always
" incompatible with the welfare of the state ; "
that is, for this is the meaning, with the man,
who is the state in this tragedy. In ordinary
language, the fall of man is involved in the love
of the world, as opposed to the love of God.
The truth itself, in the Tragedy, is personified in
the queen, and is represented as being put to
death at the instigation of certain evil counsel
lors. This is the substance of the first tragedy.
In the second tragedy, which Bouterwek evi
dently considers a mere drama of outward life,
placing it below criticism, the author represents
the Prince as ascending the throne ; which means
that the fallen man, the subject of the drama,
has returned to the possession of Reason, the Sol
11

242 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XI.
of the Hermetic writers ; and the flrst thing that
declares or evinces it, is the scene by which the
murdered queen, the Truth (the conscience, for
this is what is signified), is recovered from her
tomb, and fully reinstated as the true wife, the
true object of love. She is fully reinvested with
the dignity of q^ieen, and is crowned ; and, after
the coronation, reason and truth are married ; —
and this is the true " conj-ugial " marriage so
largely discussed and eulogized by Swedenborg
under the names of truth and good; meaning
that, in the perfect man, the understanding and
the will must act as one : — a mere truism, I ad
mit, and yet we see but few examples of it in
life. The false counsellors are then represented as
undergoing the punishment of death, for deluding
the prince and seducing him from his true love
— the hearts of both being extracted from their
bodies, one through the breast and the other
through the back : — and what can this be sup
posed to signify? — why were there just two suf
ferers, and no more ; and why was the heart of
one extracted through the breast and the other
through the back ? What can we suppose the
meaning of all this to be but that the spirit, in
assuming its proper supremacy over the enticing

Ch. XI.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 243
blandishments ofthe soul and the body, is repre
sented as executing these latter attributes of *the
one man, distinguishing one of the two by the
honor of having its heart extracted through the
breast, while the heart of the personified body is
drawn forth through the back, as the most igno
ble of the two.
This is the interpretation of these two trage
dies, whether it be worth any thing or not. It
supposes a theory -with regard to man which
makes him a triple person of Body, Soul, and
Spirit (Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury ; — Sweden
borg's Ens, Cause, and Effect, or "proceeding") ;
and while either of the two flrst have the as
cendency, the true queen of life is deposed and
dishonored ; and, in order to a restoration, she
must be reinstated with all her dignities. This
was the Hermetic opinion of Bermudez, the
Dominican Monk, and this was what he intended
to teach in these anonymously published trag
edies. If the reader asks why the poet resorted to a
fictitious representation in teaching so simple a
truth, several reasons might be given. Some of
the most important truths in the 'world are neces-
sarilj'' truisms, and ought to be so, as being not
denied to the most humble in life ; but they are

244 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XI.
not the less neglected on this account, and need
to be presented in a great variety of forms to
arrest attention and thus secm-e an important ele
ment in their success. In the case of Bermudez,
also, we may easily see that he was endeavoring
to teach perhaps the most important of all truths,
the necessity of a union in the perfect man, of
reason and ti-uth, the understanding and will,
without appealing to the Church, which, in his
age and country, assumed the exclusive control
of the consciences of all men, and professed to
hold the only authentic chart by which its fol
lowers were to be guided to bliss. But there
were many, even in the Church, who did not in
deed teach a different doctrine from that of the
Church, but taught it differently, and thought it
no prejudice to the truth to put it upon grounds
which the Church, in its external and formal
character, endeavored to suppress whenever such
exhibitions were recognized. The literature of
the Middle Ages -will never be understood by
any one who fails to see that, whenever the truth
in those ages attempted to walk abroad, she was
compelled to go veiled, or encounter the most
horrid persecution. All genuine literature,
dramas, novels, romances, essays, &c., have a
higher purpose than amusement; and to read

Ch. XI.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 245
books for mere pastime and amusement may be
a little, but a very little, better than other dissi
pations. The Preacher no doubt understood
how to read even books of amusement, when, in
the midst of all of his trials and experiments upon
life, he kept his "wisdom" by him, and we
should do the same in our reading.
It may be thought that I am extending the
field of Hermetic philosophy beyond its proper
limits, and using it as a one-idea hobby.
I should be sorry to incur just censure upon
this ground, but as I am persuaded that the
learned men of the Middle Ages were extensively
imbued with that philosophy, and wrote chiefly
under its veil, I cannot but so express myself. I
by no means say that the philosophy was equally
well understood by all who used the veil. Very
far from it ; and still less would I urge that the
mere shadowing out one's opinions in a fiction —
a novel, a romance, or a poem, though all of
these forms were used by Hermetic writers —
would bring an author under this class of writers.
To distinguish the members of this class readi
ly, some study of Hermetic philosophy may be
supposed necessary, — and in the books by Her
metic writers themselves ; because it is very dif-

246 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XI.
ficult to give any intelligible external account of
it. It may be emphatically said, that there is no
" royal road " to this sort of learning. A mere
verbal statement of a theory expressing some
thing of it, would be very unsatisfactory, particu
larly if the writers on the subject are correct when
they tell us, that it must first be seen out of
books, and then it may be discovered in them.
A plain, direct, right-minded man, feeling sure
that the truth has nothing to fear, and can have
no foe but falsehood, may ask, why make a mys
tery of this thing ; why not speak out plainly ?
The only answer I can imagine to this is the one
given by the Hermetic writers themselves, that
the secret is the mystery of God, and is resei-ved
in the power of God, to be given to whomsoever
he will ; and yet they tell us that this 'will is not
arbitrarily exercised, and that the science is a
true science ; by which they mean that the 'wUl
of God is exerted under fixed laws, themselves
expressing the very nature of God.
I will take this opportunity to enforce the
opinion I have already intimated, that Plato was
a Hermetic philosopher, and that he appears in
this character in his Republic.
A difference of opinion exists among critics.

Ch. XL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 247
as to whether Plato's writings have any other
than a surface meaning. Those who perceive no
underlying sense must of course be expected to
deny its existence ; yet Plato, in his seventh Let
ter, universally admitted to be genuine, has ex
pressly withdrawn one subject from the field of
open writing, and gives some reasons for it, say
ing that " a matter of that kind cannot be ex
pressed by words, like other things to be learnt ; "
— and further, "But if it had appeared to me
that such matters could be written or spoken of
sufficiently before the masses [meaning the masses
of his day], what could have been done by us
more beautiful in life than to impart so great a
benefit to mankind, and to bring nature to light
before all ? "
Here he tells us openly the subject upon which
he has not openly written. He goes on to say
that the attempt to promulgate such matters
would benefit only a few, who " are able (he says),
with a little showing to make discoveries them
selves." By this passage we may understand that Pla
to's writings are to be regarded as attempts to
show us a " little " of something, which we are to
study out for ourselves ; and this is entirely in
accordance with his opinion of the defect of writ-

248 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XI.
ing, as a channel or instrument of teaching, given
towards the end of Phaedrus, where he tells us
that " writing has this inconvenience, and truly re
sembles painting ; for paintings stand out as if
they were alive ; but, if you ask them any ques
tion, they observe a solemn silence : — and so it is
with discourses ; you would think that they spoke
as though they possessed some 'wisdom ; but if
you ask them about any thing they say, from a
desire to understand it, they give only one and
the self-same answer. And when it is once writ
ten, every discourse is tossed about everywhere,
equally among those who understand it, and
among those whom it in no wise concerns, and it
knows not to whom it ought to speak, and to
whom not. And when it is ill-treated and un
justly reviled, it always needs its father to help
it,; for, of itself, it can neither defend nor help it
self." He then contrasts that teaching of God, writ
ten, as St. Paul said after him, not upon tables of
stone, but upon the fleshy tables of the heart : —
thus showing us plainly where he sought knowl
edge. There is a remarkable passage in the Protago
ras, referring to the use of " veils " by the ancient
wise men, which, though attributed to Protagoras

Ch. XI.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 249
himself, we may presume was introduced by
Plato, expressly as a caution to his own readers
to look beyond tlie letter, the more especially as
we know why the master of Plato was put to
death. The passage in Protagoras is sufficiently strik
ing to justify its citation in proof of the point I
aim to establish. Socrates is represented as seek
ing Protagoras for instruction, and, on meeting
him, he asks first whether their conversation shall
be conducted publicly or in private, to which
Protagoras answers :
" Tou very properly take precautions on my
behalf. For a stranger who visits powerful
cities, and persuades the most distinguished of
the youth to quit the society of others, both kin
dred and not kindred, both old and young, and
associate with him, in the expectation of being
improved by his society, ought in doing this to
be very cautious, for things of this kind are at
tended with no slight jealousies and enmities,
and even plots. For my part, I say that the art
of a Sophist is ancient, but the men who pro
fessed it in ancient times, fearing the odium at
tached to it, sought to conceal it, and veiled it
over, some under the garb of poetry, as Homer,
Hesiod, and Simonides ; and others under that of
11*

250 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XI.
the Mysteries and Prophecies, such as Orpheus
and Musseus, and their followers ; and some I
perceive have veiled it under the gymnastic art,
as Iccus of Tarentum, and one of the present day
who is a Sophist, inferior to none, Herodicus of
Selymbria, who was originally of Megara. But
your own Agathocles, who was a great Sophist,
concealed it under the garb of music, as did
Pythoclides of Ceos, and many others. All
these, as I say, through fear of jealousies em
ployed these arts as veils."
The readers of Plato, therefore, may be ex
cused for supposing that there is something
underneath the surface of his writings, to be dis
covered by study under a suitable prepai-ation,
possibly justifying Apuleius in referring to what
he calls " those sublime and divine Platonic doc
trines, understood by very few of the pious, and
absolutely unkno'wn to every one of the profane."
Olympiodorus also says that "Plato, above
all men, is difficult to be understood; for, hke
Homer, he may be taken which way you will,
either Physically, Ethically, or Theologically."
Diogenes Laeitius also tells us that " Plato made
use of various names to preserve his writings from
being thumbed by rude and illiterate readers."
These testimonies, it is true, are not required

Cn. XL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 251
by those who see the Hermetic character of
Plato's writings. On the other hand, they should
not be urged as a pretence or excuse for seeking
in the mere imagination for a sense to Plato's
Dialogues never dreamed of by himself. Let
his reader, I would say, keep strictly to the real,
but with the consideration that things unseen
may be quite as real as those that are visible,
and when truly known may come to be under
stood as the only truly real, all visible things
being manifestly shadows ; but they are shadows
of something unseen, and the unseen is the prin
cipal subject of Plato's writings. Even the Ti-
mseus is not an exception, and should be read as
the conclusion to the Republic, and ought not to
be separated from it.
Very severe criticisms have been made upon
Plato on account of many things in the supposed
model of a government called the Republic, par
ticularly in regard to the seeming recommenda
tion of a community of women, so highly com
mended in that work. Excuses or apologies have
been made by Plato's admirers for admitting into
his idea of a Republic a tenet so destructive to
civilized life ; but no adequate explanation of a
notion so extraordinary is current among reading

252 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XI.
men, so far as I know. Plato's age has been
condemned for both ignorance and corruption of
manners by way of apology for this blot upon
his writings, but I find nowhere any attempt at
an explanation, which nevertheless seems at
hand, and may at least change the ground of
censure, if nothing more.
This repulsive feature in one of Plato's great
est works calls loudly upon us to remember the
caution of St. Augustine, of Origen, of PhUo,
and others, not to understand literally what ap
pears an abomination in ancient 'writings. I 'will
venture a suggestion with regard to the object of
Plato in the Republic, for the consideration of
the more learned and cmious on the subject,
drawn from Hermetic philosophy, which all the
writers say is older than Plato.
The Hermetic philosophers claim to see (me
taphorically, I mean), first. One (thing, which is
not a thing) ; then Two, then One again ; then
three and one, or one and three : and in these,
as principles, they affect to see the infinite di
versities of nature in the particidar subject of
their philosophy, without going beyond their
principles. The reader may wonder what this has to do
with the Republic of Plato ; but I will endeavor

Ch. XI.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 253
to show something of its application, as hints to
be pursued at leisure; for the subject is not
studied out in a day.
Call the One esse, being, substance, or by any
other name ; but be in no haste to imagine what
this One is. Conceive yourself in the centre of
it ; imagine no origin to it, and be sure it has no
end : — assign no limits to it, and suppose it her
metically sealed so that nothing can pass into it
but what belongs to it, and nothing pass out of it
unless known to be "superfluous." Then sup
pose two attributes coexistent with and in the
One, and call these, under the same reservation
as to knowledge, active and passive, to which,
however, other names may be given ; yet " they
are not two, but one," as the Hermetic writers
say : and thus, or by some other, more efficacious
means, endeavor to comply with the requisition
of Plato in the Sophist, and be able to " perceive
one idea every way extended through many
things, the individuals of which are placed apart
from each other ; and many ideas, different from
each other, externally comprehended under one ;
and one idea through many wholes conjoined in
one ; and, lastly, many ideas, every way divided
apart from each other."
To be able to do this perfectly, Plato consid-

254 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XI.
ers the science of a free man. In fewer words, it
is to be able to see the one in all, and all in one ;
and this is the claim of Swedenborg, when he
says that in turning entirely around and looking
in every direction he saw the Lord, the one
thing, or one in all ; or, whether he calls it the
Lord, or God, or Grand-man, or Substance, he
says it is all the same.
Now, apart from this mere statement for the
present, consider man as, physically and to the
natm-al eye, a double organism in one, having a
right side and a left side, each of the same
" measure and size," and observe that this double
nature extends to every part of his system ; his
tongue, as all physiologists know, being double,
yet united into one, — as a hint, say some, that we
ought to speak the truth.
A fanciful theorist might possibly see in these
two " like " things, the cherubims we read of in
Exodus, from the midst of which God spake to
Moses. Swedenborg tells us that, to the angels, the
Lord is seen through the right eye as a sun, and
through the left eye as a moon. But he only
means to suggest the double attributes of the
One, whom he calls the Loed.
Let this notion be now carried within man,

Cu. XL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 255
and let us see there two things, metaphorically
called the head and the hea/rt ; that is, thought
and will, or the intellect and the affections ; or,
what Swedenborg calls truth and good. And
now let us see in these two things the Sol and
LJana (the " flxed and unfixed ") of the Hermetic
writers, — which they also call masculine and
feminine, brother and sister, &c., and think it no
sin to marry them together. Call the intellect
masculine, I say, and the affections fetrdnine,
neither of them alone securing the perfection of
man ; — ^for a man may be intellectually able, and
yet be an accomplished villain ; and the poet
tells us that " mere good nature is a fool." Con
ceive, then, the two to be united and to act as
one, that is, in unison ; and call this one both a
MAN and a state. This state is under a lesiti-
mate monarchy when " reason rules ; " but it is
subject to an oligarchy, and to other forms of
government, and finally, in the descending scale,
to an anarchy, when inferior principles usurp the
ascendency. If we suppose a perfect development of all
the powers and faculties of man, under the influ
ence of ti^e thoughts and right feelings, working
in unison, we shall have, I think, Plato's perfect
republic, in which i\ie feminine principle and its

256 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. XL
brood or family of affections in man are equally
free with the so-called masculine principle, and
they all share equally in the government and in
the burdens of the state, — as represented in the
Republic, — there being an entire comity and
" coMMtnsrnY " of all things in the perfect man.
But this community is only good in the perfect
man ; — ^in the imperfect man it is e'vil.
Plato's Republic is not a theory or ideal of a
government among men, but the ideal of man in
the abstract, whose condition is determined inter
nally by the action and reaction of internal ele
ments under a certain freedom which no external
law can reach. In this State all the thoughts
and feelings exist in common, or as a " communi
ty," under no restraints or compulsions not de
rived from their internal nature. Under these
circumstances, the family of thoughts and feel
ings generated, will represent the character of the
State, whether noble or base, elevated or de
praved. If true thoughts and good affections are
united, that is, are married, in the jargon of these
writers, and act as one, the man lives on the as
cending side of life and tends towards heaven,
that is, towards a knowledge of and a union with
the principle of life itself, which is in God
only.

Ch. XI.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 257'
A mere common-place reading of the Repub
lic will show many passages, no doubt, seemingly
incompatible with this view, but a more careful
study -will bring this explanation within proba
bility. Such books should be read with an al
lowance for a considerable external latitude, but
under an internal law of truth that cannot be too
strictly applied. The form of all Hermetic writ
ings is always full of variety, and is purposely
made so by the ¦writers themselves, but, for rea
sons which have less weight in this age than
formerly. The inhabitants of Plato's Republic are the
thoughts and feelings, that is, the internal or
spiritual principles of man personified, the exter
nal form being a Hermetic veil. When wealthy
citizens are spoken of in comparison with the
poor, no more is intended than to indicate some
disproportion of natm-al power among the ele
ments within man. Wisdom is often called
wealth in Plato ; as in Cratylus, where Heemoge-
NES is represented as being covetous of wealth,
but without acquiring it. In this dialogue Hee-
MOGENEs personates the natu/ral man, incapable
of appreciating the knowledge of Ceatyltjs and
of SocEATES on the nature of things, — which is
the subject of that dialogue, under the Hermetic

258 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XI.
form of an inquiry into the origin of language.
All of the critics appear to regard this beautiful
dialogue as devoted by Plato to an inquiry into
the origin of the Greek language, and no one
seems to perceive that this is a mere veU, the ex
ternal form of an inquiry of a totally different
character ; and they are all puzzled 'with the dia
logue, and express astonishment at what they
regard as Plato's puerilities and absurdities in
regard to the language, whose origin is the pro
fessed object of inquiry. One of the recent
translators of Plato, Bdeges, has even ventm-ed in
some places to deny Plato's knowledge of his own
language, instead of feeling himself invited, by
the absurdities he saw, to look beyond the letter.
Thomas Taylor had good reason for declaring
that philology is not philosophy.
But to return to the Republic.
Before taking leave of this subject, I desire to
suggest, as a study for those who interest them
selves in such questions, that Plato's idea of the
perfect man, as indicated in the Republic, is sub
stantially the same as Swedenborg's idea of the
graiid-man, whom he places in Heaven, where
the Greek philosopher also places his perfect man,
— as may be seen towards the close of the 9th

Ch. XI.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 259
book of his Treatise ; or, to be minutely exact,
the " pattern," described by Plato as in Heaven,
is the pattern of Swedenborg's grand-man ; and
the perfect man formed after that pattern is Swe
denborg's angel, or what he calls " heaven in its
least form."
Hermetic writers recommend the reading of
many, but good books, upon their subject ; be
cause, as they say, " one book openeth another ; "
in view of which sound advice, I have no hesita
tion in saying that both Plato and Spinoza will
very greatly assist in opening Swedenborg ; for
they ai-e something like fountains to his stream,
the color of which will show, however, the Her
metic soil through which it has passed, to those
who make themselves acquainted with that soil.
This may startle those who are not accustomed to
consider idea,s under words, and are unable to
find what some of the writers call the centre of
this subject. If truth is one, as everybody says, it
is theoretically certain that the best philosophers
must approach each other in their main principles,
and must ultimately occupy the same ground.
Hence, students of this subject have placed the
great masters, Plato, Zeno, and even Epicurus,
nearer to each other than their respective follow
ers, who appeal to their authority, and lose sight

