LfFEAKoMISSIOl of
Emanuel Sweoehbqrc

HP* * 1 ^Piiiiiisii

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
Born Jany 29 1688 Died Max 29 1772

THE

LIFE AND MISSION

OF

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.

BY

BENJAMIN WORCESTER.

" Nunc licet mteUectualiter intrare in arcana fidei."

BOSTON:
ROBERTS BROTHERS.
1883.

Copyright, 1883,
By Benjamin Worcester.

M-nz93

itai&rC&fle :
PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON,
UNIVERSITY PRESS.

PREFACE.

The good name of Emanuel Swedenborg is no
longer in question. In place of being denounced as
a heretic, he begins to be recognized by Christian
students in all denominations as a pioneer of the ad
vanced theology fast finding its way into the thought
of the Churches.
We need not now documents to prove the ability,
the soundness of mind, the laborious acquisitions, the
deep philosophic insight, the sincerity and the honor
of the man. Rather, we want to be shown from the
limitations of his human nature, from the trials and
the training given his heart and mind, from the grace
and the new spirit vouchsafed him, on the one hand ;
and on the other hand, from the need, the nature, and
the result of his mission, — that this was the work,
not of his own will and unaided intellect, but of the
will of the Lord Jesus Christ, under the guidance of
His Holy Spirit.
In this study, while the spirit of adulation finds no
place, our love, esteem, and sympathy cannot but

IV PREFACE.
greatly increase, as with our fellow-servant we learn
to give all the praise to Him whom he loved to serve.
And our task is reduced to setting in such order the
things most surely believed among us, as will cause
us to listen to Swedenborg's own words and to be
lieve with him that they were not from himself, but
from the Spirit of Truth.
Of all previous biographies of Swedenborg men
tion will be made in the Appendix. Let us here but
express our obligations to the first known to us, by
Mr. Nathaniel Hobart, which will always be held in
grateful remembrance ; and to the most complete by
far, the collection of Documents, in three large octavo
volumes, by the indefatigable Rev. R. L. Tafel ; from
which, as in most authentic form, the greater part of
our material has been drawn. To these Documents
and to Swedenborg's published works the student is
referred for further research.

CONTENTS.

-?-

CHAPTER I.

PAGE
Introductory. — Swedenborg's Place in History. ... i

CHAPTER II.
Swedenborg's Parentage  15
CHAPTER III.
Childhood and Youth. — Studies Abroad. — D^dalus . 33
CHAPTER IV.
Assessorship. — Employment by Charles XII  59
CHAPTER V.
Twenty Years' Labor. — Opera Philosophica  83
CHAPTER VI.
Philosophical Studies  109
CHAPTER VII.
Philosophical Studies Concluded  135
CHAPTER VIII.
Spiritual Preparation  169
CHAPTER IX.
Opening of Spiritual Sight  195

yi CONTENTS.
CHAPTER X. PAGE
Opening of the Scriptures  229
CHAPTER XI.
Assessorship. — The Arcana. — The Apocalypse .... 261
CHAPTER XII.
Doctrinal Treatises  291
CHAPTER XIII.
Conclusion of Life. — Friends of Later Years . . . .321
CHAPTER XIV.
Stories of Spiritual Sight. — Dr. Beyer. — Opposition by
the Clergy  345
CHAPTER XV.
Friendly Accounts of Swedenborg  371
CHAPTER XVI.
Home Life of Swedenborg  393

APPENDIX.
I -XII. Notes Appended to Text  419-442
XIII. Portraits of Swedenborg  443
XIV. Writings of Swedenborg  444
XV. Principal Dates in Swedenborg's Life .... 453
XVI. Biographies of Swedenborg  454

INDEX  459

THE LIFE AND MISSION

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

THE LIFE AND MISSION

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY. — SWEDENBORG'S PLACE IN HISTORY.
Never had the outlook for Christianity been darker than
during the period embraced by Swedenborg's life, from 1688
to 1772. In the time of Martin Luther the corruptions of
the Roman Catholic Church were possibly more flagrant, — ¦
although, says Mosheim, in the seventeenth century "the
corruptions, both in the higher and in the inferior orders of
the Romish clergy, were rather increased than diminished, as
the most impartial writers of that communion candidly con
fess." * But in the determined and unscrupulous effort through
the Jesuits to enslave the world, as witnessed in the cruel
expulsion of Protestants from France in 1685, and in the per
sistent attempt to substitute its own authority with the people
for that of the Word of God, as witnessed in the Bull Uni-
genitus,2 17131, the Church at Rome was clearly pressing on
to its doom, as was seen by its best friends and lamented
with piteous wail.3
In the Protestant Church, on the other hand, the very in
stinct of rational thought which had given it birth was now
casting off all restraint, denying its creed, and on the point of
rejecting even "the Headstone of the corner." The result
1 Maclaine : Mos/ieim's Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. §ii. part i. ch. 36.
2 Appendix I. ' 3 Appendix II.
1

2 SWEDENBORG'S PLACE IN HISTORY.
might have been different had charity been given its due
place in the scheme of the Reformers. But now kindness of
heart as well as sound reason revolted against the bondage of
faith alone, found not less galling than that of Rome herself.
"Take away," cried Chillingworth, " this persecuting, burn
ing, cursing, damning of men for not subscribing to the words
of men as the words of God ; require of Christians only to
believe Christ, and to call no man Master but Him only ; let
those leave claiming infallibility that have no title to it, and let
them that in their words disclaim it, disclaim it likewise m their
actions ; in a word, take away tyranny, which is the devil's
instrument to support errors, . . . and restore Christians to
the first and full liberty of captivating their understandings to
Scripture only."1 "The opinions expressed on the part of
the so-called orthodox party" (in Germany), says Dr. Dorner,
" show that the Church had again become to them the self-
centred possessor of direct Divine authority, endowed, once
for all, with Divine powers and privileges ; as if the Holy
Spirit had relinquished His direct relation to souls, nay, had
abdicated His power and energies in favor of the Church and
her means of grace."2
John Albert Bengel, perhaps the greatest theologian of his
generation, lived and died (1752) in expectation of a speedy
judgment. "It is," said he, "as if spiritual winter is coming
on; it is a miserably cold time, and an awakening must
come. . . . The power of reason and nature is exaggerated
beyond measure, so that we shall soon not know what is faith
and grace, and, in a word, what is supernatural. . . . The
doctrine of the Holy Spirit is already gone ; that of Christ
is on the wane ; and that of the creation hangs by only a
slender thread. ... It is made a part of politics to so
act and speak as to leave .no trace of religion, God, and_
Christ."3 1 Leslie Stephen : History of English Thought in the iSth Century, i. 76.
2 Dr. J. A. Dorner : History of Protestant Theology, Eng, ed. ii. 213.
3 Hagenbach : History of the Church in the lith and 19//; Centuries, i. 3S3.

DECAY OF RELIGION. 3
"As far as Christology is concerned," says Dorner, "a
declension from the ancient Lutheran doctrine concerning the
Person of Christ had long set in even among the orthodox
divines". The edifice of Lutheran Christology had been,
for the most part, already forsaken by its inhabitants before
1750.1 . . . A deistical atmosphere seemed to have settled
upon this generation, and to have cut it off from vital com
munion with God. To order one's self according to mere
natural reason and self-complacency in this finite state of ex
istence, and to think of nothing beyond it, were regarded as
true wisdom and sound common-sense. Religion was con
verted into morality, and morality into the politic teaching of
Eudsemonism, in a coarser or more refined form."2
"Atheism," said Leibnitz, in the early part of the century,
" will be the last of heresies ; and in effect indifference, which
marches in its train, is not a doctrine, for genuine Indifferents
deny nothing, affirm nothing ; it is not even doubt, for doubt
being suspense between contrary probabilities supposes a pre- ,
vious examination : it is a systematic ignorance, a voluntary
sleep of the soul. . . . Such is the hideous and sterile mon
ster which they call indifference. All philosophic theories, all
doctrines of impiety, have melted and disappeared in this de
vouring system, . ¦ . this fatal system, become almost uni
versal. . . . The state to which we are approaching is one
of the signs by which will be recognized that last war an
nounced by Jesus Christ : Nevertheless, when the Son of Man
cometh, shall He find faith on the earth ?"3
In England the Deistic atmosphere brooded over the land
through the first half of the eighteenth century, then coming
to final dissolution- in the scepticism of Hume, who issued
his Natural History of Religion in 1 75 7, and therein attempted
to show that Religion owed its origin to the tendency of the
human mind to personify the causes of phenomena. In the
same year, 1757, appeared Brown's Estimate of the Manners
1 Dr. Dorner : Op. cit. ii. 274. z Ibid. ii. 296.
3 Palmer : Treatise on the Church of Christ, i. 348.

4 SWEDENBORG'S PLACE IN HISTORY.
and Principles of the Times, showing their chief characteristics
to be " a vain, luxurious, and selfish effeminacy." " Our prin
ciples," said he, "are as bad as our manners ; religion is uni
versally ridiculed, and yet our irreligion is shallow. Thus by
a gradual and unperceived decline, we seem gliding down
from ruin to ruin ; we laugh, we sing, we feast, we play, and in
blind security, though not in innocence, resemble Pope's
lamb, licking the hand just raised to shed his blood." x
In 1690 John Evelyn had noted in his Diary the predic
tion of the Bishop of St. Asaph that the judgment would come ,
in thirty years ; and he himself, gentleman and courtier, wrote
that if ever corruption betokened a judgment at hand, then
was the time. In 1 713, in a Pastoral Charge to his clergy,
Bishop Burnet said : " I see the imminent ruin hanging over
the Church, and by consequence over the whole Reformation.
The outward state of things is bad enough, God knows ; but
that which heightens our fears rises chief from the inward
state into which we have unhappily fallen." In 1748 the
excellent David Hartley said, in his Observations on Man :
"There are six things which seem more especially to
threaten ruin and dissolution to the present States of Chris
tendom —
" 1. The great growth of atheism and infidelity, particularly
amongst the governing parts of the States.
" 2. The open and abandoned lewdness to which great
numbers of both sexes, especially in the high ranks of life,
have given themselves up.
"3. The sordid and avowed self-interest which is almost
the sole motive of action in those who are concerned in the
administration of public affairs.
"4. The licentiousness and contempt of every kind of
authority, divine or human, which is so notorious in inferiors
of all ranks.
"5. The great worldly-mindedness of the clergy and their
gross neglect in the discharge of their proper functions.
1 Leslie Stephen : Op. cit. ii. 195.

IMMORALITY OF THE TIME. r,
"6. The carelessness and infatuation of parents and ma
gistrates, with respect to the education of youth, and the
consequent early corruption of the rising generation."
According to Abbey and Overton, —
" It was about the middle of the century when irreligion
and immorality reached their chmax. In 1753 Sir John
Barnard said publicly : ' At present it really seems to be
the fashion for a man to declare himself of no religion.'
In the same year [Archbishop] Seeker declared that immo
rality and irreligion were grown almost beyond ecclesiastical
power. . . . If we ask what was the state of the lower classes,
we find such notices as these in a contemporary historian :
'1729-30. — Luxury created necessities, and these drove the
lower ranks into the most abandoned wickedness. It was
unsafe to travel or walk in the streets. . . . 1731. — Profligacy
among the people continued to an amazing degree.' H.
Walpole writes of 1751 : 'The vices of the lower people were
increased to a degree of robbery and murder beyond ex
ample.'"1 The thirty years of peace following 1 7 14, though materially
"the most prosperous season that England had ever experi
enced," were nevertheless, says Pattison, "one of decay of
religion, licentiousness of morals, public corruption, profane-
ness of language, — a day of rebuke and blasphemy."2
If such was the condition in sober, moral England, we need
not say that in France it was far worse. Not to describe the
manners, let us only hear one or two of the public utterances
of the time. In 1758 appeared at Paris the essay of Helve-
tius, De P Esprit, of which it was said by a famous woman
that it uttered only the secret of all the world. " Self-love or
interest," says the author, "is the lever of all our mental
activities. . . . But since all self-love refers essentially only
to bodily pleasure, it follows that every mental occurrence
within us has its peculiar source only in the striving after this
1 Abbey and Overton : The English Church in the iSth Century, ii. 44.
2 M. Pattison: Tendencies of Religious Thought in England, 1688-1750.

6 SWEDENBORG'S PLACE IN HISTORY.
pleasure ; but in saying this we have indicated where the
principle of all morality is to be sought. It is an absurdity to
require a man to do the good simply for its own sake. . . .
Hence if morality would not be wholly fruitless, it must return
to its empirical basis; and venture to adopt the true principle
of all action ; namely, sensuous pleasure and pain, or, in other
words, selfishness as an actual moral principle." x
La Mettrie, who died in 1751, declared everything spiritual
to be a delusion, and physical enjoyment to be the highest
end of man. He says, —
" Faith in the existence of a God is as groundless as it is
fruitless. The world will not be happy till atheism becomes
universally established. ... In reference to the human soul
there can be no philosophy but materialism. All the observa
tion and experience of the greatest philosophers and physi
cians declare this. Soul is nothing but a mere name, which
has a rational signification only when we understand by it
that part of our body which thinks. This is the brain. . . .
Immortality is an absurdity. The soul perishes with the
body of which it forms a part. With death everything is
over : la farce est joueel" 2
Whether in grim humor or in earnest, it was in perfect
keeping with the times that Cabanis was said to have dis
covered religion and poetry to be the product, some say
function, of the small intestines.3 Well might Carlyle say, in
his Life of Frederick the Great f —
"A century so opulent in accumulated falsities, — sad opu
lence, descending on it by inheritance, always at compound
interest, and always largely increased by fresh acquirement
on such immensity of standing capital, — opulent in that bad
way as never century before was ! Which had no longer the
consciousness of being false, so false had it grown ; and was
so steeped in falsity, and impregnated with it to the very bone,
1 Schwegler: History of Philosophy, p. 235.
* Ibid. 239.
3 See Carlyle's Essay on the Signs of the Times.
* Vol. i. p. 11.

A NEW AGE OF THE CHURCH. 7
that — in fact the measure of the thing was full, and a French
Revolution had to end it."
Were not observers of the times justified in thinking that
the judgment-day of the Church was at hand?1 Was not
her sun in heaven darkened ? Did not her moon, faith in the
sun, fail to give its light? Were not her stars, knowledges of
Divine truth,2 all falling from their place? Could her au
thority and power for good fall lower? Could greater abuses
possess her citadels, sins more needing condemnation ? Was
not her measure full ? Had not Bengel reason to think that
God's "mighty judgments" were about to come?
Let us suppose that Bengel has slept these hundred and
thirty years, and now we awake him. We take him on the -
Sabbath-day to all the churches in the land. Everywhere,
in church and Sabbath- school, he hears his beloved Gospel
read with reverence and charity, and the Commandments
taught, with the grace of our Lord Jesus. Of predestination,
of the damnation of infants and the heathen, he happily hears
not a word. Take him on the week-day through the public
schools, to the charitable institutions, to the Bible societies,
where he may see the Gospel in a hundred and fifty lan
guages, ready to be sent from pole to pole, from sun to sun.
Take him to his own home in Germany, and let him meet
the British Bible-Society agent on his mission there. Let
him go into the old theological halls and hear the doctors
reverently carrying on the exegetical study that he himself
introduced ; patiently and laboriously discovering in all the
Scriptures the things concerning their Lord ; 3 discarding with
care such teachings of the later Church as he condemned ;
with all their might reconciling philosophy with Christianity ; 4
earnestly seeking to bring to view the Personal Christ as the
I Kurtz, referring to the remarkable number of mystical pietists in the first
half of the 18th century, says : " The utterances which took place in an ecstatic
state were exhortations to repentance, to prayer, to imitation of Christ, revela
tions of the Divine will in regard to the affairs of society, and announcement of
the approaching judgment of God over the degenerate world and Church."
2 Swedenborg. 3 Appendix III. * Appendix IV.

8 SWEDENBORG'S PLACE IN HISTORY.
real Divine impersonation ; in short, as Dorner says, regenerat
ing theology.1 Let him see with them side by side, almost
hand in hand, the advanced Catholic theologians, pursuing
the same studies, with nearly the same results.2 And, does
he ask more about the Roman Catholic Church, show him
the temporal power a suppliant at every Court in Europe, but
the spiritual power never so great in restraining the evil pas
sions of men, in educating and curing souls. And, does he
ask about Papal, clerical corruptions, tell him that their day is
past ; they are forgotten. Let him sit with us day by day and
read the constantly surprising utterances of hopeful faith from
the pulpit, from the press,3 from royal lips, from dying states
men ; and, overlooking the wide margin of lost ground yet
to be recovered by the Church, will he not joyfully exclaim
that he was right ; that the judgment was coming, and is now
passed; that the "spiritual winter" is over; that "the good
and pleasant spring weather gains the upper hand, and the
verdure breaks out from beneath the snow;"4 that the Day-
spring from on high is now again visiting His people ?
So Hagenbach, in his History of the Church in the Eighteenth
and Nineteenth Centuries : —
"Vehement storms, quite beyond human control, have
broken through the badly kept enclosure, and have borne off
1 " Regenerated German theology exercises, in the present century, a very
powerful influence upon foreign Reformed Churches. Since about 1750, indeed,
their own theological activity maybe said, in many instances, to have stagnated ;
they have, therefore, been the more easily affected, though some decayed sub
sequently, by the movements of German theology." — Dr. Dorner: History
of Protestant Theology, ii. 4.73.
2 " In the history of recent German Catholicism ... we again find solid
ground,; for a more intimate reciprocity exists between the Protestants and
Catholics in Germany than in France. German science is the beautiful bond,
uniting those who adhere to different confessional standpoints. . . . Protest
ants and Catholics have been nourished as twin-brothers at the same breast of
German philosophy, though each one has assimilated his nourishment differently.
The Catholic and the Protestant theology of Germany have passed through the
same stages of development." — Hagenbach : Op. cit. ii. 440.
3 As we write, we read in a daily journal : "American publishers are un
willing to print essays or books of professed atheists."
4 Bengel's words quoted by Hagenbach.

WHEN THE JUDGMENT CAME. g
what had been well nurtured. Volcanoes have sent forth
their long-restrained fires, and the lava-stream has flowed over
many a happy field. But there have come into play those
healing forces which are as little within the grasp of human
power as the destructive ones. Bright, fruitful sunbeams have
announced the dawn of a new age, and a Higher Voice than
that of man has called out of the chaos new creations, whose
germ could scarcely have been imagined in the preceding
centuries." x
So Dr. John Cairns, in his essay on Unbelief in the Eighteenth
Century : —
"Not only was the Deistic wave rolled back by the dikes
opposed to it, but by a higher influence was made to fertilize
the recovered soil. The beleaguered fortress was not only set
free, but in its lowest depths was opened a spring of living
water. . . . Christianity has not been saved to us in Great
Britain mainly by the arguments of Butler and Sherlock, but
by the slow yet sure revival that began to spread over the
whole English-speaking world; nor was Germany rescued
from rationalism, in so far as it has been, merely by profes
sors and theologians meeting negative criticism, but by the
return of visible Christianity, and by the calling forth of
prayer which has power with God. Here, as everywhere,
faith has brought victory ; and who that contrasts the fortunes
and prospects of Christianity almost anywhere in the last
quarter of the nineteenth century, with what they were in the
eighteenth, can deny that Christianity has not only survived
but overcome?"2
As unanimous as is the testimony to the increasing corrup
tion and desolation of the Church up to the middle of the
last century, so unanimous is the testimony to the amendment
.and revivification during the century now past. And if Ben
gel should inquire of us what time the sick man began to
amend, the answer would be remarkable : it could be no
other than, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left
him."3 The seventh hour with the Jews was the hour past
1 Vol. ii. p. 2. 2 Pages 87, 191. 3 Johniv. 52.

10 SWEDENBORG'S PLACE IN HISTORY.
noon. The decade after the middle of the last century is
constantly referred to by English and German historians as
the period of the downfall of Deism. . Thus Dr. Dorner : —
¦ "A further result of the conflicts and disorders in the re
gion of politics, morals, and religion was the appearance of
Deism after the second half of the seventeenth century, and
its unchecked and triumphant progress till about 1750. .. .
In 1750 many who desired that the excellence of Christian
morality should be admitted, owned their obligations to Deism
for having delivered them from superstition and dogmatism,
Thus was Deism dreaming of its victory over Christianity,
. . . But it was just now, when in the public opinion of the
educated world the victory of Deism seemed in a scientific
aspect decided, and when being unobstructed by opponents
it was to begin to develop the supposed fulness and self-
assurance of Deistic reason, in the place of that Christianity
which it rejected, that its emptiness became apparent, and it
incurred the fate of all negative criticism. It had uncon
sciously been living upon its adversary, theological science ;
and when this succumbed, it fell with it."1
This testimony of "the greatest living theologian," in his
History of Protestant Theology, to the common fall, just after
1750, both of the old "theological science," belonging to the
scheme of faith alone, and of Deistic reason, is noteworthy.
So again Leslie Stephen : " Every creed decays ; or certainly
the creed decayed in this instance, as it became incapable of
satisfying the instincts of various classes of the population,
and the perception of its logical defects was the consequence,
not the cause, of its gradual break-up. . . . Towards the
middle of the century the decay of the old schools of theology
was becoming complete. Watts died in 1 748 ; 2 Doddridge
1 Dr. Dorner : Op. cit. ii. 90.
2 With the going to sleep of the good man and of the Church at about the
same hour, it is pleasant to associate his own tender evening prayer : 
"I lay my body down to sleep,
Let angels guard my head ;
And thro' the hours of darkness keep
Their watch around my bed."

THE DRAGON AND BABYLON FALLEN. I I
in 1 75 1 j the good Bishop Wilson died in his ninety-third
year, in 1755."1
While thus in Germany and England the doctrines of the
Protestant Church were engaged in a death struggle with its
own offspring, Deism, in France Jesuitism, in behalf of Papal
supremacy, was engaged in a similar struggle with Jansenism,
a new Calvinistic offshoot still clinging to the mother Church.
The immediate bone of contention was the Bull Unigenitus,
which was specially aimed at the Jansenist Testament of
Father Quesnel. For forty years the contention had gone
on. It was perceived by both sides to involve the question
of existence. From 1753 to 1755, Parliament espoused the
cause of the Jansenists, running the risk of excommunica
tion. In 1756 Louis XV. interposed to save the Jesuits, and
by an act of supreme sovereignty compelled Parliament to
register an edict in favor of the Bull. Great excitement en
sued, and a severe conflict for three years longer, when of a
sudden the Jesuits found their power with the King mysteri
ously gone. The same year, 1759, they were expelled from
Portugal, in 1764 from France, and in 1773 the order was
abolished by Papal decree. Not less plainly than of Protest
ant dogma and Protestant Deism, is the breaking point of
Romish domination seen to have been in the seventh hour
of yester-century.
The fever had left the man as dead. There was now no
longer any Church power existing. Romanism had failed.
Lutheranism and Calvinism had failed. Deism, or scientific
religion, had failed. Hume had proved with incontestable
logic that natural reason was powerless to substantiate a re
ligion. The fountain of living waters was forsaken ; cis
terns were hewn out, broken cisterns ; they could hold no
water.2 The desolation was complete.3 And yet in honest
hearts there remained good soil in which the seed of the
Gospel was even then springing up to bear fruit a hundred
fold. Had not their Lord said of John, the apostle of love
• Op. cit. i. 381, 388. 2 Jeremiah,ii. 13. 3 Appendix V.

12 SWEDENBORG'S PLACE IN HISTORY.
and good works, " What if I will that he tarry till I come ? "
though Peter, the apostle of faith in Him, should have grown
old and been carried where he would not, even unto the
death?1 The story of the good seed sown by many in many lands,
notably by Spener and Zinzendorf in Germany, Wesley and
Whitefield 2 in England and America, is too long for us here
to tell. Suffice it that the sowing seems to have been that of
John the Baptist, rather than that of the Son of Man, calling
forth indeed fruit meet for repentance, but fruit still partaking
too much of the old root and of human weakness.
Neither can we tell of the terrible devastation that followed
in France, whence the good soil of Protestantism had been
expelled, when infidelity came to cope with the failing power
of Romanism ; and it was as if seven devils had been brought
back more wicked than the first. What we have to do is to
inquire whether our good Bengel's judgment — the judgment
foretold by our Lord in Matthew, and foreshadowed to John
in vision — has really taken place, or whether we are to look for
another such time of desolation, and worse. God forbid the
latter conclusion ! Possibly it would be like the Jews' await
ing their Messiah. We have seen strong indications of a
crisis, of the turning of the fever, soon after the middle of the
last century. At that very time, culminating in 1 75 7,3 Sweden
borg tells us that the vision of the judgment, described in the
Apocalypse, was fulfilled in all particulars, not in this world,
but in the world of spirits, on those who had been collecting
there through the long centuries of Christian misrule.
1 According to Schelling : " The periods of the Church are typified by the
three principal Apostles, Peter, Paul, and John. Of these periods the first
two, Catholicism and Protestantism, have passed ; while the third, Johannine
Christianity, is approaching." — Schwegler : History of Philosophy, p. 390.
2 We are not unmindful that both the Pietism of Spener and the Moravian-
ism of Zinzendorf contained elements of weakness, and lost in time their power
for good ; and that the religion of Wesley, and still more that of Whitefield, con
tained a leaven of Calvinism which has to die. Yet they all incited an active
faith and desire for new life. See Appendix VI.
3 The year when began the " Seven Years' War ;" and, according to Hume,
"in 1758 the war raged in all quarters of the world."

THE WITNESS TO BE HEARD.

13

The thought is new ; but what more reasonable ? Clearly,
the judgment should not be on a single generation of men.
The whole idea and description forbid. But it has been as
sumed that all these generations which had gone would return
to the earth to be judged. What more unreasonable ? This
could be only by the assumption again of earthly bodies, and
the day for such a supposition is gone by. We do not hesi
tate to say that such a spiritual fulfilment as Swedenborg de
scribes is the only one that in this age can be accepted.1
There ' will remain then the question of time. What time
more probable, when we take into view the nearness and the
connection of the one world with the other, than the time
when the old life of the Church came to its end, there was
a pause, and then new life with astonishing power began to
spring forth ? In short, what time more probable than when
Bengel felt it must come, and would now believe it did come ?
Is any time conceivable in the future more probable? It
will not do to fall back on the old idea of "the end of the
world." No one of common-sense now believes that this
world will come to an end within practically conceivable time.
Every one knows that the Greek words mean " the consum
mation of the age." (Matt. xxiv. 3 ; xxviii. 30.) Need we
look for a more thorough consummation of a Christian age
than was that of the last century ? 2
One question remains : how does Swedenborg profess to
know this ? He says that he was permitted to witness it, the
eyes of his spirit being opened for the purpose. But is that
possible ? All things are possible to Him who openeth the
eyes of the blind. But for what purpose did the Lord grant
so great a privilege to one man ? Through him to tell it all to
us, — all about heaven and hell that in this new age we need
to know ; and most of all to unfold to us in all the Scriptures
the things concerning Himself, as seen in His own light, — the
1 What other was the judgment accomplished at our Lord's first coming,
when He beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven ?
2 Appendix VII.

14 ' SWEDENBORG'S PLACE IN HISTORY.
light of heaven ; in short, to reveal in His Word the transparent
stones, the gates, the wall, and the streets of His Holy City, —
His tabernacle ready to descend to us out of heaven.
No demonstration of the need of such a revelation, of its
coincidence with prophecy, of fit attendant circumstances,
avails for its establishment. We ask with reason, Can any
good thing come out of Nazareth ? The only thing to do is
to come and see. To the disciples of John the Baptist, who
are many in these days, and who come to learn whether this
is what was to come, the only answer can be, See whether,
being blind, you will now receive sight ; being lame you will
walk ; being deaf you will hear ; being dead you will be raised
up ; being poor you will have the Gospel preached to you.
If such are the works of the revelation of Divine and heavenly
truth in the Sacred Scriptures, by the hand of Swedenborg,
blessed are they who are not offended therein. At the same
time, admitting the possibility of such revelation, it is most
natural and proper to inquire as to its medium ; what fitness he
had for such a mission, and in what manner he performed it.
It is these inquiries that we are to find answered in the fol
lowing pages, bearing in mind, however, that it is a suitable
man of the age that we are to look to see ; not an imaginary
one of the future, nor a traditional one of the past. When the
Lord has new things to say to men, He says them through
one whose ideas and language are those of the men to whom
He would speak.1
1 " Great transitions commonly find their beginnings in a single soul. Their
source is apparently insignificant, and generally undetected, until the stream of
history has revealed its power." — Rev. George Matheson : Growth of the
Spirit of Christianity, vol, i. p. 330.

CHAPTER II.
SWEDENBORG'S PARENTAGE.
In the middle of the seventeenth century, while our New
England fathers were clearing land and making new homes
for themselves in the American wilderness, where they might
worship God and bring up their children according to their
own conscience, the grandfather of Emanuel Swedenborg,
Daniel Isaksson,1 was rearing his family on his homestead
called "Sweden," near Fahlun, a hundred and twenty miles
northwest from Stockholm.2 Daniel, like his father before him,
was a miner and mine-owner, " honest, far from worldly pride
and luxury, and bent upon speaking the truth." For the sake
of his large family of children, he piously thought, his under
takings were prospered. One of twenty-four hard-working
miners who succeeded in draining a deserted mine, with the
rest he became wealthy. " Far, however, from being made
proud by his prosperity, Daniel Isaksson would often say
while at dinner, "Thank you, my children, for this meal, for
I have dined with you, and not you with me ; God has given
me food for your sakes."
Daniel's son Jesper,born in 1653, took the name of.Swed-
berg, from the homestead. The father's piety was continued
in the son, and was strengthened at an early age by his rescue
from great peril. A flood caused a small mill-stream in the
neighborhood to overflow its banks. Jesper and an older
brother stood near the mill. The brother sprang on a beam
1 Isaksson, or Isaacsson, was the son of Isaac Nilson, who was the son of Nils
Ottesson, who was the son of Otto, of Sundborg, an opulent miner.
2 The facts of this sketch of the Swedberg family are mainly drawn from
the Swedish Biographiskt Lexicon, as translated in Tafel's Documents, No. 10.

1 6 SWEDENBORG'S PARENTAGE.
that crossed the stream, and dared Jesper to follow. Not to
be outdone, he made the attempt, but fell into the stream
and was swept under the wheel. Catching his feet, the wheel
stopped, but held him fast. With great exertions he was got
out, apparently lifeless. No wonder that, after his life was
brought to him again, he resolved "never to forget, either
morning or evening, to commit himself to God's keeping, and
to the protection of the holy angels." It was a marked feature
of his whole after life to believe in Divine interposition and
protection. From a child it used to be his greatest delight
to read the Bible and preach, in his way, to poor people.
Unfortunate in his early teachers at Upsal, he went at sixteen
to Lund, where he had good instruction, but developed youth
ful. conceit. "When I went to Upsal," he says, " I was dressed
in blue stockings, Swedish leather shoes, and a simple blue
mantle. I never ventured to go forward in church, but always
remained near the benches of the common people. But in
Lund I became- as wordly-minded as the rest. I procured
for myself a long, black wig,— I, too, was dark and tall ; to
this I added a large, long overcoat, and above all a scarf over
my shoulders, such as wordly-minded people wore. In my
own opinion, there was no one equal to me ; I thought all
should make room for me, and take off their hats very
humbly in my presence."
Fortunately this young pride was early abashed. At the
age of twenty-one, after a little travelling in Denmark, Jesper
applied to Magister Brunner, at Upsal, for a theological
scholarship. "Brunner, astonished at the student dress of
Lund, which Swedberg had not yet laid aside, looked at him
sharply, crossed himself, and asked whether he, who was
dressed in such a worldly manner and in court costume,
desired to become a minister of the gospel. Swedberg did
not wait to be asked this question a second time. He went
home, took off the offensive garb, and purchased a simple
grayish-black cloak ; and this, he added, was done just at
the right time." Magister Brunner soon learned to like the

JESPER SWEDBERG'S YOUTH.

17

young man, and after two years took him into his own house
as tutor to his son. "In Brunner's house," says Swedberg,
"I learned much that was good, both in respect to man
ners and to literary acquirements ; but especially I learned
how to lead a pious, honorable, and serious life ; for he him
self was spiritually-minded, both in his conversation and in
his intercourse with others, in his dress and in his whole
being." After a full course of study and several years' practice in
preaching in the parish of his preceptor, who died in 1679,
Swedberg received in 1682 his degree of Magister. In the
following year he was married; and in 1684, with the aid of
his wife's fortune, he travelled in England, where he was deeply
impressed with the sanctity with which Sunday was observed ;
and in France, where he was struck with the Catholic care of
the poor and needy, in seeing " how the wealthier members
of the community went out in the evening into the streets
and lanes, to look after the poor, the sick, and those without
shelter ; how distinguished ladies and countesses, dressed in
common garments, sought the sick and the helpless, and ex
hibited towards them as much mercy as they would towards
their own blood relations." In Belgium, Holland, and Ger
many he visited, as was customary, men distinguished for
piety and erudition. At Strasburg he became the guest of
Professor Bebel, and formed a valued intimacy with him and
with Professor Sebastian Schmidt, then doubtless at work on
his Latin translation of the Bible, which became the text
of Swedenborg's exposition. These learned men Swedberg
thereafter called his "two spiritual fathers." At Frankfort
he had a desire to visit Spener, the originator of the Pietistic
movement, but was prevented by Spener's illness. Meeting
there Ludolphus, and blushing at hearing from him that
no Swedish grammar had ever been published in Sweden,
he made it a point later in life to write a grammar, and in
other ways to make zealous efforts for the -purity of the lan
guage. At Hamburg he lived some time with the learned

1 8 SWEDENBORG'S PARENTAGE.
and pious Edzardus, delighted with his zeal in converting
the Jews, and with his patriarchal simplicity, as he laid his
Hands upon the heads of his grown-up Children and blessed
them, "just as the patriarch Jacob blessed his sons Ephraim
and Manasseh, and just as Christ blessed the little children."
"I am unable," said he, "to describe in what a godly and
earnest manner this man lived ; may God bless his soul in
His eternal kingdom ! " Such were the forming influences
that the young preacher sought and found, while others found
but sinks of iniquity. In them we must see mirrored his own
heart's delight.
Returning home in August, 1685, Swedberg was ordained r
and appointed chaplain to the King's Regiment of Life
Guards. In the absence of the regiment in Upland, he took
up his residence at Stockholm, where he often preached as
royal chaplain, though he did not receive formal appointment
till 1689. Not satisfied with occasional preaching to his regi
ment, he taught the soldiers their catechism. At first question
ing they trembled, much more than under fire of the enemy.
But soon they pressed upon him, and could not hear enough.
In his zeal he promised to give a catechism to every man of
the regiment who could read it at the next annual inspection.
There were then three hundred who could read. The next
year there were six hundred, and our poor preacher had to beg
the King's assistanceto pay for his catechisms. An uncounted
handful of ducats was the royal response. The straight
forward honesty of Swedberg, frank and blunt to a fault,
always gained the sovereign ear, wearied with the hypocrisy
of the Court. Charles XL, in want of public funds, trenched
severely on the manorial rights of his people. Swedberg, as
royal chaplain, preached from the text, "Ye hate the good
and love the evil ; ye pluck off their skin from them and their
flesh from off their bones, and eat the flesh of my people ;
and when ye have flayed their skin from off them, ye break
their bones also in pieces," — making the application plain.
"Shall the parson speak in this style?" asked an officer of

SWEDBERG AND CHARLES XI.

19

the King. "Did the parson confirm his sermon by God's
Word ? " asked the King in reply. The complainant could
not say nay, and the King dismissed him thus royally : " If
the parson has God's Word, the King has nothing to say
against it."
Naturally, in gaining the favor of the King, the plain
preacher gained the enmity of many at Court, whose sins
he did not spare, and by whom he was often near losing his
place and life. But his honest boldness, not without a degree
of shrewdness, always saved him. Having a daughter born
while royal chaplain, he was unwilling to have the baptism at
his house, as was then the fashion, though contrary to the law
of the Church. Going to the King, he asked whether he should
have his child baptized according to the fashion of Stockholm,
or according to the law of the Church. The King could not
but say, "According to the law of the Church." "Yes, but
I cannot do so, because in that case I shall get neither a
priest nor godparents." The King was pleased with the bold
challenge, and engaged to be present, by his royal marshal,
as godfather, and the Queen as godmother. The baptism
took place in church, though not without the exercise of
royal authority to secure a priest. In short, Charles XL had
so much confidence in Swedberg that he would refuse him
nothing. "Ask of me what you will," said he one day, "and
you shall have it." "From that day," says Swedberg, "I be
came more serious and more earnest in everything I spoke,
and in everything I represented ; so that. I never asked for
anything either for myself or for my family, not even a half-
farthing's worth. ... I prayed to God fervently that I might
not exalt myself in consequence, nor abuse this favor, but that
I might make use of it for the honor of God's name, for the
service of His Church, and for the sake of the common wel
fare." Thus in Church matters, especially in appointments,
Swedberg became a frequent adviser to the King. Simple-
hearted, earnest men found themselves promoted, they knew
not how ; while many a vain man found himself disappointed.

20 SWEDENBORG'S PARENTAGE.
As a boy, Swedberg had suffered under the hands of an
ignorant, drunken pedagogue. As soon as he got the ear of
the King, he informed him of the miserable condition of the
schools. The King was vexed that no one had told him the
truth before, and proposed to raise the pay of all the teachers
in the land. But Swedberg showed him a cheaper and better
way, — to issue an order for the government of schools, giving
schoolmasters an honorable position, and after three years'
good service giving them preference for curacies. Perhaps
in Swedberg alone Charles made an exception to the distrust
he acquired in all men. Shortly before his death, he said
to him, "I have ruled in Sweden three-and-twenty years.
When I first became King, I trusted everybody ; now I trust
nobody." To this Swedberg replied, " That is not right. To
trust everybody is foolish, for there are many wicked and silly
people." "The world is full of them," interposed Charles.
"But to trust nobody," continued Swedberg, "is very bad;
for there are many good, honest, and wise men." "Ah, it is
now too late," said the King.1
From 1690 Swedberg held the appointment of pastor at
Vingaker. In 1692 he took up his residence among these-
simple country people, with whom he greatly desired to be.
"The affection and love which existed between the congre
gation and myself," he said, "can scarcely be described.
They sufficiently manifested their good-will towards me by
pulling down the old dilapidated parsonage, and building in
its stead a new one, with many comfortable rooms, without any
expense to myself. I received there so many marks of kind
ness and affection, that scarcely a day passed without their
providing me richly with everything necessary for house-keep
ing. At first this pleased me very much, but it afterwards
fairly oppressed and scared me." That the good people
saw reason enough for their affection, we may judge from a
single specimen of their pastor's kindness. To the widow
1 William White: Emanuel Swedenborg, — His Life and Writings,
vol. i. p. 18.

SWEDBERG AT VINGAKER. 21
and children of his predecessor he not only allowed the use
of the parsonage and all its estate for a year, but surrendered
to them half of the income and paid all their taxes. Later in
life he said of himself, — " So little was I ever troubled about
receiving my stipend, that I never sent a reminder to a farmer
who owed me his tithe, but was satisfied with what he gave of
his own free-will."
We cannot help pitying the poor people of Vingaker, as we
find their pastor compelled the same year, when moving the
last of his furniture into the new vicarage, to accept first a
professorship and then the rectorship at the University of
Upsal. He himself would have been a happy man if he
could have remained in the quiet seclusion of a country
pastorate. He begged the King to excuse him, as he had
been unused to college work for ten years. The King insisted
and Swedberg complied, saying, " In God's name it cannot
be helped. I shall do my best, and fly to God for help ; but
your Majesty must protect my back." "I will do that," said
the King. Swedberg stretched out his hand, saying, "Will
your Majesty give me your hand as an assurance?" which
Charles at once cordially did.1
Wherever Swedberg was, he must be a zealous reformer ;
and so in public stations he was sure to encounter opposition
from those whose conduct or prejudices he attacked. Some
years previously, he had been appointed by the King on a
commission to revise the Swedish Bible. In his zealous way
he not only pushed forward the revision, but also advanced
fifty thousand dalers in copper,2 belonging to his wife and
children, to import the materials and workmen for printing, the
King guaranteeing him against loss. The work was fruitless,
because of the opposition of the clergy. The same fate was
shared at a more advanced stage by a new hymn and psalm-
book, on which Swedberg and others bestowed great labor.
1 Op. cit. i. n.
2 The daler in copper was worth about 6% cents, the daler in silver about
iS% cents. Fifty thousand dalers in copper was, then, about #3,250.

22 SWEDENBORG'S PARENTAGE.
The book was seized as soon as printed, and never issued.1
The ostensible charge against it was of heresy, because the
Saviour was called in it the " Son of Man," as well as the
" Son of God." But the real objection was that the clergy
had not all had a hand in the work. By order of the King,
Swedberg was repaid twenty thousand dalers ; but he still
made a loss of thirty thousand, and his printer was ruined.
" Upsal,2 where Swedberg now lived, was a pleasant city
of some five thousand inhabitants, set in a wide undulating
plain, and made up of low-built houses of wood and stone,
surrounded with gardens. In the centre of the city stood the
grand cathedral, esteemed the finest Gothic building in Scan
dinavia, where Sweden's kings of old were crowned, and the
bones of many rested. Built around this 'beautiful house of
God,' in a spacious square, were the university buildings, two
houses in which Swedberg owned as professor and rector.
Here in this fine square our boy Emanuel spent his childhood
and found his play-ground." 3 At the university, where he
received one professorship after another, Swedberg had great
satisfaction and success. " It is incredible and indescribable,"
he says, " what courage, consolation, and freedom are derived
from a pure and lawful vocation ; and, on the other hand, how
much those are disheartened who have not this comfort."
This he said on entering the First Professorship of Theology.
In 1695 he was installed as Dean of the Cathedral.
During his ten years at Upsal he lectured, preached, ex
horted, and examined the students incessantly ; how happily,
we may judge from his own words : —
" I experienced this grace from God, that there was such
unity and trust among the teachers that there was never any
dissension. I lived in the large square, and I can affirm that
1 Nevertheless, some copies got over to the Swedish colony in Delaware ; and
a note is preserved written by Swedberg's son-in-law, Benzelius, May, 1742,
directing his son to pay to his uncle, Assessor Swedenborg, 256 dalers in cop
per, " a part of the sum paid by Momme for the hymn-book."
2 Thirty-nine miles N.N.W. from Stockholm.
3 Op. cit. i. 13.

SWEDBERG AT UPSAL.

23

during these ten years I did not hear ten brawls or disturb
ances in the streets. When both my buildings were burned
down, in the great conflagration after Ascension-day, the stu
dents manifested towards me so much kindness, carrying out
and saving everything except the fixtures, that, thank God !
I suffered little harm ; and such pure affection they constantly
exhibited towards me during the whole of my stay amongst
them. I can also assert that during the whole of this time
his Majesty never received an unfavorable report from the
, university, although previously these reports had been very
unfavorable indeed."
Of the building of one of the dwellings here mentioned, a
large stone house in the square, Swedberg tells a pleasant
story : " I know, and I can testify, for I was always present,
that not the least work was done, that not a single stone was
raised, with sighs or a troubled mind ; but all was done cheer
fully and gladly. No complaint, no hard or disagreeable word
was heard, no scoldings and no oaths were uttered." When
the house was finished, he opened it by inviting and enter
taining all the poor of the town, — himself, wife, and children
waiting upon them, — and concluding the feast with singing,
prayer, thanksgiving, and mutual blessing.
The conflagration "after Ascension-day " was sad to Swed
berg, on account of the loss to his people, especially that of
their cathedral. In their behalf he sends a touching petition
to the young King, Charles XII., through his sister, the
Princess Ulrica Eleonora. " If only the Lord's own beautiful
house >had been preserved ! Our losses, although they are
very great, can be repaired."
The answer to his petition was an appointment as bishop.
" I had never expected this. It was the fourth royal decree
I had received. And with a clear conscience I Can declare
before my God, who knows everything, that I never coveted
this, never opened my mouth, and never stirred a step, still
less gave a farthing, to obtain it. For I had always been an
enemy of all importuning and bribery." But Charles XII. had

24 SWEDENBORG'S PARENTAGE.
already begun to show the same confidence in Swedberg that
his father had shown, and never resented, his frank petitions
for whatever seemed to him good.
In 1698 a second tenth-tax on the clergy had been pro
posed, to raise money for war purposes. An effort was made
in the chapter, at Upsal to send a remonstrance to the King.
Swedberg alone dared undertake the commission. He arrived
where Charles was, on the eve of the Sabbath, and of a mas
querade to be held on that day. "Cannot your Honor," said
he to the clergyman of the place, " preach the masquerade
out of the heads of the King and his lords? " To the nega
tive reply he said, " Well, then, let me preach." He preached,
and no masquerade was held that day, nor afterwards. He
then drew up a short petition to the King, and wrote after
his name, "Genesis xlvii. 22." The King asked his attend
ants what it meant. They looked up the passage and read :
" Only the land of the priests bought he not ; for the priests
had a portion assigned them by Pharaoh, that they should
eat it." "Let the clergy alone," said his Majesty, "and let
them have what they are accustomed to have."
A few years later, while Charles XII. was in Poland, pre
paring to invade Russia, heavy pressure being brought on the
people to furnish men and material for war, Swedberg wrote
a vigorous protest to the King against the poor priests' being
compelled to furnish a dragoon apiece, by which " some have
had to borrow money at usury, and even to sell their Bibles,
in order to rig out a soldier." With difficulty he persuaded
the chapter at Skara to sign the paper ; but the King received
it kindly and referred it to the Defence Commission, with
orders to take the complaint into due consideration, and to
make it as easy for the clergy as possible. As, however, no
other chapter had been bold enough to ask relief, the Com
mission decided against Swedberg, and even compelled him
to furnish two dragoons in place of one. Still later, after
Charles's return to Sweden, we find the Bishop boldly ask
ing similar favors, seldom granted ; though the King always

SWEDBERG AT BRUNSBO.

25

received him kindly, conversed with him familiarly, invited
him to his table, and encouraged him in his labors for the
good of the people.
Skara, Swedberg's new diocese, lies between Lakes Wenner
and Wetter, in the southern part of Sweden. Removing, in
1703, from Upsal to Brunsbo, his seat near Skara, when just
fifty years old, he made his home there till he died, thirty-two
years later. The duties of his bishopric he fulfilled with
characteristic fidelity and vigor. For twenty-six years he
said he had never neglected to attend public worship, but had
indefatigably preached from the Gospels and Epistles, had
held confessions, read with his curates, and himself held the
examinations in the catechisms, believing more good to be
done by them than by artistic preaching. "He followed
and recommended the simple analytical mode of preaching,
where the sermons flowed without any straining or forcing
from the text; for, said he, 'then God recognizes again
His own Word.' "
Pietism at this time had spread into Sweden, and was
branded as heresy by the orthodox. Bishop Swedberg at
tended a prayer-meeting of the Pietists, to learn about them
for himself, and then publicly declared that he could fully
approve of them, and that it would be very desirable for
every father of a family to hold similar meetings in his own
house. Boldly bearing the same testimony in the consistory,
he caused Pietism to be more leniently dealt with that year
in the Diet.
In 1 712 the Bishop's seat at Brunsbo was burned, with
the barns and outhouses and all their contents. Hardest of
all for him, all his books and manuscripts were destroyed.
To Qjieen1 Ulrica Eleonora, as after the fire at Upsal, he an
nounced his affliction with deep humility. " I acknowledge
sorrowfully my sins," -he said, " which have provoked the wrath
of God ; I am thankful, however, that I am able to bear it
1 She was not Queen tiliafter Charles's death, in 1718 ; but about this time
she assumed to reign in his absence, for which she was reproved on his return.

26 SWEDENBORG'S PARENTAGE.
with such good courage." He rejoiced that his little pocket
Bible was saved, his companion for forty-four years ; and he
took comfort on finding unharmed in the ashes a copy of his
exercises in the Catechism, and a copper-plate engraving of
himself, from which he inferred the Divine favor.1
Over the gateway of Brunsbo rebuilt, Swedberg placed the
words of King David : '
"Therefore now let it please Thee to Bless the
House of Thy Servant."
But the poor man had yet another fire to pass through, for
his purification. In 1 730 Magister Unge wrote to his brother-
in-law Emanuel, —
" Most honored and dear brother, — You are probably aware
that Brunsbo was again reduced to ashes by a vehement con
flagration between the 18th and 19th of August, and the Bishop
came very near being burned himself. The large wooden
building together with the stone house is destroyed, and
everything it contained. The silver in the chest, as much as
was in it, was saved, but everything out of it, for ordinary use,
was lost. All our dear father's printed works, the newly re
printed Catechism, all his manuscripts, with the exception of
one copy of the book of sermons and one of the biography,
and his entire remaining library are lying in ashes."
This last shock was too much for his seventy-seven years,
and, though he lived and labored five years longer, his firm
ness and vigor were failing him. His desire to be still writ
ing and printing remained, stimulated by his printer; but
his family thought he was wasting his strength and money.
1 For this plate Swedenborg wrote an inscription: —
Here erat in mediis facies illcesa favillis
Cum deflagravit, node flucnte, domus;
Sic quoqtce post ignes, Genitor, tucefamce, supremos
Postque rogos, vivet nomen amorque tui.
" Unharmed mid fiery ashes was this likeness found, when in the passing
night the home was burned. So, too, O Father !»after the flames and the
funeral pile, thy good fame shall live and love for thee."

SWEDBERG'S PRINTING.

27

His son-in-law, Magister Unge, writes in 1731 to Emanuel,
" Moller is now beginning to swindle the Bishop on a new-
account ; for he desires to print the collection of sermons
whjch was burned. . . . How will this end if he begin
printing in his poverty? . . . What will this lead to ? The
Bishop plunges himself more and more into debt. He is
now writing daily with great industry at the two other volumes
of the collection of sermons, which was burned." In 1728 he
had himself written to a friend, "If I had all the money
which I have invested in the printing of books, I would be
worth now from sixty to seventy thousand dalers in copper."
Besides various religious works, he wrote and printed books
on the Swedish language, grammar and lexicons, books for
schools, a new 'translation of the Bible and a Swedish Com
mentary, Pharos Sacra America Illuminata, and other works.
Much of his interest in writing and publishing had long been
in behalf of the Swedish colonial missions, especially the mis
sion of Pennsylvania and Delaware. It was by his influence
with the King that the first missionaries were sent to this
colony, and their interests looked after until the recognition
of the independence of the United States. The colony
elected Swedberg their first bishop, as did also the Swedish
churches at London and Lisbon, and this appointment was
confirmed by the King. To their concerns he devoted much
time and labor, which they repaid with great respect and
affection. In recounting Bishop Swedberg's public labors first, we
have followed his own example, making these duties always
of the first importance. But at the same time he was emi
nently a family man, being the affectionate husband of three
successive wives, and the loving father of five sons and four
daughters, all children of his first wife. Of these, however,
two sons died in childhood. Like his own father, Swedberg
esteemed children as a blessing from the Lord, and thought
that too much could not be done for them. " It is really the
case," said he, "that you must never grudge expenses, if

28 SWEDENBORG'S PARENTAGE.
you desire your children to grow up well." His great desire
was that his own children should grow up in the fear and love
of God. With this at heart, he gave them names that he
trusted would be a help.
"I am fully convinced," he writes, "that children ought
to be called such names as will awaken in them, and call to
their minds, the fear of God and everything that is orderly
and righteous. . . . The name of my son Emanuel signifies
' God with us ; ' that he may always remember God's pres
ence, and that intimate, holy, and mysterious conjunction
with our good and gracious God, into which we are brought
by faith, by which we are conjoined with Him and are in
Him. And, blessed be the Lord's name ! God has to this
hour been with him. And may He be further" with him, until
he be eternally united with Him in His kingdom ! Eliezer
signifies ' God is my help ; ' and he also has been graciously
and joyfully helped by God. He was a good and pious child,
and had made good progress, when, in his twenty-fifth year,
he was called away by a blessed death. The youngest was
called Jesper only for this reason, that he was born on the
same day of the year and at the same hour as myself. . . .
If the name Jesper be written Jisper, [in Hebrew] ' he will
write,' the use has also followed the name ; for I believe that
scarcely any one in Sweden has written so much as I have,
since ten carts could scarcely carry away what I have written
and printed at my own expense : and yet there is much, yea,
nearly as much, unprinted. My son Jesper has also the same
disposition, for he is fond of writing, and writes much. I am
a Sunday child ; and the mother of my children, my late wife,
was also a Sunday child, and all my children are Sunday
children, except Catharina, who was born at Upsal on the
third day of Easter. I have put my sons to that -for which
God has given them inclination and liking, and have not
brought up any for the clerical profession ; although many
parents do so inconsiderately, and in a manner not justi
fiable, by which God's Church and likewise the ministerial

SWEDBERG'S CHILDREN.

29

office suffer not a little, and are brought into contempt. I
have never had my daughters in Stockholm, where many are
sent in order to learn fine manners, but where they also learn
much that is worldly and injurious to the soul."
Of the mother of Jesper Swedberg we have little knowledge.
Her name was Anna Bullernassia, daughter of Magister Petrus
BulIemEesius, pastor in Svardsjo. She became the wife of
Swedberg's father, Daniel Isaksson, about 1640. Her son
Jesper said of her, " My mother was to me all that Monica
was to Augustine." Of Swedberg's own wife, the mother of
his children, we know little more. Her name was Sara Behm,
of good family, the daughter of an Assessor in the College of
Mines, the same office that was held so long by her son
Emanuel. Her first husband was Dean of Upsal, and left
her with wealth that was of great service to her later husband
and children. She became the wife of Jesper Swedberg in
1683, when he was simply Magister Swedberg, still preaching
in the prebend of his deceased friend. Brunner. Her first
child was born during her husband's absence on his travels,
and she named him Albrecht, for her own father. He died
in childhood.1 The next child was Anna, born in 1686, who
became the wife of Ericus Benzelius. To her Emanuel, the
next younger, was always sending kindest greetings when
writing to" his brother-in-law. Emanuel was born on the 29th
of January, 1688, while his father was serving as ordinary
royal chaplain at Stockholm. After him were born in succes
sion Hedwig, Daniel, Eliezer, Catharina, Jesper, and Margar-
etha. The last-named was born in October, 1695, and the
good mother, of whom we know all too little, died in June,
1696, while the rector was building his large stone house at
Upsal. Emanuel was then not nine years old, and his im
pressions of his mother have not come down to us.
In 1 719 the family of Bishop Swedberg was ennobled by
1 Albrecht died soon after his mother, in 1696. On his death-bed his father
asked him what he should do in heaven. " I shall pray for my father and
my brothers and sisters," was the reply, deeply affecting the father.

30 SWEDENBORG'S PARENTAGE.
Queen Ulrica Eleonora, with the name of Swedenborg, and
his son-in-law Benzelius with the name of Benzelstierna ; after
which they were entitled to seats in the Diet. The Bishop
himself retained the name of Swedberg, and died with it,
1735, in the eighty-second year of his life and the thirty-
third year of his bishopric. Since the last fire his hand had
trembled, so that he wrote with difficulty ; and during the last
year his memory had failed. But his eyes were not dim to
the day of his death. With wonderful industry and persever
ance he had accomplished many undertakings, while others
not less worthy — such as the Swedish translation of the Bible
— had failed through the jealousy of others. Previous to
his last fire he had written his autobiography for each of_
his children. One copy alone, of over a thousand pages,
was preserved. This is still in existence, but has never been
printed. The name that he has left behind him is that of
" a man who, if he had lived a few hundred years earlier,
might have increased the number of Swedish saints, and
whose learning, industry, exemplary life, good intentions, and
zeal for God's glory deserve to be venerated even by a more
enlightened century." But of his real character it will be
useful for us to take a closer view, in order to be prepared
for what we shall discover in the inheritance of his son
Emanuel. There can be no mistake in attributing to Bishop Swedberg
great energy of character, honesty of purpose, bold frankness
of expression, hereditary and early-acquired piety, and kind
love for his fellow-men. His long life was spent in hard, enter
prising labor, with no obvious selfish interest, but for the good
of mankind. And withal he was constantly acknowledging
God as the source of all blessings, and the permitter of all
punishment. All the misfortunes that come to him, he con
fesses to be deserved recompense for his sins ; for all the good
he accomplishes he returns thanks to God. His confidence
in the presence of spirits and angels, as well as in the Provi
dence of God, was remarkable, and sometimes bordering on

SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES.

31

credulity. In his first year at the university "he had such a
wonderful dream that he did not know whether he ought not
to call it a revelation. ' No human tongue can pronounce,
and no angel can describe, what I then saw and heard.' "
When he first began to preach, he and all in the village heard
in the church towards evening loud voices, singing hymns.1
From that time he felt profound veneration for holy worship,
convinced that " God's angels are especially present in this
sacred office." "God preserved me," he says, "during the
whole of my student life from bad company. My company
and my greatest delight were God's holy men who wrote the
Bible, and the many other men who have made themselves
well-esteemed in God's Church, and whose names are far-
spread in the learned world. God's angel stood by me and
said, 'What do you read?' I answered, 'I read the Bible,
Scriver, Lutkeman, John Arndt, Kortholt, Grossgebaur, J.
Schmidt, and others.' The angel said further, ' Do you un
derstand what you read in the Bible ? ' I answered, ' How can
I understand, when there is no one to explain it to me ?'2 The
angel then said, ' Procure for yourself Geier, J. and S. Schmidt,
Dieterich, Tarnow, Gerhardi, and Crell's Biblical Concord
ance? I said, ' A part of these books I have ; the rest I
will provide myself with.' The angel further said, 'Blessed
is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this pro
phecy, and keep those things which are written therein. If
ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.' I sobbed,
'Oh, grant us, God'" — a stanza of a Swedish hymn. "And
thus he departed from me, after he had blessed me and I
had thanked him most humbly."
It is of great interest to note this readiness on the part of
Swedberg to receive spiritual instruction ; and this very vision,
dream, or impression, whichever we regard it, suggests remark
's
1 Swedberg was fond of music. " By the whispering of the leaves in the
forest and the noise of mill-wheels in the brook, he was reminded of Jhe
1 heavenly music,' the fundamental tone of which he found struck in the Book
of Revelation. Every evening, usually, his good friend Dr. Hesselius came, and
played hymns to him on his violoncello." " Acts viii. 30, 31.

32 SWEDENBORG'S PARENTAGE.
ably the experience that was to come to his son. It is as if
heaven were teeming with the instruction the Lord was about
to give to men, and angels were seeking the mind fitted to
receive it : nay, more, as if Swedberg himself had some of
, the elements of preparation. And what did he lack ? Much,
we shall find when we bring into comparison the breadth and
depth of intellectual grasp that was given to his son. Much,
very much, we shall see when we set beside his self-complacent,
impulsive spirit the self-abnegated, divine spirit that shone
through his son after his vastation, in the period of his illumi
nation. We need not inquire why this change of spirit might
not have been granted to the father. Enough, that the time
was not yet fully come. It is easy to recognize in Bishop .
Swedberg a large measure of the simple Christian goodness, —
love for the Lord and for doing good works to the neighbor, —
which was taught by John the Baptist, and again was typified
by John the Evangelist, and was to remain on earth to receive
the Lord at His Second Coming. But we cannot fail to see
also in him, and strongly marked, the fault of the first Christian
Church from its beginning, — the desire to merit a high place
in heaven by good deeds. Witness what his biographer,
himself a rejector of Swedenborg's revelations, calls Swed
berg's "sublime words." "At least," said he, after speaking
of his persecutions by the clergy, " I know that my angel has
received a command from God to have in readiness a crown,
which he will place on my head when I depart hence and
enter into God's kingdom. Meanwhile I shall sit down in
my honorable place with greater courage, joy, and renown if
possible than before."

CHAPTER III.
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. — STUDIES ABROAD. — DAEDALUS.
Such was the parentage of Emanuel Swedenborg ; but in
its happiest mood, to judge from the name his father gave
him, and his reasons for giving it. The words will bear to
be read again arid well pondered. " The name of my son
Emanuel signifies God-with-us ; that he may always remem
ber God's presence, and that intimate, holy, and mysterious
conjunction with our good and gracious God into which we
are brought by faith, by which we are conjoined with Him and
are in Him. And, blessed be the Lord's name ! God has to
this hour been with him. And may He be further with him,
until he be eternally united with Him in His kingdom ! "
God-given wish in the father's heart, that was to be fulfilled
of God in the son ! It links them together ; the father
shares the son's labor and grace.
In what ways the father's heart was gladdened, is partly
explained in the following reply of Swedenborg to his friend
Dr. Beyer, who had asked him for some particulars of his
early life : " From my fourth to my tenth year I was con
stantly engaged in thought upon God, salvation, and the
spiritual experiences of men ; and several times I revealed
things at which my father and mother wondered, saying that
angels must be speaking through me. From my sixth to my
twelfth year I used to delight in conversing with clergymen
about faith, saying that the life of faith is love, and that the
love which imparts life is love to the neighbor : also that God
gives faith to every one, but that those only receive it who
practise that love. I knew of no other faith at that time than
3

34 CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.
that God is the Creator and Preserver of nature, that He
imparts understanding and a good disposition to men, and
various other things that follow. I knew nothing then of that
learned faith which teaches that God the Father imputes the
righteousness of His Son to whomsoever and at what times
He chooses, even to those who have not repented and have
not reformed their lives. And had I heard of such a faith,
it would have been then, as it is now, above my comprehen
sion." No doubt this description of his early faith mirrors,
with perhaps an added light of its own, his father's teaching,
and shows that the simple apostolic faith manifested in a
good life was the faith the good Bishop preached.
Strangely enough, we know nothing of the manner of
Emanuel's early education. Born in the city of Stockholm,
Jan. 29, 1688, taken to Vingaker at four years of age, and the
same year to Upsal on his father's removal thither, he must
have received at Upsal all his schooling. He was fifteen
years old when his father removed to Brunsbo ; and as his
sister and playmate Anna, sixteen months older, was married
the same year and settled at Upsal, we may conclude that it
was at this time Emanuel became a member of her family ;
for he must now have well entered upon his academical studies.
In 1 709 he received his degree of doctor of philosophy, and
with the consent of the Faculty he prints, with an affec
tionate dedication to his father, his academical thesis just
read in the university hall at Upsal. In this thesis we find
little attempt at display. It was a solid collection of selected
sentences from Latin and Greek authors, mostly from Seneca,
with some from Holy Writ, arranged to set forth certain
moral and religious sentiments, and accompanied with ap
posite reflections. So far, we should say, the religious bent
of the child still rules the young man.
The same year, the Bishop published a Swedish poetical
paraphrase of 1»he twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes, with com
ments, and with the same rendered into Latin verse by his
son Emanuel. This taste and facility for Latin verse, proba-

GRADUATION. 35
bly acquired at the university, is not left behind with the
college halls, but becomes the young man's recreation in the
• interval of severer studies for some years after graduation.
When his course was finished at the university, he appears
to have gone to his father's home at Brunsbo. But in July he
wrote, asking the aid of Benzelius to start him on his travels,
then an essential part of a young man's education. He asked,
in particular, letters to some one in an English college, in
order that he- might improve himself in mathematics, or in
physics and natural history. "As I have always desired," he
said, "to turn to some practical use, and also to perfect my
self more in, the studies which I selected with your advice and
approval, I thought it advisable to choose a subject early
which I might elaborate in course of time, and into which I
might introduce much of what I should notice and read in
foreign countries. This course I have always pursued hitherto
in my reading ; and now, at my departure, I propose to my
self, as far as concerns mathematics, gradually to gather and
work up a certain collection, namely, of things discovered and
to be discovered in mathematics, — or, what is nearly the same
thing, the progress made in mathematics during the last one
or two centuries." "Much kind love " he sends to his sister
'Anna. Never idle, he adds by the bye that, since leaving Upsal,
he has acquired the manual art of bookbinding. In March
of the next year, his travels having been delayed, he writes
that he has made such progress in music as occasionally to
take the organist's place at church.
In 1 710, the necessary royal permission having been ob
tained by the solicitation of his father, Emanuel at last set
out on his travels in pursuit of his "education, though not
without further hindrance on the way. We find in his
Itinerary, —
" I travelled to Gottenburg, and thence by ship to London.
On the way to London I was four times in danger of my life.
First, from a sand-bank on the English coast in a dense fog,

36 STUDIES ABROAD.
when all considered themselves lost, the keel of the vessel
being within a quarter of a fathom of the bank. Second, from
the crew of a privateer, who came on board declaring them
selves to be French, while we thought they were Danes.
Third, from an English guardship on the following evening,
which on the strength of a report mistook us in the darkness
for the privateer, and fired a whole broadside into us, but
without doing us any serious damage. Fourth, in London
I was soon after exposed to a still greater danger ; for some
Swedes, who had approached our ship in a yacht, persuaded
me to sail with them to town, when all on board had been or
dered to remain there for six weeks, the news having already
spread that the plague had broken out in Sweden. As I did
not observe the quarantine, an inquiry was made ; yet I was
saved from the halter, — with the declaration, however, that
no one who ventured to do this in future would escape his
doom." In October, 1710, he writes to Benzelius, —
"This island has also men of the greatest experience in
this [mathematical] science ; but these I have not yet con
sulted, because I am not yet sufficiently acquainted with their
language. I study Newton daily, and I am very anxious to
see and hear him. I have provided myself with a small stock
of books for the study of mathematics, and also with a certain
number of instruments. . . . The magnificent St. Paul's
Cathedral was finished a few days ago in all its parts. . . .
The town is distracted by internal dissensions between the
Anglican and Presbyterian churches ; they are incensed against
each other with almost deadly hatred. . . . Were you, dear
brother, to ask me about myself, I should say I know that I
am alive, but not happy ; for I miss you and my home. . . .
I not only love you more than my own brothers, but I even
love and revere you as a father. . . . May God preserve
you alive, that I may meet you again ! "
It was in the middle of the reign of Queen Anne. Han
del arrived from Italy the same year, to find an atmosphere

IN LONDON.

37

in which his oratorio of the Messiah could be conceived and
born into the world. Pope, a few months younger than Swe
denborg, was just issuing his Essay on Criticism. Addison
and Steele were publishing the Tatler, soon to be followed by
the Spectator. Dr. Isaac Watts was preaching kindly sermons
in Mark Lane ; and Sir Christopher Wren was putting the
finishing touches to the Cathedral of St. Paul.
In April, 1711, Swedenborg writes from London, delighted
to execute the commission of Benzelius for the purchase of
a telescope twenty-four feet in length, a microscope, and sun
dry books. "I visit daily," he says, "the best mathematicians
here in town. I have been with Flamsteed, who is considered
the best astronomer in England, and who is constantly taking
observations, which, together with the Paris observations, -will
give us some day a correct theory respecting the motion of
the moon and of its appulse to the fixed stars. . . . Newton
has laid a good foundation for correcting the irregularities of
the moon, in his Principia. . . . You encourage me to go
on with my studies ; but I think that I ought rather to be dis
couraged, as I have such an 'immoderate desire'1 for them,
especially for astronomy and mechanics. I also turn my
lodgings to some use, and change them often. At first I was
at a watchmaker's, afterwards at a cabinetmaker's, and now
I am at a mathematical-instrument maker's. From them I
steal their trades, which some day will be of use to me. I
have recently computed for my own pleasure several useful
tables for the latitude of Upsal, and all the solar and lunar
eclipses which will take place between 1712 and 1721. . . .
In undertaking in astronomy to facilitate the calculation of
eclipses, and of the motion of the moon outside that of the
syzygies, and also in undertaking to correct the tables so as to
agree with the new observations, I shall have enough to do.
. . . Grabe's Septuagint was recently published. . . . He
was here for some time, but he had to change his lodgings
every week ; he was so over-run by visitors. ... I have
1 He uses these English words.

38 STUDIES ABROAD.
much to tell about events among the learned, but I have
neither time nor paper."
A long letter in January, 1712, answers various questions
on scientific matters-, received from Benzelius and the Literary
Society of Upsal. Among other things he wanted _ to send
home some English globes ; but mounted, they were very dear,
as well as expensive to transport, and he had tried to procure
the paper sheets to be set up at home. These the makers
would not sell, lest they should be copied. Characteristically,
Swedenborg sets to work learning to engrave on copper, and
then draws and engraves the plates for a pair of globes of
ordinary size. He sends at this time a specimen of his engrav
ing, and remarks that he has learned so much from his land
lord in the art of making brass instruments, that he has already
made several for his own use, and that if he were in Sweden
he would not need to apply to any one to make the meridians
for the globe and its other appurtenances. Of his studies he
says, —
" With regard to astronomy I have made such progress
in it as to have discovered much which I think will be useful
in its study. Although in the beginning it made my brain
ache, yet long speculations are now no longer difficult for me.
I examined closely all propositions for finding the terrestrial
longitude, but could not find a single one ; I have therefore
originated a method by means of the moon, which is unerr
ing, and I am certain that it is the best which has yet been
advanced. In a short time I will inform the Royal Society
that I have a proposition to make on this subject, stating my
points. If it is favorably received by these gentlemen, I shall
publish it here ; if not, in France. I have also discovered
many new methods for observing the planets, the moon, and
the stars ; that which concerns the moon and its parallaxes,
diameter, and inequality, I will publish whenever an oppor
tunity arises. I am now busy working my way through algebra
and the higher geometry, and I intend to make such progress
in it as to be able, in time, to continue Polhammar's discov-

LONGITUDE.

39

eries. . . . When the plates for the globes arrive in Sweden,
Professor Elfvius will perhaps take care to have them printed
and made up. I shall send a specimen very soon ; but no
impression is to be sold." In this same letter he mentions
valuable. English books, and names all the principal poets as
well worth reading for the sake of their imagination alone.
In mild terms he complains of his father's not supplying
him better with money; and we find the complaint quite
pardonable when we remember that the father was borrow
ing his children's inheritance from their mother for his own
enterprises, and when we learn that Emanuel had received
from him but two hundred rixdalers (about two hundred, and
twenty-five dollars) in sixteen months. He says it is hard to
live without food or drink.
Writing again to Benzelius, August, 1 712, he repeats his
confidence in his new method of finding the longitude, which
Dr. Halley admitted to him orally was the only good method
that had been proposed. "But," he adds, "as I have not
met with great encouragement here in England, among this
civil and proud people, I have laid it aside for some other
place. When I tell them that I have some project about lon
gitude, they treat it as an impossibility ; and so I do not wish
to discuss it here. ... As my speculations made me for a
time not so sociable as is serviceable and useful for me, and
as my spirits are somewhat exhausted, I have taken refuge for
a short time in the study of poetry, that I might be somewhat
recreated by it. I intend to gain a little reputation by this
study, on some occasion or other, during this year, and I hope
I may have advanced in it as much as may be expected from
me, — but time and others will perhaps judge of this. Still,
after a time, I intend to take up mathematics again, although
at present I am doing nothing in them ; and if I am encour
aged, I intend to make more discoveries in them than any one
else in the present age. But without encouragement this would
be sheer trouble, and it would be like non profecturis litora
bubus arare, — ploughing the ground with stubborn steers.

40 STUDIES ABROAD.
. . . Within three or four months I hope, with God's help,
to be in France ; for I greatly desire to understand its fash
ionable and useful language. I hope by that time to have, or
to find there, letters from you to some of your learned cor
respondents. . . . Your great kindness and your favor, of
which I have had so many proofs, make me believe that your
advice and your letters will induce my father to be so favor
able towards me as to send me the funds which are necessary
for a young man, and which will infuse into me new spirit for
the prosecution of my studies. Believe me, I desire and
strive to be an honor to my father's house and yours, much
more strongly than you yourself can wish and endeavor. . . .
I would have bought the microscope, if the price had not been
so much higher than I could venture to pay before receiving
your orders. This microscope was one which Mr. Marshall
showed to me especially ; it is quite new, of his own inven
tion, and shows the motion in fishes very vividly. There
was a glass with a candle placed under it, which made the
thing itself, and the object, much brighter; so that any
one could see the blood in the fishes flowing swiftly, like
small rivulets ; for it flowed in that way, and as rapidly. At
a watchmaker's I saw a curiosity which I cannot forbear
mentioning. It was a clock which was still, without any mo
tion. On the top of it was a candle, and when this was lighted,
the clock began to go and to keep its true time ; but as soon
as the candle was blown out, the motion ceased, and so on. . . .
He told me that nobody had as yet found out how it could
be set in motion by the candle. Please remember me kindly
to sister Anna, my dear sister Hedvig, and also to brother
Ericus Benzel, the little one, about whose state of health I
always desire to hear."
The next letter that has come down to us was dated Paris,
August, 1 713. Meanwhile Swedenborg had left London and
made a considerable stay in Holland. "I left Holland,"
he says, "intending to make greater progress in mathematics,
and also to finish all I had designed in that science. Since

IN PARIS.

41

my arrival here I have been hindered in my work by an illness
which lasted six weeks, and which interfered with my studies
and other useful employments ; but I have at last recovered,
and am beginning to make the acquaintance of the most
learned men in this place. I have called upon, and made the
acquaintance of, De La Hire, who is now a great astronomer,
and who was formerly a well-known geometrician. I have
also been frequently with Warrignon, who is the greatest
geometrician and algebraist in this city, and perhaps the
greatest in Europe. About eight days ago I called upon
Abbe Bignon, and presented your compliments, on the
strength of which I was very favorably received by him. I
submitted to him for examination, and for introduction into
the Society, three discoveries, two of which were in algebra.
[The third was his new method of finding longitude.] . . .
Here in town I avoid conversation with Swedes, and shun all
those by whom I might be in the least interrupted in my
studies. What I hear from the learned, I note down at once
in my journal ; it would be too long to copy it out and to
communicate it to you. . . . During my stay in Holland I was
most of the time in Utrecht, where the Diet [Congress1] met,
and where I was in great favor with Ambassador Palmquist,
who had me every day at his house ; every day also I had
discussions on algebra with him. He is a good mathema
tician and a great algebraist. ... In Leyden I learned glass-
grinding [for telescopes], and I have now all the instruments
and utensils belonging to it. . . . You may rest assured that
I entertain the greatest friendship and veneration for you ; I
hope, therefore, that you will not be displeased with me on
account of my silence, and my delay in writing letters, if you
hear that I am always intent on my studies, so that sometimes
I omit more important matters."
Swedenborg's stay in Paris seems to have been less than a
year, and here seems to end his aspiration for eminence in
1 The famous Congress of Ambassadors, by which the Spanish Succession
was ended and peace secured for a generation.

42 STUDIES ABROAD.
pure mathematics. Perhaps he did not find in them the en
couragement he hoped. For whatever reason, from this time
he began to devote his attention to mechanical and practical
investigations. Going from Paris by way of Hamburg to
Rostock, in the north of Mecklenburg, he writes from there
to Benzelius, Sept. 8, 17 14, —
" I am very glad that I have come to a place where I have
time and leisure to gather up all my works and thoughts, which
have hitherto been without any order, and are scattered here
and there upon scraps of paper. I have always been in want
of a place, and time to collect them. I have now commenced
this labor, and shall soon get it done. I promised my dear
father to publish an academical thesis, for which I shall select
some inventions in mechanics which I have at hand. Fur
ther, I have the following mechanical inventions either in
hand or fully written out, namely, —
"1. The plan of a certain ship, which, with its men, can
go under the surface of the sea, wherever it chooses, and
do great damage to the fleet of the enemy.
" 2. A new plan for a siphon, by which a large quantity
of water may be raised from any river to a higher locality in
a short time.
"3. For lifting weights by the aid of water and this port
able siphon, with greater facility than by mechanical powers.
" 4. For constructing sluices in places where there is no fall
of water, by means of which entire ships, with their cargoes,
may be raised to any required height within an hour or two.
" 5. A machine driven by fire, for throwing out water ; and
a method of constructing it near forges, where the water has
no fall, but is tranquil.
" 6. A draw-bridge, which may be closed and opened within
the gates and walls.
" 7. New machines for condensing and exhausting air by
means of water. Also a new pump acting by water and mer
cury, without any siphon ; which presents more advantages
and works more easily than the common pumps. I have also,
besides these, other new plans for pumps.

INVENTIONS.

43

*"8. A new construction of air-guns, thousands of which
may be discharged in a moment by means of one siphon.
"9. A universal musical instrument, by means of which one
who is quite unacquainted with music may execute all kinds
of airs that are marked on paper by notes.
" 10. Sciagraphia universalis. The universal art of de
lineating shades, or a mechanical method of delineating en
gravings of any kind, upon any surface, by means of fire.
"n. A water-clock, in which water serves the purpose of
an index, and in which, by the flow of water, all the movable
bodies "in the heavens are demonstrated, with other curious
effects. "12. A mechanical carriage containing all sorts of works,
which are set in motion by the movement of the horses.
Also a flying carriage, or the possibility of remaining sus
pended in the air, and of being conveyed through it.
"13. A method of ascertaining, the desires and the affec
tions of the minds of men by analysis.
" 14. New methods of constructing cords and springs, with
their properties.
" These are my mechanical inventions which were hereto
fore lying scattered- on pieces of paper, but nearly all of which
are now brought into order, so that, when opportunity offers,
they may be published. To all these there is added an alge
braic and a numerical calculation, from which the proportions,
motion, times, and all the properties which they ought to pos
sess are deduced. Moreover, all those things which I have
in analysis and astronomy require each its own place and its
own time. Oh, how I wish, my beloved friend and brother,
that I could submit all these to your own eyes, and to those
of Professor Elfvius ! But as I cannot show you the actual
machines, I will at least, in a short time, forward you the
drawings, with which I am daily occupied. I have now time
also to bring my poetical efforts into order. They are only
a kind of fables, like those of Ovid, under cover of which
those events are treated which have happened in Europe

44 STUDIES ABROAD.
within the last fourteen or fifteen years ; so that in this man
ner I am allowed to sport with serious things, and to play
with the heroes and the great men of our country. But
meanwhile I am affected with a certain sense of shame, when
I reflect that I have said so much about my plans and ideas,
and have not yet exhibited anything : my journey and its
inconveniences have been the cause of this. I have now a
great desire to return home to Sweden, and to take in hand all
Polhammar's inventions, make drawings, and furnish descrip
tions of them ; and also to test them by physics, mechanics,
hydrostatics, and hydraulics, and likewise by algebraic calculus.
I should prefer to publish them in Sweden rather than in any
other place, and in this manner to make a beginning among
us of a Society for Learning and Science, for which we have
such an excellent foundation in Polhammar's inventions. I
wish mine could serve the same purpose. ... A thousand re
membrances to my sister Anna. I hope she is not alarmed at
the approach of the Russians.1 I have a great longing to see
little brother [nephew] Eric again ; perhaps he will be able
to make a triangle, or to draw one for me, when I give him a
little ruler."
Our next date is at Greifswalde, in Pomerania, April, 1715,
where Swedenborg spent some months on his mathematical
and mechanical studies, " relieved with poetry ; " for there
he printed his Latin fables, described in the last letter. The
long dalliance of Charles XII. in Turkey, after his defeat in
the heart of Russia, had come to an end. Disappointed in
his hopes of the Sultan's assistance against Peter the Great,
he had listened to the prayers of his subjects for his return, —
prayers that Swedenborg expressed in Latin verse : —
" Carole I spes Svionum ! Te Musae et Sceptra reposcunt,
Hac resonant arae, pulpita, templa prece." 2
From an English paraphrase of this ode, which we find in
1 Who, in Charles's absence, were advancing to join the Danes and to recover
lost ground.
2 Carmina Miscellanea, p. 5.

RETURN OF CHARLES XII. 45
Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson's biography of Swedenborg, credited
to Francis Barham, we copy the concluding lines : —
"Ah, soon return, — oh, monarch of our love !
Oh, Sun of Sweden, waste not all thy light
To illume the crescent of the Ottomans I
Thine absence we bewail, wandering in glooms
Of midnight sorrow — save that these bright stars
That lead us on to victory, still console
Thy people's hearts, and bid them not despair.'"
"Charles," says Carlyle, "ended this obstinate torpor at
last; broke out of Turkish Bender, or Demotica. With a
groom or two, through desolate steppes and mountain wilder
nesses, through crowded dangerous cities, he rode without
pause forward, ever forward, in darkest incognito, the inde
fatigable man; and finally on Old Hallowmas Eve (1714),
far in the night, a horseman, with two others still following him,
travel-splashed, and white with snow, drew bridle at the gate
of Stralsund, and to the surprise of the Swedish sentinel there
demanded instant admission to the Governor. The Gover
nor, at first a little surly of humor, saw gradually how it was ;
sprang out of bed and embraced the knees of the snowy man.
Stralsund in general sprang out of bed, and illuminated itself,
that same Hallow- Eve ; and, in brief, Charles XII., after five
years of eclipse, has reappeared upon the stage of things, and
menaces the world, in his old fashion, from that city."
From the neighborhood of Stralsund, where, soon after,
Charles was besieged by the Russians and Danes, Sweden
borg escaped just in time, and through the midst of enemies
arrived home in safety about midsummer. Welcomed to
Brunsbo, his father's episcopal seat, the Bishop addresses a
petition in his behalf to the Lord-Lieutenant : —
"Brunsbo, 12th July, 1715.
"May it please your Excellency, — My son Emanuel, after five years'
foreign travel, has at length returned home. I hope he may be found
available for some Academy. He is accomplished in Oriental lan
guages, as well as European, but especially he is an adept in poetry

46 DAEDALUS.
and mathematics. ... If there should be an opening at an Academy
here in Sweden, will your Excellency be so kind as advance him to fill
it ? With God's help he will honor his place. "Jesper Swedberg."
Meanwhile Swedenborg made preparations for his projected"
magazine of scientific discoveries and mechanical inventions.
On the 9th of August he writes to Benzelius, —
"Most honored friend and brother, — As I presume you
have now returned from the Springs to Upsal, I hope that
this letter may find you in good condition and with renewed
health, at which I should rejoice more than any one else. I
received lately a very nice little Latin letter from brother
Ericulus, at which I was very much pleased and gratified.
I answered it in some extemporaneous Latin verses, in which
I wished him every kind of happiness and success, both in
his studies and in everything else that may be agreeable to
his parents and to himself.
" I looked very carefully for the machines which I some
time ago sent to my father ; they were eight in number, but
I was unable to discover the place in which he had laid them
aside. He thinks they have been sent to you, which I hope
with all my heart ;. for it cost me a great amount of work to
put them on paper, and I shall not have any time during the
next winter to do this over again. There were, First, three
drawings and plans for water-pumps, by which a large quan
tity of water can be raised in a short time from any sea or
lake you choose. Second, two machines for raising weights
by means of water, as easily and quickly as is done by me
chanical forces. Third, some kinds of sluices, which can be
constructed where there is no fall of water, and which will
raise boats over hills, sand-banks, etc. Fourth, a machine to
discharge by air ten or eleven thousand shots per hour. All
these machines are carefully described and calculated alge
braically. I had further intended to communicate plans of
some kinds of vessels and boats, in which persons may go
under water whenever they choose ; also a machine for build-

PROJECTS. 47
ing at pleasure a blast furnace near any still water, where the
wheel will nevertheless revolve by means of the fire, which
will put the water in motion ; likewise some kinds of air-guns
that are loaded in a moment, and discharge sixty or seventy
• shots in succession without any fresh charge. Towards win
ter, perhaps, I shall draw and describe these machines. I
should like to have the opportunity and the means of setting
one or other of them up and getting it to work.
" The day after to-morrow I will travel to the Kinnekulle,1
to select, a spot for a small observatory, where I intend,
towards winter, to make some observations respecting our
horizon, and to lay a foundation for those observations by
which my invention on the longitude of places may be con
firmed : perhaps I may then travel in all haste first to Upsal,
to get some things I need for it.
"Please let me know whether Professor Upmark has yet
obtained his appointment. If there is anything in which I
can be of use to you again, I wish you would inform me of it.
Will you be so good as to recommend me to any of the pro
fessors for any opening that may present itself? The rest I
shall myself see to. By the next opportunity I will send you
something which I saw through the press before returning
home : it is an oration on the King's return, and also some
fables like those of Ovid, which I have called Camena Borea,
and have dedicated to Cronhjelm. I am waiting impatiently
for your oration, about which you said a few words in your
last letter. Remember me a thousand times to Anna. What
ever additional success I may have in my designs, I will first
communicate to you. I wish you would allow me to do so.
Meanwhile I live in the hope of being allowed to remain, most
learned friend and brother, your most obedient brother and
servant, "Eman. Swedberg."
On the 2 1 st of November, he writes to the same friend
from Stockholm, —
1 A fine mountain near Lake Wetter, over nine hundred feet above the sea.