260 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. XI.
of that essential truth which the best philosophers
all know is most real, and yet most purely ideal ;
for these, in the last analysis, are two phases of
one thing. Plato points at this one in the 6th
book of the Republic, as something beyond the
visible sun (Swedenborg's sun of the natural
world, and the Lord, as seen through the " left
eye ") ; and beyond the intellectual sun (Sweden
borg's sun of the spiritual world, and the Lord,
as seen through the " right eye "). Plato calls it
the GOOD, and says "it is not essence, but beyond
essence, and is superior to both (suns) in dignity
and power ; " and this is the One, called by Swe
denborg the Lord, who is seen " everywhere " in
power, but nowhere in essence.
If now any one cries out against this -dew,
and declares that nothing of these similitudes can
be found in Plato, either to Swedenborg, or to
those who wrote of salt, sulphur, and mercury, in
the middle ages, I feel much disposed to say that
such a critic would be in danger of seeing no men
in a foreign country, because dressed perhaps in a
different fashion from what he is familiar with.
That all men have something in common, is
only saying that all men are men ; but that which
ought to be common among philosophers, and
should mark them as a class, is necessarily their

Ch. XI.] A HEEMETIC PmLOSOPHEE. 261
idea of man, and this must necessarily tend to
unity : but, in proportion as it does so, it must
more and more be removed from external mani
festations, and must finally be found in Heaven,
with Plato's pattern and Swedenborg's grand-
man ; where also is to be found the " City of
God " of St. Augustine, and no less the " City "
of Antoninus, who saw it only in his meditations ;
for on earth it is not seen, except by " art," as
they say : and yet it is said to be the most real
of all things, and may become visible even on
earth to the clarified eye.
All good men strive to see this city, and it is
the struggle of life to be worthy of it ; for to live
in that city is to live in Heaven, and this, inde
pendently of all considerations of time, — if what
they tell us of it is true.
For a description of life in this city of the
blessed, I would refer to the little poem placed
in the preface to my Remarks on Alchemy, —
which " may be held a fable ; " but the poet tells
us that, « "Who first
Made and recited it, hath in that fable
Shadow'd a Truth."
Those who doubt the possibility of such a

262 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XI.
state or condition, and feel disposed to ridicule
the idea of it as fantastical and unsuited to a
world of practical labor and trial, might do well
to consider whether such a doubt does not ex
hibit one who lives in the calamitous condition
of being ignorant of the true worth and possibili
ties of his own nature. Here is a theme for
earnest eloquence, but I am not a practised
writer, and strive only to express myself 'with
clearness. I therefore waive a -topic that might
possibly suffer from my inexperienced and di
dactic pen.
I wUl merely remark, in concluding this
chapter, that Plato's opinions upon government
must not be sought in the Republic, but in the
longest, though perhaps not the most studied of
all his works, the Laws.

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 263

CHAPTER XII.
Ha'vtng thus pointed out the Hermetic char
acter of Swedenborg's writings, I feel that my
notice of their remarkable author will be incom
plete unless I indicate also his connection with
or dependence upon the writings and principles
of a man who flourished about one hundred years
before him ; one of the most extraordinary men
of modern times, whose name the whole world at
one period seemed anxious to load with obloquy,
but whose reputation for purity of life is now
universally acknowledged, while his philosophy
is beginning to be recognized as worthy the care
ful study of all those who desire to know the
power of the human intellect as manifested in
works of thought upon abstruse and difficult
subjects. It is most remarkable that, although Sweden-

264 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XII.
borg, especially in his jihilosophical writings,
shows the most intimate acquaintance with all
the learning of his day, quoting largely from a
great number of works upon the anatomy, physi
ology, and philosophy of man, never so much as
once, so far as I now remember, makes the least
allusion to the name of Benedict Spinoza, the
born but anathematized Jew, who nevertheless
furnished him with some of the most profound
principles announced and developed in his re
ligious works.
The similitude, or rather the identity of the
doctrines or principles of these two men, is a
most interesting and curious fact, which can be
established by citations from their respective
works with so much clearness that the most
hasty reader cannot faU to recognize it.
Some years ago, in 1846, I printed for circu
lation among my friends a series of parallel ex
tracts from the writings of Spinoza and Sweden
borg, the object of which was to show, as a spec
ulative curiosity, the remarkable identity of the
doctrines of the two men, regarded from a scien
tific point of view. I called attention to the
fact, that while one of the two men had been re
viled as the veriest Atheist the world has pro
duced, the other has been held forth, by a con-

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 265
siderable body of followers, as expressly illumi
nated for the purpose of teaching the True Chris
tian Religion. It struck me that reflecting men
might see in the parallel I presented, matter
worth their serious consideration, and I still think
the subject worthy the attention of all considerate
men. The parallel to which I refer ought to teach
us moderation and charity, and must suggest the
probability, at least, that if Spinoza's enemies
were right in their abuse of his writings and
character, the friends of Swedenborg can hardly
fail to be in error in their admiration of the
Swedish Philosopher ; while, on the other hand,
if the followers of Swedenborg are justified in
their approval of his doctrines, the revilers of
Spinoza must have been in error.
But the reader may say that I am in too much
haste in making inferences and comments, and
ought first to point out the likeness between the
two men, if indeed it exists.
I shall show presently its prominent features ;
but I desire to say that, in the pamphlet to which
I refer, it was not my purpose, neither is it now
my purpose, to approve or condemn the doctrines
in question. I remarked in the pamphlet, and I
repeat now, that, in the estimation of some, the
12

266 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. XII.
dissimilarities between the two men in their
writings may be even greater than their points
of likeness, but that it is not easy to see how
men, whose groundwork is the same, can very
widely separate from each other without subject
ing one of the parties, at least, to the charge of
inconsistency or inconsequentiality. But the
most inveterate enemies of Spinoza, I believe, do
not accuse him of inconsistency in the doctrines
he develops from his principles. On the con
trary, it is generally asserted by those who have
examined his writings, that if his definitions and
axioms are granted, his entire system follows
without the possibility of being overthrown.
Accordingly, a recent writer has undertaken to
destroy the Avhole system of Spinoza's Ethics by
objecting to his first definition.
For my own part, I will confess that I have
never been able to follow Spinoza's demonstra
tions through, connectedly, from first to last. As
a demonstrable system, therefore, the Ethics of
Spinoza has never taken hold of me. I am not
therefore a Spinozist. Tet, — and this may seem
singular, — the two last parts of the Ethics, seem
very beautiful and fascinating, without any refer
ence to the formal basis laid in the preceding
parts ; and I must say, especially, that the very

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 267
last proposition of the entire work seems more
clear to me than the first, and would sooner be
assumed by me, as the basis of a system, than
almost any thing in the whole work, — ^if I de
sired to make a system myself.
Spinoza, after defining Substance to be that
which exists of itself, and is conceived by itself;
and modes, to be the affections of substance, an
nounces, as his first proposition, that. Substance
is prior in nature to its affections : and he re
fers, for proof, to his definitions.
I say now, that this proposition is not demon
strated; because, we may conceive the coexist
ence of the two, substance and its affections,
without conceiving the priority of substance. It
is true that the affections of substance cannot be
conceived without the idea of substance, but this
does not necessarily suppose priority. This first
proposition is not so clear to me, therefore, as the
very last in the work, which is in these words ;
Prop. 42, Part 5 : " Happiness (Beatitudo ;
Bliss) is not the reward of virtue, but it is virtue
itself ; and we do not enjoy (or possess) it, be
cause we restrain our bad oi' evil desires (libido,
evil propensities), but, on the contrary, 'tis because
we possess or enjoy it that we are enabled to re
strain our lusts."

268 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XH.
This proposition is almost self-e'vident, and
scarcely needs any thing for its proof but a little
experience and observation of life. In the ex
ternal world of nature and time, rewards and
punishments, both being temporal, follow the
conduct of man, and are of a nature altogether
different from the conduct itself, and are often
wholly unforeseen ; but these are incidents in life,
and do not constitute its real happiness or misery.
The true bliss lies in the very substance of life it
self, and not in its affections ; and this substance
of life is what Spinoza in this proposition calls
virtue, elsewhere calling it power ; by which he
means, in fact, the power of God, in which alone
man is secure against the evil affections, because
all affections are subordinate to this one power.
Hence, a sense of its possession is the glory of
man, though its attainment may require the
transmutation so much talked of by the Hermetic
writers : — a change from a state of nature to a
state of grace.
I admire the Fourth and Fifth Parts of Spi
noza's Ethics so much that I can almost accept
the First Part upon my faith iu the last ; but I
cannot reverse this order and receive the latter
portions of the Ethics upon any convictions de
rived from the demonstrations in the First. I

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 269
therefore prefer to read the Ethics 'bac'kwa/rds,
and stop somewhere in the Fourth Part. If any
one can read the beautiful developments in the
last Two Parts of the Ethics of Spinoza without
imbibing a great respect for their author and a
deep sense of gratitude for so much light and in
struction as may there be found, he is much to
be pitied. But to return to my subject.'*
If I make good the point I suggest, of a like
ness between the doctrines of Spinoza and those
of Swedenborg, it will appear remarkable that
many of them should be found, where they will
be found, in one of the latest and most religious
of Swedenborg's works, — that entitled The True
Christian Religion. If the principles to which
I refer were discoverable only in his philosophi
cal works, written before what he called the
opening of his internal sight, it might be imagined
that under the correction of a higher light they
had been abandoned; but, in truth, they may
all be found in his religious works, — introduced
there indeed with studied precision.
It is generally said that every system of
thought, where thought takes the form of a sys-
* I hope Mr. Lewes will fulfil the promise made in his Life
of Goethe, and soon give us an English version of Spinoza's en
tire works.

270 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XH,
tem, depends very much if not altogether upon
the idea of God. It is true indeed, that the con
trary statement is also made, — that, every man's
idea of the Deity expresses his individual charac
ter and mode of thought ; that, instead of saying
that God made man after his own image, it may
be said more truly that man imagines God after
his image.
However this may be, it was Spinoza's opin
ion that some idea of God must be presupposed
in every attempt to form any system of doctrines
whatever ; for he says in Chapter 4th of his
Tract on Theology and Politics, that, — " since all
our knowledge, and certainty which removes all
doubt, depends only upon the knowledge of God,
— because nothing can be, or be known without
God, and because we may doubt of aU things
while we have no clear and distinct idea of God,
— it follows, that our perfection and chiefest hap
piness depends only upon the knowledge of God."
In this passage God is conceived as the im
mutable ; because, as any one may see — ^unless
something fixed and unchangeable be supposed,
there can be no science or knowledge of any
thing. Unless something permanent be assumed,
we could not depend upon the continuance of our
knowledge of any thing whatever for one single

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 271
moment. The world is only not a chaos, because
there is something unchangeably holding it in
order, even amidst all its apparent changes.
Hence, with Spinoza, the existence of God was a
first principle — the most immediate and absolute
of all intuitions — above all demonstration, since
every demonstration assumes it. Still, he carries
his readers through a series of propositions de
monstrative of the existence of God, though such
demonstrations have never convinced any human
beinff who needed a demonstration at all. So
far, however, were these demonstrations from
convincing Spinoza himself, that, evidently, on
the contrary, they were the mere product of his
own convictions antecedent to them — as all de
monstrations indeed must be antecedently in the
mind of the demonstrator. To Spinoza there
was nothing so evident as the existence of God ;
but his demonstrations close with the declaration
that He cannot be made known or described by
any "mark" whatever; his Being, being alto
gether " UNIQUE " — ^not falling within the possi
bility of being imaged by any thing whatever.
This is truly the Mosaic doctrine — " Thou shalt
not make to thyself any graven image," &c. —
only Spinoza extends the prohibition virtually to
writings, and would have us understand that

272 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XIL
God not only cannot be imaged by the graver,
but cannot be described by human language.
But Swedenborg held the same doctrine, as
may be seen by the following passage from the
True Christian Religion, to wit :
" The esse of God, or the Divine Esse, cannot
be described, because it is above every idea of
human thought, into which [human thought]
nothing else falls than what is created and finite,
but not what is uncreate and infinite : thus not
the Divine esse."
Why, then, it may be asked, did they 'write
about God ?
The genuine Hermetic writers saw this point
with perfect clearness, and hence, among other
reasons, they wrote about Salt, Sulphur, and
Mercury, and left the reader to discover for him
self, under the blessing of God, that which is not
of a transferable nature among men.
" Our practice," says a Hermetic writer, "is
in effect a track in the sands, where one ought to
conduct one's self rather by the North Star than
by any footsteps which are seen imprinted there.
The confusion of the tracks, wliich an almost in
finite number of people have left there, is so
great, and one finds so many different paths, al
most all of them leading into most frightful des-

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 273
erts, that it is almost impossible not to stray from
the true Road, which only Sages favored by
Heaven have happily known how to find out
and discover." " It is a Path (says another of
the same class of writers, quoting Job) which no
Fowl knoweth, and which the Vulture's eye hath
not seen."
One would think that Spinoza had taken suf
ficient and praiseworthy care to remove the no
tion that by God he meant external and visible
nature, expressly denying it, among other evi
dences, in a published letter to Oldenburg ; yet
he has by some been charged with making nature
God. Others, driven from this point, have gone
to the other extreme ; and, seeing how carefully
Spinoza has endeavored to guard against the
notion of an imaged God, which with him was
an imafjina/ry God, have denied that his idea of
God was any thing at all : — so difficult is it for
man to reach an idea independently of an image.
Some say it is impossible to have such an idea —
an idea without an image. If this is really so,
then, indeed, I do not see to what purpose any
one can write or read, or even think of God ; for
it is certain that no image or imagined thing can
represent the eternal, invisible, immutable Being
we call God. Our idea of God may be imper-
12*

274 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XIL
feet, and may contain sensuous imagery which
may need to be eliminated, but to deny alto
gether the possibility of freeing it from the cloud
in which it may first be recognized, is equivalent,
it seems to me, to a denial of the possibility of
both a true religion and a true philosophy ; for
it is undeniable that these must not only rest
upon some idea of God, but will be true only so
far as that idea is true. Let the searcher, there
fore, examine his idea of God, and continue his
examination until he feels satisfied that he has
one upon which he can repose, and yet it must
be that such an idea cannot be found in books
alone, unless by some very remote analogy.
Mathematicians have what they call the idea
of a triangle, as also the idea of a circle, of an
ellipse, of a parabola, &c., all coexisting in one
mind without jostling each other; and from the
idea of a triangle, for example, they demonstrate
innumerable properties without affirming the ex
istence or reality of any triangle in nature, while
yet from the force of the idea alone they affirm,
conditionally, that if any triangle exists in natm-e
it must exist necessarily under the law of the
idea. Spinoza seems to have carried this notion of
an Idea, to the Idea of God as [a] self-existence,

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIO PHILOSOPHEE. 275
of such a nature as to include all possible exist
ences of a specific or finite nature, so that nothing
can exist specifically except in conformity with
the nature, that is, with the law of the uncreate,
— the self-existence ; — and this in theological lan
guage is expressed by saying that all things exist
by the will pf God (except God himself, the un
create — the self-existence) ; because, in Spinoza's
sense, the will of God, and the nature of God,
and the law of God, are one and the same.
In saying that something immutable must be
conceived before there can be any science or
knowledge whatever, nothing more is expressed
than a demand of the intellect. It is involved in
the mere expression, that if something be not
fixed, then nothing is fixed, and of course no sci
ence. The postulate in itself is simple enough,
and is acceptable to every one. The difficulty
lies in determining what that is which is immuta
ble, and here it is that Spinoza, following his own
ancestor of the Pentateuch, declares that it can
not be known by any "mark" whatever. This,
say the Hermetic writers, is to be " seen by the
eye of the mind," and though the fixed is not the
movable, yet when the fixed is known it is un
derstood in what sense the movable is fixed also,
because its motions all take place according to

276 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XH.
the law of the fixed. In Hermetic language, call
the ^xedi, sulphur ; the movable, mercury; and
find their unity, which may then be called salt,
and the problem of the Hermetic Trinity -wUl he
solved. But this problem is never solved on pa
per until after it has been solved in another
fashion. Thus, say several of the 'writers, — vir
tually all Hermetic writers, — ^it may be found by
a profound contemplation upon experience in
life, and " not otherwise ; " and then it may be
recognized in books. To make this discovery
man must, like Moses, enter the tabernacle un
veiled. I thought proper to premise thus much be
cause Spinoza made the existence of God a pre
requisite iu his system, and devotes the first part
of his Ethics to the proof of it, whUe yet the
principle is beyond and above all proof, and
never fails to confound the intellect that would
hold it otherwise than by submission to it.
That Swedenborg attached the same impor
tance to this first principle may be inferred from
his efforts to establish the doctrine of the one
substance, the Esse of God, at the commencement
of his most systematic works ; as, for example,
in his work on Divine Love and Divine Wisdom ;
his work on the Ti-ue Christian Religion; and

Ch. XII.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 277
also his volume on Heaven and Hell. But those
who read these works ought not to imagine that
they understand this thing until they can recon
cile Swedenborg's declaration that " the Divine
Esse is above every idea of human thought,"
with his no less positive affirmation, that God is
the Lord, that the Lord is Life and is seen every
where. Swedenborg's works are extremely valuable,
but their author never intended that they should
eupersede the gospel of John in enabling us to
understand the Woed that was with God and was
God in the beginning, and was " made flesh."
But it is time now to show the parallel to
which I have referred.
I. Of God, according to Swedenborg.
" Every one who thinks from clear reason, sees that
all things were created out of a Substance, whicli is
substance in itself, for this is the real Esse [Being] from
which all things that are can exist : and as God alone is
Substance in itself, and thence the real Esse, it is evident
that the existence of things is from no other source."
Angelic Wisdom concerning Divine Love, par. 283.
Again, " It is acknowledged by many, that there is
an ordy Substance, which is also the first, from which
all things are." Ang. Wis. cone. Divine Providence,
par. 6.
Again : " Where there is Esse [Being] there is also
existere [existence]; one is not possible without the

278 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XH.
other, for Esse is by Existere, and not without it." An-
gelic Wisdom concerning Divine Love, par. 14.
Again : " He who in any degree of thought can con
ceive and comprehend an Esse and Mcistere in itself,
will perfectly conceive and comprehend that such Esse
and Existere is the self -subsisting and sole-subsisting
Being." Ibid. par. 45.
Again ; " As things all and each are forms, it must
be that He who created all things is form itself, and
that from form itself are all things which were created
in forms : This is therefore what was demonstrated in
the treatise comcerning the Divine Love and Divine Wis
dom, as, That ihe Divine Love and Divine Wisdom,
is Substance, and that it is Form." Angelic Wisdom
concerning Divine Providence, par. 40 — 43.
Again : " Who does not from reason perceive and
acknowledge, that there is an only Essence, from which
is all essence, or an only Being, from which is all being ?
What can exist without being ? And what being is there
from which is all being, unless there is Being in itself?
And what is being itself is also the only Being and Be
ing in itself. Since it is so, and every one perceives
and acknowledges this from reason, and if not, can per
ceive and acknowledge it, what else then follows, than
that this Being, whieh is the Divine itself, which is Je^
hovah, is the all of all things which are and exist ? It
is the like, if it is said that there is an only Substance,
¦from which all things are ; and because a Substance
without form is not any thing, it follows also that there
is an only form, from which all things are." Ibid. par.
157.

Cn. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 279
Of God, according to Spinoza.
" By God, I understand a Being absolutely infinite ;
that is, a Substance consisting of infinite attributes, each
one of which expresses infinite and eternal essence."
Ethics, part 1, def. 6.
" By Substance, I understand that which is in itself,
and which is conceived by itself : or, that, the conception
of which does not need the conception of another thing,
from which it must be formed." Ibid, def. 3.
" Existence belongs or pertains to the nature of
Substance." Ibid. prop. 7.
" No Substance can be conceived except G-od." Ibid.
prop. 14.
" Whatever is, is in God, and nothing can be, or be
conceived without (out of ) God." Ihid. prop. 15.
" The Existence of God, and the Essence of God
are one and the same." Ibid. prop. 20.
'^^'Bj s. Self-Cause, I understand that, the essence
of which implies or involves existence ; or, that, the na
ture of which cannot be conceived except as existing."
Ibid, def 1.
Let us now see the similarity of the two
thinkers on the subject of things, i. e. modes.
II. Modes, according to Swedenborg.
" With respect to the existence of things, sound phi
losophy teaches us, that things which are much com
pounded take their origin from things less compounded ;
the less compounded from things still less so ; these from
their individual substances or parts, which are least of
all limited ; and these again from things simple, in which

280 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XIL
no limits can be supposed, except one ; from which cir
cumstance also they are called simples. But whence is
this simple, in which only one limit is to be conceived ?
And whence that limit? It cannot exist by itself; for
there must be something by which it may exist, if it
have a limit, if it be simple, or if it be capable of giving
origin to two or more limits. Extending the inquiry
therefore, by the same philosophy we rationally proceed
to the conclusion, that such a simple derives its exist
ence from the Infinite ; but that the Infinite exists of
itself. Again, if we contemplate the successive progres
sion of causes, it will be found highly reasonable to con
clude, that nothing finite can exist without a cause;
that things which are much compounded, or which con
sist of many individual parts, neither could be compound
ed, nor can subsist, without a cause, by which they were
compounded, and by which they may consist : for a
cause always precedes and afterwards accompanies that
which exists from it. The individual parts of such a
composite must in like manner be compounded of and
subsist from their individual parts stiU smaller; and
these again, by the order of their succession, from things
simple. But still things simple can neither exist nor
subsist from themselves. Wherefore there must be an
Infinite Something; there must be something infinitely
intelligent, which may be considered both as a cause in
itself, and at the same time as an operator of effects out
of itself; or as an inherent force, and at the same time
as a positive agent ; or as a power capable of producing,
and at the same time as actually producing the existence
of other things. It follows, therefore, that things com
posite derive their origin from things simple ; things

Cia. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 281
siimple from the Infinite ; and the Infinite from itself,
ats being the sole cause of itself and of aU things. It
wras before observed, that all finite things came into ex-
isstence successively ; for nothing can be at once such as
itt is capable of becoming, except the Infinite. Every
tlhing finite acknowledges, or is indebted to, a certain
rmode, by which it is what it is, and nothing else ; a mode,
b-)y which it is of such a figure, and no other ; a mode,
biy which it occupies such a space, and no other. In a
tword, all things are modified ; and therefore they ac-
krnowledge a mode prior to their modification, and ac-
ccording to which it takes its place : they acknowledge
ailso a time, in which they were so modified. Hence
naothing is at once what itis capable of becoming, except
tlhe Infinite. All finite things must necessarily under-
g^o different states successively ; but not so the Infinite.
.M.nd thus we perceive that all things out of the Infi
mite have their modifications, but that in the Infinite
tlhere is no su,ch thing as a mode : He being the origi-
naal cause of all modifications." Principia, vol. 1, p.
417. Modes, according to Spinoza.
" By a Mode, I understand the affections of a Sub-
sttance, or that, which is in another thing through or by
nmeans of which other thing it is conceived. Ethics, part
11, def. 5.
Observe, that Swedenborg has said of Simples, out
oif which Compounds are made, that they cannot exist
biy themselves ; i. e. as Spinoza expresses it, they must
boe conceived as existing in something else, which some-
tlhing else is in itself, &c.
Again (Spinoza says), " I understand by Body, a mode

282 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XH.
by which the essence of God, in so far as he is consid
ered as Extension (res extensa, an extended thing), is
expressed in a certain and determined manner or mode."
Ibid, part 2, def. 1.
Again. " Particular things are nothing but afi'ec-
tions of the attributes of God, or modes in which the
attributes of God are expressed in a certain and deter
minate manner." Ibid, part 1, corol. to prop. 25.
Again. " The Essence of things produced by God
does not involve existence." Ibid, part 1, prop. 24.
Again. " There must be a certain cause of the exist
ence of each thing which exists. * * * It must he
concluded absolutely (universally) that, every thing ac
cording to whose nature many individuals may exist,
must necessarily have an external cause of such exist
ence." Schol. prop. 8, part 1.
Hence, in the Ethics of Spinoza, man and all
things in nature are considered as not having in
themselves necessary existence ; but they are re
garded as modes, things existing in another thing,
i. e. affections of the attributes of God, existing
only in God.

Let us now notice what each of these extra
ordinary thinkers has to say of our knowledge,
and it will be seen that each of them point out
three different sources or kinds of knowledge,
and that the two authors harmonize in a most
remarkable manner.

Ch. X.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 283
III. Op Kinds of Knowledge, according to
Swedenborg. " Moreover, it should be known that there are three
degrees of Love and Wisdom, and thence three degrees
of Life, and that the human mind, according to these
degrees, is formed as it were into regions, and that life
in the highest region is in the highest degree, and in the
second region in a lower degree, and in the last region
in the lowest degree. These regions are successively
opened in man ; the last region, where life is in the low
est degree, is opened from infancy to childhood, and this
is done by the senses. The second region, where life is
in a higher degree, from childhood to youth, and this is
done by knowledges from the sciences ; and the highest
region, where life is in the highest degree, from youth to
manhood and onwards, and this is done by the perception
of truths, both moral and spiritual. It should be further
known, that the perfection of life consists not in thought,
but in, the perception of truth from the light of truth ;
the differences of the life with men may be thence ascer
tained ; for there are some who, as soon as they hear the
truth, perceive that it is truth. [This is Spinoza's third
kind of knowledge.] There are others who do not per
ceive truth, but conclude it from confirmations by ap
pearances. [To conclude or infer a truth, means to
reason out a truth, and this is Spinoza's second kind of
knowledge.] There are others' who believe a thing to
be true, because it was asserted by a man of authority."
[And this last answers to Spinoza's first kind of knowl
edge, which he afterwards shows to be the source of
error and falsehood, because things are seen in their ap
parent order in nature, in which their true causes do not

284 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. XII.
appear ; these being only seen by the third kind of
knowledge, in the intellect. And in this too, the two
thinkers agree, Swedenborg attributing error to seeing
or judging of things from appearances as effects, and not
seeing them in their causes — as we shall see presently.]
Trv,e Christian Religion, page 37.
Of Kinds of Knowledge, according to Spi
noza. " We perceive many things and form universal no
tions from single things represented to us through the
senses, mutilated, confused, and without relation to the
intellect : and also from signs ; for example, reading or
hearing certain words, we call things to mind, and form
certain ideas of them like those, by which we imagine
things. These I will in future caU knowledge of the
first kind. [Swedenborg's lowest degree.] Secondly,
we form them from our having universal notions and
adequate ideas of the properties of things, and this I call
reason and knowledge of the second kind. [This b
Swedenborg's second degree.] Besides these two Mnds
of knowledges, there is a third, as I will show in the se
quel, which we will call intuitive knowledge. And this
kind of knowing proceeds (or descends) from the ade
quate idea of the formal essence of certain attributes of
God to an adequate knowledge of the essence of things."
[This is Swedenborg's highest degree.]
Both writers make very great use of the dis
tinctions above set forth, of which, one or two
examples may suffice. The above extract is
from the Ethics, part 2, scholium 2, prop. 40.

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIO PHILOSOPHEE. 286
IV. Of THE DIFFEEENCE of SEEING THINGS IN
THEIE EFFECTS AND IN THEIE CAUSES, aCCOrding tO
Swedenborg. Explaining his reasons for treating certain matters
as he has, Swedenborg says, " To treat of them other
wise than from their original source, would be to treat
from effects and not from causes ; and yet effects teach
nothing but effects, and when they are considered alone,
they do not explain a single cause ; hut causes explain
effects ; and to know effects from causes is to be wise ;
but to inquire into causes from effects is not to be wise :
because then fallacies present themselves, which the
examiner calls causes, and this is confounding wisdom."
Angelic Wisdom concerning Divine Love, par. 119.
On this point, Spinoza, in the 4th axiom to
the first Part of the Ethics, states his doctrine,
that, " the knowledge of an effect depends upon
(or is involved in) a knowledge of its cause."
V. Of THE Intuitive E^nowledge, (or highest
degree,) according to Swedenborg.
" There are two things proper to nature, space and
time. From these in the natural world man forms the
ideas of his thought, and thence his understanding. If
he remains in these ideas, and does not elevate his mind
above them, he never can perceive any thing spiritual
or divine ; for he involves it in ideas which he derives
from space and time, and in proportion as he does this,
the light of his understanding is merely natural. Think
ing from this merely natural light, in reasoning of things

286 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XII.
spiritual and divine, is like thinking from the darkness
of night of those things which only appear in the light
of day ; hence comes naturalism. But he that knows
how to elevate his mind above the ideas of thought
which partake of space and time, passes from dark
ness to light, and becomes wise in spiritual and divine
things. Ihid. par. 69.
Of LstTuiTivE Knowledge, according to the
Ethics. Spinoza, in the Ethics, after stating the three
kinds of cognition (knowing), i. e., 1st, from the
senses : 2d, from reasoning : 3d, from intuition,
states the proposition, that the third kind of
knowing (corresponding to Swedenborg's spirit
ual knowledge) cannot possibly arise from the
first kind of knowledge ; and in various places
throughout the Ethics sets forth the same doc
trine; while in his Tract on Theology, treating
of the Divine Law, chap. 4, he has the following
passage, referring to the impossibility of the
natural man's knowing the things of the spirit.
" These things cannot but be unintelligible to a car
nal man, and must seem vain and unsubstantial to him
in consequence of his meagre (jejune) conceptions of
God; and because in this highest good, consisting
solely in contemplation and pure mind, he can find
nothing to touch or eat, or which in any way affects
the bodily senses, wherein he takes his chief delight.
But they must be the most substantial of all things to

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 287
those who know that there is nothing more excellent
than reason and a sound mind." [By reason, is not
meant here the faculty of reasoning (argument), but
that element or principle in man, by which he is man,
and without which he would not he at all — in short
the divine in man ; which, as both Swedenborg and
Spinoza agree, is from God.]
The admii-ers of Coleridge will readily see,
above, the grounds of the doctrine so zealously
set forth by him, i. e. the distinction between the
understanding and the reason; all knowledge
depending upon the first being uncertain and
unstable, while through the reason, according to
this doctrine, knowledge is absolute, and admits
of no appeal.
We have now seen how nearly similar these
two thinkers are in their doctrines of God, of
things, of the different kinds of knowledge, and
of the impossibility of the natural man's know
ing the things of the spirit. We will next pass
to a vital point, to which particular attention is
invited, namely, their doctrine of Salvation.
It is important to observe, that the language
of Swedenborg, soon to follow, has a very dis
tinct signification, where he distinguishes the
wish of one to make another happy " from" him
self; the idea being, to make another happy
'with a total disregard of one's o'wn happiness ;

288 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XH.
this being the test of a true love, independent of
consequences. VI. Of Salvation, according to Swedenborg.
" The third essential of the love of Godj which is to
mahe them happy from itsdf, is sekaowiedged from
eternal life, which is blessedness, happiness, and felici
ty without end, which God gives to those who receive
his love in themselves ; for God, as he is Love itself,
is also blessedness itself; for every Love breathes forth
from itself a delight, and the Divine Love breathes
forth blessedness itself, happiness and felicity to eter
nity. Thus God makes angels happy from himself,
and also men after death, which is effected by conjmic-
tion with them." True Chrn. Relig. p. 38.
And again, at page 262, same work, is the
following :
" If therefore man becomes rational-spiritual, and
at the same time moral-spiritual, he is conjoined to God,
and by conjunction has salvation and eternal life."
Of Salvation, according to Spinoza.
" Our intellectual love of God is the same love with
which God loves himself; not, as he is infinite, hut in
so far as he can be explained (or represented) by the
essence of the human mind, regarded under the form
of eternity ; or in other words, the intellectual love of
the mind for God, is a part of the infinite love with
which God loves himself Hence it follows that, in so
far as God loves himself, he loves men or mankind,
and consequently, that the love of God for men, and

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 289
the intellectual love of the mind for God, are one and
the same thing." [ This is the Conjunction of Sweden
borg.] " We see clearly now wherein consists our
salvation or happiness (bliss or blessedness), or in
other words, our Uberty (or freedom), to wit, in a con
stant and eternal love for God, or, in the love of God
for men, (God's love of us ;) and the sacred scriptures
have not without reason given to this love the name of
glory." Ethics, part 5, prop. 36.
The brevity of these last extracts must pre
sent the doctrine of salvation in some degree
obscurely, there being, especially in the Ethics,
very many propositions necessary to its full ex
position ; but a similitude will hardly fail to be
seen in the above extracts.
Here are certainly shown very remarkable
points of contact between these men, on the most
essential doctrines, of God, of Knowledge, and
of Salvation, sufficient to excite curiosity at least,
if not astonishment, considering the fate, thus
far, of the two men : and as these are aU impor
tant doctrines, necessarily having an influence over
those who hold them, it might be expected that a
likeness should also appear in other portions of
the works of these men. I am now to show that
this is the case in some remarkable particulars ;
in doing which there will be some further con
firmations of what has already been adduced.
13

290 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XII.
VII. Swedenborg. " The Esse of God, or the Di
vine Esse, cannot be described, because it is above
every idea of human thought, into which [human
thought] nothing else falls than what is created and
finite, but not what <is uncreate and infinite ; thus not
the Divine Esse." True Chn. BeUg. page 16.
Spinoza, treating of God, says, " If any one should
ask me to give an example for the full exphcation of
what is here intended, I must reply, that no instance
can adequately explain what is in itself wwiji^e." Ethics,
part 2, prop. 8, schol.
VIII. Swedenborg. " The Divine Esse is esse in
itself, and at the same time existere (existence) in it
self" True a B. page 16.
Spinoza. " Existence belongs or pertains to the na
ture of a substance." Ethics, part 1, prop 7.
IX. Swedenborg. " The Divine Esse and Existere
in itself cannot produce another divine, that is esse and
existere in itself: consequently another God of the
same essence is not possible." T. G. M. p. 16.
Spinoza. " One substance cannot produce another
substance." Ethics, part 1, prop. 6. — And the conclu
sion of the demonstration is, that " there cannot he
many substances, but only one." And prop. 14 is, that
" No substance can be conceived except God."
The above I note as remarkable.
X. Swedenborg. " In relation to subsistence, all fi
nite things, produced in the way here described, [i. e.
from the Infinite,] do actually subsist from the same
cause and mode, which brought them into existence."
Principia, page 54.

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 291
Spinoza. " God is not only the cause of the begin
ning of the existence of things, but of their continuance
in existence." Ethics, part 1, prop. 24, corol.
XI. Swedenborg. " Jehovah God is esse in itself
* * * beginning and end, &c, from eternity to
eternity." T. C. B. p. 17.
Spinoza. " Substance is that which is in itself, and
is conceived by itself" Ethics, part 1, def 3. And
" whatever is is in God." Prop. 15. And " God is
eternal." Prop. 19.
XII. Swedenborg. " The unity of God is most in
timately inscribed on the mind of every man." T. G. B.
page 20.
Spinoza. " The human mind has an adequate know
ledge of the eternal and infinite nature of God.'' Ethics,
part 2. prop. 47.
Xlll. Swedenborg. " That the infinite divine is in
man, as in its images, is evident from the word where
this is read," &c. T. G. B. p. 29.
Spinoza. " Hence it follows that the mind of man
is a part of the infinite intellect of God." Ethics, part
2, prop. 11, coroU.
XIV. Swedenborg. " In him (man) the soul is not
life, but a recipient of life. * * Life in himself is
God. * * * The Divine Esse, because it is One,
the same, the Itself, and thence indivisible, cannot be
in several." T. C. B. page 22.
Spinoza. " The Being (Esse) of Substance (God)
does not belong to the essence of man, or, does not
constitute the form of man." Ethics, part 2, prop. 10.
And " the absolutely infinite Substance is indivisible."
Part 1, prop. 13. And " Every thing according to

292 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XII.
whose nature many individuals may exist, must neces
sarily have an external cause," [i. e. man has not Ufe
in himself] Part 1, prop. 8, schol.
XV. Swedenborg. " Wherefore infinite is an adjec
tive, belonging to the essentials and attributes of God,
all of which are called infinite." T. G. B. page 33.
Spinoza. The Ethics speaks of the attributes of
God as infinite, but only in their own kind; thus,
thought is infinite thought, but is not infinite exten
sion; and again, extension is infinite extension, but is
not infinite thought. While God is the absolutely in
finite Being.
XVI. Swedenborg. " Every one should prepare the
way for God, that is, should prepare himself for recep
tion; and this should be done by means of knowl
edges." T. C. B. page 20.
Spinoza. " The highest effort (aim or striving) of
the mind, and its supreme or greatest virtue, is to know
God by the third kind of knowledge." Ethics, part 5,
prop. 25. See No. III.
XVII. Swedenborg. " Every quality has its quaUty
from that which is the itself irom. which it is [derived],
and to which it refers itself [as to its cause] that it
may be such." T. G. B. page 21.
Spinoza. " The power of an effect is defined by the
power of its cause, in so far as the essence of the effect
is explained by the essence \fhe itself] of the cause."
Ethics, part 5, ax. 2.
XVIII. Swedenborg. " Wherefore the Lord says,
that He is in the midst of them : also, that He is in
them and they in Him." T. G. B. page 21.
Spinoza. " Our mind in so far as it knows itself