48 HEDWIG ELE0N0RA.
"Most honored friend and brother, — According to promise
I send these lines in the greatest haste to the post-office,
thanking you first and foremost for the great kindness shown
to me at Upsal. My highest wish is to find an opportunity
by which I can repay it in some way or other. I only came
here to-day. I could easily have arrived yesterday, had it
not been for the darkness, and for the uncertainty of finding
quarters for one in a blue dress.
" The Queen-dowager is still living ; she is better to-day.
. . . We have heard both the best and the worst news ; only
it has here and there been exaggerated and colored. Most
people know nothing certain about the King's person. Some
shut him up in Stralsund, and give him no means of escape ;
others vainly rejoice at his return, and expect him late this
evening : carriages are in readiness at the Court to go to meet
him. It is generally believed, however, that he has made his
escape ; that, after his horse had been shot under him, he
ran two thousand paces on foot before he could procure
another charger. This would again redound to his glory, as
the Dutch say that the Swede would be the best soldier in
the world, if he knew when to run away.
"Brother Gustav sends his love, and apologizes for not
having written. With a hundred thousand kind remem
brances to sister Anna, I remain, most honored brother, your
most faithful brother and friend, "Eman. Swedberg."
The Queen-dowager, Hedwig Eleonora, died three days
after the date of this letter, in her eightieth year, deeply grieved
at the unhappy fate of her Sweden, and in great anxiety for
her grandson, Charles XII. She had survived both her son,
Charles XL, who died in 1697, and his Queen, Ulrica Eleo
nora, who died in 1693. Gustav was Benzelius's brother.
Early in December, Emanuel writes again to his friend
and brother, from Stockholm, —
"My literary occupations engage me every day. . . . With

ESCAPE OF CHARLES XII.

49

regard to the dedication I must obey you,1 . . . although I
can flatter myself with only a small prospect of recompense
from it. . . . But, my dear brother, a single word from you
to my father about me will be worth more than twenty thou
sand remonstrances from me. You can without any com
ment inform him of my enterprise, of my zeal in my studies ;
and that he need not imagine that in future I shall waste my
time, and, at the same time, his money. ... I will take care
of the shoes for brother Eric, and we will also take care of the
dress. But the dyers have their hands full ; the shops here
are all changed into black chambers, to make the goods
appear still more dreary, and everything that has been red or
gay has assumed now the color of mourning. This is the
reason why my sister's dress cannot be dyed black. . . .
" The news that are reported here arrived from Stralsund
this morning, —
" i. That the royal government office, with all its employes,
has embarked for Sweden. There was probably a place left
in the vessel for the King.
" 2. That Stralsund has been reduced to ashes, and has
become its own grave, and that of many officers. . . .
" Pardon, my dear brother, that I write to you in French.
But the language in which you think usually suits you best.
My thoughts at present move in this language ; but whenever
Cicero shall again engage me, I shall endeavor to address you
like a Ciceronian."
The mourning in Stockholm was for the Queen. A fort
night after her death, Charles XII., after boldly defending
himself in Stralsund, escaped in a small boat on the town's
surrender, was picked up by a Swedish vessel, and landed in
Sweden on the 13th of December.
The interest that Polhammar took in young Swedberg's
projected magazine is shown in the following notes : —
1 Benzelius desired him to dedicate his new magazine, Dadalus Hyper-
toreus, to Charles XII. The Dadalus was a quaint little pamphlet, in Swed
ish, square in form, with copper-plate engravings at the end.
4

50 D^DALUS.
TO EMANUEL SWEDBERG.
" Stiernsund, December 7, 1715.
"Noble and most learned Sir: Most honored friend, — With peculiar joy
and delight I have heard of your praiseworthy intention to publish,
under your own care and at your own expense, the interesting and
useful information in physical mathematics and mechanics which has
been collected by the Collegium curiosorum at Upsal, and by your
self. . . .
" I read with great pleasure the description of the ear-trumpet; and
I see from it that you are a ready mathematician, and well qualified
for doing this and similar achievements. . . .
" Your most obedient servant, "Christoph Polhammar."
to ericus benzelius.
"Stiernsund, December 10, 17 15.
" Most worthy and most learned Librarian : Most respected friend, —
I thank you most humbly for your kind letter, which arrived by the
last post ; it was the more welcome, as it was some time since I
had the pleasure of receiving a letter from you. I find that young
Swedberg is a ready mathematician, and possesses much aptitude for
the mechanical sciences ; and, if he continues as he has begun, he will
in course of time be able to be of greater use to the King and to his
country in this than in anything else. . . .
"If I can be of use in any way to Mr. Swedberg, I will be so with the
greater pleasure, because I may thereby do some good and acquire
some honor for our country, — for it would be a matter of rejoicing if
some young and zealous natures could be found, which are not so
much engrossed and taken up with the present condition of things, as
to allow themselves to be withdrawn thereby from interesting and at
the same time useful designs and studies. I read through Mr. Swed
berg's first draught of the ear-trumpet; but I did so while engaged
upon and hindered by other matters, so that I had not time to ex
amine it as carefully as I could have wished ; but I have no doubt it
is correct in all its parts. It would be my greatest delight and pleasure
if he could confer with me personally about these things; he would
be always welcome at my house. With many friendly remembrances,
most worthy Librarian, I am your most obedient servant,
"Christoph Polhammar."
to emanuel swedberg.
" Stiernsund, December 19, 1715.
" Noble and most learned Sir : Most honored friend, — The copper
plate which you desire is entirely at your service. . . . But if you

PROFESSOR OF MECHANICS. e t
wish to apply yourself diligently to the study of mechanics, I should
very much like, if you are willing, that you would put up with my
small accommodation, and more frequently confer orally with me;
from which, I have no doubt, both of us would derive satisfaction.
For although I am well aware that the present hard times, and the
few days I have still to live, will prevent the execution of my designs,
I nevertheless experience both pleasure and delight in discoursing
upon them with one who is interested in them. . . .
" With many kind remembrances I remain, most learned Sir, your
most obedient servant, "Christoph Polhammar." .
By the next February Swedenborg sends to Benzelius
manuscript for the second part of the magazine, with several
drawings of which he wishes that engravings may be made,
hoping that the printing may be done and that he may re
ceive, a few copies to take with him to Court, then at Ystad.
Among other things he mentions a project to get a Faculty
of Mechanics established at the University. The same idea
is elaborated more .fully in another letter, of March 4th, with
which he sends for the printer a small work on mathematics
by Polhammar. It appears that in such a professorship
he would have found at this time all he desired. More
in joke than in earnest, he proposes that the present Faculty
should relinquish one seventh of their salaries for the new
appointment. Probably his serious brother-in-law, himself
one of the Faculty, did not appreciate the joke ; for about
the 20th of March Swedenborg writes to him, —
" I was very glad to hear your opinion and ideas upon my
proposition. I have never been, and I never will be, so for
getful of myself and of my standing at Upsal as to expect
that the professors would support me to their own prejudice ;
but I_ thought that by such a desperate and execrable propo
sition I should compel your prudence and your imagination
to discover something better for me ; the whole of it was con
ceived merely as a joke, and this can very easily be mended
en disant la verite. . . . Still it would be very desirable that
such a Faculty should be established ; and if it is not practi-

52 DjEDALUS.
cable now, and we have to wait, it could be done with the
greatest ease by dispensing with some of the professorships
which are least necessary. . . . But as it would probably
take from six to ten years before this could be carried out,
it would be well if meanwhile some other arrangement could
be made ; and this your prudence will be best able to find
out." Benzelius, on the 2d of April, announces the completion of
the Dtzdalus, part second, and adds, —
" With regard to the salary of a Professor of Mechanics, I
know nothing better than that Mr. Polhammar be made an
ordinary assessor of the College of Commerce ; that you be
made director in his place ; that the mechanical laboratory be
removed here to Upsal, and that the director's rank be made
the same as that of the professors. The rest is in my opinion
a mere chimera. For the ordinary professor of geometry is
obliged to lecture on mechanics, and he has also done so.
Further, when the ordinary professorships were appointed,
a fine of ten thousand dalers in silver was imposed by his
Majesty upon any one who desired a change."
To this Swedenborg answers immediately : First, that no
vacancy exists in the College of Commerce. Second, that it
might happen, with such a change in the directorship, that
Polhammar would resign his office ; that he himself cannot
say a word on the subject, lest it seem to be unfriendly ; but
if by any means the assent of Polhammar should be obtained,
he would make every exertion to secure the position. In the
same letter he states that he has completed the manuscript
for the next number of the Dcedalus, and that he has a little
poetical work in the press, Ludus Heliconius, a collection of
Latin poems written in various places. He remains at Brunsbo
till some opening appears, in order to be nearer at hand to
advocate his Dcedalus with the King.
Every letter at this period is loaded with directions about
the printing, the engraving, etc., of the Dcedalus. Now and
then occurs a mournful remark about the condition of the

CONTENTS.

53

country, Charles XII. straining every nerve and exhausting
the life-blood of the nation for his ambitious wars. " It seems
to me," he writes, "that Sweden is now prostrated, and that
soon she will be in her last agony, when she will probably kick
for the last time. Many perhaps wish that the affliction may
be short, and that we may be released."
This is written in June, 1716. The letter concludes:
"Sister Caisa [Catherina] has increased the world and our
family ; she has had a little daughter, at whose baptism I was
a witness the day before yesterday. A thousand kind re
membrances to sister. Anna and little brother Eric."
Emanuel Swedberg's association with Polhammar grew
more intimate, with his publication of the latter's inventions
and scientific speculations, together with his own. On the
26 th of June, 1 7 16, he writes to his brother Benzelius, —
" I am engaged on the subject which I intend for the last
number of this year, and which I shall finish this week, namely,
Polhammar's ideas upon the resistance of mediums, which
at first were written down in Latin, and which have cost me
a great deal of labor and mental exertion to reduce into such
a form as will please the Assessor and the learned ; likewise
my method of finding the longitude of places, which I warrant
to be certain and sure, — I must hear what the learned say
about it."
On the 4th of September he writes again to the same, —
" I am very glad that Dcedalus, part hi., has appeared. I
thank you for having taken so much trouble and care with it :
when I am present with you, I will thank you still more. I
am already thinking of the contents of part v. of the Dcedalus.
I think it will be best for me, first, to put down Assessor
Polhammar's ingenious tap, with a sufficient mechanical and
algebraical description ; second, to make an addition to the
description of his ' Blankstotz ' machine, as this is a work
which requires greater accuracy, reflection, and considera
tion than it has yet received ; third, to leave room for some
of the eclipses observed by Professor Elfvius, by which the

54 DAEDALUS.
longitude of Upsal is also obtained. If you would honor our
little work with a life of Stiernhjelm, or with something else
from the history of the learned, I know that thereby our pub
lication would become more interesting ; as in this case the
heavy matter would be relieved by more pleasant subjects. I
know also that this would gain us the favor and approbation
of many, as the literary world acknowledges you as by far
its best member ; I hope, therefore, that this honor will not
be refused. May God grant you a long life, although I am
afraid that your many studies will deprive us of this benefit,
by shortening your days : for I know no one who has more
consideration for his various studies, and less for himself. All
the learned and the Muses entreat you to spare yourself, and
in you the Muses : it is worthy of all praise, indeed, to offer
up one's self to the Muses, but not on the very altar ; it is
easy enough to become a premature victim. Pardon this
admonition, my brother ; your letter to my father is the cause
of it. I hope that my little learning and my Dcedalus will be
long under your auspices. I think of inserting in the fourth
number some Daedalian speculations about a flying machine,
and to leave room for Dr. Bromell's curiosities, if he be
pleased to insert them. Assessor Polhammar writes that in
the following number he wishes to insert such matter as will
be of use to the public, — such as water and wind machines,
mills, etc., — which I am very glad. of. But let us quit these
literary topics. Last Thursday night his Majesty travelled
incognito through Skara and Skarke to Hjo, where he crossed
over Lake Wetter to Wadstena, to call on the Princess. We had
the lad with us who was his outrider, and who accompanied
him from the monastery to Hjo. He reported many amus
ing questions and answers, of which I send you a specimen.
His Majesty asked, 'Whether the King was not expected
at Hojentorp.' 'Yes,' said the lad, 'I think so.' 'What
should he do there?' 'That I do not know,' said the lad,
' but they say he will go hence to Stockholm.' He then said,
smiling, ' Psha ! to think he would go to Stockholm ; they

LETTER FROM POLHEM. 55
say it is so far off.' ... A hundred thousand kind remem
brances to sister Anna and brother Eric." '
In point of fact, Charles XII. never went to Stockholm
after his departure in 1700, not choosing to show himself
again in his capital unless as a victor. In the same month
Polhem1 writes to his young friend as follows : —
" Noble and most respected friend, — With great pleasure I read
through the fourth number of your Dcedalus, which, as far as I could
see, is worked up with great industry and understanding. With
regard to the article on ' Resistance,' I may perhaps mention that
it seems to depend rather on some additional deductions, which
might follow hereafter, and which we might meanwhile discuss
orally, than to need any changes or corrections that I can point
out ; but, if I may be allowed to express candidly my" opinion, it
seems to me that the last correction was somewhat unnecessary.
With respect. to flying by artificial means, there is pefhaps the same
difficulty contained in it as in making a perpetual motion, or gold by
artificial means , although at first sight it seems as easy to be done
as it is desirable; for whatever any one approves strongly, he has
generally a proportionate desire to carry out. In examining it more
closely, some difficulty arises ; for nature, as in the present case, is
opposed to all common machines' preserving their same relations
when constructed on a large as -on a small scale, though all parts be.
made exactly alike and after the same proportions. For instance,
although some stick or pole may be capable of bearing itself and some
weight besides, still this does not apply to all sizes, although the same
proportion may be preserved between the length and thickness ; for
while the weight increases in a triple ratio, the strength increases only
in a double ratio. The same rule applies to surfaces, so that at last
large bodies are incapable of sustaining themselves ; and accordingly
nature itself provides birds with a much lighter and stronger substance
for their feathers, and also quite different sinews and bones in the
body itself, which are required for the sake of strength and lightness,
and which do not exist in any other organisms. Wherefore it is so
much more difficult to have any success in the air, the same qualities
being required in this case, and all the materials being wanted, which
are necessary when a human body is to be carried in a machine. . . .
Your arrival in Stiernsund will be most agreeable to me ; and if my
1 About this time Polhammar was ennobled by the King with the name of
Polhem, by which' we shall now call him. But for a time Polhem called himself
Pollheimer, having discovered Polheim to be the ancestral name.

56 dcedalus.
experience can be of any use to you, I will give it with so much the
greater pleasure as the fruit of it will be of use to the public and will
accrue to my own honor. After you enter upon physics, it might be
useful to follow them up for some time more extensively, especially
those which concern the causes of natural things ; and also all other
things necessary and curious, especially those of the household, etc.
Immediately after I sent off my letter to you, I received yours. My
wife and children desire to be remembered to you most kindly, and
they also thank you for your compliments.
" I remain, most respected Sir, your most dutiful
" Christoph Pollheimer."
The last sentence of this letter possesses a pathetic interest
in view of later developments. In another letter, of the same
month, Polhem writes, —
" If the learned wish to have real satisfaction and honor from that
which they teach others, they ought to have a better understanding of
many things that are now taught ; for nature is in many things quite
differently constituted than is thought by Descartes and almost all his
followers. And this can scarcely be taught better than by daily expe
rience in mechanics and an investigation into its principles ; and,
although what I have gained there is extremely little in comparison
with what still remains to be done, I nevertheless hope that my prin
ciples may pave the way for the rest. For I never approve of any
thing which does not apply to all cases and all consequences flowing
from it ; and whenever there is one single thing opposed to it, I hold
its fundamental principle to be false. Moreover, it would be no small
honor for the learned mathematicians if they could point out what
their principal and most intricate figures are good for in practice, espe
cially the geometric curves, etc., which I found useful in mechanics on
more occasions than I expected while teaching them at Upsal, ignorant
of their use."
This eagerness to develop practical, useful results from their
science, it is pleasant to find, was a marked , characteristic of
Polhem, as well as of Swedenborg himself. A gap of a few
months in the correspondence of these friends indicates a
time when they enjoyed each other's company, and when the
elder presented young Swedberg and his Dcedalus to Charles
XII., at once the most sagacious, the most bold, and the most
obstinate of men. The occasion was a brief lull in the war
rior monarch's stormy career, when, after reducing his coun-

APPOINTED ASSESSOR. 57
try to an extremity of wretchedness, he was, Napoleon-like,
devising projects of improvement. Polhem became now his
right-hand, and Swedenborg's, talents were quickly apprecia
ted. In a letter to his brother-in-law, Benzelius, December,
1716, he says, —
" I wrote you a letter from Lund, and should have written
to you more frequently, had I not been prevented by my
mechanical and other occupations ; moreover, I had enough
to attend to in order to accomplish my design. Since his
Majesty graciously looked at say Dcedalus and its plan, he has
advanced me to the post of an Assessor Extraordinary in the
College of Mines, yet in such a way that I should for some
time attend the Councillor of Commerce, Pollheimer [Pol
hem). What pleases me most is that his Majesty pronounced*
so favorable and gracious a judgment respecting me, and
himself defended me against those who thought the worst of
me ; and that he has since promised me his further favor and
protection, — of this I have been assured both directly and
indirectly. But let me tell you all, more in detail : After his
Majesty had sufficiently inquired as to my character, studies,
and the like, and as I was so fortunate as to have good refer
ences, he offered me three posts and offices to choose from,
and afterwards gave me the warrant for the rank and post
of an Assessor Extraordinary. But as my enemies played
too many intrigues with the above-mentioned warrant, and
couched it in ambiguous terms, I sent it back to his Majesty
with some comments, well knowing whom I had to depend
upon ; when there was immediately granted me a new one,
and likewise a gracious letter to the College of Mines. My
opponent had to sit down at the King's own table and write
this out in duplicate in two forms, of which the King selected
the best ; so that those who had sought to injure me were
glad to escape with honor and reputation, — they had so
nearly burned their fingers.
"Dcedalus has enjoyed the favor of lying these three weeks
upon his Majesty's table, and has furnished matter for many

58 dcedalus.
discussions and questions ; it has also been shown by his
Majesty to many persons. Within a short time I intend tQ
send you what is to follow for Dcedalus, part v. ; when per
haps Drs. Roberg and Bromell will not refuse to honor it with
their contributions; they might possibly derive some profit
from it.
" We arrived here at Carlscrona a few days ago, intending
after three weeks to go to Gottenburg, and afterwards to
Trollhatta, Lakes Wener and Hjelmar, and Gullspangelf, in
order to examine sites for sluices and locks, — a plan which
meets with his Majesty's entire approbation. ... A thousand
kind remembrances to sister Anna. The kid gloves have
been purchased."
' From these letters of what we may still call Swedenborg's
youth, we learn, better than from any description, its exub
erance, its energy, its assurance of mathematical power, its
fertility of invention, and its strong desire to be employed in
practical works for the good of mankind. Mingled with these
traits it is pleasant to see the warm, confiding love that over
flows to the brother and sister who had cared for and directed
his budding manhood, and were still to him as father and
mother. The traits are the natural ones of the time of life.
What we specially observe with Swedenborg is their vigor and
power, eminent by inheritance, and conserved in remarkable
degree by a freedom from all ignoble passions and weak in
dulgence, which we can attribute only to the protection that
came with a deep sense of duty to God and to man.

CHAPTER IV.
ASSESSORSHIP. — EMPLOYMENT BY CHARLES XLT.
The appointment of Swedenborg, now twenty-eight years
old, to an assessorship in the Royal College of Mines, marks
an era in his life. We have seen him a child at home, a stu
dent at the university and among learned men abroad, and
again at home diligently pursuing his studies, but eagerly
seeking opportunities to put to practical service the talents of
which he was conscious, and the learning he had so laboriously
acquired. Now his opportunity is found, and, as was usual
at that time, by the recognition and favor of royalty : —
"•Charles, by the grace of God, King of Sweden, Gothia, and
Wendia, etc. Our especial favor and gracious pleasure, under God
Almighty, to the true men and servants, to our Council and President,
as well as Vice-President, and to all the Members of the College of
Mines. Inasmuch, as we have graciously deigned to command that
Emanuel Swedberg shall be Assessor Extraordinary in the College of
Mines, although he at the same time is to attend Pollheimer, the Coun
cillor of Commerce, and to be of assistance to him in his engineering
works, and in carrying out his desigits, — therefore it is our pleasure
hereby to let you know this, with our gracious command, and that you
allow him a seat and voice in the College, whenever he be present, and
especially whenever any business be brought forward pertaining to
mechanics. We hereby commend you, especially and graciously,' to
God Almighty. " Carolus.
"Lund, December 18, 1716."
The College of Mines consisted of a President, always of
the highest order of nobility, two councillors of mines, and
some six assessors. Under its charge the whole mining inter-

60 ASSESSORSHIP.
est of Sweden was placed. From its records it appears that,
on April 6, 171 7, Mr. Emanuel Swedberg, appointed by his
Majesty to be Assessor Extraordinary in the College of Mines,
being present, — " As a beginning of his introduction, the royal
decree which had been received was read. Afterwards the
above-named Assessor, after delivering to the Royal College
the formulary of the oath signed by himself, took the oath of
loyalty and of office, with his hand upon the Book, and then
took the seat belonging to him."
With this simple, solemn induction into his office, Sweden
borg entered upon his labors, to which he gave strict atten
tion, unremitted, save on leave of his sovereign in the pursuit
of his studies, for thirty years ; with what satisfaction to the
College and to the Government we shall learn, when we find
him asking permission to retire. The office was a favorable
one, demanding his best talent and energy, yet not so en
grossing as to prevent his pursuing private studies. Except
in the summer months, when the members of the College
usually visifed the mines, daily meetings were held in Stock
holm, at which Swedenborg was punctual in attendance, when
not in service elsewhere. For a while, however, by the com
mand of Charles, he was kept away in assisting Polhem.
Nor, by the King's wish, did he fail to continue his Dcedalus.
On the 23d of February, 171 7, he writes to Benzelius, —
" Enclosed I send Dcedalus, part v., and I most humbly
solicit you to extend to it the kindness that you have shown
towards the former numbers. I should have finished it long
ago, but I have been continually on a journey of ever chang
ing direction, which scarcely left me an hour's time for such
work. But as I have now arrived at Stiernsund, I have
found an opportunity, for a few days, to get this up as well as
I can. I hope it will win the approval of the Upsal people,
and especially your own.
"I have added the Latin to it on the opposite page,
according to his Majesty's wish, who pointed out to me
where the Swedish should be and where the Latin. . . .

SALT-WORKS. 6 1
"With regard to his [Dr. Roberg's] project for manufac
turing salt, his Majesty discussed it and took the opposite
side ; proving his case by Hungarian wine, which may be
entirely frozen, and stating that, when he was in Poland, a
cask of Hungarian wine was so completely frozen that he
dealt it out in pieces with his sword to the men, although
there remained a kernel in it, of the very essence of the wine,
as large as a musket-ball. As his Majesty seemed to be in
terested in the manufacture of salt in Sweden, we gathered
minute information about it in Uddevalla ; and we found that
in Sweden there are the best opportunities for its manufac
ture, as there is abundance of forest and water for promoting
the work. . . . Should such a work be established, it would
profit the country more than the whole of its iron manufacture,
in which a loss is occasionally sustained ; but in the case of
salt there would be a real gain, and the money would remain
in the country.
" We hope that our journey hither will in time be of im
portance. At Trollhatta, Gullspangelf, and Lake Hjelmar
also, we found everything feasible, and at less expense than
had been anticipated. If I do nothing more in the matter, I
act at least as a stimulus in it.
"Will you please remember me kindly to little brother
Eric. I hear that his love for mechanics and drawing con
tinues. If he can give the slip to his preceptor, I should like
to induce him to follow me ; when I would try in every way
to promote his welfare, to instruct Kim in mathematics and
other things, should it be desired. Please remember me also
a hundred times to sister Anna.-"
The. project referred to in this and a preceding letter, for
which Swedenborg and Polhem had visited Trollhatta, was
to connect the North and the Baltic seas by a canal, thus
saving the long detour about the southern peninsula and
the exposure to the hostile Danes, at Elsinore. It was a
project of Bishop Brask in 1526, discovered by Benzelius,
and communicated by Swedenborg to Charles XII., who

62 EMPLOYMENT BY CHARLES XII.
embraced it eagerly, but was prevented by death from its
accomplishment.1 Swedenborg writes on March 24th to the same friend, from
Stockholm, —
" The salt-boiling and inland navigation are in a good way ;
I think that they will obtain the King's approbation. I am
now sending down to Deputy-Councillor Fahlstrom the pro
ject about the observatory at Upsal. I am inclined to think
that his Majesty will approve of it, and also that he will call
upon Upsal to hand in a proposition about the institution
of a Faculty."
Polhem writes acutely, March 27th, —
"Respected Assessor, — I avail myself of the present occasion to
send my daughters Maja and Mrensa [Emerentia] to Stockholm,
and at the same time to forward you the first draught of the con
tinuation of my paper on physics, which f have not taken time to read
over since, and there are therefore more particulars still to be no
ticed. ... It is very appropriate that Stiernhjelm's life, his intelli
gence and learning, should be described ; and it would do no harm
if some verses were placed over it in honor of Sweden, and of him
about whom the paper is written. However short and cold the days
may be which the sun grants to Sweden in winter, so much the
longer and warmer are they in summer; and southerners have in this
respect nothing to boast of over us, when the year is over. In like
manner, although Sweden produces people of the dullest kind, who
are ridiculed by other nations, there are, on the other hand, brought
up in it such penetrating and lofty minds as surpass those of other
countries, and are able to teach them ; yet when you take the aver
age of the two extremes, they may not do more than others."
On the 26th of June, 171 7, Swedenborg writes to Ben
zelius, — *
" Five weeks ago, after I came here to Lund, I presented
to his Majesty Dcedalus, part v., and he was pleased, yea,
more than pleased with it. . . . The salt-boiling will go on,
his Majesty having resolved to grant great and important pri
vileges, which will perhaps induce many zealous persons to
venture their means in the affair; and should there be a
1 Tafel, i. 275. Rumors are current of a revival of the project.

NEW MODE OF COUNTING. 63
scarcity of shareholders in other places, Lund with its attor
neys may perhaps do the most. The establishment of canal
locks between Gottenburg and Wenersborg is also in good
trim. I have besides been busy with a new method of count
ing, which his Majesty has hit upon ; namely, to let the num
eration reach 64 before it turns, in the same way as the ordi
nary method of counting turns at 10. He has himself devised
new characters, new names, etc., for this purpose ; and has
written and changed a number of points with his own hand.
This paper, which I have in my possession, will in time de
serve a distinguished place in a library. This method of
counting is difficult in multiplication, but it is useful and
speedy in division, in the extraction of the square, cube, and
biquadratic roots, — all of which terminate in 64, — as well as
in the solution of smaller numbers. His Majesty has great
penetration." Half a year later, December, 171 7, Swedenborg presents
to his brother, Benzelius, another and better-known side of
"his Majesty's" character, showing that even his favorite
mathematicians and mechanicians were at the mercy of his
whims. He writes, —
" I hear that little brother Eric has gone to Upsal and
caught the small-pox. I should be very sorry if any harm
befel him in consequence. I long to hear of his recovery.
His vivacity is very much against his bearing it long ; but it
rests with God to change it.
"I am writing to M. Vassenius, which I could not do
before, as I did not know where he was. I should like to be
able to do something in the matter of the stipendium duplex,
and of anything else in his favor ; but the difficulty is simply
this : If one presents to his Majesty anything which does not
properly belong to his office, he knows what answer he will
get. Again, if any one were to be asked to present it, it
would have to be Secretary Cederholm, who will do nothing.
The Councillor of Commerce [Polhem] has applied for
twenty things, and has obtained a decision only in the matter

64 EMPLOYMENT BY CHARLES XII.
of the salt-works. I myself have not spoken to his Majesty
more than twice, and then it was only some nonsense about
mathematics, riddles in algebra, etc. On account of the
Councillor of Commerce, I have tried very earnestly not to
obtain this grace more frequently. Should I anywhere else
have occasion to speak to him alone, I will try to accomplish
something." On the 7th of January he writes from Brunsbo, —
" Enclosed I send you something which I found time to
write at Brunsbo ; it is a new method of calculation, of which
I received a hint while I was at Lund. His Majesty is much
interested in this kind of calculation, and has himself prepared
characters, names, and rules for a method ; but in it there
was no turn until 64. I have two sheets which he himself
wrote on this subject, which shall belong to the Library. The
present method goes to 8 only, before it turns ; and could it
be introduced into use, it would be of great practical advan
tage. The example proves this. . . . My dear father is still
at Lund. He is about to argue his ' Shibboleth,' and has
perhaps done so already. . . . You will please excuse my
haste ; I have some commissions to attend to during the Fair.
Meanwhile I wish you a happy New Year, and much pleasure
and joy. With my remembrances to sister Anna and little
brother Eric, I remain, honored' and dear brother, your most
faithful brother, "Eman. Swedberg."
A week later, from the same place, he writes, —
"Most honored and dear brother,— As I had some leisure
hours here at Brunsbo, I have prepared an Art of the
Rules, or Algebra, in Swedish ; and, although I had no book
or other help at hand, I have tried to make it as easy and
concise as possible : it will probably not exceed six sheets
in print. I was induced to write it chiefly because so many
in Lund and Stockholm have begun to study algebra, and
because I have been requested by others to prepare it. I

PROFESSORSHIP DECLINED. 65
hope that it will be of service to the public. . . . Our dear
father has not yet returned home, but he is expected to-day
or to-morrow, when we shall hear much news. He seems to
have been well received by his Majesty ; he dined with him
three times, and preached before him on the second Sunday
in Advent ; he also conversed with him many times."
Again, a week later, he writes, Jan. 21, 1718, —
" By the last post I had the honor to receive your letter,
with the intelligence of the death of Professor Elfvius.1 God
grant him peace and rest ! I think it was his own wish. In
the advice which you so kindly gave me about becoming his
successor, I recognize most gratefully your kindness and good
will ; and as I know that no one of my relations has ever
entertained such kind wishes towards me as you, I recognize
the same good-will in the present matter. The arguments
you adduce are very good, yet on the other side I can adduce
some very strong arguments, as for instance : First, I have
already an honorable post ; second, in this post I can be of
use to my country, and, indeed, of more practical use than
in the other position ; third, I thus decline a Faculty which
does not agree with my tastes and my turn of mind, by both
of which I am led to mechanics, and will be in future to
chemistry, — and our College is noted for having assessors
who know very little on these subjects. For this reason I will
endeavor to supply this deficiency, and I hope that my labors
in this direction will be as profitable to them, as their own may '
be in another ; I trust also that no one will judge me un
worthy of my office. With regard to envy, this is more a mat
ter of laughter to me than of apprehension ; for I have always
striven to cause myself to be envied, and in the future I shall
perhaps become a still greater object of envy. The only object
which would induce me to follow your suggestion, would be
that I might be with you and enjoy one or two years' leisure
to put my thoughts on paper, which I have some difficulty in
doing now ; but I will certainly never apply to the consistory
* Professor of Astronomy at Upsal.
5

66 EMPLOYMENT BY CHARLES XII.
and the rector in writing, for did they not accede to my ap
plication I should be under the disadvantage of having sought
to be relieved of an honorable post, from which I shall in time
derive more profit than simply the promise of being allowed
to enjoy it to the end of my life : moreover, I should be
under the disadvantage of having declared myself unfit for
my present position. Should the Academy consider me
qualified for their position, they may take all necessary steps
without my application ; but if they do not consider me quali
fied, I am indifferent about it. I thank you a thousand times
for your well-intended kindness ; I shall never be happier
than in being near you, so as to have more frequently the op
portunity of doing what is pleasant to you. . . . [Speaking
of his mathematical discoveries,] I wish I had some more of
these novelties, ay, a novelty in literary matters for every day
in the year, so that the world might find pleasure in them.
There is never a lack of those who will plod on in the old
beaten track, while there are scarcely six or ten in a whole
century who are able to generate novelties which are based
upon argument and reason. ... As the King has already
approved of the calculation based on the number 8, you must
be so good as not to create any difficulties that may delay its
publication. I have five little treatises which L desire to lay
before my friends ; one, which I have finished to-day, is on
the round particles, in which Dr. Roberg will probably be in
terested, for he is well skilled in all that concerns these least
things, and is delighted with such subjects."
In these liberal extracts from Swedenborg's letters, of which
we have more at this period of his life than at any other, we
copy without reserve whatever seems to throw any light on
his character and on the nature of his pursuits. The entire
collection is to be found in Tafel's Documents, in which it
makes one hundred and seventy octavo pages. During the
publication of the Dcedalus, from 1 716 to 17 18, Swedenborg
published little else. A small tract in Swedish on the tin
ware of Stiernsund, 1 71 7, is attributed to him ; and it is prob-

THEORY OF ROUND PARTICLES. 61?
able that his Algebra, a i6mo. of 135 pages, was printed in
1 718. Of works of this period in manuscript there are still
preserved an essay on the " Importance of Instituting an
Astronomical Observatory in Sweden ; " one on the " Causes
of Things;" "A new Theory concerning the End of the
Earth," in which he holds that the earth revolves in a resist
ing medium and is gradually retarding its motion and ap
proaching the sun ; a project for " Assisting Commerce and
Manufactures," by controlling the export of Swedish iron and
copper ; a " Memorial on the Establishment of Salt-works in
Sweden ; " an essay on "The Nature of Fire and Colors ; "
and some discussions of higher mathematics, involving the
Differential and Integral Calculus. Of the direction of his
studies at this time, the following letter to Benzelius, written
30th January, 1718, gives further information : —
" I send you something new in physics, on the particles of
air and water, proving them to be round, which may militate
against the philosophy of many; but as I base my theory
upon experience and geometry, I do not expect that any
one can refute it by arguments. Preconceived ideas received
from Descartes and others will be the greatest obstacle to it,
and will cause objections. Dr. Roberg, who in everything that
is minute and subtile is himself subtile, is best able to judge
respecting it : if you would therefore be kind enough to leave
this with him, I should like to hear his opinion. If Professor
Valerius would lay aside his own and his father's Cartesianism,
his opinion would also be valuable to me. I have materials
enough on this subject to fill a large book, as is done by the
learned with their speculations abroad ; but as we have no
appliances here for such large publications, I must cut my
coat according to the cloth, and introduce only the most
general views. The use of this seems to me to enable us to
investigate more thoroughly the nature of air and water in all
its parts : for if the true shape of the particles is once discov
ered, we obtain with it all the properties which belong to such
a shape. I hope that this rests on a solid foundation. In

68 EMPLOYMENT BY CHARLES XII.
future I should not wish to publish anything which has not
better ground to rest upon than the former things in the
Dcedalus. . . .
" With respect to the professorship at Upsal I expressed
my thoughts to you from Brunsbo, and I hope you will receive
them kindly. I hope I shall be able to be as useful in the
post which has been intrusted to me, and also to secure to
myself as many advantages ; my present position being only
a step to a higher one, while at Upsal I should have nothing
more to expect. Moreover, I do not believe that the King
would like me to give up my present position. With regard
to the College, I will try most diligently to make myself at
home in mechanics, physics, and chemistry ; and at all events
to lay a proper foundation for everything, when I hope no one
will have any longer a desire to charge me with having entered
the College as one entirely unworthy : and yet I have no de
sire, either, to be called legis consultissimus."
In February he writes, —
" I received to-day a letter from the Councillor of Com
merce at Wenersborg, in which he presses and urges me to
journey thither. He has now received the order that the
locks are to be built, and that the navigation between the
Baltic and North Sea is to be through the lakes of Wener
and Wetter to Norkoping, at his Majesty's private expense.
There is considerable work ahead, but I shall have to stay
here for two weeks yet. Then, with your leave, I will come
as fast as possible to Upsal, in order to see through the press
what I have in hand. The Councillor of Commerce writes
that the King wonders and expresses dissatisfaction at my
not going on with the Dcedalus as before. I should like very
much to take something down with me which will please the
King. Let nothing interfere with my new method of calcu
lation ; it may be very useful for those who desire to use it.
I take the whole responsibility upon myself."
Too late : the advantages of 8 as a base of calculation are
obvious, and it is a matter of constantly repeated regret that it

BUILDING LOCKS. 69
is now, as indeed it was before Swedenborg's time, too late to
make the change.
About this time he complains of a "rise in the postage," as
threatened among other exactions of Charles XII. Another
hardship, complained of at the same time, was the price
appointed for relays furnished to travellers by the Swedish
peasants, in order to force them to take the regular posting
vehicles. He says, —
"The first thing I will do will be to procure myself a
horse and sledge, and for each journey a barrel of oats in
the sledge ; and the first one I meet, I will ask for a share of
his provisions. I have not the least desire to pay twenty-
seven dalers in copper for a sledge and driver to the next inn
on the road to Upsal, two Swedish miles."
These complaints prepare us for a delay, and the next
letter is from Wenersborg, the following June : —
"Most honored and dear brother, — Some time has elapsed
since I wrote to you. The delay is in proportion to the
distance and to the rise in postage; yet I hope that your
confidence remains as before.
" We are now daily occupied in bringing the first lock to
completion, which cannot, however, be done before Michael
mas. The expenses are small beyond all expectation, because
the whole work is of timber. Yet it is built so as to last a
long time, and any part which gives way can be repaired with
out renewing the whole structure. I am trying to prevail on
the Councillor of Commerce to appoint one or two persons
to superintend the work ; and as I think Messrs. Vassenius
and Hasselbom would like such an appointment, I have pro
posed them. . . .
" It seems to me there is but little reward for the trouble
of advancing the cause of science,— partly on account of the
lack of funds, which prevents our going as far into it as we
ought ; and partly also on account of the jealousy which is
excited against those who busy themselves more than other
persons with a given subject. Whenever a country leans

JO EMPLOYMENT BY CHARLES XII.
towards barbarism, it is vain for one or two persons to try to
keep it upright.
"Baron Gortz has passed twice through this place, and
inspected the work at the locks, over which he is chief. . . .
His Majesty examined also Trollhatta, and I had the favor of
conversing much with him. I did not offer him my "Art of
the Rules" and my "Attempt to find the Longitude," further
than by leaving them upon his table, when he sat and perused
them for a considerable time. Many wonderful tales are re
ported about us in the neighborhood. Among other things
they say that we stopped up the Trollhatta Falls at the mo
ment the King was there." Such unbounded confidence
have they in art."
Again from Wenersborg, September 14th, he writes, —
" Your welcome letter reached me in Stromstadt ; it had
come after me to Wenersborg and Stromstadt, and therefore
I could not answer it sooner. I have been twice at Strom
stadt, and I shall probably have to go there soon again.
" I found his Majesty most gracious towards me, much
more so than I had any reason to expect, which I regard as
a good omen. Count Morner also showed me all the favor
that I could wish.
"Every day I had some mathematical matters for his
Majesty, who deigned to be pleased with all of them. When
the eclipse took place, I took his Majesty out to see it,
and talked much to him about it. This, however, is a mere
beginning. I hope in time to be able to do something in this
quarter for the advancement of science ; but I do not wish
to bring anything forward now, except what is of immediate
use. His Majesty found considerable fault with me for not
having continued my Dcedalus; but I pleaded want of means,
of which he does not like to hear. I expect some assistance
for it very soon.
" With respect to brother Esberg [a nephew of Benzelius],
I will see that he gets some employment at the locks ; but
nothing can be done before next spring. If he meanwhile

POLHEM'S DAUGHTERS.

71

studies mathematics well, and begins to make models, it will
be perhaps of use to him. I wish very much that little brother
Ericus was grown up. I believe that next spring, if every
thing remain as it is, I shall begin the building of a lock my
self, and shall have my own command ; in which case I hope
to be of service to one or the other. I receive only three
dalers a day at present at the canal works ; but I hope soon
to receive more.
" Polhem's eldest daughter is betrothed to a chamberlain
of the King, of the name of Manderstrdm. I wonder what
people will say about this, inasmuch as she was engaged [by
her father] to me. His second ' daughter is in my opinion
much prettier.
" How is Professor Valerius ? I should be very glad to
hear of his health and good condition. Remember me to
sister Anna."
Polhem's second daughter, Emerentia, was young at this
time, not quite sixteen, and did not, it would appear, recipro
cate Swedenborg's tender feeling. Her father, it is said, gave
him a written claim upon her in the future, in the hope that
she would become more yielding, and this contract she was
obliged to sign. She fretted about it, however, so much
every day that her brother was moved with compassion and
purloined the contract from Swedenborg, whose only com
fort consisted in daily perusing it, and who therefore quickly
missed his treasure. His sorrow at his loss was so evident
that her father insisted on knowing the cause ; and on learn
ing it, was willing by an exercise of his authority to have the lost
document restored. But, when Swedenborg himself saw her
grief, he voluntarily relinquished his right, and left the house,
it is said, with a solemn vow never to fix his affections on any
woman again. However this may have been, it is certain
that he never married, and that he never forgot his first love.
She was married a few years after to Riickerskold, Councillor
of the Court of Appeals, to whom she bore nine children,
and died in 1760. Late in Swedenborg's life some of her

72 EMPLOYMENT BY CHARLES XII.
daughters used to visit him, and he told them that he could
then converse with their mother whenever he desired.1
What called Swedenborg to Stromstadt, he does not ex
plain. But from other sources we learn that he was engaged
in superintending the transportation of two galleys, five large
boats, and a sloop, seventeen miles overland, from Stromstadt
to Iderfjol, for the aid of Charles XII. in his operations against
Frederickshall. Baron Sandels, in his eulogy, gives the credit
of the feat to Swedenborg, and in fact we have seen that,
several years before, he had drawn out plans for such trans
portation; but we do not know whether the plan adopted
was his or Polhem's.
In October of the same year, 1718, he writes again from
his father's home at Brunsbo, —
"Most honored and dear brother, — I am just starting for
Carlsgraf, after having been here about three weeks. Mean
while I have seen Dcedalus, part vi., through the press. It
contains the following articles : 1. Directions for Point
ing Mortars, by C. Polhem ; 2. An Easy Way of Counting
Balls which are Stored in the Shape of a Triangle, by Em.
S  ; 3. Useful Directions in Ship-Building. 4. A Proof
that our Vital Nature consists of Small Tremulations, — with
a great Number of Experiments; 5. Respecting a Curve,
the Secant of which forms Right Angles with it. I have sent
this, the figures and letter-press, to his Majesty. As soon as
I have an opportunity, I will send it over to you.
" By the first opportunity I will also send it to Vice-Presi
dent Hjarne, with a courteous, but at the same time decided
letter, to stop his impertinences, because it is quite possible
that some one may show up the puerilities and shortcom
ings in scientific matters which he himself has had the dar
ing to publish. I will send you a copy of this letter some
other time.
1 Not, however, as we understand, with the old interest. There is a tradition
among Swedenborg's friends in London, that in later life he spoke of the excel
lent Countess Gyllenborg as the one awaiting him in the other world.

FAMILY MATTERS.

73

" Our dear father has made us a present of his share in the
mining property. I wish we may succeed in arriving at an
equitable arrangement. Brother Lars is somewhat unpleasant
towards me. It would be well for him not to continue in
this course ; for it does not seem proper in a relative that he
should be more on the side of Ahlgren than on that of his
brother-in-law. Among all my brothers and relatives there is
not one who has entertained a kind feeling towards me, ex
cept yourself; and in this I was confirmed by a letter which
my brother wrote to my father about my journey abroad. If
I can in any way show a due sense of gratitude, I will always
do so. Brother Unge does not hold his hands away from
any one ; at least he has estranged my dear father's and my
dear mother's affections for the last four years. Still, this
will probably not be to his advantage.
"-His Majesty will probably go to Wenersborg at the close
of the month, to inspect the army. I will see if I cannot get
leave to follow to Norway. If I can be of any service there
to my brothers and sisters, it will be the greatest pleasure to
me." This letter hints at several matters which bespeak our atten
tion, — the unfortunate King's expedition against Norway, in
which he is about to lose his life ; Swedenborg's position in
his own family, which is plainly not as pleasant as could be
wished ; and his patrimony, the means of his support.
Vice-President Hjarne, here and elsewhere referred to with
some irritation, himself an eminent man of science, seems to
have been slow to recognize Swedenborg's merit and fitness
for a place in the College of Mines, of which he was Vice-
President. Perhaps he was jealous of his being a favorite
with the King, and perhaps he visited on him a share of his
quarrel with Bishop Swedberg about his "Shibboleth," — an
essay on the use of the Swedish language. At a little later
period we find a better understanding between the men of
science. At this time Swedenborg had but one brother living, Jes-

74 EMPLOYMENT BY CHARLES XII.
per, a young man of twenty-four years, then studying naviga
tion in England, and afterwards schoolmaster for five years in
" New Sweden," America. It was, then, of his brothers-in-
law, — the husbands of his sisters Hedwig (Lars Benzelius1),
Catharina (the Dean Unge), and possibly of Margaretha
(Captain Lunstedt), — that Swedenborg complained, as un
friendly. Of the cavalry officer we know almost nothing. Of
Lars Benzelius, though brother of Swedenborg's special friend,
Ericus Benzelius, Anna's honored husband, we hear no good.
To Swedenborg, at least, he seems to have been hostile
always, though at a later period he sat with him in the College
of Mines. The Dean Unge was a favorite curate with Bishop
Swedberg, who had a high regard for him ; and some years
later we find him on friendly terms with Swedenborg himself.
It seems probable that the unfriendliness at this time in the
family arose, as so frequently happens, from disagreement
about the management of their property. We have seen that
Bishop Swedberg's fortune was mostly that of his first wife,
the mother of all his children ; and that, using this freely in
his own projects, he found it difficult to supply Emanuel with
what was necessary in his studies abroad. It is not improb
able that some of the other members of the family found
trouble in securing their share at the same time, and may
have helped their father to feel that Emanuel was requiring
more than was wise to expend in scientific pursuits. The
chief part of this property left by the Bishop's first wife was
in iron-works at Skinskatteberg. It now appears that the
Bishop ' has made us a present of his share in the mining
property ; ' ' and later, by purchase from the other heirs, Swe
denborg and the husband of a cousin became sole owners.
In 1720 the second wife of the Bishop died; and that she
was not so much estranged from Emanuel as he at one time
thought, we may infer from her desire to leave to him her
mining property at Starbo. It was only by the earnest per
suasion of her husband, who had his youngest son, Jesper,
1 Afterwards Benzelstierna.

DEATH OF CHARLES XII.

75

close at heart, though living in America, that she was induced
to make the other children sharers ; and this she provided
should be arranged by Emanuel's paying them a certain sum,
retaining the mining property himself. That he varied from
this intention, by taking Lars Benzelius as a partner, he after
wards had reason to regret. Still another piece of mining
property came into his hands, on the death of his own
mother's brother, about 1 721, which gave him trouble enough
in suits with his aunt, Brita Behm, who held four-fifths interest
and wanted everything her own way.
The expedition of the King to Norway was ill-starred.
Happily Swedenborg thought better of his desire to be in the
party. On the 8th of December, 1718, he writes again to
Benzelius, —
"I had the pleasure to receive your letter at Brunsbo,
where I intend to remain until the Christmas holidays, and
then go for a few weeks into the mining districts and to
Stockholm. Thank God ! I have escaped the campaign
to Norway, which had laid a hold so strong upon me that
I could escape only by dint of some intrigues. I was glad
beyond measure to hear of your intended journey hither ; I
will by all means wait for you here. Although our dear
mother makes some remarks about the fodder, still your
horses will be very well taken care of at Magister Unge's,
who is rector of Fagre, or else at the inn where brother
Lundstedt stayed for two weeks ; I will take care of this.
If my sledge and furs would be of use for the journey, you
might bring them with you.
" P. S. Gyllentow, a redoubt near Frederickshall, was taken
by storm on the 2 7th of November.
" I expect my sledge, my furs, and muff."
Alas ! before this letter was written, and only three days
after the taking of the redoubt mentioned in the postscript,
in the same siege of Frederickshall, his Majesty, Charles XII.,
had been struck in the head by a ball, while kneeling in an
advanced trench and leaning on the parapet, and with a deep

J6 ASSESSORSHIP.
sigh fell dead. Said his French engineer, " There, the play is
over ; let us be gone ! " Years afterwards Swedenborg, in his
Economy of the Animal Kingdom, describing the " genuine
valor" resulting "from the imperative mandate of the soul,
which aspires to the glory or pleasure anticipated from the
achievement of general good to society," added, "This
genuine valor we may observe illustrated in Charles XII.,
late King of Sweden, that hero of the North, who did not
know what that was that others called fear ; nor what that
spurious valor and daring that is excited by inebriating
draughts, for he never tasted any liquid but pure water : of
him we may say that he led a life more remote from death,
and in fact lived more, than other men " (vol. i. p. 192).
A long silence fitly marks the loss of the royal patron.
Polhem breaks it, April 18, 1719, asking Benzelius for news
of Swedenborg, saying that he has not heard from him for
some time, and three of his own letters have come back to
him from Stockholm. "As I understand," he says, "that he
is probably now at Upsal, I must beg you to offer him my
greeting, or else to send it to him by letter wherever he may
be at present, and also to ask him to favor me with one of his
welcome letters, which are so much the more acceptable in
our house as he has given us sufficient cause to love him as
our own son."
From Swedenborg himself we hear nothing till the next
November, almost a year from his last date, when he writes
to Benzelius from Stockholm about a report from France that
the earth is found to be sensibly approaching the sun. He
had previously written his own opinion that there is a very
gradual slowing of the earth's motion, and hence a cone-
sponding gradual approach to the sun ; but he is incredulous
as to any detection of approach by observation. The dis
couragement shown in a previous letter as to the reception
of scientific labors in Sweden seems growing upon him.
" During the summer I took the necessary leisure to com
mit some things to paper, which I trust will be my last ; as

NEW ESSAYS. <JJ
speculations and arts like these are left to starve in Sweden,
where they are looked upon by a set of political blockheads
as scholastic matters which must remain in the background,
while their own supposed refined ideas and their intrigues
occupy the foreground.
"What I have in hand consists, first, of a minute descrip
tion of our Swedish blast-furnaces ; secondly, of a theory or
an investigation into the nature of fire and stoves, where I
have collected everything I could gather from blacksmiths,
charcoal-burners, roasters of ore, superintendents of iron-
furnaces, etc. ; and upon this the theory is based. I hope
that the many discoveries which I have made therein will in
time prove useful. For instance, a fire may be made in some
new stoves for warming, where the wood and coal which
usually last a day will last six days, and will give out more
heat. Vice-President Hjarne has approved of this in all its
particulars, and if desired I can show the proof of it. The
former of these treatises I handed in to-day to the Royal
College of Mines.
" I have also written a little anatomy of our vital forces,
which, I maintain, consist of tremulations. For this purpose
I made myself thoroughly acquainted with the anatomy of
the nerves and membranes ; and I have proved the harmony
which exists between that and the interesting geometry of
tremulations, — together with many other ideas, where I
fourjd that I agreed with those of Baglivius. The day before
yesterday I handed them in to the Royal Medical College.
"Besides this, I have improved the little treatise, which was
published at Upsal, about the high water in primeval times ;
and I have added a number of clear proofs, together with
an undeniable demonstration how stones were moved in a
deep ocean. I have also adduced arguments to show how
the northern horizon was changed, and that it is reason
able to suppose that Sweden in the primeval ages was an
island. This I have handed in to the Censor of Books, so as
to publish it anew. There is also quite a number of smaller

78 ASSESSORSHIP.
papers. The deep study by which I have endeavored to
compass these subjects has caused me to look with contempt
upon everything I have heretofore published ; but I intend
to improve them very much when they are to be trans
lated [from Swedish into French or Latin] ....
" With much love, I remain your most faithful servant,
"Eman. Swedenborg."
This is the first letter we have in which Swedenborg as
sumes the new name, which had been given in June to the
wife and children of Bishop Swedberg, with admission to
the equestrian order of the nobility, and so to a seat in the
Diet, — an honor granted by the new Queen, Ulrica Eleonora,
younger sister of Charles XII., out of the friendly regard she
had always shown for the independent clergyman, and in
return, perhaps, for his support of the royal power.
The essays here referred to are still preserved, but most
of their subjects were afterwards treated at much greater
length. Of the little book on geological changes, we may
mention that so late as 1842 the great chemist, Berzelius,
referred to it in terms of commendation before the Scandi
navian Scientific Association. But though in advance of its
age, remarkable for acuteness of observation and deduction,
and in some measure anticipating the science of geology,
its premises were not altogether sound, and its results have
been superseded by the more extended researches of later
students. This letter seems to have pleased the worthy brother-in-
law ; for, three weeks later, Swedenborg writes again, " I am
delighted to hear that what I wrote you in my last was to your
liking." He adds some further argument to show that no
sudden approach to the sun is taking place. Incidentally he
brings in his theory of the vortical energy which controls the
solar system, and also each world in itself, but in too brief
terms to be cited as a statement of the theory. At greater
length he gives reasons for thinking that the sun cannot be,

FUTURE PLANS.

79

as some had conjectured, the abode of the damned. He
would rather suspect that there is the abode of the blessed :
since from the sun is all the heat, light, and life of the world,
indeed the most refined elements of existence, where we
might look for that which is above and within matter, and
might even imagine the seat of God Himself.
Here we have a ready basis for Swedenborg's later under
standing, after his illumination, that God is in the sun of
heaven, and that through this sun He sends life and force
into the sun of this world, for the support of material exist
ence. As to the fires of the damned, he suggests that the
pain of burning is the effect of destruction of tissue, which
cannot be what is meant in the Bible ; but rather he thinks
the remorses of conscience might be a sufficiently strong fire.
In this, too, he is approaching the doctrine he afterwards
taught, when better instructed, that the fires of hell are the
fires of selfish passion.- But he piously concludes, " I hope
that my philosophizing may not be misinterpreted ; for, after
all, the foundation is God's Word."
On the ist of December he writes again, —
" Most honored and dearest brother, — I send you herewith
the little work which I mentioned in my last respecting a deci
mal system in our coinage and measures. This is the last
that I will publish myself, because every-day and home affairs
grow of small account, and because I have already worked
myself poor by them. I have been singing long enough ; let
u$ see whether any one will come forward and hand me
some bread in return.
"There are, however, some plans which I have entertained
for some time, and which at last have assumed a definite
shape. I should like to see how far they meet with your
approval : First, to translate what I have published into Latin
or French, and to send it then to Holland and England ; to
which I should like to add, by way of improvement, some of
my discoveries about fire and stones, and about some im
provements in mining matters; besides some other papers

8o ASSESSORSHIP.
which are not yet printed. Would you be kind enough to
give the names of some who write scientific papers and
memoirs ? Second, as I think I now in some measure under
stand the mechanics which are of use in mining districts and
in mines, so far at least as to be able better than any one else
to describe what is new and old there, and further to under
stand the theory of fire and stones, as to which I have made
quite a number of discoveries, I intend to spend all my re
maining time upon what may promote everything that con
cerns mining, and, on the basis which has already been laid,
in collecting as much information as possible. Third, if
fortune so favors me that I shall be provided with all the
means that are required, and if meanwhile by the above
preparations and communications I shall have gained some
credit abroad, I should prefer by all means to go abroad and
seek my fortune in my calling, which consists in promoting
everything that concerns the administration and working of
mines. For he is nothing short of a fool, who is independent
and at liberty to do as he pleases, and sees an opportunity
for himself abroad, and yet remains at home in darkness and
cold, where the Furies, Envy, and Pluto have taken up their
abode and dispose the rewards, and where labors such as I
have performed are rewarded with misery. The only thing
I would desire until that time comes is bene latere, to find a
sequestered place where I can live secluded from the world.
I think I may find such a corner in the end either at Starbo
or at Skinskatteberg. But as this would take four or five
years' time, I am quite ready to acknowledge that long-laid
plans are like long roofs, apt to tumble in ; for man proposes,
God disposes. Still I have always been in favor of a man's
knowing what he is doing, and of his forming for himself
some clever plan of what it is most practicable for him to
carry out in his life. I remain, most honored and dear
brother, " Your most faithful servant and brother,
"Eman. Swedenborg."

CHEMISTRY. 8 1
This letter we have copied in full for its frank expression of
the writer's intentions at this time ; and now we must pass
over a number of letters that follow, relating for the most part
to various speculations in mechanics, anatomy, and literary
matters. Anatomy seems to occupy his time mostly for some
months. Then, May 2, 1720, he writes, —
"I am at present engaged in examining all the chemistry
contained in the treasury of the Sudeman Library, which be
longs now to Hessehus ; for I have proposed to myself to
examine thoroughly everything that concerns fire and metals,
a primis incunabulis usque ad maturitatem, according to the
plan of the memorandum which has been already communi
cated to you. I take the chemical experiments of Boyle,
Reucher, Hjarne, Simons, and others, and trace out nature
in its least things, instituting comparisons with geometry and
mechanics. I am also encouraged every day by new discov
eries as to the nature of these subtile substances ; and as I
am beginning to see that experience in an uninterrupted series
seems to be inclined to agree therewith, I am becoming more
and more confirmed in my ideas. It seems to me that the
immense number of experiments that have been made affords
a good ground for building upon ; and that the toil and ex
penses incurred by others may be turned to use by working
up with head what they have collected with their hands.
Many deductions may thus be made which will be of use in
chemistry, metallurgy, and in determining the nature of fire
and other things."
Here, we regret to say, ends in effect this series of letters
from Swedenborg to Benzelius. Two or three brief notes a
year, for a few years longer, are all that have been preserved.
In these few there is no change of kind manner ; and the
loving dedication of a small work to this brother-in-law, then
Right Reverend Bishop, in 1734, precludes the suspicion of
any coolness. Either Swedenborg's engrossing engagements
checked the correspondence, or the later letters were not
preserved with the earlier ones. In 1742 Benzelius was

82 ASSESSORSHIP.
appointed Archbishop at Upsal, the primacy of Sweden ; but
he died in 1 743, before entering on the duties of the office.
He was a man of great learning, and had an extensive cor
respondence with learned men abroad. Of this correspon
dence, including the letters of Swedenborg, eighteen folio
volumes are preserved in the Cathedral Library at Linkoping.
His wife, Anna Swedenborg, lived till 1766 ; and it would be
a pleasant thing to find some of the letters which, we may
presume, she received from her loving brother. But they
were written, no doubt, in their mother tongue, and Anna
has not left them to us.
"To the Archbishop," rightly says the editor of the Docu
ments, we "owe a large debt of gratitude" for having pre
served this series of letters from his young brother-in-law,
written in the most vivacious and enterprising period of his
life. In this unrestrained flow of friendly, family letters we
gain a nearer, fuller view of the natural character of the man
than we could have gained in any other way. True, it is
the spiritual character of Swedenborg that we most desire
to know ; but the spiritual is born of the natural, in subject
ing its strength of mind and of will to the Divine Will. And
thus, to know the spiritual intimately, we need to know in
what struggle it has been born. By what we have seen in
these frank letters, of Swedenborg's natural self-confidence
and impatience at want of appreciation, we shall better un
derstand the depth of the spiritual humility and heavenly
serenity that were given in later life. He loves much who
feels that much has been forgiven.

CHAPTER V.
TWENTY YEARS' LABOR. — OPERA PHILOSOPHICA.
Our next information of Swedenborg's movements is from
a petition filed in the archives of the Royal College of Mines,
dated Skinskatteberg, June 19, 1720, setting forth that he
has spent all his time and money in perfecting himself in
what would make him useful to his country, in conducting
important works in its service, and in publishing scientific
treatises ; wherefore he begs the Royal College graciously to
provide him with some salary or other means of support, by
virtue of his appointment as Assessor Extraordinary. What
answer was returned to the petition, we do not know. Our
documents are silent in regard to him for a year. Probably
he spent the time in retired study, agreeably to his intention,
as declared to Benzelius. It is to be borne in mind that his
office as Assessor Extraordinary brought him no salary, ex
cept when in actual employment, of which he had little after
the death of Charles XII. On the 30th of June, 1721, from
the sea-port, Helsingborg, he writes to the President and the
Royal College of Mines, —
" As I am about to undertake a new journey abroad, it is
my duty to make it known to your Excellency and to the
Honorable College in writing ; especially as my only object
is to collect more minute information respecting the condi
tion of the mines abroad and the processes which are followed
there, and also to make inquiries respecting commerce, so far
as it relates to metals."
After stating more fully his plans, he asks for instructions
and advice, and says that he intends, with God's help, to be

84 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR.
in Amsterdam in six weeks, where he will await advices. Of
this journey we have a brief sketch, as follows : —
" In the spring of 172 1 I again went abroad, going to Hol
land by Copenhagen and Hamburg. There I published my
Prodromus Principiorum Rerum Naturalium, and several
other short treatises in octavo. From Holland I travelled to
Aix-la-Chapelle, Liege, Cologne, and other adjacent places,
examining the mines there. Thence I went to Leipsic, where
I published my Miscellanea Observata. Leaving that town I
visited all the mines in Saxony, and then returned to Hamburg.
From Hamburg I returned to Brunswick and Goslar, and
visited all the mines in the Hartz Mountains belonging to the
houses of Hanover and Lfineburg. The father-in-law of a son
of the Emperor and of a son of the Czar, Duke Louis Rudolph,
who resided at Blankenburg, graciously defrayed all my ex
penses ; and on taking leave of him he presented me with a
gold medal and a large silver coffee-pot, besides bestowing
upon me many other marks of his favor. I then returned to
Hamburg, and thence, by way of Stralsund and" Ystad, to
Stockholm, having been absent one year and three months."
The two Latin treatises, the publication of which is here
briefly mentioned, have been translated and published in
London under the respective titles of Some Specimens of
a Work on the Principles of Chemistry, and Miscellaneous
Observations connected with the Physical Sciences. In the
first-named volume are included also three other publications
of Swedenborg, of the same year, " New Observations and
Discoveries respecting Iron and Fire ; " "A New Method of
Finding the Longitudes of Places;" and "A New Method
of Constructing Docks and Dykes." These essays give a fair
specimen of Swedenborg's manner of treating scientific sub
jects. He first collects the observations and experiments of
others, adding a few of his own, and then, with geometry for
a guide, searches for the hidden causes and operations of
nature. His theory of matter we find well summarized by
one of his ablest translators, Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson.

THEORY OF PARTICLES. 85
The theory is, "that roundness is the form adapted to mo
tion ; that the particles of fluids, and specifically of water, are
round, hollow spherules, with a subtile matter, identical with
ether or caloric, in their interiors and interstices; that the
crust, or crustal portion, of each particle is itself formed of
lesser particles, and these again of lesser, and so forth, —
water, being in this way the sixth dimension, or the result of
the sixth grouping of the particles ; that the interstices of the
fluids furnish the original moulds of the solids, and the rows
of crustal particles forced off one by one by various agencies,
furnish the matter of the same ; that after solid particles are
thus cast in their appropriate moulds, their fracture, aggrega
tion, the filling-in of their pores and interstices by lesser parti
cles, and a number of other and accidental conditions, provide
the units of the multiform substances of which the mineral
kingdom is composed. According to this theory, then, there
is but one substance in the world, namely, the first ; the
difference of things is difference of form ; there are no posi
tive, but only relative, atoms ; no metaphysical, but only real,
elements ; moreover, the heights of chemical doctrine can be
scaled by rational induction alone, planted on the basis of
analysis, synthesis, and observation."
To the above may be added the remarkable fact that Swe
denborg's crustal particles bear to the interior and interstitial
space the ratio in volume of one to two, and in weight that of
eight to one, — a coincidence with the ratios of "the later dis
covered elements that is highly suggestive.1 The theory once
established would be found to furnish explanations of many
other facts ; but the time for its verification has not yet come.
The same is true of the theory of color, as depending on the
recipient, light itself being purely white,— a theory, by the
vsfay, earnestly and independently advocated by Goethe, and
learned by Newton himself in the other world, as stated by
1 Dumas, in his Chemical Philosophy, remarks of Swedenborg, " It is then
to him we are indebted for the first idea of making cubes, tetraedes, pyramids,
and the different crystalline forms, by grouping the spheres."

86 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR.
Swedenborg. The truth is, that, in spite of his constant ap
peal to experiment and to geometry, Swedenborg's reasoning
does not always carry conviction. He seems to have a cer
tain inner philosophic sense, by which he himself sees clearly
what others need to have shown by intermediate steps. But
the chief reason why his scientific works have not yet found
themselves in the line of thought of men of science, is that
modern scientific work has been mainly devoted. to observa
tion and differentiation of effects, while Swedenborg's thought
rose at once to causes, with the ultimate ajm of learning the
operation of the First Cause.
On his return, Swedenborg addressed a letter, July 14,
1722, to King Frederic, the German husband of Queen Ulrica
Eleonora, commencing as follows : —
"Most mighty and gracious King, — As your Royal Majesty
takes a gracious interest in the mining produce of your coun
try, and as you are likewise pleased to encourage all efforts
by which the productiveness of our mines may be stimulated
and increased, I therefore venture in all humility to come
before you with some measures by which the mode of work
ing the mines in Sweden may be improved, limiting myself for
the present to some improvements in the working of copper.
For, by carefully investigating the process used in Sweden,
and comparing it with that employed abroad, taking into con
sideration the difference in the ore, I have discovered some
means by which the yield of copper may be considerably
increased." Swedenborg then offers to prove, by experiment on a large
scale, that he can obtain ten per cent more copper from the
ore than is usually obtained in Sweden, besides making the
result sure, which was at that time subject to the "luck" of
the smelters. In case of failure of the experiment, he under
takes to bear the loss ; and on the other hand asks, that, in
case of success, he may receive the first year's gain by the
new process, throughout the country ; the right to demand
a second trial being reserved to either party.

ATTENDANCE AT THE COLLEGE. 87
This proposition was referred to the Royal College of
Mines, leading to a long correspondence between Sweden
borg, the Royal College of Mines, and the Board of Mines at
Fahlun, where he wished the experiment to be tried.1 It is
not known that the trial ever took place, but Swedenborg
afterwards published his improved method in the volume on
Copper of his Opera Philosophica.
In the spring of the following year, 1723, we find Sweden
borg reporting himself to the Royal College of Mines as ready
to enter regularly upon the duties of the College, from which
he had been so long debarred by his journeys and labors in
Sweden and abroad. The College was ready to welcome him
to their sittings, by virtue of his old appointment ; but mean
while there had been new appointments of Ordinary Assessors,
and a question arose as to Swedenborg's proper rank. On its
being referred to him, he readily consented to take his seat
at the foot of the Board at that time, but with the condition
that thereafter he should be in the line of promotion with
the rest. Thenceforward he became an active member of
the College, attending its meetings with diligence, save when
abroad or occupied at the sessions of the Diet. For now, in
this same winter and spring of 1723, Swedenborg seems first
to have become an active member of the Diet, in which he
had become entitled to a seat, as the head of his house, on
its ennoblement in 17 19. It does not appear that he ever
distinguished himself as a debater, neither his taste nor his
strength lying in that direction. But, always alive to what
concerned the welfare of his country, he did not fail to have
decided convictions on important questions, which he was in
the habit of expressing in the form of memorials laid before
the Diet. The earliest of these which has been preserved,
probably the first that he presented, bears the date of Feb. 5,
1723, being read on the 7th. Its subject is the state of the
1 At Fahlun is the largest copper mine of Sweden, which was worked before
the Christian era, and at one time yielded five thousand tons a year. Gustavus
Vasa earned his bread in this mine when driven from his throne.

88 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR.
finances in Sweden, and its doctrine is that of the wisest
statesmen to the present day. The opening paragraph is
as follows : —
" The chief cause of a country's increase in wealth is the
balance of commerce : if its imports are greater than a coun
try can pay with its own products, it follows that it loses an
nually considerable sums by leaving them in the hands of
foreign nations; besides, it diminishes the capital which it
collected under more favorable circumstances, and which it
should hand down to posterity. As soon also as a country, by
an imprudent course, suddenly falls into poverty, it unavoid
ably sinks in the estimation of other nations, and they refuse
any longer to trade with it, although in former times they may
have enriched themselves by its wealth and sucked out its
substance and marrow. Yea, more serious consequences still
may ensue ; for unless a watchful eye is kept on the balance
of a country's trade, a general want may be caused thereby
which makes itself felt in the private circumstances of every
one ; fortunes and possessions in the land are diminished in
value ; no means are forthcoming for the support of the navy
and army ; the defence of the country becomes weak and
impotent; the public servants must be satisfied with small
salaries ; manufactures and agriculture, together with all the
moneys invested in them, depreciate in value ; besides other
contingencies which, in such a case, overtake the higher
as well as the lower ranks, and especially the business men,
who must suffer most heavily from it."
He then presents two computations, the first showing the
average imports and exports during the reign of Charles
XL, when Swedish commerce was most flourishing ; and the
second showing the balance of trade at the time of the me
morial. In the first case the balance of exports was four and
a half million florins in favor of Sweden, and in the second
case the balance was from two and a half to three millions
against the country. "From which," he says, "it follows
that the rich products of Sweden are no longer sufficient to

MEMORIALS TO THE DIET. 89
pay the excess of imported goods and merchandise, but that
annually a part of the cash property of the country has to be
employed to adjust the difference. ... As every one now is
left in freedom to express his well-meant thoughts, and to
suggest how the common-weal is likely to be best helped, it
is hoped that it will not be unfavorably received if I insist, in .
all humility, that there is nothing the present Diet can do of
greater importance than to examine, and to assist and pro
mote, all propositions which have for their purpose to infuse
new life into Swedish commerce, so as to make our balance
even ; and this for the sake of the private welfare of every one
of us, and also for that of our whole posterity." Next he shows
that Sweden has lost, first, the revenues formerly derived from
various provinces that have been conquered by Russia and
Denmark ; second, the freighting business which she formerly
enjoyed, but which, during her wars and by the decay of her
shipping, has gone into foreign hands; third, her former
profitable commerce with the now lost provinces. Finally,
he points out Swedish iron and copper mining interests as
the most important in the balance of trade, and most worthy
of attention, and concludes with recommending careful in
quiry how the mercantile marine may be built up, unnecessary
importation checked or cheapened, and domestic manufac
tures developed and protected.
On the 1 8th of the same month, Swedenborg memorializes
the Diet against the rule and law of the country which requires
the mining of a baser metal to give way to that of a more
noble, even when, as he shows, the mining of the baser, by
its greater abundance, may be many-fold more valuable.
In the following May he had occasion to present another
and longer memorial to the same purport, in consequence of
instructions given by the Diet to the Royal College of Mines
to pay special attention to the mining of silver and copper.
He showed that the yearly production of iron in Sweden was
equivalent to fifty tons of gold, and that of copper was equiva
lent to less than fifteen tons. While, then, he would have

90

TWENTY YEARS' LABOR.

the copper mines cherished and protected, he would not have
it done at the expense of the iron mines. Yet he seems to
have been opposed in these common-sense views by his own
colleagues of the Royal College of Mines, on what ground
we do not know.
About the same time he presented another memorial to
the Diet, setting forth the fact that Swedish iron was then
exported in pigs to Holland, whence it was re-shipped in
land to Liege and Sauerland, where it was puddled and rolled
into bar or sheet-iron, then carried back to Holland and ex
ported at great profit to various countries. This profit, he
declares, with small expense and industry might be kept at
home. He accompanies his memorial with drawings and
details of the puddling furnaces and rolling-mills abroad,
and simply submits the expediency of encouragement by the
Government to those who will undertake the manufacture in
Sweden. The treatment which this eminently reasonable and practi
cal memorial received at the hands of the Diet and the Royal
College of Mines goes far to convince us that Swedenborg
had reason to complain of the want of response to his genius
in his own country and home. "This memorial was read
before the Committee on the business of the Diet, April 20,
1723 ; by them it was referred to the Committee on Mining
and Commerce, where it was read May 7th. By the Diet it
was referred to the King, by whom it was submitted to the
Royal College of Mines and to that of Commerce, Aug. 10,
1725. It arrived in the Royal College of Mines, Aug. 23,
1725, and was filed for future reference, Sept. 1, 1726." In
the course of three years and a half, a matter which would
properly have commended itself for instant action is filed
away for future reference ! So slow were the Swedes to
manufacture the "Swedes iron," now in demand throughout
the world.
In September, 1723, Swedenborg asks of the Royal Col
lege of Mines to delay granting a privilege to Colonel Wollan

ORDINARY ASSESSOR.

91

for a new process of making steel, until an improved process
can be tried that he has himself learned from Vienna.
On the 30th of October he begs for leave of absence to
attend to some private affairs in the country, inasmuch as he
has been obliged during the session of the last Diet, since the
beginning of the year, to remain constantly at Stockholm,
and has thereby neglected some of his private affairs. The
leave was granted on condition that he should first report
to the President of the College ; and he went to Axmar to re
build a furnace for himself and his aunt, Brita Behm, which
had been destroyed by the Russians. From this petition for
leave of absence, and from the records of the College show
ing his constant attendance, it would appear that Swedenborg
was now on the usual footing of Ordinary Assessors, so far as
regular attendance was concerned. And in April of the next
year, 1724, it appears that the College applied to the King,
requesting that the usual salary of Bergmaster, or Mining
Master, be paid him in place of Assessor Benzelstierna, who
now succeeded to a full salary. In accordance with this re
quest a royal warrant was issued on the 15 th of July, appoint
ing " the well-born Assessor Emanuel Swedenborg " an " Or
dinary Assessor in the Royal College, with a salary of eight
hundred dalers in silver." And again in June, 1730, the King
graciously assents that Assessor Swedenborg, who has hitherto
enjoyed only a salary of eight hundred dalers in silver, the
salary of Master of Mines at Fahlun, should succeed to the
full salary1 of an Ordinary Assessor, in place of another As
sessor who had been promoted to be Councillor.
For ten years, from 1723, Swedenborg appears to have
been busily employed in the Diet and the Royal College of
Mines, leaving no other record of his labors than the frequent
appearance of his name in the routine business of the College,
from which it would appear that he was in constant attend
ance, save when absent on tours of inspection of mines,
forges, forests, etc. Of this period of his life we have no diary
1 This full salary was twelve hundred dalers in silver, — about #225.

92 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR.
and no private letters, nothing but the brief public documents
to which we have alluded. That he was all the time strength
ening his powers of mind by labor, and pursuing his studies
with diligence, we have evidence in the works which in 1 733
he was ready to publish.
Early in this year he respectfully asked leave of absence
from the King, for nine months, in order that he might re
pair to Dresden and put to press his Opera Philosophica et
Mineralia. The Royal College of Mines, being asked its
opinion, indorsed the petition, as " it is well known to the
College that he has, with commendable industry, persever
ance, and care, written much pertaining to mining which is
useful and which the College would very much like to see
printed." The royal assent was graciously granted, April 1 7, 1 733.
" In the month of May," he writes, " I again by royal per
mission travelled by Ystad to Stralsund, and through Anclam
and Berlin to Dresden ; and thence to Prague and Carlsbad
in Bohemia, where I visited the mines. Afterwards I went
back to Prague, thence by Eule to Dresden, and from Dres
den to Leipsic. In Leipsic I saw through the press my Prin-
cipia Rerum Naturalium, and my Regnum Subterraneum de
Ferro et Cupro, in folio ; together with my Prodromus Philo-
sophice Ratiocinantis de Infinito, etc.
"From Leipsic I went afterwards to Cassel, and over all the
mines between that town and Schmalkalden. I then rode
through Gotha to Brunswick and thence to Hamburg ; and
finally returned to Stockholm by way of Ystad. I reached
home in July, 1 734, about the opening of the Diet.
" It would be too prolix to mention all the learned men I
visited, and with whom I became . acquainted during these
journeys, since I never missed an opportunity of doing so,
nor of seeing and examining libraries, collections, and other
objects of interest."
Nevertheless our traveller kept a diary of this journey,
which is preserved, and is interesting to read in its particular

CATHOLIC WORSHIP.

93

description of what he found to attract his attention. We
will draw from it only what throws light on his own character
and pursuits. Nothing escapes his notice that concerns the
welfare of the people among whom he travels, and nothing of
which his own countrymen might learn to their advantage.
On the way to Dresden he read a small book on the timber
worm and its devastations in ships and piles. He details the
various remedies that have been proposed, and concludes in
favor of extending to piles the charring already practised by
the Portuguese with their ship bottoms.
At Dresden he notes, "June 14-19. I read through and
corrected my Principia.
"June 21 {July 2). To-day I entered the chapel attached
to the Court of the Duke of Saxony, with the view of being
present at worship, which is celebrated according to the
Catholic ritual. It was impossible for any of the senses not
to derive from it some sensation of pleasure.
"The sense of hearing derived pleasure from the drums,
flutes, and trumpets, which swelled their notes from the lowest
to the highest, and still more from the singing of the eunuchs,
whose voices emulate those of maidens, and from the full
harmony of all the instruments.
"The sense of smell is charmed by the scent and fragrance-
of the burning incense ; the odor and smoke of which are
diffused in every direction by boys.
"The sense of sight was impressed by the paintings of
every kind which are hung around the church ; by the mag
nificent vestments with which the priests and monks are
adorned, and in which they move in procession ; by the great
number of ministering priests bending and walking in every
direction like actors, and by their various gestures. And my
sight in particular was charmed, because I happened to see
for the first time the Duke himself and the Duchess, with their
sons and daughters, — all of whom were most devout and
attentive to the usages of their religion.
"The interior senses, too, were charmed, because all things

94 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR.
breathed an atmosphere of sublimity and sanctity ; because at
the least sound of a little bell all threw themselves on their
knees ; and because all things were expressed in Latin, a
foreign language, by which the minds of the common people
are wont to be most impressed. In short, the worship of the
Roman Catholic Church seems to have been especially in
vented, and to be calculated, to charm the external senses,
by alluring all the organs of the body, and so offering bland
ishments to the senses."
The double date of this entry was owing to the change
from the old to the new style, which had not been adopted
in Sweden when he left. From this time Swedenborg adopts
the new style.
At Dresden he makes copious notes of philosophical
treatises that he reads, and of museums and various manufac
tures that he visits. In Bohemia he pays special attention to
mining and forging operations, of which he gives minute ac
counts. At Carlsbad he is struck by the same characteristics
of Catholic worship as at Dresden.
"August 16. I was in the Roman Catholic Church at
Carlsbad, where I witnessed their worship, or their celebra
tion of the Mass, and where I observed that all things were
most delightful, or suited to all the senses. For the ear they
had the very best instrumental harmony, having instead of
the singing of the people the completest instrumental music.
The eye beheld various sports ; the gestures of boys, as well
as of others, who were burning lamps and wax-tapers ; the
magnificent vestments of the priests and of boys similarly ar
rayed ; everything in the light of these lamps shone with gold
and silver. The sense of smell was regaled with the richest
fragrance, with which the altar or the sanctuary was per
fumed. For the sense of touch there was the water with
which the priest on entering sprinlded the people. The
interior sense was struck with the priest's reverence for the
Supreme Being, by his innumerable genuflections, and by
those of the boys. The taste alone was left ungratified,

OPERA PHILOSOPHICA.

95

except by what the priest, the participant in all these pleasures,
could derive from the wine, which he alone drinks. These
holy things of worship, are formed for the pleasure of the
external senses, and they are pleasing to the public gener
ally, because with them the external senses are the channels
through which the remembrance of the Supreme Being has
first to enter."
We note with interest these first impressions of Sweden
borg in regard to the outward worship of that Church whose
interior state and doctrine he was afterwards to expose. On
the 4th of September he arrived at Leipsic, and immediately
began to arrange for the printing of his Opera Philosophica,
under the patronage and at the expense of the Duke of
Brunswick. On the 5th of October he notes, "A beginning
has been made with the printing of the Principia. Six sheets
were printed this week. May Heaven favor it !"
Remaining now quietly at Leipsic, probably till March,
1734, Swedenborg's diary is suspended. He is busily en
gaged in seeing through the press his Principia, with the
succeeding volumes on the mining and working of iron and
of copper and brass. Probably also he availed himself of
intervals of leisure and opportunities to pursue the study of
human anatomy. We have seen that as early as 1719 he
had written ah essay on the " Anatomy of our most Subtile
Nature, showing that our Moving and Living-Force Consists
of Tremulations," in preparation for which he says that he
made himself thoroughly acquainted with the anatomy of the
nerves and membranes. While at Dresden, on the present
journey, he notes with interest the published observations of
some Italian students of anatomy. Interspersed between
leaves of his Itinerary are found notes and essays on various
philosophical subjects, some of them perhaps of somewhat
later date, on "The Magnet," "The Proper Treatment of
Metals," "The Motion of the Elements," "Comparison of
Christian Wolff's Ontology and Cosmology with our own
Principia," "The Mechanism of the Soul and the Body;''

96 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR.
and, later, notes 6f a series of his own observations on the
anatomy of the body. It is to be remarked here that from
the first his studies in anatomy, afterwards greatly extended,
seem to have had for their end a knowledge of the soul
and of its mode of action in the body. Perhaps even a
still higher end is hinted at in a paragraph on Faith in Christ,
found among the above-mentioned notes.
The Principia and its two companion volumes, called
togetiier Opera Philosophica et Mineralia, crowned Sweden
borg's mechanical and metallurgical studies. The three
handsome folio volumes, of four hundred to five hundred
pages each, were prefaced with an excellent engraving of
the author, and a complimentary dedication to Ludwig
Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick, patron of learning.
The late Rev. Augustus Clissold, the learned translator of
the first of these volumes, says- in his Preface, " The object
of the Principia is to trace out a true system of the World ;
and in so doing the author has distributed his subject into
three parts.
" The First Part treats of the origin and laws of motion,
and is mostly devoted to the consideration of its first princi
ples ; which are investigated philosophically, then geometri
cally, their existence being traced from a first natural point
• down to the formation of a solar vortex, and afterwards from
the solar vortex to the successive constitution of the elements
and of the three kingdoms of nature. From the first element
to the last compound, it is the author's object to show that
effort or conatus to motion tends to a spiral figure ; and that
there is an actual motion of particles constituting a solar
chaos, which is spiral and consequently vortical.
" In the Second Part the author applies this theory of vor
tical motion to the phenomena of magnetism, by which on
the one hand he endeavors to test the truth of his principles,
and on the other by application of the principles to explain
the phenomena of magnetism ; the motion of the magnetical
effluvia being as in the former case considered to be vortical.