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 293
and the body under the form of eternity, possesses ne
cessarily the knowledge of God, and knows that it is in
God, and is conceived by (or through) God." Ethics,
part 5, prop. 30.
XIX. Swedenborg. " * * and yet the substantial
and material things in the universe, considered individ
ually, are infinite in number." T. G. B. page 26.
Spinoza. " There must be infinite things in infinite
modes in nature." Ethics, part 1, prop. 16.
XX. Swedenborg. " * * the life to eternity, which
every man has after death, is not communicable but from
an eternal God." T. G. B. page 27.
Spinoza. " The human mind cannot be entirely
destroyed with the body, but something remains of it,
which is eternal." Ethics, part 5, prop. 23. And the
demonstration connects this portion with God as the
cause. XXI. Swedenborg. " Let every one therefore be
cautious how he persuades himself that he lives from
himself; and also that he is wise, believes, loves, per
ceives truth, and wiUs and does good from himself"
T. G. B. page 36.
Spinoza. " There is no absolute or free will in the
mind ; and it may be demonstrated that the mind has
no absolute faculty of understanding, desiring, loving."
&c. Ethics, part 2, prop. 48, schol.
It is proper to remark here, that although both
writers deny the freedom of the will of man, as of
himself, yet the two writers do not hold to the doc
trine in the same manner. Spinoza adhered strictly
to this doctrine, and gave a reason for the gen-

294 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XH.
eral prevalence of the opinion that man is free,
saying that man thinks himself free because he is
conscious of his desires, but not conscious of the
causes that impel him to desire. Yet Spinoza
contends for a certain freedom in man, when he
acts from what he calls adequate ideas, which he
says are in God and in man at the same time ;
and it comes to this, that the freedom of man
arises from his knowledge of God, which Spinoza
calls the power of reason, to the elucidation of
which he devotes Part Fourth of his Ethics.
Man is free in obeying God knowingly, and no
otherwise. Swedenborg theoretically denies the freedom
of the will as completely as Spinoza, as must be
seen above ; yet he cannot do without it in his
system. He adopts, however, extraordinary lan
guage for a philosopher in reference to it, saying
that, although man is not free as of himself, yet
he must act "as if" he was free, while he must
" know " that " all freedom is from the Lord."
It must be confessed that Swedenborg gives
us no light on this question. If he saw the truth
himself, he has not been able to explain it, and
on this long disputed question he leaves his reader
where he finds him,— unless the student of Swe
denborg may "fancy "he knows what he does

Ch. XII.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 295
not know at all ; — I mean, as a result of Sweden
borg's teachings.
Without assuming to solve this controverted
question myself, I will remark that the chief dif
ficulty seems to arise, not from a " pre-established
harmony " in the ideas we have of God and man,
but from preconceived ideas irreconcilable with
each other ; which ought to satisfy us that one
set of them, at least, cannot be true. To main
tain the idea of God's omnipotence in the usual
sense, and of the eternity and immutability of his
decrees, as extending to all things, and, at the
same time, the notion of man's free agency, as if
he possessed an actual power of his own, is im
possible. Whoever holds these two opinions
must necessarily carry about a confiict within
himself. One or both sets of ideas should be pu
rified, in order to introduce harmony. If the
Philosopher's Stone could solve this one question,
it might be worth seeking, if for nothing else.
Let the power of God — I say it reverently — be
called sulphur, and the power of man mercury :
then find a salt that shall be their unity. This is
the problem.
The student of this problem need not go out
of himself, to find the root of the controversy be
tween necessity and freedom, and may be able to

296 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XIL
understand the principal question between Au
gustine and Pelagius, between Calvin and Ar
minius, and between the " Old School " and the
" New School " of more recent times. He may
find that the controversy lies between two of the
elements or principles of man, and must last untU
the third principle becomes recognized, which,
though last discovered, is first in order, and stands
above, as it were, the other two, and, though it
decides, it takes no part in the conti-oversy. This
third principle, when awakened in man, consti
tutes Swedenborg's Celestial State ; that is, in
this state man is an angel, and no longer " opines "
about things, but " knows." This I understand
to be Swedenborg's view, and it does not differ
essentially from that of Spinoza, — that which is
said by one of reason, being said by the other of
the spiritual in man.
But to return to the parallels :
XXII. Swedenborg. "It is to be held that aU
things in the universe were created in their orders, so
that they may subsist each one by itself, and that from
the beginning they were so created, that they may con
join themselves with the universal order, to the intent
that each particular order may subsist in the universal,
and thus make one." T. G. B. page 47.
Spinoza. •'* " * and if we thus go on ad in
finitum, we may easily conceive that all nature is one

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 297
Individual, whose parts (that is to say, all bodies) vary
in infinite modes, without any change in the total In
dividual : " [i. e. all bodies make one.] Ethics, part 2,
lemma 7 after prop. 13.
The doctrine at page 57 of the True Christian
Religion, of God being " order itself," and that
the " laws of order are myriads," and that " God
cannot act contrary to them," is precisely Spino
za's doctrine, as may be seen in many places.
The doctrine is argued at length in the Ethics,
part 1, prop. 17, schol. : the proposition being,
that " God acts by the mere laws of his own na
ture, and is not necessitated."
As a further illustration of this point, I add the fol
lowing from Swedenborg. " Those who do not under
stand the Divine Omnipotence, may imagine either that
there is no order, or that God can do contrary to order,
as well as according to it, when yet, without order, there
could be no creation. * * * Yea, God himself can
not do contrary to his own divine order, since this would
be to do contrary to himself" p. 347.
The corresponding passage to this in the Ethics, is
in the 2d schol. to prop. 33, part 1, where Spinoza says,
" It clearly follows from the preceding propositions, that
things have been produced in the greatest perfection by
God ; seeing, indeed, that they have followed necessari
ly from His most perfect nature. Nor does this opinion
argue any imperfection in God ; for it is his very perfec
tion which has compelled us to affirm it. Nay, it follows
from the contrary opinion, that God is not wholly perfect ;
13*

298 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XU.
for if things could have been produced in any other mode,
we must attribute to God another nature, different from
that which we have been compelled to attribute to .Him,
from the consideration ofthe most perfect Being [Ens.)"
And further, in the same scholi. Spinoza re
marks, that the supposition that God coidd create
things otherwise than according to order, would
imply that God could change his o'wn decrees,
while all agree that God's decrees are unchange
able. XXIII. Swedenborg. " It is at this day a pre
vailing opinion that the omnipotence of God is like the
absolute power of a king in the world, who can at his
pleasure do what he wills," &c. [and this opinion Swe
denborg very severely condemns.] T. G. B. page 48.
Spinoza. " The vulgar understand by the omnipo
tence of God, the free will of God, and his right or au
thority over all things which exist, and which are there
fore generally regarded as contingent. Moreover, they
often compare the powerof God with the power of kings.
But we have refuted this in CoroUaries, 1st and 2d,
prop. 32, part 1."
Here it will be seen that the same illustration
is taken by each writer, and the popular opinion
equally condemned.
XXIV. Swedenborg's doctrine of space and time is
the same with that of Spinoza. Each author denies that
these terms apply to God. " The sun itself," says Swe
denborg, " would be near the eye unless intermediate
objects discovered that it is so distant ; " and Spinoza,

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIO PHILOSOPHEE. 299
in the schol. to prop. 35, part 2, had already taken the
same example, the sun, to illustrate the same princi
ple. XXV. Swedenborg. <¦<¦*** They acknowl
edged that there is a God, and that nature was created
to be subservient to the Life which was from God ; and
that nature in itself was dead, and that thus, it does
nothing from itself, but is actuated by Life," [i. e. by
God.] True G. B. page 65.
Spinoza. " A thing which has been determined (mo
ved) to act has necessarily been so determined by God,
and what is not determined to act by God cannot deter
mine itself" Ethics, prop. 26, part 1.
Spinoza makes a distinction between nature
active and nature passive. The first is nature re
garded as absolute, and is always active ; the
second regards nature as relative, in which sense
one thing is acted upon by another. Every sin
gle thing partakes of each ; it has a certain pow
er of action, but from the active power of other
things it may be acted upon. But God is regard
ed as the really acting cause in both cases, or as
the only activity.
XXVI. Swedenborg. " Now, because the Word is
such, appearances of truth, which are truths clothed,
may be taken for naked truths, which, when they
are confirmed, [by reasonings founded on the mere ap
pearances of things as presented to the senses,] become
fallacies, which in themselves are falses. From this,
that appearances of truth may be taken for naked truths

300 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. XII.
and confirmed, have sprung all the heresies which have
been, and still are, in the Christian world. Heresies
themselves do not condemn men ; but confirmations of
the falsities, which are in a heresy, from the Word, and hy
reasonings from the natural man and an evil life, do con
demn." T. G. B. p. 192.
Spinoza. " But the reason why men have not an
equally clear knowledge of God and of common notions
is, they cannot imagine God as they do bodies, and they
have connected the name of God with images of things
which they are in the habit of seeing ; [which last, ac
cording to both Swedenborg and Spinoza, are only ap
pearances of truth,] and this is the origin of most con
troversies, that men either do not correctly express their
own meaning, or do not correctly interpret the meaning
of others. * * * l -^vigh you to remark, that the
imaginations of the mind, regarded in themselves, con
tain no error; or, the mind does not therefore err because
it imagines ; but only inasmuch as it is without an idea
which precludes the existence of those things which it
imagines to be present. For if the mind, when it is im
agining non-existing things as present to itself, knows
at the same time that the things do not exist, it wiU cer-
tianly attribute this power of imagining, not to any de
fect, but to the action (power) of its own nature." Eth.
part. 4, props. 17, 47, & schol.
XXVII. Swedenborg. " But bare knowledge on
ly enters the understanding, and this has not any author
ity over the will, and so is not in man otherwise than
as one who stands in the entry, or at the door, and not
as yet in the house." T. C. B. page 193, also p. 397.
Spinoza. " The true knowledge of good and evil

Ch. xii.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 301
cannot, as truth, [i. e. as " bare knowledge "] restrain
any affection, but only in so far as as it is itself consid
ered as an affection." Ethics, part 4, prop. 14.
XXVIII. Swedenborg. " There is not any thing
in the mind, to which something in the body does not
correspond ; and this which corresponds may be called
the embodymg of that." T. C. B. page 267.
This is a very important proposition in Swe
denborg's works, and it has a remarkable parallel
in Spinoza ; but to see it, the notion of Spinoza
must be stated, that the mind is the idea qf a
body existing. This idea is not single, but com
pounded of many ideas. Then follows the 12th
prop, part 2, Ethics, namely, " Whatever takes
place in the object of the idea constituting the
human mind, [i. e. the human body,] must be
perceived by the human mind, or, the human
mind will necessarily have an idea of it."
Spinoza elsewhere states that man is consti
tuted by modifications of two attributes of God,
to wit, thought and extension, i. e. mind and
body ; but, because these are, in the absolute na
ture of God, a unity, they must be developed
under the same uniform law, and hence their
operations or manifestations are simultaneous, or,
in a certain sense, the same, only regarded in two
ways, one as thought, the other as body. And
by this would be explained the curious problem

302 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. XII.
touching the correspondence between tbe most
abstruse mathematical results, arrived at in the
closet, and the motions of the physical heavens,
or heavenly bodies-; for they are the same essence
manifested in two ways, and make but one, as all
things make one, in God.
It is not ray object to exhibit any thing more
than the likeness between the two writers ; but
at this point, I cannot help suggesting that possi
bly, in the curious proposition above stated, may
be found the true ground of Swedenborg's 'visions
into what he calls the spiritual world ; for it may
not be impossible that some men may so habitu
ally contemplate the physical things of the world
in their essence, i. e. in God, as measurably to
cease to regard them in their inferior character
as modes or modifications ; and as all things in
God are eternal, these modifications may be re
garded as eternal, when thus recognized by the
intellect, instead of being regarded simply by the
senses as mere appearances. In this way, what
ever is the object of knowledge, even through
the senses, becomes, when seen in the intellect,
spiritual and eternal ; and hence man, if he can
conceive himself thus to see things in tlieir es
sence, may speak of this vision as a vision of the
spiritual world. The spirits of departed men, as

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 303
of Plato, Cicero, Luther, Calvin, &c., may be con
sidered as seen in their works, which have come
down to us, through which we become acquaint
ed with them, as we do with living men. The
spuits of departed men are then seen in their es
sence, i. e. our knowledge of them is thus seen
and regarded as eternal. This may be considered
as a tolerably legitimate result of Spinoza's doc
trine ; for by prop. 22, 23, 24 of part 1, Ethics,
he undertakes to demonstrate the eternity of
modes or things, not regarded as things, but as
seen in the intellect, and referred to God. It
should be recollected that Swedenborg saw, in
the spiritual world, whatever is seen on earth,
and no small power of ridicule has been expend
ed upon him for alleging, that in the spiritual
world there are a sun and earths, with inhabit
ants in cities, having dwellings, with every spe
cies of furniture, &c. ; in short, our own natural
system seen in the spirit, i. e. referred to God as
the sole cause of both the essence and existence
of all things, and thus conceived under the form
of eternity, as God is eternal.
" In the spiritual world," says Swedenborg, " or, in
the world where spirits and angels are, similar things
appear as in the natural world, or where men are ; so
similar, that as to external aspect there is no differ
ence." Heaven and Hell, par. 582.

304 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XII.
And again : " It is not yet known that the Divine
Providence, in all progression with man, looks at his eter
nal state ; for it can look at nothing else, because the
Divine is infinite and eternal ; and the infinite and eter
nal, or the Divine, is not in time, and hence aU future
things [and so also all past things] are present to it.
And because the Divine is such, it follows, that in each
and every thing which it does is the eternal. Tet they
who think from time and space, perceive this with
difiiculty, not only because they love temporal things,
but also because they think from the present in the
world, and not from the present in heaven ; this is as
absent from them as the end of the earth. But they,
who are in the Divine, do also think from the eternal
when from the present, because from the Lord, saying
¦with themselves. What is that which is not eternal ? "
&o. Angelic Wisdom concerning D. Prov. par. 59.
It would be easy to multiply passages hke
these from the writings of Swedenborg. They
are profusely scattered throughout his works, aud
if they signify any thing, it must be on the sup
position that the universe is identified in some
way with God, "not as he is infinite," [Spinoza]
but as he is manifested by the universe, which is
to be seen truly only when seen in God ; in which
case, " each and every thing " becomes invested
with a divine aspect, and has the signification of
eternity. In the last of the above passages, Swe
denborg has warned us that those who think from

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 305
time a/nd space can with difficulty perceive this.
He may as well have said, at once, that they can
not perceive it at all, and then have added, that,
neither can those who think from time and space,
judge of the doctrine of either himself or of
Spinoza. XXX. Swedenborg. " That which a man loves
above aU things is continually present in his thought, be
cause in his will, and makes his veriest life. As for
example, he who loves riches, whether money or posses
sions, above all things, continually revolves in his mind
how he may procure them for himself; he inwardly re
joices when he gains ; he inwardly grieves when he
loses ; his heart is in them. * * * AU the delight,
pleasure, and happiness of every one, are from his
ruling love, and according to it ; for that which a man
loves, he calls delightful, because he feels it ; but that
which he thinks, but does not love, he may also call de-
lightfiJ, but it is not the delight of his Ufe. The de
light of the love is what is good to a man, and the op
posite is what is evil to him. * * * * A man is
altogether such as the ruling principle of his life is ; by
this he is distinguished from others ; accordingto this
his heaven is made, if he is good, and his hell, if he is
evil ; it is his very wUl, his proprium [that which be
longs pecuUarly to him], and his nature ; for it cannot
be changed, because it is the man himself" T. G. B.
Spinoza. " For we have proved above that we do
not desire a thing because we judge it to be good, but
on the contrary, we call it good because we desire it,
and consequently we call what we are averse to, evil ; so

306 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XIL
that every one judges or estimates what is good, what
bad ; what better, what worse ; what best, what worst ;
according to his passions. The miser thinks a plenty
of money the best thing and the want of it the worst.
The ambitious," &c. &c. Ethics, part 3, prop. 39,
schol. — and the schol. to prop. 51, p. 3, remarks —
' Hence when we compare men together, we distinguish
ihem by ihe difference of their affections alone.'' "
Here are in fact three points of contact instead
of one ; to wit, that our love or desire is the foun
dation of our judgment of what is good : 2d, the
love of wealth and the miser, taken as an Ulustra-
tion : and lastly, the notion of each 'writer, that
men are to be distinguished from each other by
their passions, loves, affections, and not by rea
son, which is uniform in all men.
XXXI. Swedenborg. " For those who put reward
in the first place, and salvation in the second, thus, this
for the sake of that, invert order, and immerse the in
terior desires of their mind in their proprium, and in
the body defile them with the delights of their flesh."
True G. B. page 310.
Spinoza, after proving that virtue and religion are
their own reward, remarks, that " most persons seem to
think themselves free only when they are allowed to
consult their own pleasure, and feel as if they were sur
rendering something of their rights when they yield
obedience to the divine law; as if the service of God
were not perfect freedom and perfect happiness. Piety
then and religion, and in short whatever belongs to for-

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 307
titude or strength of soul, are looked upon as burdens,
which they hope to lay aside after death, and receive
the reward of their services, to wit, of their piety and
reUgion." Ethics, part 5, prop. 41, schol.
XXXII. Swedenborg. " It is quite otherwise
with those who regard reward in works as the end it
self These are like those who enter into friendship
for gain, &e. * * * The case is similar with those
who claim recompense for their merit in the things of
salvation." True G. B. page 310.
Spinoza. This is but a repetition, with the particu
lar allusion to interested friendship ; in regard to which
Spinoza says, in prop. 71, part 4, that " the mutual
kindness or favor of men, who are governed , by blind
desire, is a trade or traffic," &c.
XXXIII. Swedenborg. " God alone axsis, and man
suffers himself to be acted upon, and co-operates in all
appearance as from himself, although inwardly from
God." True G. B. page 397.
Spinoza. " God alone acts by the sole necessity of
his own nature, and therefore God alone is a free
cause." Ethics, part 1, prop. 17, corol. 2.
Yet it should be remarked, that Spinoza con
tends for a freedom in man in so far as he acts
from adequate ideas referred to God as theii-
cause ; but he considers that in so far as man is
acted upon by external causes, blindly, uncon
scious of the existence of these causes in God, he
is not free, but a slave. But even here there is
an opening for freedom in the man who can

308 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XH
recognize God in all these external causes, aud
when by love to God he yields joyfully to them,
converting them as it were into his own acts, by
regarding them as God's acts, with which his
love of God places him in harmony, in relation
or in conjunction. See No. VI.
As a further illustration of the above, I take
the following passage from
Swedenborg. " Concerning the elevation of the in
terior of a man's mind, this also is to be observed;
there is from God in every created thing a re-action :
Life alone has action, and re-action is excited by the
action of life : this re-action appears as if it belonged
to the created thing, because it exists when the being
is acted upon ; thus in man it appears as if it were his
own, because he does not perceive any otherwise than
that life is his own, when nevertheless man is only a
recipient of life. From this cause it is that man, from
his O'wn hereditary evil, re-acts against Groi ; but [and
here is the doctrine assimilated to that of Spinoza] so
far as he believes that aU his life is from God, and
every good of life from the action of God, and every
evil of life from the re-action of man, re-action becomes
correspondent with action, and man acts with God, as
from himself The equiUbrium of all things is from
action and joint re-action, and every thing must be in
equiUbrium." Angelic Wisdom cone. Div. Love, p. 23.
XXXIV. Swedenborg. " It is to be kno'wn that the
faculty of elevating the understanding, even to the in
telligence in which the angels of heaven are, is from

Ch. XIL] A HEEMBHC PHILOSOPHEE. 309
creation inherent in every man, in the bad as well as
the good." True G. B. page 397.
Spinoza. " The intellectual love of God (the per
fection of the mind) is eternal," and '' the mind has
eternally those perfections we have supposed it to ac
quire." Ethics, part 5, prop. 33, schol.
XXXV. Swedenborg. " But yet no one can be
said to be reformed by the mere knowledges of truths ;
for man, from the faculty of elevating the understanding
above the love of the will, can apprehend them (truths)
and also speak, teach, and preach them. But he is re
formed who is in the affection of truth for the sake of
truth." True Chr. Belig.
Spinoza. This is but a repetition of the doctrine in
No. XXVII., though its similitude to Spinoza's prop.
14, part 4, is more clear and striking.
XXXVI. Swedenborg. " It is commonly believed,
that life is in man his, so that he is not only a recep
tacle of life, but also life. That it is commonly so be
lieved is from appearance, because he lives, i. e. feels,
thinks, speaks, and acts, altogether as from himself"
True C. B. page 335.
Spinoza. This is a repetition of XIV. The essence
of man, according to Spinoza, does not involve neces
sary existence, and men believe themselves free, of
themselves (and not from God), because " they are con
scious of their desires, but not conscious of the cause
of them." XXXVII. Swedenborg. " Most [men] at this day
are natural, and few spiritual ; and the natural man
judges from appearances, and thence fallacies, and
these are diametrically opposite to this truth, that man
is only a receptacle of truth." True G. B. page 335.