OPERA PHILOSOPHICA.

97

" In the Third Part the author applies the same principles
of motion to Cosmogony, including the origination of the
planetary bodies from the sun, and their vortical revolutions
until they arrived at their present orbit ; likewise to the con
stitution and laws of the different elements, the motions of all
which are alleged to be vortical ; likewise to the constitution
and laws of the three kingdoms of nature, the animal, vege
table, and mineral : so that the entire Principia aims to
establish a true theory of vortices, founded upon a true
system of corpuscular philosophy."
We shall have something more to say of this Principia
when we come to review our author's philosophical studies.
Of the other two volumes of the Opera Philosophica et
Mineralia, on iron and on copper, there is little to be said
of general interest, since they are practical treatises on the
mining and working of these metals. In his own preface
Swedenborg says, —
" I intend to distribute the treatise upon each metal, as
here upon iron, into three divisions. The first division will
comprise the processes and methods of smelting, particularly,
that are in use in various parts of Europe ; and as the
methods in vogue in Sweden have come more under my own
observation than those employed in other countries, so I
dwell upon them longer in proportion. The second division
will give the various methods of assaying ; by which the ore is
tried in small fires, or assaying furnaces, and its composition
examined, in order that it may be the better proceeded with
on a great scale. The third division will embrace an account
of all the different chemical processes that have fallen under
my notice, with the characteristics of each ; and will deliver
numerous experiments and observations which have been
made on one and the same metal in the course of solution,
crystallization, precipitation, and other chemical changes."
The great learning and practical value of the volumes on
metallurgy were at once admitted. The Academy of Sciences
at Paris translated and published the treatise on iron. In
7

98 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR.
England the work was cited as of the highest authority. In
Russia its author was elected corresponding member of the
Imperial Academy of Sciences ; and at home he became Fel
low of the Royal Academy of Sciences.1 Fifty years after
its publication, on the report of a commission to the unfor
tunate Louis XV., that there did not yet exist any theory of
the magnet, the Marquis de Thome responded indignantly
and at length, declaring that the Opera Philosophica of Swe
denborg was held in high esteem in all Europe, and that the
most celebrated men had " not disdained to draw materials
from it to assist them in theh labors;" that "the theory of
the Swedish author is a true theory of the magnet, and of all
magnetism ; " and that M. Camus, who performed such sur
prising things with the magnet before their eyes, admitted
that he had " derived from this author almost all the knowl
edge he exhibited on the subject." To this we may add that
some practical electricians of the present day are finding in
this theory explanations of results which they do not find
explained by any other.
In January of this year, 1734, Swedenborg, for the sake of
gaining more time for the Opera Philosophica, had sent to
the Royal College of Mines the following request, which was
granted : — "Leipsic, January 19, 1734.
"Most well-born Baron and President, and also well-born
and esteemed Councillors of Mines and Assessors, — -As at the
close of next February the leave graciously granted me by
his Royal Majesty expires, I feel constrained in great humility
to ask the most well-born President and most honorable
College for a prolongation of my leave of absence for a few
months ; because that time will be most important to me, as
1 Professor Schleiden said that, if one should undertake to enumerate all the
improvements which Swedenborg introduced into the working of the mines of
his country, he would not find an end, and what he had merited from the busi
ness and arts of Sweden could not be told. Matter: Swedenborg, sa Vie, etc.
p. 40.

RETURN TO SWEDEN.

99

I am af last under way with the press-work, and fully at work,
and as I am assured, and find by the preparations that have
been made, that I shall have finished it by the coming
Easter ; but, in order to accomplish this in the manner it
ought to be done, it is indispensable that I should remain on
the spot. Besides, it would be almost impossible for me to
start for home during the present or the coming month ; and
the state of my health will not permit me to make so long a
journey as would have to be made by Hamburg, Copenhagen,
and thence onwards, during the winter season. If I should
obtain from the well-born Baron and President and the most
honorable College this extension of my leave of absence,
there might likewise be granted me the permission, for which
I pray with the same humility, that on account of some pri
vate affairs I might make from here a tour to Liineburg and
Cassel ; and as I shall require for this purpose four or five
weeks only, I hope that I may return early in the coming
summer, with all my work done, and may be able to pay my
respects to the well-born Baron and President, and to the
most honorable Royal College.
" I remain, with profound respect, most well-born Baron
and President, and most honorable Royal College, your most
humble servant, "Eman. Swedenborg."
We must pardon to the manners of the country and of the
time, what strikes our ears as excess of compliment and ser
vility. We shall presently find how much more grateful to
Swedenborg himself was the republican simplicity he found
in Holland.
From the records of the Royal College of Mines, it ap
pears that Swedenborg was at his post, examining candidates
for the position of Assay Master, on the 4th of July, 1734*
and was constant in his attendance on the duties of the
College, save a few days' absence from illness and from at
tendance on the Diet, until the middle of January, 1736.

IOO TWENTY YEARS' LABOR
At that time he, with his brother-in-law Lars Benzelstiema,
begged and obtained leave from his Royal Majesty to be
absent several weeks to attend the burial in West Gothland
of their father, Bishop Swedberg. On his return he was
in attendance at the College until the last of May, when he
again petitioned the King in the following terms : —
"Most mighty and most gracious King, — I thank your
Royal Majesty most humbly for the great favor you conferred
upon me several years ago, in graciously granting me leave
of absence, by which I was enabled to spend about a year
abroad, and to see through the press a work on which I was
then engaged. I had the honor of humbly presenting to
your Royal Majesty that work, which consisted of instructions
and descriptions in metallurgy, and also of some new princi
ples in philosophy. But as that work was only a beginning
and a part of what I had intended to work out more fully, as
I had announced and promised in my former work, I there
fore feel bound to do what I have promised, and to accom
plish what has been begun ; and I am obliged for this purpose
to employ all possible diligence to bring it to a successful
issue. But as from my own experience I see clearly that it is
impossible for me to fulfil this promise, or to elaborate a
work requiring great thought and diligence with that cohe
rence and accuracy which it demands, and at the same time
to apply my time and thoughts to public occupations and to
my official duties at the Royal College to which I am bound
in duty to attend; and as this very impossibility prevents
my doing justice to both these kinds of work, as the work
which in all humility I mentioned above requires long and deep
thought, and a mind unincumbered with cares and troubles, —
therefore, because I am bound to fulfil my promise, I have
been induced to beg of your Royal Majesty that, to enable
me to follow out this design and this well-intentioned pur
pose, and on account of the great extent of this work, you
would graciously grant me leave to absent myself during
three or four years from the public duties in your Majesty's

NEW LEAVE OF ABSENCE. IOI
Royal College of Mines, and that you would allow me during
that time, while I elaborate and finish my work, to stay
abroad in any place where I may most conveniently carry
on my work, — that is, where I may find all necessary help
in libraries and may profit by conferences with the learned,
and where also I may publish my work when it is finished,
which cannot be done at home in this country. I mean
while entertain the hope that this work will probably be of
use to the public, and that it will leave at least the effect
upon the common opinion among the learned that there are
some in our dear native land who can elaborate and publish
some things for the general good in science and literature,
upon which other nations pride themselves in comparison
with ourselves.
" I feel so much more assured in all humility of the most
gracious assent of your Royal Majesty, inasmuch as your
Majesty's and the country's College of Mines will, at your
Royal Majesty's gracious command, make an humble pro
position to you in what way the whole matter may be best
accomplished, without any part of your Royal Majesty's
service being neglected.
" I remain, to the hour of death, most gracious King, your
Royal Majesty's most humble and faithful servant and subject,
"Eman. Swedenborg."
On this petition his Majesty graciously desired the opinion
of the Royal College of Mines. After the letter had been
read, Swedenborg explained in a few words, that, for the sake
of finishing the work he had commenced, he required to be
free and away from his official duties for three or four years,
even as he had mentioned in his humble petition to the
King ; and, as he was well aware of the importance of having
these duties attended to meanwhile by an able and experi
enced man, well acquainted with them, he desired to give up
half his salary, or six hundred dalers in silver, and agreed
not to claim this back after his return, until some vacancy

102 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR
should arise. He further desired that this portion of his
salary might be employed under the direction of the Royal
College, increasing the pay of those next in order, according
to their services and the trouble they might undergo ; and
that he himself might upon his return have his seat and vote
in the College again.
In addition to these verbal explanations Swedenborg sub
mitted the following letter to the College : —
"Stockholm, May 26, 1736.
"I thank the most honorable Royal College most hum
bly, for having taken into consideration the arguments and
motives contained in the petition which I handed in all hu
mility to his Royal Majesty, and which have induced me in
all humility to apply for leave of absence for three or four
years, during which time I might absent myself from my
duties in the Royal College, and employ my time in elaborat
ing a useful work which will be a continuation of the previous
one, published three years ago. I presume the Royal College
understands fully that in this matter I have no other object
and no other end in view but simply to elaborate the above-
mentioned work ; and the Royal College probably entertains
so much less doubt on this subject, because I have the good
fortune of having been known in the Royal College for so
many years ; moreover, the former work may serve as a proof
of what I accomplished during that journey, from which I
had nothing but trouble and expense, and the only pleasure
which I experienced being that which I felt when the work
was brought to a close. In order that the business at the
Royal College may be in no wise interfered with during my
absence, and that no inconvenience may arise therefrom, I
leave half of my salary at the disposal of those who perform
the service. I hope that the Royal College will allow me to
retain the other half, in consideration partly of the well-
intentioned and useful design I have in view, and partly
because I have been an Assessor in the Royal College for

NEW TRAVELS.

IO3

twenty years. It will both cheer me on and be an assistance
in my proposed undertaking, which will be sufficiently ex
pensive. "Eman. Swedenborg."
In accordance with this request, on a favorable report from
the College of Mines, Frederic, by royal decree of June ist,
granted the desired leave of absence, with the continuance of
half his salary, and provision that on his return to the College
he should be entitled to his former seat and vote. From
the records of the College it appears that Swedenborg was
present at its meetings until the 8th of July, and that on the
10th he took his leave, not returning till November, 1740.
From his minutes of travel we extract a few notes.
"July 3. I took leave of their Majesties at Carlsberg.
They were very gracious.
" Between the 3d and 10th of July, I took leave of the
members of the Diet, my friends and others ; and on the
9th, of the members of the Royal College.
"July 10. In the afternoon at two o'clock I left Stock
holm. "July 12. Upon arriving at Linkoping I spent a day and a
night with Bishop Benzelius and my sister, Anna Swedenborg.
"July 18. I was in the church on Christianshavn. Divine
service differs from that of the Swedish Church only in a few
ceremonials. The clergyman has a stiff ruffed collar lined
with black ; the blessing was pronounced from the pulpit ;
two large candles burned on the altar on account of the com
munion which was solemnized. The warden invested the
clergyman with the communion garments while he was stand
ing before the altar. There were no epitaphs or ornaments
in the church ; only the organ and an altar-piece. The
offertory was not collected in bags as in Sweden, but in
little boxes, four of which were handed round.
"[In the Public Garden] the most interesting object is
the plantation of orange-trees, consisting of one hundred and

104 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR.
sixty trees, not planted in tubs, but growing freely in the
ground without being transplanted ; together with laurels,
cypresses, and other trees. During summer the windows and
roof are removed, and the trees are under the open sky ; in
the autumn they are again enclosed.
"July 20. From noon till evening I was at the house of
Mr. Schutenhjelm [the Swedish ambassador]. I learned that
among those most celebrated for their learning in Copen
hagen are Kramer, the Councillor of Justice and Librarian,
who is distinguished for history and philology ; Professor
Holberg, who has written Danish comedies and a history of
Norway ; and Rosencrantz, the Privy Councillor and Prime
Minister. The learned have spoken favorably of my work.
The same day I saw Wolff's 1 Natural Theology, in which,
without mentioning my name, he seems to refer to me.
"July 21. I made excerpts from Wolff's Ontologia and
Cosmologia, of those parts which I shall need on the way, in
order to examine more thoroughly his first principles of phi
losophy. "July 22. In company with Secretary Witt I was at the
Library, which is magnificent and excellently arranged. . . .
It consists of seventy thousand volumes : the octavo volumes
are at the top, where access is obtained by a gallery running
round the interior. They showed me Cicero's work printed
at Mayence in 1456, which is supposed to be the first book
ever printed : they showed me also my own work, but without
knowing I was its author.
"August 2. I called [at Hamburg] upon Pastor Christopher
Wolf, of St. Catharine's Church. He showed me a collection
of original letters from learned men, filling sixty volumes in
folio and quarto. He showed me also an autograph collec
tion of the names of more than a thousand learned men ;
likewise manuscripts in the Oriental languages. The collec
tion of letters he obtained from Schminkius, a burgomaster
of Frankfort." 1 Johann Christian von Wolff : Professor at Halle.

HOLLAND.

105

In reference to this call on Christopher Wolf, we have the
following note from Wolf to Benzelius, dated Sept. 1, 1736 :
" I received recently your most welcome letter, which was handed to
me by your relative, the most noble Swedenborg, who was known to
me by name already. I value his most celebrated work in mineralogy
so much the more, because in the present age scarcely any one can be
compared with this most excellent and clear-headed man in this de
partment." "August 8. I was in several churches. There are five
of them, besides the Calvinistic Reformed and the Roman
Catholic churches.
"August 10 and 11. I studied matters connected with
ontology ; took a view of the situation of the town ; inspected
its ramparts, and saw everything else that was interesting.
"August 1 7. From Naarden I came by canal-boat to Am
sterdam, where I took lodgings in the ' Vergoude Leuwen,'
or the Golden Lion, not far from the Exchange. In Amster
dam I stayed until the. evening of the 20th. . . . The whole
city breathed nothing but lucre.
"August 21. . . . I here [at Rotterdam] considered why
it was that it has pleased our Lord to bless such an uncouth
and avaricious people with such a splendid country ; why He
has preserved them for such a long time from all misfortunes ;
has caused them to surpass all other nations in commerce
and enterprise ; and made their country a place whither most
of the riches not only of Europe but also of other places
flow. The principal cause seems to me to have been that it
is a republic, wherein the Lord delights more than in mon
archical countries ; as appears also from Rome. The result is
that no one deems himself obliged and in duty bound to ac
cord honor and veneration to any human being, but considers
the low as well as the high to be of the same worth and con
sequence as a king and an emperor ; as is also shown by the
native bent and disposition of every one in Holland. The
only one for whom they entertain a feeling of veneration is
the Lord, putting no trust in flesh ; and when the Highest is

106 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR.
revered most, and no human being is in His place, it is most
pleasing to the Lord. Besides, each enjoys his own free-will,
and from this his worship of God flows ; for each is as it
were his own king, and rules under the government of the
Highest ; and from this it follows again that they do not, out
of fear, timidity, and excess of caution, lose their courage and
their independent rational thought, but in full freedom and
without being borne down they are able to fix their souls
upon, and elevate them to, the honor of the Highest, who is
unwilling to share His worship with any other. At all events,
those minds that are borne down by a sovereign power are
brought up in flattery and falsity ; they learn how to speak
and act differently from what they think ; and when this con
dition has become inrooted by habit, it engenders a sort of
second nature, so that even in the worship of God such per
sons speak differently from what they think, and extend their
flattering ways to the Lord Himself, which must be highly
displeasing to Him. This seems to me the reason why they
[the Hollanders] above other nations enjoy a perfect bles
sing : their worshipping Mammon for their God and striving
only after money, does not seem to be consistent with a con
stant blessing ; still there may be ten among a thousand, or
among ten thousand, who ward off punishment from the others
and cause them to be participants with themselves of tem
poral blessings.1
"August 25. . . . On our way to Brussels two Franciscan
monks were on the canal-boat : one of these stood on deck
for four hours in one position, and during the whole of this
time said his prayers devoutly ; they probably were for those
travelling in the boat. Such prayers must certainly be agree
able to God, so far as they proceed from an honest and pure
heart, and are offered with genuine devotion and not in the
1 Some seventy years earlier John Locke was similarly pleased in visiting
Holland. Dugald Stewart cites him to this effect : " The blessings which the
people there enjoyed under a government peculiarly favorable to civil and
religious liberty, amply compensated in his view for what their uninviting ter
ritory wanted in scenery and climate."

FRANCE. T07
spirit of the Pharisees ; for prayer avails much, as in the case
of Moses, when the people were slain, and in other cases.
Paul desired that others should pray for him."
In the Cathedral at Brussels he is struck again with the
same peculiarities of the Cathohc worship he had noted at
Dresden. On the way through France he comments upon
the absorption of the wealth by the churches, the convents,
and the fat and lazy monks, whose use is a mystery to him.
Arriving at Paris he notes, —
" September 6. I made the first draught of the introduc
tion to my new treatise \_Economy of the Animal Kingdom^ ,
namely, that the soul of wisdom is the knowledge and
acknowledgment of the Supreme Being.
"September 7. ... In the first treatise, I showed that
now is the time to explore Nature from her effects.
" September 18. I was in the Palais and the garden be
longing to it ; in the Place Royale de Louis le Grand, and
in the churches of the Capuchins (Franciscans) and of the
Feuillants (Cistercians) on both sides of them ; likewise in
. the Tuilleries, from which one enters the Louvre ; also in the
Comedie des Italiens. I had a discussion also with an abbe
on the adoration of saints. He denied in toto that this was
adoration, and insisted that worship belonged to God alone ;
[he was opposed] to the adoration or veneration of the
saints, and to the double veneration of Mary."
Numerous observations of things that interested him were
recorded in this year, 1 736, but very few in the following year,
when he was busy with his studies. In March, 1738, he re
sumed his journal of travel, setting out through Burgundy for
Italy. Arriving at Venice in April he remained there at work,
no doubt in anatomical studies, until August. Passing August
and September in Padua, Verona, Florence, Leghorn, and
Pisa, he reached Rome September 25 th, where he found
abundant objects of interest, many of which he described at
length. In the middle of February, 1739, he went again to
Florence. In the middle of March he was at Genoa, admir-

108 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR.
ing the early bloom and the ripe oranges, lemons, and olives.
Here his journal is interrupted, but from a letter addressed
to him by his brother-in-law it appears that he arrived in
Paris the middle of May. A year and a half later, Nov. 3,
1 740, we find him just returned to his seat in the Royal Col
lege of Mines, having published meanwhile at Amsterdam his
CEconomia Regni Animalis [the " Economy of the Animal
Kingdom"] in five hundred and eighty -two quarto pages,
and having brought home a large volume of manuscript notes,
under the title of "Various Philosophical, Anatomical, and
Itinerary Matters," a portion of which have since been
printed. In these works we find Swedenborg's mind under
going portentous development. From a devotee of practical
science, he is now becoming a master in philosophy. From
delving in mines, constructing forges and furnaces, and
settling disputes among miners, we find him pressing up
the avenues that lead to the soul, constructing philosophic
methods, and resolving in new ways the great mysteries of
existence. This development cannot surprise us, in view of the strong
tendency shown from his youth to philosophize and seek the
hidden causes of things, and in consideration of the rightful
tendency of maturing thought to seek what is higher and
more essential. What most surprises us is that Swedenborg
himself should have been so unconscious that his new direc
tion of thought was in the line of permanence ; that he should
have regarded it as an episode, though one of supreme ur
gency, from which he would soon return to his legitimate
field of metallurgic science. But this all goes to show, what
he saw later, that he was being prepared from youth for a
work which he did not foresee, by a Power of which he saw
but the shadow, after it had passed by.

CHAPTER VI.
PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
Let us bestow a little consideration on the part given to
Philosophy in the order of the Divine Providence. The
simple, perfect relation of God to man is best exemplified in
that of the father to the child. Such was it at the beginning,
when mankind was in its cradle. Such, we are assured, it
must be again with us, before we can enter into our Father's
kingdom. In this relation what God loves man to do, that
man loves to do ; and there is perfect conjunction. But this
involves free-will implanted in man, — without which there
could be no reciprocity and no conjunction. Will, again, re
quires an understanding, for the ventilation and purification
of its motive, as the heart requires lungs. As the will is free,
so the understanding also is free. As, however, the heart is
closed to all but its own life-blood, so the will is closed to all
but its own cherished motive : while, as the lungs are open
to every breath, from whatever quarter, so the understanding
is open to thoughts from every source ; and as in the lungs
the blood has the opportunity to select whatever it wants
from the air inhaled, and to part with whatever it would be
rid of, so in the understanding the motive of the will may
be refreshed and purified.
While the will is satisfied in infantile simplicity to receive
its motive from the parent Divine will, the understanding is
equally satisfied with the wisdom that makes one with it and
flows concordantly with it from its Divine origin. But when
the will seeks the indulgence of a motive of its own, it impels
the understanding to seek ideas that favor the motive ; and
both the one and the other stray wild. What now does the

HO PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
Divine Providence? It cannot force the will; that would
destroy its freedom. It does not force the understanding ;
but it places before it instruction, evidence, from which it
may conclude what is right, what is good, what is expedient
to will and to do. Thereby in time is born successively a
sense of necessity, a sense of expediency, a sense of duty ;
and then a willingness, increasing to desire, to control the
natural will, and in the end to accept again in its place the
Divine will. Thus the child becomes a youth, a man, and
again a child of the Kingdom. Thus the human race has
been infant, child, boy, and is now man in the midst of his
struggle ; learning by now bitter now happy experience, by
philosophy and by revelation, the necessity and the eventual
happiness of becoming child again.
For the instruction of His people through this long wan
dering, God gives them a perfect Revelation of Himself, His
Love, His Wisdom, and His mighty works, first in the visible
universe, — Nature ; then from time to time in their own lan
guage, as they are able to understand, — written Revelation ;
and lastly in their own form and life, — the Incarnation : all
to serve in leading and guiding them to knowledge of Him,
to love for Him, and to a life in harmony and conjunction
with His life. Now the true purpose of Science and of Phi
losophy, the end of ends, is to unfold these revelations, be
ginning with that of Nature, and to discover in them the
mysteries of the Divine nature, of human nature, and of their
true conjunction. It is Science that gathers materials, obser
vations and experiments. It is Philosophy that seeks their
hidden cause and connection, and searches for their Divine
purpose. It is practice in both that trains the mind to appre
ciate the relations of things, and to understand the secrets of
the Divine Providence ; and all to the end that the heart
may be brought back to love for its Maker, and to willing
ness to receive His will in place of its own, with the firm
support of the mind's conviction that this is the highest
possible good.

GREEK PHILOSOPHY. XII
The first philosophic training of the mind within the com
pass of our civilization was brought about in Greece, begin
ning some six hundred years before the era when God in His
Wisdom was to be made flesh, and to live among us the life
designed for us, — the true human life. History shows un
mistakably the purpose and the service of this philosophic
training, in the reception of the Gospel. Without this train
ing Christianity could hardly have obtained a foothold in the
world.1 There was no resting-place for it among the Jews,
who crucified their Messiah. There could be none among
the idolatrous savages, till these were subdued by the more
civilized Greeks and Romans. Among the Greeks and Ro
mans it found a place solely by means of the philosophic
training which, beginning with Thales, — with the notion of a
simple original element of all substances, assumed to be water,
and passing through a dozen schools, each of which seized on
some peculiar phase of existence, — came at last to the emi
nently reasonable, almost Christian views of Socrates, Plato,
and Aristotle ; views to which the successive schools of
Philosophy are continually recurring, even to this day.
Nothing more wonderful than the theosophic and philo
sophic development of those three centuries, from 600 to
300 b. c, is recorded in history. It was the development of
human reason, but inspired, we know not how far, by ancient
Revelation, and provided by the Lord, in preparation for the
reception of His Gospel. Of the remaining three centuries
there is little to be said in point of philosophic progress.
While the noble systems already elaborated- were slowly per
meating the masses, other systems arose of less importance,
but with two effective ends, — the one inculcating morality as
the chief good, the other sceptical, setting men's minds
free from old traditions ; in this respect bearing remarkable
1 It may even be questioned whether without it could have been written the
Gospel of John, " the Heart of Christ." For though the truth of the Word
is Divine, it can be dictated to men and written by them only in words and
thoughts familiar to them. And John did not, it is supposed, write his Gos
pel till after many years' experience in teaching it to the Greek mind.

112 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
analogy to the current systems in what Schwegler calls the
"clearing up" period of the eighteenth century.
And the Logos was made flesh and dwelt among us. By
this we understand that God revealed the Wisdom of His
own Love in human form and life, that therein man might
learn so much of his Maker as he can comprehend, and be
hold a Divine example of the perfect humanity for which he is
himself created. For, in the humanity, — of power as its own,
though really received from the Divine Power, — our Lord,
in obedience to the Divine commands, resisted and overcame
the human will, and accepted the Divine will in its place ; just
as He now labors with us to help us do. It is only by study
of the example thus given of perfect manhood, that we can
follow in His footsteps, accept His salvation, and approximate
the life for which we are designed. The sublimest feature of
the life thus presented us is its perfect faith in the Divine
will, and its acceptance of it in place of the natural human
will. This faith, then, is our highest aspiration. But it is not
given to all alike. To Thomas it was given to believe after
he had seen ; but they were called blessed who had not seen,
and yet had believed. There were twelve, a full number, of
disciples ; and Thomas was one of them. So were there twelve
tribes of Israel, and twelve times twelve thousand sealed for
their Lord's kingdom ; because this kingdom is for all who
will believe, whether by the intuitive faith of love or by the
slow conviction of reluctant reason. For, in truth, our Lord
fulfilled the Divine Word in all degrees of His humanity;
natural reason and even corporeal sense He subjected to the
Divine will, reducing them all to its service, to the end that
wherever we are, there He may be found, Maker and Re
deemer, God-with-us. And indeed what is true of the whole
together, is true in a measure of each one in particular. As
the whole kingdom of our Lord embraces all phases of faith,
from the highest to the lowest, and as He Himself made all
these phases full and perfect in Himself, so in each one of us,
all the phases need to be represented, in potentiality or possi-

STAGES OF THE CHURCH.

"3

bility, if not in actuality. In other words, no phase alone is
anywhere complete and enduring except by the real or possi
ble support of all other phases. With this in mind, we shall
be helped to understand the phases we find in the history of
the Christian Church.
Comte, followed by John Stuart Mill, recognizes in every
development three stages, — the theological, the metaphysical,
and the positive; or, as called by Mill, the volitional, the
abstractional, and the experiential. The first of these they
call spontaneous and primitive, the second transitional, and
the third final.
Fichte- finds five periods: "I. The domination of In
stinct over Reason ; this is the primitive age. II. The
general instinct gives place to an external dominant Au
thority : this is the age of doctrines unable to convince, and
employing force to produce a blind belief, claiming un
limited obedience ; this is the period in which evil arises.
III. The Authority, dominant in the preceding epoch, but
constantly attacked by Reason, becomes weak and wavering :
this is the epoch of scepticism and licentiousness. IV. Rea
son becomes conscious of itself; truth makes itself known;
the science of Reason develops itself : this is the beginning
of that perfection which Humanity is destined to attain. V.
The science of Reason is applied ; Humanity fashions itself
after the ideal standard of Reason : this is the epoch of Art,
the last term in the history of our species." J
The defect of both these schemes is that they do not com
prehend the high end for which all that they include is but the
preparation. They do not look to the Divine-Human type.
They leave man but a reasoning animal, serving himself and
not God, living his own life and not the Divine. Yet they
are of interest as declaring the limit to which merely human
speculation can reach, as themselves are the limit of the
period of sensual reason to which they belong, — sensual rea
son in its two aspects : the one material, positive ; the other
1 Lewes: History of Philosophy, ii. 375.
8

114 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
intellectual, ideal ; but both appealing solely to consciousness,
or sense, either physical or intellectual. With the heart and
its interior perception they have nothing to do. And yet how
impotent is mere intellectual reasoning to satisfy the longing
of the soul, we have learned from one of its greatest masters :
"'Lord, I believe: help Thou mine unbelief ! ' Philosoph
ical argument, especially that drawn from the vastness of
the universe in comparison with the insignificance of this
Globe, has sometimes shaken my reason for the faith that is
in me ; but my heart has assured and reassured me that the
Gospel of Jesus Christ must be a Divine Reality. The
Sermon on the Mount cannot be a merely human produc
tion. This belief enters into the very depth of my con
science. The whole history of man proves it." J
Faith, which alone can satisfy the soul, was in the first age
of the Christian Church instinctive faith. The faith of the
Apostles was childlike, inspired by the sight and hearing of
their Master, and by being fed at His hands. It was good,
but it was not communicable to all ; it was not enduring ; it
had not an ultimate foundation in human reason, whereby
to withstand the assaults of the enemy. It was not a mis
carriage of the Divine purpose that this faith came to grief
in failure and perversion. This end was foretold to Peter,
who was its representative : " When thou shalt be old, thou
shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee and
carry thee whither thou wouldst not" (John xxi. 18).
The faith of childhood must fail, in contact with the world's
temptations, and must give place to the faith of manhood,
born in its vastation. The insufficiency must be learned of
faith inspired by hope and fear ; and the foundations of an
enduring faith, based on intelligent choice of the good and
the true, must be laid in the grounds of even sensual reason.
The child must go to school, and learn first from masters.
The age of infancy passed, as Fichte says, into a stage of
"external dominant authority," an "age of doctrines un-
1 Daniel Webster : for his tombstone.

STAGE OF OBEDIENCE.

"5

able to convince, and employing force to produce a blind
belief, claiming unlimited obedience," a "period in which
Evil arises." x
We need not lament this tyranny, under which the slaves of
Rome and the half-civilized tribes of the North first learned
their letters and their catechism. It was of Providence, and
in due order of progress, that these were well learned and
became a guiding power in the mind, before Reason began
its struggle for birth and liberty. It was not, however, until
the ninth century, when Charlemagne established schools
among a people born for the exercise of the reasoning faculty,
— himself the first pupil, — that even this school-boy knowl
edge was made the people's own.2 No printed books as yet :
the instruction was oral, and disputations were instituted ; the
learner was encouraged to ask why and wherefore. Priests
were still the teachers, the topics dogmas ; and the whole
force of the developing reason was applied to sustain the
dogmas. But the very effort invited question ; the Church
at Rome took alarm, and thereafter endeavored to suppress
discussion. Happily, though it assumed to be His vicegerent, the
Church did not compass all the Lord's counsels nor control
His world. Before His coming in the flesh, as we have seen,
He had laid the foundations of the philosophy that was to
accept Him when it should be duly informed and chastened.
Of His Providence this philosophy, when banished by the
growing dogmatism of the Church, had found refuge in the
East ; and now, when the nations were prepared for its Chris
tian absorption and development, it was brought back into
Europe by the Egyptian, the Assyrian, and the Jew. The
old Greek philosophy, enriched in the courts of Syria and
1 Appendix VIII.
2 It is of interest that from the free soil of England, where the Venerable
Bede had already labored to make the Scriptures known to the people, came
Charlemagne's teacher and Bede's pupil, Alcuin. Bede and Alcuin were em
phatically the teachers of the people, not only in the Scriptures, but in all the
knowledge of the time.

Il6 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
Persia, whither it had fled for shelter, was brought back by
the Mahometans into Spain; and in Andalusia the Arab,
the Persian, the Copt, the Jew, and the Christian studied to
gether in peace.1 Thence by the trading Jew the Arabian
philosophy, as it is called, was carried all over Europe to the
starving Christian students. So of old the Lord sent ravens
to feed His prophet with food that His people denied him.
It is beautiful to see how the remnants of former Churches
were made instrumental in providing, within the Christian
Church, the foundations of the new Church that is to be
the crown of all, and the tabernacle of God with men.
This was in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. In the
thirteenth, while the Church of Rome was making confession
obligatory, and forbidding to the laity the use of the Sacred
Scriptures in their own tongue,2 Roger Bacon, true prophet
of the age to come, spoke out boldly for the free search after
truth under the light of the Scriptures, of mathematics, and
of experiment. In the fourteenth century Wycliffe, prophet
of the. Reformation in religion, as Roger Bacon was of that
in philosophy, denounced the Pope as Antichrist, and laid the
foundation for Protestantism in the North, at the same time
that the Southern heart was expressing in painting and song
its yearning for a more direct communication with its Lord
than could be had through the priesthood. In the fifteenth
century the bold work went on, Reason forging and burnish
ing its weapons for the coming struggle, while Rome was
1 In the nth century there were in Mahometan Spain seventy public libraries
and colleges in all the principal cities, the professors being munificently com
pensated. " Mahometanism, like Judaism, claimed all for God. It allowed
no separation between the secular and the sacred ; for the earth was the
Lord's and the fulness thereof, and His sovereignty over all made all things
sacred. It had no fear of knowledge, of science, of philosophy, — these were the
avenues to self-humiliation, and self-humiliation was its goal." — Rev. George
Matheson : Growth of the Spirit of Christianity, ii. 94.
2 As early as the 5th century the common study of the Sacred Scriptures had
been decried in the Church ; but the first actual prohibition of their possession
by the laity was enacted by the Synod of Toulouse in 1229. The Psalter was
excepted, but not in the language of the people.

DEVELOPMENT OF REASON.

"7

blindly ministering to her luxury with Greek culture, now
driven from Constantinople by the Turks, and sending her
merchants for gold and silver even to the New World, which
Providence had reserved for the home of free thought. In
the sixteenth century came the outbreak, and with it the
use of the printing-press for the interchange of ideas.
In the seventeenth century, while a Swedish King saved
Protestantism in Northern Europe, and our forefathers were
fleeing to the savage shores of America for greater freedom of
worship ; while at Rome Giordano Bruno was being burned
at the stake for declaring his belief in more worlds than one,
and Galileo was confined in a dungeon for denying that this
earth is the centre of the universe, — two powerful thinkers
were trenching wide and deep, in different directions, for the
exercise of human reason. Francis Bacon laid open to eager
view the happy results, intellectual and material, that would
follow from the pursuit of science and philosophy by induction,
or by collating particular observations and being led by them
into general laws. Descartes, on the other hand, seizing
upon the consciousness of one's own existence as a starting-
point, using intellectual instead of physical sense as his cri
terion of existence, established a system of idealism, or meta
physics, depending on deduction from generals to particulars.
The century thus opened was immensely fruitful of scientific
observations, and at the same time of both idealistic and
realistic, or materialistic, thought. It was the age of Spinoza
and Leibnitz, of Hobbes and Locke, who were closely fol
lowed in the next century by Berkeley and Hume, Condillac
and Hartley, Christian Wolff and Immanuel Kant.
To measure our indebtedness to these great explorers of
the powers, the routes, and the limits of human reason by the
degree in which we now follow in their footsteps, would be as
great an injustice as to measure our indebtedness to Colum
bus, Cabot, and Raleigh, by the degree in which we follow
their routes and charts of the New World. They were
pioneers on different lines of exploration whose monuments

Il8 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
are of lasting service, whether to warn or to beckon us on.
Even when they discover but negative results, we find them
all to be earnest, God-fearing men, paying their tribute to
His infinity, in the confession of human inability to fathom
its nature and its operation in man.1 Scarce one of them but
has confessed that the one thing of which man is most sure,
beyond the fact of his own existence, is the existence of an
Infinite Being. But what the Infinite is, and how related to
the finite, — questions involving the nature and responsibility
of the soul, — no one of them was able to show in a manner to
satisfy even his own generation. On the one hand reason
tended to make all nature, even human actions, the direct
outcome and manifestation of the Deity. On the other hand
reason tended to ignore all cognitions but the impressions of
sense, attributable to physical causes.
" The grand secrets of Necessity and Free-will, of the mind's vital or
non-vital dependence on Matter, of our mysterious relations to Time
and Space, to God, to the Universe, are not, in the faintest degree,
touched on in these inquiries; and seem not to have the smallest
connection with them. . . . Locke, himself a clear, humble-minded,
patient, reverent, nay, religious man, had paved the way for banishiwg
religion from the world. Mind, by being modelled -in men'ilrifflgina-
tions into a shape, a visibility, . . . began to lose its immaterial, mys
terious, Divine though invisible character: it was tacitly figured as
something that might, were our organs fine enough, be seen. Yet who
had ever seen it ? Who could ever see it ? Thus by degrees it passed
into a doubt, a relation, some faint possibility; and at last into a
highly probable nonentity. Following Locke's footsteps, the French
had discovered that 'as the stomach secretes chyle, so does the brain
secrete thought.' And what then was religion, what was poetry, what
was all high and heroic feeling ? Chiefly a delusion ; often a false and
pernicious one. ... In the eyes of Voltaire and his disciples, Religion
was a superfluity, indeed a nuisance."
So says Carlyle of this latter and prevailing tendency, in
his essay on the Signs of the Times, — The Latter Half of the
1 Even " David Hume, although a sceptic from his youth, was never an ab
solute unbeliever. He did not reject religion, natural or revealed, but he con
sidered human reason to be incapable of forming any definite opinions on the
subject." — Rev. John Sinclair : Old Times and Distant Places, p. 167.

LIMITS OF REASON.

119

Eighteenth Century}- Mr. Lewes says of the dominant
systems, —
" The germinal error of Descartes was developed by Spinoza into a
system from which Philosophy shrank back appalled.
"The germinal error of Locke was developed by Berkeley and
Hume into systems equally repugnant to common-sense.
" The germinal error of Condillac was developed by the Sensational
School, and received its logical expression in Destutt de Tracy : and
Philosophy in alarm once more threw herself into the arms of the
theological party."2
The- limits to natural reason thus developed, and the fact
of an inner, truer perception superior to natural reason's laws,
none have seen more clearly than the great philosophers
themselves. Thus Locke says, in his well-known Essay, —
" It is plain to me that we have a more certain knowledge of the
existence of a God than of anything our senses have not immediately
discovered to us. Nay, I presume I may say that we may more cer
tainly know that there is a God than that there is anything else with
out us " (book iv. c. 10).
Kant's results, as summed up by Lewes, are these : —
" The attempt to demonstrate the existence of God is an impossible
attempt. Reason is utterly incompetent to the task. The attempt to
penetrate the essence of things — to know things per se — to know
noumena — is also an impossible attempt. And yet that God exists,
that the World exists, are irresistible convictions. There is another
certitude, therefore, besides that derived from demonstration, and this
is moral certitude, which is grounded upon belief. I cannot say, ' It is
morally certain that God exists,' but I must say, ' I am morally certain
that God exists.'"3
This limitation by Kant of the domain of pure reason has
1 Mr. Carlyle appreciated the contrast to the times found in Swedenborg.
In a letter to a lady, in 1852, he said, " I have made some personal acquaint
ance with the man, read several of his books, what biographies of him could be
heard of, and have reflected for myself on the singular appearance he makes in
this world, and the notable message he was sent to deliver to his fellow-creatures
in that epoch. A man of great and indisputable cultivation, strong mathemati
cal intellect, and the most pious, seraphic turn of mind, — a man beautiful, lov
able, and tragical to me, with many thoughts in him, which, when I interpret
them for myself, I find to belong to the high and perennial in human thought"
2 Lewes: Op. cit. ii. 383. 3 Ibid. 518.

120 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
never been confuted. In his own words, as quoted by
Bolton, —
" The result of all the dialectic attempts of pure Reason not only
confirms the truth of what we have already proved in our tran
scendental analytic,— namely, that all inferences which would lead us
beyond the limits of experience are fallacious and groundless,— but it
at the same time teaches us this important lesson, that human reason
has a natural inclination to overstep these limits." J
While now on the one hand human reason was being
brought to this humble confession of its own impotence in
relation to Divine things, and was thus being prepared to
accept intelligently the Divine guidance and instruction, on
the other hand, with too large a proportion of men, it ran
riot in its negative results, declaring that there was no God,
no immortality, and no morality but that of enlightened
selfishness. The culmination of this insanity was seen in
the excesses of the French Revolution, when the Bible was
burned, and Reason was enshrined in the temples as the only
God ; when priests declared there was no other, and guillotines
were erected in "almost every town and village'' for those
who failed to fall down and worship the idol. Such is natural
reason when seeking only its own guidance, and in reality
impelled by the Evil One.
But while Voltaire gathered in England deistical argument
and sceptical sneers at Christianity, Swedenborg gathered
there Christian hope and materials for Christian philosophical
argument. Newton was his first study on arriving in London ;
and Newton, while tracing the laws by which not an apple
falleth but by the same Hand that holdeth the planets in their
courses, was devoutly studying also written Revelation, seek
ing to trace in the befallings of the centuries the fulfilment of
the Divine predictions of the Apocalypse, and pointing out the
error of those who veiled the One God with the mist of Tri-
personality. It was not, however, by these studies of New-
1 Bolton: Inquisitio Philos. p. no. Kant claims, however, that Reason
in transcending its proper field, though it can do nothing in forming definite
conceptions, can do much in establishing guiding ideas.

SWEDENBORG'S METHOD. 121
ton, which his friends would not suffer him to publish, that
Swedenborg's thoughts were directed to the same subjects ;
and we refer to them only as evincing the gravitation of the
true philosophic thought of the times in the same direction.
But, for the force of the gravitation, let us think of the
influence of the Sun of heaven to draw all to Itself.
We shall see the direction in which Swedenborg's philo
sophic studies were led, entered upon with entire submission
to Revelation and under the earnestly sought guidance of the
Divine Spirit, "even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world
cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth
Him ; but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you and shall
be in you " (John xiv. 17). For it is only to our Lord's own
disciples, who see in Him the Infinite dwelling in the finite,
the Divine in the human, that the perception of interior
truth, of spiritual philosophy, can be given.
It was in the height of deistical speculation, of Reason's
rejection of Revelation and endeavor to find God'for itself,
that Swedenborg had devoted twenty years to the study of
the nature and causes of the world, with all the aid of existing
philosophy. Let us see the result ; and first his method, as
announced in the opening sentences of his Principia : —
"If the mind be well connected with the organs of the
senses, or, in other words, if man be truly rational, he is per
petually aspiring after wisdom. The soul is in the desire of
being instructed by the senses and of continually exercising
its perception from them, as from a source distinct from
itself; while the senses in their turn desire to exercise their
perception from the soul, to which they present their several
objects for contemplation. Thus each performs and con
tributes to the same common' operation, and tends to one
ultimate object, the wisdom of the man. For this purpose
there exists a continual connection between the soul and
body; for this purpose also reason is added to the senses,
and hence the desire after wisdom becomes the peculiar mark
and characteristic of man : unless however he desires and

122 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
attains to a knowledge which lies beyond or above his senses,
he is far from being truly rational, nor is there a due connec
tion between the senses and the soul. The senses and their
various organs can receive but grossly, and in an imperfect
measure, the phenomena of the world. Now there are no
animals beside man who possess any knowledge beyond that
of the mere senses, and of their organs disposed in the pia
meninx of the brain. They are unable to penetrate farther ;
and, from want of a more subtile and active power, cannot
refer the objects presented to their senses to a higher or more
distinct principle. But truly the wisdom of man cannot be
said to differ from theirs, if we refer the objects or operations
of the world upon our senses, not to the soul and its reason,
but to the same principle as they do. The sign that we are
willing to be wise is the desire to know the causes of things,
and to investigate the secret and unknown operations of na
ture. It is for this purpose that each one consults the oracle
of the rational mind, and thence awaits his answer ; that is, he
is eager to acquire a deeper wisdom than merely that which
is proffered to him through the medium of the senses.
"But he who wishes to attain the end must wish likewise
to attain the means. Now the means which more especially
conduce to a knowledge truly philosophical are three in num
ber : EXPERIENCE, GEOMETRY, and the FACULTY OF REASONING.
First, then, let us ascertain whether, and in what manner, we
have the power by these three means to arrive at knowledge
a priori, or to reach in natural and physical inquiries the
farthest boundaries of human wisdom" (p. i).1
After showing in what way these three means conduce to a
philosophical knowledge of all things of this world, including
hidden elements and motions, Swedenborg says, —
" When, therefore, the philosopher has arrived at the end
of his studies, even supposing him to have acquired so com
plete a knowledge of all mundane things that nothing more
1 The page references to the Principia and to other of Swedenborg's
philosophical works are to the translations published in London.

USE OF REASON.

123

remains for him to learn, he must there stop ; for he can
never know the nature of the Infinite Being, of His Supreme
Intelligence, Supreme Providence, Supreme Love, Supreme
Justice, and other infinite attributes. He will therefore
acknowledge, that, in respect to this supremely intelligent
and wise Being, his knowledge is nothing : he will hence
most profoundly venerate Him with the utmost devotion of
soul ; so that at the mere thought of Him his whole frame,
or membranous and sensitive system, will awfully, yet sweetly
tremble, from the inmost to the outermost principles of its
being" (p. 35).
After giving the rein to his imagination as to the condition
of man in his first happy estate, when, his whole soul and
body being in perfect harmony with the Divine ends, he could
see these ends in himself as in a mirror, and all intelligence
was open to him, Swedenborg returns to the perverted and
imperfect state of man at the present day : —
"In this state we see that no complete knowledge of
anything can be acquired without the use of means ; we see
that nothing can penetrate to the ultimate active principle,
or to the soul, except by means of continual experiments,
by the assistance of geometry, and by the faculty of reasoning
to be thus acquired. . . . Now corporeal pleasures, cupidi
ties, desires, and vices of this kind have almost filled the
whole man ; increasing with time, they pass from practice
into habit, and from habit become completely spontaneous,
so as to govern the will itself : in other words, cupidities at
length take possession of the will, and withdraw it from the
governance of the reasoning soul ; so that finally man is
capable of scarcely any voluntary action but what proceeds
from these emotions and desires, and is frequently without
the consciousness of his rational principle. ... As then
these disorderly emotions of the body have occupied almost
the whole man, ... it is no wonder that at this day the
faculty of reasoning is only to be acquired through the use of
means, and that it is not possible to arrive by .reasoning at

1 24 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
the most subtile substance or principle, without the aid of
analytical rules, to be taught us by a master, similar to those
of geometry" (p. 40).
It was in good part, no doubt, his dissatisfaction with the
several theories of cosmogony advanced by Descartes, Leib
nitz, and Newton, that led Swedenborg to grapple with the
subject in his Principia; yet he did not enter into any
controversy. "In writing the present work," he says, "I have had no
aim at the applause of the learned world, nor at the acquisi
tion of a name or popularity. . . . Such things are no objects
of regard to any one whose mind is bent only on truth and
a true system of philosophy ; should it therefore happen that
I should gain the assent or approbation of others, I shall
receive it no otherwise than as a confirmation of my having
pursued the truth. I have no wish to persuade others to lay
aside the principles of the various illustrious and talented
authors who have adorned the world, and in place of their
principles to adopt my own : for this reason it is that I have
not made mention of so much as one of them, or even hinted
at his name, lest I should injure his feelings, or seem to im
pugn his sentiments, or derogate from the praise which others
bestow upon him. If the principles I have advanced have
more of truth in them than those which are advocated by
others ; if they are truly philosophical and accordant with the
phenomena of nature, — the assent of the public will follow
in due time of its own accord. . . . Truth is but one and will
speak for itself" (ii. 365).
At the conclusion, however, of the Principia, p. 366, Swe
denborg expresses his gratification at finding the principles
he had adopted confirmed by those of Christian Wolff, whose
works he had just read, two years after committing his own
thoughts to paper. Wolff, on his part, was pleased with the
work of Swedenborg, and hastened to seek his acquaintance.
With this we may contrast the alarm expressed afterwards
by Kant, on finding some of his own views anticipated by

KANT'S OPINION OF SWEDENBORG. 125
Swedenborg, whom he had known only as a mystic. Kant
says, —
" The system of Swedenborg is unfortunately very similar to my
own philosophy. It is not impossible that my rational views may be
considered absurd by reason of that affinity. As to the offensive com
parison, I declare, we must either suppose greater intelligence and
truth at the basis of Swedenborg's writings than first impressions ex
cite, or that it is a mere accident when he coincides with my system, —
a lusus natures. Such a wonderful agreement exists between his doc
trines and the deepest results of reason, that there is no other alterna
tive whereby the correspondence can be explained." 1
The doctrines here referred to are doubtless the scientific
doctrines of the Principia? not the more purely philosophical,
just entered upon in that work, and more fully developed in
those that followed ; still less the theological doctrines of a
later period. When Kant purchased the Arcana Ccelestia, he
was greatly disappointed to find that it contained only ex
plications of Scripture, of no interest to him.
It was a necessity for Swedenborg's mind to advance from
science, as he found it, through philosophy to a position
whence he could survey the continuous stream of the Divine
Providence from inmosts to outmosts. In one lifetime, for
the purpose in view, there was need that he should be led
through stages which, for complete development, will task
many generations. It is no cause of wonder, then, that his
own generation quietly laid his Principia and other volumes
on the shelf; nor yet that there they still lie. It need be no
matter of surprise if some sticks of the scaffolding with which
he built shall prove untrustworthy and have to be replaced,
before we can mount with him to his summit. It would be a
miracle if all his anticipations of science and natural philoso
phy should bear the test of later development. It would be
foreign to Swedenborg's own genius and method to imagine
such a result. It would amply satisfy him, and should amply
satisfy all his followers, if the leading principles which he
1 Kant: Leipsic, 1838, iii. 95.
2 Probably including the Nebular Hypothesis. See Appendix IX.

126 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
deduced from the science at his command should prove
substantially true -under the test of ages. Yet there is to
his friends a pardonable pleasure in finding one after an
other of later discoveries and philosophic theories to be in
effect but reproductions of ideas so long quietly shelved
in Swedenborg's volumes. And surely it will yet be seen to
be not by mere accident that there were laid away in these
Sibylline leaves mathematical demonstrations of the homo
geneity of the universe ; of the nebulous origin of worlds ;
of the all-pervading ether, and vortical magnetic element ; of
the identical motion of atoms and worlds ; with hints at the
grouping of stars in systems, at the position of our system in
the milky way, and at cyclar mutation and return in order. It
is simplest and easiest to believe, with our author himself, that
a Spirit higher than his own led the way, and, as far as might
be, kept his thoughts in harmony with eternal truth.
But though science and philosophy have been anticipated
by Swedenborg, they have not hitherto been instructed by
him. It may be different hereafter ; but thus far we do not
follow him in the labors by which his mind was prepared to
receive, as on a solid foundation, the universal, spiritual truths
of faith and life. We are, in the present generation, content
to enter into the fruits of his labors. By these labors he
was led to the largest conception of the Divine purpose, and
to the deepest conviction of the Divine presence, with sus
taining, creating power, in each atom, as well as in the grand
whole, of His universe. Thus it was that .his mind found
itself, in seeking inmost causes, awfully yet sweetly trembling,
as in its Maker's presence. And in our following with him
into this presence, his labors bear their fruit.
In the same year with the Principia Swedenborg continued
his investigation of the questions of his time in his Sketch
of a Philosophical Argument on the Infinite and the Final
Cause of Creation ; and on the Intercourse between the Soul
and the Body. In this essay his unswerving faith in Revela
tion is conspicuous all through ; and with it a recognition of

ON THE INFINITE.

127

something higher than merely natural reason. In the Preface
he says, —
" Philosophy, if it be truly rational, can never be contrary
to Revelation : that is to say, if the rational principle partake
of the soul more than of the body, or the reason arise from
no gross corporeal instinct, whose end it tends to realize,
forming the soul by use and exercise for perpetual obedience
and consent thereto. . . . The end of reason can be no other
than that man may perceive what things are revealed and
what are created : thus the rational cannot be contrary to the
Divine ; since the end why reason is given us is that we may
be empowered to perceive that there is a God, and to know
that He is to be worshipped. If reason be the mean, en
dowed with the faculty and power of perceiving, and if the
actual perception be the end, then the mean, in so far as it is
correctly rational, cannot be repugnant to the end. The very
mysteries that are above reason cannot be contrary to reason,
although reason is unable to explain their grounds."
Then begins the first chapter thus beautifully : —
" In order that we may be favored and happy in our en
deavors, they must begin from the Infinite, or God, without
whom no undertakings can attain a prosperous issue. He it
is that bestows on all things their principles ; from whom all
things finite took their rise ; from whom we have our souls,
and by whom we live ; by whom we are at once mortals and
immortals ; to whom in fine we owe everything. And as the
soul was created by Him and added to the body, and reason
to both, in order that the soul might be His, — so our thoughts,
whether we revolve them within, or utter them in words, or
commit them to writing, must always be so directed as to
have their beginning and end from Him ; whereby the Deity
may be present with gracious favor, as the First and the Last,
in either end, as well as in the means."
Then, alluding to the desire of human reason to be con
vinced in order to accept theology, he shows at length the
impossibility of the reason's concluding anything in regard to

128 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
the nature of the Infinite, by comparison with the finite. But,
not abandoning the matter so, he proceeds to inquire as to
the producing cause of what is finite, even of its first and
least particular. Showing that it cannot have its existence of
itself, nor of any other finite thing, since then the question
would be removed but one step backward, he concludes that
reason must admit an infinite producing cause. But of these
there cannot be many, only One. Now, taking this Infinite
as the cause of all creation, he deduces the entire variety from
the same Cause, in all its order and intricacy. Then citing
examples of this order and intricate beauty, — especially, in
ample detail, from the construction and operation of the
organs of the human body, — calling forth our admiration, he
seeks to transfer this and transform it into adoration for the
Deity. But this full acknowledgment, he admits, must come
partly on self-evidence, springing from the human soul, and
partly as a consequence from the arguments adduced.
"There is in fact," he says (p. 46), "a tacit consent, or a
tacit conclusion of the soul, to the being as well as to the
infinity of God. This is dictated, I say, partly by the soul in
its own free essence, partly by the soul as instructed and ad
vised by the diverse innumerable effects presented in the
world. ... It cannot be denied that there is that in man as
man, provided he enjoy the use of reason, which acknowl
edges an omnipotent God, an omnipresent and all-provident
Deity ; it seems therefore to be innate, and to be a power or
action of reason, when not on the one hand troubled too
much by its own ideas, nor on the other hand too destitute
of all cultivation and development. But we care not whether
it be spontaneous or the contrary, if it be admitted that there
is no one living, provided he be not over or under rational,
but acknowledges the existence of a Deity, however ignorant
he be of the Divine nature. Hence it is that after man has
exerted his powers and whetted his reason to find out this
nature, he falls into strange darkness and ideal conclusions.
He knows indeed that there is a Deity; that there is an

ON THE INFINITE.

129

omnipotence ; but he has been unsuccessful in eHciting the
nature of either from any dictates of reason. ... In truth,
mankind is always desirous to imagine the qualities of God ;
to bring Him within the bounds of reason and rational ideas ;
and to finite and fix Him in something, by something, or to
something. For this reason the above investigation has all
along been the issue and offspring of reason and philosophy.
And though the philosophers have heard that He is infinite,
- yet on behalf of poor reason, which is always bounded by
finite limits, they imagine the infinite as finite ; being unable
to perceive at all apart from the finite. We now therefore
see why reason has failed, and that the cause is the same in
the common people as in the learned."
Proceeding then to point out in detail the errors of many
theories, some of which it is easy to recognize, though their
authors' names are not mentioned, all of which errors are
owing to the judging of the infinite from the finite, he con
cludes that, —
" Beyond our finite sphere there are verily infinities, to the
knowledge of which it is useless to aspire ; and which in the
Infinite are infinitely many, and can be known to no one but
the Infinite. In order that these may in some measure be
conceived by the soul introduced through faith into com
munion with the Infinite, it has pleased God to discover by
Revelation much whereby the mind can finitely conceive and
express Him : not however that finite perceptions or expres
sions are similar or adequate to Him, but only that those
made use of axg not repugnant" (p. 57).
Returning to what has been granted, that the Infinite
exists as the cause of the finite world, Swedenborg next
questions whether or no there must be a nexus, or means of
influence, between the Infinite and the finite. Showing by
argument that a nexus is indispensable, he then shows that
the nexus itself must be infinite, not finite. Assuming this to
be within our knowledge by proof of reason, he asks whether,
if any one can tell us more about this nexus which shall agree
9

I30 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
with what we already know, we shall not listen to it? And
then he alleges, what he says has been taught by Revelation,
that this nexus is the Son of God, begotten from eternity, to
be the means of communication from the Infinite with the
finite. But, from what he has already shown, he declares this
nexus itself to be infinite ; and as there cannot be two infinites,
the nexus, or the Son of God, is none other than the Infinite,
God Himself.
"To say then," he continues, "that the finite came forth
mediately through the Son, is exactly tantamount to saying
that it came forth immediately through the Father, or imme
diately through the Son ; since the Father and the Son are
alike the Infinite, and the Infinite is the immediate cause of
the finite" (p. 65).
Then showing that in creation there must be a Divine, or
infinite, final end ; that this end is to be reached through the
whole chain of creation, of which man is the last link, the
crown of all, — he declares that in man, therefore, for the ful
filment of the Divine end, there must be something that can
partake of the Infinite : —
" Not certainly in the fact that man is an animal, and has
senses provided him to enjoy the delights of the world ; nor
in the fact that he has a soul, for his soul is finite, and can
contain nothing of the Infinite. Neither in reason, which is
the effect of the co-operation between the soul and the body ;
which, as they are both finite, so the effect of both is also
finite : therefore it does not lie in reason. So far we find
nothing Divine in man. Where is that, then, which appears
to be nowhere, and yet is necessary to realize the Divine
end? ... It lies in this, that man can acknowledge, and
does acknowledge, God ; that he can believe, and does
believe, that God is infinite ; that though he is ignorant of
the nature of the Deity, yet he can acknowledge, and does
acknowledge, His existence, — and this without the shadow of
doubt. And especially does it consist in this further privilege,
that by that undoubting faith he is sensible in love, or delight

THE MEDIATOR.

131

resulting from love, of a peculiar connection with the Infinite.
But where he doubts, he does not acknowledge, and the
Divine is not in him. All Divine worship proceeds from this
fountain of faith and love. . . . Thus the true divinity in
man, who is the final effect in which the Divine end dwells,
is none other than an acknowledgment of the existence and
infinity of God, . . . and a sense of delight in the love of God,
although human reason cannot do this of itself, inasmuch as
man, with all his parts and his very soul, is finite ; notwith
standing which he may be a fit recipient, and as he is in
the finite sphere he may concur to dispose himself for re
ception" (p. 71).
Now comes the crowning effort in this argument. It
being granted that the Divine sought this final return of crea
tion to Itself, the question is asked, how it is to be secured
through the various stages from first to last. The answer
being given that it is to be secured by means of the soul,
which from its altitude is designed to rule the body, it is
asked by what means the true order is to be restored when, as
must have been foreseen, the body refuses to obey the in
stincts of the soul and fails to serve its true purpose. And
the triumphant answer is given that " God provided against
this by His Infinite, only-begotten Son, who took on Him
the ultimate effect of the world, or a manhood and a human
shape, and thereby was infinite in and with the finite, and
consequently restored the nexus in His own person between
the infinite and the finite, so that the primary end was
realized. . . . The Infinite . . . thus Himself became the last
effect, — at once God and man, the Mediator between the
finite and the infinite. ... Without Him there would be no
connection between the last effect and the infinite ; whereas
through Him somewhat of the Divine may dwell in us,
namely in the faculty to know and believe that there is a
God, and that He is infinite. And again through Him, by
the use of the means, we are led to true religion, and be
come children of God, and not of the world" (p. 79).

132

PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.

Observing now that this is not the place to explain the
nature of the connection by the nexus, he stops to consider
the difficulty which may be felt as to the condition of those
who have not learned and believed in the Messiah. He con
cludes that though the coming of the Messiah is the essential
means of salvation, yet " those who did not know, and do
not know, that He has come, could and can become par
takers, by the grace of God, through His coming; for other
wise we should suppose something in God that would seem
at variance with His Divine nature and end. But as for those
who know the Messiah, or have the. opportunity to know
Him, we say that they too are made partakers through His
coming ; but the knowledge also of His coming is necessary
to them in order to their faith, for the quality of faith is de
termined by knowledge, and its perception rendered distinct
and full; and therefore where knowledge is given, it and
faith are inseparable" (p. 81).
In the next chapter, having settled the primary end of man
to begin and end in the Infinite, Swedenborg inquires into
other ends relating to this world, and finds them all to be
secondary, but good and properly conducing to the primary
end, and receiving their highest delight in it. He says, —
" It may therefore be said that nothing can be or exist in
man, or the world, that does not tend to that one end ; so
tfaat in this way there is nothing, whether dead or alive, but
adores and worships God, since all things tend to obtain the
Divine end in the ultimate effect. And oh ! how greatly
happy man would be, if he directed thither all worldly de
lights, and all the gifts of the mundane sphere !" (p. 83).
In this reverent doctrine we recognize the true Christian
philosophy of life, equally removed from sensualism and from
asceticism, and such as he taught afterwards under the light
of Revelation. The summing up of our author's argument
is as follows : —
" Observe what we have gained. We have the affirmation
of reason for the existence of God, and also for His Infinity ;

NEED OF REVELATION.

133

and as this is now positive knowledge, together with that
other truth of the existence of a nexus between God and man
in the Person of the only-begotten Son, so we may legiti
mately advance, not indeed to inquire into the nature or
qualities of Deity, because He is infinite, and His qualities
therefore we can never penetrate, but to inquire what there
can be in man to lead to this primary end ; what there can
be in him that does not repugn the infinite and the nexus ;
how a confessedly infinite Deity may best be expressed in
finite terms that shall not be repugnant to the occasion ; what
befitting worship consists in ; what is the peculiar efficacy of
faith proceeding from a true acknowledgment of God ; with
innumerable other subjects, which cannot be settled briefly,
but require to be rationally deduced in a volume by them
selves. And as, by the grace of God, we have all these mat
ters revealed in Holy Scripture, so where reason is perplexed
in its apprehensions we must at once have recourse to Reve
lation ; and where we cannot discover from Revelation either
what we should adopt or in what sense we should understand
its declarations, we must then fly to the oracle of reason. In
this way natural theology must proffer her hand to revealed,
where the meaning of Revelation seems doubtful; and re
vealed theology must lend her guidance in turn to rational
theology when reason is in straits. For revealed and rational
theology can never be contrary to each other, if only the
latter be truly rational, and does not attempt to penetrate
into the mysteries of infinity ; in which case it is not truly
rational" (p. 85).
The second part of this essay on the Infinite treats of the
mechanism of the intercourse between the soul and the body,
evidently in pursuance of the efforts of Descartes, Leibnitz,
and Locke, though treating the subject in a very different
manner. Its essential feature is the careful distinction of the
soul, together with the body, as finite, in contradistinction
from the Infinite. From this finiteness the conclusion is
drawn that the soul, as well as the body, has qualities, modes,

134 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES,
and parts subject to a higher geometry and mechanics, and
therefore subject to investigation and knowledge. But from
the approach to the Infinite in the constitution and material
of the soul, the absolute conclusion is drawn that it must
needs be immortal.
"The main end of these our labors," he says, "will be to
demonstrate the immortality of the soul to the very senses.
What is Life but the commencement, formation, and prepara
tion of the soul for a state in which it is to live forever after
the body dies ? And what this formation and preparation,
but the means by which the soul, — which in intrinsic subtilty,
purity, and perfection, and in its capacity of receiving the
Divine end, is far superior and very dissimilar to the natural
body, — shall continually strive to form and bend the body to
its likeness, and never suffer the latter to reverse the order,
or to form and model the soul" (p. 148).
This attempt of our author seems somewhat crude to those
who are familiar with his later explanations of the same sub
ject. But if we compare it with the vague and contradictory
theories of the time in which it was written, we find in it an
immense step,1 — and an indispensable step in the prepara
tion of the author's mind for the enlightenment that was
soon to come.
Already in the Principia Swedenborg had made use, for
illustration, of details in the construction and operation of the
human body ; and in the essays we have been noticing there
are elaborate references to minute studies of the anatomy,
particularly, of the brain, in search of the residence of the
soul. It was in pursuit of the same end, to learn something
of the soul and its Maker, of which these essays gave but pre
liminary intimations, that our author devoted the next ten
years to anatomical and philosophical research, presenting
its first fruits in the Economy of the Animal Kingdom.
1 Appendix X.

CHAPTER VII.
PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES CONCLUDED.
The Economy of the Animal Kingdom was a tentative
effort, confessedly immature, to arrive at a philosophic view
of the construction and operation of the human mechanism,
especially as the abode and instrument of the soul. The
subject, with this aim, was new ground, and therefore difficult,
if not impossible, to enter upon systematically and master at
the first onset. A reconnoissance in force was necessary, in
order to determine in what way the final assault should be
made. Such a reconnoissance we find in the "Economy":
" Our organs are opened only by degrees ; the images and
notions at first received are obscure, and, if I may so speak,
the whole universe is represented to the eye as a single in
distinct thing, a formless chaos. In the course of time, how
ever, its various parts become comparatively distinct, and at
length are presented to the tribunal of the rational mind ;
whence it is not till late in life that we become rational beings.
In this manner by degrees a passage is effected to the soul,
which, abiding in her intelligence, decrees that the way lead
ing to her shall thus be opened, in order that all actions, and
the reasons for all, may be referred to her as their genuine
principle. . . . There is need of time and of further progress
to render the subject clear; and moreover the doctrine of
the blood, although it is the first we have to propound, is
nevertheless the last that can be completed. The result, then,
must show whether or not those statements which at first per
haps appear like obscure guess-work, are in the end so abun
dantly attested by effects as to prove that they are indeed
the oracular responses of the truth " (p. 3).

I36 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
" In the experimental knowledge of anatomy our way has
been pointed out by men of the greatest and most cultivated
talents, such as Eustachius," and nineteen others named,
"whose discoveries, far from consisting of fallacious, vague,
and empty speculations, will forever continue to be of prac
tical use to posterity. Assisted by the studies and elaborate
writings of these illustrious men, and fortified by theh authority,
I have resolved to commence and complete my design : that
is to say, to open some part of those things which it is gen
erally supposed that nature has involved in obscurity. Here
and there I have taken the liberty to throw in the results of
my own experience ; but this only sparingly, for, on deeply
considering the matter, I deemed it best to make use of the
facts supplied by others. Indeed there are some that seem
born for experimental observation and endowed with a sharper
insight than others, as if they possessed naturally a finer acu
men. . . . There are others again who enjoy a natural faculty
for contemplating facts already discovered, and eliciting their
causes. Both are peculiar gifts and are seldom united in the
same person. Besides, I found, when intently occupied in
exploring the secrets of the human body, that, as soon as I
discovered anything which had not been observed before, I
began, seduced probably by self-love, to grow blind to the
most acute lucubrations and researches of others, and to
originate the whole series of inductive arguments from my
particular discovery alone. . . . Nay, when I essayed to form
principles from these discoveries, I thought I could detect
in various other phenomena much to confirm their truth,
although in reality they were fairly susceptible of no construc
tion of the kind. I therefore laid aside my instruments and,
restraining my desire for making observations, determined
rather to rely on the researches of others than to trust to
my own " (p. 7) .
After describing as from experience the faculty which some
enjoy, — we doubt if ever any one more than he, — of con
fining their attention to one thing and evolving with dis- .

ECONOMY OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

137

tinctness all that lies in it, of distributing their thoughts into
classes, separating mixed topics into appropriate divisions, of
skilfully subordinating the series thus divided, and of being
never overwhelmed by the multiplicity of things, but con
tinually enlightened more and more, he says of such as
enjoy the faculty, —
" The fictitious depresses . them, the obscure pains them ;
but they are exhilarated by the truth, and, in the presence
of everything that is clear, they too are clear and serene.
When, after a long course of reasoning, they make a discovery
of the truth, straightway there is a cheering light and joy
ful confirmatory brightness that plays around" the sphere of
their mind, and a kind of mysterious radiation — I know not
whence it proceeds — that darts through some sacred temple
in the brain. Thus a sort of rational instinct displays itself,
and in a manner gives notice that the soul is called into a
state of inward communion, and has returned at that moment
into the golden age of its intellectual perfections. The mind
that has known this pleasure is wholly carried away in pursuit
of it ; and in the kindling flame of its love despises in com
parison, as external pastimes, all merely corporeal pleasures ;
and although it recognizes them as means for exciting the
animal mind and the purer blood, it on no account follows
them as ends. Persons of this cast consider the arts and
sciences only as aids to wisdom, and learn them as helps to
its attainment, not that they may be reputed wise for possess
ing them. They modestly restrain all tendency to inflated
ideas of themselves, knowing that the sciences are an ocean,
of which they can catch but a few drops. They look on no
one with a scornful brow, or a supercilious air, nor arrogate
any praise to themselves. They ascribe all to the Deity, and
regard Him as the source from which all true wisdom de
scends. In the promotion of His glory they place the end
and object of their own" (p. 9).
Remarking now how sensual and worldly cares impair this
noble faculty, he says, " Nothing superinduces more darkness

I38 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
on the human mind than the interference of its own fancied
providence in matters that properly belong to the Divine
Providence." And then he goes on to say, still as from
experience, —
"This faculty, however, is chiefly impaired by the thirst for
glory and the love of self. I know not what darkness over
spreads the rational faculties when the mind begins to swell
with pride, or when our intuition of objects calls up in the
objects themselves the image and glory of our own selfhood.
It is like pouring a liquor upon some exquisite wine, which
throws it into a froth, sullies its purity, and clouds its trans-
lucence. It is as if the animal spirits were stirred into waves,
and a tempest drove the grosser blood into insurgent motion,
by which the organs of internal sensation or perception be
coming swollen, the powers of thought are dulled, and the
whole scene of action in their theatre changed. In those
who experience these disorderly states, the rational faculty is
crippled and brought to a standstill ; or rather its movements
become retrograde instead of progressive. A limit is put to
its operations, which its possessor imagines to be the limit of
all human capacity, because he himself is unable to overstep
it. He sees little or nothing in the most studied researches of
others, but everything — oh, how vain-glorious ! — in his own .
Nor can he return to correct conceptions, until his elated
thoughts have" subsided to their proper level. 'There are
many,' says Seneca, ' who might have attained to wisdom,
had they not fancied they had attained it already.' The
Muses love a tranquil mind ; and there is nothing but humility,
a contempt of self, and a simple love of truth, that can pre
vent or remedy the evils we have described.
" But how often does a man labor in vain to divest himself
of his own nature ! How often, when ignorant or unmindful
of the love that creeps upon him, will he betray a partiality to
himself and the .offspring of his own genius ! If an author,
therefore, desires that his studies should give birth to any
thing of sterling value, let him be advised, when he has com-

ECONOMY OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

139

mitted to paper what he considers to be of particular merit
and is fond of frequently perusing, to lay it aside for a while,
and after the lapse of months to return to it as to something
he had forgotten, -and as the production not of himself but of
some other writer. Let him repeat this practice three or four
times in the year. . . . Should his writings then often raise
a blush upon his countenance, should he no longer feel an
overweening confidence with regard to the lines which had
received the latest polish from his hands, let him be assured
that he has made some little progress in wisdom" (p. n).
After commending the ancients for their wisdom in the
study of the principles of things, and again those of his own
and previous times for accumulating experience, he says, —
"Thus does it seem to be the will of that Providence
which rules all earthly affairs, that the one state should be
succeeded by the other : that the parents should instruct the
children ; and that the ancients should incite their posterity
to the acquisition of the experimental knowledge by which
theh contemplative sciences may be confirmed ; and in like
manner that we of the present age should stimulate the gen
erations that follow us to work again and again in the mines
of the same experience, so that they, in their turn, may attain
to a deeper insight and a further progress ; in fine, that vari
ous age's should cultivate various kinds of learning, in order,
as it would appear, that the sciences may at last arrive at
their destined perfection" (p. 13).
Referring to the stores of experimental knowledge now
collected, he concludes, —
"And the time is at hand when we may quit the harbor
and sail for the open sea. The materials are ready ; shall we
not build the edifice? The harvest is waiting; shall we not
put in the sickle ? The produce of the garden is rife and
ripe; shall we fail to collect it for use? Let us enjoy the
provided banquet ; that is to say, from the experience with
which we are enriched, let us elicit wisdom. ... But to
launch out into this field is like embarking on a shoreless

140 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
ocean that envhons the world. It is easy to quit the land, or
to loose the horses from the starting-post ; but to attain the
end or reach the goal is a labor for Hercules. Nevertheless
we are bound to attempt the abyss, though as yet we must
needs proceed like young birds that, with the feeble strokes
of their new-fledged wings, first essay their strength, and from
their nests try the air, the new world into which they are to
enter" (p. 14).
Entering forthwith on his task, he adopts the following
method. At the beginning of each chapter he places a
collection of important observations concerning its subject,
drawn from various authors. Next he compactly states his
induction from these premises, as to the constitution and use
of the substance or organ in the human frame. And then,
clause by clause, he repeats this induction, explaining and
confirming each in detail.
In the Economy of the Animal Kingdom Swedenborg
takes a grand step towards his goal; but it is, as we have
said and as he premised, a tentative step, trying his wings,
and involving some of the errors of which he warned the
inexperienced. It is invaluable to us as marking the manner
and extent of his progress ; but its instructiveness in other
respects is in a measure superseded by the author's second,
more valuable essay, which soon followed. That he did not
expect from contemporaries much recognition of these labors
— at some variance with the scientific, experimental tendency
of their time, and not less as yet with that of our own —
is evident from the motto which he prefixed, from Seneca :
" Paucis natus est, qui populum atatis suse cogitat. Multa
annorum millia, multa populorum supervenient: ad ilia respice,
etiamsi omnibus tecum viventibus silentium. . . . [aliqua causa]
indixerit : venient qui sine offensa, sine gratia judicent."1
1 " He is born to serve but few, who thinks of the people of his own age.
Many thousands of years, many generations of men are yet to come : look to
these, though fof some cause silence has been imposed on all of your own day ;
there will come those who may judge without offence and without favor."

RATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY.

141

And again he says, in Part Second, perhaps a little self-
confidently, —
"Of what consequence is it to me that I should persuade
any one to embrace my opinions ? Let his own reason per
suade him. I do not undertake this work for the sake of
honor or emolument, — both of which I shun rather than
seek, because they disquiet the mind, and because I am con
tent with my lot, — but for the sake of the truth, which alone
is immortal, and has its portion in the most perfect order of
nature ; hence only in the series of ends of the universe from
the first to the last, which is the glory of God ; which ends
He promotes. Thus I surely know Who it is that must
reward me" (vol. ii. p. 210).
At the conclusion of Part First, Swedenborg gives a chap
ter which he styles "An Introduction to Rational Psychology,"
regarding this as "the first and last of those sciences which
lead to the knowledge of the animal economy." "But
whereas the soul," he goes on to say, "lives withdrawn so far
within that she cannot be exposed to view until the coverings
under which she is hidden are unfolded and removed in
order, — it hence becomes necessary that we ascend to her by
the same steps or degrees and the same ladder by which her
nature, in the formation of the things of her kingdom, de
scends into her body. By way therefore of an Introduction
to Rational Psychology, I will premise the Doctrine of Series
and Degrees, — a doctrine of which, in the preceding chap
ters, I have made such frequent mention, the design of which
is to teach the nature of order and its rules as observed and
prescribed in the succession of things. ... As often as Na
ture betakes herself upwards from visible phenomena, or, in
other words, withdraws herself inwards, she instantly as it
were disappears, while no one knows what is become of her,
or whither she is gone ; so that it is necessary to take science
as a guide to attend us in pursuing her steps. Without a
guide of this kind, moreover, we shall have a tendency to fall
into various premature opinions ; we shall be apt to think, for

142 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
instance, that the soul, either from principles proper to her
self or from such as are above herself, flows immediately into
the effects of her own body ; whence it necessarily follows
that the communication of operations between the soul and
the body must be explained either by Physical Influx [the
doctrine of the Aristotelians] , or by Occasional Causes [the
doctrine of Descartes] ; or, if by neither of these, a third is
assumed as the only alternative, namely, that of Pre-established
Harmony [the doctrine of Leibnitz].1 Thus the one or other
system flows as a consequence from our want of knowledge
respecting the subordination of things, and the connection
of things subordinate. . . . But whereas all things in succeed
ing each other follow one another in order, and whereas in
the whole circle of things, from first to last, there is not a
single one which is altogether unconnected or detached from
the rest, — I am compelled, as I said, previous to developing
the subject of Rational Psychology, to take into considera
tion this doctrine concerning order and connection, so re
markably conspicuous in the animal kingdom" (vol. ii. p. i).
To attempt to follow our author's reasoning, or even to
give a full statement of his conclusions, would take us too far.
The scope of his plan we see to be transcendent, — being
nothing less than to determine the order and modes of con
nection of all things in series from their primal cause, the
Deity. And two remarkable features of his doctrine, gained
for himself by study of the human system, in connection with
his previous study into the composition of matter, are of the
utmost importance in themselves and in furnishing a founda
tion for his later teachings. The one is the connection of
things interior, prior, and superior with analogous things,
exterior, posterior, and inferior, by perfect adaptation and
correspondence, and by relation of cause and effect, — a
1 It is Aristotle, " the Gentile," that Swedenborg most cites in these re
searches, though occasionally referring to the Christian Fathers, to Grotius,
" the Christian philosopher," and to Descartes, Leibnitz, Wolff, and Locke's
" golden essay."

ECONOMY OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 143
doctrine which he afterwards termed that of "discrete de
grees." The other is the control, in being the instant source
of all life and power, which by this doctrine rests in the
Deity, through intermediates, over every atom of His uni
verse. These things we shall find him treating again, under
higher light, and without feeling the need which he now
feels of a "mathematical science of universals," which by
a language of its own may express things inexpressible by
ordinary language.
The first chapter of Part Second of the Economy of the
Animal Kingdom is devoted to the motion of the brain, the
second to the cortical substance of the brain, and the third
to the human soul. Confessing the difficulties in the search
for the soul and his frequent disappointments, he says, —
"At length I awoke, as from a deep sleep, when I discov
ered that nothing is farther removed from the human under
standing than what at the same time is really present to it ;
and that nothing is more present to it than what is universal,
prior, and superior ; since this enters into every particular,
and into everything posterior and inferior. What is more
omnipresent than the Deity, — in Him we live and move and
have our being, — and yet what is more remote from the
sphere of the understanding? . . .
"The more any one is perfected in judgment, and the
better he discerns the distinctions of things, the more clearly
will he perceive that there is an order in things, that there are
degrees of order, and that it is by these alone he can pro
gress, and this step by step, from the lowest sphere to the
highest, or from the outermost to the innermost. For as
often as Nature ascends away from external phenomena, or
betakes herself inwards, she seems to have separated from us,
and to have left us altogether in the dark as to what direc
tion she has taken. We have need, therefore, of some science
to serve as our guide in tracing out her steps, — to arrange all
things into series, to distinguish these series into degrees,
and to contemplate the order of each thing in the order of

144 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
the whole. The science which does this I call the Doctrine
of Series and Degrees, or the Doctrine of Order, . . . [which]
teaches the distinction and relation between things superior
and inferior, or prior and posterior. . . .
" I am strongly persuaded that the essence and nature of
the soul, its influx into the body, and the reciprocal action
of the body can never come to demonstration without these
doctrines, combined with a knowledge of anatomy, pathology,
and psychology ; nay, even of physics, and especially of the
auras of the world. . . . This and no other is the reason
that with diligent study and intense application I have in
vestigated the anatomy of the body, and principally the
human, so far as it is known from experience ; and that I
have - followed the anatomy of all its parts, in the same
manner as I have here investigated the cortical substance"
(vol. ii. p. 202).
This treatise on the soul is an attempt at what was fore
shadowed in the essay already cited. It is a mine of beauti
ful thoughts, and leads the mind up to the highest aspect of
its subject.1 Yet the author's view is not in full accordance
with that found in his later works. The soul is to him a most
subtile, most living fluid, composed of the first element created
by its Maker, and vivified by Him. But though its form is
"the form of forms," it is conceived only vaguely, and gives
the reader no impression of a substantial form. More satis
factory, because within the reach of anatomical research, is
his idea of the constant flow of this living essence into the
inmost fibres of the body, as theh inspiring and controlling
life. We pass reluctantly over many pages that we would
1 S. T. Coleridge notes, on reading the Economy of the Animal Kingdom, —
" I remember nothing in Lord Bacon superior, few passages equal, either in
depth of thought, or in richness, dignity, and felicity of diction, or in the weighti-
ness of the truths contained."— Literary Remains, May 27, 1827. Dr. Spurgin,
formerly President of the Royal College of Physicians in London, declared the
part on the Soul " a production unparalleled for excellence in the whole com
pass of human philosophy." — Wisdom, Intelligence, and Science, the True
Characteristics of Emanuel Swedenborg.

THE CITY OF GOD. 1 45
like to quote, and conclude our extracts from the Economy of
the Animal Kingdom with Swedenborg's own striking conclu
sion. Having shown that the final end can be no other than
the existence of a society of souls, " in which the end of cre
ation may be regarded by God, and by which God may be
regarded as the end of ends," he says, —
" If there be a society of souls, must not the City of God
on the universal earth be the seminary of it ? The most uni
versal law of its citizens is, that they love their neighbor as
themselves, and God more than themselves. All other things
are means, and are good in proportion as they lead directly
to this end. Now, as everything in the universe is created
as a means to this end, it follows that the application of the
means, and a true regard of the end in the means, are the
sole constituents of a citizen [of the Holy City]. The Holy
Scripture is the code of rules for obtaining the end by the
means. These rules are not so dark or obscure as the philos
ophy of the mind and the love of self and of the world would
make them ; nor so deep and hidden but that any sincere soul,
which permits the Spirit of God to govern it, may draw them
from this pure fountain, — pure enough for the use and service
of the members of the City of God all over the world, — with
out violating any form of ecclesiastical government. It is
foretold that the kingdom of God shall come ; that at last the
guests shall be assembled at the marriage supper ; that the
wolf shall lie down with the lamb, the leopard with the kid,
the lion with the ox ; that the young child shall play with the
asp; that the mountain of God shall rise above all other
mountains, and that the Gentile and the stranger shall come
to it to pay their worship. But see the Second Epistle of Paul
to Timothy, chap. hi. 1-10 ; and the Acts of the Apostles,
chap. xvii. 18-34."
Whoever will turn to these chapters and read them care
fully, in connection with these sentences of our author, will
be impressed with the evidence that Swedenborg saw the time
to be at hand for our Lord's promised coming in His Holy

I46 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
City, and that he desired nothing more than that his own
labors might conduce to that end, yet with clear discernment
that the real means lay in the Holy Scriptures, of which he
stood in awe. Theology was not yet his province ; and when
he ventured an opinion on one of its topics, he generally
referred to the Fathers for support. Yet he could not refrain
from writing occasionally on points upon which new light
came to him. While he had still the Economy of the Animal
Kingdom in hand, he wrote a brief essay on "Faith and
Good Works," x beginning thus : —
" There can be no doubt that it is faith which saves, and
not works separate from faith ; but where there is a possi
bility of doing good works, the question is, whether faith will
save without them, according to the dogma of the Lutherans.
We reply that the affirmative seems compatible neither with
the Divine word of revelation, nor with human reason ; both
of which lead rather to the conclusion that faith without
works is a nullity, and were it anything, would condemn, not
save" (p. 9).
Next, he shows abundantly from Scripture the inculcation
of love and charity. " Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans,
says that it is faith which saves, but not action, — meaning
thereby not action without faith ; but Luther, in his transla
tion of the Bible, has added to the words of the apostle, faith
'alone,' though the latter word is not to be found in the sacred
text ; and I believe that Luther never committed a greater
sin than when he made this interpolation ; but God be the
judge"2 (p. 10).
1 Posthumous Tracts, London, 1847.
2 By inadvertence Swedenborg wrote as Luther's interpolation, "without
works." But the real interpolation is the German word allein, " alone," or
sola, as Luther himself gave it in Latin. That this was not put in by inad
vertence on Luther's part appears from his defiant words sent to the Pope :
'¦ Should the Pope give himself any useless annoyance about the word sola,
you may promptly reply, It is the will of Dr. Martin Luther that it should be so."
— Alzog : Univ. Church History, Am. ed. hi. 27. In a later work Sweden
borg states that he heard Luther in the other life confessing with regret that he
established the doctrine of faith alone against the warning of an angel of the Lord,
for the sake of more completely separating from the Roman Church. (D. P. 258.)

PLAN OF STUDY.

147

From philosophy he now shows that action is from the
will, and that faith is not a mere knowledge, but a living
principle implanted by the grace of God in the will ; whence
action from the will becomes active faith. Illustrating this in
various ways, he concludes, —
"That there is no love to God if there be none to the
neighbor ; or that there is no faith, if there be no works ; . . .
therefore faith without works is a phrase involving a contra
diction" (p. 15).
With some reluctance, apparently, he admits that " in the
future life love to God may be said to exist without the per
formance of the duties of love to the neighbor," inasmuch as
all the means of " doing the duties of love to the neighbor are
taken away, because the body, which is the subject of action,
is extinct." We shall be interested presently in seeing how
long this notion clung to him, of the non-substantiality of the
spiritual existence.
By no means content with what he had already accom
plished, Swedenborg, on the completion of the parts of the
Economy of the Animal Kingdom published in 1740 and
1 741, recommenced the study of the brain from the skull,
and traversed the whole ground again and again, adhering
for a while to the following plan : —
"Man proposes : God disposes.
" 1 740. The brain.
"1741. The muscles, glands, and nerves.
"1742. The eye, ear, tongue, windpipe, and lungs.
"1743. The remaining members or viscera of the body.
" 1 744. The members devoted to generation.
" 1745. The causes of disease.
"1746. The passions and affections of the will [animus]
and of the mind [mens].
"1747. The City of God. \_Civitas Dei]."
Interspersed with manuscripts of this period on these sub
jects are found notes on "(1) Correspondence by Harmony;

I48 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
(2) Correspondence by Parables; (3) Correspondence by
Types ; (4) Correspondence by Fables and Dreams ; (5)
Correspondence between Human and Divine Actions ; (6)
Representation in Oracles; (7) Explanation of the Sacred
Scripture:" the illustrations throughout being taken from
Scripture. These same ideas are found again in a concise
form, prepared as for publication, in forty-eight pages, entitled
" A Hieroglyphic Key to Natural and Spiritual Mysteries, by
Way of Representations and Correspondences." From this
little treatise, printed from the author's manuscript in 1784,
we quote the following
"Rules. — ( 1 ) The spiritual world is the region of antitypes
or exemplars ; the animal kingdom is the sphere of images
and types ; nature is the realm of shadows or resemblances.
(2) There are many species of representations or correspond
ences. The first species may be termed harmonic corre
spondence, and is exemplified by the relation subsisting be
tween light, intelligence, and wisdom ; between effort and
will ; between modification, sensation, imagination, etc. ; also
between the images of vision, ideas, and thirdly, reasons ;
which are mutual correspondents, representing terms in a
successive analogy or proportion. The second species is
allegorical correspondence, and is constituted of similes, or
similitudes. Thus it is usual to explain spiritual things in a
natural manner, for all spiritual words are occult qualities :
this species of correspondence is of frequent occurrence in
the Holy Scripture. (3) The third species is typical corre
spondence, and is effected by shadows, or semblances, — as
in the Jewish Church, which shadowed forth Christ and the
Christian Church, which latter again represented the kingdom
of God and the society of heaven. The fourth is fabulous
correspondence, which species was in vogue among the an
cients, who wrapped up the deeds of their heroes in fabulous
narrations ; examples of which are found in the representa
tions of the poets, and in those we see in dreams. (4) There
is reason to believe that the whole world is absolutely full of

RETURN TO THE ROYAL COLLEGE.

149

types, albeit we know so few of them ; for the present ever
involves the future, and contingencies occur in a certain
order and chain, inasmuch as there is undeviating constancy
in the tenor and influence of Divine Providence. (5) It is
good to interpret the Holy Scripture on these principles, for
the Spirit speaks spiritually as well as naturally."
The examples given are so simple and obvious that we will
not take space to quote any of them. But the author's seiz
ing hold of the principle of correspondence, especially as the
means of interpreting Scripture, with his beginning of a col
lection of materials for the purpose, is highly significant of his
preparation for the work that was to come. The important
thing, however, for us now to observe is the steady advance
of his mind, by mathematical, analytical, rational investiga
tion, through the effects of this wOrld to their laws, to theh
proximate causes, and thus to their Final Cause, — always
with reverence for Revelation and desire to be in accordance
therewith, but not as yet taking it for Guide.
From November, 1 740, when Swedenborg returned home
after publishing the Economy of the Animal Kingdom, for two
years and a half, till the middle of June, 1 743, the records of
the Royal College of Mines show his regular attendance at its
sessions, with but occasional absences from illness, or from
attendance at sessions of the Diet, or on commissions of the
College. That he was, however, still devoting his leisure
time to the study of the body and soul, and not, as he had
expected, to the "Mineral Kingdom," we may learn from the
following Jetter addressed by him to the Royal College of
Mines, June 17, 1743 : —
" Most well-born Baron and President, and also well-born
and esteemed Councillors of Mines and Assessors, — A few
months ago I applied most humbly to his Royal Majesty for
gracious leave of absence, to make a journey abroad on my
own resources for the purpose of seeing through the press a
work which is the continuation and end of one which had

150 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
been begun and promised ; when I received orally the gra
cious answer through Mr. Boneauschold, the Secretary of
State, that my application had been graciously entertained,
but that on a point of order it ought to be announced first to
the College. Now, as ever since my return I have in ad
dition to my official duties constantly labored to accomplish
this work, and as I have now completed it so far that, after
collecting some necessary information in the libraries abroad,
I shall be able to publish it at once and thus fulfil what I
have promised, and what is, I find, desired by many abroad, —
I therefore entreat the honorable Royal College in the most
humble manner that it kindly accede to my wishes. As far as
my individual preference and pleasure are concerned, I can
assure you that I should a thousand times prefer to stay at
home in my native country, where it would be a pleasure to
me to serve in so illustrious a College, and to contribute my
own small share to the public good; at the same time to
watch opportunities for improving my condition and attend to
the little property I have acquired, and thus live at home and
have pleasant times, which, as long as my health and means
with God's help continue, nothing would disturb, — than to
travel abroad, exposing myself, at my own by no means in
considerable expense, to danger and vexation, especially in
these unquiet times, and undergoing severe brain-work and
other hard labor, with the probability of meeting in the end
with more unfavorable than favorable judgments. But,, not
withstanding all this, I am influenced interiorly, by the desire
and longing to produce during my lifetime something real,
which may be of use in the general scientific world and also
to posterity, and in this way to be useful to and even to please
my native country ; and, if my wishes are realized, to obtain
honor for it. But if I any longer delay the carrying out of
my design, I might as well give it up altogether, as far as the
increase in honor and the decrease of my own interest in the
work are concerned. All this depends entirely upon the most
honorable Royal College's advocating my well-meant pur-

NEW LEAVE OF ABSENCE.

151

pose with his Majesty, by expressing its consent and approval
with regard to my intended journey ; of which I entertain the
less doubt, as the honorable Royal College has always been
inclined to promote useful designs, and especially as I have
never yet asked, nor intend to ask, anything from the public
in return for all the trouble and the great expenses I am in
curring, but on the contrary, for the sake of promoting this
well-meant purpose, have given up of my own accord half of
my salary, and consequently an income that already amounts
to twelve thousand six hundred dalers in copper, and as I am
willing to leave this at your disposal on the same terms as
before, so that during my absence nothing may be neglected
in the Royal College on my account. With regard to the
time that will be required, I cannot determine anything, in
asmuch as the work which will be published will amount to
about five hundred sheets, and the despatch with which this
can be done will depend on the publisher and the printer ;
but I promise that on my own part the most indefatigable
industry shall be applied ; nay, I am willing, if it is desired,
to keep a journal of my work, and to show that no time is
wasted. Moreover, it is my own chief desire to bring this
work to a close, and to return to my country, to my office,
and to my property, where I shall in tranquillity and ease
continue my larger work, the Regnum Minerale, and thus be
of actual use to the public at large in those matters which
properly belong to the Royal College.
" I remain, and shall continue to remain, with profound re
spect, most well-born Baron and President, and most honor
able Royal College, your most humble servant,
"Eman. Swedenborg."
The Royal College of Mines commended to King Frederic
the Assessor's request, and on the 4th of July it was graciously
granted. Until July 21st Swedenborg continued in attend
ance on his duties, but on that day left Stockholm, arriving at
Ystad on the 2 7th. On the 6th of August he was at Stralsund,

152 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
examining the fortifications and the water-works. On the 1 2th
he was at Hamburg, and was presented to his Royal Highness
Adolphus Frederic, to whom he submitted the contents of
the book he was about to have printed, and showed reviews
of his former work. He had at this time accumulated a large
pile of manuscript on the anatomy of the human body and
other subjects, including, in addition to what he was about to
publish ads The Animal Kingdom, essays on the " Declination
of the Magnetic Needle," "Corpuscular Philosophy," "Uni
versal Philosophy," "The Bones of the Head," "The Red
Blood," "The Muscles of the Face," "The Animal Spirit,"
"Sensation," "Action," "Common Sense," "The Origin
and Propagation of the Soul," and several others, together
with six hundred and thirty-six pages on the " Anatomy of
the Brain," and six hundred on " Rational Psychology."
With new views opening to him on so many subjects, or
on so many branches leading up to the great subject he had
in ultimate contemplation, — the soul and its relation to its
Creator, — it is not strange that in details our author's plans
were constantly changing. Among his manuscripts are found
half-a-dozen different titles for what was finally published as
the Economy of the Animal Kingdom. For the work now in
hand, The Animal Kingdom, he at one time proposed no
less than seventeen parts, of which six related to the soul.
The materials for the whole seventeen were in preparation, and
to a great extent already written out ; but during the autumn
months of 1 743, spent mostly in the libraries of Amsterdam
and Leyden, they became so voluminous that he published at
this time only the first two. These made a handsome thick
quarto volume, published at the Hague in 1744. A third
part was published the next year at London, and this, for
reasons we shall presently see, was the last of the work pub
lished by the author.
The Animal Kingdom ["Regnum Animale"] was, in a
sort, a continuation of the previous work, the Ecotwmy of the
Animal Kingdom, but treated in a somewhat different man-

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

153

ner. We seem to detect in it a somewhat less confident tone,
more patience, and greater contentment with quietly and
closely observing the immediate uses of the several parts of
the body, while trusting that he shall be led in the end to that
of which he is in search.
"Not very long since," he says in his Prologue, "I pub
lished the Economy of the Animal Kingdom, . . . and before
traversing the whole field in detail, I made a rapid passage to
the soul and put forth an essay respecting it. But on con
sidering the matter more deeply, I found that I had directed
my course thither both too hastily and too fast, — after hav
ing explored the blood only and its peculiar organs. I took
the step impelled by an ardent desire for knowledge."
Now he proposes to traverse the whole kingdom of the
body, hoping that, by bending his course inwards continually,
he may open all the doors that lead to her and at length, by
the Divine permission, contemplate the soul herself. But he
supposes the objection made "that all those things which
transcend our present state, are matters for faith and not for
intellect ; " that the intellect should be " contented with this
its lot, and not aspire to higher things, which, inasmuch as
they are sanctuaries and matters of Revelation, exist to faith
only. . . . Where there is faith, what need is there of demon
stration ? . . . Faith is above all demonstration, because it is
above all the philosophy of the human mind." His reply
is, " I grant this ; nor would I persuade any one who compre
hends these high truths by faith, to attempt to comprehend
them by his intellect : let him abstain from my books. Whoso
believes Revelation implicitly, without consulting the intellect,
is the happiest of mortals, the nearest to heaven, and at once
a native of both worlds. But these pages of mine are
written with a view to those only who never believe anything
but what they can receive with the intellect ; consequently
who boldly invalidate and are fain to deny the existence
of all supereminent things, sublimer than themselves, — as the
soul itself, and what follows therefrom : its life, immortality,

I54 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
heaven, etc. . . . Consequently they honor and worship nature,
the world, and themselves ; in other respects they compare
themselves to brutes, and think that they shall die in the same
manner as brutes, and their souls exhale and evaporate : thus
they rush fearlessly into wickedness. For these persons only
I am anxious ; and, as I said before, for them I indite, and
to them I dedicate my work. For when I shall have demon
strated truths themselves by the analytic method, I hope
that those debasing shadows, or material clouds, which darken
the sacred temple of the mind will be dispersed ; and that
thus at last, under the favor of God, who is the Sun of Wis
dom, an access will be opened and a way laid down to faith.
My ardent desire and zeal for this end is what urges and ani
mates me " (Prologue to part i. pp. 12-15).
Swedenborg's purpose, and the work given him to do, may
be found further illustrated in the following passages from the
Epilogue to Part Second of The Animal Kingdom : —
"The lungs in the first flower and golden age of their life,
or when the body and the thorax were enveloped and con
fined by manifold swathings in the mother's womb, were un
able as yet to expand, still less to open the mouth of their
larynx ; but together with the brains, the heart, and the mem
bers attendant thereupon, they passed and beguiled theh day,
which was nine months long, in the deepest peace, and as it
were in the temple of concord. At this time the soul, under
the auspices of the Supreme Mind, by means of the brains
and their fibres, and in the ultimate sphere by means of
the heart and its vessels, ruled and governed the helm of the
kingdom ; it was the only principle of all motions : the de
terminations from this principle flowed through adopted and
organically constructed forms, serving in orderly sequence
and manifold succession as first, intermediate, and ultimate
causes ; hence all efforts, forces, actions, and modes thereof,
agreeably to the order appointed by nature, proceeded con
stantly from the first spheres to the last, or from the innermost
to the outermost. Thus the body was the body of its soul,

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

155

and the subject of the auspices of the Supreme Mind. But
when the period of these destinies had passed away, and the
manikin, bursting the swathings and bars of the womb, rushed
forth upon the theatre of the great world, the state of life-
was instantly changed, and the hinges of the determinations,
forces, and motions were inverted and bent backward against
the order of the former life ; namely, from the outermost
spheres to the innermost, or from the body and its powers
inwards, towards the proximate and immediate powers of the
principle or soul. In order that, after this inversion, the last
causes might take the first place, the lungs were opened ; the
lowest atmosphere of the world was admitted through the
nostrils and the larynx into the trachea and the bronchial
pipes ; the muscles of the thorax were unfolded ; the ribs,
with the vertebrae and sternum, were moved from their places
to and fro ; and the reciprocal actions proceeding from these
ultimate causes, or from the body, were transferred through
the diaphragm, the pleura, and the mediastinum, into the in
nermost sphere of the lungs, whither also the atmosphere
was transferred through the larynx. On the instant the blood
also, which rushed from the vence cavce into the right auricle
and cavern of the heart, began to be the proximate cause of
the motions or pulses, even through the whole arterial sys
tem ; the proximate cause having previously been the fibre
and the spirit of the fibre. At the same time the organs of
the five senses were opened, to take up on the first threshold
the images, tones, forms, and all the play and manifestation
of the circumambient world, and convey them inwards even
to the soul. Thus we entered, or rather fell, from the highest
life into the lowest, the life'of the body, and of the world.
"Now, when the body undertook to manage the reins
which the soul relinquished ; when the machine was so com
pletely inverted that the powers flowed and rolled contrari
wise, or upwards instead of downwards, — then, in order that
the machine itself might not be prostrated and perish by its
forces, and in order that the life that was now transferred to

156 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
the body might not be dissipated and come to an end, it was
provided and appointed that the lungs should perform a
mediatorial office between the soul and the body ; wherefore,
to bring them into concord, the ordinances that follow were
solemnly decreed."
Here follow eight laws governing the reciprocal action of
the lungs and of the heart and brains, at too great length for
our space. Then he continues : —
"Since, therefore, we are inaugurated into this life, that
tends backwards from the last stages of the course to the first,
the consequence is that we are born in the densest obscurity,
ignorant of all tilings, and the merest of infants ; for the forces
of the body, which are now the first causes, feel nothing of
themselves. Thus we live but little, if at all, in early infancy,
for to feel is to live ; yet this very life increases, grows, and
approximates to perfection, as age advances."
Describing then how sensations become, by effort from
within, first images of sense, then sensual ideas, then imagina
tive and at last intellectual ideas, so that, by means of the
senses, we are led from the darkness of ignorance more or
less into the light of knowledge, he says, —
" There is in the cerebrum an eminent sensorium, and inti
mate recesses therein, whither these sensual rays of the body
ascend, and where they can mount no further : there the soul
resides, clad in the noblest garment of organization, and sits to
meet the ideas emerging thither, and receives them as guests.
This high and noble place is the innermost sensorium ; and
it is the boundary at which the ascent of the life of the body
ceases, and the boundary from which that of the soul, con
sidered as a spiritual essence, begins. Here especially the
soul inspires her power, and communicates the faculty where
by images become ideas."
But to acquire the power of thinking clearly from the soul,
and to distinguish what is in harmony with her nature, thus
with real truth, there is need of abundant store of observa
tion, or scientific fact, an assiduous training of the faculties,

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

157

and a " constant exercise of the gift itself, till it becomes a
part of our nature. Above all things we must aim by educa
tion to become thoroughly imbued with the power of recall
ing the rational mind from the senses and the animal mind ;
in short, from cares, from the lusts of the body, the allure
ments of the world, and thus as it were from our lower
selves. ... By these means we mount to our higher mind,
or to the soul, which then becomes accessible and infuses
power." "If we wish," says our author, "to invite real truths,
whether natural, or moral, or spiritual (for they all make com
mon cause by means of correspondence and representation) ,
into the sphere of our rational minds, it is necessary that we
extinguish the impure fires of the body, and thereby our own
delusive lights, and submit and allow our minds, unmolested
by the influences of the body, to be illuminated with the rays
of the spiritual power : then for the first time truths flow in ;
for they all emanate from that power as their peculiar foun
tain. Nor when they are present, are there wanting a mul
titude of signs by which they attest themselves ; namely, the
varied forms of sweetness and delight attendant upon truth
attained, and affecting the mind as the enjoyments that result
from the harmonies of external objects affect the lower and
sensitive faculties of the body : for as soon as ever a truth
shines forth, such a mind exults and rejoices ; and this joy is
the ground of its first assent, and of its first delighted smile ;
but the actual confirmation of the truth proceeds from its ac
cordance with numerous reasons, confirmed by experience by
means of the sciences, and each point of which accordance
receives a similar assent, — the mind going onwards the while,
with assiduous attention and pains, by the analytic way, or
from effects to causes. In addition to these delights there are
still more universal signs, — as the desire and the passion for
attaining truth, and the love of the truth attained, not for the
sake of our own advantage, but for that of the advantage of
human society ; and neither for the glory of ourselves or of

I58 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
society, but of the Supreme Divinity alone. This is the only
way to truths : other things as means, which are infinite, God
Omnipotent provides."
Inquiring, then, into the ends, or purposes of the provision
by which it is ordained that man should ascend from lowest
and outermost to highest and innermost, he unfolds them
comprehensively, concluding with these, — "that in this ulti
mate circle of nature we may receive the wonders of the
world, and as we ascend the steps and ladders of intelligence
receive still greater wonders, in all their significance and with
full vision ; and that at length we may comprehend by faith
those profound miracles that cannot be comprehended by the
intellect ; and from all these things, in the deep hush of awe
and amazement, venerate and adore the omnipotence and
providence of the Supreme Creator ; and thus, in the con
templation of Him, regard as vanity everything that we leave
behind us. . . . The last end, which also is the first, is that
our minds, at length become forms of intelligence and inno
cence, may constitute a spiritual heaven, a kingdom of God,
or a holy society, in which the end of creation may be re
garded by God, and by which God may be regarded as the
end of ends. From infinite wisdom, added to equal power,
and this to equal providence, such perpetual end flows con
stantly, from the first end to the last, and from the last to the
first, through the intermediate ends, that declare the glory of
the Divinity." To this he adds in a note, "I shall treat of
these subjects, by the blessing of God, in the last of my
analytic Parts. But as yet we are dwelling in the mere effects
of the world, which exhibit the amazing and Divine circle of
these ends before the contemplation of our very senses"
(partii. p. 331-366).
It would be aside from our main duty, were it within our
compass, to follow our author through his analysis of " the
mere effects of the world," of the organs of the body, their
microscopical structure, their inter-relation and function, and
their correspondential relation with the organs and functions

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159

of the mind. Something more we shall have to say of these
studies before we have done ; but what interests us most in
them now is the Divinely ordered preparation effected by
them in Swedenborg's own mind, and in the whole circle of
minds connected with his, — a circle not limited by his vision
nor by his age, — for comprehending the mysteries of the
Lord's presence and dealings with men. In view of this we
do not care to dwell on the scientific value of the works, but
will simply say that they were based on the investigations of
the great anatomists of their day ; and that, by the author's
philosophic informing power, and from his point of view of
the life inflowing from the soul, the perusal of them is like
looking with sympathetic penetrating eyes into the living
body, full of beauty, energy, and motion, — in place of dis
secting the cadaver. This is why many secrets of the human
frame of later discovery are anticipated in these pages, though
together with them, at least in the earlier " Economy " may
be found some errors of fact.
With one more specimen of its style and drift, we must-
conclude our extracts from what was published by our author
of The Animal Kingdom : —
" As the blood is continually making its circle of life, that
is to say, is in a constant revolution of birth and death ; as
it dies in its old age, and is regenerated or born anew ; and
as the veins solicitously gather together the whole of its cor
poreal part, and the lymphatics of its spirituous part, and
successively bring it back, refect it with new chyle, and restore
it to the pure and youthful blood ; and as the kidneys con
stantly purge it of impurities, and restore its pure parts to the
blood, — so likewise man, who lives at once in body and spirit
while he lives in the blood, must undergo the same fortunes
generally, and in the progress of his regeneration must daily
do the like. Such a perpetual symbolical representation is
there of spiritual life in corporeal life ; as likewise a per
petual typical representation of the soul in the body. In
this consists the searching of the heart and the reins, which

l60 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
is a thing purely Divine." [Note.] "In our Doctrine of
Representations and Correspondences, we shall treat of both
these symbolical and typical representations, and of the as
tonishing things which occur, I will not say in the living
body only, but throughout nature, and which correspond
so entirely to supreme and spiritual things that one would
swear that the physical world is purely symbolical of the
spiritual world, — insomuch that if we choose to express any
natural truth in physical and definite vocal terms, and to con
vert these terms only into the corresponding spiritual terms,
we shall by this means elicit a sphitual truth or theological
dogma, in place of the physical truth or precept ; although
no mortal would have predicted that anything of the kind
could possibly arise by bare literal transposition, inasmuch
as the one precept, considered separately from the other,
appears to have absolutely no relation to it. I intend here
after to communicate a number of examples of such corre
spondences, together with a vocabulary containing the terms
of spiritual things, as well as of the physical things for which
they are to be substituted. This symbolism pervades the
living body ; and I have chosen simply to indicate it here, for
the purpose of pointing out the spiritual meaning of searching
the reins" (part i. p. 451).
Of the principles involved in this treatment of the subject,
Dr. Wilkinson well says, in the Introductory Remarks to his
translation of The Animal Kingdom, —
"The Doctrine of Series and Degrees, in conjunction with
that of Correspondence and Representation, teaches that
there is a universal analogy between all the spheres of crea
tion, material, mental, and spiritual ; and also between nature
and all things in human society. The circulation of uses in
the body perfectly represents the free intercourse of man with
man, and the free interchange of commodities between nation
and nation. The operations that go on in the body analogi
cally involve all the departments of human industry ; nay, and
infinitely more, both in subdivision, unity, and perfection.

TREATISE ON THE BRAIN. l6l
There is not an art or trade, whether high or low, so long as
it be of good use, but the Creator Himself has adopted and
professed it in the human system. Nay, in the richness of
His pervading love, the very prerogatives of the mind are
representatively applicable to the body. End, cause, and
effect, as existing in Himself, are represented in the latter as
well as in the former. Liberty and rationality, the universal
principles of humanity, are transplanted by analogy from the
mind into the body. It presents an analogon of liberty, in
that every organ, part, and particle can successfully exercise
an attraction for those fluids that are adapted to its life and
uses ; of rationality, in that it acts as though it took cogni
zance of the adaptability, and operates upon the materials
demanded and supplied in such a manner as will best secure
the well-being of itself and of the whole system."
In addition to what Swedenborg himself published of The
Animal Kingdom, several parts have been published in Ger
many and England, from time to time ; and now, with amaz
ing industry and much skill, the Rev. R. L. Tafel has deci
phered and translated all of the manuscripts left by Sweden
borg on the brain. From these, together with some matter
on the same subject already printed, and copious confirma
tory notes drawn from later writers, he has in course of pub
lication three thick octavo volumes, constituting a complete
treatise on the anatomy and functions of the brain, which,
we have the authority of experts for saying, is full of vital
suggestion supported by recent researches, so far as these
extend.1 Of its theory Dr. Wilkinson says, —
" Doctrine is the ever-potent father of Swedenborg's the
ory, — the doctrine, namely, that there is a God, who is a
Creator; and that God is the Author of the human soul;
and that He made the living soul to be creative in its own
finite sphere ; and further, that the soul, in order to embody
itself, under God immanent made the brain, which is thus the
1 Tlie Brain, Considered Anatomically, Physiologically, and Philosophically.
Vol. i. James Speirs, London, 1S82. ,
II

1 62 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
anthropoplasm of the human frame upon earth. The brain,
from its first principles, conceived, through the Divine wisdom
by the soul in it, all the details of its own form, fitting it to be
the abode of the mind in all its faculties. . . . The soul also,
which makes the brain mechanic, inventive, contriving for it
self, imprints upon it with the form of motion also the power ;
and in an order and determination stupendous like the gal
axies of heaven, it commands a universal motion as the pulse
and radiance of a universal life. And as there can be no
motion without a corresponding and adequate something
moved, there are fluids which are so eminent and so ordinate
that they can be embrained and ensouled, and give life to the
avenues of the brain, to the body and the blood."
But let us hear Swedenborg himself : —
" The soul is properly the universal essence of its body.
The soul is the only thing substantial and essential in its
body. From it are derived and born all the substances and
essences which are called composite and corporeal. For what
can truly be, unless it be from a thing prior, more simple and
more unique, which is the beginning of the rest ? That which
gives to others being and existence, must itself be. It can
not be produced from modes, accidents, and qualities without
a subject and form, and consequently without a real essence
and substance. The soul also is peculiar or proper, and there
is not one universal soul for all ; so that the soul of one can
not belong to the body of another ; for — what is to be de
monstrated, namely — the very form of the body is the result
of its essential determination, or the body itself represents the
soul as it were in an image  The higher or highest universal
essence is the soul, the lower is the animal spirit, and the third
the blood. The highest essence imparts being, the power of
acting and life to the lower, this imparts the same in a like
manner to the lowest ; the lowest, consequently, exists and
subsists from the first by means of the middle. . . . The de
terminations of the highest universal essence of the bodily
system are those fibres which are the simplest of all, and which

ON THE SOUL.

163

are like rays of the soul, and the first designations of forms.
The determinations of the lower universal essence are those
fibres which are derived from the most simple ; but those
of the lowest are the arterial and venous vessels. As the
essences, so also the determinations are in turn derived from
one another, the higher imparting being to the lower. From
these determinations, or from these determining essences, all
the organic viscera, and consequently the whole bodily sys
tem, is woven and formed " (p. 65).
" It is the cerebrum through which the intercourse between
the soul and the body is established; for it is as it were the link
and the uniting medium. From what follows, it will appear
that the soul is in the cerebrum as it were in its heaven and
Olympus, although it is essentially everywhere, and present in
every individual part. In the cerebrum, however, is formed
as it were its court and palace chamber, from which it looks
around on all things belonging to it, and determines them
into act in agreement with its intuition " (p. 67).
One other section of the manuscript left by Swedenborg as
a part of The Animal Kingdom, under the head of " Rational
Psychology," x we must not pass without notice. In truth,
if we should give the substance of it as the climax of our
author's studies into the nature of man, of his soul, and of its
relation to the Creator, not a reader but would say, Well
done, wise and excellent Swedenborg; you have not lived
and studied in vain. Indeed, we know very well that many
would praise loudly these essays on the various motives and
faculties of the body and mind and soul, written in Sweden
borg's own name, who feel constrained to be chary of their
commendation of what he afterwards published as not of his
own wisdom. But for the same reason that our author him
self laid these writings aside, while he devoted all his time
and means to the publication of what he perceived to be
from Heaven, we must follow his example and save our
1 Published in 1849 by Dr. J. F. I. Tafel, in its original incomplete form,
under the title of Regnum Animate, pars vii. De Anima.

1 64 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
readers' appetite for the later and better works. We must
not wait till they have well drunk, even of the pure water of
the earlier supply, but must hasten to pour out for them this
same water after it has become wine. We will but give a
sip, and then pass on.
" All souls are purely spiritual forms. Thus all minds and
their loves are purely spiritual, whether they are good or evil ;
for a spirit, whether good or evil, is still purely spirit, or purely
mind, and has purely spiritual — that is, universal — loves, in
which are contained the principles of lower and purely natural
loves. A good angel, as also an evil angel or devil, is purely
spirit; and the loves of each are purely spiritual, — but with
the difference, that, whatever a good spirit loves, the evil spirit
hates and loves its opposite" (p. 202).
" The first and supreme love of the spirit or soul, and the
most universal, is the love of Being above itself, from which
it has drawn and continually draws its essence; in which,
through which, and on account of which it is and lives. This
love is the first of all, because nothing can exist and subsist
from itself except God, who exists in Himself, and alone is
He who is. Because the soul feels this in itself, that supreme
love is also inborn in it, and thus is the very Divine love
within us. There is also given a love directly opposite to
this, though also spiritual and supreme, which is hatred of any
power or being above itself. This love is called diabolical ;
from it is known what the quality of good love is, and from
the good, what the quality of evil love is " (p. 203).
" The Divine Providence takes especial care that individ
uals shall be distinct, one from another, since it is the very
end of creation that a most perfect society of souls may exist.
. . . As, then, no soul is absolutely like another, but some
difference or diversity of state exists between all, this has not
obtained merely for the sake of distinguishing one from an
other, but to the end that the most perfect form of society
might exist from the variety. And in such a form there must
needs be not only a difference among all, but such a differ-

ON THE SOUL. 1 65
ence, or variety, as that all the individuals may come together
in harmony, so as to form together a society in which nothing
shall be wanting that is not found in some one. . . . This
harmonic variety, however, does not consist in the outward
variety of souls, but in their spiritual variety, of love towards
God and towards their neighbor; for the state of the soul
concerns only its spiritual state, how it may be nearest to its
God. When any shade of variety is wanting, some place
in heaven may be said to be as yet vacant ; so that all the
differences, or varieties, are to be filled up before the form
can exist in full perfection.
" But whether there are to be many societies, and, as it
were, many heavens, of which the universal society will con
sist, which is called the kingdom of God, we seem also able to
conclude ; for every variety, even spiritual, involves an order,
with subordination and co-ordination. . . . For when the
form of rule is most perfect, it is of necessity that all societies
should produce a general harmony together, as the individual
members produce a particular harmony in each society.
"This is called the kingdom of God, in heaven, but on
earth, the seminary of that kingdom, the very city of God,
which is not joined to any certain religion or church, but is
distributed through the whole world; for God elects His
members out of all, that is, of those who had actually loved
God above themselves, and theh neighbors as themselves.
For this is the law of all laws : in this culminate all laws,
Divine and natural; all the rest are but means leading to
this" (p. 243).
" Such a society cannot exist without its Head or Prince ;
that is to say, without Him who has been man, without blame
and without offence, victor over all affections of the mind,
virtue itself and piety itself, and the love of God above one's
self, and the love of the companion and neighbor, and thus
Divinity in Himself, — in whom the whole society should be
represented, and through whom the members of the society
might come to His will. Without such a king of souls, the

1 66 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
society might be gathered and exist in vain. This also follows
necessarily from the conceded form of rule, from the differ
ence of state of each member, and from the approach to God
through love. For that form must be determined by the
purer of every degree, consequently by the purest, who has
been without sin, that is, by our Saviour and Preserver, Jesus
Christ, in whom alone we can by faith and love draw near
to the Divine Throne " (p. 246).
To review Swedenborg's labors as a philosopher : —
We find him coming into the field in the Augustan age
of philosophy, when human reason had gone as far as of its
own power it could go in the search for the soul and the
Infinite ; when its next step was to be either a plunge into
materialism and unbelief, or a confession of its own impo
tence and a submission to something above itself. We find
him seizing upon all the vantage ground that had been
gained, from Plato and Aristotle to Leibnitz and Locke ; by
the deduction of idealism and the induction of realism plac
ing in order the already vast accumulations of science ; with
the aid of the microscope and of the telescope reading the
Book of Nature, for the purpose of learning the steps by
which the power of the Highest descends, in order that the
soul might remount by them to His contemplation ; not of
its own strength, but submissively to His Word, trusting to
His leading hand, and hearkening to His guiding Spirit.1
Of the steps that thus opened before him, let us bear in
mind these : —
That all of life is in and from the Divine, and that except
from the Divine nought can for a moment exist.
1 " Having thus traced the philosophy of Swedenborg to its highest point, we
may look back for a moment upon his whole method of procedure. Evidently
it is the inductive and synthetic method combined. Commencing by observa
tion, his mind seized upon certain high philosophical axioms ; and from them
reasoned downwards to the nature and uses of particular objects. Perhaps it is
the only attempt the world has seen (with the exception of the unsuccessful
efforts of Comte) at rising upwards to purely philosophical ideas from positive
and concrete facts." — J. D. Morell: Historical and Critical View of Specu
lative Philosophy of Europe in igth Century, i. 320.

STEPS ASCENDING AND DESCENDING.

I67

That the inflowing of life from the Divine is primarily into
forms the most simple, most single, and inmost.
That the descent of life is through successive degrees, one
without and correspondent to another, as the body to the
soul. That the outer degree has its life from the inner, and yet
enjoys a certain freedom of reaction and consent of its
own. That the Divine, by means of its life-giving residence in the
inmost of every minutest thing, rules all things, from greatest
to least.
That, from intimate conjunction with the finite soul, the
Divine has given as it were a derivation of itself, or an in
dwelling of itself, still Divine, as a nexus in the finite.
That the infinite variety in the created universe is for the
sake of a most perfect whole, in which there may be a special
place and use for every individual.
That this variety is determined by an order of series and
degrees, in which there is perfect co-ordination and subordi
nation. That there is thus a subordination of ends, and everything
subserves the final end.
That the final end is a universal society of human souls,
composed of smaller societies in co-ordination and subordi
nation, with infinite variety tending to a most perfect whole.
That this universal society, or heaven, is of necessity ruled
and ordered by Him who is at once God and perfect Man,
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
It is by these steps that Swedenborg — accepting with the
idealists the certainty of intuitive, interior perceptions ; with
the materialists the reality of outward impressions — learned
to connect them and to mount securely into assurance of
Divine things, even of Revelation and of the Incarnation.
Little do we realize who drink in his theology as our mother's
milk, in what laborious intellectual discipline its philosophic
foundation was laid. Meanwhile materialists still study only

1 68 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES.
outward phenomena, ignoring hidden causes. Rationalists
still discuss mental processes, as if in them lay all the world.
But in Germany, under Providence, a new school of thinkers
has sprung up, who, thoroughly trained in philosophic reason
ing, have yet the Christian theology for their abiding faith.
To this school we are indebted, on the one hand, for the
affirmative tone which German philosophy is gradually as
suming, and, on the other, for the amelioration, or philosophic
interpretation, that for half a century has been quietly steal
ing over the dogmatic thought of Calvinistic, Lutheran, and
even Roman Catholic theologians. That Swedenborg's steps
in philosophy are not the steps taken by this school, any
more than his steps in science are the steps taken by the
modern school of science, need not surprise us.1 Neither
do they lead to precisely the same end. But the parallelism
in the conclusions reached is so striking, that it is becoming
more and more difficult every day to point out clearly the
distinction between the doctrine of Swedenborg and that of
these modern theologians, authors of what they themselves
call regenerated theology. Essential distinctions, however,
exist and, we may safely say, will continue to exist, though
of decreasing importance, till all together can recognize in
Swedenborg the expounder of the Doctrine that was to
come. This Doctrine Swedenborg, studying the Revelation
in Nature, saw as yet but through a glass darkly : his eyes
needed to be touched by the Divine Hand in order that, in
the Revelation of the Holy Word, they might see clearly.
1 Notwithstanding what Mr. Emerson has said in his Representative Men
(p. 112), — " He must be reckoned a leader in that evolution which, by giving to
science an idea, has given to an aimless accumulation of experiments guid
ance and form and a beating heart," — it would be difficult to show that scien
tific men have taken many steps under Swedenborg's leadership. But see
Appendix XI.

CHAPTER VIII.
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION.
Hitherto Swedenborg's labors have been devoted to the
unfolding of the Divine Revelation in the Book of Nature, by
means of experiment, analysis, and the exercise of reason,
under such guidance as he was prepared to receive of the
Spirit of Truth. In these labors we have observed the ample
training of the reasoning faculty, coming to maturity, with its
increasing acknowledgment of dependence on the light of
the Sun of heaven. We are now to learn the preparation
of heart yet necessary, in order that the submission to the
guidance of the Spirit of Truth may become so entire as to fit
him for unfolding the Divine Revelation in the written Word.
The groundwork of this preparation we may recognize in
the "Rules of Life," which Sandel found, as he says in his
eulogy, "in more than one place among his manuscripts,''
and which may be commended to every one who would fulfil
the duties of this life and prepare for life in the kingdom
of heaven : —
"i. Diligently to read and meditate upon the Word of
God. " 2. To be content under the dispensations of God's
Providence. " 3. To observe a propriety of behavior, and to preserve
the conscience pure.
" 4. To obey what is commanded, to attend faithfully to
one's office and other duties, and in addition to make one's
self useful to society in general."
As marking the progress of the preparation, we find in
his philosophical works; besides the growing humility and

170 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION.
reverence that illumine the pages, some plain statements,
drawn we cannot doubt from his sphitual experience. In
the part of The Animal Kingdom treating of the soul, he
says, —
"To change the disposition is to change the very nature.
To change a good disposition into an evil one is compar
atively easy ; but to change an evil one into a good is
more difficult. This can in no way be effected, except by
means of the rational mind and its understanding, whether
the understanding be our own, or derived from faith, or per
suaded by authority. Nor is the nature changed unless we
become averse to evils and abhor them, and never lead our
mind back into the former state ; and unless whenever it slips
back, we snatch it out, from the liberty given, and come into
the state which agrees with the more perfect love. Nor even
so is it changed unless we remain a long while in this state,
and meet the other with force and violence, clothing ourselves
with the opposite new state by constant works and practices
of virtues, and so continuing until it has become a second
nature and expelled, as it were, the other nature, — so that,
whenever the old nature returns, we perceive that it must be
resisted. In this way and no other we can put off the evil
nature and put on a good nature ; but it is very difficult in
this life without grace and Divine help."
These we feel to be the words of experience, of long and
successful labor. But what is here described is only the
reformation of the natural mind, or disposition. After this it
is necessary that the natural mind should so far submit as to
suffer the spiritual mind to flow in with its own loves.
"To this," Swedenborg says, "the intellect, unless from
what is revealed, contributes nothing; but faith springing
from God does the work. And so, His will being invoked,
His spirit flows into the soul and changes its state, or perfects
it ;- but the work is one of long discipline, if the soul is evil,
that it may become good. . . . Hence it is plain how diffi
cult it is to turn an evil soul into a good one, and that this is

REGENERATION.

171

of the Divine grace alone, though there must be persevering
application on the part of man." x
What is here described, though in the terms of his Psycho
logy, we cannot fail to recognize as the regeneration of water
and of the spirit. The description is that of experience,
already, we may believe, far advanced. What was yet needed
for its completion we are now to see. But we may well
pause to consider how little we have ourselves accomplished,
even of the reformation of the natural disposition, and how
little we know in our own experience of the total regenera
tion sought by Swedenborg. This deep regeneration, though
with his consent and co-operation, was being effected by the
Lord for a purpose to him unknown. A few years later, he
wrote, —
"What the acts of my life involved I could not distinguish
at the time they happened, but by the Divine mercy of God
Messiah I was afterwards informed with regard to some, even
many particulars. From these I was at last able to see that
the Divine Providence governed the acts of my life unin
terruptedly from my very youth, and directed them in such a
manner that by means of the knowledge of natural things I
was enabled to reach a state of intelligence, and thus by the
Divine mercy of God Messiah, to serve as an instrument for
opening those things which are hidden interiorly in the Word
of God Messiah." (Adv. hi. 8392.)
Still later, Nov. n, 1766, he wrote to Oetinger, —
" I was introduced by the Lord into the natural sciences,
and thus prepared, and indeed from the year 1710 to 1744,
when heaven was opened to me." And this he said was for
the purpose, —
" That the spiritual things which are being revealed at the
present day may be taught and understood naturally and
rationally; for spiritual truths have a correspondence with
natural truths, because in these they terminate, and upon
these they rest. . . . The Lord has granted me besides to
1 De Anima, pp. 21S-220. 2 The references are now to Numbers.

172 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION.
love truths in a sphitual manner, — that is, to love them, not
for the sake of honor, nor for the sake of gain, but for the
sake of the truths themselves ; for he who loves truths for
the sake of truth, sees them from the Lord, because the
Lord is the Way and the Truth."
For a better understanding of this love of truth for the
sake of truth, and of its effects, we will here quote a passage
or two, from Swedenborg's Arcana Ccelestia, and more by
and by : —
" Doctrine is to be drawn from the Word, and while it is
being drawn man must be in illustration from the Lord ; and
he is in illustration when in the love of truth for the sake of
truth, not for the sake of self and the world. These are they
who are illustrated in the Word when they read it, and see
truth, and therefrom form for themselves doctrine. The rea
son is, because such men communicate with heaven, thus with
the Lord, and so, being illustrated from the Lord, they are
led to see the truths of the Word as they are in heaven ; for
the Lord flows in through heaven into their understandings,
the interior understanding being what is illustrated. The
Lord at the same time flows in with faith, by means of the co
operation of the new will, to which it belongs to be affected
with truth for the sake of truth." x (A. C. 9424.)
"The Lord speaks with the man of the Church in no
other way than by means of the Word, for He then illustrates
man, so that he may see the truth ; and He also gives per
ception, so that man may perceive that it is so. But this
takes place according to the quality or the desire of truth
with man, and the desire of truth with man is according to
the love of it. They who love truth for the sake of truth are
in illustration, and they who love truth for the sake of good
are in perception." (A. C. 10,290.)
Again he says of his own preparation, —
1 Swedenborg uses the word " illustrate " [illustrare] in the sense of filling
with light. The translations sometimes give "illumine," and sometimes "en
lighten," for the same word, with the same meaning.

DREAMS.

173

"I was once asked how from a philosopher I became
a theologian; and I answered, 'In the same manner that
fishers were made disciples and apostles by the Lord, and I
also from early youth had been a spiritual fisher.' On hearing
this, the inquirer asked what a spiritual fisher was. I replied
that a fisher, in the spiritual sense of the Word, signifies a
man who investigates and teaches natural truths, and after
wards spiritual truths in a rational manner. . . . On hearing
this, my interrogator raised his voice and said, ' Now I can
understand why the Lord called and chose fishers to be His
disciples ; and so I do not wonder that He has also called
and chosen you, since, as you have said, you were from early
youth a fisher in a spiritual sense, that is, an investigator of
natural truths ; the "reason that you are now become an in
vestigator of spiritual truths is because these are founded on
the other.'" (Int. S. & B. 20.)
Of the manifestation to him of the Divine purpose, and
of further steps necessary in preparation, we now learn many
things from his Spiritual Diary : —
"During several years," he notes, Aug. 27, 1748, "not
only had I dreams by which I was informed about the things
on which I was writing, but I experienced also changes of
state, there being a certain extraordinary light in what was
written. Afterwards I had many visions with closed eyes,
and light was given me in a miraculous manner. There was
also an influx from spirits, as manifest to the sense as if it had
been into the senses of the body ; there were infestations in
various ways by evil spirits, when I was in temptations ; and
afterwards, when writing anything to which the spirits had
an aversion, I was almost possessed by them, so as to feel
something like a tremor. Flamy lights were seen [confirming
what was written] and conversations heard in the early morn
ing, besides many other things." "For nearly three years,"
he writes in August, 1747, "I have been allowed to perceive
and notice the operation of spirits, not by a sort of internal
sight, but by a .sensation which is associated with a sort of

174 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION.
obscure sight, by which I noticed their presence, which was
various, their approach and departure, besides many other
things." For some years his dreams had been growing more re
markable and more significant, so that he had been led to
keep a record of them. The earlier records, beginning as early
as 1736, were cut from his "Diary" for preservation in the
family, and now are lost ; but there is still preserved a minute
account of those that he had at Amsterdam and London in
the spring and summer of 1744, the critical period of his
spiritual experience, together with a brief memorandum of the
dreams that came to him in the previous December, when he
had gone from Amsterdam to the Hague. These dreams were
personal and private, involving often dire temptations, and
signifying to him many things about his studies and his states,
by representations which without such understanding would
be meaningless or repulsive. They were not recorded for any
one's use but his own, and yet to the student of Swedenborg's
progress they occasionally afford valuable aid. For instance,
in this December he notes, —
" I wondered at myself that I had not, so far as my own
consciousness told me, any concern remaining for my own
honor, and that I was no longer inclined to the other sex as
I had been all my life long."
By this inclination which now ceased, we are of course
to understand, not the spiritual affection which belongs to
the spiritual man, but the natural inclination which is of
self, akin to the "self-interest and self-love in my work"
that he again wonders at being delivered from, and which
must needs be left behind on approaching the gates of
heaven. The natural disposition is submitting to be ruled
by the spiritual mind from the Lord, as he about this time
described ; yet he did not yield up his natural will, which
was necessarily strong in a man of his power, without many
a painful struggle. He notes the same month, —
" How I opposed myself to the Spirit ; and how I then en-

RESISTING THE SPIRIT.

175

joyed this, but afterwards found that it was nonsense, without
life and coherence ; and that consequently a great deal of
what I had written, in proportion as I had rejected the power
of the Spirit, was of that description ; and, indeed, that thus
all the faults are my own, but the truths are not my own.
Sometimes indeed I became impatient and thought I would
rebel, if all did not go on with the ease I desired, after I no
longer did anything for my own sake. [And again] I found
my unworthiness less, and gave thanks for the grace."
This is interesting in connection with the fact that in the
Economy of the Animal Kingdom, published three years
before, we find some material statements which have been
disproved by later researches ; while in The Animal King
dom, which he was now preparing for the press, nothing of
importance is found that does not stand the test of time. It
is noteworthy also that near this period he appends to some
of his manuscripts the remark, " These things are true, for I
have the sign," x — by which we understand him to mean the
flamy sign that appeared to him as a confirmation of what
was true. To others again he appends, on stating what he
is going to do, " So I seem ordered."
Still his struggles go on : —
" How I resisted the power of the Holy Spirit, and what
took place afterwards. The hideous spectres which I saw,
without life, — they were terrible ; although bound, they kept
moving in their bands. They were in company with an ani
mal, by which I and not the child was attacked. It seemed
to me as if I were lying on a mountain, below which was an
abyss ; knots were on it. I was lying there trying to hold
myself up, holding on to a knot, without foothold, and an
abyss underneath. This signifies that I desire to rescue my
self from the abyss, which yet is not possible."
That is to say, as we understand, the abyss of natural, sel
fish will, out of which we are to be rescued by the Divine
grace, but not possibly by our own power. In March he
1 See P/wtolith vi. at bottom of p. 318, on the " Corpuscular Philosophy."

I76 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION.
dreams again of the abyss, into which there is danger of fall
ing unless he receive help.
In April, " the day before Easter, I experienced nothing the
whole night, although I repeatedly woke up ; I thought that
all was past and gone, and that I had been either forsaken or
exiled. About morning it seemed to me as if I were riding,
and as if I had had the direction pointed out. It was however
dark, and when I looked I found that I had gone astray on
account of the darkness ; but then it brightened up and I saw
how I had gone wrong, and I noticed the way and the forests
and groves which I was to go through, and also heaven behind
them, and then I awoke. My thoughts then of their own ac
cord turned upon this, and afterwards on the other life, and it
seemed to me as if everything was full of grace. I burst in
to tears at having not loved, but rather provoked, Him who
had led me and pointed out the way to the kingdom of grace ;
and also at my being unworthy of acceptance by grace."
"Easter was on the 5th of April, when I went to the Lord's
table. Temptation still continued, most in the afternoon, till
six o'clock ; but it assumed no definite form. It was an
anxiety felt at being condemned and in hell ; but in this feel
ing the hope given by the Holy Spirit, according to Paul's
epistle to the Romans, v. 5, remained strong. ... I was
assured that my sins were forgiven, and yet I could not con
trol my wandering thoughts so as to restrain some expressions
opposed to my better judgment : I was by permission under
the influence of the Evil One. The temptation was assuaged
by prayer and the Word of God : faith was there in its en
tirety, but confidence and love seemed to be gone."
After describing a terrible conflict that followed with a
snake, changing to a dog, in a dream, he adds, —
" From this may be seen the nature of the temptation, and,
on the other hand, the greatness of God's grace by the merit
of Christ and the operation of the Holy Spirit, to whom be
glory forever and ever. The idea at once struck me how
great the grace of the Lord is, who accounts and appropriates

TEMPTATIONS.

177

to us our resistance in temptation, although it is purely God's
grace, and is His and not our work ; and He overlooks our
weaknesses in it, which yet must be manifold. I thought also
of the great glory our Lord dispenses after a brief period of
tribulation. . . . Afterwards I awoke and slept again many
times, and all was in answer to my thoughts ; yet so that in
everything there was such life and glory that I can give no
description of it ; for it was all heavenly, clear to me at the
time, but afterwards inexpressible. In short I was in heaven,
and I heard a language which no human tongue can utter
with its inherent life, nor the glory and inmost delight result
ing from it. Besides, while I was awake I was in a heavenly
ecstasy which is also indescribable. . . . Praise and honor
and glory be to the Highest ! hallowed be His Name ! Holy,
Holy, Lord God of Hosts !"
By'this means, he says, "I learned by experience the mean
ing of this, — not to love the angels more than God ; as they
had nearly overthrown the whole work. In comparison with
our Lord no attention must be paid to them, that is, to them
in respect to the help they can render, — since their love is
far lower than His. By some rays of light in me I found that
it would be the greatest happiness to become a martyr ; for,
on beholding inexpressible grace combined with love to God,
a desire was kindled in me to undergo this torture, which is
nothing compared with eternal torment ; and [a sense] that
the least of the things that one can offer is his life. . . '. This
took place in the night between Easter Sunday and Easter
Monday." Here we see the inward depth of the temptation and re
generation which Swedenborg was now undergoing. All his
previous efforts were external in comparison, and futile. In
deed he is learning the inefficacy and error of all merely
human efforts for goodness, even those of the angels them
selves. And all this was to the end that he might yield him
self wholly into the Lord's hands, and become His humble,
faithful servant, with a new heart and a new spirit. Nor was

I78 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION.
his personal regeneration all that was at stake. The great
question as to how regeneration is accomplished was to be
experimentally solved and intelligently comprehended. From
the time of the Christian Fathers it had become more and
more misunderstood. The Roman Cathohc Church taught
that it was effected by baptism, and confirmed by good works.
The Reformed Churches had adopted the same belief in bap
tism, as regeneration, for those who should receive faith, as the
elect, — denying that men can do anything about it. For the
implanting of a new, true, interior Church, it was essential
that the real means of regeneration should be understood.
Swedenborg, by inheritance, was a mild Lutheran. By expe
rience he now learns that neither has baptism regenerated,
nor his own labor in reformation ; that he is in danger of the
abyss from deep natural tendency to sin; that the Lord's
merit cannot be imputed to him, and so effect his salvation ;
but that to be saved, he must see and confess his sinfulness,
be distressed on account of it, pray to the Lord for the grace
of forgiveness, making every possible effort of resistance to
evil, and all with the acknowledgment that both the prayer
and the effort are not his own, but given from the Lord alone.
The process, indeed, is not essentially different from that we
have seen already sketched in The Animal Kingdom ; but it is
now being accomplished in interior degrees, far beyond what
Swedenborg had imagined. And here it should be remarked
that the term "regeneration" is applicable to several distinct
degrees of the mind, of which the more interior are opened and
regenerated with comparatively few. Of this we shall learn
more in the arcana cxlestia of the first chapter of Genesis.
And as each successive degree is nearer to the Lord, His
presence and agency in its regeneration become more clearly
seen ; or, in other words, each successive approach to the
Lord brings a new consciousness of interior tendency to sin,
which must needs be deplored and submitted to Him, and a
deeper consciousness that all the power of deliverance is from
Him alone.

TEMPTATIONS.

179

To continue our extracts from the note-book of dreams :
"April 6 and 7. In the evening I came into another
kind of temptation. . . . While I was reading God's miracles
wrought through Moses, it seemed to me as if something of
my own understanding was mixed up with it, so that I was
not able to have so strong a faith as I ought. I believed, and
yet did not believe. I thought that for this reason angels
and God appeared to shepherds, and not to a philosopher,
who allows his understanding to come into play, which would
keep leading him to ask why God used the wind when He
called the locusts together; why He hardened Pharaoh's
heart, and did not work directly, — with other like things
which I thought of, and the effect of which was such that my
faith was not firm. I looked upon the fire, and said to my
self, ' In this case neither ought I to believe that the fire is,
since the external senses are more fallacious than what God
says, which is the Truth itself; I ought rather to believe this
than myself.' With these and other similar thoughts I passed
ah hour, or an hour and a half, and in my mind was engaged
with the Tempter."
The temptation was clearly an effort of the evil spirits to
prevent his giving up his heart to the Divine Will, under the
specious plea that in so doing he would have to resign his
powers of understanding, in which his natural confidence and
pleasure were great. The occasion of this effort of the spirits
who had hitherto flattered his self-confidence, appears plainly
from what follows : —
" I must observe that on the same day I had gone to Delft,
and had had the grace of being engaged in profound spiritual
thought, — my thoughts being more profound and beautiful
than they had ever been before, and indeed during the
whole day. This was the work of the Spirit, who had been
with me.
"At ten o'clock I went to bed, and in little more than half
an hour afterwards I heard a noise under my head. I then
thought that the Tempter was gone. Immediately afterwards

l80 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION.
a tremor came over me, powerfully affecting me from the
head over the whole body, accompanied by some sound.
This was repeated several times. I felt that something holy
had come over me. I then fell asleep, and about midnight
or a little later in the night a most powerful tremor seized
me from head to foot, with a sound like the concourse of
many winds. By this sound, which was indescribable, I was
shaken and thrown on my face ; while, at the moment I
was thus thrown down, I became wide awake, and I then
saw that I had been prostrated. I wondered what all this
meant, and then spoke, as if I were awake. I noticed, how
ever, that these words were put into my mouth : ' O Thou
Almighty Jesus Christ, who of Thy great mercy deignest to
come to so great a sinner, make me worthy of this grace ! '
I lifted up my hands and prayed, when a hand came and
strongly pressed my hands. I then continued my prayer and
said, ' O Thou who hast promised to receive in mercy all sin
ners, Thou canst not otherwise than keep this Thy word ! ' I
lay on His bosom and looked at Him face to face. It was a
countenance with a holy expression, and so that it cannot be
described. It was also smiling, and I really believe that His
countenance was such during His life on earth."
With this remarkable narration we should bear in mind
Swedenborg's later account of the manner in which the Lord
at times appears in personal presence to spirits and angels,
and at rare intervals to men, — that it is not in His own
proper person, which is too holy and infinite for near ap
proach, but in the person of an angel, so filled for the time
being with the Spirit of the Lord that the angel's own spirit
is superseded, and his face shines with the Divine radiance.
Compare the angel's appearance to John in vision, now as
the Lord Himself and again as an angel, his fellow-servant.
This is evidently the nature of Swedenborg's present vision,
or rather dream, for it occurred during sleep, and involved
some of the incongruities of expression that are so familiar
in dreams. Yet, as showing the process of Swedenborg's

DIVINE GRACE. t^I
sphitual preparation, it is most valuable to us, as it was
most memorable to him. The record continues : —
" He addressed me, and asked if I had a sound-health pass
[the assurance of a clean heart]. I answered, 'O Lord,
Thou knowest better than I ; ' when He said, ' Do it then ! '
This, as I perceived in my mind, signified, ' Love Me really,'
or, ' Do what thou hast promised.' O God, impart to me
grace for this ! I perceived that I could not do it by my
own strength. I now awoke in a tremor. I again came into
such a state that, whether asleep or awake, I was in a train of
thought. I thought, 'What can this mean? Has it been
Christ, the Son of God, whom I have seen ? But it is sinful
in me to doubt this.' As we are, however, commanded to try
the spirits, I reflected on everything; and from what had
happened the previous night I perceived that during the
whole of that night I had been purified and encompassed
and preserved by the Holy Spirit, and thus had been pre
pared for this purpose ; and then that I had fallen on my
face : and I thought of the words I had uttered, and con
sidered that the prayer did not come from me, but that
the words were put into my mouth, yet so that it was I who
spoke ; and further that all was holy. From all this I per
ceived that it was the Son of God Himself who had descend
ed with such a sound, by which I had been prostrated on the
floor ; who made the prayer, and thereby declared that He
was Jesus. I prayed for grace, because I had so long enter
tained doubts on the subject, and because it had entered into
my thoughts to demand a miracle, which I now found was
unbecoming. Thereupon I began to pray, and prayed only ¦
for grace, — more I could not utter ; but afterwards I added
to this prayer, and prayed that I might receive love, which is
Jesus Christ's work and not my own. In the mean time
tremors often passed over me.
"About day-break I fell asleep again, and then I had con
tinually in my thought how Christ conjoins Himself to man
kind. Holy thoughts came, but they were of such a nature

1 82 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION.
as to be unfathomable, for I cannot express with my pen the
least part of those things which happened. I only know that
I have had such thoughts. . . .
" I must not forget that it also entered into my thoughts
that the Holy Spirit desired to lead me to Jesus, and present
me to Him as a work that had been prepared by Him [the
Holy Spirit] ; and that I must not claim anything to my
self, but that all is His, although of grace He appropriates
it to us. . . .
"This much have I learned thus far in spiritual things, that
there is nothing for it but to humble one's self, and with all
humility to desire nothing but the grace of Christ. I strove
from my own self to obtain love ; but this is presumptuous, for
when any one has God's grace, he leaves himself to Christ's
pleasure, and acts according to His pleasure. A person is
happiest when he is in God's grace. With the humblest
prayer I had to ask forgiveness before my conscience could
be appeased ; for, before doing so, I was still in temptation.
The Holy Spirit taught me all this, but I in my weak under
standing passed over humility, which yet is the foundation
of all."
Here we observe the manner of thought in which Sweden
borg had been educated, — of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, as distinct in person, and of one as mediating
with another. He had not yet learned what he afterwards
taught so long and earnestly, that the Father is in the Son,
and that the Holy Spirit is His Divine operation in men. But
he was beginning to learn by actual experience what he was
soon to teach the world, and what had hitherto been a mys
tery fruitful of unbelief, — how a man can be led in freedom
and reason to accept the will of the Spirit in place of his
natural will, and thus of the Spirit to be born again.
"April 7 and 8. . . . I was also in a temptation where
thoughts invaded me which I could not control ; nay, they
poured in so powerfully that all my other thoughts were kept
under, arid full liberty was given them to resist the power of

DIVINE GRACE.

183

the Spirit, which leads in a different direction. The infesta
tion was indeed so strong that, unless God's grace had been
stronger, I must either have succumbed or become mad.
During that time I could not direct my thoughts to the con
templation of Christ whom I had seen for that brief moment.
The action of the Spirit and its power affected me so that I
almost lost my senses. ... I can compare this only to a
pair of scales, in one of which is our own will and sinful na
ture, and in the other the power of God. These our Lord
disposes in temptation so that they are in a state of equilib
rium ; as soon, then, as it is borne down on this side, He
helps it up again. Such have I found to be the case, speak
ing in a natural manner ; from which it follows that this is far
from being our own power, for that draws the scale down,
and is rather opposed to than co-operating with the Spirit's
power ; and consequently it is entirely our Lord's work, which
is thus disposed by Him. . . . This have I learned, that the
only thing in this state — and I do not know any other — is,
in all humility, to thank God for His grace and to pray for it,
and to recognize our own unworthiness and God's infinite
grace. . . . Afterwards, when various things occurred to me
of which I had thought long ago and which had become
fixed in my mind, it was just as if I had been told that I
had found reasons for excusing myself (this also was a great
temptation for me), or again reasons for attributing to myself
the good that I had done, or rather that was done through
me ; but God's Spirit prevented even this, and caused me to
find it otherwise. This last temptation was severer than the
first, as it went to the innermost ; and to resist it I received
a stronger evidence of the Spirit, for at times I broke into a
perspiration. What then arose in my mind had no longer the
effect of condemning me, for I had a strong assurance that I
had been forgiven ; but the desire came to excuse myself and
make myself free. Very often I burst into tears, not of sor
row, but of inmost joy at our Lord's deigning to be so gra
cious to so unworthy a sinner ; for the sum of all I found to

I84 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION.
be this, that the one thing needful is to cast one's self in all
humility on our Lord's grace, to recognize one's own unwor
thiness, and to thank God in humility for His grace ; for if
there is a feeling of glorification contained in it, the tendency
of which is towards our own honor, — whether it is a glori
fication of God's grace or of anything else, — such a feeling is
impure. ... I found that I was more unworthy than others
and the greatest sinner for this reason, that our Lord has
granted me to penetrate by thought into certain things more
deeply than many others do ; and the very source of sin lies
in the thoughts I am carrying out, so that my sins have on
that account a deeper foundation than those of many others :
and in this I found my unworthiness and my sins greater than
those of other men. For it is not sufficient to declare one's
own unworthiness, since the heart may be far removed from
such a declaration, and it may be a mere matter of the imag
ination ; but actually to see that such is the case is due to
the grace of the Spirit.
" Now, while I was in the spirit, I thought and strove by
thought to attain a knowledge of how to avoid all that was
impure. I noticed, however, that this intruded itself from the
ground of the love of self on all occasions when anything was
reflected upon ; as, for instance, when any one did not regard
me according to my own estimation of myself, I thought,
' Oh, if you only knew what grace I have, you would act differ
ently.' This, then, was not only impure, but originated in the
love of self. At last I found this out, and entreated God's
forgiveness ; and I then wished that others also might have
the same grace, as they perhaps either have had or will have.
From this I observed clearly that there was still in me that
same pernicious apple which has not yet been converted,
and which is Adam's root and his hereditary sin. Yes, and
an infinite number of other roots of sin remain in me."
No one who has himself begun to receive the grace that
lays bare the sinfulness of the heart, can read these sentences
without feeling that the writer was indeed approaching the

TEMPTATIONS. 1 85
judgment-seat, and without earnestly desiring with him that
his longed-for purification may have been accomplished.
That the self-condemnation was real, and no mere show of
words, is plain from its particular application, as in the fol
lowing instance : —
" I saw a bookshop, and immediately the thought struck
me that my work would have more effect than that of others ;
yet I checked myself at once. For one serves another, and
our Lord has more than a thousand ways by which to pre
pare a man ; so that each and every book must be left to its
own merits, as a means near or remote, according to the
rational condition of every man. Still arrogance crops up :
may God control it, for the power is in His hands !"
And again, six months later, in London, he notes, — "I
dreamed how a big dog, which I thought was fastened, flew
at me and bit me in the leg. Some one came and held its
terrible jaws, so that it could do no more mischief. The day
before I had been at the Medical College hearing a lecture,
when I was rash enough to think that I should be mentioned
as one of those who understood anatomy best ; I was glad,
however, that this was not done."
He had trusted that this love for his own works was sub
dued and securely fastened. He had to learn again and
again, like every other regenerating man, that he was depen
dent on the continual protection of the Lord.
"April 10 and n. . . . When awake, I began thinking
whether all this was not mere fantasy ; and I then noticed
that my faith was vacillating. I therefore pressed my hands
together and prayed that I might be strengthened in faith,
which also took place immediately. Again, when thoughts
occurred to me about being worthier than others, I prayed in
like manner, whereupon these thoughts at once vanished ; if,
therefore, our Lord in the least withdraw His hand from any
one, he is out of the true path, and also out of faith, as has
been manifestly the case with me.
"I slept this night about eleven hours, and during the

I 86 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION.
whole of the morning was in my usual state of internal glad
ness, which was, nevertheless, attended with a pang : this, I
thought, arose from the power of the spirit and my own
unworthiness. At last, with God's help, I came into these
thoughts, — that we ought to be contented with everything
which pleases the Lord, because it is for the Lord to say ;
and, further, that the Spirit is not to be resisted, when we re
ceive from God the assurance that it is God's grace which
does all things for our welfare ; for if we are God's, we must
be delighted with whatever He pleases to do with His own :
still we must ask the Lord for this, because not even the least
thing is in our own power. For this the Lord gave me His
grace. I reflected upon this, desiring to understand the rea
son why all this happens to me. Yet this was sinful ; for my
thoughts ought not to have gone in that direction, but 'I
ought to have prayed to the Lord for power to control them.
It ought to be enough for us that it so pleases the Lord. In
everything we ought only to call upon Him, pray to and thank
Him, and with humility recognize our own unworthiness.
" I am still weary in my body and mind ; for I know noth
ing except my own unworthiness, and am in pain on account
of being a wretched creature. I see by this knowledge that
I am unworthy of the grace I have received. ... I have
therefore adopted the following motto : —
"God's will be done; I am Thine and not mine.
"God give grace for this ; for it is not mine.
"April n and 12. . . . There is not a single thought
which is not very much alloyed with uncleanness and im
purity. It is therefore best that man should every hour and
every moment acknowledge that he is deserving of the pun
ishment of hell ; but that God's grace and mercy which are
in Jesus Christ overlook it. I have, indeed, observed that
our whole will into which we are born, and which is ruled by
,the body and introduces thought, is opposed to the Spirit
which does this ; wherefore there is a continual strife, and we
can by no manner of means unite ourselves with the Spirit,

CONFLICT. T87
which by grace is with us ; and hence it is that we are dead
to everything good, but to everything evil we are inclined
from ourselves. For this reason we must at all times ac
knowledge ourselves guilty of innumerable sins, because our
Lord God knows all, and we only very little about them ; we
know only so much as enters into our thoughts, and only when
it also enters into the actions, do we become convinced of it.
"April 12 and 13. . . . God's grace thus showed me that
I had to strive after salvation amid fear and trembling. But
I have for my motto : ' God's will be done ; I am Thine and
not mine ;' as therefore I have given myself from myself to
the Lord, He may dispose of me after His own pleasure. In
the body there seemed to be something of discontent, but in
the spirit joy; for the grace of our Lord does this. May
God strengthen me therein !
"I was continually in a state of combat between thoughts
which were antagonistic to one another. I pray Thee, O
Almighty God, that thou wouldst grant me the grace of being
Thine and not mine. Pardon my saying that I am Thine
and not mine ; it is God's privilege and not mine to say
so. I pray for the grace of being Thine, and of not being
left to myself.
"April 13 and 14. . . . During the whole day I was in con
flicting thought, which tried to destroy that which was of the
Spirit by abusive language. I found therefore that the temp
tation was very strong. By the grace of the Spirit I was led
to fix my thoughts on a piece of wood or a tree, then on the
cross of Christ, and on the crucified Christ ; and whenever I
did so, the other thoughts fell down flat as of theh own ac
cord. . . . God be praised who gave me this weapon ! May
God graciously keep me in this, that I may have my crucified
Saviour constantly before my eyes. For I dared not look on
my Jesus, whom I have seen, because I am an unworthy sin
ner ; but I ought rather to fall on my face, and it is Jesus who
then takes me up to Himself that I may see Him. For this
reason I look upon the crucified Christ."

1 88 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION.
Yet even here his next night's dreams showed him that
he had, perhaps, gone too far, in claiming the crucified Christ
as his own. But whenever he moved to a distance, falling
on his knees and praying before Him, it seemed that the sins
of his weakness were forgiven.
In these dreams and reflections many things occurred that
had immediate reference to Swedenborg's studies and writ
ings in the day-time. But we must restrict our quotations to
such as throw light on his sphitual progress, and to only the
most instructive of these.
"April 15 and 16. . . . The most singular thing is that I
now represent the inner man, and, as it were, another than
myself; that I visit my own thoughts, frighten them, that is,
the things of my memory ; that I accuse another. This shows
that matters are changed now, and that I represent the inner
man, who is opposed to another [the outer man]. For I
prayed to God that I might not be my own, but that God
might please to let me be His."
"April 18 and 19. . . . I was at Divine service, where I
noticed that thoughts on matters of faith, respecting Christ,
His merit, and the like, even though they be entirely favora
ble and confirmatory, still cause a certain disquietude, and
give rise to opposing thoughts which cannot be resisted,
whenever man tries to believe from his own understanding,
and not from the Lord's grace. At last it was granted me
by the grace of the Spirit to receive faith without reasoning
upon it, and thus to be assured in respect to it. I then
saw, as it were below me, my own thoughts, by which faith
was confirmed; I laughed in my mind at them, but still
more at those by which they were impugned and opposed.
Faith appeared to be far above the thoughts of my under
standing. Then only I got peace : may God strengthen me
in it ! For it is His work ; and mine so much the less, as
my thoughts, and indeed the best of them, hinder more than
they are able to promote. ... It is therefore a higher state
— I am uncertain whether it is not the highest — when man

TRUE FAITH. 1 89
by grace no longer mixes up his understanding in matters of
faith ; although it appears as if the Lord with some persons
permits the understanding to precede such states of assur
ance in respect to things which concern the understanding.
'Blessed are they who believe and do not see.' This I have
clearly written in the Prologue [to The Animal Kingdom],
numbers 21, 22 ; yet of my own self I could never have dis
covered this or arrived at the knowledge of it, but God's
grace has wrought this, I being unconscious of it : after
wards, however, I perceived it from the very effect and the
change in my whole interior being. This, therefore, is God's
grace and His work, and to Him alone belongs eternal glory.
From this I see how difficult it is for the learned, more
indeed than for the unlearned, to arrive at such a faith, and
consequently to conquer themselves so as to be able to smile
at themselves ; for man's worship of his own understanding
must first of all be abolished and overthrown, and this is
God's work and not man's. It is also God's work for man to
continue him in that state. Faith is in this way separated from
our understanding and resides above it. This is pure faith ;
the other, so long as it is mixed up with our own understand
ing, is impure. Man's understanding must be put in bonds,
and under the government of faith. The ground of faith,
however, must be this, — that He who has spoken it is God
over all and Truth itself. That we must become like little
children is to be understood, it seems, in this sense. . . .
Faith, then, is purely God's gift, and is received by man when
he lives according to the commandments of God, and when
he continually prays to God for it."
Such experience and testimony is most valuable on the
part of him who was at the very time engaged in exploring
the philosophy of the soul in the body, to the end that the
way might be made clearer for the understanding to arrive at
the true objects of faith. It is to be noted, however, that the
submission of the understanding which he here enjoins, is to
the faith given by the grace of God in the inner mind.

I9O SPIRITUAL PREPARATION.
"April 19 and 20. . . . God be thanked and praised ! I
do not will to be my own ; I am certain of it, and believe
that Thou, O God, lettest me be Thine, all my life long, and
that Thou dost not take away Thy Holy Sphit from me,
which strengthens and upholds me.
"April 21 and 22. ... On awaking I heard the words,
'All is grace ; ' by which is meant that all that has happened '
is of grace, and for the best. Afterwards, because it seemed
to me I was so far separated from God that I could not yet
think of Him in a sufficiently vivid manner, I came into a
state of doubt whether I should not direct my journey home
wards ; a crowd of confused reasons came, and my body was
seized with a tremor. Yet I gathered courage and perceived
that I had come here to do what was best of all, and that I
had received a talent for the promotion of God's glory. I saw
that all had helped together to this end ; that the Spirit had
been with me from my youth for this very purpose ; where
fore I considered myself unworthy of life unless I followed
the straight course. I then smiled at the other seducing
thoughts, and thus at luxury, riches, and distinction which I
had pursued. All these I saw to be vain ; and I discovered
that he who is without them and is contented, is happier than
he is who possesses them. I therefore smiled at all arguments
by which I might be confirmed ; and with God's help made
a resolution. May God grant His help ! . . . I further noticed
that faith is a sure confidence which is received from God,
which, nevertheless, consists in every man's acting according
to his talent for doing good to his neighbor, and continually
more and more ; that a man must do so from faith, because
God has so ordered it, and must not reason any more about
it, but do the work of love from obedience to faith, even
though this be opposed to the lusts of the body and its per
suasions. Wherefore faith without works is not the right kind
of faith. A man must in reality forsake himself."
Thus we find Swedenborg learning by experience, from his
own needs, and under Divine guidance, what saving faith is.

PURIFICATION. igi
But dreams of savage dogs and of conflicts with other mon
sters alternated with states of peace and joy. " These were
my infestations, and the struggles with my thoughts which I
had vanquished. It seemed as if the words interiorescit
[he is growing interior], integratur [he is being made whole],
were pronounced. This means that I am being inwardly
purified by means of my infestations." From another dream
he learns "that God speaks with me, and that I compre
hend only the least portion of what He says, because it is
in representations, of which I understand as yet but very
little ; and further that He hears and perceives everything
that is spoken, and every thought that any one entertains."
From other representative dreams he understands "that I
must employ my remaining time in writing upon that which
is higher, and not upon worldly things which are far below ;
and, indeed, that I must write about that which concerns the
very centre of all, and that which concerns Christ. May God
be so gracious as to enlighten me respecting my duty, for I
am still in some obscurity as to the direction whither I am
to turn."
It was not interiorly alone that Swedenborg was being
purified. Several times he notes dreams from which he learns
the necessity, for spiritual clearness, of external purification
and of rigorous moderation of appetite for food. " At the
idea that I must henceforth apply constraint to my appetite,
I came into a strange condition, and as it were into a state of
chagrin; yet I was soon relieved from it after. praying and
singing a hymn, especially since I would no longer be my
own, but live as a new creature in Christ."
Early in May, 1744, he went to London, for the better
prosecution of his work, The Animal Kingdom. His dreams,
interior struggles, and thorough purification were continued.
"May 5 and 6. . . . This now is the sum of all : First,
that there is nothing but grace by which we can be saved.
Second, grace is in Jesus Christ, who is the seat of grace.
Third, love to God in Christ promotes salvation. Fourth,

192 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION.
man then allows himself to be led by the spirit of Jesus.
Fifth, everything that comes from ourselves is dead, and is
nothing but sin, and worthy of eternal damnation. Sixth, for
good can come from no other source save the Lord."
"London, May 19 and 20. On the 20th I was to go to
the Lord's supper in the Swedish Church, after having had
many pernicious thoughts, from which I perceived that my
body is in a continual state of rebellion : this was also repre
sented to me by scum, which was to be skimmed off. On
Sunday morning it came very clearly from the Spirit into my
lips that this [the Holy Supper] is the manna which descends
from heaven. This came to me neither in sleep nor in full
wakefulness, but it came most distinctly into my thought
and into my lips that by this is signified Christ in the Lord's
Supper. The day before I had been prepared, so that I
was interiorly tranquil and peaceful, being contented with
the Lord's dispensation ; the whole time also I felt the strong
influence of the Holy Spirit, and the whole body was filled
with a delight in the heavenly kingdom upon earth. ... In
this state I hope to continue, so long as by our Lord's grace
alone I walk in pure paths and have right intentions ; for as
soon as I turn aside and try to find my joy in worldly things,
this state of delight ceases."
The manner in which Swedenborg up to this period speaks
of the Holy Spirit, as constantly affecting him, is not quite in
accordance with his habit after spiritual influences became
more familiar and better understood by him. In our last
quotation the influence which he calls of the Holy Spirit may
have been immediately that. But from his later instruction
we should infer that the influence of which he commonly
speaks as that of "the Spirit" was the influence of spirits
and angels, sometimes, but not necessarily always, under the
control of the Holy Spirit. It is to be observed that he had
not yet learned much about the constant presence and influ
ence of spirits and angels. He was moved by "the Evil
One," or by "the Spirit." About this time he was led, as

THE DRAGON.

193

John Wesley had been a few years earlier, among " the Mora
vian Brethren [in London], who maintain that they are the
true Lutherans, and that they feel the influx of the Holy
Spirit." But he was withheld, and "not allowed to join their
brotherhood." "God alone knows," says he, " whether the
principle of the interior which is the influx of God's Spirit is
constantly with man."
"July 21 and 22. . . . A little child would take hold of
me and take me with him, but it seemed to me as if at last
I refused. This means that we must be like children in re
spect to the Lord. Since children have now been represented
to me twice, and also in the preceding night, I lighted upon
these thoughts, — that we must not trouble ourselves for what
is spiritual to such a degree that it comes to us through our
own power, nor for worldly things ; but that like children
we must cast our cares on the Lord. . . . On awaking I
had a vision, when I saw much gold before me ; the air was
full of it. This denotes that the Lord, who disposes all
things, gives me in spiritual and in worldly matters all that
I need, whenever like a child I cast my care upon Him.
"July 29 and 30. I saw a great beast with wings, which
at times looked like a human being, yet with a great gorge.
If did not dare to touch me. I pursued it with a sword,
yet I had no chance, nor was I strong enough in my arms
to strike it. At last I saw it standing before me with a gun,
from which it fired something like poison, without however
doing me any harm ; for I was protected. Immediately after
wards I thrust my sword into its jaws, yet without much
effect. I ascended higher. It seemed to me as if some one
said that it was slain. The previous day I had been think
ing of the woman and the dragon in the Book of Revelation,
and I wished I could be instrumental in killing the dragon ;
when yet there is not anything in my power, but only in the
Lord's." Did Swedenborg then know the meaning of the dragon,
that it was the doctrine of salvation by faith alone, which he
r3

I94 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION.
was already combating in his own efforts for true regenera
tion ? He surely did not know, unless as in a dream, that the
work in store for him was precisely that of destroying the
dragon and helping into the world the man-child,— the true
doctrine of the Lord's Church.1 For he is still laboring in the
day-time on The Animal Kingdom, and a large share of his
dreams at night relate to his studies ; sometimes encouraging
him to expect in them'the Divine assistance, sometimes warn
ing him not to be withdrawn by them too far from what was
more holy and of more importance. In this work, which he
had undertaken of his own counsel, we cannot suppose that
he would be easily freed from confidence in his own abilities.
"Afterwards," he says, " I boasted [in a dream] of my strength,
in the presence of Assessor B. This signifies that daily I sin
against my God in the thoughts which cling to me, and from
which no man, but God alone, can deliver me ; likewise that
I had boasted to D. H. about my work. On the following
day I had intended to go to the communion ; but I forbore
when from the above I found that none but God alone can
give absolution from sins ; wherefore it was given me also to
observe some things with respect to confession."
This was written August 5th. On the 27th he notes, —
"During the last few days I was very much troubled and
oppressed by my sins, which it seemed to me had not been
forgiven, and which prevented my attending the Lord's Sup
per the last time. Yesterday, however, it seemed to me that
I had been relieved. During the night the soles of my feet
appeared all white. This signifies that my sins have been
forgiven." 1 It is noticeable that Swedenborg seemed to himself to thrust his sword into
the jaws of the dragon with, so far as he could see, but little effect; yet after he
was taken up higher, he heard that the beast was slain. With all his might he
thrust the sharp sword of true doctrine, given him from Heaven, into the jaws
of the pernicious doctrine of justification by faith alone, without perceiving
much effect on earth. With joy he must now learn above that the old doctrine
is at its end.

CHAPTER IX.
OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT.
About this time Swedenborg began to project his treatise
upon the Worship and Love of God. He seems to have
felt a Divine call to write it, and at times to have doubted
whether he ought not to leave his other work for the purpose.
Yet it was with reference to this treatise that he received
the following caution : —
" October 6 and 7. . . . Afterwards I lighted upon these
thoughts and received this instruction, namely, that all love for
whatever object, — as, for instance, for the work on which I
am now engaged, — when the object is loved in itself and not
as a means to the only love, which is to God and Jesus Christ,
is a meretricious love. For this reason also this love is always
compared in the Word of God to whoredom. This I have
also experienced in myself. But when love to God is man's
chief love, then he does not entertain for these objects any
other kind of love than that of promoting thereby his love
of God." Oct. 9 and ro. . . A child fell over my foot, hurt
himself, and screamed. I helped him to get up and said,
' Why do you race so ? ' This dream no doubt meant that
I was too much in a hurry with the new work."
As thoughts on religion filled his mind he became full of
zeal to instruct others. " Afterwards I seemed to say to my
self that the Lord Himself will instruct me. For, as I dis
covered, I am in such a state that I know nothing on this
subject, except that Christ must be all in all, or God through
Christ, so that we of ourselves cannot contribute the least
towards it, and still less strive for it : wherefore it is best to

I96 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT.
surrender at discretion, and were it possible to be altogether
passive in this matter, it would be a .state of perfection. I
saw also in a vision how some beautiful bread was presented
to me on a plate. This was a prediction that the Lord Him
self will instruct me, as soon as I have attained that state in
which I shall know nothing, and in which all my precon
ceived notions will be removed from me ; which is the first
state of learning : or, in other words, that I must first become
a child, and that then I shall be able to be nurtured in knowl
edge, as is being the case with me now."
Yet this preparation, this work of leading the strong man
to lay down his confidence in his own strength and his love
for his own works because his own, was slow and difficult,
perhaps in proportion to the greatness of the intellect and
of its previous triumphs. It was on the 1 8th of October that
he had the dream, already quoted, of the big dog which he
thought had been secured, and yet it flew at him and bit
him. Again he notes, —
" October 20 and 21. It was most gracious and wonderful
that on the day before I had felt myself unworthy of all the
grace God had been pleased to exhibit towards me ; for love
of my own self and pride were so deeply rooted in me. I
therefore prayed to God that He would remove them from
me, since this is not in my own power. In the evening I
found myself in a most strange state of mind, such as I had
never experienced before : for I despaired of God's grace,
although I knew that God is so gracious, and that He has
shown greater grace towards me than towards any one else.
There was an anxiety in the soul, but not in the mind, though
I became conscious of it only in the mind itself, without feel
ing any pain in the body. Afterwards I fell asleep, when it
seemed to me as if I were closely pursued by two dogs.
After a long time I got out of their reach, when I was told in
my thoughts that the object of these strange pains was to cure
me of them. Whenever, therefore, the root of what is deeply
ingrained in man is removed, such a feeling of pain is caused.