310 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XH.
Spinoza. This also is a repetition.
XXXVIII. Swedenborg. " God, because he is in
finite, is life in itself This he cannot create, and thus
transcribe into man, for this would be to make him
God." True G. B. page 335,
Spinoza. See No. IX.
XXXIX. Swedenborg. Speaking of the conjunc
tion of man with God, and its possibility, Swedenborg
says, " that man does not know this from any light of
reason, is because fallacies from the believed appearances
of the external senses of the body overshadow that
light." True G. B. page 336.
Spinoza. This is Spinoza's doctrine, referring to
what he calls knowledge of the first kind (see No. III.),
which is sensuous, and founded on the images of things
from without ; which, so far from giving us a knowledge
of God and divine things, " obstructs that knowledge,
and never leads to it." Ethics, part 2, prop. 41, 42.
XL. Swedenborg. " For the principal cause and
the instrumental cause act together as one cause, ac
cording to a maxim known to the learned world." True
G. B. p. 336.
Spinoza must be considered as included in what
Swedenborg calls the learned world, for this is his
doctrine. Many philosophers speak of two causes, the
efficient, and the occasional or transient cause, but
Spinoza, with Swedenborg, knows of but one cause, and
that is God.
XLI. Swedenborg. " Who denies, or can deny,
that all the good of love, and all the truth of wisdom,
are solely from God ; and that, as far as man receives
them from God, so far he lives from God, and is said

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 311
to be born of God, that is, regenerated. And, on the
other hand, as far as any does not receive love and wis
dom, or, what is similar, charity and faith, so far he
does not receive life, which in itself is life, from God,
but from hell, which is no other life than inverted life,
which is caUed spiritual death." T. G. B. 335, 6.
Spinoza's language wholly differs from this, but
nevertheless the idea conveyed above corresponds, to
the doctrine of the Ethics, as far as I can make out
what was intended, and it may be stated something
after this manner : God is the sole absolutely Infinite
Being, with attributes, as before stated (No. XV.) ; not
absolutely infinite, but infinite in their own kind. Of
these attributes man is acquainted with but two,
thought and extension ; and this for the reason, that he
is composed of these. Thought and extension are both
infinite, but man is not thought and extension itself, or
in himself; but he is a modification of these attributes,
and may conceive himself in two ways, as nature active
and nature passive. In the first case, man conceives
himself as existing in God, " in whom are all things,"
and in so far as he does this, and acts from this idea
(reason), he is nature active; he is something positive
and free. But man does not stand alone in the world ;
he is surrounded by infinite other things, every one of
which has, as well as himself, a nature active; and
now, in so far as man loses sight of the idea of God, as
He " in whom are all things," and is acted upon by
outward things, he represents nature passive ; i. e. he
does not act, but receives an action, and in so far as he
does this, he is a slave and not a free man. When man
is thus overcome by outward things, and is swept along

312 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XH.
the tide of time without carrying with him the idea of
God, the man is blind, and a slave, and it may answer,
as a figure, to say, as Swedenborg does, that he then
acts from hell, and the idea of God being lost, he may
be said to be spiritually dead. He can only be brought
out of this state by recovering the idea of God, &c.
See XXXIIL
XLII. Swedenborg. " All that a man loves, and
from love wills, is free ; for whatever proceeds from the
love of the internal will, is the deUght of his life ; and
because the same is the esse of his life, it is also his
proprium, (that which is himself) which is the cause
that that which is received in a free state of this wiU
remains, for it adds itself to the proprium. The con
trary is the case, if any thing is introduced not in a
state of freedom." T. G. B. page 347.
Again : " All freedom, which is from the Lord, is
real freedom, but that which is from hell, and thence
with man, is servitude." Ibid.
Spinoza's definition of action and passion is in the
3d part of the Ethics, as follows : " I say that we act,
(are in a state of action) when any thing takes place
either within us or without us, of which we are the
adequate causes ; that is, when any thing follows from
our nature, either within us or without us, which can
be clearly and distinctly understood from our nature
alone. On the contrary, we are passive, (we suffer,
receive an action) when any thing takes place in us,
or when any thing follows from our nature, of which
we are only the partial cause." His doctrine upon this
is, that all we do in virtue of our o'wn essence, referred
to God as the cause, is free and necessarily good, but

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 313
that many things done unto us, where we are acted
upon by outward nature, are limitations upon us, and
are called evils, and are felt to be such so long as they
are not themselves referred to God.
I presume it will hardly be questioned by any
one that a very clear and manifest similarity has
been shown, by the foregoing extracts, between
the doctrines of Swedenborg and Spinoza, so far
as they appeal to our natural faculties. The dis
similarities between the two men may be still
greater in the estimation of some, though it is not
easy to see how men, whose groundwork, in a
scientific point of view, is so nearly the same, can
very widely separate from each other without
subjecting one of the parties at least to the charge
of inconsistency. Spinoza certainly made no
claim to any peculiar insight into the spiritual
world ; no claim beyond the power of man's nat
ural faculties ; and it may be doubted whether
the admirers of Swedenborg do not claim for him
more than he ever claimed for himself; by no
means an unusual case. I believe that many
passages from his own writings may be adduced,
giving a decidedly natural aspect to all his pre
tensions. Thus, he speaks of the knowledge of
his day having attained an elevation suitably
preparing the world for the truths he was com-
14

314 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. XH.
missioned to teach. He speaks of Calvin's eon-
duct on earth after he became an angel, showing
that regenerated men are considered as angels
before death, &c., &c., but I do not design to
discuss this point.
There are three opinions -with respect to Swe
denborg's claims to intercourse 'with the spiritual
world, entitled to consideration.
1st. The followers or admirers of Sweden
borg, or some of them, believe that he was ac
tually inspired by God, in an especial manner,
for a divine purpose ; and the most intelligent
among them defend this opinion, not by an ap
peal to miracles or outward signs, but by an ap
peal to the truths disclosed by him, which they
think of such a character, that man in a state of
nature could not have discovered them, though
they affirm that men may, by their natm-al facul
ties, perceive and recognize their truth. It is
therefore strictly by what is called an internal
argument, that Swedenborg's pretensions are de
fended. This might be answered by an appeal
to Spinoza's Ethics, where most assm-edly the
scientific grounds of Swedenborg were anticipated
by nearly one hundred years, as must be evident
from the foregoing extracts.
2d. Another opinion has been presented in a

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 315
systematic form by Herder, who supposes that
Swedenborg's fancy had been so long and so in
tensely indulged in a particular direction, that
its subjective operations became to him uncon
sciously objective ; that, without the smallest in
tention to deceive others, he gave out that he had
intercourse with the spiritual world, and talked
with spiritual beings, while in fact he only held
conversations with his own spirit, the operations
of which became objective to him. Hence he
made Cicero and other ancient philosophers, as
Herder intimates, talk Swedenborgianism.
3d. There is still one other opinion, which has
not yet had time to make its way in the world,
that of Rossetti, a learned and ingenious professor
of Italian literature in King's College, England.
Rossetti supposes that a secret society has existed
in Italy, embracing members in every part of
Europe, since as far back at least as a. d. 1000 :
that this society was composed of the most learned
and scientific men, whose intelligence was in ad
vance of the world, enabling them to see the er
rors of the Roman church, which however by its
power controlled and restrained these men from
the free expression of their opinions : that, in
consequence of this, the literary men of those
ages avoided persecution, imprisonment and

316 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XH.
death, by the use of a conventional language, the
exoteric or outward import of which appeared
friendly to the party in power, while its esoteric
or secret meaning was in direct hostility to the
church, and clearly understood to be so by the
initiated. Rossetti has employed great ingenuity
in explaining the writings of Dante, Petrarch,
Boccacio, and others, in conformity with his the
ory ; and he intimates a rather decided opinion,
that Swedenborg was a member of that society,
which he thinks is still in existence. Rossetti
asks, with a good deal of point, in reference to
Swedenborg, " Has the thought never occurred
to any one, that the man who displays so much
vigor in a variety of works on poetry, philosophy,
mathematics, and natm-al history, and who speaks
continually of the language of correspondence,
which gives a secret meaning to the smallest
trifle, on the system of the ancient schools of the
East, which he lauds to the skies ; that a man,
in short, who, even in his most extravagant fits,
displays an immense store of sacred and profane
learning, and an uncommon share of penetration,
designedly concealed a profound meaning under
his delusive language ? Whoever reads his works,
and attentively weighs his words, will see the
real meaning of the language, which did him so

Cb. XH.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 317
much discredit, as well as of his jom-neys to
heaven and hell, and his conversations with the
angels and demons ; and will finally perceive
that the ravings of the madman explain the fic
tions of the sage." [Disquisitions on the Antipa
pal Spirit which produced the Reformation, &c.,
by Gabrielli Rossetti, translated by Miss Ward,
vol. 2, p. 177.]
It is worthy of note, that in several of his works
Swedenborg has dra-wu a line of separation between his
scientific views and what are called " relations," not ex
actly revelations. That this separation was deliberately
made, with some special design, we may be sure, by a
letter from Swedenborg to the Danish ambassador, to
be found at page 173 of Swedenborg's Life, Boston ed.
1845, in which, referring to the Apoc. Rev., he says,
" In the same work are inserted various memorable re
lations of my intercourse with the spiritual world : they
are separated from the text of the work by asterisks,
and are to be found at the end of the explication of each
chapter." The same arrangement was made of the re
lations in his work, entitled, " True Christian Religion."
Why did Swedenborg make the separation so plainly
between the scientific view and the relations ? Did he
consider the one natural, the other supernatural ? Some
of his followers seem to think he made such a distinc
tion, but we have his own declaration to the contrary.
To M. Venator he writes, " I send to-day my reply to
the letter which his highness, your prince, has recently
sent to me ; and by his orders I speak to him of the

318 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XU.
conversations which I have had with two personages in
the spiritual world. But these conversations, as weU
as that between the queen of Sweden and her brother,
when he was Uving, which was made known to me by
him in the spiritual world, ought by no means to be re
garded as miracles." Life, p. 178.
To the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt he writes :
" That which is reported of the daughter of the Prince
Margrave in Sweden, is a fiction, invented by some
foolish novelist, and I never even heard of it before.
As to that which is related ofthe brother of the queen
of Sweden, it is entirely true ; but ii should not he re
garded as a miracle," &e. Life, p. 176.
To Dr. Oetinger, in 1766, he writes : " To your in
terrogation, wliether there is occasion for any sign that
I am sent by ihe Lord io do what I do ? I answer, that
at this day no signs or miracles will be given, because
they compel only an external belief, but do not convince
the internal. What did the miracles avail in Egypt, or
among the Jewish nation, who nevertheless crucified the
Lord ? " Life, p. 43.
In the same letter he says, " Why from a^Moso-
pher have I been chosen to this office ? Unto which I
give for answer, to the end that the spiritual knowledge,
which is revealed at this day, might be rationally
learned, and naturally understood; because spiritual
truths answer unto natural ones, inasmuch as these
originate and flow from them." Life, p. 44.
He says to M. Venator, referring to his work. The
True Christian Religion, " You may see in the work
above-mentioned, that there are no more miracles at
this time ; and the reason why it is, that they who do

Cu. XIL] A HEEMETIO PHILOSOPHEE. 319
not believe because they see no miracles, might easily
by them be led into fanaticism." Life, p. 178.
From the above passages, one point seems
quite clear, that Swedenborg made no pretension
to miraculous knowledge. We are bound there
fore to give a rational interpretation to what he
writes, or deny that it has any " significance
for us." As a further proof thaf Swedenborg did not
regard his revelations of the spiritual world, and
of " Representations and Correspondences," as
miraculous, but merely natural, I would refer to
the Animal Kingdom, vol. 1, p. 451, where, in a
note to a purely philosophical allusion in the text
to the " symbolical representation of spiritual life
in corporeal life," and to a "perpetual typical
representation of the soul in the body," he says :
"In our doctrine of representations and corre
spondences, we shall treat of both these symboli
cal and typical representations, and of the aston
ishing things which occur, I will not say in the
living body only, but throughout nature, and
which coiTespond so entirely to supreme and
spiritual things, that one would swear that the
physical world was purely symbolical of the spir
itual world. Insomuch that, if we choose to ex
press any natural truth in physical and vocal

320 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XII.
terms, and to convert these terms only into the
corresponding spiritual terms, we shall by this
means elicit a spiritual truth or theologi,cal dogma,
in place of the physical truth or precept: although
no mortal would have predicted that any thing
of the kind could possibly arise by bare literal
transposition ; inasmuch as the one precept, con
sidered separately from the other, appears to
have absolutely no relation to it. I intend here
after to communicate a number of examples of
such correspondences, together with a vocabulary,
containing the terms of spii-itual things, as well
as of the physical things, for which they are to
be substituted." In this note, from one of his merely philoso
phical works, we have a distinct expression of
Swedenborg's intention with respect to what he
subsequently accomplished in pointing out what
he considered the spii-itual truth corresponding
to the letter of the Scripture; and when his
philosophical system is penetrated it will be seen
that his theological views necessarily result from
it. I do not say that the system is true or false ;
for I am not satisfied with my qualifications for
an opinion on this point ; but I am quite sure
that the whole system, i. e. the whole life and

Ch. XII.] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 321
pretensions of Swedenborg are to be regarded
only from the natural point of view.
Those of his friends and followers, therefore,
who persist in imputing to him supernatural en
dowments, are not faithful to his memory. To
these people, I would use the advice of Miss
Fuller, and urge them to study the works of Swe
denborg ; and I would add, study them until they
learn from Swedenborg himself how to under
stand him ; and they may suspect their own in
tellectual vision, until they can see him in a
natural point of view, when they may rest as
sured his knowledge and genius will justify as
much admiration as any one mere man should
pay to another.
Some of Swedenborg's followers are now pro
posing the establishment of a Hiera/rchy in the
name of their leader, while, in fact, there is no
sign in any part of his writings that he ever ex
pected or desired the institution of a separate
sect of Christians, as a consequence of his reve
lations. The new Church, the new Jerusalem,
is in Heaven, according to Swedenborg, and
comes down to men in all of the churches when
they are prepared to receive it. But its coming
will not be hastened by the establishment of a
14*

322 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XIL
new sect of Christians under his own or any other
name ; and much less can its coming be secured
by a Hierarchy. Those who desire such an or
ganization might do well to study the history of
Romanism, and see how the Pontificate grew
out of Catholicism, by the effort to confine the
truth of God within the narrow limits of human
organizations. I would advise all lovers of Swe
denborg to remain in their respective churches,
except where they discover something in conflict
with their consciences, and then, by obeying the
teachings of Swedenborg, there may be some
hope of extending the good by their examples ot
" holiness and pureness of living." If Sweden
borg's teachings are good, and those who profit
by them withdraw from their accustomed asso
ciations, conscientiously formed, they deprive
their friends of one of the greatest advantages
for improvement, that of living examples.
A mathematical axiom occurs to me here,
which I must notice ; that, when two things are
equal to a third thing, they are equal to each
other. I by no means say, in a strict sense, that
Spinoza and the Hermetic writers are like Swe
denborg, affording an inference that the Hermetic
writers and Spinoza are to be classed together.

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 323
My position is that there is something in Sweden
borg like Spinoza, to wit, chiefly, his scientific
principles ; and something apparently drawn
from the Hermetic writers, as for example, their
doctrine of the one and three, but more especially
their mode, the Hermetic mode, of writing ; —
writing of man in different senses, as a natural,
spiritual and celestial being; — affirming of one
phase of man's nature that which is denied of
another, — as, when he says, that angels can see
man but men cannot see angels, meaning merely
that man in his higher development may under
stand man in the lower states, but not contrarily,
&c. Swedenborg seems to have attempted to com
bine into one system the peculiarities of both
without sufficiently considering that something
like a contradiction would be observed in the re
sult; — and yet such a contradiction is very visi
ble. If we look at any of Swedenborg's sys
tematic works on religion, — the Divine Love and
Divine Wisdom, or the True Christian Religion,
— we shall see a studied effort to lay down at first
some principles to be regarded as irrefragable,
after the manner of writing on science ; as if he
intended that his work should be regarded from
a rational point of view only. He endeavored

324 SV7EDENB0EG, [Ch. XIL
to set forth certain principles of Being, Esse,
Substance and Mode, which we are bound to sup
pose he intended should be understood as a scien
tific basis for the superstructure to follow. We
commence the study, therefore, as if om- rational
faculty was appealed to, and we naturally expect
a continuance of the relation thus established be
tween the author and his reader. But we soon
come to something about the opening of his in
ternal spirit ty the Lord, by which the author
separates himself from us and assumes, if we take
him literally, to address us from another world
with which we are not supposed to have any in
tercourse ; and as a necessary consequence, his
readers are no longer in a condition to decide
upon what he communicates from the principles
of reason so carefully laid down at first. The
natural, in a certain degree, seems to run into the
supernatural, the connecting link with which, if
known at all, is known only to the author and
not to the reader. The latter, then, is no longer
in a condition to apply the principles at first in
culcated with so much care ; but, if not very
watchful, he continues to read with the security
of possessing a test of reason for what he reads,
when, in fact, he is carried into the field of imagi-

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 325
nation, — unless it may happen, that the reader's
internal sight shall be open also.
Now, Spinoza's Ethics is demonstrative, in
form, throughout, though he exhibits many beau
tiful truths in no manner dependent upon his
demonstrations. These truths, I might almost
say, shine in his writings like the fire in the bush,
though it may require the spirit of a Moses to
apprehend them fully. But, although such
truths do appear, Spinoza wrote from the scien
tific point of view, and asks nothing from his
reader but the exercise of his rational faculties.
He has much to say of substance and mode, like
Swedenborg after him, but unlike Swedenborg
he says nothing of the opening of his internal
sight, and rnakes no demand upon our faith in
his personal teaching.
The Hermetic writers have, on the other
hand, nothing, or but very little to say of sub
stance and mode ; — and though they, least of all
teachers of whom I know any thing, claim au
thority as teachers, they employ their utmost
ingenuity to carry the mind of the student above,
I do not say reason itself, but above reasoning.
They would apparently have us believe that the
most important principle that can be known is
something subsisting independently of reasoning.