THE WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD.

197

This is well worth being remembered and preserved in the
thoughts." On the 2 7th of October he began the work on the Wor
ship and Love of God, and laid aside, never to resume, The
Animal Kingdom. " May God lead me in the right way !
Christ said that I must not undertake anything without Him."
" In the morning on awaking I fell into a swoon or fainting
fit, similar to that which I experienced about six or seven
years ago at Amsterdam, when I entered upon the Economy
of the Animal Kingdom; but it was much more subtile, so
that I was almost dead. It came upon me as soon as I saw
the light. I threw myself upon my face, when it gradually
passed off. In the mean time short, interrupted slumbers
took possession of me ; so that this swoon, or deliquium, was
deeper, but I soon got over it. This signifies that my head_
is being cleared, and is in fact being cleansed of all that
would obstruct these thoughts : as was also the case the last
time, because it gave me penetration, especially whilst writ
ing. This was represented to me now in that I appeared
to write a fine hand."
Here ends abruptly this wonderful record of the introduc
tion of a man, by gradual separation from the life and work
that was natural to him, into spiritual life, sphitual association,
and spiritual" labor in the service of his Master. For the
completion of this process we must refer to what he says in
cidentally in his various works, and in answer to inquiries.
That this wondrous revelation to him of heights of grace and
mercy and bliss he had never conceived, together with depths
of selfishness and sin in his own nature he had never sound
ed, was given in completion of the preparation of his long
studies for some great service to men, he seems already per
suaded ; but what this service is to be, he does not yet fore
see. For the time being and for himself the purpose of the
revelation is plain, — to lead him to lay down his own will and
his own self-intelligent prudence, so as to come nearer to the
Lord and to be ready and willing to do His bidding, under

I98 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT.
His guidance, in place of his own. This change of heart re
quired of him and granted to him, this acceptance of the
Divine will in place of his own,— was it not that which our
Lord Himself alone perfectly fulfilled in His own humanity,
that which He enjoined on all who would follow Him in the
regeneration, and that by the fulfilment of which in them
selves He would come again to them and manifest Himself
to them?
The coming again of the Lord was not to be a merely
temporary coming, for a transient purpose, but the complete
fulfilment of His purpose, partially fulfilled at His first com
ing, of being forever with men, theh God. From the very
beginning the Lord has sought to be present to the con
sciousness of men, through the thunder and through the still
small voice of nature, through revelation, tradition, visions,
and dreams, in their reason, and in their heart. By the flesh
which He took upon Himself, He became in a measure visible
and audible to them : not in all His fulness, — for the finite
cannot fully manifest the Infinite ; not for ah time, — for the
flesh is but for a moment. But by bringing His Divine Life
down into human life, while dwelling in the flesh, He ac
quired a real presence with man in an unlimited and per
manent manner, with all His fulness and forever, when the
material finiteness was dissolved. He did not go away from
the disciples when He ascended up into Heaven, but His
Divine fulness became too great for their vision, and so He
appeared to be withdrawn from their sight. Previously it had
been said, "The Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus
was not yet glorified." After He had ascended, after the dis
solution of what was finite, commenced in the sepulchre, was
complete, from all the fulness of the Godhead in infinite
humanity came the power of the Holy Spirit to the disciples,
working its own works through them. Thus was their Lord
present with them everywhere and at all times, more nearly,
more intimately, and more completely than when He was in
their sight.

THE SECOND COMING OF THE LORD. tqq
In this way the Lord desired to be thenceforth dwelling
with men, theh God. Nothing was lacking on His part. All
that was needed was that men should keep their hearts open
to Him standing at the door and knocking. But their hearts
were yet hardened, and they soon closed the door. This He
had foreseen. He knew but too well that as yet it was be
cause they had been fed and were full that they followed
Him. But He was preparing them, as fast as could be done
consistently with their freedom, for a reception of Himself
that would be from free choice of His perfection, in place
of their imperfection ; -from love, and therefore permanent.
And this new reception He foretold as a new coming on His
part, though He is always at the door. He foretold it in two
forms. In the one it was to be not with observation, but in
the stillness of the heart, the silent entrance of the Spirit of
Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him
not, neither knoweth Him ; but the true disciples, they who
have followed their Lord in the regeneration, know Him ; for
He dwelleth with them and shall be in them. This is His
entrance into the heart when the door at which He always
knocketh, at last is opened.1 In the other form it is foretold
that the coming of the Son of Man shall be in the clouds of
heaven, with power and great glory. This is a presentation
to the eye of the spirit, to the understanding, that should
make one with the entrance into the heart. How, after the
opening of the heart, this presentation of the Lord to the
understanding, in the clouds of heaven with power and great
glory, was effected with Swedenborg, and how his own work
1 It is curious to find a better appreciation of the Spirit of Truth than
prevailed in the Churches among the Alchemists or Hermetic philosophers,
commonly supposed to be seeking the philosopher's stone for the making of
gold, but, according to others, handing down under the symbol of the stone a very
ancient study for the perfecting of man. Thomas Vaughan, writing on Her-
metics, or Alchemy, in the middle of the 17th century, said : " God the Father
is the metaphysical, supercelestial Sun ; the Second Person is the Light ; and
the third is Amor Igneus, or a Divine Heat proceeding from both. Now with
out the presence of this Heat, there is no reception of the Light, and by conse
quence no reception from the Father of Light."

200 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT.
for which he was prepared was found to be in aiding this
presentation to the understanding of his fellow-men, will be
seen in what follows.
Let us notice first, that, coincidently with his increasing
submission of heart to the Divine guidance, we find a
growing sensitiveness or openness to spiritual impressions.
Indeed, whether as a constitutional peculiarity, or as the
consequence of his absorbed habit of thought, Swedenborg
had a certain faculty of retrocession from physical activity
when thinking deeply. In The Animal Kingdom he had
remarked, "When the mind is thinking very intently, and
breathing tacitly and slowly, then the lungs, elevated to a
certain degree, appear in like manner to keep silence, and to
send out and draw in the air almost imperceptibly, so as not
to disturb the analyses of the rational mind by any motion on
their part " (part ii. 157). And again, as quoted by Dr. Wil
kinson, — " If we carefully attend to profound thoughts, we
shall find that when we draw breath, a host of ideas rush
from beneath as through an opened door into the" sphere of
thought, — whereas when we hold the breath, and slowly let it
out, we deeply keep the while in the tenor of our thought,
and communicate as it were with the higher faculty of the
soul ; as I have observed in my own person times without
number. Retaining or holding back the breath is equivalent
to having intercourse with the soul : attracting or drawing it
amounts to intercourse with the body." x
It appears from Swedenborg's teachings that in the other
world there is a vast variety in the manner of breathing, the
breathing of each society being in consonance with and ex
pressing its state of thought. The world of spirits, where all
are first gathered after death, has a common external breath
ing, naturally connected with the physical respiration of men
while yet in the world. With this breathing flows in our
1 With this it is instructive to compare ther-sxperience of the author of Self-
formation, or the History of an Individual Mind, who found his mental power
to serve him only during expiration.

INTERIOR RESPIRATION. 201
common course of thought. The breathing of angels is more
interior, more rapid, and less sensible. It is possible also for
men, when their thought is interior, elevated, and abstracted
from the world, to have theh ordinary sensible breathing sus
pended, with its common course of thought, and to have it
replaced by a more subtile, tacit respiration in sympathy with
that of heaven : at such times men come more immediately
into communication with angels, and receive their thoughts,
or even become conscious of their presence. Such, accord
ing to Swedenborg, was the state of the men represented by
Adam in the Garden of Eden. Since the Fall it has become
rare ; but something of the kind seems to have been given to
Swedenborg in his infancy, and again in the deeper studies of
his later years : —
" I was first accustomed to breathe in this way in infancy,
when praying my morning and evening prayers : then at
times afterwards, when I was exploring the agreements of the
heart and lungs, especially when I was writing from inner
thought what I published on these subjects, and this during
several years. At this time I noticed frequently that there
was a tacit respiration, scarcely sensible, about which it was
given afterwards to think, and then to write. In this way
for many years from jnfancy I was introduced into such
breathings, especially through intense speculation, in which
the [ordinary] breathing subsided ; otherwise no intense
speculation of truth can be given. Then afterwards, when
heaven was opened, so that I spoke with spirits, I breathed
so completely in this way that I did not take in a [common]
breath for the space of about an hour, only just enough air
being drawn to enable me to think : in this way I was intro
duced by the Lord into interior modes of breathing. Per
haps also in sleep ; for I observed sometimes that when I
was sinking into sleep, respiration was almost taken away from
me, so that I awoke and caught my breath. Moreover, when
I am observing, writing, and thinking nothing of the kind, I
suppose that my respiration is checked without my reflecting

202 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT.
upon it, and such things take place that the changes are in
numerable. Nor could I observe the variations at the time,
because they took place without my reflection. This now I
can say, that each state, each sphere, and thus each society,
especially the interior ones, has in me a fitting respiration,
into which I bring myself without reflection. By this as a
means it is given me also to be among spirits and angels."
(S. D. 3464.)
Yet it was long after spiritual manifestations began to occur
to him, before he thought of the possibility of conversing
with spirits. Indeed, he knew nothing about spirits. He be
lieved in the Holy Spirit and in the power of the Devil. He
believed in angels, but knew nothing of the world filled with
the spirits and angels who had once been men. We see
how gradually the knowledge came to him : —
" October 3 to 6. I have noticed several times that there
are various kinds of spirits. The one Spirit, which is that of
Christ, is the only one that has all blessedness with it ; by
other spirits man is enticed a thousand ways to follow them,
but woe to those who do so. Another time Korah and
Dathan occurred to me, who brought strange fire to the altar,
and could not offer it. Such is the case when a different fire
is introduced than that which comes from Christ. I saw also
something like a fire coming to me. It is necessary there
fore that a distinction should be made between spirits, which,
however, cannot be done except through Christ Himself and
His Spirit.
Some years later, after referring to the sundry spiritual
manifestations which we have already described, he says, —
"At last a spirit spoke a few words to me, when I was
greatly astonished at his perceiving my thoughts. After
wards, when my mind was opened, I was greatly astonished
that I could converse with spirits ; as the spirits were aston
ished that I should wonder. From this it may be concluded
how difficult it is for man to believe that he is governed by
the Lord through spirits, and how difficult it is for him to

FIRST OPEN VISION.

203

give up the opinion that he lives his own life of himself with
out the agency of spirits."
The date of this occurrence appears to have been the
middle of April, 1745, while still engaged, perhaps, on The
Worship and Love of God. The fullest account that is pre
served is given by his friend Robsahm, who says that in
answer to his own inquiry where and how it was granted him
to see and hear what takes place in the other, world, Sweden
borg answered, —
" I was in London, and dined rather late at the inn where ,
I was in the habit of dining and where I had my own room.
My thoughts were engaged on the subjects we have been
discussing. I was hungry, and ate with a good appetite.
Towards the close of the meal I noticed a sort of dimness
before my eyes ; this became denser, and I then saw the
floor covered with the most horrid crawling reptiles, such as
snakes, frogs, and similar creatures. I was amazed, for I was
perfectly conscious and my thoughts were clear. At last the
darkness increased still more ; but it disappeared all at once,
and I then saw a man sitting in the corner of the room : as I
was then alone, I was very much frightened at his words ; for
he said, 'Eat not so much.'' All became black again before
my eyes, but immediately it cleared away, and I found myself
alone in the room."
That this "man" was a spirit appears from Swedenborg's
statement about his astonishment when a spirit first spoke a
few words to him, and from Robsahm's own statement that
this account was given in answer to his inquiry where and
how he first came to see and hear spirits. It would seem,
then, that Robsahm has made a little confusion in what he
goes on to say about the same man's appearing the following
night. And yet as, according to Swedenborg, when the Lord
appears to angels and men, He does so by filling an angel
with His presence and speaking through his mouth, it may
be that it was the same angel from the Lord who had been
present with him in the spiritual thoughts on which he was

204 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT.
engaged in the day-time, and then warned him not to yield
too much to the demands of the body, and again in the night
instructed him as to the labors for which the Lord was prepar
ing him, — first seeming as a man, giving human admonition,
and then as the Lord, uttering His commands. According to
Robsahm, Swedenborg continued, — "I went home; and
during the night the same man revealed himself to me again,
but I was not frightened now. He then said that he was the
Lord God, the Creator of the world, and the Redeemer,
and that He had chosen me to unfold to men the spiritual
sense of the Scripture, and that He Himself would show to
me what I should write on this subject. That same night
also were opened to me, so that I became thoroughly con
vinced of their reality, the world of spirits, heaven, and hell ;
and I recognized there many acquaintances of every con
dition in life. From that day I gave up the study of all
worldly science and labored in spiritual things, according as
the Lord had commanded me to write. Afterwards the Lord
opened my eyes, very often daily, so that in midday I could
see into the other world, and in a state of perfect wakefulness
converse with angels and spirits."
The remarkable absence of dignity and circumstance, such
as imagination would invent, in this first introduction to the
sight and hearing of the other world, witnesses nothing against
its plain truth. We may wonder that the first announcement
should be so simple a prohibition. On this Swedenborg says
not a word. We have no reason to suppose him an inordi
nate eater ; but doubtless in hunger he gave himself up for
the time to the body's demand for satisfaction, and his mind
fell from its high thoughts. The spirits or angels with him
would perceive his fall, and would, if opportunity were given,
rebuke him. Fasting, as well as prayer, is the means of re
lease from selfishness and evil. With Swedenborg there had
been reformation of life, and then internal regeneration of a
very deep kind. This regeneration, as we have seen, must
needs work outwards till it cleansed the whole life, more per-

PURIFICATION.

205

fectly, because from internal ground, than the first reformation
could do. It may well be that the last stronghold of selfish
spirits, not yet given up to the Lord of all, was that of out
ward sense. So our Lord Himself finished the work of pu
rifying His humanity by overcoming the resistance of the
body. So the last thing He did for the disciples, before giving
to them the bread and the wine that represented His own
life, was to wash their feet, that they might be clean every
whit. So, too, Swedenborg tells us, those who are internally
prepared for heaven and who have been delivered from all
evil except that which belongs to the infirmities of the body,
are taken up into heaven immediately after death. Whether
his own deliverance from evil was now completed, we cannot
say ; but such is the appearance. Indeed, we have in the
" Diary " a single line of direct testimony. He is describing,
under date of Dec. 1, 1748, the return, when a man comes
into the other life, of whatever evil he has done in the world,
with all its hate and misery, so that he lives as it were his
life over again. But he adds that this is true only of the evil ;
that with the good all their good states of love and friend
ship return with highest joy and happiness. Then follows the
simple note, " Experience that there was not evil with me."
From this we may infer that, by the predominance of the
good with him, what evil there had been was now mercifully
removed, not to be a means of assault from evil spirits.
Spiritual temptations, however, he had to undergo, many
and severe ; that is, assaults of evil spirits on all that he held
good and true. In the war that was to ensue between the
powers of heaven and the powers of hell, between the light of
the coming of the Lord in His Word, and the darkness of
priestcraft and infidelity, he held the advanced post. He
was the standard-bearer on earth, the witness of what was to
come. Against the standard, against his testimony, there was
of necessity a combined attack of all the powers of hell. Of
course he suffered spiritual violence, but undismayed and
unhurt ; for it was not himself against whom they warred.

206 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT.
When they wished to destroy him, they said that they could
not, because he was nothing; if he were anything, they could
do it. (S. D. 4067.) Thus he was shown to the life, that if
he regarded anything in himself as his own, the devils would
have something to attack, and would destroy him. It was the
Spirit of Truth, coming to guide into all truth, that was
the object of their attack; and this defended Itself and
him. Thus he says, when unfolding the spiritual sense of
Genesis, —
" I have now for some years, though also in the body, been
with spirits in the other life, and surrounded by evil spirits,
yea the worst, to whom it was permitted to pour forth their
venom and infest me in every way they could ; yet they could
not hurt the least hah, I was so protected by the Lord."
(A.C. 59.)
Even on the seas, it would seem, this calming protection
was about him. In the fulfilment of his mission, writing and
publishing, he was frequently crossing the stormy North Sea,
passing to and fro between London and Stockholm or Am
sterdam. The master of a ship in which he often sailed told
him that he would always be welcome to his passage, for with
him on board the voyage was sure to be prosperous.
In many ways we see in Swedenborg, a fellow-servant, that
submission of all things to the Divine will, that guidance and
protection by the Spirit, of which our Lord gave us the per
fect example in His own life on earth, and which He promised
to all who would follow Him in the regeneration. That it
was given to Swedenborg in so eminent a degree was at once
as the necessary means for the service given him to perform,
and as an example and aid to us in preparation for what our
Lord has in store for us at this His final coming.
The immediate work and the great work given Swedenborg
to do was the unfolding of the spiritual sense from within the
literal sense of the Word. To this labor, for which, as we
have found, he had previously some inclination and some
special preparation, he now addressed himself with all dili-

THE WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD.

207

gence, after seeing through the press his little work on the
Worship and Love of God. This work we have seen begun
in 1 744, and it was published as far as completed, two parts,
in 1745. It is interesting as marking the transition period,
when the author's thoughts were turning to spiritual things
in a certain ecstasy, before they had come into clear light and
he had settled down to his work of writing what was Divinely
directed. It is a philosophic prose-poem on the creation
of the earth and the birth and education of Adam and Eve,
of fine fancy and great beauty, from which we should quote
largely if we had not more weighty matter pressing on our
attention. Being questioned about it in later years, the
author is said to have replied that the work "was certainly
founded on truth, but that somewhat of egotism had intro
duced itself into it, as he had made a playful use in it of the
Latin language, on account of having been ridiculed for the
simplicity of his Latin style in later years. For this reason
he did not regard it as equal to his other works." Whatever
of personal exhilaration came to him on his first introduction
to the study of Divine things, may be said to have effervesced
and thrown off all its foam in this little work. From this
time forth we have nothing but the clearest statement, in the
utmost simplicity of language, with no thought of self and not
the least labor for effect. The change is well stated by Dr.
Wilkinson, in his "Biography" : —
" Certainly, in turning from his foregone life to that which
now occupies us, we seem to be treating of another person, —
of one on whom the great change has passed, who has tasted
the blessings of death and disburdened his spiritual part, of
mundane cares, sciences, and philosophies. The spring of
his lofty flights in nature sleeps in the dust beneath his feet.
The liberal charm of his rhetoric is put off, never to be re
sumed. ... It is a clear instance of disembodiment, — of
emancipation from a worldly lifetime ; and we have now to
contemplate Swedenborg, still a mortal, as he rose into the
other world. From that elevation he as little recurred to his

208 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT.
scientific life, though he had its spirit with him, as a freed
soul to the body in the tomb : he only possessed it in a
certain high memory, which offered its result to his new
pursuits." Our Lord in the flesh spoke in a two-fold capacity, — as
God in declaring that He was one with the Father, that who
ever had seen Him had seen the Father, that all power was
given unto Him in heaven and on earth ; and in calling all
men unto Him for their salvation ; but as man in declaring
that he did nothing of himself, in resigning his own will to the
Father's will, and in giving up his mortal life on the cross.
In all this His purpose was at once to show men His Divine
love for them, and to give them an example and a help
ing hand, in theh own nature, in what this love required
of them.
To understand this mystery, — how in Jesus Christ dwelt all
the fulness of the Godhead bodily, how in Him they saw both
God and man, the Father brought forth to view in the Son, —
required an understanding of discrete degrees of existence,
of the indwelling of one within another, and of the action of
the outer, as of itself, but from the life of the degree within,
not possessed by the men of that age. Pauk almost alone,
seems to have had some apprehension of this philosophy,
in his declaration that there is a spiritual body as well as a
natural body, and that the things of God are not received by
the natural man, but are spiritually discerned. The Church,
as a whole, had no appreciation of it. In fact, it requires
something more than intellectual acumen for its right appre
hension. In broad terms it may be stated that man can have
no appreciation of what does not exist, in an image, in him
self. Now there exist in eveiy man, open or latent, degrees
natural, spiritual, and celestial. The natural degree is first
opened, being that of natural light, — the light of this world,
of the senses and of natural reason. With a learned man it is
open wider and deeper than with an ignorant one, but it is

SPIRITUAL DEGREES.

209

the natural degree still. The spiritual degree is entirely dis
tinct : its light is the Ught of heaven, the light of love to the
neighbor, by which things are seen totally different from what
they appear by the light of the world and of natural love to
self. This is the degree in which, as Paul says, the things of
God are spiritually discerned, which are to the natural mind
but foolishness. But this sphitual degree lies unknown un
til it is opened, and it is opened in no other way than by
resistance to the demands of the natural state, as evil, and
prayer to the Lord for deliverance. And when the mind is
opened into this new stage of life, the man is born again.
Regeneration is the means by which spiritual discernment
comes, by which the mind learns to appreciate the dis
tinction of degrees, and is enabled to understand the rela
tion of the Son to the Father, of the Divine to the Divine
Human.1 But regeneration has not distinguished the Chris
tian Church. The Lord taught it as the means of entrance
into His kingdom and illustrated it, exhibiting its type in
the glorification of His Humanity, by which He replaced
the human will with the Divine ; but Christians, as a body,
have not followed Him in the regeneration, have not ac
cepted His Divine will in place of their own. They have
desired heaven, but they have desired it as they would have
desired higher places at this world's tabks, from theh own
will and their love of what is good for themselves ; not from
His will and His love for the good of others. This is the
reason that they have not understood in its simplicity how,
by the glorification, the Lord in His Humanity accepted the
will of the Father, that is, the Father Himself, as His own
1 It is related of the Rev. John Clowes, one of the earliest translators of Swe
denborg's works, that he purchased a copy of The True Christian Religion, on
the advice of a friend, but at first saw nothing in it to interest him. Some time
after, as he was about leaving home for a visit, he took down the volume, op
ened it, and was annoyed at seeing the phrase " Divinum Humanum" which
had no meaning to him. He put up the book and went his way. But on his
visit, early in the morning, these words appeared to him in Divine glory for a
full hour ; and again the next morning. He hastened home, read the book dili
gently, and became a most loving receiver of its doctrines.
14

2IO OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT.
will, in place of that of the mother which He put away ; and
thereby became one with the Father, or the Father brought
forth to view in the Son, to whom was all power in heaven
and in earth. Correlatively, without this understanding, in
substance, real regeneration was not possible. Except by fol
lowing our Lord in the regeneration, we cannot be regen
erated ; except by perceiving that He laid down His own
maternal human will, in order to receive in its place the pa
ternal Divine will, we cannot embrace His help for laying
down our own will, the will of the flesh, to receive from Him
in its place His Divine will ; and without this help we can
do nothing.
It is not within our knowledge how many or how few in
the Christian world have individually gained an appreciation
of this help and embraced it, and followed their Lord in the
regeneration. No doubt they have been many. But this we
know, that theh numbers have not been so great as to char
acterize the doctrine of the Church. From the first declar
ations by Council down to the latest creed of the day, no
such doctrine has been taught. Even Peter himself departed
so far from the simplicity of expression of his Master, as to
give countenance to those who taught that they who were to
be saved were elected by the foreknowledge of the Father,
for sanctification and justification by faith in their Lord Jesus,
in strange contrast to the simple teaching of James, — " Sub
mit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from
you. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you."
In no creed is the simple Gospel truth stated, that there is
One God made known to us in the Son, in whom the will
of the Father is the soul, His human presence is the body,
and the Holy Spirit is His quickening influence into men ;
and that our salvation depends on making His regeneration
our own, by overcoming our natural will and accepting His,
as He overcame the human will and brought the Divine
down into its place. The early departures from this sim
plicity seem to have originated in efforts to display human

SIMPLE FAITH OF THE GOSPEL. 2 1 I
wisdom, and to have been confirmed by ambition for do
minion and by ill-will in place of charity for those who did
not accept it. Instead of " the wisdom that is from above "
and "is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be en
treated, full of mercy and good fruits," there came with
"bitter envying and strife" in theh hearts a "wisdom" that
"descended! not from above, but is earthy, sensual, devilish."
(James iii. 14-17.) In particular, the fiction of attributing
one character to the Father and another to the Son destroyed
all simplicity and charity of faith, making two distinct per
sons, therefore two distinct Divine Beings of the One God,
and introduced the "partiality and hypocrisy" attributed by
James to the wisdom that "descendeth not from above."
When men were persuaded that God had elected some of
them, and not others, or that He had delegated the right of
election to the Pope and his clergy, hypocrisy took the place
of repentance, and earthly gifts or professions of faith were
laid upon the altar in place of the true fruits of faith, the
works of mercy and love.
What now is needed in order to restore the simple faith of
the Gospel, and to establish it on a sure foundation? First
and foremost we need the deshe for regeneration, for drawing
near to our Lord and receiving new life from Him, to which
is given the light that shows the way. This alone is sufficient
for those who can accept a simple faith which accords with
their love, without being anxious to understand its means.
But for the help of those who want rational confirmation of
the faith that is in them, there is need of an understanding
of the manner in which the higher degree may reside in the
lower, and the lower, by inspiration of the higher, voluntarily
accept its life for its own and act therefrom, and thus become
its face, its presence, itself in lower place and form, — as the
Divine-human presents the Divine, and the natural man the
spiritual, on accepting the higher life for their own. Other
supporting knowledge is required, but this is the fundamental,
central truth of which there has been the greatest need. When

212 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT.
this is apprehended, there is no difficulty in understanding how
our Lord, in the human form and nature, by the inspiration
of the Divine Love, rejected every temptation of the maternal
human, and accepted the Divine in its place, until there was
no more anything left from the mother, but all was from the
Divine, Divine-human, one with the Father, with no thought,
no desire but His, and was Himself made manifest to men.
At the same time we understand how, in overcoming the ten
dency of the human nature to sin, He gained the means of
being forever present with us in full power to overcome our
tendency, provided we accept His aid ; and that thus He
saves all who will accept His salvation, who will from Him
resist the Devil and their own self-will, and obey His. com
mands ; for therein they suffer Him to put away their evil
will and accept His will, first in theh interior, spiritual mind,
and at last in the external, natural mind, being born again
of both water and of the Spirit.
Swedenborg, in his investigation of the constitution of
matter, was early struck with the necessity of recognizing one
degree within another. In his Principia he asserted that
there are three atmospheres proceeding from the sun, — one
more subtile and within another, and the medium of a more
subtile force.1 Later, in the study of the human body, with a
view to learning the seat and the operation of the soul, he
found himself more and more impressed with the imma
nence of one degree of substance and action within another,
until, some years before his illumination, before the spiritual
world was open to him or he thought of studying theology, he
wrote, as we have seen, on the doctrine of discrete degrees
and on the correspondence of one degree with another. He
now saw that the spirit was of a degree distinct from and within
that of the body, with a perfect correspondence between one
and the other ; and he was persuaded that this correspond
ence was the hieroglyphic key to the inward meaning of the
1 The physicists of the present day have not yet made out the three, but
they find a certainty of two, with at least a possibility of a third.

INNER SENSE OF SCRIPTURE.

213

Scriptures. To the unfolding of this he cast a longing eye.
But before this was given him to do, he had to learn by expe
rience the discrete degrees in the mind, the spiritual discretely
within and above the natural, the one Hving voluntarily from
the Lord, the other from and for itself.1 This he learned,
when ready, by being lifted nearer to the Lord and being
shown in His light the sinfulness of the natural will, by which
he was led to pray and strive with all his might for deliver
ance, until at last he had the happiness of feeling, from the
Divine Presence in the spiritual mind, that he no longer de
sired to live from His own will, but only from the Lord's.
In the outer mind, connected with the body, there was still
something of sadness ; but within there was joy and peace.
Thus then Swedenborg was trained, both by theory and by
experience, to appreciate and unfold the Gospel doctrine of
the incarnation and redemption.
The Scriptures are the Word of God. This Word is clothed
in human ideas and human language, just as, for personal
manifestation, God clothed Himself in human nature and a
human body. In no other way could man hear or see Him.
Both the verbal and the personal revelations are for man's
eternal salvation. Their use to him does not end with this
world, but endures to eternity ; for Divinity Itself is hardly
less incomprehensible and invisible to our spirit than to our
body ; for the one It needs a human clothing as much as
for the other. This needs to be learned, for it has not been
understood ; but it is evident to any one who rightly consid
ers how incomprehensible Infinity must be to finite humanity
in all conditions. In heaven, as well as on earth, the Divine
Presence is in the Holy Word and in the now Divine Human
ity. The Word of God must be full of Divine and angelic
1 In his theological works we find Swedenborg constantly referring to man's
proprium. No English word is adequate to express his meaning, which is,
imperfectly stated, man's permitted proprietorship and field of free action, with
in and about himself, in which is his power of reaction towards the Divine ; in
short, the very ground of his free-will. This, originally with Swedenborg a
philosophic discovery, is the groundwork of his spiritual philosophy.

214 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT.
meaning, within the letter, as the Humanity of our Lord was
full of the Divinity ; and it is the ladder by which man may
climb up into heaven, by which his mind may be opened
upward through successive degrees into the thoughts of the
angels with whom his home is prepared. Such preparation
and such association is the use and the happiness of this
world, too long foregone, but to be bestowed in the Holy
City that is to descend from God out of heaven. More pre
cisely, the understanding of the Word which the angels have,
in which they live and move and have their being, is itself the
Holy City to come down out of heaven, to be the tabernacle
of God with men ; and this descent of the Holy City is
again the coming of the Lord, to the understanding of men,
in the clouds of heaven, the literal sense, with power and
great glory.
By what means shall the descent be made ? No new Word
is to be given. That which reaches from the beginning of
the world to the millennium, and was fulfilled in the personal
manifestation of the Divinity, is all we can need. But we are
to be taught to understand this as angels understand it. How
shall we be taught ? Shall we imagine angels coming down
upon earth to teach us ? How shall we see and hear them ?
It cannot be done with the eyes and ears of the body. These
cannot apprehend spirit. Nor is it conceivable that angels,
like the Lord Himself, should be incarnated for the purpose.
There is a far simpler way : though angels have not a material
form, men have within their material form a spirit with its
spiritual form and senses, so enwrapped as to be unseen and
almost unknown. For man, then, to be taught by angels,
nothing is necessary but that a separation should be made
between his bodily senses and those of the spirit, and that the
latter should be opened to their proper use. That this has
been given many times of yore, we know from the Bible and
from history. The question remains whether, for the descent
of the Holy City, this favor should be granted to the many, or
to but one in their behalf. It may be well, before forming an

FIRST NOTION ABOUT SPIRITS. 21 5
opinion on this question, to read attentively the unfoldings of
the Word made through Swedenborg, and to learn the wisdom
necessary, and the Divine guidance, in order that the angelic
meaning may reach us in its integrity. We may then con
clude that, although in Swedenborg's case no inexplicable
miracle was given, and the means used for his enlightenment
were no other than might be used at any time for the enlight
enment of others, it was, as he says, of Divine Providence,
that he was specially prepared for the work and protected in
its performance, in order that the foundations of the City
might be deeply, securely laid, and that our introduction into
it may be made sure. And let it not be forgotten that, ac
cording to Swedenborg, the right understanding of the Word,
the presence in it of the Lord Himself, can be given by Him
alone, by the light of His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth.
"No man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was
able to open the Book ; " but only "the Lion of the tribe of
Judah, the Root of David."
How slowly, step by step, Swedenborg came to a full com
prehension of the conditions of the other world is evident in
his manner of speaking of the forms of spirits. When he first
saw one, he called him " a man." This, as we have seen, was
in April, 1745. In December he writes, —
" Spirits do not perceive otherwise than that they are in
human shape, thus in a body with skin, bones, and blood,
when yet it was shown them that they cannot retain those
things which are of no use. . . . When they hear this they
perceive indeed that they have no use for them, but still that
they retain the shape. . . . But what their proper form is,
is indeed unknown ; and yet from the least organs of the
brain, where are the beginnings of the form of the body, it
may be in some degree concluded that the forms are not dis
similar from those ; and that still they can be restored into a
likeness of the human form as often as they direct their mind
to it by thoughts." (S. D. 355.)

2l6 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT.
The same idea of spirits, as not having the human form
except by fantasy, or fiction of thought, appears frequently,
together with a similar notion in regard to theh surround
ings, their garments, animals, etc. In October, 1748, he
writes again, —
"I have spoken concerning the form which sphits have,
because they do not know in what form they are other than
the human, and said that the inmosts of the spirit asphe to a
form like the human body, . . . but still that it is in a much
more perfect form applicable and fitting to heavenly life.
. . . But it is manifest that they are not bodies, because
bodies are like the worm forms, and are indeed food for
worms. . . . Wherefore forms of spirits are much more per
fect, and that they are represented as human forms is for a
cause concerning which above ; but what the forms of spirits
are, for various causes it has not been given me to know."
(S. D. 3472.)
This idea of the form of the soul, as something which,
though the cause of the form of the body, was distinct from
it and superior, as that of the butterfly to that of the worm,
was Swedenborg's old philosophic idea, as expressed in his
treatise about the soul. At that time he had penetrated so
far as to regard the outer coverings of the soul, and even the
rational mind, as of inner material substance, which would be
cast off, not at once, but gradually, after death. The soul
would then be pure intelligence, without a body, of which it
would have no need, yet having an ethereal form of its own,
and capable of taking the human form upon itself on occa
sion. And now for three years and a half he had been in the
habit of seeing spirits, sometimes every day, and had not
yet learned what he afterwards constantly taught, that the
bodies in which he saw them were real, substantial, human
bodies, not indeed of material, but of spiritual substance, the
inmost of the material. He had not yet got rid of his old
idea of spirits as ghosts, either with no substantial form at all,
or with a form of an unknown higher type. But though at

LATER NOTIONS ABOUT SPIRITS. 2I7
this time he was already well advanced in writing the Arcana
Ccelestia, few traces of this imperfect apprehension of spirits
are observable in that work. In one place, however, we find
him saying, —
"The sound of the gnashing of teeth was heard [in the
world of spirits] as manifestly as that of a man, which is
strange, since they have not teeth." (A. C. 820, compare
53870 And again in sundry places in the "Diary" and in the
"Arcana"1 he speaks of spirits and angels as having no
need for food, except for their minds, and as having all the
senses which men have except that of taste, inferring this
exception, probably, from his preconceived idea; whereas
later>he writes, —
"They eat and drink there as in the natural world, but all
the food is from a spiritual origin ; wherefore it is not pre
pared, but is daily given. . . . Because the food is from a
spiritual origin, and thus in itself spiritual, and because spirits
and angels are men, and endowed with a spiritual body,
therefore such spiritual nourishment serves them : a spiritual
being is thus nourished spiritually, and a material man ma
terially." (S. D. 6088.) " Good spirits and angels have teeth
equally as men." (A. E. 556.) "They have similar taste and
also smell." (S. D. vii. sec. 2, n. 3^z-)2
The same slowness to apprehend the realities of the other
world shows itself in the early remark that " Place, change of
place, and distance in the other life are fallacies." (A.C. 1380.)
Changes of place in the other world " are only apparent, and
are nothing but changes of state, whilst the body remains in
the same place." (A. C. 1273.) While later he says, —
"Spirits and angels .... are substantial men, and live
together like men of the natural world, upon spaces and in
times which are determined according to the states of their
minds." (T.C.R. 29.)
1 See Spiritual Diary, 356 7, 3998; Arcana Ccelestia, 1973.
z See also The Apocalypse Explained, 618 ; Heaven and Hell, 461.

2l8 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT.
It has been well suggested l that this want of realization of
spiritual facts coincided with Swedenborg's intellectual pres
ence in that world, with the senses of seeing and hearing
therewith connected ; while as to the voluntary part of his
mind, with which are connected the realizing senses of taste
and touch, he remained in this world. Later, and then only
occasionally, it was permitted him to be almost wholly with
drawn from the body, when all sphitual things became real
to him. Of this state he says, —
" The man is led into a certain state which is intermediate
between sleep and waking, and when he is in this state he
cannot know otherwise than that he is altogether awake ; all
his senses are as wakeful as in the fullest wakefulness of the
body, as well sight as hearing, and, what is wonderful, the
touch, which then is more exquisite than can ever be given in
the wakefulness of the body. In this state also spirits and
angels have been seen altogether to the life, also heard, and,
what is wonderful, touched ; and then almost nothing of the
body intervened. It is this state of which it is said, ' to be
withdrawn from the body, and not to know whether one is in
the body or out of the body.' (2 Cor. xii. 2.) I have been
let into this state only three or four times, that I might only
know what it is, and at the same time that spirits and angels
enjoy every sense, and also man when he is withdrawn from
the body." (H. & H. 440 : in 1758.)
Another illustration of the gradual growth of Swedenborg's
understanding of spiritual things is found in the manner of his
speaking of evil spirits and of the hells. In the Adversaria
he says little about the hells, but frequently refers to the Devil
and his crew. So, too, in the early portion of the " Diary"
we find the Devil spoken of as having been created into a
state of perfection, and as having fallen thence and being now
kept in chains and only his crew let out. (S. D. 202 : Sept.
23, 1747.) A year later, however, Swedenborg refers to what
1 New Jerusalem Magazine, July, 1881.

THE LOT OF EVIL SPIRITS.

219

he had written of this kind as being so written in accordance
with the belief of the whole Christian world (S. D. 3217)-
and perhaps this mention in n. 202 is the last of its kind.
But the period of the "Diary" is the decade previous to
the Judgment ; and the hells were open, their inmates in a
measure unloosed. To Swedenborg's eyes "the angels or
sphits of God Messiah were very' few in comparison with
those of a perverse disposition" (Adv. part iv. p. 211); and
there were vast numbers of spirits who, infested with the evil,
were either let down among them, as into their hells, or kept
in what Swedenborg calls the lower earth, undergoing vasta-
tion for their purification from evils, in preparation for ad
mission among the good. During these years Swedenborg
visited them, heard their complaints, was permitted to com
fort them, and saw troops of them set free and raised up,
under the care of angels, among the good. At this time he
was most deeply impressed with two things : first, the sinful
ness of the human heart, on account of which, he still says in
the old language, all men are condemned to eternal punish
ment (S. D. 2583) ; and, second, the infinite loving mercy
of the Lord, which would save all. From this, and from what
he sees going on, he insists stoutly, not only to himself but to
the spirits of Jupiter (3489) and even to the angels of heaven
(2826), that the Lord permits no punishment except as
necessary means of reformation, and that there is no such
thing as punishment to eternity.1
There are many indications that at this time, though he
knew some had remained in their hells for ten or even twenty
centuries, Swedenborg was persuaded that all would eventually
be stripped of their desire to do evil, and would, with what
little life remained, be taken up among the good, to perform
such uses as are performed by almost lifeless bone.2 Not
only in the "Diary," but likewise in the first volume of the
1 Spiritual Diary, 1039, 1074, 3528 end.
2 See Spiritual Diary, 286, 1377, 1497, 2709, 2793, 2803, 3041, 3910,3912,
39*3, 3944, 4°38. 4-i"i 4328, 4329-

220 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT.
"Arcana," which was written in the same year, 1748, we find
these indications. In n. 699 he speaks of comforting those
in hell and the lower earth. From n. 827 to n. 831, and in
n. 955, he describes the punishments of most abominable
spirits, of several kinds, as lasting for hundreds of years, till
they have little life left, or " conceive shame, terror, and horror
for such practices " as they had been accustomed to. In en
tire harmony with this view is the common reading of n. 967
of the "Arcana " : " When the wicked are punished, there are
always angels present to regulate the punishment, and to alle
viate the pains of the sufferers as much as may be ; but they
cannot remove them entirely, because such is the equilibrium
of all things in another life, that 'evil punishes itself; and un
less it were removed by punishments, the evil spirits must
needs be kept in some hell to eternity, [as] otherwise they
would infest the societies of the good, and do violence to the
order appointed by the Lord, on which the safety of the
universe depends."
This agrees with passages already cited from the " Diary,"
some of which are referred to in the author's Index, as fol
lows : " Man is such that he has been condemned to hell to
eternity ; but of the mercy of the Lord, after punishments
and vastations, he is taken out thence," n. 2583. "There
was talk about hell, some thinking that those there will remain
to eternity ; but [it was shown] that, since there is no pun
ishment except for an end, arid the Lord, because Wisdom
Itself, is the end, therefore nothing happens except for the
end of good : also that man is condemned to hell, because
he is nothing but evil ; but tire Lord liberates him/' n. 2823
to 2827, and 2831, 2832.
With these various indications of Swedenborg's belief, in
1 748, that all would eventually be brought out of hell, we
know of nothing that distinctly indicates a contrary belief at
that time. The references in the "Arcana" (311, 562, 581)
to the wicked before the flood, as still shut away in a hell by
themselves, are not decisive, since he plainly understands

THE LOT OF EVIL SPIRITS. 221
many centuries to be necessary for reformation in some cases.
But we soon have signs of a modification of belief. After
a year's experience with an exceedingly treacherous class of
spirits, whom he calls sirens, in the latter part of 1 749 he
speaks of them with no hope of their possible amendment.
" The infernal ones, male and female, who receive nothing of
amendment by punishments, are those who are borne towards
hell. The most profane sirens, with the rest, were punished
many times severely, so severely as can hardly be described
for the various tortures, but yet they were afterwards the
same, and then worse ; such are they who are borne to hell
and fall in thither when filled with evils." There, he goes on
to say, they suffer punishment and fear it, being punished by
their like ; whereas in the world of spirits they had con
trived to evade it. "But those who are punished in the
world of spirits, and receive amendment, are they who be
come better." (S. D. 4511-13.)
About the same time he writes of the lot of the evil spirits
that, after being suffered to practise their evil arts in the world
of spirits for some years, " they concentrate their evils and
become nothing but the evils of their kind, and what is good
is then taken away from them, so that at length their wicked
ness is consummated," when they plunge into hell where are
their like, and have no longing to rise into the world of
spirits, for fear of punishment, but recede into their hells.
There, after some centuries of mutual torment, their cor
poreal delights may become somewhat deadened, and they
are then at times taken up into the world of spirits to serve
for the vilest uses, with scanty life, and with scarcely any
delight. " Such is the lot of the evil." (S. D. 4471.)
At length, a few years later, we have in the "Arcana" the
emphatic statement, with reason given, that — "They endure
evils continually more severe, and this until they dare not
harm any one ; and afterwards they remain in hell forever.
They cannot be released, because the will to do good to any
one cannot be given them ; only to refrain from doing evil to

222 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT.
any one from fear of punishment can be given, the desire
always remaining." (A. C. 7541.) From this statement in
all his subsequent writings, Swedenborg never departs. That
he came to it gradually seems certain. But the difference be
tween it and the earlier view is not so great as might at first
appear. The essential difference is, that, while from the first
he perceived the necessity of long and dire punishment to
subdue the evil desires of the very wicked, ending only with
almost entire loss of vitality, he at first supposed that by
superadded good they could eventually be brought into asso
ciation with good sphits and become a part of the " Greatest
Man"1 (S. D. 3041) ; whereas, with further experience, he
learned that the evil desires could never be entirely removed,
but would remain the spirit of the little life left, and that
they could have no part among the good.
Connected with this first uncertainty as to the final dispo
sition of the wicked, and in part its ground, we find a want
of clear distinction between the real inward state, or condi
tion, of the good and the evil. Regarding man's nature as
tending always to evil, from which he is withheld by the
Lord alone ; and regarding the good desires of the angels as
superadded to them from the Lord (S. D. 2803-5), on the
withdrawal of which they would lapse into the condition of
evil spirits, — it was easy to think that saving grace would be
eventually extended to all, and all would be gathered into the
one fold. Swedenborg does not seem at -this time to have
realized, so fully as afterwards, the change made in the mental
constitution by a man's consenting acceptance of the Divine
grace ; and the essential difference between the loving use
performed by the good, and what might be performed under
compulsion by the evil ; or indeed between really good uses
performed by the good, and vile or necessary evil uses per
formed under permission by the evil. He saw rightly from
the first that punishments were not for past offences and to
1 This expression is used by Swedenborg for the whole heaven taken as a
one ; which is organized, he says, in the order of the human form.

THE LOT OF EVIL SPIRITS.

223

eternity, but only for present withholding from evil and while
necessary : and that the end would be restraint from evil and
the performance of use, even the meanest, to the rest of
mankind. That among the vast multitudes in the world of
spirits undergoing punishment by devils for the Divine pur
pose of their reformation, there were some, nay many, who
would never suffer themselves to be reformed, would never
give up theh desire for evil, and who must therefore always
remain in theh hells, is what he seems not at first to have
clearly apprehended.
In this hesitation, or reluctance, perhaps no one of Sweden
borg's readers does not sympathize. We would all fain be
lieve that no human creature can fail to be impressed in the
end into his Lord's kingdom. But we must all recognize the
freedom of choice given man as vital, absolute, and eternal.
The manner of exercise of the choice is, then, simply a matter
of fact and experience, in which Swedenborg is our tutor ; and
our own deshe or reason can hardly gainsay what he has told
us. We cannot but fear that the tale is " ower true." We
have, however, the consolation of inferring that in time the
condition of the unfortunate ones ceases to be that of pun
ishment and suffering ; that their life becomes comparatively
harmless, by submission to restraint ; and that if its delight
is reduced to almost nothing, it is all the world to them, and
what, because it is their very self, they would not exchange
for the lot of any other beings. Moreover, we have Sweden
borg's assurance that even in their lowest condition they
never cease to be an object of pity and care to angels and
to the Lord Himself.
These instances of Swedenborg's gradual development of
ideas and doctrine are not exceptional ; they are rather the
rule, covering nearly the whole field of his spiritual instruc
tion! In a note to n. 43 of his little treatise on the Worship
and Love of God, after describing the instinctive knowledge
and capacities into which brute animals are born, and con-

224 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT.
trasting therewith the ignorance and helplessness of infant
men, he says, —
" It was altogether otherwise in our first-begotten, whose
rational or intellectual mind was not to be instructed and
perfected in a similar manner, or from the bodily senses, but
from the soul itself, while the sensories of the body only ad
ministered and were subservient : for he was born into a state
of the greatest integrity, and into perfections themselves."
Again in a note to n. 52, after describing the synthetical
and the analytical ways of learning, he says, —
" It appears that the intellectual mind of Adam, while all
things were excited from their first auspices to last, was in
structed by the synthetic way, from the soul first, and after
wards from its senses ; wherefore now he is said to have met
his understanding, or the intelligences who were coming to
him. The case is otherwise in his posterity, in whom the
rational mind, which had altogether no existence in infancy,
is first, as it were, to be constructed, or opened from the
senses, before it can be instructed ; for it is perfected by age,
through the benefit of experience, which is of the senses, and
afterwards of the sciences, conceived and brought forth from
the experience of the senses."
And in another note to the same number, —
"That our first-begotten was able to know what is good,
or goodnesses, from an internal sense, is sufficiently evident
from the formation of his mind, and from causes which follow
in their series ; for the minds of those who live in the love of
the Supreme not only see, but also feel the affections of its
goodnesses, and consequently have their understanding clearly
enlightened by truths ; wherefore from a sense of goodness
the knowledge of all truths flows ; ... he who comprehends
superior goodnesses by an inmost sense has no need to run
over that spacious plain of investigation, or to make his way
through masses of truths, because he is in the knowledge of
goodness itself, or, as it were, at the goal, from whence he
can widely view and freely contemplate the whole field."

GROWTH OF IDEAS.

225

Three or four years later»in the Arcana Cmlestia, n. 1902,
Swedenborg wrote, —
" If man were imbued with no hereditary evil, then the
rational would be born immediately from the marriage of the
celestial things of the internal man with its spiritual things,
and through the rational would be born the scientific, so that
man would have with him all the rational and all the scientific
immediately on coming into the world."
Sixteen years after this was published in the "Arcana," the
following more guarded statement was printed in The Divine
Providence, n. 275 : —
" The love into which man was created is the love of the
neighbor. . . . This love is truly human ; for in it there is
what is spiritual, by which it is distinguished from natural
love, which brute animals have. If man were born into that
love, he would not be born into the thick-darkness of ignor
ance, as every man now is ; but into some light of science,
and thence of intelligence, into which he would also shortly
come." And in his crowning work, The True Christian Religion,
published seven years after The Divine Providence, Sweden
borg gives at length a most interesting discussion on this
subject, in an assembly in the other world, at which he was
invited to be present. The topics of discussion were three :
First, " What is the image of God, and what the likeness of
God, into which man was created? " Second, " Why is not
man born into the science of any love, when yet beasts and
birds, noble as well as ignoble, are born into the sciences of
all their loves?" The third, about the tree of life, does not
immediately concern our present subject. The conclusion
upon the first question was, in brief, that man becomes an
image of God according as he receives from Him ; and that
he becomes a likeness of God from sensibly perceiving in
himself that those things which are from God are in him as
his, and yet that so much of this likeness becomes an image
as 'acknowledges that all in him is not really his but the
15

226 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT.
Lord's. And the conclusion on jhe second question was, in
full, — "That man is born into no science, in order that he
may be able to come into them all, and advance to intelli
gence, and through this to wisdom ; and that man is born
into no love, in order that he may be able to come into all,
by applications of the sciences from intelligence, and into
love to God through love towards the neighbor, and thus to
be conjoined to God, and by that means to become a man,
and to live to eternity." (T. C. R. 48.)
The successive steps by which Swedenborg's mind ad
vanced through reason and intelligence to wisdom are here
beautifully shown. In the exercise of his reason he came to
see the vast superiority of the down-look, from the high point
of view given by sympathy with the Divine ends. His whole
treatise on the Worship and Love of God is an overflow of
joy in the reception and exercise of something of this faculty.
To this is due its exuberant and sportive fancy. Nothing was
more natural than to imagine that this gift, designed for man
in his highest estate, was given to him at his first birth, when
fresh from the hands of his Maker. A few years later, when
learning in the history of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the
development of the human mind, above all, of the Lord's
own human mind, though he saw that even in this case the
present order of development through the rational was fol
lowed, it was still clear to him that if man were born into
love to the Lord and the neighbor, into that for which he
was designed, he would find all rational and scientific knowl
edge at his feet. Later, in The Divine Providence, with pos
sibly more doubt as to what had been the primal fact, he still
sees that if man were born into this love he would come
into the light of such knowledge, and the knowledge itself
would soon open to him. Last of all, in his crowning work,
at the same time that he teaches, not as before, that the
Father acts through the Son, but that, as the body from the
soul, the Son acts from the Father, — he learns that to be in
the likeness of God is to see what one has from God as one's

GROWTH OF IDEAS.

227

own, thus to act as it were from one's self, at the same time
that to be in the image of God is to acknowledge all one
has, to be from Him. Coincidently he learns that the way in
which he himself has been led, through science to intelligence
and through intelligence to wisdom, as also through love
towards the neighbor into love to God, — the way which he
had found described in the history of Isaac as that in which
our Lord suffered His own humanity to be led, — is the way
which He has designed for all from the beginning ; the true
and only way in which man can receive knowledge after
knowledge, faculty after faculty, as his own, and yet learn to
acknowledge them as from God alone, — in fact, come into
both His image and His likeness.
Swedenborg's idea was right from the first, as to the power
of vision which would be given with the acceptance of the
Divine inflowing spirit ; nor was he at all unmindful of the
steps necessary for him, and for all others since Adam, to be
led up to this state. What he did not seem to see till the
last was, that it is of Divine order and necessity, in. the very
nature of man, for him to have his first conscious life in the
neutral ground of ultimates, and to receive higher life and
light, step by step, as he acquires power to recognize its
source, at the same time that he feels it to be his own.
These various examples of the gradual growth of spiritual
ideas in Swedenborg's mind we have adduced, partly for theh
individual interest, but specially to illustrate the fact that the
revelation given through him is a rational revelation, never
forced upon him, but opened to him step by step, as his
mind was enabled to comprehend it rationally. This is of
first importance to be understood, both that the revelation
may be seen in its right place in history, as the revelation
given to man's now developed reason, and that its claims
upon us may be recognized as addressed always to our rea
son. Swedenborg himself, while eagerly confessing with joy
that his doctrine is not his own, but from the Lord, often ap
peals to the reason of his readers, begging them to examine

228 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT.
for themselves and see whether the doctrine be not true.
This is indeed the very essence of the new revelation, — the
rational recognition of spiritual truth, by the aid of the Spirit
of Truth, with acknowledgment of its Divine Source.
One day there appeared to Swedenborg a magnificent
domed temple, with windows of crystal and gate of pearl ;
and over the gate was written Nunc Licet. On consideration
he perceived that the temple represented a Church, and in
deed the New Church that is to be, in which Now it is
allowable to enter intellectually into the mysteries of faith.
The child accepts what he is taught in innocence and
affection. The boy learns in obedience to his master. The
youth reasons for himself, and asserts his own conclusions as
the only standard of faith. The mature mind confesses its
ignorance, humbles itself before the Divine Teacher, and
gratefully accepts what He, with His Spirit, illumines before
it as the truth, accordant with right reason and with heavenly
love. The youthful stage of the Christian Church is passing
by. The stage of ripe manhood is opening before us ; but it
is not entered without trial and temptation, — trial of the
heart whether it will submit to be led by its Lord, and temp
tation of the intellect to throw off all allegiance, to assert its
own supremacy, and to disbelieve all but its own independent
vision. The trial and temptation endured, the gates open of
themselves, and Nunc Licet.

CHAPTER X.
OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES.
As in his apprehension of the mysteries of the other world,
so in his comprehension of the arcana of the Word of God,
we find Swedenborg's progress to have been slow and grad
ual, in orderly, rational development. As soon as he learned
that this was the work designed for him, he left unfinished the
essay on the Worship and Love of God, and began to study
Hebrew and the Old Testament, using both the original and
Schmidt's Latin version. In a few months he was writing
notes in explanation of Genesis which he did not publish,1
but which are of interest as showing the steps by which he
arrived at the understanding of the interior sense which he
afterwards published in his Arcana Coelestia.
In the first notes, entitled "The History of the Creation
Handed Down by Moses," the first chapter of Genesis is
explained from beginning to end in only the sense of the
letter, as referring simply to the creation of the material
world. No other thought appears in Swedenborg's mind.
In the second chapter he begins with referring to his little
work on the Worship and Love of God, but says that all
human speculations are unreliable, except so far as they coin
cide with revelation; and so he submits the statements in
this little treatise to the test of what he is now learning in
these first chapters of Genesis. He is surprised, pleasantly no
doubt, with the agreement he finds. He then proceeds with
his explication in the same way as in the first chapter, until,
1 Published by Dr. J. F. I. Tafel, under the title of Adversaria in Libras
Veteris Testamenti, 1842-54.

230 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES.
in the ninth verse, new light seems to break upon him. In
the preceding verse he doubts whether Adam was born in the
Garden of Eden, or created elsewhere and brought into it ;
but he wisely concludes that belief one way or the other is
not an article of salvation. And then, in unfolding the ninth
verse, without preamble he declares it to be plain enough
that the earthly paradise represented heavenly paradise, " for
there is riothing given on earth to which there is not some
thing corresponding in heaven." The way now opens before
him, and he goes through this chapter and the next, finding
spiritual significance in almost every verse, not inconsistent
with what he afterwards published, though less clear and
more hampered by the letter. At the end of the third chap
ter, however, he writes and underscores the words, — "These
things have been premised. But let us search the Scriptures
chiefly with this intent, that we may investigate the kingdom
of God, what it is to be, and the many things which pertain to
it. The Scriptures not here and there but everywhere treat of
the kingdom of God, for indeed this was the end of the creation
of all things, as well of heaven as of earth.'' In pursuance
of this intent he seems now to have filled thirty-two folio
pages with Bible passages under the following heads : —
"1. The Messiah about to come into the world. 2. The
Messiah who is about to come a second time to restore the
Jews. 3. The Kingdom of God. 4. Babylon." To these
pages he gave the title, The Messiah about to Come into the
World ; and the Kingdom of God.1
Then he goes back and starts again with the first chapter
of Genesis, assured that it inwardly contains the plan of the
redemption of man by the Lord, but unable to advance much
beyond the interior literal sense in many of the particulars.
Even when he comes to the Flood and the saving of Noah in
the ark, though he is full of the recognition of the Lord's
Divine providence for the human race, and for the establish
ment of His Divine kingdom, his ideas still remain fixed in
1 Not printed in the Adversaria, but photo-lithographed by R. L. Tafel.

IDEA OF THE TRINITY.

231

the letter ; he thinks only of a flood of waters and of a single
family preserved in an ark of wood. The phrases of the old
theology in which he had been trained are continually crop
ping out, as when he says that the posterity of Ham, because
they took possession of the Holy Land, represented the
Devil, who invaded heaven. This is still more remarkable in
what he says of the Supreme Being. He refers constantly to
the three persons of the Trinity, notwithstanding his having
learned by spiritual experience that all prayer should be ad
dressed to the Lord Jesus Christ. God, the Father, is still
to him the impersonation of justice, while He effects all crea
tion through His only-begotten Son, who is the Logos, or
Sermo, the unwritten Word. And at times, as when the cove
nant is made with Noah, he labors to show that it was made
by the three persons, — by Jehovah, the Father ; by God, the
Son ; and by the Holy Spirit, — inasmuch as it is declared
the third time.
We must, however, bear in mind that, by his own state
ment (T. C. R. 16), from his earliest years he could never
admit into his mind the idea of more Gods than one, but
always received and retained the idea of one God alone.
Hence we must suppose that the tri-personal idea was with
him but an external one, not much more than a form of
speech, a distinction of office, not of character. In The Wor
ship and Love of God he says that the Father begat the Son
as a mediator, by whom man might approach Him, — a state
ment not far from the truth. In the Adversaria the justice
of the Father is loving, not vindictive, justice, and the love
with which the Son pleads for mercy for men is inspired by
the Father, who longs to grant the mercy. Sometimes the
justice itself is attributed to the Son, and it is important to
observe that the Lord the Messiah was continually before
him. He saw Him as the present means of the creation, as
the predicted conqueror of the serpent, as represented in His
death by Abel, as vainly imitated in the establishment of His
Holy City by the Devil's attempt at Babel, and as the very

232 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES.
end in view in the selection and care of Abraham. In the
following passage it will be seen how near he comes to what
he afterwards saw and published in detail, that in Abraham's
life throughout was represented the infancy and childhood
of our Lord on earth : —
"In Abram, as in a mirror in which a type and image
appear, are represented the effigies of things which are to
come, both of this world and of heaven ; but the Messiah
and His kingdom are the very effigy itself, — the rest are only
types which come in succession. Wherefore not even the
least thing occurs in the life of this parent of the Israelites,
Abram, which is not representative or typical of what is about
to come, in the Jewish community first, then in those that
are to follow, even to the last times when the thing itself in
its own light and effigy will stand forth to view." (Adv. 164.)
How present our Lord was to Swedenborg's mind appears
further from his perceiving that it was "the Only-Begotten
of God, the Messiah," who was seen by Abram : —
"Therefore, because Abram saw, not the type, but the very
effigy itself, that is, the King Himself, who should introduce
his posterity and the nations into the promised land and into
His kingdom, to Him he built an altar. He, because He is
the image of His Father, is here as in the following passages
called also Jehovah : Therefore he built an altar there to
Jehovah who appeared to him. This is the day and the
coming of the Messiah which Abram saw and was glad. Nay,
Abram, when first the land was promised to him and his
posterity by the Messiah King Himself, is led away to the
place where the Messiah should be born, even to Bethlehem.
. . . Touched and moved by the holiness of the place, the
father of the Israelites fixed his abode there for a time, built
an altar, called upon God, and thus celebrated His day and
His coming." (Adv. part i. 166, 167.)
And again, with appreciation of what the presence of the
Lord required, he says of Abram, now named Abraham, —
"When, therefore, Abraham had seen his Messiah, and

THE FULNESS OF THE WORD OF GOD. 233
indeed now in the human form, which He was about to put
on, straightway he first offered Him that which signifies this
human nature and its purification, namely, the washing of
the feet ; for the things which are outmost, or with which
interior things are clothed, are those which relate to nature,
and by which spiritual things are enclosed. Such things also
circumcision involves. But the lowest part of all is the sole
of the foot, which is washed for the sake of that representa
tion ; and thus with men that is purged away which adheres
to nature, as was also afterwards instituted by the Messiah
Himself. Abraham under the tree begged suppliantly that
this might be done, for the sake of the memory of the tree of
life upon which his posterity were to be engrafted : there
fore said father Abraham, Let a little water be accepted, I pray,
and wash your feet, and rest under the tree. (Adv. 199.)
A little later, amazed at the infinity of meaning which he
begins to find hidden in the Word of God, he exclaims, —
" Believe me, O readers, for I speak the truth, that in every
word, yea in every jot of an expression that comes forth from
the mouth of Jehovah God, there are most hidden things, and
so all-embracing as to contain in themselves in the present
an infinite series from eternity to eternity, the things which
are and the things which are to come, from the beginning of
heaven and earth even to their end. For whatever Jehovah
speaks by His Word and Holy Spirit, is He Himself therein ;
thus what is infinite, that is, infinite things which never come
forth into the light before human minds. The things which
are revealed are only a very few, and hardly a very few. Yet
not jeven these lie open except when the Sun rises, that is,
Jehovah God, who is the Sun of wisdom, and enlightens
with some rays of His own light minds that dwell in densest
shadow." This perception that every syllable of the Word of God
contained the Divine fulness, was one of the keys given to
Swedenborg for unlocking its mysteries. To this were added
his discovery that everything in the Word presented something

234 ' OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES.
of the great end in view from the beginning, — the judgment
and salvation by the Lord of the human race ; his long-
cherished doctrine that every outward thing is the repre
sentative and correspondent of some inward thing ; and his
consciousness that while all good depends on love to the
Lord and the neighbor, all evil depends cm love to self and
the world. It is interesting to mark the steps by which, with
these guides, the meaning of the Word opened before him,
illustrated continually by the information communicated to
him by the spirits and angels with whom his studies brought
him into company.
At the same time we realize with what peril the task would
have been undertaken without the constant guidance of the
Holy Spirit. Swedenborg himself became deeply sensible of
this, and gives frequent warning of the danger of trusting to
the suggestions of spirits. It may be questioned whether it
would have been possible for him to be sufficiently on his
guard, without such open vision as he had of the company
about him. While the explanation of the Word that he was
to learn and teach was the spiritual sense, in which it is un
derstood in the other world, and while it was essential for his
understanding of it that he should be in open communica
tion with spirits and angels, it was no less important that he
should be protected from the persuasion of any, and that
he should receive the truth into his rational understanding
under the sole guidance of the Spirit of Truth.
In this, as in everything else he learned and taught, he was
the pioneer for us all. In the new age of the Church, while
we are to enter rationally into the mysteries of faith and of
Scripture, and while we are to realize the presence and in
fluence of the Holy Spirit, we need to know what Sweden
borg learned of the constant influence of spirits about us, of
the danger of trusting to them, and of the necessity of look
ing to the Law and to the Testimony for guidance by the
Spirit of Truth.
On this subject the Church has had little knowledge. Men

THE DIVINE CONTROL.

235

have recognized but two spirits, — that of the Lord and that
of the Evil One. Too often inspiration with some apparent
good purpose has been claimed to be from the Lord, when
in fact there was within it vain-glory and fantasy. Sweden
borg himself at first, as we have already seen, knew only of
"the Spirit," meaning the Holy Spirit, and the Tempter. He
had to learn that between the two are infinite grades of
angels and spirits, whose influence may partake of that of
both at the same time. Even the angels, he says, were
tempters of the Lord in His human nature, from the imper
fection that clung to them. Spirits and angels innumerable
he found pressing about him, as about all men, and ready
to inspire his mind, if not his body, with their own peculiar
thoughts and impulses. They would even impel and guide
his pen, did he surrender the control to them.
Now shone forth to him the power and the goodness,
the wisdom and the near presence, of the Lord his Saviour.
Infinite control he saw to be in the Divine hands, by reason
that all life and power, even that of the lowest devil, pro
ceeded from the Divine Life and Power alone, — proceeded
as a stream from its fountain, however defiled on its way ; so
that the instant the supply should be cut off, that instant
angel, spirit, man, or devil would cease to be. The unerring
wisdom> by which all these contending forces are moderated
and counterbalanced so as to be in equilibrium about every
sane man, in order that his freedom may be preserved, his
character and powers developed, and his salvation if possible
effected, is study for angels to eternity. It is the Divine wis
dom in its application to men revealed in the Word of God,
incarnated in the Son of Man. The goodness, the love, and
the mercy with which the Lord stands at the door of every
man's heart, seeking through the reason He has given him
to enter and guide him in the way of His own salvation, was
to Swedenborg beyond all expression.
From a multitude of passages in the Adversaria bearing
on these points, let us select a few : —

236 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES.
"A crowd of many kinds and species of spirits I have been
surrounded with by turns, as also of those who died many
ages ago, in order that of the Divine mercy of God Messiah
I might learn the nature of spirits and how they operate, and
that God Messiah disposes and rules them all wholly accord
ing to His pleasure, which by the experience of so many
months could not but become known to me " (hi. 135).
" Whatever is thought should be directed to God Messiah,
because all things come from Him ; for nothing ever in the
world comes before the senses, nothing in interior natural
things before the natural mind, nothing in most interior
things before the spiritual mind, which does not have respect
to the kingdom of God Messiah, and so to God Messiah
Himself" (v. 535). "No one ever becomes free until he
becomes the servant of God Messiah ; for then he is ruled
to the true and best end, and he is wise and is affected with
love for the end" (v. 834).
" Influx is from the inmost into what is called the more
interior, and from this into the interior class. He who is not
in order has no perception of the things which are inmost,
that is, we may say, of what are Divine ; but he who is held
in order perceives the least assents and dissents in the affec
tions and persuasions, whenever they are formed by evil
angels, or by those who have evil in themselves: ,so that
there is a certain dissent in inmosts, whatever persuasion is
induced ; and this has happened to me so frequently that the
times cannot be numbered. . . . This very day, when I was
led by persuasions to believing about a certain matter that it
was so, I yet perceived inmostly as it were that the spirit was
a deceiver, who was to be shunned " (vi. 2056).
Speaking of the presence of the Lord on Mount Sinai, in
the Tabernacle, and in the Temple, he says, —
" God Messiah is everywhere, but is in holy places with
more and other power, of truth and love, than elsewhere. . . .
Hence also in the prayer of the benediction it is prayed that
He may look upon us, when yet He sees always, even the

PEACE FROM THE LORD. 237
least things in the universe. . . . This presence by the Divine
mercy of God Messiah it has been granted me to perceive.
... It is an inmost affection which can in no way be de
scribed, and if described with many words it could not be
exhausted" (v. 1261-62).
Speaking of the peace of the benediction, he says, —
" In this peace there is nothing at all of quiescence, but
very life. . . . Something of this peace has been given me
by the Divine mercy of the Lord to experience, but I testify
sacredly that no tongue can ever express it. For it is the
complex of all happiness, with the highest life, freed from the
life which is wont to spring up from desires, bodily pleasures,
care and anxiety about things that are to come. It is to be
in the bosom of God Messiah" (vii. 6924-25).
Such peace came to him after enduring spiritual tempta
tions from evil spirits, by which he learned more and more
fully that the sole deliverance from evil is the Lord : —
"As regards the temptations of the Devil, they are so
wicked and horrible that they can in no way be described.
His most crafty machinations are unspeakable, and beyond
man's power to apprehend ; for evil always puts on an ap
pearance to mislead man. Hence unless man is guarded by
God Messiah, he can in no wise escape, not even the least
moment, from falling headlong into damnation. But the
temptations, which are many, that I have learned by experi
ence, are to be rather consigned to deep oblivion than pub
lished to men; for all minds [of themselves] must needs
fall. By this experience I have leanjed this, — that unless God
Messiah had liberated me from these extreme temptations,
which in my belief I could by no means sustain, I should
have fallen into utter damnation. To the liberation my own
powers could not contribute in the least ; they would have
plunged me into damnation, unless God Messiah with His
own aid had been present with me" (vii. 7529).
"With regard to myself, as has been given me to perceive
clearly, I could not but succumb to all [such temptations] ;

238 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES.
for when brought to a certain point, as for myself I suc
cumbed ; but yet was raised up by God Messiah. The temp
tations, I think, have been brought to me for a good end, so
that I might clearly perceive that man can in no wise sus
tain temptations, not even the least of them, from himself.
Wherefore it is the work of God Messiah alone that man is
sustained in temptations" (v. 7509).
It is of importance to know in what way Swedenborg now
received his instruction as to the Divine things he was learn
ing and beginning to teach. In regard to the nature of
things in the other world, he was continually gaining informa
tion from, as he says, "things heard and seen." But, he also
says emphatically, " they who speak from permission of the
Lord, never speak anything which takes away freedom of rea
son, nor teach ; for the Lord alone teaches man, but medi
ately through the Word in illustration. ... I have had speech
with spirits and with angels now for many years, neither has
any spirit dared, nor any angel wished, to tell me anything,
still less to instruct me concerning anything in the Word,
or concerning any doctrine from the Word ; but the Lord
alone has taught me, — who was revealed to me, and after
wards continually appeared and now appears before my eyes
as a sun in which He is, as He appears to the angels, —
and has enlightened me" (D. P. 135). Again, in his last
complete work, The True Christian Religion, he attests that
he has never received anything relating to the doctrines of
the New Church from any angel, but from the Lord alone,
while he was reading the Word (n. 779). This, indeed, he
expressly and elaborately shows to be the way, and the only
way, in which man is at this day taught Divine things : —
" Illustration is as follows : Light conjoined to heat flows
in through heaven from the Lord. This heat, which is
Divine love, affects the will, whence man has the affection of
good ; and this light, which is Divine wisdom, affects the un
derstanding, whence man has the thought of truth. From

ILLUSTRATION FROM THE LORD.

239

these two fountains, which are the will and understanding, all
things of the love and all things of man's science are affected,
but only those things are excited and presented to view
which relate to the subject. Thus illustration is effected by
the Word from the Lord, in which Word everything derived
from the spiritual within communicates with heaven, and
the Lord flows in through heaven, and into that which is at
the time under man's view. ... To be illustrated through
heaven from the Lord is to be illustrated by the Holy Spirit,
for the Holy Spirit is the Divine proceeding from the Lord
as a sun, from which heaven is." (A. E. 177. )
" All such [who love truths and will them from the Lord]
are illustrated, or enlightened, when they read the Word ; for
the Lord is in the Word, and speaks with every one accord
ing to his comprehension : if these hear speech from spirits,
which also they do occasionally, they are not taught but are
led, and this so providentially that the man is still left to him
self, since, as was before said, every man is led of the Lord
by affections, and thinks from them as from himself, in free
dom. If this were not the case, man would not be capable
of reformation, neither could he be enlightened. But men
are enlightened variously, every one according to the quality
of his affection and consequent intelligence : those who are
in the spiritual affection of truth are elevated into the light
of heaven, so as to perceive the illustration, or enlightenment.
It has been given me to see it, and from it to perceive dis
tinctly what comes from the Lord, and what from the angels ;
what comes from the Lord is written [by me], and what
comes from the angels is not written." (A. E. n 83.)
The conclusion of this paragraph, though not precisely to
our present purpose, is so clear and concise a statement of
the author's mission, that we do not like to omit it : —
"Moreover it has been given me to discourse with the
angels as man with man, and likewise to see the things which
are in the heavens and which are in the hells. The reason
was because the end of the present Church is approaching,

240 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES.
and the beginning of a new one is at hand, which will be the
New Jerusalem, to which it is to be revealed that the Lord
rules the universe, both heaven and the world; that there
is a heaven and a hell, and what is the quality of each ; that
men live also as men after death, — in heaven those who have
been led of the Lord, in hell those who have been led of
themselves ; that the Word is the Divine itself of the Lord in
the earth ; also that the last judgment is passed, — lest man
should expect it in this world to eternity ; besides many
other things which are effects of the light now arising after
darkness." The nature of the spiritual affection for truth, to which the
enlightenment described is granted, is more fully set forth in
these words : —
"They who read the Word from a spiritual affection of
truth, which is the love of knowing truth because it is truth,
see the truths of the Word and rejoice in heart when they see
them. The reason is because they are enlightened from the
Lord. This illumination descends from the Lord through
heaven from the light there, which light is Divine truth ; to
them therefore it is given to see truths from their own light,
and this in the Word, because the Word is Divine truth, and
in it are treasured up all the truths of heaven. But they
alone are in this light who are in the two loves of heaven,
which are love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor ;
for these loves open the interior or superior mind, which is
formed to receive the light of heaven, and through which that
light flows in and enlightens them." (A. E. 1 77.)
Since the enlightenment or illumination here described is
not only the very grace enjoyed by Swedenborg, but also
that by which all spiritual discernment of truth is given, and
in effect the very coming of the Lord promised to the disci
ples, as the Spirit of Truth, we will copy some further illustra
tions of its nature and quality, as set forth in the explications
of the "Arcana" : —
"By — And I have filled him with the spirit of God —

ILLUSTRATION FROM THE LORD. 241
(Ex. xxxi. 3) is signified influx and illustration from Divine
truth. . . . Influx and illustration are effected in this manner :
man is such that as to his interiors, which are of the thought
and will, he can look downwards and can look upwards ; to
look downwards is to look outwards into the world and to
himself, and to look upwards is to look inwards to heaven
and to God. Man looks outwards from himself, which is
called looking downwards, since when he looks from himself
he looks to hell; but man looks inwards not from himself
but from the Lord, which is called upwards, because he is
then elevated as to his interiors, which are of the will and
understanding, by the Lord to heaven, thus to the Lord :
the interiors also are actually elevated, and then are actually
withdrawn from the body and from the world. When this
is effected, the interiors of man really come into heaven, and
into its light and heat : hence he has influx and illustration ;
the light of heaven illuminates the understanding, for that
light is Divine truth, which proceeds from the Lord as a sun ;
and the heat of heaven enkindles the will, for that heat is the
good of love which proceeds together with the light from the
Lord as a sun. Since man is then among the angels, there
is communicated to him from them, that is, through them
from the Lord, the intelligence of truth and the affection of
good. This communication is what is called influx and
illustration. But it is to be known that influx and illustra
tion are effected according to the faculty of reception with
man, and the faculty of reception is according to the love of
truth and of good. Wherefore they who are in the love of
truth and of good for the sake of truth and good as ends, are
'elevated; but they who are not in the love of truth and of
good for the sake of truth and good, but for the sake of self
and the world, inasmuch as they continually look and gravitate
downwards, cannot be elevated, thus cannot receive Divine
influx out of heaven, and be illustrated." (A. C. 10,330.)
" From the Lord proceeds Divine truth immediately and
mediately : that which proceeds immediately is above all
16

242 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES.
understanding of the angels ; but that which proceeds medi
ately is adapted to the angels in heaven and also to men, for
it passes through heaven and puts on thence an angelic and
human quality. But into this truth the Lord flows also imme
diately, and thus leads angels and men as well immediately as
mediately. . . . That there is immediate influx of the Lord
where there is also mediate, — thus in the last of order as well
as in its first, — has been told me from heaven, and a living
perception of the thing has been given, as also that what
takes place through heaven and the angels there is very little
in comparison." (A. C. 7004.) "The Lord teaches every
one by means of the Word, and grounds His teaching on
the knowledges which man is in possession of, never infusing
new ones immediately.'' (S. S. 26.)
"Truth proceeding mediately from the Divine may be
given with man, and yet this not be conjoined with truth
which proceeds immediately from the Divine. . . . For ex
ample, the Prophets, through whom the Word was written,
wrote as the spirit dictated from the Lord ; for the very
words which they wrote were pronounced in their ears. With
them was truth mediately proceeding from the Divine, that is,
through heaven, but not therefore truth which proceeded im
mediately from the Divine ; for they did not have perception
as to what everything signified in the internal sense. When
these are conjoined, then, as has been said, perception is
given. This conjunction is rarely given with men, but it is
given with all who are in heaven, especially with those who
are in the inmost or third heaven. It is not given with man
unless he has been so far regenerated that he can be elevated
from his sensual even towards his rational mind, and thus be
set in the light of heaven where the angels are. With every
man, indeed, there is Divine influx, as well immediate as
mediate, but there is not conjunction except with those who
have perception of truth from good ; for those with whom
Divine immediate influx is conjoined with mediate suffer
themselves to be led by the Lord, but those with whom these

TRUTH FROM THE LORD. 243
influxes are not conjoined lead themselves, — and this they
love." (A. C. 7055.)
" Conjunction of truth immediately proceeding from the
Divine with truth which proceeds mediately cannot be given
except in good, for good is the very ground. Truths are
seeds which grow only in good as their ground. Good
is also the very soul of truth; from good, truth exists as
truth and lives. Truth which proceeds immediately from the
Divine is called truth, but is in itself good, because it pro
ceeds from the Divine good, and it is good to which all truth
Divine is united. It is called truth, because in heaven it ap
pears as light, but it is a sort of vernal light to which is united
heat vivifying all things of the earth. From these things it
may be evident also that the conjunction of truth proceeding
immediately from the Lord with truth which proceeds medi
ately, cannot be given except in good, consequently except
man be affected by truth for the sake of truth, especially for
the sake of good, thus for the sake of life ; for then man is in
good. . . . Truth proceeding immediately from the Divine
enters into the will of man, this is its way ; but truth which
proceeds mediately from the Divine enters into the under
standing of man. Wherefore, conjunction cannot be effected
unless the will and understanding act as one ; that is, unless
the will wills good and the understanding confirms it by truth.
When there is thus conjunction, the Lord appears as present,
and His presence is also perceived. But when there is not
conjunction, then the Lord is as if absent ; but His absence
is not perceived, if it is not known from some perception
what His presence is." (A. C. 7056.)
" With regard to instruction in the particulars of doctrine,
this is given when truth immediately proceeding from the
Divine of the Lord is conjoined with truth which proceeds
mediately, for then perception is given. This conjunction is
given especially with the angels who are in the inmost or third
heaven, and are called celestial. These have an exquisite
perception of truth of each kind, and thence of tire presence

244 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES.
of the Lord, because they are pre-eminently in good, for they
have the good of innocence. Therefore they are nearest to
the Lord, and in shining and as it were flamy light, for they
see the Lord as a sun, the rays of whose light are such from
nearness." (A. C. 7058.)
The light of the Spirit of Truth, guiding into all truth, is a
gift that the Lord stands at every one's door desiring to give ;
and it is given freely to every one in the measure in which,
by closing the outer door against natural evil impulses, he
suffers his Lord to open the inner door and to enter. That
to Swedenborg was given such an extraordinary measure of
resistance to what was from self and the devil, of openness to
the Lord Jesus Christ, of love and desire to serve Him, and
of consequent enlightenment, was due, as he himself does
not fail to tell us, to no merit of his own, — however worthy
he may seem in our eyes, — 'but solely to the fact that the
Lord desired to open thus His Word to men, and to this
end graciously led and prepared him.
The preparation and enlightenment were gradual and pro
gressive. At times he saw clearly the interior meanings of
the words he was meditating upon, with a certainty that he
saw from the light given by the Spirit of Truth. Then he
would write, "These things are true and given from the
Lord." At other times he would write, " These things are
now very obscure to me " (Adv. 7647) : " When the time
comes to publish, it will be seen whether these things are
to be printed" (943). Sometimes angels would flow into his
mind so strongly with their affection and understanding of
the subject he was studying, that he could not change the
direction they gave his thoughts, or even keep his hand from
writing what they inspired (3764, 4605). Nothing however
that was written in this way, or from the dictation occasion
ally given (7167), was permitted to be published, unless,
while coming mediately through others, it was perceived to
come also immediately from the Lord (v. in. 181). Without

INSTRUCTION FROM THE LORD ALONE. 245
this seal, obliterandum erat. Destroyed also must have
been whatever he may by habit have written from himself,
without the well-known seal of the light of truth from the
Lord ; for he says that as often as he wished to consult his
intellect in heavenly things, he seemed to himself to be
falling backwards, and would have fallen utterly if he had
not been restored by the Divine mercy of the Lord (1282).
What can be stronger than this declaration ? —
" No word which I bring forth and write is my own, as I
can sacredly attest : wherefore if any one should attribute to
me one jot of the things written, which are truths, whether
he be on earth or in heaven, he would do such wrong to
God Messiah Himself that by no one except God Messiah
Himself could it be condoned" (1654).
" Whenever there was any representation, vision, or speech,
I was held interiorly and inmostly in reflection on the things
presented, what there was useful and good to be learned
from them. This reflection was not so awaited by those
who presented the representations and visions, or who were
speaking with me ; and sometimes they were indignant when
they perceived that I was reflecting. So it came to pass that
I was instructed by no spirit nor angel, but by the Lord
alone, from whom is all that is true and good. . . . And,
besides, when they wished to persuade me, I perceived an
interior or inmost persuasion that the matter was thus and
so, not as they wished to persuade. This astonished them.
The perception was manifest, but cannot be easily described
so as to be understood by men." (S. D. 1647.)
This last passage from the Spiritual Diary, soon to be de
scribed, deserves careful study. It contains the explanation of
Swedenborg's frequent statements that what he taught was
from the Lord alone. He never means that words were
spoken in his ear, or put in his mouth or pen by the Lord.
He means always, as here, that in whatever was presented to
his eye or ear or thought, by man or spirit or angel, by his
own intellect, by the words of Holy Writ, the Lord Himself, —

246 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES.
by His own immediate influx into the reason which He gives
and preserves with man, — illumined with convincing light
the things that were from Him. In further illustration he
says, —
" Every man who is in the spiritual affection of truth, that
is, who loves the truth itself because it is truth, is enlightened
by the Lord when he reads the Word ; but not the man
who reads it from natural affection alone, which is called the
desire of knowing. The latter does not see anything else
than what accords with his love, or with the principles which
he has either gathered himself or has imbibed from others
by hearing or reading. It shall, therefore, be told in a
few words whence and to what man enlightenment comes
through the Word. That man has enlightenment who shuns
evils because they are sins, and because they are against
the Lord and against His Divine laws. With him, and not
with another, the spiritual mind is opened ; and so far as this
is opened, so far the light of heaven enters, and from the
light of heaven is all enlightenment in the Word. For,
such a man has a will of what is good, and this will, when
it is determined to that use, becomes in the understanding
first the affection of truth, then the perception of truth,
and soon by means of rational light the thought of truth, —
thus decision and conclusion, which passes thence at once
into the memory and into the life and thus remains. This
is the way of all enlightenment in the Word, and also the
way of reformation and regeneration of man. But it is
necessary that there should first be in his memory knowl
edges of spiritual as well as natural things, for these are stores
[fenuaria] into which the Lord operates by means of the
light of heaven ; and the more full these are, and free from
confirmed falsities, the more enlightened is the perception
given, and the more certain the conclusion ; for into a void
and empty man the Divine operation does not fall." (S. D.
part vii. 2, 12.)
"It is believed that man might better be enlightened

NO IMMEDIATE REVELATION.