326 S'WEDENBOEG, [Ch. XH.
and antecedent to all demonstration — upon which
all true demonstrations themselves depend. I
suppose, indeed, that Spinoza saw this principle
{vide Letters 21 and 23 to Oldenburg, posthumous
works, ed, 1802), and endeavored to represent it
in a demonstrative form, contrary, as many think,
to the nature of the thing. Those who think that
the subject treated of can be brought within the
field of science, will find nowhere, as I suppose,
a more methodical and exact treatment of it than
in Spinoza's Ethics. This form is very attractive
to those who realize in themselves a strong intel
lectual power and delight in its exercise. A
somewhat similar attraction is found in the writ
ings of Swedenborg, for they present the same
scientific basis that Spinoza wrote from, though
the author does not use his principles in a de
monstrative manner.
The older Hermetic writers aim at nothing of
this sort. Neither do they elaborate systems
from an assumption of the opening of an internal
sight, though the possibility of the latter is strong
ly implied, and indeed in almost so many words
asserted, not as actual with themselves simply,
but as possible for their readers. They virtually
say to us — we cannot teach you the " one thing,"
but God can ; and " if he finds you sincere, he

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIC PmLOSOPHEE. 327
will not only show you a way, but help you to
find it " [Eyrenceus Cosmopolita]. They tell us
to purify ourselves and devote our affections to
God ; and that then we may learn something of
God's mysteries, as if in that direction we might
find the very " spirit of truth " itself, the " Com
forter." If this teaching should be thought similar to
that of Jesus, enforcing the necessity of " doing "
the will of his Father, it cannot on that account
be thought less entitled to attention ; while those
who are in possession of the teachings of the
Lord ought to rejoice that the deepest experi
ences of natm-e are testimonies of his truth.
Even he had a mystic vein in his teachings,
speaking " only " in parables to the people, but
explaining all things openly to his disciples ; —
and this, says Roger Bacon, has been the way
with " wise men from the beginning."
If the mystic writers had spoken out they
might perhaps have instructed us in the language
of Anebo to Jamblicus, or of Jamblicus to him
self, to wit :
" In the first place, therefore, you say — ' it
must be granted that there are gods.' But thus
to speak, on this sub-ject, is not right. For an
innate knowledge of the gods is coexistent with

328 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XII.
our very essence ; and this knowledge is superior
to all judgment and deliberate choice, and sub
sists prior to reason and demonstration. It is
also co-united from the beginning -with its proper
cause, and is consubsistent 'with the essential
tendency of the soul to the good. If, indeed, it
be necessary to speak the truth, the contad with
divinity is not knowledge. For knowledge is, in
a certain respect, separated or distinguished from
its object by a sense of otherness. But prior to
the knowledge, which as one thing knows an
other, there is the unitbrm connection 'with di
vinity, which is suspended from (or caused by)
the gods, and is spontaneous and inseparable
from them. Hence, it is not proper to grant
this, as if it might not be granted, nor to admit
it as ambiguous or doubtful (for it is always uni-
cally established in energy) ; nor are we worthy
thus to explore it, as if we had sufficient authority
to approve or reject it. For we are compre
hended in it, or, rather, we are filled by it, and
we POSSESS that very thing which we aee in
knowing the gods.'* I shall likewise say the
same thing to you, concerning the more excel
lent genera that follow the gods, I mean daemons,
* The readers of Faust may here be reminded of the answer
of Faust to Margaret.

Ch. Xn.J A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 329
heroes, and undefiled souls. For it is necessary
to understand respecting these, that there is al
ways in them one definite reason of essence, and
to remove from them the indefiniteness and in
stability of the human condition. It is likewise
requisite to separate from them that inclination
to oiie side of an argument rather than another,
arising from a reasoning process. For a thing
of this kind is foreign from the principles of rea
son and [natural] life, which rather tend to sec
ondary natures, and to such things as pertain to
the power and contrariety of generated things.
But it is necessary that the more excellent genera
should be apprehended uniformly."
" The connascent perception, therefore, of the
perpetual attendance of the gods, will be assimi
lated to them. Hence, as they have an existence
which is always invariably the same, thus also
the human soul is conjoined to them by knowl
edge, according to a sameness of subsistence ; by
no means pursuing, through conjecture, or opin
ion, or a reasoning process, — all of which origi
nate in time, — an essence which is above all
these, but through the pure and blameless intel
lections which the soul received from eternity
from the gods, becoming united to them. You,
however, seem to think that there is the same

330 SWEDENBOEG, [Ch. XH.
knowledge of divine natures as of any thing else,
and that one thing, rather than another, may be
granted from opposites, in the same manner as it
is usual to do in dialectic discussions. There is,
however, no similitude whatever between the two
kinds of knowledge. For the knowledge of di
vine natures is different from that of other things,
and is separated from all opposition. It likewise
neither subsists in being now gi-anted, or in be
coming to be, but was from eternity uniformly
consubsistent with the soul. And thus much I
say to you concerning the first principle in us,
from which it is necessary those should begin,
who speak or hear any thing about the natures
that are superior to us."
But I must hasten to show, by a brief extract
from lamblicus, that in thus speaking of the gods
in the plural, he by no means denied the unity.
" Since (says he) the order of all the gods is pro
foundly united, and the first and the second gen
era of them, and all the multitude which is spon
taneously produced about them, are consubsistent
in unity, and also every thing which is in them is
one — therefore the beginning, middles, and ends
in them are consubsistent according to the one
itself; so that in these it is not proper to inquire
whence the one accedes to all of them. For the

Ch. XIL] A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 331
very existence in them, whatever it is, is this one
of their nature."
Those who judge by words, and not by ideas,
may imagine that this one of lamblicus differs
from the esse of substance, defined by Sweden
borg as above all human thought, but if they can,
through the blessing of God, come into contact
with that divinity, they may find reason to be
lieve that lamblicus was a true brother of man, a
true member of the human family, — and rejoice
at the discovery of a principle of union so exten
sive as to embrace the whole race of man.

332 SWEDENBOEG,

CONCLUSION.
As these pages are passing through the press,
I have fallen in with an interesting Biography
and Exposition of Swedenborg, by Edwin Paxton
Hood, — ^interesting from the earnestness and elo
quence of the writer. I have not time to read
the whole work, for the compositors are pressing
upon me. I observe in chapter second a some
what elaborate defence of Swedenborg's claim to
visions in the spiritual world, especially in refer
ence to the MEMOEABLE EELATIONS tO be fouud iu
two or three of his works ; and at page 104 the
author recites one of the Relations, the object of
which with Swedenborg was simply to give his
opinion of a class of men, in regard to their moral,
intellectual, and religious condition, of " a lethar
gic understanding, an indolent indisposition to
think on spiritual subjects, or a laziness of the
'will in the execution of any useful purposes."

A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 333
Mr. Hood admits that " there are some indi
cations which might lead us to look upon the
relations as simply allegorical, as figurative and
representative portraits of spiiitual things, a Pil
grim's Progress through the spiritual world ; or
as a gallery of paintings representing things on
the earth, and in the course of happening among
men." But this suggestion is immediately nega
tived by the course of argument by which the
author labors to prove that Swedenborg actually
saw into the spiritual world in a supernatural
sense. The point I have endeavored to set forward
is, that Swedenborg regarded the inner or inter
nal man as in the spiritual world, and he wrote
the Relations simply from that point of view.
Hence, in the example given by Mr. Hood, Swe
denborg merely gives his opinion of the state of
mind and religion of men of " lethargic under
standings," &c., and of a preacher appropriate
(or supported) by a congi-egation of such people.
He describes the place as cold, &c., and the
preacher " commences every sentence of his ser
mon with an ejaculation of praise of the grand
mystery, and ended with an injunction to keep
the understanding in obedience to the faith,
affirming that man is only a man -with respect to

334 SWEDENBOEG,
natural things; but that, upon religious things,
he has no power to think, to will, to understand ;
let us keep our understandings in obedience to
our faith, for our theology is like a bottomless
abyss, into which if we suffer our understand
ing to look down, we shall become giddy, be
drowned, and perish as in a shipwreck," &c.
As the preacher descends from the pulpit the
people press around him saying, " We are ever
bound to thank thee for thy most excellent dis
course, so replete with the grandest 'wisdom."
An imaginary traveller asks them, — " Did ye im-
derstand at all what the preacher was preaching
about?" and they replied, "We took aU in
with open ears. But why dost thou ask whe
ther we understand it ? Is not the under
standing quite stupid with respect to such sub
jects," &c., &c.
How is it possible for any one to stumble
at the drift of Swedenborg in this sarcastic
" relation ? " It is nothing and can be nothing
but a mode of expressing his opinion of cer
tain dull, stupid people on the subject of re
ligion. Why, is it asked, did he throw the scene into
the spiritual world ? He tells us himself— first,
because he regarded his thoughts, feelings, and

A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 335
opinions as spiritual ; and then, in a letter to
the Swedish Ambassador, without date, page 166
Documents, he says he introduced the Relations
because " he thought that such remarkable par
ticulars might probably excite the reader to their
first perusal." What further explanation can be
desired? But is not such a course at variance
with truth? Not if we take Swedenborg with
his explanations, instead of reading him frag-
mentarily. He gives us the key if we will only
consent to use it, not only by his theory of man
as body, soul, and spirit, but by his perpetually
insisting upon the fact that all ancient wisdom
has come down to us in correspondences and
symbolism, not to be taken literally, but to be
studied out in the spirit. It was thus he received
the Bible itself, or the greater part of it, especial
ly the beginning and the end, the Pentateuch
and the Revelation, and now to be read literally
himself he might well consider a hardship.

No one can be much accustomed to read
works on speculative subjects, or reflect much
upon what are called spiritual ideas, without be
ing strongly impressed 'with the danger of misun
derstanding what is written or spoken of such ih-

336 SWEDENBOEG,
visible matters. Every thing in the " spirit-land "
may be named by many words, and, again, a sin
gle word may be employed to express many
things, and this to so great an extent, -without a
design to make confusion, that many students
despair of attaining to clearness in that direction,
when, strange to say, in this very despair a light
is often generated, explaining the true cause of
the difficulty, which then ceases -to be an obstacle
to farther progress. I cannot conceal from my
self that many may find such a difficulty in com
prehending the meaning of the word conscience,
as the spirit which writes the " law of the Lord"
on the " fleshy tables of the heart." But this dif
ficulty seems unnecessary, if we would look at
things, and not attach too much importance to
words. Whether we speak of ambition or of the
spirit of ambition, we surely speak of the same
thing ; so, if we speak of duty, or the sense of
duty, of the right or the spirit of right, of justice
or the spirit of justice, we speak of the con
science, and of the conscience only, with this only
difference, that, in one case we may think of some
particular duty, and in another we may refer to
the law as a principle, or as the substance of duty,
and of right, and of justice. This principle, law,
or substance of duty, is that which Kant called

A HEEMETIO PmLOSOPHEE. 337
the apodietic command, or the categorical impera
tive, and in popular language is called the con
science, but in religious phraseology it may be
called the Holy Spirit ; for it is certain there is
nothing in man more holy or more sacred, and
there is nothing of which men have labored to
speak more impressively, by way of, instruction
and caution. "A palsy may as well shake an oak
(Dr. South is quoted as saying), or a fever dry up
a fountain, as either of them shake or impair the
delight of the conscience. For it lies within, it
centres in the heart, it grows into the very sub
stance of the soul, so that it accompanies a man
to his grave ; he never outlives it, and that for
this cause only, because he cannot outlive him
self." On the other side, when it condemns,
Horace is quoted as saying that " not even for
an hour can you bear to be alone, nor can you
advantageously apply your leisure time, but you
endeavor, a fugitive and a wanderer, to escape
from YOUESELF, now vainly seeking to banish re
morse by wine, and now by sleep ; but the
gloomy companion presses on you, and pursues
you as you fly."
I Fuller is quoted as saying : " If thou wouldst
be informed what God has written concerning
tbee in Heaven, look into thine own Bosom, and
15

338 SWEDENBOEG,
see what graces he has wrought in thee." — ^And
Shakespeare makes one exclaim :
" What stronger breast-plate than a heart vmtainted ?
Thrice is he armed, that hath his quarrel just ;
And he but naked, though locked up in steel,
Whose Comeience with injustice is corrupted."
Crdbbe is quoted as saying :
Oh, Conscience 1 Conscience ! man's most faithful friend,
Him canst thou comfort, ease, relieve, defend :
But if he will thy friendly checks forego.
Thou art, Oh ! wo for me, his deadliest foe ! "
Our own Washington calls the conscience a
celestial fire, the very symbol of the Hermetic
writers. " Labor," says he, " to keep ahve in
your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called
Conscience." Cudworth is quoted as saying that — " A good
Conscience within will be always better to a Chris
tian than health to his navel, and marrow to his
bones ; it will be an everlasting cordial to his
heart ; it wiU. be softer to him than a bed of down.
A good Conscience is the best looking-glass of
Heaven." Tllis is said of a good conscience, as if there
might be a bad conscience ; but this is by a mere
transference of terms. No man has a bad con-

A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 339
science, but a bad man may be very much trou
bled by a good conscience ; for, so far as a man
has a conscience at all, it must be good.
Many suppose that the conscience approves
of some things known to be evil ; but this is a
mistake ; for, in all such supposed cases the mis
chief proceeds from the immature state of the
man, in whom the conscience does not act freely.
It is on this account that the Alchemists have so
much to say of what they call separation, or dis
solution — or, in other words, the analysis of the
soul in its operations, by which it attains to a
knowledge of its true principles of action, when
the conscience, eliminated from all selfishness
proper to the natural man, shows itself always
on^ and the same principle.
To guard their students on this point. Her
metic writers are careful to urge the necessity,
in the student, of ascertaining the precise inten
tion with which he sets about the study, one
only intention being suitable to it, to wit, a love
of the truth for the sake of the truth. They tell
the student to consider the last intention as the
first principle in his philosophy — as if they would
warn us that every man's philosophy must take
its color from the motive or intention leading the
student to it.

340 SWEDENBOEG,
As the Hermetic philosophers are constantly
speaking of two things, as well as of one and tlu-ee,
so Swedenborg speaks of t'wo consciences, an in
ward and an outward conscience ; and if a dis
tinction of this sort be considered as valid, I then
would ask that the inward conscience be consid
ered as here referred to — the inward, as the es
sential law of right within man.
To any one, however, who finds himself im
peded in his studies and contemplations on this
subject, I would suggest the effort to find some
other Spirit whose office it is to -svrite the Law
on the heart, according to St. Paul's understand
ing of it, and so far as I have indicated any
theory for the explanation of Hermetic Books, I
have no objection to such a change of nairies,
calling this for that which I have called the
conscience, as may most clearly express the
tiling. I have not merely spoken of the conscience,
but of the conscience purified in the sight of
God, or under a sense of God's presence ; yet
when I speak of purifying the conscience I mean
always the man — not admitting that the con
science, considered in itself, is capable of defile
ment. As I have said in my Remarks on Al-
ohct7iy, it can neither be bribed nor hoodwinked.

A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 341
and, when once aroused, it can never be silenced
but by submission to it. When it condemns, it
is called, in Hermetic jargon, wormwood, the'
juice of sour grapes, and the like ; but when it
attains an acknowledged supremacy, it is called
oil, and, finally, elixir, the elixir of Life.
It may interest the curious reader to assume
for a moment — for experiment sake — that this is
truly the Holy Spirit, and then observe how
much of sacred writ, regarded as symbolical and
figurative, may be referred to it, and how large a
portion may be explained by it.
I pass by the first query that arises with
many — Can any good thing come out of such a
Nazareth as a common man {John i. 46), and the
declaration also that it cannot do any mighty
works, such as removing " mountains " of sin,
because of "unbelief" {Matt. xiii. 68). Not to
think exaltedly of the Conscience — ^to have little
or no faith in its efficacy — ^is to render it measur
ably of no avail ; but let faith arise in it, though
compared to a mustard seed in magnitude, and
possibly it may grow to become the largest of
trees, regulating, and taming, and giving " shel
ter " to all the thoughts and passions of man — •
themselves compared to bi/rds and beasts.
But, as intimated above, let it be supposed

342 SWEDENBOEG,
for a moment that the Conscience, even in the
so-called natural man, is the Holy Spirit, and let
us observe how aptly it may explain many things
in the sacred writings.
This, then, is the Spirit which, in reference to
the immature or imperfect man — the true chaos
— is said to have been in the world, and yet the
world, that is, the natural or carnal man, knew it
not. This is the Light which shineth in darkness,
and the darkness, that is, the unregenerate man,
comprehendeth it not.
This is the ubiquitous Spirit which is 'with us
in Heaven, and no less in Hell, the " Maker " of
both, — ^in the one case blessing us, and in the
other condemning us, while yet it is but one and
the same Spirit.
This is the Spirit which knocketh at the door
of every man's heart, asking admission, and
which we are warned not to grieve away.
This is the Spirit which was before Abraham,
and whose coming has been the prediction of all
time, at whose coming the world, that is, the
man in whom it comes, is judged.
This is the Comforter which, when it comes to
any man, reproves the man of sin because he has
not believed in it.