247

and become wise if he should have immediate revelation by
speech with spirits and angels ; but the contrary is true. En
lightenment by means of the Word takes place by an interior
way, but enlightenment by means of immediate revelation
takes place by an exterior way. The interior way is through
the will into the understanding ; the exterior way is through
the hearing into the understanding. Man is enlightened by
the Lord by means of the Word, so far as the will is in good ;
but man may be instructed and as it were enlightened, al
though the will is in evil. And what enters the understanding
with a man whose will is in evil is not within but withouf
him, is only in the memory and not in the life ; and what is
without a man and not in his life, this gradually disappears,
if not before, yet after death ; for the will which is in evil
either casts it out, or suffocates it, or falsifies and profanes it ;
for the will makes the life of man, and continually acts into
the understanding, and that which is from the memory in the
understanding, it regards as extraneous : the understanding,
on the other hand, does not act into the will, but only teaches
how the will should act. Wherefore, though man should have
learned from heaven all things which even the angels know,
or though he should have learned all things which are in the
Word, and in all the teachings of the Church, what the
Fathers have written and the Councils have decreed, and yet
his will be in evil, he would after death be regarded as one
who knows nothing ; for since he does not will what he
knows, and since evil hates truth, the man himself then ejects
such things, and in place of them adopts falses agreeing with
the evil of his will. Moreover, there is not given to any
spirit nor to any angel permission to instruct any man on
this earth in Divine truths, but the Lord Himself teaches
every one by means of the Word ; and He teaches him just
so far as man receives good from Him in the will, and this
good is received just so far as he shuns evils as sins. Every
man also is in the society of spirits, as to his affections and
thoughts thence, in which he is as one with them. Wherefore

248 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES.
spirits speaking with man, speak from his affections and ac
cording to them. Man cannot speak with others unless first
the societies in which he habitually is, are removed, which
does not take place except by the reformation of his will.
. . .• From these things it is evident that the mediate revela
tion which takes place through the Word is much better than
the immediate revelation which takes place through spirits."
(S. D. vii. 2, 13.)
" Representations ".were referred to in a previous quotation.
Swedenborg has much to say of them, as forming an important
means of instruction in the other life. He speaks of them as
being produced by spirits and angels in such number and
variety and living power that we could have no conception of
what he means, were it not for our dreams. In these we
often have such representations induced by spirits. Rarely,
they may have real and true significance, could we but per
ceive it ; and then what can be learned by means of them is
more than words can tell. Let us quote for an example what
Swedenborg says of a representation he saw given by angels
in teaching children about the Lord's life on earth : —
" Children together with those in innocence were softly
representing the Messiah put into the sepulchre, yet by no
means presenting the Messiah directly, but another ; so that
it might be known as from afar that the Messiah was signified,
as also that after the resurrection He descended to the bound
in the pit, and loosed those who were there captive and took
them up into heaven with Himself, and that He was joined to
His own Divine Essence. . . . When they were representing
the descent to those beneath, they represented? most beauti
fully very soft little cords, with which they wished to raise up
God Messiah from thence, and by which they wished also to
represent the longings of love, given them by God Messiah,
to do this." (S. D. 233-35.)
Of the various ways in which Swedenborg perceived the
things of the other world, we find frequent mention : —
" There are four kinds of sight which have been shown me :

VARIOUS KINDS OF VISIONS. 249
the first is the sight of sleep, as clear as that of day, so that
in the sleep I should have said that if this was sleep, wakeful
ness too must be sleep. The second kind is vision with the
eyes closed, which is as clear as with the eyes open, and like
objects, even more beautiful and delightful, are presented to
be seen. Similar sight may occur with the eyes open, and
two or three times has occurred to me. The third kind is
in the condition of eyes open, when those things which are
in heaven are represented, sphits and other things. This
is representative vision, and has become very familiar to me,
but is more obscure. It differs entirely from- the common
imagination of men. A fourth kind is while man is separated
from the body and is in the spirit, and then he can in no way
know otherwise than that he is awake ; for he enjoys all the
senses, such as touch, hearing, and sight, and I doubt not
about the rest. The sight surpasses that of wakefulness, be
cause it is exquisite. ... As to this fourth kind, it has
been granted me four or five times, and indeed with much
pleasantness." (S. D. 651-53.)
This was written about three years after the commence
ment of his visions, and is in accordance with what we have
already seen, that the full opening of his sphitual senses, with
abstraction from the body, was effected very gradually. It
would appear that, in these earlier years, what he saw of the
other world came to him almost exclusively either in sleep, or
by representations when awake and his eyes open, the latter
vision being more obscure. Not more than four or five times
in the three years had he been in full communication with
the other world.
The Adversaria came to a close in February, 1 74 7, the
notes of explication having been continued through Jere
miah, but with less fulness in the Prophets than in the Books
of Moses. Little was written later than the previous Novem
ber, for our author was now at work on an index of Biblical
subjects, for his own use, and was also writing copious mar
ginal notes in his Bible. About the time of the close of the

250 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES.
Adversaria, in 1747, he begins what is known as his Spirit
ual Diary, in which he now records at greater length such
spiritual experiences as he had previously made note of in
'Cat Adversaria. The "Diary" begins with the end of the
Biblical Index, the first half year being lost and known only
by the author's index, and is continued more than ten years.
As published in the original Latin by Dr. Tafel, it makes
nine octavo volumes, with rather more pages than the Adver
saria. These pages are full of interesting experience and
information, from which we have already begun to draw.
Though Swedenborg did not publish the "Diary" by itself,
he drew from it many illustrative passages for the works that
he felt himself commissioned to publish, in the unfolding of
the Scriptures and their doctrine. Though not designed for
publication, it none the less contains many items that help us
to understand the more important works, and enable us to
trace more intelligently Swedenborg's progress and prepa
ration for his mission, on which we do not yet find him fair
ly entered. He was feeling his way. His eyes had been
touched, but he did not yet see all clearly. We might almost
say, he saw men — spirits — as trees walking. He was going
through temptations, for more interior purification. He was
learning to live only from the Lord in love for His Holy will.
He felt the angels of the Lord about him, and was instructed
by them by representations ; but he was not as yet one with
them, — to see as they saw, and to share their perfect pro
tection in their Lord's love. What he had written was in the
line of preparation ; but it had not yet the clearness that was
needed, and that could come only from a higher point of
view, — that of the angels who see the Lord's ends from love
for them, and from the ends comprehend the means. This
was to come.
A marginal note in Swedenborg's Biblical Index, under
date of Aug. 7, 1 747, indicates that at that time he was first
introduced, by change of state, into the "celestial kingdom."
To understand this, we want the help of what he tells us later,

VARIOUS CLASSES OF ANGELS.

251

that the whole heavens are twofold, celestial and spiritual, or
delighting on the one hand in love to the Lord, and on the
other in wisdom from Him and in love to the neighbor ; and
further, that these two regions of the mind are distinct, and
that the one may be opened and determine the state of the
man, without the other. Swedenborg as a philosopher could
not but be associated first with angels of the spiritual king
dom ; but in order to understand the state of those who are
in the celestial kingdom and the sense of the Scriptures from
which they draw their life, it was necessary for him to be in
troduced also into this, — that is, to have this region of his
mind opened in some degree.
About this time he speaks in his " Diary" of three classes
of angels : —
"Angels of the first class, to be called celestial, who are
ruled immediately by God Messiah through love, and who
have an elevated understanding of good and thence of truth ;
angels of the second class, to be called truly spiritual, who
are ruled by God Messiah mediately through the celestial
angels ; angels of the third class, to be called affections or
goodnesses, who are ruled through both the celestial and the
sphitual angels, thus mediately by God Messiah, for they
have not such intelligence and wisdom that they can be im
mediately acted on by Him. The rest are called spirits, and
are of endless variety. Angels ascend according to their
perfection, and hence are to be called superior and inferior ;
or they advance inwardly, and hence are to be called interior,
more interior, and inmost. These are signified by Jacob,
Isaac, and Abraham ; also by Egypt, Assyria, and Israel, in
Isaiah." (S. D. 156.)
Up to this time, then, we understand that the angels from
whom Swedenborg had received assistance were of the spirit
ual class, who are ruled, not immediately, but mediately by
the Lord, and who, as he says elsewhere, are affected not so
much by His love and His ends as by His wisdom and His
means. In June or July previous he began a new explication

252 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES.
of Genesis, in his marginal notes, premising that for several
years he had been instructed through spirits and angels
about the other world and the doctrine of true faith, and
"respecting the interior and more interior [or spiritual]
senses of both the Old and the New Testaments, which con
stitute their spirit and life." Thus he did not allude to the
inmost or celestial sense ; and in the explication of creation
as regeneration, he fell far short of what he was soon to know
and teach.
The superior intelligence into which he was now admitted,
by association with celestial angels, is reason enough why he
should again lay aside the explications he had been develop
ing, from a lower point of view, and for the fourth and last
time begin at Genesis, under the light now given so much
more fully and nearly from the Lord Himself. The need of
this new beginning is very apparent from this fact alone, that
he now sees the work of creation to describe in particular the
process of regeneration: with the most ancient people, who
had no inherited evil to be regenerated from, but only the
infirmities inherent in human nature. This people regen
erated became of the celestial type on earth, and celestial
angels in heaven. It was impossible for any one to under
stand them, or the regeneration and other events signified
by what is described in these early chapters, without having
his mind opened inwardly and upwardly till he could come
into association with them, and feel and think with them.
Notably is this true again with what is described under the
representation of Abraham, the celestial state of man, and
the celestial human or childhood's state of the Lord's own
humanity. We do not, however, understand that when Swedenborg
was introduced into the celestial kingdom he came into the
inmost, most ancient heaven. Besides the general division,
as of right and left, into two kingdoms, he tells us that the
inmost heaven is celestial, the middle heaven spiritual, and
the lower or outer heaven both celestial and spiritual-natural.

THE CELESTIAL HEAVEN. 253
It is into association with this celestial-natural heaven that
we understand Swedenborg to have come, for more or less
permanence, and to have gained intercourse thereby with
the inmost or truly celestial heaven only rarely, for special
purpose. Some months after the date noticed he says, " Dur
ing a considerable time, even for some weeks, celestial spirits
abode with me" (S. D. 1105); and a little later he speaks of
the influx from the more interior heaven as being in its in
ward joy and peace more than he could bear, and he won
ders whether the angels of the inmost heaven are holy and
their influence the Holy Spirit. Answer came from them
through intermediates that they were not holy, but that the
Lord alone is Holy; and when he inquired in thought
whether any born on earth at this day can be admitted into
that heaven, answer seemed to come that they cannot, but
only those who lived on this earth in the Most Ancient
Church, and now some from other earths.1 (S. D. 1198,
1200.) This appears to be his first acquaintance with this inmost
heaven of innocence, but he is permitted to learn more for
the sake of unfolding what belongs to it in the Word : —
"The sons of the [Most] Ancient Church spoke with
angels during their life on earth, and had continual asso
ciation with them, because to them in external things in
ternal corresponding things were represented." (S. D. 185,
Aug. 28, 1747.)
"Very many things occur in the Word of God Messiah,
both of the Old and of the New Testament, which cannot
but appear unintelligible, for the reason that the human race
of this day is entirely changed from the men who lived in
the Most Ancient Church and those who lived afterwards in
the Ancient. If those men had lived to the present time,
1 A year or two later, in the second volume of the Arcana Ccelestia, n. 1531,
he says, — " That I might be confirmed in this, that the Lord appears to the
celestial angels as a sun, and to the spiritual angels as a moon, by the Divine
mercy of the Lord my interior vision was so far opened, and I plainly saw the
moon shining ; ... but it was not given me to see the sun."

254 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES.
these things could be known from theh experience and reve
lation ; but now they may be better known from the state of
their spirits or souls in heaven" (Sept. 15, 1747)-
"As before said, the inhabitants [of Jupiter] speak with
their spirits, just as also did the sons of the Most Ancient
Church, — which may be evident from the history of the
creation, with both good and evil ; for in the Most Ancient
Church there was not so much of speech and memory as
now, but more of imagination and thought" (Jan. 26, 1748).
It may at first surprise us that Swedenborg's acquaintance
in the other world should have extended to the sphits of
other earths ; but we cease to wonder when we learn of him
that all souls arrange themselves in the other life according
to their affinities, and that these are determined by their
thought and feeling in regard to the Lord. When, therefore,
Swedenborg came himself into a state which could appreci
ate that of the men of the Most Ancient Church, it was not
difficult for him to come into communication with the spirits
from- Jupiter, whose state, as we see, is of a kindred nature.
The way was thus opened, but the main purpose was that he
might learn from themselves that they as well as we depend
on the One Lord, Jesus Christ : —
"They say that they worship the only Lord of heaven,
whom they do not name, but they know that the only Lord
rules all. Him therefore they seek after death and find, who
is Jesus Christ. Being asked whether they knew that the
only Lord is Man, they replied that they all know that He is
Man, . for He has been seen by many as Man, and He in
structs them concerning the truth, preserves them, and gives
to those who believe in Him to have eternal life" (Jan 24,
1748.) "There were some spirits from that earth when I was read
ing the seventeenth chapter of John, who heard it and won
dered that the only Lord had become Man and had been
on the earth as another man ; but yet they said that all the
things were Divine" (Jan. 26, 1748).

SPIRITS OF OTHER PLANETS. 255
Here we see the use of this communication to the sphits of
Jupiter, that they were enabled to listen to the Gospel and to
learn how their only Lord, whom they knew to be Man, had
come into the world and been born and suffered death on
the cross in order to save the human race. And to Sweden
borg the use of the communication, as would appear from his
language, was most important. Two years previously, in his
first theological writings, his usual term for our Lord was the
Only-Begotten Son. In a short time, finding everything in
the Word and in the other world to depend on Him, he
adopted the expression " God Messiah," and used it constantly
up to the time of this meeting with the spirit's of Jupiter, with
occasional reference to God the Father. Now, hearing them
talk of the only Lord, and perceiving that his God Messiah
was recognized as this only Lord of the universe, whether in
consequence or as a coincidence, he drops the expression
and henceforth speaks only of the Lord.
In this connection the following, of a later date, Sept. 23,
1 748, is of particular interest : —
" When I was writing about the spirits of Mercury, that
knowledge was promised them and that an image of the sun
was shown them, and they said that it was not the Lord be
cause they did not see a face ; and when spirits were speak
ing about this, but what they were saying I do not know, —
then appeared the Lord as the sun, the Lord in the midst
surrounded with as it were a solar band. The spirits of Mer
cury, profoundly humbled, then subsided, and acknowledged
Him in the anxiety of their humiliation. Presently He was
seen by the spirits of this earth, as in the world, and by those
who saw Him in the world. One after another they confessed,
till there were many, that He is the Lord who was in the
world, and this in the presence of the whole company. After
wards He was seen also by the spirits of the inhabitants of
Jupiter, who also declared aloud that He was the One whom
they had seen, for on that earth occasionally He presents
Himself to view."

256 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES.
On the 30th of January, 1 748, Swedenborg notes, —
"When I was in bed, before I fell asleep, I heard a general
singing of heaven about me, which was of many angels of the
interior heaven. ... It was said to me that the whole heavens
thus continually give glory to the Lord and thus glorify Him.
That such glorification is continual I was able to conclude
also from this, that whenever I breathed with a certain silent
cadence, I was following those who were singing in like
measure, as in great choirs : from this I could know that
the glorifying is perpetual."
To this is added that he was in the sphere of this glorifica
tion for half a day or more, and that when his thoughts de
scended from it into some worldly thought, he seemed to the
angels to fall away from them, or to be lost in a cloud. What
became of his former notions in regard to the Trinity we find
told in The True Christian Religion : —
"Awaking on a time from sleep, I fell into profound medi
tation about God ; and when I raised my eyes, I saw above
me in heaven a brilliant white light in an oval form. As I
gazed intently within it, the light receded towards the sides
and passed into the circumference. And lo ! heaven was then
opened to me, and I saw magnificent things, and angels
standing in the form of a circle on the southern side of the
opening. They were conversing together ; and because I was
seized with a desire of hearing what they said, it was given
me to hear first the sound of their speech, which was full
of heavenly love, and then the speech itself, which was full
of wisdom from that love. They were conversing about
the One God, and about conjunction with Him and salvation
thereby. They spoke things ineffable, which for the most
part cannot fall into the words of any natural language. But
as I had sometimes been in company with angels in that
heaven, and then in similar speech, because in similar state,
I could now understand them, and from their conversation
catch some things which may be rationally expressed in the
words of natural speech.

ANGELIC IDEA OF GOD.

257

"They said that the Divine Esse is One, the Same, the It
self, and Indivisible. This they illustrated by spiritual ideas,
saying that the Divine Esse cannot fall into several, to each
of which is the Divine Esse, and yet the Esse be One, the
Same, the Itself, and Indivisible ; for should each one think
from his own Esse from himself, and singly by himself, and
at the same time also from the others and by the others
unanimously, there would be several unanimous Gods, and
not One God. For unanimity, since it is consent of several
and at the same time of each from himself and by himself,
does not consist with the unity of God, but with plurality, —
they did not say, of Gods, because they could not : the light
of heaven, from which was their thought, and the aura in
which theh speech went forth, resisted. They said, too, that
when they wished to utter Gods, and each one as a person
by Himself, the effort of utterance fell immediately into One,
nay, into the Only God. And they added that {he Divine
Esse is the Divine Esse in itself, not from itself; because
from itself supposes the Esse in itself from another prior, — •
thus supposes God to be from a God, which is not possible.
What is from God is not called God, but is called Divine.
For what is 'God from God,' and so what is 'God born
from God from eternity,' what is ' God proceeding from God
through God born from eternity,' but mere words in which
is nothing of light from heaven ?
"They said further that the Divine Esse, which in itself is
God, is the Same; not the same simple, but infinite, — that
is, the same from eternity to eternity. It is the same every
where, the same with every one and in every one, all variation
and change being in the recipient, caused by his state. That
the Divine Esse, which is in itself God, is the Itself, they
illustrated in this way : God is the Itself because He is love
itself and wisdom itself, or because He is good itself and
truth itself, and thence life itself. Unless these were the
Itself in God, they would not be anything in heaven and the
world, because there would not be anything of them relative
17

258 Opening of the scriptures.
to the Itself. Every quality derives its quality from this, that
there is an Itself from which it is, and to which it refers itself
that it may be what it is.
"This Itself which is the Divine Esse is not in place, but
with those and in those who are in place, according to their
reception ; since neither of love and wisdom, nor of good and
truth and life thence, which are the Itself in God, nor of God
Himself, can place be predicated, nor progression from place
to place : whence is omnipresence. Wherefore the Lord says
that He is in the midst of His disciples, that He is in them,
and they in Him. But because. He cannot be received by
any one such as He is in Himself, He appears such as He is
in His essence, as the Sun above the angelic heavens, pro.-
ceeding from which as light is Himself as to wisdom, and as
heat Himself as to love. He Himself is not that Sun ; but
the Divine love and Divine wisdom going forth immediately
from Himself, round about Him, appear before the angels as
the Sun. He Himself in the Sun is Man, is our Lord
Jesus Christ, both as to the Divine from which He is
and as to the Divine Human; since the Itself, which is
love itself and wisdom itself, was His soul from the Father,
thus the Divine Life, which is Life in itself. It is otherwise
with a man, in whom the soul is not Life, but a recipient
of life.
" This the Lord teaches, when He says, ' I am the way,
the truth, and the Life ; ' and again, 'As the Father hath Life
in Himself, so also He hath given to the Son to have Life
in Himself' (John v. 26). Life in Himself is God. To
these things they added that those who are in any spiritual
light can hence perceive that the Divine Esse, since it is, One,
the Same, the Itself, and thence Indivisible, cannot be given
in several ; and that if it should be said to be given, there
would be manifest contradictions in the appellations.
"While I listened to these things the angels perceived in
my thought the common ideas of the Christian Church about
a trinity of persons in unity, and theh unity in trinity, in re-

ANGELIC IDEA OF the lord.

259

gard to God ; as also about the birth of the Son of God from
eternity. And then they said, ' What are you thinking ? Are
you not thinking from natural light, with which our spiritual
light does not accord? Unless, then, you put away the ideas
of such thought, we must close heaven to you and go away."
But I replied, ' Enter, I pray, more deeply into my thought,
and perhaps you will see an accordance.' And they did so,
and saw that by three persons I understood three Divine
proceeding attributes, which are creation, redemption, and
regeneration, and that these attributes are of the One God ;
that by the birth of the Son of God from eternity, I under
stood His birth foreseen from eternity and provided in time ;
that it is not above, but contrary to what is natural and
rational to think that a Son was born from God from eternity :
on the other hand, that the Son born from God by the virgin
Mary in time is the Only Son of God, and the Only-begotten ;
and that to believe otherwise is a huge error. And then I
told them that my natural thought about the trinity and unity
of persons, and about the birth of the Son of God from
eternity, I had from the doctrine of faith of the Church,
which has its name from Athanasius.
" Then the angels said, ' It is well ; ' and they asked me to
say from their mouth, that if any one does not go to the Very
God of heaven and earth, he cannot come into heaven, be
cause heaven is heaven from that Only God ; and that God
is Jesus Christ, who is Jehovah Lord, from eternity Creator,
in time Redeemer, and to eternity Regenerator ; thus who is
at the same time Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ; and that this
is the gospel which is to be preached.
"After this, the heavenly light before seen over the opening
returned and gradually descended and filled the interiors of
my mind and illuminated my ideas of the trinity and unity
of God. And I then saw my preconceived ideas, which had
been merely natural, separated as chaff from the wheat under
the winnowing-fan, and carried off as by the wind to the
north of heaven and dispersed." (T. C. R. 25, 26.)

260 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES.
There is great satisfaction in learning thus chcumstantially
by what means Swedenborg's early ideas of tri-personality
were finally dissipated. Never extreme, we have seen them
little by little losing theh hold and giving way to true, rational,
spiritual ideas. Now at last, what remained, the mere husks
of thought, are gone to the winds. Unfortunately we cannot
fix the date of the vision. This account was first printed in
1766, in The Apocalypse Revealed, but the vision was given,
no doubt, many years earlier.
It is natural to suppose that such purification of thought
as is here described, such assimilation to the thought of the
angelic society with which communication was opened, might
introduce Swedenborg into permanent association with its
members. With our interest in the mail, we can hardly help
wanting to follow on and learn more of the intercourse that
had this pleasant beginning, in its personal aspects. But
such wishes are vain, and find no response from Sweden
borg. Not one word is said of himself in all his theological
and spiritual works which is not necessary to the presenta
tion of his subject-matter. This exclusion of himself, more
over, has no appearance of being labored ; it is the simple
result of enthe pre-occupation with greater themes, with
Divinely given instruction for generations to come, perforce
excluding all merely individual interests.

CHAPTER XI.
ASSESSORSHIP. — THE ARCANA. — THE APOCALYPSE.
We have followed Swedenborg in his spiritual experience
to the last of January, 1 748. We must recur to an earlier
date, in order to keep equally informed of his worldly affairs.
Arriving in London from Amsterdam, May 1 7, 1 744, he was
still" there in April, 1745, going on with The Animal King
dom, and publishing The Worship and Love of God, when,
after sixteen months of such trial and preparation as we have
seen, he learned that his appointed work was the unfolding
of the Word of God. It was in London that he began his
task, remaining there till August, when he returned home and
resumed his attendance at the College of Mines. To the
duties of his assessorship he continued to give attention till
June, 1747, when the College recommended him to King
Frederic for promotion to the place of Councillor. But Swe
denborg, instead of joining in the request, wrote to the King
that he felt it incumbent on him to finish the work on which
he was then engaged, and begged that the place might be
filled by another, and he himself released from office. As a
further favor, in consideration of his thirty years' service in
the College, and of the numerous journeys he had taken and
books he had published at his own expense for the public
benefit, he requested that he might be allowed to continue to
draw his half-salary in the future, as he had in the past when
absent from Sweden, with leave to go abroad to complete his
undertakings, — at the same time begging that no higher rank
should be bestowed on him.

262 ASSESSORSHIP.
In reply to these requests King Frederic wrote, under date
of June 12, 1747, —
" Although we would gladly see him continue at home the
faithful services he has hitherto rendered to us and to his
country, still we can so much the less oppose his wish as we
feel sufficiently assured that the above-named work on which
he is engaged will in time contribute to the general use and
benefit, not less than the other valuable works written and pub
lished by him have contributed to the use and honor of his
country, as well as of himself. We therefore decree, and by
this open letter release Emanuel Swedenborg from the office
of Assessor in our and the country's College of Mines, which
he has hitherto filled with renown ; and as a token of the .
satisfaction with which we look upon his long and faithful
services, we also most graciously permit him to retain for the
rest of his life the half of his salary as an Assessor."
The official record of the conclusion of Swedenborg's ser
vices in the College is simple and honorable to all : —
"June 15. Assessor Emanuel Swedenborg handed in to
the College of Mines the Royal Decree by which he was re
leased from his duties here in the Royal College, retaining
during his life half of his salary as an Assessor.
" All the members of the Royal College regretted losing so
worthy a colleague, and they asked the Assessor to kindly
continue attending the sessions of the College until all those
cases should be adjudicated that had been commenced dur
ing his attendance at the College, to which the Assessor
kindly assented.
"July 17. Assessor Swedenborg, who intends as soon as
possible to commence his new journeys abroad, came up for
the purpose of taking leave of the Royal College. He thanked
all those at the Royal College for the favor and kindness he
had received from them during his connection with the Col
lege, and commended himself to their further kindly remem
brances. "The Royal College thanked the Assessor for the minute

MEANS OF LIVING. 263
care and fidelity with which he had attended to the duties of
his office as an Assessor up to the present time ; they wished
him a .prosperous journey and a happy return ; after which
he left."
The half salary, six hundred dalers in silver, or one hun
dred and twelve dollars, thus kindly continued to Swedenborg
by way of pension for past services and assistance in the work
now in hand, is of interest to us as having supplied an essen
tial part of the means by which he was enabled to prosecute
his labors at ease and to publish his explications of Scripture.
Though he lived modestly and simply in his own quiet home
at Stockholm, or at his lodgings in London, for which he paid
about six shillings a week, his private income would have
proved insufficient for what he had to do.1 It is a pleasant
fact that his new labors, undertaken in the Divine service,
were sustained by the public funds of his country. How
essential it was in this service that he should be relieved from
worldly care, we may judge, not only from what we have
already quoted from the Economy of the Animal Kingdom?
but more definitely from these passages in his " Diary " : —
"I have learned by experience, that when I was being
led hither and thither in the heavens, did I slip into thoughts
of worldly affairs, then what I perceived in the heavenly
abode at once disappeared ; and so I learned that those
who let down their thoughts into the world, slip down out
of heaven." (S. D. 304.)
" When I have been intensely engaged in worldly thoughts,
as when I was anxious about the needful money, and to-day
while I wrote a letter, my mind being detained in these things
for some little time, I fell then into a corporeal state, as it
1 From a statement preserved in the Royal Library at Stockholm, it appears
that Swedenborg had loaned at interest in 1765 the sum of sixty thousand dalers
in copper, — less than four thousand dollars in American currency, yielding
about two hundred and thirty dollars income. But the state of exchange
was such that he could not draw in London more than half or two-thirds
this amount.
2 See pp. 150-160.

264 THE ARCANA.
were, so that sphits could not speak with me, and were seem
ingly absent." (S. D. 1166.)
"Whenever I thought about my little garden, about the
one who has the care of it, about expecting to be called
home, about money, about the disposition of my acquaint
ances, or those who were in the house, about what was to be
written, how it would be received by men, whether it would
be understood, about new garments to be bought, and many
such things, — when I was kept in such reflection long, spirits
brought in unsuitable, troublesome, wrong ideas, increasing
my anxieties ; but it was observed that when I was kept out
of such thoughts for months and years, I had no care and
they brought no trouble." (S. D. 3624.)
From several minor circumstances the Rev. R. L. Tafel
concludes that Swedenborg now went to Holland and re
mained there for more than a year, busily engaged in com
pleting the "Biblical Index," hi noting his spiritual experi
ences, of which during this time we have nearly a thousand
printed pages, and in writing the first volume of the Arcana
Ccelestia. The Arcana Ccelestia, to which we have already several
times alluded, was published in eight large quarto volumes,
which later octavo editions have increased, with the index,
to thirteen. The first volume was printed for the author in
London in 1 748 and 1 749, bearing the imprint of the latter
year, and the last volume hi 1756. John Lewis, the publisher,
in advertising the second volume, in 1750, says, —
"Though the author of the Arcana Ccelestia is undoubtedly
a very learned and great man, and his works highly esteemed
by the literati, yet he is no less distinguished for his modesty
than his great talents, so that he will not suffer his name to
be made public. But though I am positively forbid to dis
cover that, yet I hope he will excuse me if I venture to men
tion his benign and generous qualities. How he bestowed
his time and labors in former years I am not certainly in
formed, though I have heard by those who have been long

PUBLICATION. 265
acquainted with him that they were employed in the same
manner as I am going to relate ; but what I have been an
eye-witness to, I can declare with certain truth ; and there
fore I do aver that this gentleman, with indefatigable pains
and labor, spent one whole year in studying and writing the
first volume of the Arcana Coslestia, was at the expense of
two hundred pounds to print it, and also advanced two hun
dred pounds more for the printing of this second volume ;
and when he had done this, he gave express orders that all
the money that should arise in the sale of this large work
should be given towards the charge of the propagation of
the Gospel. He is so far from desiring to make a gain of
his labors, that he will not receive one farthing back of the
four hundred pounds he has expended ; and for that reason
his works will come exceedingly cheap to the public."
The "Arcana" was the first work that Swedenborg had
felt authorized to prepare for the . press and issue to the pub
lic in pursuance of his mission. To this mission his life and
all that he had were now wholly devoted, with nci deshe for
return to himself of either profit or renown. Little in fact of
either was likely to accrue to him in his own generation. The
second volume was issued in six parts, both in Latin and in
English, the translation being made by Mr. John Merchant.
And though they were, as John Lewis says, unaccountably
cheap (eight-pence each), we find Swedenborg noting in his
"Diary" (n. 4422), what he learned from letters, that not
more than four copies had been sold within two months. The
angels with him wondered at this; but the wonder ceased
when, on being remitted into the state of thought in which
they had been in the world, they found themselves rejecting
these same writings. Thus he learned how little prepared
the world was for what he had to teach. But he was not dis
couraged, for he felt that the work was not his own. Even
before the first volume was published, it was given him to
perceive that there would be five different ways in which his
writings would be received : First, there would be those who

266 THE ARCANA.
would wholly reject them, because of being in a different per
suasion. Second, those who would receive them as matters
of learning, and be delighted with them as matters of curiosity.
Third, those who would receive them intellectually and readily
enough, but would still remain in the same life as before.
Fourth, those who would receive with persuasion and let the
doctrines penetrate and affect their lives in certain states and
accomplish some use. Fifth, those who would receive with
joy, and become established in them. (S. D. 2955.) How
small this fifth class remains even to this day is no matter of
surprise to those who realize what a vast change of life is
necessary before we find our heart's delight in being brought
into the presence of our Lord, in His Word.
The Arcana Ccelestia being the first book that Swedenborg
published after his internal sight was opened and in obedience
to the Divine command, its opening sentences have on that
account a peculiar interest : —
" I. That the Word of the Old Testament contains arcana
of heaven, and that all and each of the things therein regard
the Lord, His heaven, the Church, faith, and the things which
are of faith, no mortal apprehends from the letter ; for, from
the letter or the sense of the letter no one sees anything else
than that they regard in general the external things of the
Jewish Church ; when yet there are everywhere internal things
which are nowhere manifest in the external, except a very few
which the Lord revealed and explained to the Apostles ; as,
that sacrifices signify the Lord, that the land of Canaan and
Jerusalem signify heaven, whence Canaan and Jerusalem are
called heavenly and Paradise.
"II. But that all things and each, yea the most particular,
even to the least jot, signify and involve spiritual and heavenly
things, the Christian world is hitherto profoundly ignorant,
and so it has little regard for the Old Testament. Yet the
truth might be known merely from this, that the Word, be
cause it is the Lord's and from the Lord, could in no wise
be given without containing interiorly such things as are of

THE NATURE OF THE WORD.

267

heaven, of the Church, and of faith ; not otherwise- could it
be called the Word of the Lord, nor could it be said that
there is any life in it; for whence is its life, unless from
those things which are of life ? that is, unless from this, that
all and each of the things in it have reference to the Lord,
who is the very Life itself? Wherefore whatsoever does not
interiorly regard Him, does not live ; nay, whatever expres
sion in the Word does not involve Him, or in its own manner
relate to Him, is not Divine.
" III. Without such life the Word, as to the letter, is dead ;
for it is with the Word as with man, who, as is known in the
Christian world, is external and internal ; the external man
separate from the internal is the body, and thus dead ; but
the internal is what lives and gives to the external to live.
The internal man is the soul. Thus the Word, as to the
letter alone, is as the body without the soul.
" IV. From the sense of the letter alone, when the mind is
fixed in it, it can in no wise be seen that it contains such
things ; as in this first part of Genesis,, from the sense of
the letter nothing else is known than that it treats of the
creation of the world and of the Garden- of Eden, which
is called Paradise ; also of Adam as the first created man :
who imagines anything more ? But that these things contain
arcana which have never hitherto been revealed, will be suffi
ciently evident from what follows ; and indeed that the first
chapter of Genesis, in the internal sense, treats of the New
Creation of man, or of his Regeneration, in general, and
of the Most Ancient Church in particular ; and indeed in
such manner that there is not the least particle of an ex
pression that does not represent, signify, and involve these
things. "V. But that such is the case no mortal can ever know,
unless from the Lord. For this reason it is permitted to
state at the outset that of the Lord's mercy it has been
granted me now for several years to be constantly and con
tinuously in the company of spirits and angels, to hear them

268 THE ARCANA.
speaking, and in turn to speak with them ; hence it has been
given me to hear and see astonishing things which are in the
other life, which have never come to the knowledge of any
man, nor into his idea. I have there been instructed con
cerning different kinds of sphits; concerning the state of
souls after death; concerning hell, or the lamentable state
of the unfaithful; concerning heaven, or the most happy
state of the faithful, especially concerning the doctrine of
faith which is acknowledged in the whole heaven ; on which
subjects, by the Divine mercy of the Lord, many things will
be said in the following pages."
Following this introduction, Swedenborg prints the whole
of the first chapter of Genesis in Latin. Then he gives a
summary of the contents of the chapter in the internal sense,
as follows : —
"The six days, or times, which are so many successive
states of man's regeneration, are in general as follows : —
" The first state is that which precedes, both from infancy
and immediately before regeneration, and is called a void,
emptiness, and thick darkness. And the first movement,
which is the mercy of the Lord, is the spirit of God moving
itself upon the faces of the waters.
"The second state is when distinction is made between the
things which are the Lord's and those which are man's own ;
those which are the Lord's are called in the Word ' remains,'
and are here especially the knowledges of faith which man
has acquired from infancy, which are stored up and are not
manifest before he comes into this state. This state seldom
exists at the present day without temptation, misfortune,
or grief, which cause the things of the body and the world,
or his own, to become quiet and, as it were, to die. Thus
the things of the external man are separated from those
of the internal : in the internal are the remains stored up
by the Lord for this time and this use.
" The third state is that of repentance, in which from the
internal man he speaks piously and devoutly, and brings forth

THE SIX DAYS. 269
good things, as the works of charity, but which are neverthe
less inanimate because he regards them as from himself.
These are called the tender grass, then the herb yielding
seed, and afterwards the tree yielding fruit.
" The fourth state is when he is affected by love and illu
mined by faith ; he before indeed spoke pious things and
brought forth good things, but from a state of temptation
and distress, not from faith and charity. These therefore,
love and faith, are now enkindled in the internal man, and
are called the two great lights.
"The fifth state is, that he speaks from faith, and thereby
confirms himself in truth and good ; the things which he then
brings forth are animate, and are called the fishes of the sea
and the birds of the heavens.
"The sixth state is, when from faith and thence from love
he speaks true things and does good things ; the things which
he then brings forth are called the living soul and creature*.
And because he then begins to act from love, also, as well as
from faith, he becomes a spiritual man, which is called an
image of God. His spiritual life is delighted and sustained
by the things that are of the knowledges of faith and of the
works of charity, which are called his food ; and his natural
life is delighted and sustained by the things that are of the
body and the senses ; from which there is a combat until
love reigns and he becomes a celestial man.
"They who are regenerated do not all arrive at this state,
but some, and the greatest part at this day, only to the first ;
some only to the second ; some to the third, the fourth, and
the fifth ; few to the sixth, and scarcely any to the seventh."
The seventh state, here but alluded to, is described in the
next chapter, in the explanation of the seventh day. After
this summary of the contents of the first chapter, he begins
with the particular unfolding of the internal sense, verse by
verse, clause by clause, premising that, —
" In the following pages by the Lord is meant solely the
Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ ; and He is called Lord

270

THE ARCANA.

without the other names. He is acknowledged and adored
as Lord in the entire heaven, because He has all power in
the heavens and in the earth. He commanded also saying,
'Ye call Me Lord, and ye say rightly, for lam'- (John xiii.
13). And after the resurrection the disciples called Him
Lord. " Through the whole heaven they know no other Father
than the Lord, because they are One, as He said : T am the
way, the truth, and the life.' Philip saith, 'Show us the
Father.' Jesus saith to him, 'Am I so long time with you,
and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath
seen Me hath seen the Father : how sayest thou then, show
us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father
and the Father in Me ? Believe Me that I am in the Father
and the Father in Me' (John xiv. 6-1 1)."
Twenty-six octavo pages are given to the explication of
this first chapter, and then our author says, —
" This then is the internal sense of the Word, its very life,
which does not at all appear from the sense of the letter ;
but the arcana are so many that volumes would not be suffi
cient for unfolding them. Here only a very few are declared,
and such as may prove that regeneration is here treated of,
and that this proceeds from the external man to the internal.
Thus the angels understand the Word. They know nothing
at all which is of the letter, not even one word, what it prox
imately signifies, still less the names of countries, cities, rivers,
and persons, which occur so frequently in the historical and
prophetical parts. They have only an idea of the things sig
nified by words and names ; as, by Adam in Paradise they
have a perception of the Most Ancient Church, and not of
the Church itself, but of the faith towards the Lord of that
Church ; by Noah, the Church remaining with posterity and
continued to the time of Abram ; by Abraham, not the man
who lived, but the saving faith which he represented ; and so
on. Thus they perceive things spiritual and celestial, alto
gether abstracted from words and names."

THE FORM OF HEAVEN.*

271

In this manner the work is continued, in its twelve vol
umes, through Genesis and Exodus, with a few illustrative
pages at the end of chapters, from the author's spiritual ex
perience. At the close of the fourth volume he begins a
series of these illustrative intermediate chapters with these
words : —
" It is now allowed to relate and describe wonderful things
which, so far as I know, have not as yet been known to any
one, nor even entered into the mind of any one, — namely,
that the entire heaven is so formed as to correspond to the
Lord, to His Divine Human ; and that man is so formed as
to correspond to heaven in regard to all and each of the
things in him, and by heaven to the Lord. This is a great
arcanum which is now to be revealed, and of which we shall
treat here and at the close of the subsequent chapters."
This subject is continued through three volumes, in the
course of which the correspondence is given of the functions
of all the principal parts of the body, with the analogous
functions in the spiritual man, and some account given of
the angels or spirits who are the seat of these functions and
thus occupy the corresponding regions of the -Greatest Man,
that is, of heaven. Only long experience of thought in
accordance with this sublime truth can bear witness to the
boon of its revelation ; and the longer and more enlightened
the experience, the higher becomes the appreciation.
The intermediate portions of the eighth volume are occu
pied with the connection of angels and spirits with men, and
of the soul with the body, and those of the four succeeding
volumes with an account of the spirits and inhabitants of
other planets. In addition to what is thus appended to the
chapters, through several of the volumes some introductory
doctrinal matter is prefixed to each chapter. From this
interpolated material Swedenborg afterwards published sev
eral small volumes, with some changes and additions. Much
of it is contained in the work on Heaven and Hell, and
much in the treatises on Influx and the Intercourse of the

272 * THE ARCANA.
Soul and Body, on The Earths in the Universe, on The
New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, and on The
White Horse.
The style of the "Arcana" differs materially from that of
the earlier Adversaria. It is no longer that of an explorer,
just discovering, or about to discover, or just hearing things
enthely new to him. It is now that of a master, full to over
flowing with knowledge that had become familiar to him, and
that lay broadly and clearly under his view, from which he
had only to choose what would be most intelligible and most
useful to his readers. He no longer doubts whether what he
writes is quite correct and is to be printed. It is apparent
that he is writing and printing under clearly recognized au
thority. Yet the careful student finds some minor points,
though marvellously few, in which the author's later experi
ence of twenty years developed additional clearness and
slight modification.
An entire change from the method of the Adversaria
appears in the confirmation of almost every interpretation
given, by reference to other passages containing similar words
throughout the Scriptures. For this Swederiborg had made
extensive preparation in the studies of the Adversaria, and
especially in his "Biblical Index," evidently provided for this
very purpose. The same course was afterwards pursued in
the explanation of the Apocalypse, at much greater length
and with fuller explanation of the confirmatory passages
cited ; from which it comes to pass, that although the books
of Genesis, Exodus, and the Revelation are the only books
of the Word of which Swedenborg published a special ex
position, there are few passages in the entire Scriptures on
which his works do not throw light, efther directly or in
directly. The Arcana Ccelestia, to many people, is not easy read
ing. How can the deep, interior explanation, verse by verse,
of Genesis and Exodus, with copious citation, be read with
ease ? It is delightful only to those who find interior delight

THE GOLDEN AGE.

273

in perceiving the whole Word of the Lord to be full of His
presence, of His infinite love and truth. And such, experi
ence shows, are not confined to theologians or to men of
trained intellect. Quite as many, and quite as earnest, they
are found among the simple in heart, — unpretending women,
and innocent youth. To such there is abundant beauty and
delight in passages like the following, explaining and illus
trating the 13th verse of the 31st chapter of Exodus : —
'"Speak thou to the sons of Israel, saying,' — signifies the
information of those who are of the Church by the Word.
Concerning information by the Word something shall here
be said : in the most ancient times men were informed con
cerning heavenly things, or those which relate to eternal life,
by immediate intercourse with the angels of heaven ; for
heaven then acted as one with the men of the Church, inas
much as it flowed in through the internal man into their ex
ternal, whence they nad not only illustration and perception,
but also discourse with the angels. This time was called the
golden age, because men were then in the good of love to
the Lord ; for gold signifies that good. Those things are also
described by Paradise in the Word. Afterwards information
about heavenly things and those which relate to eternal life,
was effected by what are called correspondences and repre
sentations, the knowledge of which was derived from the
most ancient men, who had immediate intercourse with the
angels of heaven. Into these correspondences and represen
tations heaven then flowed in with men, and gave illustra
tion, for these are the external forms of heavenly things ;
and in proportion as men at that time were in the good of
love and charity, in the same proportion they were illus
trated, for all Divine influence out of heaven is into the
good with man, and by good into truths ; and whereas the
man of the Church at that time was in spiritual good, which
good in its essence is truth, therefore those times were called
the silver age, for silver signifies such good. But when the
knowledge of correspondences and of representations was
18

274 THE ARCANA.
turned into magic, that Church perished, and a third suc
ceeded, in which indeed all worship was effected by nearly
similar things, but still it was unknown what they signified.
This Church was instituted with the Judaic and Israelitish
nation. But whereas information about heavenly things, or
about those things which relate to eternal life, could not be
effected with the men of that Church by influx into their in
teriors, and thus by illustration, therefore angels from heaven
spake by a living voice with some of them, and instructed
them about external things, but little about internal things,
because these they could not comprehend. They who were
in natural good received those things holily, whence those
times were called brazen, for brass signifies such good.
But when not even natural good remained with the man of
the Church, the Lord came into the world, and reduced all
things in the heavens and in the hells into order, — to the end
that man may receive influx from Him o*it of heaven and be
illustrated, and that the hells might not be any hindrance and
let in thick darkness : then a fourth Church commenced,
which is called Christian. In this Church information about
heavenly things, or about the things which relate to eternal
life, is effected solely by the Word, whereby man has influx
and illustration ; for the Word was written by mere corres
pondences and representations, which signify heavenly things,
into which heavenly things the angels of heaven come, when
man reads the Word : hence by the Word is effected the
conjunction of heaven with the Church, or of the angels of
heaven with the men of the Church, but only with those
there who are in the good of love and charity. But whereas
the man of this Church has extinguished this good also,
therefore neither can he be informed by any influx and by
illustration thence, only about some truths which are not
joined with good. Hence trftse times are what are called
iron, for iron denotes truth in the ultimate of order ; but
when truth is of such a quality, then it is such as is described
in Daniel : ' Whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay,
4

RETURN TO STOCKHOLM. 275
they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men ; but they
shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed
with clay' (chap. ii. v. 43). From this it may be manifest
in what manner revelations have succeeded from the most
ancient ages to the present : and at this day revelation is
only given by the Word ; but genuine revelation with those
who are in the love of truth for the sake of truth, and not
with those who are in the love of truth for the sake of honor
and gain as ends. For, if you are willing to believe it, the
Lord is the Word itself, since the Word is Divine Truth;
and Divine Truth is the Lord in heaven, because from the
Lord. Wherefore they who love Divine Truth for the sake
of "Divine Truth, love the Lord; and with those who love
the Lord, heaven flows in and illustrates : whereas they
who love Divine Truth for the sake of honor and gain as
ends, avert themselves from the Lord to themselves and to
the world, and with them influx and illustration cannot be
given. These also, since in the sense of the letter they keep
the mind fixed in themselves and in their own fame and
glory, apply that sense to such things as favor their own
loves." (A. C. 10355.)
In the spring of 1750 Swedenborg returned again to
Stockholm, having spent the intervening time partly in Lon
don, but mostly in Holland. In Stockholm he remained,
tending his garden and busily employed on the "Arcana."
About once a year he sent a new volume to his publisher in
London, till the last, which "was issued in 1756. We hear no
more of him at the College of Mines, but for some time yet
we have an occasional paper presented to the Diet. A paper
of much importance had been presented by him in 1 734, in
opposition to a party plan of declaring war against Russia,
which is supposed to have had great weight in maintaining
peace at that time. A fragment of a memorial addressed
by him to the Diet in 1755 urges the necessity of limiting
the distillation of whiskey, "that is, if the consumption of

276 THE DIET.
whiskey cannot be done away with altogether, which would
be more desirable for the country's welfare and morality than
all the income which could be realized from so pernicious
a drink." In addition, the memorial urges a recall of the
power granted to the Bank to grant loans on all property in
the country, which he regarded as one of the causes of the
bankruptcy into which it was drifting. By these means
Swedenborg hoped that a check might be put on the drain
from the country, as shown by the excess of imports over
exports, and the balance of trade be restored in its favor.
In 1 760, to anticipate a few years for the sake of con
tinuity of subject, the financiers of Sweden found themselves
unable to check the rapid advance of foreign exchange,
whereby a Hamburg rix-daler had risen from thirty-five to
seventy-five marks. Swedenborg was a member of a com
mittee of the Diet on Finance, .on which he is said to have
had great influence. A memorial is preserved that he pre
sented to the Diet on the subject, in which we find views
acceptable to all sound financiers at the present day. His
argument is to prove the necessity of curtailing the issue by
the Bank, of loans on any other property than gold and
silver ; of gradually diminishing the amount of certificates
of indebtedness that had been issued on other property, by
requiring the debtors to pay each year a certain percentage
of their debt in addition to the interest ; of gradual redemp
tion by the Bank of all other notes than those payable in
coin ; of prohibiting for the time all exportation of copper,
and requiring the Bank to hoard it in anticipation of resump
tion ; of abolishing the monopoly of the Iron-office ; and
finally of farming out the distillation of whiskey, as a means
of revenue, if the consumption of the pernicious drink can
not be done away with altogether.
At the same time Swedenborg addressed a memorial to
the King earnestly protesting against the exportation of
copper, which he calls the foundation and main stay of the
restoration of specie currency, and recommends instead that

DEFENCE OF THE GOVERNMENT.

277

for a certain number of years the mining companies should
be allowed to coin theh copper into "coin-plates," or else
that the Government should coin it for them.
Not long afterwards Nordencrantz, Councillor of Com
merce, who had been the chief supporter of the policy
which Swedenborg opposed, printed and referred to the
Diet a book on Swedish affairs, taking a most discouraging
view of their condition and of the Swedish form of govern
ment, and attributing the depression in finances to other
causes than those advanced by Swedenborg. The latter
immediately replied, in a memorial to the Diet of a few
pages, refuting the positions of Nordencrantz, maintaining
that the government of Sweden was one of the best in the
world, and showing that, while in every country there were
abuses to be deplored, true patriotism and statesmanship
required all to look on the better and more hopeful side of
affairs, and not on the worse. He says, —
" Every human being is inclined by nature, and nothing is
easier and pleasanter for him to do than to find faults in
others, and to pass an unfavorable judgment upon them, in
asmuch as all of us are by nature inclined to see the mote in
our brother's eye and not to see the beam in our own eyes ;
moreover we are apt to strain out a gnat and to swallow a
camel. All proud and evil-disposed men place their pru
dence in finding fault with and blaming others; and all
generous and truly Christian souls place theh prudence in
judging all things according to circumstances, and hence
in excusing such faults as may have arisen from weakness,
and in inveighing against such evils as may have been done
on purpose. The same also happens in a general way in
that which concerns governments : faults, numberless faults
may be found in all, so that volumes might be filled with
them. Should I undertake to make known all the mistakes
of which I have heard, and which I know from my own ex
perience to have happened in England and Holland to the
detriment of justice and the public good, I beheve I might fill

278 THE DIET.
a whole book with lamentations : when, nevertheless, those
governments, together with our own in Sweden, are the very
best in Europe, as every inhabitant, notwithstanding all
the shortcomings which happen there, is safe in his life and
property, and no one is a slave, but they are all free men.
The Honorable Houses of the Diet will allow me to go still
higher : if in this world there should exist a heavenly gov
ernment, consisting of men who had an angelic disposition,
there would nevertheless be in it faults caused by weakness,
together with other shortcomings ; and if these were ferreted
out, reported, and exaggerated, this government too might
be undermined by calumny, and thereby gradually a desire
might be raised among the well-disposed to change and des
troy it. The best government, and that which is most wisely
arranged, is our own government in Sweden; inasmuch as
all things are connected here as in a chain, and are joined
together for the purpose of administering justice from the
highest leader to the lowest."
Swedenborg spoke from much experience, having been a
favorite with several kings, an officer of the government for
thirty years in the College of Mines, and being in the Diet
of the party which curtailed the royal power, retaining the
supreme control in the Houses of the Diet themselves. This
was in 1762. The next year Swedenborg's views prevailed,
and his first measure passed, forbidding bank loans on mov
able property. The year after, Nordencrantz's party having
again come into power, and he having made friends with
Swedenborg, they combined on the proposition that the issue
of paper-money should be limited to the amount of bullion
stored in bank. Swedenborg wished to come to this point
by degrees. Nordencrantz preferred to reach it at once, and
so the Diet decided. But the measures proved too abrupt to
be sustained, and in a few years all the ground that had been
gained was lost.
Another state matter which gave Swedenborg concern at
this time was the controversy between the Court and its par-

POLITICAL VIEWS.

279

tisans on the one side, and the Diet in behalf of the people
on the other. The latter party, under the lead of Count
Hopken and other senators, had sustained the alliance of
Sweden with France, against the wishes of the Royal family,
which was allied to that of Prussia. The war that ensued
was unfortunate, and in the reaction that followed, Hopken
and two colleagues were obliged to resign. In 1761 Swe
denborg memorialized the Diet in strong terms, urging the
necessity of maintaining intact the government, at once free
and conservative, which they had hitherto enjoyed, resisting
the encroachments of the Court, backed by that of Prussia,
itself under the influence of intriguing papacy, and main
taining sacred their alliance with France. In this view he
strongly advised the restoration of Hopken and his col
leagues, as tried and faithful friends of Sweden : advice
that was afterwards followed. In short, to quote from Swe
dish authority, with abridgment, —
"Up to the time of his extreme old age Swedenborg in
terested himself in the administrative, financial, and political
affairs "of his country. As a member of the House of No
bles, he was an independent member, supporting whatever
he saw to be worthy of his own position and to be right and
generally useful, without allowing himself to be influenced by
the right or the left side. Like every true friend of liberty,
he was opposed alike to despotism and to anarchy. His en
trance into the House of Nobles was contemporaneous with
the re-establishment of freedom in Sweden. During his
childhood and youth he had witnessed the misfortunes into
which an unlimited monarchy had precipitated his country.
He himself had seen the misery and distress which a war
of eighteen years' duration, with dearly-bought victories
and bloody defeats, with decimated armies and bankrupt
finances, attended by pestilence and famine, had brought
upon it. Need we wonder, then, that Swedenborg was in
favor of a constitution which set bounds to the arbitrary
power and whims of a hitherto unlimited monarchy ; which

280 THE DIET.
prevented the dissolution of the country, and gradually
changed discontent into satisfaction, at least among the
majority of its citizens? Swedenborg enjoyed the good
fortune envied by many, of having been able during half
a century to influence by his vote the resolutions passed
for the welfare of his country, and of not giving up his
place in the House of Nobles before the year 1772, when
death closed his eyes to the darkened prospects with which
a change in the administration threatened Sweden's inde
pendence. He thus belonged to the whole of that period
of freedom which is valued so highly by many, and is made
light of by others. With that period his political career
began and ended." x
To this Swedish view of his political position let us add
one from France. M. Matter says, —
"The principles of speculative politics of Swedenborg are
as pure as those of his practical politics. There are none
more advanced. They are modern politics elevated to tiieir
entire purity."2
He then quotes the following passages from The New
Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine: —
' " Rulers are necessary for the preservation of order in the
various societies of mankind ; and they ought to be persons
well skilled in the laws, men of wisdom, having the fear of
God. There must also be order among the rulers themselves ;
lest any of them, from caprice or ignorance, should sanction
evils which are contrary to order, and thereby destroy it.
This is guarded against by the appointment of superior and
inferior rulers, among whom there is subordination. . . .
Rulers set over those things which relate to the world, or
civil affairs, are called magistrates, and their chief, where
such a form of government is established, is called the king.
. . . The royalty itself is not in any person, but is annexed
to the person. The king who believes that the royalty is in
* Nya Kyrkan, i Sverige part ii. p. 48.
2 Swedenborg : sa vie, etc., p. 23.

THE JUDGMENT. 28l
his own person, or the officer who supposes that the dignity
of his office is in his own person, is not wise.
"The royalty consists in administering and in judging
from justice, according to the laws of the realm. . The king
who considers the laws superior to himself is wise ; but he
who considers himself superior to the laws is not wise. The
king who regards the laws as above himself places the royalty
in the law, and submits to its dominion ; he knows that the
law is justice, and that all justice which is really such is Di
vine. But he who regards himself as above the laws places
the royalty in himself, and either believes himself to be the
law, or the law, — that is, justice, — to be derived from him
self. Hence he arrogates to himself that which is Divine,
and to which he ought to be in subjection.
" The law, — that is, justice, — ought to be enacted in the
realm by persons well skilled in legislation, men of wisdom,
who fear God ; and both the king and his subjects ought
then to live according to it. The king who hves according
to the laws so enacted, and therein sets an example to his
subjects, is truly a king." (H. D. 312-333.)
Little did the members of Sweden's Diet know, as they
listened to Assessor Swedenborg's common-sense advice on
matters of state and finance, what stupendous changes were
going on in the world of sphits, within their associate's per
sonal knowledge. With the nearer presence there of the
Lord of heaven ; with the clear revelation of Himself, by
the Spirit of Truth, in His Word, from Genesis to the Apo
calypse, from the Beginning to the End ; and with the pub
lication even in this world of genuine, heavenly doctrine,
drawn from this Word alone, concerning Him, His Word,
and the duties of men, — the purposed and natural effect of
the new revelation was produced. A judgment was being
effected, the judgment that was foretold to the disciples as
to attend this coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of
heaven, that is, in the clouds of the letter of the Word ; and

282 THE JUDGMENT.
that was exhibited in representation to John in the vision of
the Apocalypse.
As early as in July, 1746, Swedenborg noted, in his Ad
versaria, .that "in heaven all the angels of God Messiah are
ardently awaiting the last day, for they think of nothing else "
(vi. 4445).
In October, 1747, he writes in his Spiritual Diary about
the good souls as yet held in captivity, but to be liberated in
the last judgment, and rejoices in being permitted to com
municate to them something of the heavenly joy that was
granted him (n. 218). A few days later he writes, —
" Last night when awakened, many things were shown me
'which I cannot describe ; there was a sort of revolution of
spirits, with clear perception that many who were in the low
est heaven were being thrust down, and that many who were
in captivity were ascending" (n. 220). Then he describes
a severe struggle that took place, the evil-disposed trying
to take away from the well-disposed the mercy that was
extended to them, and the power of this mercy as it came
from heaven and from the Lord, — the struggle being per
mitted for the purpose of making those who were to be
saved feel their utter dependence on the Divine mercy. But
this was only a representation of what was about to take
place. Again, on the 20th of November, he notes perceiving
when awake in the night that very many of those bound in
the pit were being taken up out of the pit, which was be
neath the lowest heaven, the ascent lasting a long time, show
ing the great numbers. From this vision again he concludes
that the last time is now at hand (n. 259).
On the 5th of December he writes, —
"I have wondered that thousands and perhaps myriads
were raised up out of the pit or lower parts of the earth, and
indeed in what way they could all be allotted their places
in the heavens ; at last I have been taught to-day that the
most part of them seem to themselves to be conveyed as by

THE DRAGON. 283
chariots and to be borne around to various places, and to
try each one whether here or there is his proper place, that
is, whether there is an agreement of his soul with those who
are there ; and otherwise, as generally happens, being borne
on farther until they find agreement and thus rest, that is,
with souls which agree with their own disposition ; nor is
there ever a soul raised up by God Messiah which does not
find its rest, and thus company, with others conformable to its
own disposition" (n. 297).
On the ist of September, 1748, he writes, —
" Very many were now glorifying the Lord on account of
His coming and their liberation from hell, and there was so
great joy at their good fortune that some said they could not
bear it. The glorification was as if general, so that some
even in hell desired to join in it " (n. 3029).
At this time it becomes very common for Swedenborg to
speak of the "dragon," meaning thereby the vast assemblage
of spirits who claimed the right to heaven, with no repentance
and no real acknowledgment of the Lord, and who both op
pressed the faithful and opposed all true faith in the Lord,
proceeding from Him, — in effect, we find, waiting to devour
the man-child, the true doctrine, that was to be born. From
his later works we learn that the heaven and earth described
in the Apocalypse as_ passing away, were in the world of
spirits, in the midst between the true heaven and hell. The
immense crowd of professed Christians gathered in that world
during the many centuries under which the Church had been
misruled, who had gained no true idea of their Lord on
earth, and consequently were unable to approach and recog
nize Him in His Kingdom, either by their conceit imagined
themselves already in heaven, or in humility, under subjec
tion, awaited His coming in their lower earth, as it was called.
The latter were beginning to be guided by the new hght that
was penetrating, and to be raised up into the Presence of
theh Lord. The time was coming for the fictitious heavens,
formed by those who were represented by the dragon and

284 THE APOCALYPSE.
by Babylon, to be judged and dispersed according to theh
inward quality.
It is amazing to find in Swedenborg's "Diary," for the ten
years from 1747, with what fulness and circumstance he has
described these various collections of spirits, theh quality,
and what was being done with them. During all this time,
the same within which the "Arcana" was being published,
preparations were going on for the judgment, by means of
the light that was being diffused from the recognition of the
Lord in His Word. Without special statement of Sweden
borg to that effect, it is evident from study of the subject
that the mass of spirits in the world of spirits, between
heaven and hell, including those who had formed for them
selves and were living in fictitious or imaginary heavens, were
up to this time as ignorant of the spiritual and celestial sen
ses of the Scriptures, and thus of true heavenly doctrine, as
were the men whom they had left on earth. And, further,
the unfolding of these senses in the letter of the Word, or
the revelation of them from heaven into the mind of Swe
denborg was but a part, the ultimate part, of this same rev
elation or unfolding in the world of spirits, to those who
were ready to receive it ; and there first the revelation had
its great effect.
In 1757, according to Swedenborg, the great work culmi
nated, as foretold in the Apocalypse. For a full description
of it we must refer to The Apocalypse Explained, in six large
octavo volumes, to The, Apocalypse Revealed, in two such
volumes, or for a brief survey, to The Last Judgment, and
the "Continuation" of the same. Suffice it to say here,
that those on whom the judgment was executed were not the
openly evil, for they had gone to their like in hell ; nor the
clear-sighted good, for they had found their homes in heaven :
but they were on the one hand those who were to appear
ance good and inwardly evil, and on the other those who,
good in heart, were not yet freed from the rule of false ap
pearances. In the central part of this vast world were the

THE JUDGMENT. 285
Reformed Protestants, for with them was the most knowledge
of the Word of God. Next around them were the Papists ;
then the Mahometans in vast numbers, and lastly the Gen
tiles as a sea. The progress of the judgment was from, first,
the Papists, represented by Babylon, through the Mahome
tans and Gentiles, to last of all the Reformed, by whom the
sign of the Son of Man was seen in a white cloud. There
was nothing hasty or despotic in their judgment. The light
of the Lord of heaven appeared in His Word, by the teach
ing of angels who visited them all, and whoever welcomed
the light was led up by it into heaven, while those whose
evils were disclosed by it rushed downwards to hide them
selves in the abyss.
That the judgment was exhibited by the Lord before
hand in vision to John was not for his immediate use, nor
again, as Sir Isaac Newton well observed, " to gratify men's
curiosities by enabling them to foreknow things ; but that,
after they [the prophecies] were fulfilled, they might be in
terpreted by the event, and His own Providence, not the
interpreters, be then manifested thereby to the world." x
Yet it is not without significance that it was John, the same
disciple who was to tarry till his Lord should come, to whom
it was given to be the witness of the things foretold, — John,
whom the Lord loved and who represented those who are
in the good of life from love to the Lord. That such are
they who will await their Lord's coming and be witnesses of
1 Sir Isaac continues : " For, as the few and obscure prophecies concerning
Christ's first coming were for setting up the Christian religion, which all na
tions have since corrupted, so the many and clear prophecies concerning the
things to be done at Christ's second coming are not only for predicting, but also
for effecting a recovery and re-establishment of the long-lost truth, and setting
up a kingdom wherein dwells righteousness. The event will prove the Apoca
lypse ; and. this prophecy, thus proved and understood, will open the old proph
ets, and all together will make known the true religion, and establish it. For
he that will understand the old prophets, must begin with this ; but the time is
not yet come for understanding them perfectly, because the main revolution
predicted in them is not yet come to pass."— Prophecies of Holy Writ, part ii.
sect. viii.

286 THE APOCALYPSE.
it to their fellow-men, is most plain. That it was by being
led of the Divine Grace into the good of life from love to
the Lord, that Swedenborg was prepared to be a witness of
this coming and to behold the fulfilment of the vision, in or
der to make known its interpretation by the event, clearly
appears. Moreover, the effect of the announcement of the
Divine Presence was the same upon the new witness that it
was upon the old. John fell as dead at the feet of the angel
through whom the Lord spake. And Swedenborg fell dead,
as to all that was of self, in the same Presence. But before
John could realize this Presence, after he was spoken to, he
had to turn himself, for he was not looking the right way.
This Swedenborg explains to mean that when the churches
turn themselves from their idea of a Trinity of persons, to
that of a Trinity in One Person, the -Lord Jesus Christ, there
will be a new perception of Him in His Word. And such
we find to have been notably the case with Swedenborg him
self. The process of turning was going on during the whole
period of the Adversaria, and when completed, in entire
humility and clear vision of the Sun of heaven, the unfold
ing of the "Arcana" commenced.
The preparation of The Apocalypse Explained was nearly
contemporaneous with the fulfilment of the predictions,
beginning in 1757 and continuing some two years; but it
was never completed or published by the author, although
carefully prepared for the printer to the middle of the nine
teenth chapter. The general plan of the work is similar to
that of the "Arcana," — first, the full text of a chapter, then
with the first chapters a few sentences introducing the sub
ject, followed by a particular explication of each verse or
phrase, confirmed by numerous citations of other passages
in the Word and explanations of them. In the fifth volume
there begin to be full expositions of various doctrinal matters
at the end of the sections, some of which have since been
published in separate treatises. The entire work was pub
lished in the Latin in 1785-89, under the editorship of a

THE HOLY WORD. 287
committee of five English gentlemen, who completed it by
adding the lacking chapters from The Apocalypse Revealed,
and the intermediate matter from a treatise left in manuscript
on the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom.1 Of the two
works, for reasons that we shall presentiy see, the explication
of The Apocalypse Revealed is the more specific and practi
cally intelligible to us at the present time. But the earlier
and more copious Apocalypse Explained is full of the heav
enly understanding of the Word, such, we have reason to
suppose, as had the angels of the sphitual heaven, and as
was the efficient means used by the Lord in the very accom
plishment of the predictions ; while in the doctrinal matters
at the ends of the sections we find this heavenly understand
ing of the Word clearly set forth and illustrated for our use.
For example : —
"The Word in its literal sense appears before a worldly
man, whose mind is not elevated above the sensual sphere,
so simple that scarce anything can be more so ; but still
Divine truth, such as is in the heavens, and from which
angels derive theh wisdom, lies concealed therein as in its
sanctuary. For the Word in the letter is like a shrine or
secret place in the midst of a temple covered with a veil,-
within which he reposited arcana of celestial wisdom, such as
1 About the time of publication, while the manuscript of this work was in
charge of Mr. Peckitt, one of the five editors, a fire broke out at midnight and
soon reached his house. While the family and the firemen were busy rescuing
what property they could, the building tumbled in and they narrowly escaped
with their lives. In the confusion Mr. Peckitt did not think of the precious
manuscript, which had lain in his desk, till the next morning, when he was in
despair at recalling the sight of the desk in flames. At the ruins, however, he
found a friend who had picked up several volumes in the street and carried
them home for safety. Among them was the manuscript volume of the Apoc
alypse Explained. A fireman, finding the desk too heavy to move, had opened
it and thrown its contents into the street. Carrying the volume in his arms to a
meeting of his little society who were grieving over his misfortune, Mr. Peckitt
threw it on the table and burst into tears. "There," said he, "the greatest
treasure which I had in my house is preserved in safety ; and for the sake of
that, I willingly submit to my great loss." He had lost a library of several
thousand rare volumes.

288 THE APOCALYPSE.
the ear has not heard ; since in the Word and in every par
ticular thereof is contained a spiritual sense, and in this a
Divine celestial sense, which, viewed in itself is the very
Divine truth which is in the heavens, and gives wisdom to
angels and illustration to men.
" Divine truth which is in the heavens is light proceeding
from the Lord as a sun, which is Divine love ; and inasmuch
as Divine truth proceeding from the Lord is the light of
heaven, it is also Divine wisdom. This is what illumines both
the minds and the eyes of angels ; and the same, too, is what
enlightens the minds of men, but not theh eyes, and gives
them to understand truth and also to perceive good, — as is
the case when man reads the Word from the Lord, and not
from himself. For he is then in company with the angels,
and inwardly in a perception like the spiritual perception of
angels ; and the spiritual perception enjoyed by a man-angel
flows into his natural perception, which belongs to him in the
world, and enlightens this also. Hence the man who reads
the Word from the affection of truth has illustration by or
through heaven from the Lord." (A. E. 1067.)
"That the Word is holy and Divine, from its inmost to
its outermosts, is not manifest to the man who leads him
self, but to the man whom the Lord leads ; for the man
who leads himself sees only the external part of the Word
and judges of it from its style, whereas the man whom the
Lord leads judges of the external covering of the Word
from what is holy contained within. The Word is like a
garden which may be called a heavenly paradise, in which
are dainties and delicacies of every kind, — dainties in the
way of fruits and delicacies in the way of flowers, in the midst
of which are trees of life, and near them fountains of living
water ; but round about the garden are forest trees, and near
them streams or rivers. The man who leads himself judges
of that paradise, which is the Word, from its circumference,
where are the forest trees ; but the man whom the Lord
leads judges of it from the centre, where are the trees of

THE WORD IN HEAVEN. 289
life. The man whom the Lord leads is also really in that
centre and looks upwards to the Lord ; but the man who
leads himself really sits down in the circumference and looks
outward to the world. The Word is also like a fruit in which
within there is nutritious pulp, in the centre of that seed-
capsules, containing in their inmost part a prolific principle
which in good ground germinates. It is also as a most beau
tiful infant wrapped in swaddling clothes upon swaddling
clothes, everywhere except the face, the infant himself being
in the inmost heaven, the swaddling clothes in the lower
heavens, and the outer covering in the earth. Since such is
the nature of the Word, it is holy and Divine from its in
most to its outermost" (n. 1072).
The uncovered face in the last simile is in accordance
with what Swedenborg often shows, that in certain passages
of the Word its Divinity and real meaning is as plainly to be
seen by all who regard it with humble heart, as the sphit of
a man in his face and eyes.
"The reason why the Word is such, is because in its origin
it is the Divine Itself proceeding from the Lord, which is
called Divine truth, — and this in its descent to men in the
world has passed through the heavens in order, according to
their degrees, which are three. And in every heaven it is
written in accommodation to the wisdom and intelligence of
the angels there - and lastly it is brought down from the Lord
through the heavens to men, and is there written and promul
gated in a manner accommodated to their understanding
and apprehension.
"This, therefore, is the sense of the letter, in which Divine
truth lies reposited in distinct order, such as it is in the three
heavens. From which it is evident that all the wisdom of
the angels who are in the three heavens is included in our
Word from the Lord ; and in the inmost thereof the wis
dom of the angels of the third heaven, which is incompre
hensible and ineffable to man, because full of arcana and
treasures of Divine truths. These lie stored up in all and
19

290 THE WORD IN HEAVEN.
each of the things of our Word. And whereas Divine truth
is the Lord in the heavens, therefore also the Lord Him
self is present, and may be said to dwell in all and each
of the things of His Word, as in His heavens. As He
Himself said of the ark of the covenant, in which only the
ten precepts inscribed on two tables, the first fruits of the
Word, were reposited, — that there He should speak with
Moses and Aaron, that there He should be present, that
there He would dwell, and that it was His holy of holies and
His dwelling-place, as in heaven" (n. 1073).
" Love truly conjugial is from the Lord alone : the reason
why it is from the Lord alone is because it descends from the
love of the Lord towards heaven and the Church, and thence
from the love of good and truth ; for it is the Lord from
whom is good, and it is heaven and the Church in which is
truth : hence it follows that love truly conjugial in its first
essence is love to the Lord. . . . The genuine conjugial
principle is given especially in the third heaven, because the
angels there are in love to the Lord, acknowledge Him alone
as God, and do His commandments. To do the command
ments is with them to love Him. The commandments of the
Lord are to them the truths in which they receive Him.
There is conjunction of the Lord with them, and of them
with the Lord, for they are in the Lord because in good, and
the Lord is in them because in truth. This is the heavenly
marriage, from which love truly conjugial descends.
"Inasmuch as love truly conjugial in its first essence is
love to the Lord from the Lord, it is also innocence. In
nocence consists in man's loving the Lord as his Father, by
doing His commandments and desiring to be led by Him
and not by himself, thus as an infant. Inasmuch as inno
cence is that love, it is the very esse of all good, and hence
man has so much of heaven in himself, or is so much in
heaven, as he is in conjugial love, because he is so much in
innocence" (n. 995-96).

CHAPTER XII.
DOCTRINAL TREATISES.
On laying aside for a time the explanation of the Apoca
lypse, Swedenborg prepared for the press several small works,
in part drawn from what he had already written and in part
new. Of these the following were printed, translating their
titles : The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the
Lord; The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the
Sacred Scripture ; The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusa
lem ; The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning Faith ;
Continuation concerning the Last Judgment and the Spiritual
World. The last named of these treatises was published in 1763.
The same year was printed the larger work entitled Angelic
Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom.
As the "Arcana" and the works on the Apocalypse are the
treasuries of interpretations of the Scriptures, and the trea
tise on Heaven and Hell contains the sum of the new reve
lations about the other world, so this compact treatise on the
Divine Love and Wisdom contains the philosophic basis of
the new understanding to be given in the New Church of the
Divine essence and existence, and of the Divine creation
and sustenance of the world.
In this work Swedenborg seeks to lift the minds of his
readers out of the bonds of time and space, and to help
them to something of the understanding which angels have
of the Divine nature and operation. The very statement of
the design sufficiently indicates the difficulty attending its
accomplishment. But while no one, we may venture to say,

292 DOCTRINAL TREATISES.
has ever read the book carefully to the end and felt that he
has wholly mastered its contents, we may say with no less
certainty that no one has so read it without having more of
heavenly wisdom and of Divine philosophy opened to him
than he had ever dreamed.
The book, though but a small volume, is divided into five
Parts. In Part Fhst we are taught that Love is Life, and
Life is Love ; that God alone is Love itself, because Life it
self; and that angels and men are recipients of life from
Him ; that God is very Man, because the source of all that
makes man, and of all that mirrors man in the universe ;
that He is One and indivisible, God-man; that His Divine
Essence is Love and Wisdom, and that these together are
not mere breath, but substance and form in themselves, the
self-existing and sole-subsisting Being ; that all things in the
universe are created and exist from this Divine Love and
Divine Wisdom and are recipients thereof; that their uses
ascend by degrees from the lowest to man and through man
to their Creator ; and that the Divine fills all space without
space and is in all time without time, in greatests and leasts
the same.
In Part Second we learn that in the spiritual world, as
in the natural world, there is a Sun, on which all things de
pend for heat, light, and 'activity ; that the spiritual Sun, of
which the natural sun is the image, is the first proceeding
sphere of love and wisdom from the Lord as apparent to the
minds of angels, and so, by the perfect correspondence there
existing, visible before their eyes, as the effluence of God
Himself, from which their bodies have warmth and light,
while their minds are penetrated with His Love and Wisdom,
the Holy Spirit ; that all angels have this Sun, or the Divine
Presence before them, howsoever they turn ; and that their
position in the different heavens and different quarters de
pends on the manner in which they look towards and behold
the Lord in their Sun : that by this Sun the Lord has created
the natural suns and all things in the universe, and that this

THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. 293
is living, while all nature is dead, having its life only and
continually from Him, through His spiritual Sun.
In Part Third Swedenborg sets forth with much fulness
and illustration the doctrine of discrete degrees, which he
had previously developed to some extent in his philosophical
works, but now finds indispensable to the proper understand
ing of spiritual things. Discrete degrees are distinguished
from continuous or simultaneous degrees — to use an inferior
but palpable illustration — as a solid, a hquid, and a gas are
distinguished in their difference from such degrees of fluid
ity as are seen in a liquid of greater or less density. A bet
ter illustration of discrete degrees, used by Swedenborg, is
that of the several atmospheres around the earth : the gross
est, which we call air, by which sound affects the ear ; the
more ethereal, called by Swedenborg ether, by whose vibra
tions light affects the eye ; and a still rarer, more active, all-
encompassing and all-permeating element, which he calls
in his Principia the magnetic, but in the present work does
not particularly name or describe. The magnetic is in the
ethereal, even in all matter. The ethereal is in the aerial and
in some more solid forms of matter. The grosser is the con
tinent of the rarer and is created by means of it, yet is not a
simple condensation of it, nor the same thing in grosser
form. Such are the discrete degrees between soul and body
and action with man ; between Divinity, the world of the
spirit, and the world of the body ; between end, cause, and
effect ; between love, wisdom, and operation, in God and in
man; between the three spiritual atmospheres proceeding
from the spiritual Sun in which are maintained the three
heavens, one within or above another and invisible to it, as
the whole world of spirit is invisible to us. Further, this
distinction of the heavens answers to three degrees or ca
pacities in the soul, by the several openings of which man
becomes an angel of the natural, spiritual, or celestial heaven
in which reign respectively love of doing good deeds, love
towards the neighbor, and love to the Lord. That these

294 DOCTRINAL TREATISES.
three are in our sight as one, is because as yet we cannot
look higher than the natural degree, and also because in the
ultimate degree the higher degrees rest and are contained in
their fulness and power. Hence the Word of God, which
contains, one within the other, senses adapted to these seve
ral degrees of the mind, to the several heavens, and within
all the Divine Wisdom itself, is in the sense of the letter in
its fulness and power. Hence, too, the Lord Himself, who
from eternity was Love and Wisdom, by entering in time
into the lower, human degree which He had m^de, became
there present in this humanity in fulness and power; for
therein dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
In Part Fourth we have an attempt to put into natural
language, not the angelic ideas themselves, — which Sweden
borg expressly shows to be so high above our own as to be
untranslatable into our tongue, — but such a resemblance of
them as our language is capable of, by correspondence. The
subject is creation. He shows that the universe reproduces
man, and that man mirrors and is produced from the in
finity of God-man. Then he combats the idea that the
universe, or anything, can be produced out of nothing, and
shows that, as the nearest approach to the angelic idea, out
of God proceeds a sphere of love and wisdom, which is not
God, but from Him and in accordance with Him, and is the
spiritual Sun, before described ; that out of this Sun pro
ceeds an atmosphere, or successive atmospheres, also before
mentioned, which are this love and wisdom resolved into the
use which is their end ; that of these atmospheres are cre
ated the bodies of angels and spirits, with all their surround
ings, as of the atmospheres proceeding from the natural sun
are created the earths and all things upon them ; and that at
the same time these natural atmospheres and all things pro
duced from them are created and sustained by means of the
spiritual atmospheres. From the effort for use in the sphit
ual atmospheres, there is a constant effort in the natural
atmospheres and earths to produce forms of uses, imaging

THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. 295
the universal use, man and the Infinite. As, however, the
Lord suffers the good use of the atmospheres of heaven to
be perverted to the very opposite in hell, so He suffers the
influx of these perversions to bring to pass corresponding
evil uses, noxious animals and plants, on earth ; while the in
flux without perversion brings forth only such good uses,
beneficent animals and plants, as correspond to heavenly
things. Both kinds are produced by power from Him, but
only the good by His will.
Part Fifth treats of the creation of man, with will and
understanding to receive the Lord's Love and Wisdom. The
residence of these primarily in the brains and their represen
tation in the heart and lungs are described at length, and
afterwards the development and the mutual relation of the
two faculties are described and illustrated by the action and
mutual relation of the two organs : —
" That there is a correspondence of the will and under
standing with the heart and lungs, and thence a correspond
ence of all things of the mind with all things of the body, is
new and hitherto unknown, because it has not been known
what sphitual is, and what is its differesce from natural, and
therefore what correspondence is, — there being a corres
pondence of spiritual with natural things, and thereby con
junction of them ; but still both might have been known.
Who does not know that affection and thought are spiritual,
and hence that all things of affection and thought are spirit
ual? Who does not know that action and speech are nat
ural, and hence all things of action and speech natural?
Who does not know that affection and thought, which are
spiritual, cause a man to act and speak? Who may not
hence know what the correspondence is of spiritual with
natural things? Does not thought cause the tongue to
speak, and affection with thought cause the body to act?
They are two distinct things. I can think and not speak,
and will and not act ; and it is known that the body does
not think and will, but that thought flows into speech and

296 DOCTRINAL TREATISES.
will into action. Does not affection shine forth in the face,
and present therein a type of itself? This every one knows.
Is not affection, considered in itself, spiritual, and the
changes of face, or the looks, natural? Who might not
hence have concluded that there is a correspondence of all
things of the mind with all things of the body ? And as all
things of the mind relate to affection and thought, or, what
is the same, to the will and understanding, and all things of
the body to the heart and lungs, — who might not hence
have concluded that there is a correspondence of the will
with the heart and of the understanding with the lungs?
Such things have not been known, although they might have
been known, because man has become so external that he
is unwilling to acknowledge anything but what is natural."
(D. L. &W. 374.)
"The heavens are distinguished into two kingdoms, the
celestial and the spiritual kingdom. Love to the Lord is
predominant in the celestial kingdom, and wisdom from that
love in the spiritual kingdom. The kingdom where love is
predominant is called the cardiac kingdom of heaven, and
the kingdom where wisdom is predominant is called the pul
monic kingdom of heaven" (n. 381).
" Here, for the sake of confirmation, I may adduce a rep
resentation of the correspondence of the will and under
standing with the heart and lungs, which was seen in heaven
among the angels. They, by a wonderful flowing into gyres,
such as no words can express, formed the likeness of a heart
and lungs, with all their interior structures ; in doing which
they followed the flow of heaven ; for heaven tends to such
forms by virtue of the inflowing of love and wisdom from the
Lord. Thus they represented the conjunction of the heart
and lungs, and at the same time their correspondence with
the love of the will and the wisdom of the understanding"
(n. 376).
In this we have a glimpse of the need to Swedenborg, for
understanding the soul's kingdom, of his thorough prepara-

THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE.

297

tion in the study of the human body. The soul, as he rightly
assumed from his philosophical researches, determines the
structure of the body, even to minutest particulars, in ac
cordance with its own essence and manifold needs. It is,
then, itself a prior and more perfect example of the human
form. But least forms image greatest. The soul images the
whole heaven ; for the whole heaven as a one, like each soul
in particular, is formed to receive in fulness of the Divine ful
ness, and is therefore formed into the Divine image and like
ness. Nor is this a matter alone or principally of form, but
primarily of life and use. It would have been impossible, then,
for Swedenborg to have gained a thorough understanding of
the life and order of heaven, or even of the individual soul,
without the preparation provided for him in the thorough
study of tire human body.
Closely and appropriately following this work on the Divine
Love and Wisdom, in 1 764, came another small book called
Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Providence. The
two works together furnish just the help needed for entering
rationally into the mysteries of faith.
Of the Divine Providence we learn that it is the govern
ment of the Divine Love and Divine Wisdom of the Lord,
regarding what is infinite and eternal, and temporal things
only so far as they agree with the eternal, and having for its
end a heaven from the human race. For heaven is con
junction with the Lord, and the more nearly man is con
joined to the Lord, the wiser he becomes, the happier he
becomes, and the more distinctly does he appear to himself
as his own, at the same time that he the more plainly per
ceives that he is the Lord's. According to the laws of the
Divine Providence, man is to act from freedom according
to reason, and should as of himself remove the evils in the
external man, whereat the Lord can remove them in the
internal, and then again in the external. Man is not to
be compelled by external means to think and will religious
things, but should lead and compel himself. Man is led and

298 DOCTRINAL TREATISES.
taught by the Lord from heaven, through the Word; doctrine,
and preachings from it, and this in all appearance as of him
self. Man does not perceive and feel anything of the oper
ation of the Divine Providence, but yet should know and
acknowledge it. The laws of permission are also laws of
Providence, evils being permitted for the sake of the end of
salvation. The Divine Providence is equally with the evil as
with the good, every man being predestinated to heaven and
not to hell, and having the opportunity provided by which he
may be saved if he will, but no one being compelled against
his will. For "the Lord cannot act contrary to the laws of
the Divine Providence, because to act contrary to them would
be to act contrary to His Divine Love and contrary to His
Divine Wisdom, thus contrary to Himself."
All these points and many others are amply shown by
argument and illustration. As a specimen of the manner of
treatment we will give a paragraph or two : —
" That no one can think from himself, but from the Lord,
all the angels of heaven confess ; but that no one can think
from any other than from himself, all the spirits of hell say :
yet it has been many times shown to the latter that not one
of them thinks from himself, nor can ; but that the thought
flows in. It was in vain ; they were unwilling to receive it.
Experience however will teach, first, that all of thought and
affection, even with the spirits of hell, flows in from heaven ;
but that good flowing in is there turned into evil, and truth
into falsity, — thus all into their opposite. This was shown
in this way: there was let down from heaven a truth from
the Word, which was received in hell by those who were
above, and by them let down into the lower parts, even to
the lowest ; and on the way it was successively turned into
falsity, and at length into the falsity altogether opposite to
the truth. They with whom it was changed thought the fal
sity from themselves, and did not know otherwise ; when yet
it was a truth from heaven thus falsified and perverted on
the way while flowing down to the lowest hell. . . .

THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 299
"When it was given me by the Lord to speak with sphits
and angels, this mystery was immediately disclosed to me ;
for it was said to me from heaven that I believed, like others,
that I thought and willed of myself, when yet nothing was
from myself; but whatever was good was from the Lord,
and whatever evil, from hell. That it was so was also shown
to the life by various thoughts and affections induced upon
me, and it was gradually given me to perceive and feel it.
Wherefore afterwards, as soon as any evil glided into the will,
or any falsity into the understanding, I searched whence it
was and it was disclosed to me ; and it was also given me to
speak with those from whom it came, and to confute them,
and to compel them to recede, and thus to take back their
evil and falsity and retain it with themselves, and not infuse
any such thing into my thought any more. This has been
done a thousand times, and I have remained in this state now
for many years, and still remain in it. And yet I seem to
myself to think and will of myself, like others, with no differ
ence ; for it is of the Providence of the Lord that it should
appear so to every one." (D. P. 288, 290.)
"Every man was created that he might come into heaven:
this is the end of creation. But that all do not come into
heaven is because they imbibe the delights of hell opposite
to the blessedness of heaven ; and they who are not in the
blessedness of heaven cannot enter heaven, for they do not
endure it. It is denied to no one who comes into the spirit
ual world, to ascend into heaven ; but when he who is in the
delight of hell comes thither, he palpitates at heart, is troubled
in breathing, his life begins to fail, he is pained, is tortured,
and rolls himself about like a serpent brought to the fire.
This is so because opposite acts against opposite. But still,
because they were born men, and are thereby in the faculty
of thinking and willing, and thence in the faculty of speaking
and acting, they cannot die. Yet, because they cannot live
with any others than with those who are in like delight of life
with their own, they are sent back to them ; thus they who

300 DOCTRINAL TREATISES.
are in the delights of evil to their own, and they who are in
the delights of good to their own. Yea, it is given to every
one to be in the delight of his evil, provided he does not
infest those who are in the delight of good; but because
evil cannot do otherwise than infest good, — for in evil there
is hatred against good, — therefore, lest they should bring
harm, the evil are removed and cast down into their places
in hell, where theh delight is turned into misery. But this
does not prevent that man should be from creation and
should be born such that he can come into heaven : for
every one who dies an infant comes into heaven, is educated
and instructed there, as a man in the world, and by the affec
tion of good and truth is imbued with wisdom, and becomes
an angel. In like manner might a man who is educated and
instructed in the world, for the like is in him as in an infant.
But that this does not take place with many in the world is
because they love the first degree of their life, which is called
the natural, and do not wish to recede from it and become
spiritual. And the natural degree of life, viewed in itself,
loves nothing but itself and the world, for it coheres to the
senses of the body, which are also prominent in the world ;
but the spiritual degree of life, viewed in itself, loves the Lord
and heaven, and also itself and the world, — yet God and
heaven as superior, principal, and ruling, and itself and the
world as inferior, instrumental, and serving." (D. P. 324.)
From 1764 to 1766 Swedenborg was employed in writing
and publishing a new explication of the Apocalypse, with the
title of The Apocalypse Revealed. The Apocalypse Explained
had been written about the time of the spiritual fulfilment of
the events foretold. It is not improbable that its immediate
use was the establishment of the doctrines involved, as a
means for the execution of the judgment, by its exhaustive
citation and comparison of parallel passages from the Word.
This work being accomplished, the explication was suspended,
as we have seen, in the nineteenth chapter ; and when it was
resumed, in The Apocalypse Revealed, it was recommenced

THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED.

301

from the beginning, with less copious citation of proof, and
with more particular application to the New Church about to
be established on earth.
The Apocalypse had been a sealed book. Many attempts
had been made to trace its predictions in the historical
events of the Christian Church. Many writers, both Pro
testant and Roman Catholic, had concluded that the measure
of the Church's iniquity was full, and that her day of judg
ment was at hand. Many events seemed the beginning of
the end. But while all were looking for a visible judgment
on'earth, Swedenborg published his account of its aheady
taking place in the other world, and of the commencement
that was being made of its gradual accomplishment among
men. For it appears that the vision seen by John represented
both what was to take place, at the end of the Church, in the
spiritual world, and what is to take place by slow degrees in
the Church on earth.
John represents those who are in the good of life, from
faith in the Lord, who remain through the desolation of the
Church, and who first become aware of their Lord's coming.
The Lord's coming in the clouds and appearing in the midst
of the seven golden candlesticks,, represents His manifesta
tion as the bearer of all light in the obscurity of the letter of
His Word. John's falling at His feet as dead is the prostra
tion of self and deep humility of heart with which alone the
Lord .is perceived. The seven churches are the members of
the Christian Church in theh various states, more or less salv-
able. What was seen through the door in heaven, chap, iv.,
was the ordering of all things in preparation for the judgment.
The recognition of the Lamb as the only one who could open
the Book was the acknowledgment that the Lord alone in
His humanity can unfold His Word and judge thereby His
people. By those who sat on horses of different colors are
meant the various states of understanding of the Word. The
souls under the altar are those who have lived a good life in
the fear of the Lord, and have been oppressed by the rulers

302 DOCTRINAL TREATISES.
of the Church, but have been preserved by the Divine care.
The rolling away of heaven as a scroll is the dissolution of the
fictitious heavens which pretended Christians had formed for
themselves, as soon as theh interiors were disclosed by the
light of the Lord's coming. The hundred and forty and four
thousand are they of the Church of every kind, whose interiors
are good and marked with the Lord's name. The woes fol
low the exploration of the states of those who rely on faith
alone. The woman clothed with the sun signifies the New
Church that is to come, and the man-child the doctrine of
that Church, opposed frantically by the dragon, the doctrine
of faith alone. The ruling of the nations by the man-child
with a rod of iron, represents the power of the new doctrine
by the letter of the Word, from which it is drawn, and by
rational argument from the light of nature, with which it is
confirmed ; but this needs concealment and protection for a
time. The war in heaven is the battle with those who are in
faith alone, driving them out of their fictitious heavens. The
Lamb on Mount Zion with the hundred and forty and four
thousand signifies the Lord in the midst of the new heaven,
now forming, of those Christians who could be saved by theh
acknowledgment of the Divine Humanity. The first effect
of His sending forth His Gospel anew to the earth is the
downfall of Babylon, the Roman Catholic religion ; and then
comes the torment of those who worship the beast, who are
fixed in faith alone. The eager desire of the heaven* that
the direful state on earth should be ended, is expressed by
the cry to the Lord that He should thrust in His sharp sickle.
The reaping and pressing signify exploration. The golden
vials full of the wrath of God are the holy good and truth of
heaven flowing in and making the evil of the Church mani
fest. The exhibition of Babylon as a harlot reveals the state
of those, especially of the Romish Church, who are in the lust
of dominion by means of the Word. The beast is the Word
itself put to this degraded use. The ten horns that hate the
woman and destroy her are truths of the Word among Pro-

MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE. 303
testants that destroy the power of Rome : lamentation fol
lows of all who have sought their gain in her, and glorifica
tion in heaven. The coming Church in genuine truth is de
scribed as the wife in fine linen ; and again the doctrine of
this Church is described as the Holy City, descending from
God out of heaven, into which there shall enter nothing that
defileth nor that maketh a he, but they which are written in
the Lamb's book of life.
This is a scanty outline of the explication which fills three
volumes. At the end of each chapter is a description of what
the author was permitted to see taking place in the fulfilment
of the Apocalypse, of which the following from the close
of the explanation of the eleventh chapter will serve as a
specimen : —
" I was once seized suddenly with a disease that seemed
to threaten my life. I suffered excruciating pain all over
my head ; a pestilent smoke ascended from that Jerusalem
[in the world of spirits] which is called Sodom and Egypt ;
half dead with the severity of my sufferings, I expected every
moment would be my last. Thus I lay in my bed three days
and a half; my sphit was reduced to this state, and my body
in consequence. And then I heard the voices of persons
about me, saying, 'Lo, he who preached repentance for the
remission of sins, and the man Christ alone, lies dead in the
streets of our city.' And they asked some of the clergy
whether he was worthy of burial ; who answered, ' No, let
him lie to be looked at.' And they passed to and fro, and
mocked. All this befell me, of a truth, when I was writing
the explanation of this chapter of the Apocalypse. Then
were heard many shocking speeches of scoffers who said,
'How can repentance be performed without faith? And how
can the man Christ be adored as God ? Since we are saved
of free grace without any merit of our own, what need is there
of any faith but this, — that God the Father sent the Son to
take away the curse of the law, to impute his merit to us,
and so to justify us in His sight, and absolve us from our sins

304 DOCTRINAL TREATISES.
by the declaration of a priest, and then give the Holy Ghost
to operate all good in us ? Are not these doctrines agreeable
to Scripture, and consistent with reason also ? ' All this the
crowd who stood by agreed to and applauded. I heard
what passed without the power of replying, being almost
dead ; but after three days and a half my spirit recovered,
and being in the spirit I left the street and went into the city,
and said again, ' Do the work of repentance and beheve in
Christ, and your sins will be remitted and ye will be saved ;
but otherwise ye will perish. Did not the Lord Himself
preach repentance for the remission of sins, and that men
should believe in Him ? Did not He enjoin His disciples to
preach the same ? Is not a full and fatal security of life the
sure consequence of this dogma of your faith ? ' But they
replied, ' What idle talk ! Has not the Son made satisfac
tion ? And does not the Father impute it to us, and justify
us who have believed in it ? Thus are we led by the spirit
of grace ; how then can sin have place in us, and what power
has death over us ? Do you comprehend this Gospel, thou
preacher of sin and repentance?' At that instant a voice
was heard from heaven, saying, ' What is the faith of an im
penitent man but a dead faith ? The end is come, the end is
come upon you that are secure, unblamable in your own eyes,
justified in your own faith, ye devils.' And suddenly a deep
gulf was opened in the midst of the city, which spread itself
far and wide : and the houses fell one upon another and were
swallowed up ; and presently water began to bubble up from
the wide whirlpool, and overflowed the waste.
" When they were thus overwhelmed and, to appearance,
drowned, I was desirous to know their condition in the deep ;
and a voice from heaven said to me, ' Thou shalt see and
hear.' And straightway the waters in which they seemed to
be drowned, disappeared ; for waters in the spiritual world
are correspondences, and hence appear to surround those
who are in falses. Then they appeared to me in a sandy
place, where there were large heaps of stones, amongst which

CONJUGIAL LOVE. 305
they were running, and lamenting that they were cast out of
their great city ; and they lifted up their voices and cried,
' Why has all this befallen us ? Are we not by our faith clean,
pure, just, and holy? . . . Are we not reconciled, propitiated,
expiated, and thus absolved, washed, and cleansed from sins ?
And is not the curse of the law taken away by Christ? Why
then are we cast down here as the damned? We have been
told by a presumptuous preacher of sin in our great city,
" Believe in Christ and repent." But have we not believed
in Christ while we believed in his merit? And have we not
done the work of repentance while we confessed ourselves
sinners ? Why then has all this befallen us ? ' But immedi
ately a voice from one side said to them, ' Do you know any
one sin that is in you ? Have you ever examined yourselves ?
Have you in consequence shunned any evil as a sin against
God ? For he who does not shun sin, remains in it ; and is
not sin the Devil? Ye are therefore of the class of whom
the Lord said, Then shall ye begin to say, ' We have eaten
and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our
streets ;' but He shall say, ' I tell you I know you not, whence
ye are ; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.' . . .
Depart ye, therefore, every one to his own place ; you see
the openings into those caverns ; enter, and there work shall
be given each of you to do, and afterwards food according to
your work ; but should you refuse at present to enter, the
demands of hunger will speedily compel you.'" (A. R. 531.)
In the years 1766 and 1767 Swedenborg wrote much on
the Divine institution of marriage. From what was written
he selected and published in 1 768 The Delights of Wisdom
Concerning Conjugial1 Love; followed by The Pleasures of
Insanity Concerning Scortatory Love. To this work, first of
1 The love portrayed by Swedenborg under this title is of an interior nature,
effecting the union of souls.- This may be the reason why he chose the poetic
word used by Ovid, conjugialis, instead of the more common conjugalis.
With the feeling that such a distinction ought to be preserved, his translators
have kept it in " conjugial," which may now be said to have passed into our
language.

306 DOCTRINAL TREATISES.
his doctrinal or theological works, he attached his name, —
"By Emanuel Swedenborg, of Sweden." Perhaps he felt
more personal responsibility for its teachings, and probably
he saw the need that all these works should be grouped
together under his name. Accordingly he appends a list of
the works hitherto published, and also announces a complete
statement of "the Doctrine of the New Church predicted by
the Lord in the Apocalypse " as to be published within two
years. (Original edition, p. 328.)
This work on Conjugial Love was the first to gain many
readers, and was widely circulated. Eminent clergymen, and
unprejudiced sphitual minds generally, have recognized its
elevating power and commended its study ; but it is rightly
appreciated by those only who love to find in every blessing
that which is spiritual and from the Lord. To such it is of
highest delight to learn that the love which is the soul of
marriage descends from the union of the Divine Love with
the Divine Wisdom, and is as eternal as the human soul ; to
gain an insight into the lovely mysteries of the union of affec
tion and thought, of good and truth ; and to be told of the
peace and happiness that attend the marriage union, not
made by man but given by the Lord, among the angels in
heaven. He who loves to learn of the*purity and sanctity of marriage
may find in this book all that he seeks. And yet to many it
has been a stumbling-block, for the reason that in the latter
part discrimination is made as to the degree of wrong in de
partures from the order of marriage. Some of these errors
are regarded as less harmful than others, and not unpardon
able under circumstances of apparent necessity, — though it
is expressly stated that these things are not said to those who
are able to restrain their lust, nor to those who are blessed
with marriage. No one can be troubled by the charity here
shown for the unfortunate, unless with the fear that it may be
abused, to make inexcusable wrong venial.
This result would be most unfortunate, but could hardly

CONJUGIAL LOVE. 307
have been prevented. The charity, the mercy of the Divine
Providence in discriminating as to the degree of guilt in our
various departures from rectitude, in making us suffer less
for the lighter than we do for the more grievous, is abused
in the same way. No dealings with sinners can be Christian
that are not considerate and discriminating. This treatise of
Swedenborg did not purport to treat, like his other works,
of theology, doctrine, drawn from the Word by means of light
given from the Lord, "but chiefly of morals," that is, of the
manners and duties of men, with illustration from the light of
heaven. Naturally the immediate application of the second
part was to the society of Europe at the time it was written ;
and for this state of society, even in its concessions to human
weakness, it held up an advanced though not unapproach
able standard.1
It would be a total misapprehension and abuse to take any
advantage of such humane concession, for the lowering of
the standard in our own more favored, more Puritan country
and age. The proper use to us of the discussion of the sins
against the true marriage relation is, on the one hand, to put
us on our guard against the sinfulness of our human nature ;
and on the other to inspire us with discriminating charity and
mercy in our judgment of those less fortunate in their home,
their time, or their circumstances. Many things have been
permitted of the Divine Providence on account of the hard
ness of our hearts, which yet from the beginning were not so.
Each new revelation of the Divine order requires a higher
degree of purity, a nearer approach to the Divine perfection ;
and to this rule the teachings given through Swedenborg in
regard to marriage form no exception. Of the heavenly idea
of conjugial love taught in the book on that subject, the fol
lowing passage will give some impression : —
"There is given love truly conjugial, which at this, day
1 It is not pleasant to know, but is a help in understanding the conditions
under which the book was written, that even a century later the proportion of
legitimate children born in Stockholm was but five in seven.

308 DOCTRINAL TREATISES.
is so rare that it is not known what it is, and scarce that it
exists. ... No others come into this love and can be in
it but those who come to the Lord and love the truths of the
Church and do its good works. . . . That no others can
be in love truly conjugial but they who receive it from the
Lord, who are those that come dhectly to Him and live the
life of the Church from Himself, is because this love, con
sidered in its origin and its correspondence, is heavenly,
spiritual, holy, pure, and clean, above every love which is
with the angels of heaven and the men of the Church. And
these its attributes cannot be given but to those who are
conjoined to the Lord, and from Him consociated with the
angels of heaven ; for these shun loves outside of marriage,
which are conjunctions with others than their own proper
consorts, as the loss of the soul and the lakes of hell ; and in
proportion as consorts shun such conjunctions, even as to lusts
of the will and intentions, so far love truly conjugial is purified
with them, and becomes successively spiritual, first while they
live on earth, and afterwards in heaven. Neither with men
nor with angels can any love be pure, consequently neither
can this love ; but because the intention which is of the will
is primarily-regarded by the Lord, therefore, so far as man is
in this intention and perseveres in it, so far he is initiated and
successively advances into its purity and sanctity. . . . That
they come into this love and can be in it who love the truths
of the Church and do its good works, is because no others
are received of the Lord ; for these are in conjunction with
Himself, and thence can be held in that love from Himself."
(C. L. 57-72.)
After publishing this work on Conjugial Love, Swedenborg
entered on the task of presenting in complete form the Doc
trine of the New Church, as already promised. But he says,
"As this is the work of several years, I have deemed it useful
to publish meanwhile a sort of outline of it, in order that a
general idea of that Church and its Doctrine may first be ob
tained ; for when the generals precede, all the particulars as

BRIEF EXPOSITION.

309

they exist in the whole breadth can appear in light, since they
enter into the general, as homogeneous things into their re
ceptacles." This is from the preface to A Brief Exposition
of the Doctrine of the New Church which is meant by the
New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse, "by Emanuel Swedenborg,
of Sweden," published in Latin in a thin quarto in 1769,
and at the same time also in English. Of this little book the
author says, in a letter to Dr. Beyer, —
"This treatise was sent by me to all the clergy in Holland,
and will come into the hands of the most eminent in Ger
many. I have been informed that they have attentively
perused it, and that some have already discovered the truth,
while others do not know which way to turn ; for what is
written therein is sufficient to convince any one that the
above-mentioned doctrine [justification by faith alone] is the
cause of our having at the present day no theology in Chris
tendom." On the reverse of the titlepage are the words, in
Latin : " I, John, saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming
down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned
for her husband. . . . And He that sat upon the throne
said, Behold I make all things new. And He said unto
me, Write ; for these words are true and faithful." (Rev.
xxi. 2, 5.)
At the beginning, as in The Apocalypse Revealed, the author
presents the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church from
the decrees of the Council of Trent, and those of the Pro
testant Churches from the Formula Concordice. He next
shows briefly that all the Protestant Churches, though differ
ing in some matters, agree in the doctrines of the trinity of
persons, of original sin, of the imputation of the merit of
Christ, and of justification by faith alone ; that in these they
have only adopted the doctrines of the Roman Catholic
Church, with the change — as Luther confessed, for the sake
of distinction — of separating charity and good works from
faith, and yet adding good works, as in a passive Subject,
while the Catholics add them as in an active subject ; that

3IO DOCTRINAL TREATISES.
the whole theology of the day was founded on the idea of
three Gods, arising from that of a trinity of persons, and that
the dogmas are seen to be erroneous as soon as the idea of
three persons is rejected and the idea of One God, in whom
is a Divine Trinity, is received in its place ; that then faith
really saving, which rests in one God, united with good works,
is acknowledged and received ; and that this faith is in God
the Saviour Jesus Christ, and in its simple form is as follows :
i. That there is one God, in whom is a Divine Trinity,
and that He is the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. That saving faith is to believe in Him.
3. That evils are to be shunned because they are of the
Devil and from the Devil.
4. That good works are to be done because they are of
God and from God.
5. And that these things are to be done by man as by him
self, but that it is to be believed that they are done by the
Lord with him and through him.
Such in simple form is the pure, rational, Scriptural doc
trine, descending from God out of His New Heaven for His
New Church to be established on earth. To appreciate its
simplicity, its beauty, its efficacy, its divinity, one needs to
have been led up to it, as Swedenborg was led, step by step,
out of the tangle and fog of the old creeds of human origin,
and then to see it, as he saw it, descending from God out of
heaven. No wonder that heaven rejoiced when it was pub
lished on earth, appearing to Swedenborg rose-colored and
wreathed with roses, and that Adventus Domini, the Coming
of the Lord, was written with his own hand on more than
one copy of the book.
After the enunciation of the Doctrine, follows an elucida
tion of points in which the doctrines of the day are at vari
ance with it. Then it is shown that their darkness is the
darkening of the sun foretold in Matthew ; that those in faith
alone are described by the goats in Matthew, and by the
dragon and other signs in the Apocalypse ; that unless a

THE FAITH OF THE NEW CHURCH. 3 IT.
New Church should be established, none could be saved;
that the rejection of the old dogmas and the reception of the
new faith is what is meant by all things being made new ;
that the New Church to be established by the Lord is the
New Jerusalem, and the Bride, the Lamb's Wife ; that the
new faith cannot make one with the old, but there will be
collision; that at present the Roman Catholics in general
know nothing about theh dogmas, these being hidden under
their forms of worship, and so far as they approach the Lord
as their Saviour can come into the faith of the New Church
more easily than the Reformed. In conclusion, this Brief
Exposition gives "by way of Appendix" what also forms the
introduction to the full work contemplated, The True Chris
tian Religion, a further statement of " The Faith of the New
Heaven and the New Church " in universal and in particular
form, as follows : —
THE FAITH OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW CHURCH.
"1. The Faith, in a universal and a particular form, is
prefixed, that it may be as a face before the work which fol
lows ; and as a gate, through which entrance is made into a
temple ; and a summary, in which are contained in their
measure the particulars which follow. It is said the ' Faith
of the New Heaven and the New Church,' because heaven
where angels are and the Church in which men are act as
one, as the internal and the external with man. Thence it is
that the man of the Church who is in the good of love from
the truths of faith, and in the truths of faith from the good of
love, is as to the interiors of his mind an angel of heaven ;
wherefore also, after death, he comes into heaven and there
enjoys happiness according to the state of their conjunction.
It is to be known that in the New Heaven, which is being
established at this day by the Lord, there is this Faith as its
face, gate, and summary.
" 2. The Faith of the New Heaven and the 'New
Church in universal form is this : That the Lord from

312 DOCTRINAL TREATISES.
eternity, who is Jehovah, came into the world that He might
subjugate the hells and glorify His human ; and that without
this no one of mortals could be saved ; and that they are
saved who beheve in Him.
"It is said 'in universal form ' because tiiis is the universal
of faith, and the universal of faith is what must be in all and
each of the particulars. It is a universal of faith that God is
One in essence and in person, in whom is a Divine Trinity,
and that the Lord God the Saviour Jesus Christ is He. It is
a universal of faith that no one of mortals could be saved,
unless the Lord had come into the world. It is a universal
of faith that He came into the world that He might remove
hell from man, and that He did remove it by combats against
it and by victories over it : thus He subjugated it and re
duced it to order and under obedience to Himself. It is a
universal of faith that He came into the world that He might
glorify His Human which He took upon Himself in the
world, that is, might unite it to the Divine from which [He
came] ; thus He holds hell in order and under obedience to
Himself. Since this could not be done except by tempta
tions admitted into His Human, even to the last, and the
last was the passion of the cross, therefore He underwent
that. These are the universals of faith concerning the Lord.
"A universal of faith on the part of man is, that he beheve
in the Lord ; for by believing in Him there is effected con
junction with Him, by which is salvation. To believe in Him
is to have confidence that He will save ; and because no one
can have this confidence, except he who lives well, therefore
this also is meant by believing in Him. This the Lord also
says, in John : This is the will of the Father, that every one
who believeth in the Son may have eternal life (vi. 40) ; and
in another place, He who believeth in the Son hath eternal
life; but he who believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the
wrath of God abideth on him (iii. 36).
"3. The Faith of the New Heaven and the New
Church in particular form is this : That Jehovah God is

THE FAITH OF THE NEW CHURCH. 313
Love Itself and Wisdom Itself, or that He is Good Itself
and Truth Itself, and that He Himself descended as to the
Divine Truth which is the Word and which was God with
God, and assumed the Human, for the sake of the end that
He might reduce into order all things which were in heaven
and all things which were in hell and all things which were
in the Church : since at that time the power of hell prevailed
over the power of heaven, and on the earth the power of evil
over the power of good, and thereby total damnation stood
before the door and threatened. This impending damnation
Jehovah God took away by means of His Human, which was
the Divine Truth, and thus redeemed angels and men. And
afterwards in His Human He united the Divine Truth to the
Divine Good, or the Divine Wisdom to the Divine Love,
and thus returned into His Divine in which He was from
eternity, together with and in His glorified Human. These
things are meant by this passage in John, — The Word was
with God and God was the Word; and the Word became
flesh (i. 1, 14) ; and in the same, — / went forth from the
Father and came into the world; again I leave the world
and go to the Father (xvi. 28); and also by this,— We
know that the Son of God hath come and given us under
standing that we may ktiow Him that is true, and we are
in Him that is true, in His Son Jesus Christ; this is the
true God and eternal life (1 John v. 20). From these things
it is evident that without the coming of the Lord into the
world no one could be saved. The like is the case to-day ;
wherefore, unless the Lord come again into the world in the
Divine Truth, which is the Word, no one can be saved.
" The particulars of faith on the part of man are : First,
That God is One, in whom is a Divine Trinity, and that He
is the Lord God the Saviour Jesus Christ. Second, That
saving faith is to believe in Him. Third, That evil deeds are
not to be done, because they are of the Devil and from the
Devil. Fourth, That .good works are to be done, because
they are of God and from God. Fifth, And that these are to

314 DOCTRINAL TREATISES.
be done by man as by himself; but that it is to be believed
that they are done by the Lord with him and through him.
The first two are of faith, the last two are of charity ; and the
fifth is of the conjunction of charity and faith, thus of the
Lord and man."
A century ago, when first published, this doctrine would
have been pronounced heretical, not only in the Roman
Catholic Church, but in all of the Evangelical Churches of
Christendom. At the present day there may be found emi
nent preachers in every Evangelical Church who will declare
that this doctrine is their own, and who do not hesitate to
preach it, according to their understanding of it, from their
pulpits. We may go farther : there is no eminent advanced
theologian of the day whose positions are not approximating
to those of the New Church, as laid down by Swedenborg.
In other words, the whole progress of religious thought since
Swedenborg's time has been in the direction of the standards
raised by him. This is palpably true in regard to the Trinity,
Free-will, Salvation, and the Life after death. The one great
subject on which little advance is made, is the interpretation
of the Sacred Scriptures. As to this, a good degree of pre
paration is being made in the recognition of the whole as of
one plan, with spiritual application of every part to all men.1
But the means of interpretation used by Swedenborg, the
correspondence of all worldly things with spiritual things,
can hardly be known, and cannot be used to good purpose,
except through such revelation as was given to him, and
by him to the world.
After the " Brief Exposition " a few little tracts were pub
lished, partly in reply to letters, on doctrinal points : " On
the Intercourse of the Soul and Body ; " " An Answer to a
Letter written to me by a Friend" [Rev. Thomas Hartley] ;
"Answers to Nine Questions proposed by Thomas Hartley
to Emanuel Swedenborg." The last-named was first printed
by Mr. Robert Hindmarsh in 1785, though written in the year
1 Appendix III.

THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

315

the others were printed, 1769. The same year was written
The Canons of the New Church, or the Entire Theology of
the New Church. This small work was not published by the
author, but served him as the basis or first draught of the
more important work that was to follow. Its introduction,
however, is very suitable for us in this place : —
"The New Church could not be instituted before the last
judgment had been accomplished, because otherwise holy
things would have been profaned. It was promised that the
spiritual sense of the Word would then be disclosed, and the
coming of the Lord, who is the Word, would take place.
The reason why but few at the present day have religion is :
First, because it is not known that the Lord is the Only God
who rules heaven and earth; and thus that He is God in
person and in essence, in whom is a Trinity : when yet the
whole of religion is based on the knowledge of God, and on
His adoration and worship. Second, because it is not known
that faith is nothing else but truth ; and because it is not
known whether that which is called faith is truth, or not.
Third, because it is not known what charity is, nor conse
quently what good and evil are. Fourth, because it is not
known what eternal life is. In proportion as the truths of
life are made matters of life, in the same proportion the
truths of faith become matters of faith ; and it is not possible
for them to become such in any other way. Some things
are matters of knowledge and not of faith."
In 1 7 71 Swedenborg completed and published his prom
ised crowning work, as in fact it was the last year of his life.
Its title translated is The True Christian Religion, containing
the Universal Theology of the New Church foretold by the
Lord in Daniel, chap. vii. 13, 14, and in the Apocalypse, chap.
xxi. 1, 2. "By Emanuel Swedenborg, Servant of the Lord
Jesus Christ." The author had a desire to publish it at Paris,
but obtaining permission from the censor only on condition
that it should bear the false imprint of' London or Amster-

316 DOCTRINAL TREATISES.
dam, he scorned the evasion and published it at Amsterdam.1
The original edition is in one quarto volume. The English
editions have from one to three volumes. To give a full idea
of the contents would exceed our limits. Whoever would
know in "full what the doctrines of the New Church really are
should read the book. Their summary, contained in the
Introduction, we have already given. The subjects of the
chapters are as follows : —
i. God, the Creator. 2. The Lord, the Redeemer. 3.
The Holy Spirit, and The Divine Operation. 4. The Sacred
Scripture, or Word of the Lord. 5. The Catechism or
Decalogue explained as to its external and internal sense. 6.
Faith. 7. Charity, «or Love to the Neighbor ; and Good
Works. 8. Free Agency. 9. Repentance. 10. Reforma
tion and Regeneration. 11. Imputation. 12. Baptism. 13.
The Holy Supper. 14. The Consummation of the Age ;
the Coming of the Lord ; and the New Church.
At the close of the chapters "Memorable Relations" are
added, illustrating the subject matter by things heard and
seen in the other world, as in The Apocalypse Revealed and
Conjugial Love. Indeed some of the relations are the same
as before given in those works, and much of the other mate
rial of the work is the same as had been previously printed in
smaller works, while the whole arrangement and the greater
part of the matter are new.
In style we notice an increased maturity and clearness of
expression, a fondness for practical illustration, and an over
flowing goodness of heart that would fain impress upon his
readers what is necessary for their salvation, thus endearing
the book to all who accept its doctrine.
As to the style of Swedenborg's theological works, however,
there should perhaps be a word said for the benefit of unac-
1 Singularly, an aged Paris bookseller told the Rev. J. H. Smithson, in 1826,
that some fifty years before, he had met with The True Christian Religion,
and thinking it a very curious book had sent to Amsterdam and bought up all
the copies he could find. So in fact the work had always been for sale in Paris
and a few copies were still on hand. English Ed. J.F. I. TafeTs Documents, 115.

SWEDENBORG'S TERMS. 317
customed ears, to whom it is strange. A part of the awk
wardness in English has been due to the unskilfulness of
translators. But with utmost skill it is impossible to render
Swedenborg's language into familiar English, without loss of
meaning. The simple reason is that his meaning, being
spiritual and reaching beyond time and space, can be ade
quately expressed only by abstract terms of indefinite appli
cation ; in short by adjectives, and these often of new coin
age or with new meaning. This use of the Latin language is
not awkward, nor new. The mediaeval and later philosophers
had fitted the language to Swedenborg's hand. But in Eng
lish the use is new and strange ; and there is no help for it,
but to get accustomed to it : then there is no trouble.
One of Swedenborg's oldest living translators, Dr. Wilkin
son, has recently declared that he at first " had the feeling
that it would be easy and right to popularize him somewhat,
and to melt down his Proprium and his Scientifics, his Goods
and Truths and Uses, and many other of his terms." But at
last, he says, he learned to come close to his author's terms,
and as far as possible get into the marrow of them ; and then
he did not want to melt them down, but felt sure " that they
are a genuine coinage which the reader, when he learns it,
will never wish to see defaced in any the least lineament, lest
a value which is priceless be lost or altered thereby. . . .
Furthermore, doctrinal statements involve the use of terms,
indeed, technical terms ; and where the teaching, the truths,
are new to the mind, the creation of new technical terms to
express them. Accordingly, Swedenborg's works are techni
cal so far as it is necessary, and the terms he employs are the
ultimate basis of his doctrines. ... No man has brought his
communication of ideas to greater definition. Coleridge said
to the late Mr. Charles Augustus Tulk, that were he writing
a treatise on logic, he should select instances from Sweden
borg's works, so perfect did he regard them as chains of rea
soning. But Swedenborg has a merit which transcends logic.
The fountains and principles from which the stream flows are

318 DOCTRINAL TREATISES.
divinely true; and they are signalized by adequate terms
which contain them, sum them up, and send them forth." x
As The True Christian Religion was the last treatise com
pleted by Swedenborg, this is the fitting place to review the
nature of his mission. The mission was to unfold the interior
senses of the Word and draw from it true doctrine, making its
light to appear before men, whereby they might see in it, as
in the clouds of heaven, the face of their Lord Jesus Christ.
This enlightenment of minds was to be the intellectual part of
the Lord's promised second coming, the voluntary part being
the acceptance in the heart of His Spirit ; the one being the
means and complement of the other. The enlightenment, as
well as the grace of heart, is from the Lord alone ; but since,
as we have seen (p. 246), the degree of enlightenment de
pends also on the knowledge of both sphitual and natural
things stored in the mind, together with the development of
the power of reason, Swedenborg was prepared intellectually
for his work, first, by vast training and acquirements in the
knowledge and philosophic discussion of natural things, and
second, by unprecedented experience of spiritual things.
Nor perhaps was the experience of the heart less remarkable,
whereby it was released from the bonds of self and selfish
spiritual association. The preparation was, indeed, such that
Swedenborg would certainly have soon entered upon the very
work designed for him, of apparently his own determination,
if the Lord had not revealed to him that the preparation and
the purpose were His, and that the work must be done in
His name, with Him alone for guide. Thus armed and pro
tected, it was permitted Swedenborg to see plainly the spirits
and angels about him and to whom he came, and to learn
from them innumerable things about their world, which served
him as aids in receiving enlightenment from the Lord in His
Word. Innumerable things he was permitted to relate for
1 Address at the Seventy-second Anniversary of the Swedenborg Society:
London, 1882.

THE MISSION FULFILLED.

319

the use of men ; but this was wholly subsidiary to the main
purpose, of unfolding the interiors of the Word.
The time appointed for this new revelation of the Lord in
His Word was that when on earth His Church, relying on
and perverting the literal sense, had brought its usefulness
about to an end ; when the newly-developed reason had
asserted its own rights and had begun, on the one hand, to
declare that there is no God, and on the other, to admit its
own inability to discover what the heart knew to exist ; when,
by aid of the press and of instruments of precision, both the
Gospel and numerous scientific facts were in the hands of
the people, giving a groundwork of moral and mental intelli
gence : and lastly when, as we learn from Swedenborg, the
world of spirits, with its hordes of pretended but lying and
deceitful Christians, was pressing hard upon heaven and was
ripe for judgment. The publication on earth of the interior
real meaning of the Word — not in its fulness, for that is im
possible, but in so much as an enlightened man could per
ceive and express in his own language — was the ultimate
basis, or fulcrum, by which it could be taught and enforced
in the world of spirits, and was in so far a means by which
the judgment there was effected. At the same time the true
doctrine thus drawn from the Word — that which accords
with the interior heavenly sense — was revealed as the doc
trine for the New Church on earth, as it is that of the New
Heaven. The mere annunciation, however, of the doctrine of the
New Church, in formula, was not enough. This Church is
not to be a Church of forms or of creeds, but a Church for
the new age of the world, the mature age, when the matters
of faith are to be rationally understood, to be found in con
sonance with sound philosophy, and to be supported and
illustrated by all things in heaven and earth.
"In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to
Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the
Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the

320 DOCTRINAL TREATISES.
Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt
and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land ;
whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless saying, Blessed be
Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and
Israel Mine inheritance." (Isaiah xix. 23-25.)
Egypt is the scientific mind, Assyria is the rational mind,
and Israel is the spiritual mind. In the Church that is to be,
the scientific mind will lead the way up into the rational
mind, and the rational mind into the spiritual mind ; the
scientific and the rational will be recognized in their place
and use by the spiritual mind, and the spiritual mind will
be recognized by the others as the inheritance of the Lord.
The scientific mind has reached a high pitch of development.
The rational mind is not far behind. The development of
these is effected as of the man's own power in the light of
nature, without recognized Divine guidance. But the light
of the spiritual mind is Divine light itself, which cannot enter
except in humility of heart with acknowledgment of its source.
Its doctrine, though it be gathered with laborious scientific
and rational research from the Word of God, is yet seen to be
not the mind's own, but given it from God out of heaven.
It was with this full acknowledgment, this clear vision, that
Swedenborg attached to the titlepage of his Brief Exposition
of the Doctrine of the New Church the verse of the Apoca
lypse aheady quoted, and that to the same verse he attached
his own name in the autograph of which we are enabled to
present a fac-simile.1
1 The original is possessed by Mr. Horace P. Chandler of Boston. Proba
bly it was a memento to a friend, perhaps on the fly-leaf of a book. The date is
but a year and a half before Swedenborg's death, and the hand is feebler than
that of an earlier date. On the same day he wrote to Dr. Beyer, bidding him
farewell, as he was about leaving Stockholm for Amsterdam to publish The
True Christian Religion.

VN ^

CHAPTER XIII.
CONCLUSION OF LIFE.  FRIENDS OF LATER YEARS.
In the few months of life remaining after this last work
was published, Swedenborg went on writing and preparing
materials for an Appendix, or Coronis, treating of the four
Churches which had aheady existed on earth, and of the
New Church now to be established. But his work in this
world was more nearly completed than he knew. Born in
1688, he was now in his eighty-fourth year. Though of
robust constitution and extremely simple . habits, his frame
could not last always. He had exhausted the measure of his
days in completing the work given him to do in this world,
— a work which in its spiritual part belonged not less to the
other. It was no great change for him to close his eyes
once more for all time to this world, and to open them for
eternity in the world where for twenty-seven years he had
been not less at home than here.
It would be very pleasant for us to find in Swedenborg's
diaries some account of the spirits and angels with whom he
found his permanent home in the other world. In his later
years he occasionally speaks of belonging to a heavenly so
ciety, while during the earlier period of his spiritual inter
course he appears to have been mostly in a city in the world
of spirits answering to Stockholm ; 1 but we do not find any
thing more definite about the heavenly society. That he was
in very different spiritual association from what he was in
1 Spiritual Diary, 5721. That there are cities in the world of spirits
answering to the cities of this world, see S. D. 5092-94.
21

322 CONCLUSION OF LIFE.
earlier life is plain enough from the tone of his writings, par
ticularly of his letters. The high-spirited, impatient ambition
of his youth is gone. In place there is all gentleness and
love and trust in the Providence of the Lord, from which it
was as evident to his friends that he was in company with
angels, as it had been to his father when in infancy they
seemed to speak through his mouth. New friends on earth,
too, had gathered about him, few but good, attracted by the
angelic wisdom that now unmistakably flowed from his tongue
and pen. Such a friend was the Rev. Thomas Hartley, a
clergyman of the Church of England and rector of Winwick,
Northamptonshire. Witness the following letter, written in
1769: —
"Most respected and beloved Sir, — I consider myself most highly
favored and I rejoice from my inmost heart in having had the honor,
which you lately granted me, of conversing with you ; and also in your
having been so kind and friendly towards me who am quite unworthy
of such a favor. But your charity towards the neighbor, the heavenly
benignity shining from your countenance, and your childlike simplic
ity, devoid of all vain show and egotism, are so great, and the treas
ure of wisdom possessed by you is so sweetly tempered with gentle
ness, that it did not inspire in me a feeling of awe, but one of love,
which refreshed me in my innermost heart. Believe me, O best of
men, that by my intercourse with you I consider myself crowned with
more than royal favors ; for who among kings, if he is of a sane mind,
would not gladly converse with an inhabitant of heaven, while here on
earth ? But the things which are hidden from the great men upon
earth are revealed to the humble.
" In speaking with you every suspicion of flattery must be hushed.
For what ground for flattery can there be when I attribute everything
in you, however great and extraordinary it may be, to the Lord, and
not to yourself, and when I look upon you only as an instrument of
His mercy and great kindness ? But may I be permitted to offer honor
and glory to the instrument, — for this is well-pleasing to the Lord;
and may I be permitted to tell you from a heart full of gratitude, that
I consider myself thrice blessed that your writings, by the Divine Pro
vidence, have fallen into my hands ? For from them, as from a living
fountain, I have drawn so many things, as well for instruction and
edification as for my great delight, and I have been freed by them
from so many fears, and from so many errors, doubts, and opinions
which held my mind in perplexity and bondage, that I seem to myself

FRIENDS AT HOME.

323

sometimes as if transferred among the angels. May the Lord, the
Highest and Best, forbid that I deceive myself with a vain and pre
mature hope ; and may He always keep me in a state of humility and
repentance, anxious to shun all evil and ready to do all good, so that
I may safely and happily reach the goal of our destination in the Lord
Jesus Christ ! "
The writer goes on to ask a few questions as to doctrinal
points, and then begs Swedenborg to give him some state
ments about himself and his position in his own country, to
be used in case of question ; and he adds that, should he be
in danger of persecution there for his opinions, he will be
most welcome in England, where a home with all comforts
will be provided for him by Dr. Messiter and himself.
Swedenborg in reply thanked Mr. Hartley for his kindness
and friendship, and said, — "The praises with which you
overwhelm me, I receive simply as expressions of your love
for the truths contained in my writings ; and I refer them to
the Lord, our Saviour, as their source, from whom is every
thing true, because He is the Truth Itself (John xiv. 6)."
Then giving a brief account of his family and position in
Sweden, he concluded as follows : —
" Moreover, all the bishops of my native country, who are
ten in number, and also the sixteen senators, and the rest of
those highest in office, entertain feelings of affection for me ;
from their affection they honor me, and I live with them on
terms of familiarity, as a friend among friends, — the reason of
which is that they know I am in company with angels. Even
the King and the Queen and the three ' princes, their sons,
show me great favor. I was invited once by the King and
Queen to dine with them at their own table, which honor is
generally accorded only to those who are highest in office ;
subsequently the Crown Prince granted me the same favor.
They all desire me to return home ; wherefore I am far from
apprehending in my own country that persecution which you
fear, and against which in your letter you desire in so friendly
a manner to provide ; and if they choose to persecute me
elsewhere, it can do me no harm."

324 CONCLUSION OF LIFE.
Mr. Hartley remained through life a steadfast friend to
Swedenborg, and showed his zeal and abihty by translating
and prefacing several of his works -for the English public
How well suited he was to appreciate the spirit of these works
we may judge, not only from his own letters and prefaces,
but also from what is said of him in the published diary of
religious experience of Samuel Scott, "a distinguished mem
ber of the Society of Friends" : —
"Fifth month, 22, 1782. — At dinner we were unexpectedly visited
by our ancient friend, Thomas Hartley ; probably for the last time, —
he appearing to be much emaciated, and his countenance languid and
meagre, but attended with a fresh and lively sense of vital and ex
perimental religion. Retiring with him from some company who
were present, he expressed himself in much tenderness of spirit to
the following effect : ' O my dear friend ! I have lately passed
through many fiery trials and deep baptisms, such as I had never
before fully experienced : all the secret and concealed sins of my
former life, even many which had passed unnoticed, have been
brought to light and set in order before me. I have been laid
more low than ever, before the throne, and so humbled in a sense
of my own nothingness, that I could stoop even to the meanest of my
fellow-creatures. But I hope these severe dispensations have been
for my further purification and meetness for that rest and glory which
will be the fruition of sanctified spirits to all eternity.' In the year
1776 I was introduced to a personal acquaintance with him, by a
worthy minister in our own Society, and esteem the same one of the
blessings of my advanced years, for which I am accountable to the
Author of every good gift. He lived some years in the neighborhood
of Hertford and left a sweet savor behind him, both among rich and
poor. It was my lot to differ much from him in my natural disposi
tion, and also in some points to which he was much attached ; but he
sought not so much to promote the sentimental part of religion as the
life of righteousness, and the experimental knowledge of the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ, which crucifies the corrupt propensities of
fallen nature and produces the fruits of the spirit, which are love,
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
"Eighth month, 25, 1783. — I received a letter from our dear and
worthy friend, Thomas Hartley ; who, although aged and infirm, ap
pears to retain a fresh and lively sense of that true and experimental
religion which consists, not in the letter, but in the spirit, and of that
circumcision which is inward.
" Twelfth month, 20, 1784. — This day I was informed of the decease

THOMAS HARTLEY.

325

of my dear and worthy friend, Thomas Hartley, who departed this
life the 10th inst. . . . He was a man of unaffected piety, great sin
cerity, and exquisite sensibility ; deeply suffering under a sense of his
own defects in particular, and of the depravity of fallen nature in
general ; following a crucified Saviour in the regeneration, according
to his measure : there is abundant cause for a comfortable hope that
he now rests from his labors, ' where the wicked cease from troubling
and the weary are at rest.' "
From such a man and friend as this Mr. Hartley, the fol
lowing sentences addressed to the first translator of The
True Christian Religion, the Rev. J. Clowes, are of much
interest : —
" The great Swedenborg was a man of uncommon humility, and so
far from affecting to be the head of a sect that his voluminous writ
ings in divinity continued almost to the end of his life to be anony
mous publications ; and I have some reason to think that it was owing
to my remonstrance with him on this subject that he was induced to
prefix his name to this his last work. He was of a catholic spirit
and loved all good men in every church, making at the same time all
candid allowance for the innocency of involuntary error ; but as he
found himself obliged to point out the false doctrines in the several
churches with an impartial freedom, it must be expected that his writ
ings will meet with opposition from bigots in all churches. . . . Now,
that any extraordinary messenger to the world, faithful to his commis
sion in the delivery of Divine Truths, without respect of persons,
should meet with opposition, is so far from being any just cause of
offence to us, that it should serve to confirm us in the belief of his
legation, inasmuch as Divine Truth must ever be contrary to the in
clinations, maxims, and pursuits of a degenerate world, the reason
ings of which will ever be according to its governing principles ; and
therefore it was that the essential Truth of God in the person of
Christ was to suffer persecution. But wisdom is justified of her chil
dren, even such as have their hearts turned towards God ; and in res
pect to such, Truth carries in it native evidence and conviction, so as
to supersede the necessity of argument, according to those words of
our Lord, 'If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine
whether it be of God.'
" Our author ever kept the Holy Scriptures in view ; they were his
light and guide, his shield and buckler on all occasions ; his reason
ings are grounded on their authority, and he is abundantly copious in
the proofs he draws from them in support of whatever doctrine he
advances. On this foundation he builds, and a surer one can no one

326 CONCLUSION OF LIFE.
lay ; he expounds the lively oracles by their harmonizing sense in dif
ferent parts of them, and opens their spiritual meaning like the scribe
instructed unto the kingdom of heaven ; and of this he has in particu
lar given us satisfying evidence in his exposition of the Apocalypse.
"And yet let it be remarked here, that however high he stands in
the character of the enlightened divine, however zealous he appeared
for Truth and the instruction of his brethren, and, lastly, however self-
denying in his own particular case as to gratifications and indulgences,
even within the bounds of moderation, yet nothing severe, nothing of
the precisian, appeared in him ; but, on the contrary, an inward seren
ity and complacency of mind were manifest in the sweetness of his
looks and outward demeanor ; and in his writings so far is he from
affecting any stoical stiffness or severity, that in several parts of them
he allows to Christian liberty its full scope, and nowhere censures
social entertainments and amusements properly conducted. . . .
" It may reasonably be supposed that I have weighed the character
of our illustrious author in the scale of my best judgment, from the
personal knowledge I had of him, from the best information I could
procure concerning him, and from a diligent perusal of his writings ;
and according thereto I have found him to be the sound divine, the
good man, the deep philosopher, the universal scholar, and the polite
gentleman ; and I further believe that he had a high degree of illumi
nation from the Spirit of God, was commissioned by Him as an extra
ordinary messenger to the world, and had communication with angels
and the spiritual world beyond any since the time of the apostles."
Together with Mr. Hartley should be mentioned the friend
who joined with him in offering to provide Swedenborg a
home in England, — Dr. H. Messiter, "an eminent physician,"
according to Mr. Hartley, living at Fulham, Middlesex. He
is the one to whom Mr. Hartley refers when he says of his ac
quaintance with Swedenborg, — "I have conversed with him
at different times, and in company with a gentleman of a
learned profession and of extensive intellectual abilities : we
have had a confirmation of these things from his own mouth,
and have received his testimony, and do both of us consider
this our acquaintance with the author and his writings among
the greatest blessings of our lives."
Swedenborg's confidence in Dr. Messiter is shown by
his requesting him to send some of his theological works to
the Professors of Divinity in the Scottish universities. In

DR. MESSITER.

327

Dr. Messiter's letter "to the Professor of Divinity at Edin
burgh" (Robert Hamilton), he says, —
" As I have had the honor of being frequently admitted to the au
thor's company when he was in London, and to converse with him on
various points of learning, I will venture to affirm that there are no
parts of mathematical, philosophical, or medical knowledge, — nay, I
believe I might justly say, of human literature, — to which he is in the
least a stranger ; yet so totally insensible is he of his own merit that
I am confident he does not know he has any ; and, as himself some
where says of the angels, he always turns his head away on the slight
est encomium. What he knows of the most interesting and noble
science of all, I most humbly submit, Sir, to your better judgment :
yet I must say that, though I have read much of the historical and
mystical proofs of the truth of Scripture, I have never yet met with
any assertions so wonderfully affecting the mind of man."
"To the Professor of Divinity at Glasgow." (R. Traill), he
writes, —
" As I have had often the honor of conversing with him, I can
with great truth assert that he is truly amiable in his morals, most
learned and humble in his discourse, and superlatively affable, hu
mane, and courteous in his behavior; and this joined with a solidity
of understanding and penetration far above the level of an ordinary
genius. Thus much I know of him and therefore sacredly affirm,
though not without an humble deference to your opinion of his
writings." And "to the Professor of Divinity at Aberdeen" (Alexan
der Gerard), he says, after mentioning the sending of the
books, —
" I wish, good Sir, you may think them worthy of your perusal, as
they are the productions of a man whose good qualities, resulting
from his natural, acquired, and blessed abilities, I can with much
truth, from my frequent converse with him, assert are a high orna
ment to human nature." .
Dr. Messiter attended Swedenborg in his last illness, and
to him, in company with Mr. Hartley, Swedenborg, a few
days before his death, affirmed most solemnly, —
" I have written nothing but the truth, as you will have it
more and more confirmed hereafter all the days of your life,
provided you always keep close to the Lord and faithfully

328 CONCLUSION OF LIFE.
serve Him alone, in shunning evils of all kinds as sins against
Him, and diligently searching His Sacred Word, which from
beginning to end bears incontestable testimony to the truth
of the doctrines I have delivered to the world.
From Dr. William Spence's Essays in Divinity aud Phy
sic, published in 1 792, we receive this curious story in regard
to the end of Dr. Messiter's life : —
" Having had the favor of the doctor's company to dine with me
and a few friends, a few weeks before his decease, some of the com
pany having heard that the doctor had asked the question, wished to
know whether Swedenborg had mentioned when this New-Jerusalem
doctrine might be established, as at that time the regular clergy seemed
almost all to refuse it ; to which the doctor said, the Baron's answer
to him was, that times and seasons were in God's hands, therefore he
could not positively say when ; yet thus much he was allowed to tell
him, that he [Dr. M.] would probably live thirteen years, just to see
it in its bud. ' Now,' says the doctor, ' it is just thirteen years that
I have lived, as he foretold, to see it in its bud, through your little
society's encouraging the printing of his works.' The doctor also
confirmed what Mr. Shearsmith and his wife, in whose house he died,
have declared upon oath, that Swedenborg knew and foretold the
Sunday evening he was to leave them, and that to the last he asserted
that the 'doctrine will be received in God's good time, because the
Lord has promised it in His Word.' . . .
"I had promised," says Dr. Spence, "to return the doctor's visit
with my spouse the first good weather ; but a few weeks after, hear
ing that Dr. Messiter had died suddenly, I told my wife that she was
now too late in returning the doctor's visit, as his thirteen years
were now quite out ; yet luckily the doctor did not seem to suspect it
in the limited sense."
Let it here be said of Dr. Spence that, though never hav
ing personally met Swedenborg, he was one of the friends of
the New Church who held a first public meeting, in 1783,
and one of the five who in 1 785 undertook the publication
of The Apocalypse Explained. He is described by Nor-
denskold as "a physician and apothecary, an extremely
honest and benevolent gentleman, although his means were
limited." Another friend at this time was General Tuxen, holding

GENERAL TUXEN. 329
an important office under the Danish Government at Elsi-
nore, to whom we are indebted for pleasing glimpses of Swe
denborg in common life, as also for trustworthy accounts of
some unusual events. Tuxen was induced to seek an inter
view with Swedenborg on account of the remarkable stories
he had heard of his intercourse with the other world. At
his request, when next the object of his curiosity stopped at
Elsinore, on his passage through the Sound, he was notified
by the Swedish consul and invited to meet him at dinner at
the consul's house. Says Tuxen, —
" I made all possible haste, and on entering the house I ad
dressed the Assessor as being an intimate friend of the consul's,
who came on purpose to have the honor of the acquaintance of so
celebrated and learned a man as himself ; and I requested his per
mission to ask him a few questions. To this he civilly and mildly
answered, ' Ask what you please ; I will answer all in truth.' My
first question was, whether the relation reported as having passed be
tween himself and the Queen in Stockholm was true. He answered,
' Tell me in what manner you have heard it related, and I will tell
you what part of it is true or otherwise.' I replied that, as I saw he
was on the point of going on board the vessel, I supposed there was
no time to lose, and therefore desired he would have the kindness to
relate the affair to me. He consented, and told it me in the same
manner as I had been informed of it before by means of letters from
people of credit ; adding, however the following circumstances." . . .
As this story told by Tuxen is rather long, we omit it now,
and will presently give its substance as told more concisely by
Baron Hopken. General Tuxen continues : —
" In the course of further conversation on the principles of religion
advocated and explained by him, I took an opportunity of asking him
how a man who was confident of being serious in his duty towards
God and his neighbor, could be certain whether he was in the right
road to salvation or not. I was answered that this was very easy,
and that such a man need only examine himself and his own thoughts
according to the Ten Commandments ; as, for instance, whether he
loves and fears God ; whether he is happy in seeing the welfare of
others and does not envy them ; whether on having received a great
injury from others, which may have excited him to anger and revenge,
he afterwards changes his sentiments because God has said that
vengeance belongs to Him ; and so on. Then he may rest assured

33O CONCLUSION OF LIFE.
that he is on the road to heaven ; but when he discovers himself to
be actuated by contrary sentiments, on the road to hell. This led me
to think of myself as well as of others.
" I also asked him whether he had seen the lately deceased King
Frederic V., adding that, although some human frailty or other might
be attributed to him, yet I had certain hopes that he was happy. His
answer was, ' Yes, I have seen him, and I know that he is very happy;
and not only he, but likewise all the kings of the house of Oldenburg,
who are all associated together. This is not the happy case with our
Swedish kings, some of whom are not so well off.' This he said in
the presence of the consul and the Swedish captain with whom he
sailed. " He added further : ' In the world of spirits I have not seen any
one so splendidly served and waited on as the deceased Empress
Elizabeth of Russia.' As I expressed much astonishment at this, he
continued, ' I could also tell you the reason, which few could surmise,
namely, that with all- her faults she had a good heart, and with her
neglect or indifference a certain consideration which induced her pur
posely to postpone signing many edicts and papers that were from
time to time presented to her; for which reason they multiplied to
such a degree that at last she could not examine or peruse them, but
was obliged to believe the representations of the ministers and sign
as many as possible ; after which she would retire into her closet, fall
on her knees, and beg forgiveness of God if she had against her will
signed anything that was wrong.' When this conversation was ended,
Swedenborg in a friendly and civil manner took leave and went on
board. " Some time afterwards I learned that Swedenborg, who was on
his last journey to Amsterdam and London [1770], had been detained
for four days by a contrary wind on board a Swedish ship, anchored a
few miles from Elsinore. I therefore took a boat and went off to see
him ; on my inquiring whether Assessor Swedenborg was on board,
the captain answered in the affirmative, bade me welcome, and opened
the cabin-door, which as soon as I entered he shut after me. I found
the Assessor seated in undress, his elbows on the table, his hands sup
porting his face, which was turned towards the door, his eyes open
and much elevated. I was so imprudent as immediately to address
him, expressing my happiness at seeing and speaking with him. At
this he recovered himself, for he had really been in a trance, or
ecstasy, as his posture evinced, and rising with some confusion ad
vanced a few steps from the table in singular and visible uncertainty
expressed by his countenance and hands; from which, however he
soon recovered, bidding me welcome and asking me whence I came.
I answered that as I had heard he was on board a Swedish ship lying

GENERAL TUXEN. 33 I
below the Koll, I had come to invite him on the part of my wife and
myself to favor us with his company at our house. To this he imme
diately consented, pulling off his gown and slippers, putting on clean
linen, and dressing himself as briskly and alertly as a young man of
one and twenty. He told the captain where he was to be found if
the wind became favorable, and accompanied me to Elsinore.
" Here my wife, who was then indisposed, was waiting to welcome
him and to request him to excuse us if our house should in any re
spect fall short of our wishes to entertain him, adding that she had for
these thirty years past been afflicted with a violent hysterical disease,
which occasioned her much pain and uneasiness. He very politely
kissed her hand and answered, ' Oh dear I of this we will not speak ;
only acquiesce in the will of God ; it will pass away and you will again
attain the same health and beauty as when you were fifteen years of
age.' I do not recollect what she or I answered to this ; but I re
marked that in answer to us he replied, ' Yes, in a few weeks ; ' from
which I concluded that diseases which have their foundation in the
mind, and are maintained by the infirmities and pains of the body,
do not leave man immediately on the separation of the body. . . .
"I do not remember on what occasion he told ! me that the King
had issued a circular letter to all the Consistories in Sweden, request
ing them to send a statement of their grounds of complaint against
Swedenborg's writings and explanations in religion ; and that the
King, the last time he spoke with him on the subject, familiarly laid
his hand on his shoulder and said, ' They will not make any reply to
me, although I have demanded their explicit answers.' "
The evening was passed with the General, his wife, who
was an excellent singer, her daughter, who played on the
harpsichord, and several young ladies. Swedenborg was de
lighted with their music and made himself agreeable to all,
declaring, in reply to his host's regret at having no better
company for him, that he had .always been partial to ladies'
society. General Tuxen concludes : —
" For my part, I thank our Lord, the God of Heaven, that I have
been acquainted with this great man and his writings. I esteem this
as the greatest blessing I have ever experienced in my life, and I hope
I shall profit by them in working out my salvation. My valued guest
afterwards took his coffee with a few biscuit, and I accompanied him
on board the vessel. Here he took leave of me for the last time in a
very affectionate manner, and I hope I shall in the other life testify to
him my grateful heart."

332 CONCLUSION OF LIFE.
Swedenborg had mentioned to Tuxen the name of Count
Anders Johan Von Hopken, as a friend in Sweden who had
some interest in his writings. Count Hopken was a man of
great literary distinction, a Senator, and for a time held office
equivalent to being Prime Minister of Sweden. His acquain
tance with Swedenborg is thus set forth by himself in a letter
to Tuxen : —
" I have not only known him these two and forty years, but also,
some time since, daily frequented his company. A man who like me
has lived long in the world and even in an extensive career of life,
must have had numerous opportunities of knowing men as to their
virtues or vices, their weakness or strength ; and in consequence
thereof I do not recollect to have known any man of more uniformly
virtuous character than Swedenborg, — always contented, never fretful
or morose, although throughout his life his soul was occupied with
sublime thoughts and speculations. He was a true philosopher and
lived like one ; he labored diligently, and lived frugally without sor-
didness ; he travelled continually, and his travels cost him no more
than if he had lived at home. He was gifted with a most happy
genius, and a fitness for every science, which made him shine in all
those which he embraced. He was without contradiction the most
learned man in my country. In his youth he was a great poet : I have
in my possession some remnants of his Latin poetry which Ovid
would not have been ashamed to own.1 In his middle age his Latin
was in an easy, elegant, and ornamental style ; in his latter years it
was equally clear, but less elegant after he had turned his thoughts to
spiritual subjects. He was well acquainted with Hebrew and Greek,
an able and profound mathematician, a happy mechanician, of which he
gave proof in Norway, where, by an easy and simple method, he trans
ported the largest galleys over high mountains and rocks to a gulf where
the Danish fleet was stationed. ... He possessed a sound judgment
upon all occasions ; he saw everything clearly and expressed himself
well on every subject. The most solid memorials and the best penned
at the Diet of 1761, on matters of finance, were presented by him.
... I once represented in rather a serious manner to this venerable
man, that I thought he would do better not to mix with his beautiful
writings so many ' memorable relations,' or things heard and seen in
the spiritual world concerning the states of men after death, of which
ignorance makes a jest and derision. But he answered me that this
did not depend on him ; that he was too old to sport with spiritual
1 Count Hopken himself is called in the Swedish Biographical Dictionary
"the Swedish Tacitus."

COUNT HOPKEN. 333
things, and too much concerned for his eternal happiness to yield
to such foolish notions; assuring me on his hopes of salvation that
imagination produced in him none of his revelations, which were
true and from what he had heard and seen."
In another letter Count Hopken recurs to the same point :
speaking of a certain clergyman, he says, —
" He was by no means a Swedenborgian, for he did not understand
his ' memorable relations ; ' and I could wish the happy deceased had
left them out, as they may prevent infidelity from approaching his
doctrines. I represented to him these inconveniences ; but he said
that he was commanded to declare what he had seen in the other
world ; and he related it as a proof that he did not reveal his own
thoughts, but that they came from above. As for the rest, I find in
his system a simplicity and gradation, and such a spirit as the work
of God in nature everywhere proves and exhibits ; for whatever man
creates is complicated, labored, and subject to vicissitude."
In a letter to another friend, still to the same point, the
Count says, —
"There are two circumstances in the doctrine and writings of
Swedenborg. The first is his ' memorable relations.' Of these I can
not judge, not having had any spiritual intercourse myself, by which
to judge of his assertions either approvingly or disapprovingly ; but
they cannot appear more extraordinary than the Apocalypse of John,
and other similar relations in the Bible. The second is his tenets of
doctrine. Of these I can judge : they are excellent, irrefutable, and
the best that ever were taught, promoting the happiest social life. I
know that Swedenborg wrote his memorabilia bona. fide. . . .
" I have sometimes told the Kipg that if ever a new colony were
to be formed, no religion could be better, as the prevailing and estab
lished one, than that developed by Swedenborg from the Sacred
Scriptures, and this for the two following reasons : First, this re
ligion, in preference to and in a higher degree than any other, must
produce the most honest and industrious subjects ; for it properly
places the worship of God in uses. Second, it causes least fear of
death, as this religion regards death merely as a transition from one
state to another, from a worse to a better situation ; nay, upon his
principles I look upon death as being of hardly any greater moment
than drinking a glass of water. I have been convinced of the truth
of Swedenborg's doctrine from these arguments in particular, namely,
that One is the author of everything, and that a separate person is
not the Creator, and another the Author of religion ; that there are

334 CONCLUSION OF LIFE.
degrees in everything and these subsisting to eternity ; the history of
creation is unaccountable unless explained in the spiritual sense. We
may say of the religion which Swedenborg has developed in his writ
ings from the Word of God, with Gamaliel : ' If it be of God, it can
not be overthrown; but if it be of man, it will come to nought.'"
That Swedenborg on his part held Hopken in high esteem
is shown by the memorials to the Diet in his favor, to which
we have already referred (see p. 279). We will take our
leave of the Count in copying, his statement of the " Truth
ful account made by the late Queen Dowager " : —
" Swedenborg was one day at a court reception. Her Majesty [the
Queen Dowager Louisa Ulrica] asked him about different things in
the other life, and lastly whether he had seen or talked with her
brother, the Prince Royal of Prussia. He answered, ' No.' Her
Majesty then requested him to ask after him, and to give him her
greeting, which Swedenborg promised to do. I doubt whether the
Queen meant anything serious by it. At the next reception Sweden
borg again appeared at court ; and while the Queen was in the so-
called white room, surrounded by her ladies of honor, he came boldly
in and approached her Majesty, who no longer remembered the com
mission she had given him a week before. Swedenborg not only
greeted her from her brother, but also gave her his apologies for not
having answered her last letter; he also wished to do so now through
Swedenborg, which he accordingly did. The Queen was greatly
overcome, and said, ' No one except God knows this secret.'
" The reason why the Queen never adverted to this before, was that
she did not wish any one in Sweden to believe that during a war with
Prussia she had carried on a correspondence in the enemy's country.
The same caution her Majesty exercised during her last visit to Berlin.
When she was asked about this transaction, which had been printed
in a German paper, she did not answer."
The same story comes to us through many different chan
nels, to substantially the same effect. The account given by
Mr. Springer, as from Swedenborg himself, contains a varia
tion quite likely to be true : —
" The Queen of Sweden had written letters to her brother, a Prince of
Prussia ; and having no answers, she doubted whether he had received
them or not. The Baron [Swedenborg] at that time had converse
with the Queen, and her brother had died in Prussia. She was very
desirous to know if he had received the letters. She consulted the

CHRISTOPHER SPRINGER.

335

Baron, who said he would inform her in a few days. He did so, and
told her he had received them and was going to answer them, and
that in .an escritoire of the Prince was a letter unfinished intended for
her ; but he was taken ill and died. She sent to the King of Prussia,
and it was as the Baron had foretold, — the King sent the unfinished
letter." The Prince of Prussia referred to was Augustus William,
brother to Frederic II. and to the Queen Louisa Ulrica, wife
of Adolphus Frederic, King of Sweden from 1751 to 1771.
It is amusingly told, on the authority of the wife of Sweden
borg's gardener, that "for days following the occurrence car
riages stopped before the door of her master, from which
the first gentlemen of the kingdom alighted, who desired to
know the secret of which the Queen was so much frightened ;
but her master, faithful to his promise, refused to tell it."
Christopher Springer, whose statement we have just quoted,
was a Swede, and long a friend of Swedenborg, both in their
own country and in London, where for political reasons he
resided many years. He had been prominent in public
affairs at home, and became the confidential agent of the
English Government in all that concerned Swedish matters,
being employed in bringing about peace between Sweden
and Frederick the Great, in 1762. In London he was re
garded as the father of the Swedes, and was applied to for
all aid and information. In answer to inquiries about Swe
denborg, after his decease, Mr. Springer says, —
" His father, Jesper Swedberg, was Bishop of Skara, a man of great
learning ; but this Emanuel Swedenborg received richer endowments
from God. His knowledge as well as his sincerity was great. He
was constant in friendship, extremely frugal in his diet, and plain in his
dress. His usual food was coffee with milk, and bread and butter ;
sometimes, however, he partook of a little fish, and only at rare in
tervals ate meat ; and he never drank above two glasses of wine. . . .
" Two or three weeks Defore his decease ... I asked him when he
believed that the New Jerusalem, or the New Church of God, would
manifest itself, and whether this manifestation would take place in
the four quarters of the world. His answer was that no mortal and
not even the celestial angels could predict the time ; that it was solely
in the will of God. 'Read,' said he, 'the Book of Revelation, xxi. 2,

336 CONCLUSION OF LIFE.
and Zachariah xiv. 19, and you will see there that the New Jerusalem-
will undoubtedly manifest itself to the whole earth.' ...
" Fifteen years ago [in 1766] Swedenborg set out for Sweden, and
asked me to procure a good captain for him, which I did. I con
tracted with one whose name was Dixon. . . . When the captain of
the vessel called for Swedenborg, I took leave of him and wished
him a happy journey. Having then asked the captain if he had a
good supply of provisions on board, he answered me that he had as
much as would be required. Swedenborg then observed, ' My friend,
we have not need of a great quantity ; for this day week we shall, by
the aid of God, enter into the port of Stockholm at two o'clock.' On
Captain Dixon's return, he related to me that this happened exactly
as Swedenborg had foretold.
"Two years afterwards Swedenborg returned to London, where we
continued our former friendship. He told me that he had sent his
works to the bishops of Sweden, but without result, and that they
had received him with the same indifference that he had experienced
from the bishops in England. What a remarkable change I noticed
among the bishops of London! I had witnessed myself with what
coldness he was received by them before his departure for Sweden,
and I saw that on his return he was received by them with the great
est civility. I asked him how this change could have come, when he
answered, ' God knows the time when His Church ought to com
mence.' . . .
" As to what relates to myself, I cannot give you a reason for the
great friendship Swedenborg entertained for me, who am not a learned
man. It is true, we were good friends in Sweden ; but that this
friendship between us should have become as constant as it has been,
I never expected.
" All that he has told me of my deceased friends and enemies, and
of the secrets I had with them, is almost past belief. He even ex
plained to me in what manner peace was concluded between Sweden
and the King of Prussia ; and he praised my conduct on that occasion.
He even specified the three high personages whose services I made
use of at that time ; which was, nevertheless, a profound secret be
tween us. On asking him how it was possible for him to obtain such
information, and who had discovered it to him, he replied, 'Who in
formed me about your affair with Count Cla^s Ekeblad ?' You can
not deny that what I have told you is true. Continue,' he added,
' to merit his reproaches ; x depart not from the good way either for
honors or money ; but, on the contrary, continue as constant therein
as you have hitherto, and you will prosper.' "
1 For refusing a great bribe.

ARVID FERELIUS.

337

Among Swedenborg's friends in his latter days, if not
much more than an acquaintance, we may mention Arvid
Ferelius, pastor of the Swedish Church in London. From
his position he had serious conversations with Swedenborg,
administered the Communion to him, and officiated at his
funeral. There is reason to believe that he was favorably
impressed with the doctrines his communicant commended
to him, although he never openly professed them. To a
friend, Professor at Griefswalde, Ferelius writes, —
" Assessor Emanuel Swedenborg died in the month of March,
1772, and was buried by me on April 5th in the burying vault of the
Swedish Ulrica-Eleonora church ; which was the last clerical duty I
performed in that country. Towards the close of the year [1771] he
was touched by paralysis on one side, which rendered his speech
indistinct, especially when the atmosphere was oppressive.
" I visited him several times, and asked him each time whether he
had an idea that he was to die at this time, upon which he answered,
' Yes.' " Upon this I observed to him, that as quite a number of people
thought that his sole purpose in promulgating his new theological sys
tem had been to make himself a name, or to acquire celebrity, which
object indeed he had thereby attained, — if such had been the case,
he ought now to do the world the justice to retract it either in whole
or in part, especially as he could not expect to derive any additional
advantage from this world, which he would soon leave. He thereupon
half rose in his bed, and laying his sound hand upon his breast said,
with some manifestation of zeal, 'As true as you see me before your eyes,
so true is everything that I have written; and I could have said more,
had it been permitted. When you enter eternity, you will see everything,
and then you and I shall have rmich to talk about'
" When I asked him whether he was willing to receive the Lord's
Supper, he replied, ' With thankfulness ; ' and then he added that my
question was very opportune ; and although being a member of the
other world he did not need this sacrament, he would still take it, in
order to show the close relation which exists between the Church
above and the Church here below ; and he then asked whether I had
read his views about the sacrament of the altar, the Communion. I
then asked whether he acknowledged himself to be a sinner. He
replied, ' Certainly, as long as I carry about this sinful body.' 1 With
* Or, according to another account, " I am most undoubtedly a sinner ; for
what other reason should I have to carry about with me this sinful body ? "
22

338 CONCLUSION OF LIFE.
much devotion, folding his hands and uncovering his head, he read
the confession of sins and received the holy sacrament. Afterwards,
from gratitude, he presented me with a copy of his larger work, the
Arcana Ccelestia, of which only nine copies remained unsold, which
were to be sent to Holland.
" When I visited him another time, while I was in the hall and going
upstairs, I heard him speaking with the greatest energy, as though he
were addressing a large company ; but as I came into the ante-cham
ber where his female attendant was sitting, and asked her who was
with Assessor Swedenborg, she replied, ' No one ; ' adding that he had
been speaking in this manner for three days and nights. . Upon enter
ing his sleeping-room, he bade me welcome with great calmness and
asked me to take a seat ; he then told me that for ten days and nights
he had been tormented by evil spirits whom the Lord had sent up to
him, and that never before had he been infested by such wicked
spirits ; but that now he was again in the company of good spirits.
" While he was still in health, I came to him once with the Danish
pastor, when he was sitting and writing at a round table in the middle
of the room, with the Hebrew Bible before him, which constituted his
whole library. After greeting us, he pointed to a place opposite and
said, 'Just now the Apostle Peter was here and stood there; and not
very long ago all the Apostles were with me ; indeed, they often visit
me.' In this manner he always expressed himself without reserve ;
but he never sought to make proselytes. That upon which he was
engaged at the time, he said, was to be a demonstration from the
writings of the Apostles,1 that the Lord was the only and true God,
and that there is no other besides Him.
" Although Swedenborg was several times in the Swedish church
and afterwards dined with me, or with some other Swede, he said that
he had no peace in the church on account of the spirits, who contra
dicted what the minister said, especially when he treated of three
persons in the Godhead, which is the same as three Gods.
This preaching was probably by Mathesius, the colleague of
Ferelius, who was violently opposed to Swedenborg's views,
and of whom we shall presently hear again. Ferelius con
tinues, —
" Some one might think that Assessor Swedenborg was eccentric
and whimsical ; but the very reverse was the case. He was very easy
and pleasant in company, talked on every subject that came up,
accommodating himself to the ideas of the company; and he never
spoke on his own views, unless he was asked about them. But if he
1 This would account for the Apostles' presence.

ERIC BERGSTROM.

339

noticed that any one asked him impertinent questions, intending to
make sport of him, he immediately gave such an answer that the
questioner was obliged to keep silence, without being the wiser for it."
It is pleasant to learn that the good pastor Ferelius re
ceived at Swedenborg's burial his large Hebrew Bible, his
travelling companion, full of underscored passages.
While we are upon these little incidents of Swedenborg's
life in London, let us quote a few other persons to whom
he was known. Mr. Eric Bergstrom, host of King's Arms
Tavern, said to Peter Provo, —
" I was personally acquainted with Assessor Swedenborg : he fre
quently called on me, and once lived ten weeks together in this house,
during which time I observed nothing in him but what was very rea
sonable and bespoke the gentleman. He at that time breakfasted on
coffee, ate moderately at dinner, and drank one or two glasses of wine
after it, but never more. In the afternoon he drank tea, but never ate
any supper. He usually walked out after breakfast, generally dressed
neatly in velvet, and made a good appearance. He was mostly re
served, but complaisant to others.
" He has told me that very few were given to see the things that he
did, and that he often saw many extraordinary things. Mr. Springer
once asked him, when at dinner here, about the state of a person
[Ekeblad ?] who was the occasion of Mr. Springer's being obliged to
leave Sweden, and who was deceased ; to which he answered that it
was very bad, 'and that he hoped his would be better. A secretary of
Baron Nolcken, who was present, put an impertinent question to him
of a similar kind, which he refused to answer, observing that he never
answered such questions as originated in ill-will or malice. . . .
" Mr. Mathesius was an opponent of Swedenborg and said that he
was a lunatic, etc. ; but it is remarkable that he became a lunatic him
self, which happened publicly one day when he was in the Swedish
church and about to preach. I was there and saw it. He has been
so ever since, and was sent back to Sweden, where he now is. This
was about four years ago.1
" In general Swedenborg kept retired and sought to avoid company
1 It was Mathesius who told this absurd story to Wesley, being enraged by
Swedenborg's objections to the Lutheran creed. The story was founded on
information said to have been given by Brockmer, a Moravian, with whom
Swedenborg lodged at one time in London. These statements Brockmer after
wards denied for the most part, though Swedenborg believed that he had
doubtless made them out of revenge for his exposure of Moravianism.

34O CONCLUSION OF LIFE.
and making known where he was. Some of his friends. here spoke
against him, and some were for him. For my own part I think he
was a reasonable, sensible, and good man : he was very kind to all
and generous to me. As for his peculiar sentiments, I do not meddle
with them."
Mr. Hart, son of Mr. John Hart, Swedenborg's London
printer, according to Mr. Provo —
" Thought Swedenborg a remarkable man, for whilst he was abroad
old Mr. Hart, his father, died in London. On Swedenborg's return he
went to spend an evening at Mr. Hart's house, in Poppin's Court.
After being let in at the street door, he was told that his old friend
Mr. Hart was dead ; to which he replied, ' I know that very well, for
I saw him in the spiritual world while I was in Holland, at [such a time,
near the time he died, or soon after] ; also whilst coming over in the
packet to England: he is not now in heaven, but is coming round and
in a good way to do well.' This much surprised the widow and son,
for they knew well he was just come over, and they said that he was
of such a nature that he could impose on no one, that he always spoke
the truth concerning every little matter, and would not have made any
evasion though his life had been at stake. Mr. Hart, the father,
printed all the Arcana Ccelestia in Latin. Swedenborg was fond of his
company and often went to spend an evening there : he used to take
particular notice of Mr. Hart's little girl.
" Mr. Burkhardt, a Swede and formerly clerk to the Swedish Chapel
in London, told Mr. Provo in 1783 that he knew Swedenborg and was
present once when he dined in London with some of the Swedish-
clergy. He said that some argument passed between Swedenborg and
one of them concerning the Lord and the nature of man's duty to Him,
and that Swedenborg overthrew the tenets of his opponent, who
appeared but a child to him in knowledge. Mr. Burkhardt added that
Swedenborg was a holy, good man, much given to abstraction of mind ;
that even when walking out he sometimes seemed as if in private
prayer, and latterly took but little notice of things and people in the
streets." John Christian Cuno, soldier, poet, and merchant, of
Amsterdam, left a manuscript autobiography, in which he
has much to say of Swedenborg : —
" I must remain faithful to a promise made last year, and begin by
giving an account of the most singular saint who has ever lived, Mr.
Emanuel Swedenborg. As nothing concerns me more in this world
than the worship of God, and as I found interspersed in the last work

JOHN CHRISTIAN CUNO. 34I
of that man such strange and singular things, I was naturally im
pelled by an irresistible curiosity to make the acquaintance of the
author. ....
" The Christian worship of God is subject to this sad calamity in
this world, that attacks are made upon it either by arrogant fools who
call themselves strong-minded, or by visionaries ; the latter rendering
it ridiculous sometimes without wishing to do so, but the former
endeavoring to do so with all their power. The learned Mr. Sweden
borg cannot be classed among freethinkers and enemies of the Chris
tian religion ; for he writes with the greatest reverence for God and
His Word. He has impressed upon me the most profound reverence
for the adorable Saviour of the world, and his entire system of doctrine
is based upon His Divinity. . . .
" I scarcely believe that he has any enemies; at all events he could
not have made them by the innocent, even sainted, tenor of his life;
and should he have them, it would be impossible for them, as well
as for the scoffers who examine closely all modes of life different
from their own, to discover anything in him which they could justly
find fault with, or even calumniate. . . .
"My first acquaintance with him dates from November 4, 1768,
when I happened to meet him in the French book-shop of Mr. Fran
cois Changuion. The old gentleman speaks both French and High-
German, yet not very readily. Besides, he is afflicted with the natural
infirmity of stammering ; yet at one time more than at another. Our
first meeting was pleasing and sympathetic. He permitted me to call
upon him at his own house, which I did on the following Sunday; and
I continued to do so almost every Sunday, after attending church in
the morning. He lodged near our old church in Kalbergasse [Amster
dam], where he had engaged two comfortable rooms. One of my first
questions was whether he had no male attendant to wait upon him in
his old age; and to accompany him on his journeys. He answered
that he needed no one to look after him, because his angel was ever
with him, and conversed , and held communication with him. If an
other man had uttered these words, he would have made me laugh ;
but I never thought of laughing when this venerable man, eighty-one
years old, told me this, — he looked far too innocent ; and when he
gazed on me with his smiling blue eyes, which he always did in con
versing with me, it was as if truth itself was speaking from them. I
often noticed with surprise how scoffers, who had made their way into
large companies where I had taken him, and whose purpose it had
been to make fun of the old gentleman, forgot all their laughter and
their intended scoffing ; and how they stood agape and listened to the
most singular things which he, like an open-hearted child, told about
the spiritual world, without reserve and with full confidence. It almost

342 CONCLUSION OF LIFE.
seemed as if his eyes possessed the faculty of imposing silence on
every one.
" He lived with simple burgher folks, who kept a shop in which they
sold chintz, muslin, handkerchiefs, and the like, and who had quite
a number of little children. I inquired of the landlady whether the
old gentleman did not require very much attention. She answered,
•He scarcely requires any; the servant has nothing else to do for him
except in the morning to lay the fire for him in the fire-place. Every
evening he goes to bed at seven, and gets up in the morning at eight.
We do not trouble ourselves any more about him. During the day he
keeps up the fire himself, and on going to bed takes great care lest the
fire should do any damage. He dresses and undresses himself alone,
and waits upon himself in everything ; so that we scarcely know
whether there is any one in the house or not. I should like him
to be with us during the rest of his life. My children will miss him
most ; for he never goes out without bringing them home sweets : the
little rogues also dote on the old gentleman so much that they prefer
him to their own parents.' . . .
" It soon became known in town that I associated with this remark
able man, and everybody troubled me to give them an opportunity of
making his acquaintance. I advised the people to do as I had done,
and to call upon him, because he willingly conversed with every hon
est man. Mr. Swedenborg moves in the world with great tact, and
knows how to address the high as well as the low. . . .
" Once, at the urgent request of my friend, Mr. Nicolam Konauw, I
agreed to bring him to dinner. The old gentleman consented and
was prepared at once to go. Mr. Konauw sent his carriage for us.
On presenting ourselves to Madame, we found among other guests
the two Misses Hoog, who had been highly educated and had been
introduced, beyond the common sphere of woman, into the higher,
especially the philosophical sciences. Mr. Swedenborg's deportment
was exquisitely refined and gallant. When dinner was announced, I
offered my hand to the hostess, and quickly our young man of eighty-
one years had put on his gloves and presented his hand to Mademoi
selle Hoog, in doing which he looked uncommonly well. Whenever
he was invited out, he dressed properly and becomingly in black
velvet ; but ordinarily he wore a brown coat and black trowsers. . . .
" I shall never forget, as long as I live, the leave which he took of
me in my own house. It seemed to me as if this truly venerable old
man was much more eloquent this last time, and spoke differently
from what I ever heard him speak before. He admonished me to
continue in goodness and to acknowledge the Lord for my God. ' If it
please God, I shall once more come to you in Amsterdam ; for I love
you.' 'O my worthy Mr. Swedenborg,' I interrupted him, 'this will

JOHN CHRISTIAN CUNO.