A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 343
This is the Spirit which appeals to the sinner
in the affecting language. Come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest : — ^for the rest here spoken of is moral
rest and has no reference to mere physical evils,
except that moral rest is the way to a power of
endurance beyond the ordinary or natural power
of man, having its root in a genuine humility : —
for the genuine strength of man lies in the power
of God. Again : This is the Spirit at whose name
every knee shall bow ; and when all things shall
be subdued unto it, then shall this Spirit be sub
ject unto Him that put all things under him, that
God may be all in all.
This is the Spirit, again, to whom, personified,
we are commanded to go with a full confession
of our sins, through whose vicarious suffering we
are pardoned. This is a deep point in philosophy
which however was well understood by Plato,
who shows that a sinner can never be reinstated
without a certain punishment as a purification.
The sinner, according to Plato, is an unhappy
man, miserable in the midst of his joys, until he
is punished; yet the punishment referred to is
not external but internal ; meaning that the sin
ner must internally suffer the pangs of a wounded

344 SWEDENBOEG,
conscience, as the ]Dhrase is, before he can be re
covered to a state of virtue. Now, in such a case
the conscience is said to suffer ; but this I have
called a metonymy, or the substitution of oue
word for another ; for, as I have said, it is not
the conscience that suffers, but the man, that is,
the sinner. The wicked man suffers under the
judgment of a sinless conscience, which in itself
does not and cannot suffer. The conscience, I
repeat, is in itself both without sin and without
suffering, and by its condemnation of the sinner
the sinner is prepared for pardon ; which is final
ly pronounced by the conscience itself, when the
repentant state is perfectly completed, and not
before. But the conscience, being substituted
for man, is said to suffer, the innocent for the
guilty; and this is expiatory suffering, which is
not only necessary, but there is no other princi
ple given under Heaven whereby man can feel
himself redeemed.
Here, too, we see the importance of faith,
for without faith in the Holy Spirit, no man will
submit himself to it and make its commands the
Law of his Life.
This is the Spirit of God which is in the world
(man) reconciling the world to God — whose bid-

A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 345
ding we are commanded to " do," if we 'v\^oidd
" know " that it is of God.
I may be told that the conscience is morbid
in some men, and a most dangerous counsellor—
that at the bidding of conscience the most terri
ble crimes have been committed ; but I answer,
no : men have abused the conscience, hoping to
make it the means of attaining untold rewards,
both in this and in another life. Men have de
sired to get to heaven — they have intended heav
en, making conscience the instrument, but the
conscience disowns such a use of itself, and
"jealous " of its honor, will be served for itself
alone. The intention must not look beyond the
duty whose consequences must be valued less
than the duty, and they must be received on
trust — trust in God.
I may be told that the Conscience fails in
power, and leaves the man to suffer; but, can
any other spirit save such a man ? Tou will say,
perhaps, that religion can save him : yes, truly,
but it saves him through a purified Conscience,
for an unpurified conscience and religion, that is,
impiety and piety, can never coalesce. The
Conscience, I have said, is the Way ; — I have no
where said it is the End.
This view may offer a theoretic explanation
15*

346 SWEDENBOEG,
of the story of the destruction of children by
Herod. Thus: — Among the infinity of princi
ples or passions born in man, there is only one
absolutely innocent and immortal. This one is
not, strictly speaking, born iu man, but man is
spiritually " born in it." This one opposes the
natural man while in what Sf. Paul calls the
natural state, and the natural man, the Herod in
this case, seeks to destroy it, which, however, he
cannot do. In the attempt, on the contrary,
good is brought out of evil, and the other "chil
dren" of man, which, in respect to themselves,
are innocent also (but, as wild beasts are inno
cent), are cut off, and thus the divine in man is
preserved. This mode of explanation might save
us the trouble of considering how it was possible
that any Roman governor could dare to desti-oy
all the children of a great city, under two years
of age, and not be called to account for it ; and
it -would relieve us also from the difficulty of
explaining how such an enormity could have
taken place without being so much as hinted at
by any Roman historian. This mode of interpre
tation may also save us the trouble of explaining
why neither Josephus nor Philo say any thing
of Jesus Christ — the confessedly spurious passage
in the former being set aside— while both of them

A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 347
give an extended account of the Essenes among
the Jews, with doctrines corresponding to those
of the gospels.
If we call this spirit the Son, we may easily
conceive how his eternal generation is to be un
derstood ; how he is one with the Father, of
his very substance, and how born of the eternal
virgin mother of all things, and yet but one only
Son, who, becoming flesh in " the man Christ Je
sus," spake forth the commands of the Father,
our "conscience bearing witness" that he spake
the very truth. In this direction we may under
stand what the Hermetic writers mean when they
speak of water mingling with water (spirit with
spirit) ; for as Christ is one with God, so is he
one with man, and to as many as receive this
doctrine in spirit and in truth, God gives "the
power of becoming sons of God," — John 1. 12 ;
or, as St. Paul expresses it — " As many as are
led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God.'' This view might be still further followed out
by interpreting the scene of the Passion as de
signed to teach that, of the three principles of
Body, Spirit, and Soul, one is essentially eternal.
Personified, He is in the middle between the
other two, who are called thieves because, while

348 SWEDENBOEG,
in the body, these assume and exercise an unlaw
ful authority over the true Life, while yet one of
the two may, by uniting with the Spirit, be ("to
day ") in Paradise. The soul, by uniting itself
to the spirit, becomes immortal ; but by yielding
to the body it perishes with the body. This soul,
according to Swedenborg, is the spiritual body
of man, the real individual man, which yet has
no life in itself, but only in the spirit, the life of
which is appropriated by Love.
No one need hastily suppose that in this view
the historical is denied. This is called the letter,
and is no further denied than may be implied in
the doctrine that the spirit (of the letter) is of
more importance than the letter, and is essential
to its interpretation, carrying its interpretations,
— after the manner of Origen, — even to the mir
acles, all of which have a moral or spiritual
significance. Swedenborg did not deny the letter. He
called it the ultimate, and the continent of the
spirit. He also called it the effect, and to affirm
the effect was also to affirm the spirit; but to
understand the effect, it is necessary according to
Swedenborg to understand or to know the spirit,
which nevertheless is contained in the letter. To
hold to the letter and not seek the spirit, is hke

A HEEMETIC PHILOSOPHEE. 349
the endeavor to hold to the natural life ; which,
whoso seeks to save shall lose it, as we read ; but
to lose the letter in devotion to the spirit is to
find the very truth from which the letter pro
ceeded ; while to lose the letter, except in devo
tion to the spirit, ["for my sake," as expressed in
the gospel,] is to lose both the letter and the
spirit ; and this is to lose one's self, and to wander
perpetually in the " dark wood" of Dante.
To find the spirit, and to walk in it, is to find
the "law of the Lord" and "walk therein," and
this is to " walk with God." When the law of
the Lord is said to be " perfect," as we read in
Scripture, the spirit is spoken of, — the eternal
Law, the "Word," — which St. Paul labored to
make known for the purpose of showing its su
premacy over the written law, which he speaks
of as a veil, figuratively placing it over the hearts
of the Jews ; and this veil he tells us is " done
away in Christ," that is, in the spirit, the unwrit
ten law in the heart, which neither is nor can be
any thing but the law of conscience, and we
abuse ourselves when we seek for it elsewhere.
Hence the language, " When the wicked man
tm-neth away from his wickedness that he hath
committed, and doeth that which is lawful and
right, he shall save his soul alive." What is it

350 SWEDENBOEG,
to do that which is lawful and right ? Read all
the philosophy that has ever been written on the
subject, and in the end the rule is found in the
conscience, or it is not found at all ; — ^but it must
be the conscience itself, and neither fear, nor
hope, nor any other passion mistaken for the
spirit itself, the spirit of truth, which, like the
law of the Lord, is also said to be "perfect."
There are many synonyms for the principle at
the root of this discussion, including justice — and
this in connection with perfection, — as, "The
path of the just man shineth to peifed day;"
and " mark \h.eperfed man ; and behold the up
right : for the end of that man is peace."
This doctrine does not impugn the eternal
truth, that every good and perfect gift is from
above ; in keeping with which, all of the mystic
writers, including Swedenborg, agree that their
secret is the gift of God ; but the conscience is
the " way," the Nazareth, out of which it comes,
or in which, when the man is properly prepared,
the Spirit is manifested; which preparation,
nevertheless, however difficult it may be to un
derstand it, is made by the Spirit ; aud this is so
true, that the Hermetic writers say that if any
man shall glory in its possession, and shall not
give the glory to God, he shall lose it — so little

A HEEMETIC PmLOSOPHEE. 351
does this doctrine minister to the presumption
and idle vanity of man.
It is certainly remarkable that there seems to
be three modes by which the Christian Religion
is received in the world, not perhaps absolutely
distinct from each other, — in this respect like the
body, soul, and spirit of man, — yet sufficiently
marked to be distinguished from each other. In
one view it is received historically, and its truth
is supposed to rest upon historical evidences so
strong that no man in his senses can reject the
testimony. From this point of view the mira
cles are especially appealed to ; but I am not
ignorant that in the class that appeals to tes
timony there is often with individuals a much
higher evidence, that of the spirit, not always
clearly discerned.
We next come to a class in which the intel
lect is cultivated, introducing the student into
more or less incomplete philosophical princi
ples; and here we find the chief controversies
touching the externals of religion ; and religion
itself is treated as if so dependent upon these
that it is supposed to share their fate. Here
we find ingenious assaults upon the letter, and
acrimonious defences of both the letter and the
spirit.

352 SWEDENBOEG.
A third class, more reserved and contempla
tive, say but little or nothing of the letter or ex
ternal form, and seem to reach an idea of the
truth, with more or less of fulness, as it is, or,
speaking historically, as it was in Jesus, — the
spirit of truth, the etei-nal Word, manifesting it
self indeed in time, but existing eternally beyond
and above all controversy.
In this latter class I place the genuine Her
metic Philosophers, including many misunder
stood people in different ages of the world,
under various names, as alchemists, astrolo-
gists, magicians, &c., and in this class I re
cognize the Swedish Philosopher, Emanuel S'WE
DENBOEG.

THE END.

A LIST OF
IN a£N£RAXi lilXSRATYJRBi
PUBLISHED BY
D. APPLETOI^ AI^D COMPANY,
846 & 348 Bboadwat, N. T.

Cempleto CatcUogiteef containing ^htU deacHptiont, to be ha^
on application to the FubUshera,

Agriculture & Rural Affairs.
Koussingaalt's Rural E>»)nomy, . 1 S5
The Poultry Book, LUttfitrated. . 5 00
Waring'a Elementa of Agriculture. 75
hits Hanufactures, aud Ar
chitecture.
^Lppleton's Dictionary of MechonicB
3 vols  12 00
Appleton's Mechanics* Magazine.
3 vols, eoch  3 fiO
Mien's PhiloBopby of Mechimioi, , 3 50
^rnot'a Gothic Architecture, . . 4 00
Baasaett'a Theory of Storma, . . 1 00
Bourne on tho Steam Engine^ . 0 75
Byms OD LogarithmB, . . . 1 00
Cnapmsn oa the Americaa Bofle, . 1 35
Commg'a Preeervation of Health, . 75
Cullum on Military Brldgea, , . 2 00
Powning'a Country HouseB, . . 4 00
Field's City Architectore, . . 3 00
Griffith's Marine Architecture, , 10 00
eUleapie'ft Treatise on Surveying, .
Haupt'ft Theory of Bridge Cooatruc-
tioD, . . . • . . 8 00
Heock'a Field-Book for R. R. Engi
neers,  1 76
Hoblyn's Dictionary of Scientiflo
Terma, . . " . . . 1 50
UntTa Manual of Electro-Phyuolo-
gy,  1 25
Jel^rB* Practice of Naval Gonnery, 9 60
Knapen'a MccbaDica' Asoistant, . 1 00
Lafever's Modens Architecture, . 4 (jO
tiyelPi Manual of Geology,. . , 1 76
" Principles of Geology, . 2 25
Reynold's Treatise on Handrailing,. 2 00
Templelon'sMechanic'aCompanioa, 1 00
Ure'i Dict'ry of Arts, Mannfac-
tnres, Ac 2 vols. . . . 6 00
Tonmana'Closs-Book of Chemiatiy, 75
** Atlas of Chemistry, doth. 2 00
• Alcohol, .... 60

B'Ography.

Jnibld's life v»-' Correspoadenca . 2 00
Capt. CMst, f ¦ " venty Yeara of a
iUvi* . . . • , 1 25

Coasm's De LonguerJie, . . 1 m
CroBwell'a Memoirs, , . . 2 0<
Evelyn'a Life of Godolphin, . . 64
Garlaad's Life of Randolph, . . I 54
Gilfillan's Gallery of Portrafts, Sd
Series,  1 00
Henian Cortez's Life, . . . 3S
Hull's Civil and Military Life, . S 00
Life and AdTeutures of Da&iel
Boone, . . • ¦ • 88
Life of Henry Hadsoo, ... 88
Life of Capt. John Smith, . , Sfl
Moore's Life of George Oostriot, . 1 08
Napoleon's Memoirs. By Diicnear
D'Abrantea, . . . . 4 00
Napoleon. By Laurent L'Ard^che, S 01
Pinkney (W .) Life. By hia Ne
phew,  2 00
Party Leaders : Lives of Jefferson,
Jec,  1 00
Southey's Life of Oliver Cromwell, 88
Wynne's Livea of Eminent Men, . 1 00
Webster's Xafe and Memorials. 2 '
vols.  1 00
Books of General Utility.
Appletons' Southern and Western
Guide,  1 00
*• Northern and Eastern
Guide,  1 28
Appletons' Complete U, S. Guide, 2 01
" Map of N. Y. City, , 28
Americaa Practical Cook Book, *
ATreatiae on ArtiiicialFish-Breed-
iog,  II
Chemistry of Common Life, 2 vols.
13mo 
Cooley'a Book of Useful Knowledge, 1
Cuflt'a Invalid's Own Book, . . M
Delisser'a Interest Tables, . . 4 00
Tbe English Cyclopaedia, per toL 2 W
Miles on the Horse^s Foot, . . H
Tbe Nursery Bosket. A Book for
Young Mothers, * . .
Pell's Guide for tbe Young, . . n
Reid's New English Dictionary, . 1 01
Stewart's StaMe Kconomy, . | Of
Spalding's Hist, of English Litera
ture,  1 M
Soyer's Modem Cookery, . . 1 M
The SuoccBsful Merchant, . 1 04
Thomson on Food of AoimfiU. M

D, Appleton & Company's List of Kew Voito.

Commerce and Slercantile
A£E^ir3.
Anderaoa's Mercantile Correipond-
ence,  1 00
Delisser'a Interest Tables, . . 4 00
Morchanta' Reference Book, . . 4 00
Oates' (Geo.) Interest Tables at
4 Per Cent, por Annum. 8vo. . 2 00
* " Do. do. Abridged
edition,  1 26
" ** 7 Per Cent. Interest,
Tables.  2 00
•• " Abridged, , . 1 25
Smith's Mercantile Law, . . 4 00
Geography and Atlases.
Appleton's Modem Atlas. 34 Maps, 3 50
** Complete Atlas. 61
Maps, . . • . . . 9 00
Atlas of the Middle Ages. By
Koeppen, . . . ' . . 4 60
Black's General Atlas. 71 Maps, . 12 00
Cornell's Primary G^gograpliy, . £0
** Intermediale Geography,
** High School Geogp»phy,
History.
Arnold's Hiatoiy of Rome, . . S 00
" IiBter Commonwealth, . 2 60
** Lectures on Modern His
tory,  1 26
Dew's Ancient and Modem His
tory, , . . . . . 2 00
Kceppen'a Hiatory of tbe Middle
Ages. 2 vols. . . . . 2 60
•' Tbe same, folio, with
Maps  4 50
KohlrauBch'a History of Germany,. 1 50
Mahon's (Lord) Hiatory of Eng
land, Svols.  4 00
Hichelet's Hiatory of France, 2
vols. . . * . . . 8 60
** History .of the Roman
Republic,  1 00
Rowan's History of the French
Revolution^ ..... 63
Sprague'a History of the Florida
War,  2 50
Taylor's Manual of Ancient His
tory,  1 25
*' Manual of Modern History, 1 50
•* Manual of History. 1 vol.
complete,  2 60
rbieri' French Revolution. 4 vols.
illus  5 00
Illustrated Works for Pre
sents,
Btyafit'a Pceraa. 16 Illus. 8vo. cl'th, 8 50
" " cloth, gilt, 4 50
" " mor. ant. 6 00
Oiroa of British Art. 30 Eograv-
¦.ugs. 1 vol. 4to, morocco, . . 18 00
•ray's Kleuy. Illustrated, Svo. 1 60

Goldsmith's Deber&d Village, . 1 M
The Homes of American Authon.
With Illustrations, ch)th, . . 4 01
. " ** cloth, ^t, S 01
" " mor. ant. 1 OB
The Holy Gospels. With 40 De
signs by Overbeck. 1 voL folio.
Antique mor. . , .MM
Tbe Land of Bond^. By 3. M.
Wainwright, D. D. Morocco, . 6 U
The Queens of Enghmd. By A^ea
Strickland. With S9 Portroiti.
Antique mor. ¦ . . • 10 Ot
The OmamenU of Memory. With
18 Illnatrations. 4to. cloth, gilt, fi 00
" « Mor. 10 Of
Royal Gems from the Galleries of
Europe. 40 Engraviaga, . . . 25 OC
The Repablicaa Court ; or, Amer
ican Society in the Pays of Wash
ington. 21 Portraits. Anti. mor. ^ 00
The Vemon Gallery. 67 Engr'a.
4to. Antiqae, . . . . 35 00
The Women of the Bil 3. With
18 Engravings. Mor. a .tiqtis, . 10 04
Wilkie Gallery. Cod lining 60
Splendid Engravings. 4to. An-
tiaue mor. . . . . 35 OO
A Winter Wreath ol Summer

Flowers. By S. G Goediich.
Illustrated. Cloth, gilt,

8 00

Juvenile Books.
A Poetry Book for Children, . . K
Aunt Fanny's Christmas Stories, . 60
American Historical Tales, . . 75
UNCLE AMEREL's STORY BOOKS.
The Little Gift Book. ISmo. cloth, 26
The Child's Story Book. lUuh
18mo. cloth, .... 25
Summer Holidays. ISmo. clotii, ¦ 25
Winter Holidays. Illus. 18mo. do. 34
George't Adventures In the Coon-
tiy. Illustrated. ISmo. doth, . 25
C^inatmas Stories. Ulna. 18mo. do, 25
Book of Trades, .... 90
Boys at Home. By the Auttior cf
Ed^arCliOom .... 71
Child^sCheerfdl Companion, . . H
Child's Picture and Verse Book.
lOOEngs  fi«
COUSIN Alice's works,
AH'a Not Gold that Glitters, . . 71
Contentment Bettor than Wealth, . fil
Nothing; Venture, Nothmg Have, . H
No such Word as Fail, . . . 6S
Patient Waiting No Xxws, . . 6S
Dashwood Priory. By the Au
thor of Edgar Clifton, ... 71
Edgar Clifton ; or Right and Wrong, 71
Fireside Fairfts. By Susan Pindar, M
Good in Every Thmg. By Mrs.
Harwell  M
Leisure Moments Imp roved, . . lk
Life of Punchinello. . . . U

D Appleton & Company's List of Sew Workb.

LIBRARY FOR MY YOUNG
COUNTRYMEN.
Ailvcnturea of Capt. John Smith.
By the Author of Uncle Philip. . 88
Adventurea of Daniel Boone. By do. 38
Dawniags of Genius. By Anne
Pratt, ... . . 33
life and Adventures of Henry
Hudson. By the Author of Uncle
Philip,  3S
Eife aod Adventures of Henuin
CorteE. By do  S8
Philip Randolph. A Tale of Vir
ginia. By Mary Gertrude, * 38
Rowan's Hiatory of tha French
Revolotion. 2vola. . . • ''S
Southey'e Life of Oliver Cromwell, S8
uouia' School-Days. By E. J.May,. 75
Louise •; or. The Beauty of Integnty, 25
Morvatt's Settlers m Canada, . 63
^ Maaterman Ready, . 63
** Scenes in Africa, . . 63
JLdsummer Fays. BySusan Pindar, 63
MISS mcintosh's WORBLS.
Aunt Kitty's Tales, 12mo. . . 75
Blind Alice ; A Tale for Good Chil
dren,  38
Ellon Leslie : or, The Reward of
Self-Control, .... 38
Florence Amott ; or, Ta She Gen
erous t  3S
Grace and Clara ; or. Be Juat aa
well OS Generoue, ... 38
Jessie Graham ; or, Friends Dear,
but Truth Dearer, ... 38
Eliiiily Herbert ; or. The Happy
Home.  37
Rose ana LOlie Stanhope, . 37
Mamma's Story Book,. ... 75
Pebbles from the Sea-Shore, . . 37
Pusa in Boots. lUus. By Otto
Specter,  25
PETER parley's WORKS.
Faggots for the Fireside, . ,113
Parley's Present for all Seasons, . 1 00
Wanderers by Sea and Land, . 1 13
Winter Wreath of Summer Flow
ers,  3 00
TALES FOR THE PEOPLE AND
THEIR CHILDREN.
lice Franklin. By Mary Howitt, 38
rfotton Boys (The). By Harriet
Martineau,  88
DHigera of Dining Out. By Mrs.
Ellis, . . . . . • 88
Domestic Tales. By Hannah
More. 2 vols  "JS
F*rly Friendship. By Mrs. Copley, 3f
rarmer's Daughter (The). By Mrs.
Cameron, . . . - • °?
Pint Impresfiioue. By Airs. Ellie, . ai

Hope On, Hope Ever I By Mary
Howitt, .... St
Little Com. Much Care. By do. . U
Looking-Glass tor the Mind. Many
plates, . . . . . afl
Love and MoL »y. By Mar' Howitt, 2t
Miniator'B FaiiiUy. By Mrs. Ellis, 38
My Own Story. By Nlary Howitt, 3^
My Uncle, the ClocKUiaker, By do. 8S
No Sense Like Common Sense.
By do  »
P'oaant and the Prince. By H.
Martmeau,  28
Poplar Grove. By Mrs. Copley, . 38
SomervlUe Hall. By Mrs. EUis, . 38
Sowing and Reaping. By Mary
Howitt, . . . . 38
Story of a Genius. .... 38
Strive and Thrive. By do. . . 38
The Two Apprentices. Bydc. . 38
Tired of Housekeeping. By T. S.
Arthur,  U
Twin Sisters (Tlie). By Mrs.
Sandham,  Zi
Which is the Wiser! By Mary
Howitt,  8f
Who Shall be Greatest 1 By do. . 31
Work and Wages. By do. . . 34
BEOOZTD BBBIBB.
Chances and Changes. By Charles
Burdett 
Goldmaker's Village. By
Zschokke, ....
Never Too Late. By Charles Bur-
dett, 
Ocean Work, Ancient and Modern.
By J. H. Wright,
Picture Pleasure Book, Ist Series,
" " " 2d Series,
Robmaon Crusoe. 800 Plates,
Susun Pmdar'a Story Book, .
Sunshine of Greystone, .
Travels of Bob the Squirrel, .
Wonderful Story Book .
Willy's First Present, .
Week's Delight; or. Gaoiea tmd
Stories for the Parlor,
WiUiam Tell, the Hero of Switzer
Young'student! By liladame Guizot, 15
Miscellaneous and Genera)
Literature.
An Attic Philosopher m Paria,
Appletons' Library Manual, .
Apnell's Book of Chess, . -
Araold'a MiBcellaneooa Works, . »
Arthur. The Successful Merchant, »
A. Book for Summer Time in tbe
Baldwin's Vlut'h Times in Alsbania, 1 3*
Calhoun (J. C), Works of. 4 voU.
I publ.,eacb, . ¦ - / • ? 2!
Clark's (W. G.) Knick-Knacka, . 1 «
CornwftU'a Muaic aa it Was, ati
flsitis, . . ••

1 25
1 25
1 60

S. Appleton & Company's List of New Work.

£sBBys trom the London Times, let
A 2d Series, each, ... 60
Ewbanks' World in a Workshop, . 75
Kilis' Women of England, . . 50
" Hearta and Homes, . . 1 60
•* Prevention Bettor than Cure, 76
Foator's Easaya on ChriatianMorala, fiO
Goldamith'a Vicarof Wakefield, , 75
Grant'a Memoira of on American
Lady,  75
Gaieties and Gravities, By Horace
Smith,  60
Guizot's History of Civilization, . 1 00
Hearth-Stone. By Rev. S.Osgood. 1 00
Hobeon. My Uncle and I, . . 75
lagoldeby Legends, ... 50
labam'a Mud Cabin, . , , 1 00
Johnson's Meaning of Words, . 1 00
Kavanagb's Women of Christi
anity,  75
Leger'a Animal Magnetiam . . 1 00
Lite'a Discipline. A Tale of Hun
gary,  63
Letters from Rome. A. D. 138, . 1 90
Margaret Maitland, ... 75
Maiden and Married Life of Mary
Powell,  50
Morton Montegne ; or a Young
Christian's Choice, ... 75
Macaulay'a Miscellanies, vols. . 5 00
Maxima of Washington. By J,
F.Schroeder, . . . . 1 00
Mile Stonea in our Life Journey, . 1 OO
MDOATDRE CLASSICAL LIBRARY.
Poetic Lftcon ; or, Aphorisms from
the Poets, . . . . , 38
Bond's Golden Maxims, . . . 31
Clarke's Scripture Promises. Com
plete,  , ""
Elizabeth ; or. The Exiles of Si
beria,  31
Goldamith's Vicar of Wakefield, . 88
" Essays, .
Gems from Americaa Poets,
Hannah fiCare's Private Devotions,
'* • Practical Piety. 2
vols. 
Hemana* Domestic Affections,
HoQman'a Lays ofthe Hudson, Ac.
Johiiaon'a History of Raaselaa,
Manual of Matrimony, . ,
Moore'a Lalla Rook% .
" Melodies. Complete,
Paul and Virginia, . .
Pollok's Course of Time,
Pure Gold from the Rivers of Wis
dom, . ...
Thomson's Seasona,
Token of tbe Heart. Do, of Af
fection. Do. of Remembrance,
Do. of Friendship. Do. of Love.
Each, . . . .
Caeful Letter-Writer, .
Wilson's Sacra Privata, ... 81
Voung*a Nieht Thouehta, . . 38
Uttie Pedtingl^tn and the Tcdling-

Prismatics. Tales and Poems, . 1 SI
Papers from the Quarterly Review, i|
Republic of the United States. Its
Duties, &c. ' , . . .in
Preservation of Health and Preven
tion of Disease, . . . . 7l
School for Politics. By Charles
Gayerre,  7|
Select Italian Comedies. Tranala.
ted, ..•.., 71
Shakespeare's Schohir. By R. G,
White, . , . , S M
Spectator (The). New ed. 6 volt
cloth,  9 00
Swett's Treatise on Diseases of the
Chest,  s ot
Stories from Blackwood, . , (f
Thackeray's works.
The Book of Snobs, . . 50
Mr. Browne's Letters. . . . H
The Confessions of Fit-jhoodle, . 50
The Fat Contributor, . . . M
Jeames' Diary. A Legend of the
Rhine,  Sfi
The Luck of Barry Lyndon, , . 1 ??
Men's Wives,  tt
The Paris Sketoh Book. Svols. . 1 00
The Shabby Genteel Stery, . . 60
The Yellowplush Papers. 1 voL
ISmo  ,50
Thackeray's Works. 6 vols, bound
mdoth,  CM

Trescott'a Diplomacy of the Revo
lution, 
Tuckermnn's Artist Life, .
Up Country Letters
War" ' ¦

75
¦ "
ard's Letters from Three CoDti-
nentfi,  1 00
" English ItomSf . .109
Warner's Rudimentol Lessons in
Music,  60
Woman's Worth, .... 38
Philosophical Works.
Cousin's Course of Modem Philos
ophy,  3 00
*¦ Philosophy of the Beauti
ful,  42
" on the True, Boautifhl,
nnd Good, . . . . . 1 M
Comte's Poutive Philosophy. 2
vols.  4 00
Hamilton's PhUosophy, 1 vol.
Svo. . , . . . . 1 M
Poetry and the Drama.
Amelia's Poems. 1 vol. 12mo. . 1 15
Brownell'a Poems. 12mo. . . 7t
Bryant's Poems. 1 vol. Svo. Illus-
tmted,  S BO
" " Antique mor. . 6 M
Bryant's Poema, 2 vols, 12mo.
doth,  2 01
" ^' 1 vol. ISmo, . 61
Byron's Poetical Works. 1 toL
doth,  S OC
Antique mor, • 04

D. Appleton k Company's List of Kew Works.

Bnns' Poetical Works. Cloth, . 1 00
Butler's Hudibras. Cloth, . , 1 00
CwnpbeU's Poetical Worke. Cloth, 1 00
Coleridge's Poetical Works. Cloth, 1 25
Cowpers Poetical Worka . , 1 00
Chaucer's Canterbury Talea, . . 1 00
Dante's Poems. Cloth, . . 1 00
Dryden'a Poetical Works. Cloth, 1 00
Fay (J. S.), Ulric ; or. The Voices, 76
Goethe's Iphigenia in Tauria.
Trai^atod,  Ii
Qiltillan's Edition of the British
Poets. 13 vols, published. Price
EST vol. doth, , . . . 1 00
10. do. Calf, per vol. . . 2 50
Griffith's (Mattre) Poems, . . 75
Hemana' Poetical Works. 2 vols.
16mo.  2 00
Herbert's Poetical Worka. 16mo.
cloth,  1 00
Keats' Poetical Works. Cloth.
12mo  1 25
Kirke White's Poetical Worka.
Cloth  I 00
Lord's Poems. 1 vol. 12mo, ¦ 75
*' Christ in Hades. 12mo. . 75
Milton's Paradise Lost. ISmo. . 38
« Complete Poetical Works, 1 00
Uoore'aPoeUcalWorks. Svo. Illust. 3 00
« " " Mor. ext, 6 00
Montgomery's Sacred Poema. 1
vol. 12mo  75
Pope'sPoeticalWorks.lvol.iemo. 1 00
Southey's Poetical Works. 1 vol . S 00
Spenser's Faerie Queene. 1 vol. do. 1 00
Scott's Poetical Works. 1 vol. . I 00
'* Lady ofthe Lake. 16mo. . 88
" Mannion, . -. ¦ . 37
" I«y of the Last Minstrel, . 25
Shakspeare's Dramatic Works, . 2 00
Taseo's Jerusalem Delivered. 1vol.
16mo  1 00
Wordsworth (W.). The Prelude, 1 00
Beligious Works.
Arnold's Rugby School Sermons,
Anthon'a Catechism on the Homi.
Ilea, •'..*.
** Early Catechism for Chil-
dren, 
inraet'a History of the Reforma
tion. 3 vols. .
" Thirty-Nine Articlea,
Bradley's Fanuly and Parish Set.
mons, ....
Jotter's Mau and Rubrics,
Coit'a Puritanism. .
Bvans' Rectory of Valehead, _
flrayson's True Theory of Christi
anity, ....
Orealey on Preachmg, .
flriflan's Gospel ita Own Advocate,
Hecker's Book of the Soul, . .
Hooker's Complete Works. 9 vols,
James* Happiness, „ • .,
Junes on the Nature of Evil,
Jarns' Reply to MUner,
Kingaley's Sacred Choir

2 50
2 00

1 00
1 25
1 00
1 00
4 00

Keble's Christian Year, . . S7
Layman's Letters to a Bishop . 25
Logan's Sermons and Expository
Lectures,  1 IS
Lyra Apostolica, .... SO
Marshall's Notes on Episcopacy, . 1 00
Newman's Sermons on Subjectt of
tbe Day, . . . , . I 00
" Essay on Christian Doc
trine, 
OgUby on Lay Baptism,
Pearson on the Creed, . . .
Pulpit Cydopfedia and Ministers'
Companion, . ...
Sewell^s Reading Preparatory to
Confirmation, ....
Southard's Mystery of Godliness,..
Sketches and Skeletons ofSermona,
Spencer's Christian Instructed .
Sherlock's Practical Cbrialion, .
Sutton's Disce Vivere—Leara to
Live, ...,¦•
Swartz's Letters to my Godchild, .
Trench's Notes on the Parables, .
" Notes on the Miracles. .
Taylor's Holy Living and Dying .
" Episcopacy Asserted and
Maiutained, • . ¦ >
Tyiig'a Family Commentaiy,
WoDcer's Sermons on Practical
Subjects, .....
Watson on Confirmation, . *
Wilberiorce'a Manual for Commu
nicants, . • . , • •
Wilson'a Lectures on Colossians, .
Wyatt's Christian Altar, . .
Voyages and Trayels,
Africa and the American Flag,
Appletons' Southern and Weateni
Guide, 
" Northern and Eastern
Guide, 
" Complete U. S. Gmde
Book, . . • ,; ¦
" N. Y. City Map,
Bartlett's New Mexico, Ac. 2voU.
Illus., . . • „ • .^ •
Bumet'a N. Weatem Territory. .
Bryant's What I Saw m Califoi^
nia, . . ¦ „• , * •
Coggeshall's Voyages. 2 vols.
Dix's Winter iu Madeira, . .
Hue's Travels in Tortary and
Thibet, 2 vols. . .
Layard's Nineveh. iTOl.Svo. .
Notes of a Theological Student.
12mo. . . ' . i^ . ' ^ '
Oliphant's Journey to Katmonda,
Parkyas' Abyssinia. 2 vols. ._ .
Russia as it Is. By Gnrowaki, .
Rusaifl. By Count de Cuatme,
Squier's Nicaragua. 2 vola. . .
Toppan's Step from the Hew
World to the Old, - .
Wanderings and Fortunes ofGeim.
Emigrants,

71 SQ
2 00
2 51 7576
S 50
1 00 75
38
1 75
1 7S
1 0075

3 09
06

1 29
1 00
1 S5

6 00
2 00
1 25
2 M
I 00

1 00 so
1 00
1 25

0 D. Appleton & Company's List of New Works.

WaUanu' Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
2 vols. Svo  8 60
Works of riction.
GRACE AGUILAR'S WORKS.
The Days of Brace. 2vo1b, 12mo. 150
Home Scenes and Heart Studies.
I'imo  75
The Mother's Recompense. 19mo. 75
Woman's Friendship. 12mo. . 75
Women of Israel. Svols.l2mo. . 150
Basil. A Story of Modem Life.
12mo  75
Brace's Fawn of the Pole Faces.
12mo  75
Busy Momenta of an Idle Woman, 75
Chestnut Wood. A Tale. 2 Vols. . 1 75
Don Quixotte, Translated. lUust. 1 25
Drury (A. H-). Light and Shade, 75
Dupuy (A. E.). The Conspirator, 75
EllenParry ;or. Trials ofthe Heart, 63
MRS. ELLIS* WORKS.
Heanta and Homes ; or, Social Dis-
tinctiona,  1 60
Prevention Better than Cure, . 15
Women of England, ... 50
Emmanuel Phillibert. By Dumas, 1 SS
Farmingdale. By Caroline Thomas, 1 00
Fullertoa (Lady G.). Ellen Mid-
dleton, ..... 75
** '* Grantley Manor.
1 vol. 12mo  75
** " Lady Bird. 1 vol.
12mo  75
The Forestera. By Alex. Dumai^ 15
Gore (Mrs.). The Dean's Daughter.
1 vol. 12mo  "6
Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield.
12mo  75
«U Bias. With 600 Engr'a. Cloth,
gt. edgea,  t £0
Harry Muir. A Tala of Scottish
Ufe  76
Hearts Unveiled ; or, I Knew Yoa
Would Like Hini. ' . . . 76
Heartseaae ; or, Aly Brotber's Wife.
2 vols.  1 50
Heir of Reddyffe. 2 vols, doth, . 1 50
Heloiae ; or. The Unrevooled Se
cret, 12mo  75
Hohaon. My Uncle and I. ISmo. 75
Holmea' Tempest and Sunshine.
42mo  1 00
Momo is Home. ,A Domestic Story, 75
Howitt (Mary). The Heir of West
Wayland, . ... 60
v. A Tale of th« Ancient Fane.
12mo. ...... 75
rhe Iron Cooslo. . By Mary
Cowdea Clarke, . . . 1 25
lijnea (G. P. R.). Adrian ; or,
Clouds of tho Uind« ¦ . 75

John ; or, la a Cousin in the
Hand Worth Two m the Bosh, . 21
JUUA KATANAGH'S WORKS.
Nathalie. A Tale. 12mo . . 1 01
Madeline. 12mo. . • . . 7S
Daisy Bums, 12mo. . . . 1 00
Life's Discipline. A Tale of Hon-
LoneDov'e (The). A Legend. . 75
Linuy LocKwood. Bj Catnerms
Crows  «
MISS UclNT0SH*a WORKS.
Two Idvea; or. To Seem and To
Be. 12mo  :s
Aunt Kitty's Tales. 12ma. . , 'j
Charms and Counter -Channi.
12mo  1 00
Evemnga at Donaldaon Manor, . 75
The Lof^ and tbe Lowly. S Tols. 1 50
Margaret's Home. By Conabi
Alice, ¦•¦...
Mane Louise ; or. The Qppoute
Neighbors, . * ... 16
Maiden Aunt (The). A Story, . 75
Manzoni. Tbe Betrothed Lovers.
2 vols.  1 H
Margaret Cecil ; or, I Can Because
I Ought,  76
Morton Montague ; or, Tho Chris
tian's Choice, . . . 75
Norman Leslie. By 6. C. H. . 15
Prismatics. Tales and Poems, By
Haywarde  1 35
Roe (A. S.). James Mon^oy. ISma. Ii
** To Love and to Be Loved.
12mo  75
" Time and Tide. 12mo. 76
Reuben Medlicott : or. The Coming
Man,  16
Rose Douglass. By S. R. W. . 75
MISS SE well's works.
Amy Herberts A Tale. 12mo. . 75
Elxperience of Life. ISmo. ¦ . 11
Gertrude. A Tale. 12mo. . . Ii
Katherine Aahton. 2 vols. ISmo. . 1 60
Laneton Parsonage. A Tale. Svols.
ISmo  2 25
Margaret Percival. 2 vols. . .154
Walter Lorimer, and Other Tales.
12mo  75
A Journal Kept for Children of a
Village School, . . . . I 00
Sunbeams and Shadows, doth, • 71
Thorpe's Hive of tho Bee Hunter,. 1 00
Thhckera^ Workt. 6 vols. 12mo. i Oi
The Virginia Comediana. 2 vols.
ISmo  I 61
Use of Sunahme. By S. M. 12mo. ti
Wight's Romance of Abelard A
Heloisa. 12mo. * • ¦ ¦ li

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 01303 7610