343

probably not take place in this world ; for I, at least, do not attribute
to myself a long life.' ' This you cannot know,' he continued, ' we are
obliged to remain as long in the world as the Divine Providence and
Wisdom see fit. If any one is conjoined with the Lord, he has a
foretaste of the eternal life in this world ; and if he has this, he no
longer cares so much about this transitory life. Believe me, if I knew.
that the Lord would call me to Himself to-morrow, I would summon
the musicians to-day, in order to be once more really gay in this
world.* In order to feel what I felt then, you would have had to hear
the old man say this, in his second childhood. This time also he
looked so innocent and so joyful out of his eyes as I had never seen
him look before. I did not interrupt him, and was as it were dumb
with astonishment. He then saw a Bible lying on my desk, and while
I was thus gazing quietly before me and he could easily see the state
of my mind, he took the book and opened it at this passage : i John
v. 20, 21. 'Read these words,' he said, and then closed the book
again, 'but that you may not forget them, I will rather put them down
for you;' and in saying these words he dipped the pen in order to
write them on the leaf which is preserved here ; his hand however
trembled, as may be seen from the figure I. This I could not bear,
and so I asked him in a friendly manner to mention the passage to me.
I then put down the passage myself. As soon as I had done so he
arose. ' The time now approaches,' he said, ' when I must take leave
of my other friends.' He then embraced and kissed me most heartily.
" As soon as he had left, I read the passage which he had recom
mended to me. It read thus : ' But we know that the Son of God
has come, and hath given us an understanding that' we may know
Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son,
Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. Little children,
keep yourselves from idols. Amen.' "
In a sense, Cuno's account is the more valuable for his not
accepting the whole of Swedenborg's theology. ' Of his inter
course with the other world he does not seem to have any
serious doubt ; but Cuno was too much attached to the
Lutheran Church to be content with Swedenborg's condemna
tion of the doctrine of justification by faith, especially when
himself accused by his Church of affiliating with its oppo
nent. In a few months he wrote and circulated a long letter
to Swedenborg, over the signature of "Paulus ab Indagine,"
condemning his departure from the Lutheran faith, and ques
tioning whether he had not been deceived by his spirits.

344 CONCLUSION OF LIFE.
The letter was not meant to be unfriendly, but its contents
were quite sufficient to account for Swedenborg's changed
appearance, when they met again, and for his remark, " If
you are not willing to believe me, you have expended far too
•much trouble in studying my writings so attentively as you
have." Cuno soon found, however, that Swedenborg was
not unfriendly, and they had pleasant meetings when he was
again in Amsterdam. In 1770 he noted in his memoirs, —
" Last year I gave my readers many sheets to read respect
ing my dear old Swedenborg ; but I am by no means done
yet with this singular man, and as long as my eyes remain
open, I shall not so easily turn them away from him. I still
hear news concerning him from Sweden, nay, a short time
ago he desired to be remembered to me, and sent me word
that he hoped to embrace me this summer. . The clergy have
made an assault upon him with all their power, but they
could not do him any harm, because those high in authority,
yea, it is said, the King and the Queen, love him."

CHAPTER XIV.
STORIES OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. — DR. BEYER. — OPPOSITION BY
THE CLERGY.
Many must have been the calls Swedenborg received on
account of his strange gift of sphitual sight, of a few of which
record has been preserved. One is related in the Theory
of Pneumatology by J. H. Jung-Stilling, whose name is cited
in Kurtz's Church History among the five "most brilliant
and best known names of the faithful sons of the Church "
who withstood the rationalistic sphit of the age : —
" As so very much has been written both for and against this extra
ordinary man, I consider it my duty to make known the pure truth
respecting him, since I have had an opportunity of knowing it pure
and uncontaminated."
After declaring that " Swedenborg was no impostor, but a
pious Christian man," and referring to the "three proofs
generally known that he had actually intercourse with spirits,"
Stilling continues, —
" But I must add here a fourth experimental proof which has not
been made public before, and which is fully as important as any of the
foregoing. I can vouch for the truth of it with the greatest certainty.
" About the year 1770 there was a merchant in Elberfeld with whom,
during seven years of my residence there, I lived in close intimacy.
He was a strict mystic in the purest sense. He spoke little ; but what
he said was like golden fruit on a salver of silver. He would not
have dared, for all the world, knowingly to tell a falsehood. This
friend of mine, who has long ago left this world for a better, related
to me the following story: —
" His business required him to take a journey to Amsterdam, where
Swedenborg at that time resided ; and having heard and read much of
this singular man, he formed the intention of visiting him and becom-

346 STORIES OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT.
ing better acquainted with him. He therefore called upon him and
found a very venerable-looking, friendly old man who received him
politely and requested him to be seated, whereupon the following
conversation began : —
"Merchant. ' Having been called hither by business, I could not deny
myself the honor, Sir, of paying my respects to you : your writings
have caused me to regard you as a very remarkable man.'
" Swedenborg. ' May I ask you where you are from ? '
"M. ' I am from Elberfeld, in the Duchy of Berg. Your writings
contain so much that is beautiful and edifying, that they have made a
deep impression on me ; but the source from whence you derive them
is so extraordinary, so strange and uncommon, that you will perhaps
not take it amiss of a sincere friend of truth if he desire incontestable
proofs that you really have intercourse with the spiritual world.'
"S. ' It would be very unreasonable if I took it amiss ; but I think I
have given sufficient proofs, which cannot be contradicted.'
"M. ' Are these the well-known ones, respecting the Queen, the fire
in Stockholm, and the receipt ? '
"S. ' Yes, those are they, and they are true.'
"M. ' And yet many objections are brought against them. Might I
venture to propose that you give me a similar proof ? '
" S. ' Why not ? Most willingly.'
"M. ' I had formerly a friend who studied Divinity at Duisburg,
where he fell into consumption, of which he died. I visited this friend
a short time before his decease ; we conversed together on an import-
. ant topic : could you learn from him what was the subject of our dis
course ? '
"S. ' We will see. What was the name of your friend ? '
" The merchant told his name.
"S. ' How long do you remain here ? '
"M. 'About eight or ten days.'
"S. ' Call upon me again in a few days. I will see if I can find your
friend.' " The merchant took his leave and despatched his business. Some
days afterwards he went again to Swedenborg, full of expectation.
The old gentleman met him with a smile and said, — I have spoken
with your friend; the subject of your discourse was the restitution of all
things: He then related to the merchant with the greatest precision
what he and what his deceased friend had maintained. My friend
turned pale, for this proof was powerful and invincible. He inquired
further,— 'How fares it with my friend? Is he in a state of blessed
ness ? ' Swedenborg answered, ' No, he is not yet in heaven ; he is
still in hades, and torments himself continually with the idea of the
restitution of all things.' This answer caused my friend the greatest

DEATH OF PETER III. 347
astonishment. He exclaimed, — ' My God I what, in the other world ? '
Swedenborg replied, — 'Certainly, a man takes with him his favorite
inclinations and opinions, and it is very difficult to be divested of
them : we ought therefore to lay them aside here.' My friend took
his leave of this remarkable man, perfectly convinced, and returned
back to Elberfeld. . . . That Swedenborg for many years had frequent
intercourse with the inhabitants of the spiritual world, is not subject to
any doubt, but is a settled fact."
Another statement given by Jung-Stilling, as he had it from
"a certain beloved friend for many years, who is far ad
vanced in Christianity," is as follows : —
"In the year 1762, on the very day when Peter III. of Russia died,
Swedenborg was present with me [a God-fearing friend of Stilling's
friend] at a party in Amsterdam. In the middle of the conversation
his physiognomy changed, and it was evident that his soul was no
longer present in him, and that something was taking place with him.
As soon as he recovered, he was asked what had happened. At first
he would not speak out; but after being repeatedly urged, he said,
'Now, at this very hour, the Emperor Peter III. has died in prison,' —
explaining the nature of his death [strangled by order of the Empress].
' Gentlemen, will you please make a note of this day, in order that you
may compare it with the announcement of his death which will appear
in the newspapers ? ' The papers soon after announced the death of
the Emperor, which had taken place on the very same day. . . .
" Such is the account of my friend ; if any one doubts this state
ment, it is a proof that he has no sense of what is called historical
faith and its grounds ; and that he believes only what he himself hears
and sees."
And yet Jung-Stilling himself preferred attributing Sweden
borg's communication with the other world to "somnambu
lism" and a state of ecstasy in which spirits spoke through
him, — a notion not at all consistent with the fact that Swe
denborg never laid aside his own reason and the control of
his speech and acts. These illustrations of this open com
munication we quote, not as proofs to convince the incredu
lous, — no second-hand testimony can do that, — but as a part
of Swedenborg's daily life which cannot fairly be omitted,
and which indeed is necessary to complete our understand
ing of his being present in both worlds at once. As such

348 STORIES OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT.
they serve as confirmation to those who recognize the spirit
ual truths which this communication was given to reveal.
Of the "three proofs" to which Jung-Stilling referred, w<
have already seen the story of Queen Ulrica and her brother,
The second is of the fire in Stockholm known to Swedenbor;
at Gottenburg ; and the third is of a mislaid receipt. Of thes
occurrences Swedenborg himself says, in a letter to Venator,
minister of the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, —
"These must by no means be regarded as miracles; for
they are simply testimonies that I have been introduced bjr
the Lord into the spiritual world and have intercourse ano
converse there with angels and spirits, — in order that th^
Church, which has hitherto remained in ignorance concerning.1
that world, may know that heaven and hell really exist, and(
that man lives after death a man as before; and that thus,'
no more doubts may flow into his mind in respect to his>
immortality." The occurrence of the Stockholm fire is variously related. 1
Immanuel Kant's account, gathered by him with great caret
for a correspondent, seems most complete and trustworthy,^
with R. L. Tafel's correction of the date. Says Kant, —
"The following occurrence appears to me to have the greatest
weight of proof, and to place the assertion respecting Swedenborg's
extraordinary gift beyond all possibility of doubt : —
"In the year 1759, towards the end of July, on Saturday at four
o'clock P. M., Swedenborg arrived at Gottenburg from England, when ,
Mr. William Castel invited him to his house, together with a party of j
fifteen persons. About six o'clock Swedenborg went out, and returned'*
to the company quite pale and alarmed. He said that a dangerous
fire had just broken out in Stockholm, in the Sbdermalm (Gotten
burg is about three hundred miles from Stockholm), and that it was/
spreading very fast. He was restless and went out often. He said
that the house of one of his friends, whom he named, was already in
ashes, and that his own was in danger. At eight o'clock, after he had
been out again, he joyfully exclaimed, ' Thank God 1 the fire is extin
guished, the third door from my house.' The news occasioned great
commotion throughout the whole city, but particularly amongst the J
company in which he was. It was announced to the governor thef
same evening. On Sunday morning Swedenborg was summoned td

THE LOST RECEIPT. 349
the governor, who questioned him concerning the disaster. Sweden
borg described the fire precisely, — how it had begun, and in what man
ner it had ceased, and how it had continued. On the same day the news
spread through the city, and, as the governor had thought it worthy
of attention, the consternation was considerably increased, because
many were in trouble on account of their friends and property which
might have been involved in the disaster. On Monday evening a mes
senger arrived at Gottenburg, who was despatched by the Board of
Trade during the time of the fire. In the letters brought by him the
fire was described precisely in the manner stated by Swedenborg. On
Tuesday morning the royal courier arrived at the governor's with the
melancholy intelligence of the fire, of the loss which it had occasioned,
and of the houses it had damaged and ruined, not in the least differing
from that which Swedenborg had given at the very time when it hap
pened ; for the fire was extinguished at eight o'clock."
From many different accounts of the lost receipt, agreeing
in substance, we select again that of Kant, confirmed as it is
in all essential particulars by the secretary of the legation and
executor of the estate : —
"Madame Marteville, the widow of the Dutch Ambassador in Stock
holm, some time after the death of her husband, was called upon by
Croon, a. goldsmith, to pay for a silver service which her husband had
purchased from him. The widow was convinced that her late husband
had been much too precise and orderly not to have paid this debt, yet
she was unable to find the receipt. In her sorrow, and because the
amount was considerable, she requested Mr. Swedenborg to call at her
house. After apologizing to him for troubling him, she said that if,
as all people say, he possessed the extraordinary gift of conversing
with the souls of the departed, he would perhaps have the kindness
to ask her husband how it was about the silver service. Swedenborg
did not at all object to comply with her request. Three days after
wards the said lady had company at her house for coffee. Sweden
borg called, and in his cool way informed her that he had conversed
with her husband. The debt had been paid seven months before his
decease, and the receipt was in a bureau in the room upstairs. The
lady replied that the bureau had been quite cleared out, and that the
receipt was not found among all the papers. Swedenborg said that
her husband had described to him how, after pulling out the left-hand
drawer, a board would appear which required to be drawn out, when a
secret compartment would be disclosed, containing his private Dutch
correspondence, as well as the receipt. Upon hearing this description
the whole company rose and accompanied the lady into the room up-

35O DR. BEYER.
stairs. The bureau was opened ; they did as they were directed ; the
compartment was found, of which no one had known before ; and to
the great astonishment of all, the papers were discovered there in
accordance with his description."
This event, as well as that of the Queen, seems to have
occurred in the year 1761, — that is, about the time when
Swedenborg was becoming known as the writer of his theo
logical works.
If there were but one name to be handed down with
Swedenborg's in connection with his work, it should be that
of Gabriel Andersson Beyer, doctor and professor of theology
at Gottenburg. Says Mr. Wenngren of that city, —
"About the year 1766 Swedenborg went to Gottenburg, intending to
embark for England : when he arrived there, he took his passage in a
vessel which was to sail in a few days. During his stay at Gotten
burg Dr. Beyer accidentally met him in company, and entertaining
from report the same sentiments with many others in that country,
with respect to his being a madman on account of his assertion that
he had communication with the spiritual world, he was surprised when
he observed that Swedenborg spoke very sensibly, without discovering
any marks of that infirmity of which he was suspected ; he therefore
invited Swedenborg to dine with him the day following, in company
with Dr. Rosen. After dinner Dr. Beyer expressed a desire, in the
presence of Dr. Rosen, to hear from himself a full account of his doc
trines; upon which Swedenborg, animated by the request, spoke so
clearly and in so wonderful a manner on the subject that the Doctor
and his friend were quite astonished. They did not interrupt him ;
but when the discourse was ended, Dr. Beyer requested Swedenborg
to meet him the next day at Mr. Wenngren's and to bring with him
a paper containing the substance of his discourse, that he might
consider it more attentively. Swedenborg came the day following,
according to his promise, and taking the paper out of his pocket in
the presence of the other two gentlemen, he trembled and appeared
much affected, the tears flowing down his cheeks ; when, presenting
the paper to Dr. Beyer, 'Sir,' said he, 'from this day the Lord has in
troduced you into the society of angels, and you are now surrounded
by them.' They were all greatly affected. He then took his leave,
and the next day embarked for England.
"The Doctor immediately sent for his writings, and to arrange the
subjects more distinctly in his mind began the Index [to Swedenborg's
Theological Works] which as he prepared he sent sheet by sheet to

THE EPISTLES.

351

Amsterdam to be printed. He was thirteen years in completing that
work, and on the day he sent off the last sheet corrected, he became
ill, took to his bed, and in a few days it pleased the Lord to call him
to Himself, to bestow on him the reward of his useful labors."
From the time of Dr. Beyer's introduction to Sweden
borg he devoted all his leisure to the study and diffusion of
his teachings. He taught them from his professor's chair,
preached them from the pulpit, and published them in a
Catechism and a Course of Philosophy. What opposition he
thus stirred up, we shall see in his correspondence with Swe
denborg. He is described as "a man of the purest virtue
and of the most amiable character, — pious, simple-minded,
humble, and frank ; gentle and conciliatory with others, strict
and severe towards himself, faithful to his convictions, perse
vering in his undertakings, and filled with the warmest sym
pathies for everything that appeared to him beautiful, true,
good, and sacred."
We suspect that the interview above described took place
in the summer of 1765, when Swedenborg was on his way
to Amsterdam for the purpose of printing The Apocalypse
Revealed. For on the ist of October in that year he sends
a note to Dr. Beyer with two copies of the beginning of this
work, as far as then printed. In the next March Dr. Beyer
writes, thanking him for the sheets he had sent, expressing
the joy he often experiences and his delight in the way " the
glorious truths are beginning to shine" before him. Never
theless he is somewhat troubled that the Epistles of the
Apostles are not spoken of as the Word of God. He begs
for light on this point, and also to see the subject of marriage
fully treated, and asks for certain volumes of the Arcana
Caslestia he could not obtain.
On the 8th of April Swedenborg sends him eight copies of
The Apocalypse Revealed, now completed, — one for himself,
the rest for distribution, — and informs him that he is then
going to England, "where some noise is probably being
made on account of the bishops of England being somewhat
severely treated in the Memorable Relations ; yet necessity

352 DR. BEYER.
required it." On the 15th of April he answers Dr. Beyer's
question about the Epistles : —
" In respect to the writings of the Apostles and Paul, I
have not quoted them in the Arcana Cxlestia, because they
are doctrinal writings, and consequently are not written in
the style of the Word, like those of the Prophets, of David,
of the Evangelists, and the Book of Revelation. The style
of the Word consists altogether of correspondences, where
fore it is effective of immediate communication with heaven ;.
but in doctrinal writings there is a different style, which has
indeed communication with heaven, but mediately. They
were written thus by the Apostles, that the new Christian
Church might be commenced through them ; wherefore mat
ters of doctrine could not be written in the style of the Word,
but they had to be expressed in such a manner as to be un
derstood more clearly and intimately. The writings of the
Apostles are, nevertheless, good books of the Church, insist
ing upon the doctrine of charity and its faith as strongly as
the Lord Himself has done in the Gospels and the Book of
Revelation." In August he writes from London : —
"Reverend Doctor, — I send you herewith a complete set
of the Arcana Ccelestia, and likewise the last volume of those
which were still wanting in yours ; they are however all un
bound. I thought at first of bringing them to you myself;
but I changed my mind about travelling to Gottenburg, as an
opportunity offered of going to Stockholm directly, which will
be next week. Should any one be able to make use of my
travelling carriage on his way to Stockholm, or should any
one wish to buy it, it may be left to them."
This was the passage he made in one week with Captain
Dixon. Swedenborg thus speaks of it in his next letter,
from Stockholm, Sept. 25, 1766 : —
" I arrived here as early as September 8. The trip from
England was made in eight days ; a favorable wind increasing
to a perfect storm carried the ship along in this style.

THE NEW CHURCH.

353

" I wish much blessing to the intended ' CoUection of Ser
mons,' and I send you herewith my subscription for it. I
presume you will use all necessary precaution in this work,
because the time has not yet arrived when the essentials of
the New Church can be received in this manner. It is diffi
cult to convince the clergy, who have been confirmed in their
dogmas at the universities ; for all confirmations in matters
of theology are, as it were, glued fast in the brain and can
with difficulty be removed, and as long as they are there,
genuine truths can have no place. Besides, the New Heaven
of Christians out of which the New Jerusalem will descend
from the Lord (Rev. xxi. r, 2), is not yet fully established."
In February, 1767, Swedenborg writes to Beyer, —
"Several questions have been propounded to me by your
friend, to which you will please receive the following as an
answer : —
"I. My opinion concerning the writings of Bohme and
L  . I have never read either ; I was forbidden to read
writers on dogmatic and systematic theology before heaven
was opened to me, because unfounded opinions and inven
tions might thereby have easily insinuated themselves, which
afterwards could only have been removed with difficulty;
wherefore, when heaven was opened to me I had first to
learn the Hebrew language, as well as the correspondences
according to which the whole Bible is composed, which led
me to read the Word of God over many times ; and as God's
Word is the source whence all theology must be derived, I
was enabled thereby to receive instruction from the Lord,
who is the Word."
" II. Query : How soon a New Church may be expected.
Answer : the Lord is preparing at this time a New Heaven of
those who believe in Him, acknowledge Him as the true God
of heaven and earth, and look to Him in their lives, — which
means to shun evil and do good ; for from that heaven the
New Jerusalem is to come down (Rev. xxi. 2). I daily see
sphits and angels, from ten to twenty thousand, descending
-23

354 DR- BEYER.
and ascending, and being set in order. By degrees, as that
heaven is being formed, the New Church likewise begins
and increases. The universities in Christendom are now first
being instructed, whence will come new ministers; for the
New Heaven has no influence over the old [clergy], who
deem themselves too learned in the doctrine of justification
by faith alone."
"As here [in Stockholm] they now begin to think more
of charity than before, asserting that faith and charity cannot
be separated, therefore faith alone begins also to be called
Moravian faith."
It is noteworthy that Swedenborg was looking to the Chris
tian universities for the reception and propagation of the
faith of the New Heaven and New Church. On this account
we find him distributing his works among these universities
and libraries with a free hand, till the editions were exhausted.
Witness the following note to the Secretary of State in Stock
holm : —
"I have at last finished the explanation of the Book of
Revelation and circulated it in all the universities in Holland,
Germany, France, and England, and am going to send sev
enty copies to Stockholm, of which your honor will please
take five and give them to the following senators, — Senator
Hopken, Senator Scheffer, likewise to Nordencrantz, the
Councillor of Commerce, and Bishops Menander and Sere-
nius ; the other five you will please to distribute among your
friends. The remaining sixty copies I desire to be kept safe
until my return home. I intend to distribute them among
the academies and libraries of Sweden, and among clergymen
who are qualified for a more than ordinary position. Four I
intend to present to the Court, and the remainder to univer
sities and theological seminaries in foreign parts."
Doubtless for the most part these books were soon shelved,
if not consigned to still greater obscurity, Yet very many
inquiring men must have looked into them at one time and
another; and the amount of direct effect they have had,

THE NEW CHURCH. 355
through these very universities, in bringing about the more
rational and Scriptural views on doctrinal points that now so
widely prevail, is incalculable.
In March, 1769, Swedenborg writes again to Dr. Beyer, —
"I had the pleasure of receiving yours of Nov. 23, 1768.
The reason I did not answer it sooner was that I postponed
until a little work was published, entitled A Brief Exposition
of the Doctrine of the New Church signified by the New
Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation, in which work are fully
shown the errors of the hitherto received doctrine of justifi
cation by faith alone, and the imputation of the righteous
ness or merit of Christ. This treatise was sent by me to all
the clergy in Holland, and will come into the hands of the
most eminent in Germany. I have been informed that they
have attentively perused it, and that some have already dis
covered the truth, while others do not know which way to
turn ; for what is written therein is sufficient to convince any
one that the above-mentioned doctrine is the cause of our
having at the present day no theology in Christendom."
" Here [in Amsterdam] they frequently inquire of me re
specting the New Church, when it will come. To which I
answer, — By degrees, in proportion as the doctrine of justi
fication and imputation is extirpated : which perhaps will be
brought about by this work. It is known that the Christian
Church did not take its rise immediately after the ascension
of Christ, but increased gradually, which is also meant by
these words in the Revelation, — 'And the woman flew into
the desert, into her place, where she is nourished for a
time, times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent'
(xii. 14). The serpent or dragon is that doctrine."
In November, 1769, in answer to Dr. Beyer's request for
some account of his early life, Swedenborg says, —
" From my fourth to my tenth year I was constantly en
gaged in thought upon God, salvation, and the spiritual expe
riences of men ; and some times I revealed things at which
my father and mother wondered, saying that an angel must

356 OPPOSITION BY THE CLERGY.
be speaking through me. From my sixth to my twelfth year
I used to delight in conversing with clergymen about faith,
saying that the life of faith is love, and that the love which
imparts life is love to the neighbor ; also that God gives faith
to every one, but that those only receive it who practise that
love. I knew of no other faith, at that time, than that God
is the Creator and Preserver of nature, that He imparts un
derstanding and a good disposition to men, and many other
things that follow thence. I knew nothing then of that
learned faith which teaches that God the Father imputes the
righteousness of His Son to whomsoever, and whenever, He
chooses, even to those who have not repented and have
not reformed their lives. And had I heard of such a faith,
it would have been then, as it is now, above my compre
hension. For a while Dr. Beyer and his friend Dr. Rosen, who also
was a professor at Gottenburg, studied Swedenborg's writ
ings and adopted his doctrines in their teachings without
molestation. But in time the more bigoted theologians per
ceived that their own dogmas on the tri-personality and on
justification by faith alone were being undermined; they
became alarmed, and attempted through the Consistory at
Gottenburg to obtain an injunction on the propagation of
Swedenborg's doctrines. Dr. Beyer and Dr. Rosen pro
tested against any such arbitrary action, when no suitable
investigation had been held. The matter was referred to
the House of the Clergy, and in this House to the Privy
Council. Swedenborg's own view of the matter appears
clearly in the following letter to Dr. Beyer, dated Stock
holm, April 12, 1 7 70 : —
"Reverend Doctor and Lector, — Only two days ago I re
ceived your favor of the 21st of March last, and on reading
it through I was surprised at the reports, which are said to
have reached Gottenburg from Stockholm, to the effect that
you and Dr. Rosen are to be deposed, deprived of office,
and banished from the country, a report to which I certainly

SWEDENBORG'S DEFENCE.

357

can give no credence ; for it contradicts my reason in the
highest degree to believe that a person may be deprived of
office and banished from the country on the mere allegation
of his being heretical, without the principal point of accusa
tion against him being investigated. In the printed minutes
I cannot find that they have taken a single step in regard to
the question itself, but that they have simply busied them
selves in making attacks in abusive and unseemly language,
when yet the real point at issue is this, whether it is allowable
to approach immediately our Redeemer and Saviour Jesus
Christ, or whether we must go a circuitous way, namely, to
God the Father, that He may impute to us the merit and
righteousness of His Son, and send the Holy Spirit. But that
we may go the other, which is the direct way, namely, to our
Saviour, Jesus Christ, is in accordance both with the Augs
burg Confession and the Formula Concordice, and also with
our own prayers and hymns; and it entirely agrees with
God's Word.
" In the Augsburg Confession are the following words :
'For the Scripture sets before us Christ alone as the Me
diator, the Propitiator, the High Priest, and the Intercessor ;
He is to be invoked or addressed ; and He has promised
that He will hear our prayers ; and the Sacred Scripture very
greatly approves of this worship, namely, that He should be
invoked in all afflictions' (i John ii. i).
" In the Formula Concordice are these words : ' We have
a command that we should call upon Christ, according to
this saying, Come unto Me all ye that labor, etc., which is
certainly addressed to us ; and Isaiah says, chap. xi. 10,
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall
stand for an ensign of the people : on Him shall the na
tions call. And in Psalm xlv. 12, The rich among the
people shall entreat Thy countenance. And in Psalm lxxii.
n, And all kings of the earth shall fall down before Him.
And in another verse, 15, They shall pray before Him con
tinually. And in John -v. 23, Christ says, All shall honor

358 opposition.
the Son, even as they honor the Father. See also Paul in
i Thess. ii.' These are the identical words quoted from the
work. " In our hymn-book are prayers and hymns addressed to
Jesus Christ alone, as Hymn 266, of which I will quote only
what follows : — Lo I Jesus is my might ;
He is my heart's delight.
O Jesus, hear my voice I
If I of Christ make sure,
I '11 ever feel secure,
And freed from all my sins.
As Jesus is my shield,
I '11 ne'er to Satan yield
Tho' he against me rage.
My cares and all my woe
On Him alone I '11 throw,
Who is my strength and guard. .
By day and night I '11 rest
All safe on Jesus' breast,
In whom alone I trust.
" Besides all this, two of my letters which have been in
serted and printed in the Gottenburg Minutes, contain
numerous proofs, adduced from the whole of the Formula
Concordia, that our Saviour, even as to His Humanity, is
God ; which Luther and the Formula Concordice corroborate
with all their power, and which is also in agreement with the
entire Word of God. In proof of this I refer you only to
Col. ii. 9 ; 1 John v. 20, 21. More to the same purport has
been adduced from one of my works, an extract from which
may be found in the printed Minutes of the Gottenburg Con
sistory. This doctrine they there call ' Swedenborgianism ' ;
but for my part I call it Genuine Christianity."
At different stages of the controversy, Swedenborg sent
several vigorous communications to the Consistory, Privy

CONFISCATION OF BOOKS.

359

Council, and King, and, as we have seen in his letter to Gen
eral Tuxen, was told by the King that his opponents would
not make any reply to the Royal summons. But the King,
it would appear, had underrated the hostility of these defend
ers of the faith-alone doctrine, and was himself compelled to
make some concessions in order to maintain his own ortho
doxy. By a Royal Resolution of April 26, 1770, die Con
sistory of Gottenburg was authorized to summon before it
Doctors Beyer and Rosen, to inform them of the royal dis
pleasure, and to seek to convince them of theh errors. By
a second Resolution of the same date orders were given for
seeking out and confiscating the theological works of Assessor
Swedenborg, and to enforce the Royal Resolution of 1735
prohibiting the delivery of books imported from abroad, be
fore permission should be granted by the executive of the
nearest Consistory. These Resolutions were a great surprise
to Swedenborg. He knew how the persecution had arisen,
but underestimated its strength. To General Tuxen he wrote
on the first of May, before learning of the Resolutions, —
"The affair took its rise at Gottenburg, principally from
the Dean. The deputies of that place having been in
structed to complain of me and of Dr. Beyer to the Diet,
they pushed matters as far as they could, but would never
have effected anything had not Bishop Filenius, who was
then the Speaker in the House of the Clergy, taken up the
matter, and by cunning and craft gained over a* crowd in
the House. This the Bishop did at first from secret dislike,
and afterwards from malice. The result was that a commit
tee was appointed in the House of the Clergy on the Swe-
denborgian cause. Whilst they deliberated on this subject I
did not hear a word of it, as all was carried on with secrecy ;
yet the committee, which consisted of bishops and profes
sors, found the matter quite different from what Bishop File
nius had represented : they concluded in my favor, and
expressed themselves in the House with respect' to myself
very handsomely and reasonably. Bishop Filenius, never-

360 OPPOSITION.
theless, succeeded in having a memorial submitted to his
Royal Majesty and the Privy Council to this effect, that
the Chancellor of Justice should endeavor to quell the dis
orders which had arisen at Gottenburg; whereupon the
Chancellor of Justice sent a letter to the Consistories that
diey should express themselves in regard to this matter ; and
after their opinions had been received, the affair occupied
the Privy Council for two days ; and not until then did I
come forward with the enclosed letter which was read be
fore the Council. The conclusion is contained in a letter
addressed by the Chancellor of Justice to the Consistory of
Gottenburg, which is not against me, and the particulars of
which I shall relate to you some other time. Of all this I
knew nothing while it was being discussed; but, enjoying
the calm in my chamber, I allowed the storm to rage as
much as it pleased outside : for it had been resolved in the
Diet, as well as in the Privy Council, that my person should
not be touched."
On learning the Resolutions issued a few days before,
Swedenborg on the 10th of May addressed the following
letter to the King : —
"Most powerful and most gracious King, — I feel com
pelled at this juncture to have recourse to your Majesty's
protection ; for I have been treated as no one has ever been
treated before in Sweden since the introduction of Christ
ianity, and' still less since the establishment of freedom here.
I will first give you a brief account of things as they have
happened. Upon my return from abroad tjjp last time, I
was informed that Bishop Filenius had confiscated my work
De Amore Conjugiali, which had appeared in Holland and
been sent to Norrkoping.1 I therefore immediately inquired
1 Robsahm tells us in his memoirs that " Swedenborg had ordered for the
Diet in Norrkoping, 1769, a small box of his works from England, which in ac
cordance with the regulations of customs was detained in the custom house, on
account of their containing foreign or heterodox thoughts on religion. Swe
denborg, therefore, asked a clergyman [Bishop Filenius], one of his influential
relatives, to get this box released for him, because he desired to distribute

LETTER TO THE KING. ^,6l
of some bishops whether this had been authorized by the
House of the Clergy ; they answered that they were aware
of the confiscation, but that no general action had been
taken, and that not a word about it had been entered on the
minutes. Immediately afterwards the clergy from Gottenburg
made a noise in their House about my books, and pushed
matters so far that the House appointed a committee on
' Swedenborgianism,' which consisted of bishops and profes
sors. This committee sat for several months, and at last
reported handsomely and reasonably on that subject, and
thereby suppressed completely the disturbance which had
been made ; but to put an end to it still more effectually, it
was resolved that a humble memorial should be addressed
to your Royal Majesty, requesting that the Chancellor of
Justice should inquire about the disturbances which had
arisen in Gottenburg. When the Bishop and the Dean of
that place, who are the torch and trumpet in this affair, dis
covered that they made no progress in the reverend House of
the Clergy, they, to stir up and kindle the flame anew, com
menced a publication of twenty sheets or more about ' Swe
denborgianism,' which is filled with invectives ; and after this
had been sent to Stockholm, the matter was taken up and
settled by yqur Majesty in the Privy Council, in consequence
of which the Chancellor of Justice despatched to the Consis
tory of Gottenburg an official letter, wherein I have reason
to think he assented to the opinion expressed by the Con
sistory. " I received no more intimation than a child in the cradle
of all that toob»place, of the committee in the reverend House
the books among the members of the various Houses of the Diet. This man
assured Swedenborg that he would, and on leaving embraced and kissed him ;
but when he went up to the House, it was he who insisted most strongly that
the books should not be released." Oddly enough some years later a book-
collector found a. grocer using these same books, De Amore Conjugiali, for
wrapping paper, and was able to save a considerable number of copies entire.
This reminds us of Bishop Swedberg's plaintive expectation that his own cart
loads of printed sheets prohibited by the hostile censors, would be used alter
his death " by woman-kind to wrap cakes and pies."

362 OPPOSITION.
of the Clergy, of the memorial they submitted to your Royal
Majesty, of the publication in Gottenburg on 'Swedenborg-
ianism,' of the Resolution which was passed by your Royal
Majesty in the Privy Council, and of the letter embodying it
which was despatched to the Consistory in Gottenburg. Of
all this, from beginning to end, I received not the least inti
mation : all was done without my receiving a hearing, when
yet the whole matter was about ' Swedenborgianism ; ' and the
papers printed in Gottenburg are filled with coarse and rep
rehensible language without touching materially the subject of
'Swedenborgianism,' which is the worship of the Lord our
Saviour. Of these printed papers I had no other knowledge
than what I received from a general commissary of war
[Tuxen] at Elsinore, and afterwards from a friend here in
Stockholm who lent them to me for a day. Wherefore I still
insist that everything that has taken place since my return
home has from beginning to' end been done without giving
me a hearing.
"From a rumor which has spread- here in town I have
learned that from the office of the Chancellor of Justice
a communication has been made to the Consistory of Gotten
burg, to the effect that my books have been entirely forbidden
to be imported into this country, and further ihat the same
office has stigmatized my revelations as untrue and false. In
reply to this I humbly beg to make the following statement :
That our Saviour visibly revealed Himself before me, and
commanded me to do what I have done, and what I have
still to do; and that thereupon He permitted me to have
intercourse with angels and spirits I have declared before
the whole of Christendom, as well in England, Holland, Ger
many, and Denmark, as in France and Spain, and also on
various occasions in this country before their Royal Majesties,
and especially when I enjoyed the grace to eat at their table,
in the presence of the whole royal family, and also of five
senators and others ; at which time my mission constituted
the sole topic of conversation. Subsequently, also, I have

LETTER TO THE KING. 363
revealed this before many senators ; and among these Count
Tessin, Count Bonde, and Count Hopken have found it in
truth to be so : and Count Hopken, a gentleman of enlight
ened understanding, still continues to believe so, without
mentioning many others, as well at home as abroad, among
whom are both kings and princes. All this, however, the
office of the Chancellor of Justice, if the rumor is correctly
stated, declares to be false ; when yet it is the truth. Should
they reply that the thing is inconceivable to them, I have
nothing to gainsay, since I am unable to put the state of my
sight and speech into their'heads, in order to convince them ;
nor am I able to cause angels and spirits to converse with
them ; nor do miracles happen now : but their very reason
will enable them to see this, when they thoughtfully read my
writings, wherein much may be found which has never before
been discovered, and which cannot be discovered except by
real vision and intercourse with those who are in the sphitual
world. In order that reason may see and acknowledge this,
I beg that one of your Excellencies may peruse what has
been said on this subject in my book, De Amore Conjugiali,
in a Memorable Relation on pp. 314-316 : his Excellency
Count Ekeblad and his Excellency Count Bjelke possess the
book. If any doubt should still remain, I am ready to testify
with the most solemn oath that may be prescribed to me that
this is the whole truth and a reality, without the least fallacy.
That our Saviour permits me to experience this is not on my
own account, but for the sake of a sublime interest which con
cerns the eternal welfare of all Christians. Since such is the
real state of things, it is wrong to declare it to be untruth and
falsity ; although it may be pronounced to be something that
cannot be comprehended.
"If now the rumor which has been spread is correct, —
namely, that such things are contained in the letter which -
was sent from the office of the Chancellor of Justice to the
Consistory of Gottenburg, — it follows hence that my books
are declared to be heretical, and that I am declared to speak

364 OPPOSITION.
untruths and falsehoods in matters of revelation ; and further,
that, from beginning to end, ah this has been determined
upon without giving me a hearing. What else results from
this, but that, in agreement with the Resolution, any severe
treatment may be brought forward by the Consistory of
Gottenburg and Bishop Filenius, and sentence may be pro
nounced upon me, without my being heard in the affair at
all ; for of what use is a declaration or a defence after the
sentence has been pronounced?
"This is the reason why, as I said above, 'I am compelled
to have recourse to your Majesty, since, I have been treated
as no one has ever been treated before in Sweden since the
introduction of Christianity, and still less since the establish
ment of freedom,' by being treated as I have been, without a
hearing having been granted me.
"As this, however, concerns not only my writings, but
as a natural consequence my person also, I make a humble
request that the memorial should be communicated to me
which was addressed to your Royal Majesty in this matter by
the House of the Clergy, likewise the minutes of the Privy
Council, and the letter which was despatched from the office
of the Chancellor of Justice to the Consistory of Gottenburg,
in order that I may at once be heard, and may show forth
the whole of my treatment before the public at large.
" In respect to Doctors Beyer and Rosen of Gottenburg,
I have given them no other advice than that they should
approach our Saviour, Jesus Christ, to whom all power has
been given in heaven and on earth (Matt, xxviii. 18), and
should strive after their salvation ; and as far as I have been
able to learn they have affirmed and insisted upon that one
point, which is also in conformity with the Augsburg Confes
sion, the Formula Concordice, and the whole Word of God ;
nevertheless for this acknowledgment alone they have be
come to a certain extent martyrs, at least so far as regards the
cruel persecutions of the Bishop and the Dean of that town.
The same expression also I apply to my books, which I regard

TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

365

as my own self, when, nevertheless, all that the Dean of Got
tenburg has poured out against them consists of sheer invec
tives, which do not contain a particle of truth.
"Your Royal Majesty's most humble and most dutiful
servant and subject, " Emanuel Swedenborg."
No answer was received to this letter ; perhaps none was
expected. The matter came up again before the Privy
Council, and was deferred. In July Swedenborg went to
Amsterdam to publish The True Christian Religion, after
sending copies of his letter to the King, to the Chancellor of
Justice, and to the three Swedish Universities. On the part of
his opponents it was held that the Privy Council was the head
ruler in religious matters. Swedenborg contended that the
Council was but the vicar of the Houses of the Diet, and that
they again were but the vicar of the Lord, the real Head of
the Church. As the persecution of Doctors Beyer and Rosen
still continued, he wrote to Dr. Beyer in April, 1771, —
" I wonder that they keep stirring up this affair at Gotten
burg ; I will complain of them at the next Diet, when I send
over my Universa Theologia Novi Coeli et Novce Ecclesice
('The True Christian Religion'), which will leave the press
towards the close of the month of June. I will send two
copies of this work to each House, and request them to ap
point for its consideration a general committee from all the
Houses, in order to put an end to the affair in this way. I
am certain of this, that, after the appearance of the ' book
referred to, the Lord our Saviour will operate both mediately
and immediately towards the establishment throughout the
whole of Christendom of a New Church based on this ' The
ology.' The New Heaven, out of which the New Jerusalem
will descend, will very^soon be completed."
In The True Christian Religion thus announced, Swe
denborg printed an account of a discussion in a council of
the clergy in the world of spirits, on their former tenets.

366 opposition.
Near the conclusion of the discussion, in which Swedenborg
himself had taken an active part, one arose and declared that
he himself was intimately associated with a man still in the
world, of eminent station, from whom he had gained the idea
that Swedenborg's views partook of Mahometanism. The
eminent man, he said, lived at Gottenburg. An uproar arose
in the assembly, and Swedenborg denounced the charges
of materialism and Mahometanism, as inventions to deter
men from the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. He then re
quested the speaker to desire his friend to read what is said
in the Apocalypse, iii. 18 ; and also ii. 16. (T. C. R. 137.)
Again Swedenborg writes to Dr. Beyer, July 2, —
" Reverend Doctor, — Captain Sjoberg informed me that he
was commissioned by Mr. Hammarberg to purchase some
sets of the works written by me, namely, four of each, and
among them also the last book which appeared a few days
ago. On account of the strict prohibition the captain did
not dare to purchase more than one copy of each ; besides
this I presented him with a copy of the last work published.
Perhaps Mr. Hammarberg may know of some way by which
he could receive another copy if it were sent afterwards. In
a few days I will send to Stockholm by the skipper Casper
Nyberg two copies of the work just published, entitled Vera
Religio Christiana; one for Bishop Menander and the other
for Bishop Serenius ; and among other things I will give
them to understand that, as soon as the Diet is properly
organized, I shall tender a formal complaint of the course
of proceeding of the Privy Council in the Gottenburg mat
ter, in respect to you and myself; from which I hope a
favorable result. . . . With my kindest regards to Dr. Rosen
I remain, with all friendship and affection,
"Your most obedient servant and friend,
" Em^juel Swedenborg."
Swedenborg did not fulfil his intention of repairing to
Sweden and appealing to the Diet of 1772, perhaps on ac-

OETINGER. ^67
count of the infirmities that grew upon him, but accepted
the invitation of his English friends and spent his few re
maining months in London, though not at their expense.
Dr. Beyer and Dr. Rosen maintained their position ably
and without wavering. The result was that they were allowed
to retain their offices at Gottenburg, but were prohibited from
teaching theological matters, because of their "erroneous
doctrinal opinions."
Meanwhile the distinguished and enlightened, but some
what one-sided prelate, Oetinger,1 who was in a measure
friendly to Swedenborg, was bringing him into notice and
calling down denunciation on the heads of both. Singularly
Oetinger was deeply affected by Swedenborg's account of
things heard and seen in the spiritual world, and entertained
no doubt of their reality. He translated and published with
his own writings the intermediate chapters of the Arcana
Ccelestia. But he could not accept the explanations of Scrip
ture, because he was unwilling to give up his old belief in the
literal, material fulfilment of the prophecies. His books that
contained portions of Swedenborg's were condemned and
confiscated by the clerical authorities, and again and again
with determined will he petitioned for theh release, though
without success. His vigorous spirit well appears in the
preface to his translation from the "Arcana" : —
" I herewith present to the examination of the reader something
rare, which God has given us to know in the present times. It is
1 Kiirtz calls Oetinger " the magus of the south," " deeply learned in the
Scriptures," " the first representative of a theology of the future, which, it is
true, might need thorough purifying and close sifting, but yet might be adapted
to represent, in its fundamental idea, the basis for the true reconciliation of
Idealism and Realism." Dorner says Oetinger's " view of heaven, as a world
of realities, could not suffer him to conceive of God as merely an infinite,
unfathomable Being, all will and reason. It obliged him to regard Him as the
living centre, who,while He governs the universe, is at the same time enthroned
in a glory and happiness to -which He is, through Christ, raising the human
race. Hence he could not accommodate himself to the thought that the rela
tion of God to the world was that of a dead law, nor confine His intercourse
with man to the judicial functions of commanding, acquitting, and condemn
ing." — History of Protestant Theology, 234.

368 opposition.
profitable to compare unusual things with those to which we are accus
tomed ; but in doing so it is necessary sometimes to keep back our
judgment, until we are able to take in the whole matter. The infidelity
which is rife now in the world has induced God to make use of a cele
brated philosopher in order to communicate to us heavenly informa
tion. Mathematics have checked the imagination of this philosopher;
wherefore it will not do to say that he reports mere imaginations.
Experimental facts are not imaginations. These experiences are due
to the influx of heavenly intelligences by the command of the Lord.
Should any one say, ' We have Moses and the Prophets,' he may
read what follows or not, just as he pleases. Still, a person anxious to
improve himself ought not to forego any opportunity by which he may.
become acquainted with new light offered to him by truth. Sweden
borg, a distinguished Assessor of the College of Mines in Sweden,
wrote a large work in folio, which is most costly [Opera Philosophical
This I call Earthly Philosophy in contradistinction to the following,
which is of a heavenly origin, and which he has published in thirteen
works that are still more valuable. Should you find therein proposi
tions which appear objectionable, remember the twelve Ephesians in
the Acts, xix. 21, who ' had not so much as heard whether there be any
Holy Ghost,' and nevertheless were thought worthy at once to receive
the Holy Spirit, notwithstanding they were ignorant of one of the chief
grounds of faith, and opposed to the Scripture. Does not Swedenborg
place the Scripture higher than any one else ? and does he not wish to
have all experiences judged thereby ? Is not all he says well connec
ted ? And does he not appeal to many witnesses ? "
Referring to the first volume of the same philosophical
work, in a letter of defence addressed to the Duke of Wiir-
temberg, Oetinger says, "Thirty years previously I had studied
Swedenborg's Principia Rerum Naturalium in folio, which I
preferred much to Wolff's philosophy, on account of its lead
ing to the Sacred Scripture. It is wonderful how a philoso
pher, who was accustomed to think according to the rules of
mechanics, should have become a prophet."
From Swedenborg himself Oetinger received the following
reply to one of his queries : —
"Why from being a philosopher I have been chosen?
Answer : The cause of this has been, that the spiritual things
which are being revealed at the present day may be taught
and understood naturally and rationally : for spiritual truths

LETTER TO OETINGER. 369
have a correspondence with natural truths, because in these
they terminate, and upon these they rest. That there is a
correspondence of all spiritual things with all things of man,
as well as with all things of the earth, may be seen in the
work on Heaven and Hell. For this reason I was introduced
by the Lord first into the natural sciences, and thus prepared ;
and indeed from the year 1710 to 1744, when heaven was
opened to me. Every one also is led by means of natural
things to spiritual things : for man is born natural ; by edu
cation he is moral, and afterwards by regeneration from the
Lord he becomes spiritual. The Lord has granted to me
besides to love truths in a spiritual manner, that is, to love
them, not for the sake of honor, nor for the sake of gain, but
for the sake of the truths themselves ; for he who loves truths
for the sake of the truth, sees them from the Lord, because
the Lord is the Way and the Truth (John xiv. 6) ; but he
who loves them for the sake of honor or gain, sees them from
himself; and seeing from oneself is equivalent to seeing fal
sities. Falsities that have been confirmed close the Church,
wherefore truths rationally understood have to open it. How
else can spiritual things which transcend the understanding
be understood, acknowledged, and received? The dogma
that has been handed down by the Papists, and accepted by
the Protestants, namely, that the understanding is to be held
in bondage under obedience to faith, has a second time
closed the Church, and what else is to open it again, except
an understanding enlightened by the Lord? "
Surely it is little matter of surprise that Papist and Protes
tant leaders, interested to the last degree in maintaining this
bondage of reason, as the means of securing their own
supremacy, should resist with despairing violence the break
ing of chains and bursting of doors that attended the publi
cation of the Doctrines of the New Church. But what can
better attest the breaking of these bonds, and the light of the
New Heaven in its broad descent from that time, than the
astonishment with which we now look back at the slavery
24

370 OPPOSITION.
of reason to blind faith, in the age that then began to see
its end?
Much sensible matter was written by Oetinger, Beyer, and
Rosen, in defence of Swedenborg, fOT which we have not
space. We will content ourselves with copying the beginning
of a letter from Dr. Rosen to a Senator and Councillor : —
"Gracious Sir, — As Swedenborgianism and I have fallen into the
hands of your Excellency, I will not distress myself about a fortunate
issue of our cause and my acquittal. The exigency of the case, never
theless, requires that, with your gracious leave, I should explain my
self at greater length. . . .
"Gracious Sir, the essence of the purity of our doctrine is its ac
cordance with Scripture; and the laws of Sweden, especially a law
dating from 1766, indicate this. If all Christians who are related to
us by faith appeal to God's Word, though some do violence to it and
strain it, nevertheless if we examine this matter justly and, as it were,
standing in God's presence, the question resolves itself into this, —
Who has really the law and the Word on his side ? He who has is
orthodox, and he alone. A great advance in linguistics and an ac
cumulation of inestimable philological and philosophical discoveries,
made in recent times, give me a just hope that an amendment in our
faith and life, which is as possible as it is necessary, will eventually
take place. And now it happens that a wonderful man, who gives
evidence of a most unusual learning in natural and spiritual things,
declares that he has been sent by the Lord for such a purpose ; and,
on being asked for his credentials, he solves all involved theological
problems, strikes down naturalism and superstition, with the same
weapons exposes the nakedness of the learned, and subjects himself
to the good and. evil report of the Lord's Apostles; he manifests
the greatest possible veneration for Scripture, he worships God, and
urges man to sanctification : in short, he seeks to promote the honor of
the Most High. It is excusable if, for such a man, whose 'eyes are
open' (Num. xxiv. 4), and ' in whom is undoubtedly the spirit of the
holy gods' (Dan. v. 11), — I should conceive some veneration. Mere
curiosity, however, has not led me to his doctrines, but I have been
drawn to them by their consistency with God's Word."
Dr. Rosen survived Swedenborg but a year and a half. Dr.
Beyer continued to labor on his Indexes till they were com
pleted, in 1779 ; and soon after he had sent the last sheet of
manuscript to Amsterdam, he too went to join his friend and
teacher in the world of theh affections.

CHAPTER XV.
FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS OF SWEDENBORG.
We have shown the esteem for Swedenborg of .two of the
men named by Kurtz as the leading religious spirits of this
period in Germany, — Jung-Stilling and Oetinger. That of
a third, Lavater, is sufficiently shown in two letters to Swe
denborg, the second and shorter of which we will copy : —
"Most noble, venerable, and beloved in Christ our Lord: — I have
taken the liberty of writing to you a second time, as it is likely you
may not have received my other letter, on account of your travels ; but
I have at last learned by what means this will probably reach you.
" I revere the wonderful gifts you have received from God. I revere
the wisdom which shines forth from your writings, and therefore cannot
but seek the friendship of so great and excellent a man now living. If
what is reported be true, God will show you how much I seek to con
verse with you in the simplicity of my mind. I am a young man, not
yet thirty years old, a minister of the Gospel ; I am and shall remain
employed in the cause of Christ as long as I live. I have written
something on the happiness of the future life. Oh, if I could exchange
letters with you on this subject, or rather converse I
" I add some writing : you shall know my soul.
" One thing I beg of you, Divinely inspired man I I beseech you by
the Lord not to refuse me !
" In the month of March, 1768, died Felix Hess, my best friend, a.
youth of Ziirich, twenty-four years of age, an upright man, of a noble
mind, striving after a Christian spirit, but not yet clothed with Christ.
Tell me, I pray, what he is doing. Paint to me his figure, state, etc., in
such words that I may know that God's truth is in you. . . .
" I am your brother in Christ. Answer very soon a sincere brother ;
and answer the letter I have sent in such a manner that / may see
what I am believing on the testimony of others.
" Christ be with us, to whom we belong, living or dead.
"John Casper Lavater,
" Zurich in Switzerland, "Minister at the Orphan Asylum.
" Sept. 24, 1769."

372 FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS.
We do not know what reply this letter received, but we
have incidental knowledge of Swedenborg's purpose two years
later of going to Switzerland to visit his correspondent ; and
the influence of his own writings on Lavater's views is appar
ent in the latter's " Fifteen Letters on the Scriptural Doctrine
of our Reconciliation with God through Christ," and in his
dissertations on "Jesus Christ ever the same, not limited by
Time and Space." Indeed, an attack on Lavater's views and
Swedenborg's together was made by a professor of theology,
Semler. Of his preaching, Steffens's autobiography, quoted
by Hagenbach (i. 500), gives this charming account : —
" ' He [Lavater] preached in the Reformed Church, and I both saw
and heard him. His figure, as it still appears before me, was highly
interesting. The tall, slender man slightly stooped in walking; his
physiognomy was extremely intellectual, and his sharp features gave
testimony of an excited past and of inner struggles ; and his eyes
flashed fervor, brilliance, and clearness. . . . The small Reformed
Church was crowded, and a solemn quiet pervaded the assembly. . . .
It is very remarkable how this sermon won me and held me spell
bound. He not only expressed the confidence of faith, but also the
deep and overpowering feelings of the heart. It seemed to me that I
was hearing for the first time the voice for which I had been longing.
His sermon treated on prayer. That inward and deeply concealed,
yet pious life of my childhood, which I had enjoyed in the quiet room
of my mother, and which profoundly influenced my inmost soul, but
could only be gently whispered externally, now seemed to awaken me,
a slumberer, from my long sleep, as with a voice of thunder. With
that overpowering truth which can only be portrayed by one who
speaks aloud his inward experience, he described those outward and
inward struggles by which victory can only be won through prayer.
His language, which seemed to me so repulsive at the beginning, was
now more beautiful, clear, and inspiring, — it seemed to me to be in
possession of such a living force as would be impossible to any
other.' "
Matthius Claudius, another of the men referred to by
Kurtz, a poet and religious writer, had no personal acquain
tance with Swedenborg, but reflected the esteem of others.
" Now," he says, " after Swedenborg had made himself acquainted
with all the erudition of his time, and after the greatest honors had

FATHER OBERLIN.

373

been bestowed upon him by individuals and whole societies, he began
to see spirits. . . . He was always a virtuous man, and one who was
interiorly affected with the beauty and majesty of the visible world. . . .
We cannot help thinking that there are spirits, and Swedenborg often
affirmed in his lifetime with great earnestness, and even on his death
bed . . . that he was able to see spirits, and had seen them. Now as
the new world really existed long before Columbus found it out,
though we in Europe were ignorant of its existence, so perhaps there
may be a means to see spirits. ... In the opinion of many wise
people there lies a great deal of truth hidden perhaps close by us."
Father Oberlin, of Ban-de-la- Roche, yet another of "the
most brilliant and best-known names of the faithful sons of
the Church," and held in reverence everywhere for his love
and piety, was asked by an English visitor, the Rev. J. H.
Smithson, whether he had read any of the works of Sweden
borg. " He immediately reached a book, and clapping his hand upon it, ex
pressive of great satisfaction, told me that he had had this treasure a
great many years in his library, and that he knew from his own expe
rience that everything related in it was true. This treasure was Swe
denborg's work on Heaven and Hell." In answer to inquiry how he
came to this conviction, " he replied that when he first came to reside as
pastor among the inhabitants of Steinthal, they had many superstitious
notions respecting the proximity of the spiritual world, and of the ap
pearance of various objects and phenomena in that world which, from
time to time, were seen by some of the people belonging to his flock.
For instance, it was not unusual for a person who had died to appear
to some individual in the valley. This gift of second sight, or the
opening of the spiritual sight, to see objects in a spiritual state of
existence, was, however, confined to a few persons, and continued but
a short period and at different intervals of time. The report of every
new occurrence of this kind was brought to Oberlin, who at length
became so much annoyed that he was resolved to put down this spe
cies of superstition, as he called it, from the pulpit, and exerted himself
for a considerable time to this end, but with little or no desirable
effect. Cases became more numerous, and the circumstances so strik
ing as even to stagger the scepticism of Oberlin himself. About this
time, being on a visit to Strasburg, he met with the work on Heaven
and Hell, which a friend [probably Jung-Stilling] recommended him
to peruse. This work, as he informed me, gave him a full and satis
factory explanation of the extraordinary cases occurring in his valley,
and which he himself was at length, from evidences which could not

374 FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS.
be doubted, constrained to admit. The satisfactory solution of these
extraordinary cases afforded great pleasure to his mind, and he read
the 'treasure,' as he called it, very attentively, and with increasing
delight. He no longer doubted the nearness of the spiritual world ;
yea, he believed that man, by virtue of his better part, — his immortal
mind, — is already an inhabitant of the spiritual world, in which, after
the death of the material body, he is to continue his existence forever.
He plainly saw from the correspondent relation existing between the
two worlds, that when it pleased the Lord, man might easily be placed,
by opening his spiritual senses, in open communication with the world
of spirits. This, he observed, was frequently the case with the seers
mentioned in the Old Testament ; and why might it not be so now, if
the Divine Providence saw fit, in order to instruct mankind more fully
in respect to their relation to a spiritual state of existence, and to re
plenish their minds with more accurate and copious views respecting
heaven, the final home of the good, and hell, the final abode of the
wicked ? . . . From seeing, ' as explained by Swedenborg, that the
Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of uses, Oberlin resolved all the exer
tions and operations of his life into one element — USE. He taught
his people that to be useful, and to shun all evil as sin against the
Lord, in being useful, is the truly heavenly life."1
We cannot hear too much about the lives of such good
men. Let us linger with Hagenbach on that of Father
Oberlin : —
" In order to conclude the present lecture with a living, personal
impression, we will leave the intricacies of the Hegelian philosophy
where we commenced it, and catch a breath of the pure fresh air. We
pass into a solitary vale, wild by nature but improved by the hands of
man. We see a plain figure, one of God's worthiest priests. If it
would not be unprotestant, we would call him, as a certain Protestant
writer, Hase, has done, 'a saint of his Church.' We mean Pastor
Oberlin, of the Steinthal. He is well known to you all, and therefore
I will only remind you of him by recalling his image. From the larger
and smaller accounts of his life by Stoeber and Schubert, we learn
the following facts : The son of a Strasburg scholar, he was born in
the year 1740, and received a careful Christian training. With the
firm confidence of a disciple and apostle of Christ, he became pastor
of Waldbach in the year 1767. He trod in the footsteps of a worthy
predecessor, and communed with the noble friends of humanity whom
he found in that desolate place, which, though he did not convert into
a paradise, he- did transform into a friendly dwelling-place of indus-
1 Intellectual Repository, April, 1840.

FATHER OBERLIN.

375

trious men,- in whose hearts and families he supplanted roughness of
sentiment and indolent habits by steady and active Christianity.
" When we behold this apostolic man become a pattern of self-
denial, self-conquest, and trust in God, of a mild and peaceful heroism,
yet always subjecting himself to the laws of God and man; when we
meet him, in the storms of revolution, preserving with prudence and
determination, amid fanatics and revolutionists, a Johannean spirit
which compelled their respect ; when we find him, finally, in his ex
treme old age active in the service of his Master, until called to
heaven in the year 1825, — we cannot longer doubt the power of the
religious spirit which, in the midst of devastating forces, bears an
eloquent witness for the Church in which and for which this power
was active. It is very apparent in Oberlin's case how such demands of
time as were expressed in philanthropinism were first safely and per
manently realized in practical Christianity. How often was it declared
at the time when Sebaldus Nothanker was written, and very much
was said of the usefulness of the ministerial office, that the pastor
must also understand agriculture, and aid his peasants in a secular
way, if he would ennoble them morally, and win them to the reception
of the Divine truth ? But these ideas of the preacher remained on
philanthropinic paper, and became only waste paper, without being
transformed into flesh and blood.
" Oberlin did the one without leaving the other undone. He gave
heavenly and earthly instruction at the same time, and united the two.
The ' pray and labor ' was not something disjointed, but united, and
therefore blessed. The same was the case with ecclesiastical union.
Not only did the difference between the Reformed and the Lutheran
Confessions vanish here completely, but even Catholics attended
Oberlin's preaching, and he himself declared to a Catholic nobleman,
that to him every Christian was welcome who believed in our natural
depravity and in the necessity of our return to God. It was on the
positive ground of this faith, and not on the negative basis of indiffer
ence, that he believed in union, and therefore even Catholic Christians
could go to his grave and remember him in love. Oberlin's life
reminds us. sometimes of Lavater and Stilling, for we find in it re
markable, wonderful, and peculiar elements." 1
Carl Robsahm, treasurer of the bank at Stockholm, was
intimate with Swedenborg during his later years, and left
memoirs of his friend in Swedish, which have been printed in
German and from that in an English translation. In the
Rev. R. L. Tafel's Documents, a new English translation is
1 History of tlie Church in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, ii. 382.

376 FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS.
given from the Swedish original, and from this we adopt such
matters of interest as we have not aheady given from other
sources : —
"Swedenborg's property [in Stockholm] was about a
stone's cast in length and in breadth. The rooms of his
dwelling-house were small and plain ; but were comfortable
for him, though scarcely for any one else. Although he was
a learned man, no books were ever seen in his room, except
his Hebrew and Greek Bible, and his manuscript indexes to
his own works, by which, in making quotations, he was saved
the trouble of examining all that he had previously written or
printed. " Swedenborg worked without much regard to the distinc
tion of day and night, having no fixed time for labor or rest.
' When I am sleepy,' he said, ' I go to bed.' All the atten
dance he required from his servant, his gardener's wife,
consisted in her making his bed and placing a large jug of
water in his anteroom, his housekeeping being so arranged
that he could make his own coffee in his study ; and this
coffee he drank in great abundance, both day and night, and
with a great deal of sugar. When not invited out, his dinner
consisted of nothing but a roll soaked in boiled milk ; and
this was his meal always when he dined at home. He never
at that time used wine or strong drink, nor did he eat any
thing in the evening ; but in company he would eat freely,
and indulge moderately in a social glass.
"The fire in the stove of his study was never allowed to go
out, from autumn through the whole of winter until spring ;
for as he always needed coffee, and as he always made it him
self, without milk or cream, and as he had never any definite
time for sleeping, he always required to have a fire.
" His sleeping-room was always without fire ; and when he
lay down, according to the severity of the winter, he covered
himself with three or four woollen blankets. But I remember
one winter which was so cold that he was obliged to move
his bed into his study.

CARL ROBSAHM.

377

"As soon as he awoke, he went into his study, where he
always found glowing embers, put wood on the burning coals
and a few pieces of birch bark, which for convenience he
used to purchase in bundles, so as to be able to make a fire
quickly ; and then he sat down to write.
"In his drawing-room was the marble table which he
afterwards presented to the Royal College of Mines ; this
room was neat and genteel, but plain.
"His dress in winter consisted of a fur-coat of reindeer
skin, and in summer of a dressing-gown ; both well worn, as
became a philosopher's wardrobe. His wearing apparel was
simple, but neat. Still,' it happened sometimes that when he
prepared to go out, and his people did not call attention to it,
something would be forgotten or neglected in his dress ; so
that, for instance, he would put one buckle of gems and
another of silver in his shoes, — an instance of which absence
of mind I myself saw at my father's house, where he was
invited to dine, and the occurrence greatly amused several
young girls, who took occasion to laugh at the old gentleman.
" It was difficult for him to talk quickly, for he then stam
mered, especially when he was obliged to talk in a foreign
tongue. Of foreign languages, in addition to the learned
languages, he understood well French, English, Dutch, Ger
man, and Italian ; for he had journeyed several times in these
countries. He spoke slowly ; and it was always a pleasure to
be with him at table, for whenever Swedenborg spoke, all
' other talk was hushed ; and the slowness with which he
spoke had the effect of restraining the frivolous remarks of
the curious in the assembly. At first he used to talk freely
about his visions and his explanations of Scripture ; but when
this displeased the clergy, and they pronounced him a heretic
or a downright madman, he resolved to be more sparing of
his communications in company, or at all events to be more
on his guard, so as not to offer an opportunity to scoffers of
inveighing against what they could not understand as well
as himself.

378 FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS.
"I once addressed the pastor of our parish, an old and
esteemed clergyman, and asked him what I ought to think of
Swedenborg's visions and of his explanations of the Bible.
This honorable man answered me with the spirit of true
tolerance : ' Let God be the judge how these things are in
reality ! But I cannot pass the same judgment upon him
that many others do ; I have spoken with him myself, and I
have found in company where he was with me that he is a
pious and good man.'
"The chaplain of the Imperial Russian Legation, Oronos-
kow, who was in Stockholm during the time of the ambassa
dor, Count Ostermann, was a monk of the Alexander-Newsky
order, and led an orderly and pious life, — quite differently
from the other Russian priests who had been here before
him. He became acquainted with me, and I lent him Swe
denborg's books, which he said he read with the greatest
delight. He desired to see Swedenborg, and to talk with
this remarkable man. I complied with his desire, and invited
Swedenborg and him to dinner, in company with the late
President of the Royal College of Commerce, Mr. von Carle-
son, and the Councillor of Chancery, Mr. Berch, together
with several of my relatives. During dinner the chaplain
asked Swedenborg, among other things, whether he had seen
the Empress Elizabeth. Swedenborg answered : ' I have
seen her often, and I know that she is in a very happy state.'
This answer brought tears of joy into the chaplain's eyes, who
said that she had been good and just. 'Yes,' said Sweden
borg, ' her kind feeling for her people was made known, after
her death, in the other life ; for there it was shown that she
never went into council without praying to God and asking
for His counsel and assistance, in order that she might govern
well her country and her people.' This gladdened the chap
lain so much that he expressed his joyful surprise by silence
and tears. . . .
"When he [Swedenborg] left Sweden for the last time, he
came of his own accord to me at the bank on the day he was

CARL ROBSAHM.

379

to leave, and gave me a protest against any condemnation of
his writings during his absence ; which protest was based on
the law of Sweden, and in which he stated that the House
of the Clergy was not the only judge in matters of religion,
inasmuch as theology belonged also to the other Houses.
On this occasion I asked him the same question as before,
namely, whether I should ever see him again. His answer
was tender and touching : ' Whether I shall come again,
that,' said he, 'I do not yet know ; but of this I can assure
you, for the Lord has promised to me, that I shall not die
until I have received from the press this work, the Vera
Christiana Religio, which is now ready to be printed, and for
the sake of which I now undertake this journey ; but if we
do not meet again in the body, we shall meet in the presence
of the Lord, provided we live in this world according to His
Will, and not according to our own.' He then took leave of
me in as blithe and cheerful a frame of mind as if he had
been a man in his best years ; and the same day he departed
from Sweden for the last time.
" I asked Swedenborg once whether his explanations would
be received in Christendom. 'About that,' said he, ' I can
say nothing ; but I suppose that in their proper time they will
be received, for otherwise the Lord would not have disclosed
what has heretofore lain concealed.'
"He was never ill, except when temptations came over
him, but he was frequently troubled with toothache. I came
to him once on such an occasion, when he complained of a
severe toothache, which had continued for several days. I
recommended a common remedy for soothing the pain ; but
he answered at once that his toothache was not caused by a
diseased nerve, but by the influx of hell from hypocrites
who tempted him, and who by correspondence caused this
pain, which, he said, he knew would soon cease, and leave
him. " Respecting his temptations, I collected information from
his modest servants, the old gardener and his wife, who told

380 FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS.
me with sympathizing and compassionate words that Sweden
borg often spoke aloud in his room, and was indignant when
evil spirits were with him. This they could hear the more
distinctly, because their room was near his. When he was
asked why he had been so restless during the night, he an
swered that permission had been given to evil spirits to revile
him, and that he spoke to and was indignant with them. It
often happened that he wept bitterly, and called out with a
loud voice, and prayed to the Lord that He would not leave
him in the temptation which had come upon him. The
words which he cried out were these : 'O Lord, help me ! O
Lord my God, do not forsake me ! ' When it was all over,
and his people asked him about the cause of this lamenta
tion, he said : ' God be praised ! it is over now. You must
not trouble yourselves about me ; for whatever happens to
me is permitted by the Lord, and He does not suffer me to
be tempted more than He sees that I can bear.'
" Once it was very remarkable that, after such a lamentation,
he lay down and did not rise from his bed for several days
and nights. This caused his people much uneasiness ; they
talked with one another, and supposed that he had died from
some great fright. They thought of having the door forced
open, or of calling in his intimate friends. At last the man
went to the window, and to his great joy saw that his master
was still alive, for he turned himself in bed. The next day
he rang the bell, and then the housekeeper went in and told
him of her own and her husband's uneasiness at his con
dition ; whereupon he said with a cheerful countenance that
he was doing well, and that he did not need anything. She
was satisfied with this answer, for neither of his servants dared
to interrogate him, since they had the same opinion of him as
the old clergyman in my parish ; and they added that such a
wise, and learned man would never distress himself with work
and temptations, if he did not know whence they came."
At another time Robsahm quotes the gardener's wife as
saying, —

CARL ROBSAHM. 38 1
" ' I can see when he has spoken with heavenly spirits, for
his face has then an expression of gentleness, cheerfulness,
and contentment which is charming ; but after he has con
versed with evil spirits, he looks sad.' "...
" During the session of the Diet he was interested in hear
ing news from the House of Nobles, of which he was a mem
ber by virtue of his being the head of the Swedenborg
family. He wrote several memorials ; but when he saw that
party-spirit and self-interest struggled for mastery, he went
rarely to the House of Nobles. In his conversations with his
friends he inveighed against the spirit of dissension among
the members of the Diet; and in acting with a party he
was never a party man, but loved truth and honesty in all
he did.
" I asked Swedenborg whether in our times it was worth
while to pay attention to dreams ; upon which he answered
that the Lord no longer at the present day makes revelations
by dreams ; but that, nevertheless, it may hapgen that one
who understands correspondences may derive advantage from
his dreams, — just as a person that is awake may examine his
own state by comparing his own will with God's command
ments. . . .
"Whatever Swedenborg wrote was printed from his own
manuscript, and he never needed the help of an amanuensis.
His handwriting was difficult to read when he became older ;
but he said to me : ' The Dutch printers read my handwrit
ing as easily as the English do.' There is one thing to be
observed with regard to most of his spiritual writings, that
the proof-sheets were corrected very badly, so that errata
occur very often ; the cause of this, he said, was that the
printer had undertaken the proof-reading, as well as the
printing. "As Swedenborg in his younger days did not think of the
work which was to occupy him in his more advanced years,
it can easily be imagined that in his time he was not only a
learned man, but also a pohshed gentleman ; for a man of

382 FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS.
such extensive learning, who by his books, his travels, and
his knowledge of languages had acquired distinction both at
home and abroad, could not fail to possess the manners and
everything else which, in those so-called serious or sober
times, caused a man to be honored and made him agreeable
in society. He was accordingly, even in his old age, cheer
ful, sprightly, and agreeable in company; yet at the same
time his countenance presented those uncommon features
which are seen only in men of great genius."
To Robsahm's inquiry about the future condition of those
who are beheaded, Swedenborg answered, —
" ' When a person who has become matured in wickedness
is removed from the earth by the law and the axe, although
to all appearance penitent, he still remains wicked to eter
nity, because his conversion is compulsory, and not brought
about by his own free-will, as required by God. For unless
his crimes cast him into prison, where he sees death impend
ing, he will never direct his thoughts towards God, still less
his heart, hardened by habit. And such a one, when he
finds that he lives as before, rushes headlong into the prac
tice of all those evil works which he did in the world, and
quickly brings himself into hell, among the spirits with which
he had been associated during his life on earth.
" ' It is quite different, however, with those who are exe
cuted on account of some crime which they had committed
while in a state of intoxication, anger, or indignation, or
from rashness, without any real intention of doing it. Such
repent bitterly of what they have done, and if they do not
confirm themselves against the Lord's commandments dur
ing the remainder of their life, they become after their death
happy and blessed spirits.' "
Robsahm continues, — " When a certain clergyman died in
Stockholm, who by his eloquence and his pathetic mode of
preaching had always his church filled with hearers, I asked
Swedenborg whether he was not in a blessed state. ' This
man,' said he, ' went straightway to hell, among the societies

CARL ROBSAHM.

383

of hypocrites, for he was spiritually minded only while in the
pulpit ; at other times he was proud of his talents and of the
success he had in the world : he was an inflated man. No,
no,' he added; 'there no dissimulation and no deceitful arts
are of any avail ; for all these disappear with death, and man
involuntarily shows himself to be either good, or else evil.'
" I know from experience that there is not a single word
in all his writings which leads man away from the doing of
God's will, and consequently from a sincere love of the
neighbor; there is contained, however, therein an entirely
new system, which is opposed to the principal religions pro
fessed by men, and to all their sects, but which agrees with
all of them in this particular, that blessedness and misery
depend upon man's life in this world.
" All this Swedenborg has proved abundantly in his writ
ings, and especially has he written against the dangerous
doctrine of faith alone ; and if we in the history of the
Church follow those who have been instrumental in estab
lishing religions, we find that all religions, from the earliest
to the latest times, have been instituted by well-meaning per
sons, and that afterwards they have been subverted partly by
the ignorant and partly by cunning and crafty prelates. In
conclusion, however, I earnestly desire that every one who
reads Swedenborg's writings should do so with caution, and
that he should rather remain in the faith he received in
childhood, and which was often impressed on him with se
verity, and which very few among the professors of faith ex
amine, than that he should from frivolity or from blind zeal
revile what he cannot understand. For such persons read
all the Prophets and the book of Revelation, where they
understand nothing, with the same feeling of contempt with
which they read Swedenborg's system, where, however, every
thing may be easily understood by him who does not amuse
himself at the expense of truth, and who does not reject
everything that does not agree with his own preconceived
notions."

384 FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS.
Robsahm's vivid picture of his friend may be supple
mented by the slighter sketches of some of Swedenborg's
visitors, with less intimate acquaintance. The royal libra
rian in Stockholm, Gjorwell, called on him in 1 764 to re
quest, for the Royal Library, a copy of the works he had
lately published. His account of his visit to Swedenborg
is simple, and pleasant to read : —
" I met him in the garden adjoining his house in the
Sodermalm [southern part of Stockholm], where he was en
gaged in tending his plants, attired in a simple garment. The
house in which he lives is of wood ; it is low, and looks like
a garden-house ; its windows also are in the direction of the
garden. Without knowing me or the nature of my errand,
he said, smiling : ' Perhaps you would like to take a walk in
the garden.' I answered that I wished to have the honor of
calling upon him and asking him, on behalf of the Royal
Library, for his latest works, so that we might have a com
plete set, especially as we had the former parts he had left
with Wilde, the royal secretary. ' Most willingly,' he an
swered ; ' besides, I had intended to send them there, as
my purpose in publishing them has been to make them
known, and to place them in the hands of intelligent people.'
I thanked him for his. kindness, whereupon he showed them
to me and took a walk with me in the garden.
" Although he is an old man, and gray hair protruded in
every direction from under his wig, he walked briskly, was
fond of talking, and spoke with a certain cheerfulness. His
countenance was, indeed, thin and meagre, but cheerful and
smiling. By and by he began of his own accord to speak of
his views ; and as it had been in reality my second purpose
to hear them with my own ears, I listened to him with eager
attention, not challenging any of his statements, but simply
asking him questions, as if for my own enlightenment. The
substance of his statements, and of what I drew from him by
polite questions, consists mainly in what follows : —
" His doctrinal system of theology, which he in common

GJORWELL'S VISIT. 385
with other Christians bases upon our common revelation,
the Sacred Scripture, consists principally in this : That faith
alone is a pernicious doctrine, and that good works are the
proper means for becoming better in time, and for leading a
blessed life in eternity. That in order to acquire the ability
or power to do good works, prayer to the Only God is re
quired, and that man also must labor with himself, because
God does not use compulsion with us, nor does He work
any miracles for our conversion. As regards the rest, man
must live in his appointed place, acquiring the 'same learning,
and leading a life similar to that of other honest and modest
persons who live temperately and piously. About the atone
ment and our Saviour, he said not a word. It is a pity I did
not ask him about it. But his thoughts on this our funda
mental article of faith may be inferred from his expression
about faith alone."
Readers of Swedenborg will recognize this as a simple,
clear, and true presentation of New-Church doctrine, as far
as it goes. If the librarian had asked about our Saviour, he
would have found that Swedenborg was thinking of Him all
the time, as the Only God in His Humanity ; and he would
have learned that the atonement is nothing else than the
glorification of this Humanity, and our redemption thereby.
Gjorwell goes on to say, according to Swedenborg, —
" That God revealed Himself to him in May, 1 744, while
he was in London, and that up to that time God had pre
pared him by a thorough knowledge of all physical and
moral powers in this world for the reception of the new
revelation ; and ever since that time he has constantly and
without interruption been in communion with God, whom he
sees before his eyes like a sun. He speaks with angels and
the departed, and knows whatever takes place in the other
world, as well in heaven as in hell ; but he does not know the
future. " His mission consists in communicating this new light to
the world ; and whoever is willing to accept it receives it.
25

386 FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS.
The Lord also has granted him this revelation, that he may
make it known to others, which he has done in Latin, the
most universal language in the world. He alone has re
ceived this revelation, which also is a most particular gift,
which he makes use of for the enlightenment of mankind.
He who does not scorn this light, and who does not resist
this revelation, receives it ; and this revelation is living truth.
Its object really is that a New Jerusalem is to be established
among men ; the meaning of which is that a New Church is
at hand, about the nature of which, and the way to enter it,
his writings really treat.
"About all this he spoke with a perfect conviction, laying
particular stress upon these words : ' All this I see and
know without becoming the subject of any visions, and with
out being a fanatic ; but when I am alone, my soul is as it
were out of the body, and in the other world : in all respects
I am in a visible manner there, as I am here. But when I
think of what I am about to write, and while I am in the
act of writing, I enjoy a perfect inspiration [sa ager jag en
full komlig inspiration] ; for otherwise it would be my own ;
but now I know for certain that what I write is the living
truth of God."
That the word "inspiration" is not here used in the sense
of dictation, or as used in reference to the writers of the
Scriptures, but in the sense of clear enlightenment of the
reason, is certain from Swedenborg's constant teaching, al
ready quoted, that this is the only kind of inspiration grant
ed by the Lord at this day.
The Rev. Nicholas Collin, in 1820, rector of the quaint
old Swedish Church in Philadelphia, the same that was built
in 1 700 under Bishop Swedberg's charge, lived, when a young
man, three years in Stockholm, at a time when " Sweden
borg was a great object of public attention in that metro
polis, and his extraordinary character was a frequent topic of
discussion. Not seldom he appeared in public, and mixed in
private circles ; therefore sufficient opportunities were given

COLLIN'S VISIT.

387

to make observations on him." Mr. Collin was not a fol
lower of Swedenborg, but obligingly gave public information
about him on several occasions. Of a visit of his own, he
writes as follows : —
" In the summer of 1 766 I waited on him at his house,
introducing myself, with an apology for the freedom I took,
assuring him that it was not in the least from youthful
presumption (I was then twenty), but from a strong de
sire of conversing with a character so celebrated. He re
ceived me very kindly. It being early in the afternoon,
delicate coffee, without eatables, was served, agreeably to the
Swedish custom : he was also, like pensive men in general,
fond of this beverage. We conversed for nearly three hours,
principally on the nature of human souls and their states in
the invisible world, discussing the principal theories of psy
chology by various authors, — among them the celebrated
Dr. Wallerius, late professor of Natural Theology at Upsal.
He asserted positively, as he often does in his works, that he
had intercourse with spirits of deceased persons. I pre
sumed, therefore, to request of him, as a great favor, to pro
cure me an interview with my brother, who had departed
this life a few months before, a young clergyman officiating
in Stockholm and esteemed for his devotion, erudition, and
virtue. He answered that, God having for wise and good
purposes separated the world of spirits from ours, a com
munication is never granted without cogent reasons, and
asked what my motives were. I confessed that I had none
besides gratifying brotherly affection and an ardent wish to
^plore scenes so sublime and interesting to a serious mind.
He replied that my motives were good, but not sufficient ;
that if any important spiritual or temporal concern of mine
had been the case, he would then have solicited permission
from those angels who regulate such matters."
In explanation of this last sentence, which was called in
question, as hardly in accordance with any of Swedenborg's
teachings, Mr. Collin said that it did not imply any worship

388 FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS.
of angels, but only a request to them, as agents under Divine
command. It is much more usual with Swedenborg to ask
favors, even as simple as this, from the Lord. It is his con
stant habit to refer everything to the permission or grace
of the Lord, even when it is plain to see that the favor is
granted, not specially, but in the regular course of the Divine
Providence, and perhaps through ordinary angelic or human
agency : such is his delight to perceive and confess the hand
of the Lord in everything ! And yet it is entirely in accord
ance with his teachings that such matters, and all matters in
which the Lord can use the faculties of angels, are intrusted
to them, acting under enlightenment from Him.
In another letter Mr. Collin said, —
"Swedenborg was universally esteemed for his various
erudition in mathematics, mineralogy, etc., and for his prob
ity, benevolence, and general virtue. Being very old when
I saw him, he was thin and pale ; but he still retained traces
of beauty in his physiognomy, and a dignity dn his tall and
erect stature."
To our good friend, Mr. Zina Hyde, Mr. Collin said, —
" Swedenborg was of a stature a little above the common
size, of very perfect form, erect and easy in his carriage,
with a placid expression of dignity beaming from his coun
tenance ; he was affable in his manners, easy of access, and
always ready to converse freely on subjects relating to either
world, but singularly unapt to obtrude his ideas on others,
either in conversation or by his writings, though firm and
unwavering with regard to the truth of his relations. His
history from very early life was reputed to be such as evinced
great purity, as well as strength, of mental character." Speak
ing of the affair of the Queen of Sweden, which her libra
rian had told him from her mouth, and of other similar
occurrences, Mr. Collin said that he believed "no one at
Stockholm presumed to doubt of his having some kind of
supernatural intercourse with the spiritual world in all these
cases," and this, he said, was not strange, " for at that time

SCHERER'S STORY. 389
occasional communication between this and the invisible
world was believed to exist by many of the most learned
men in Sweden."
Dr. J. F. I. Tafel, with his friend the Rev. Mr. Moser,
was told by Professor Scherer, of Tubingen University, who
had resided at Stockholm during Swedenborg's time as secre
tary to an embassy, that "in Stockholm, in all companies,
very much was said about the spirit-seer, Swedenborg, and
wonderful things were related respecting his intercourse with
spirits and angels. But the judgment pronounced concern
ing him was various. Some gave full credit to his visions,
others passed them by as incomprehensible, and others re
jected them as fanatical ; but he himself had never been able
to believe them. Swedenborg, however, on account of his
excellent character, was universally held in high estimation."
Among other remarkable things Professor Scherer related
that " Swedenborg was one evening in company in Stock
holm, when, after his information about the world of spirits
had been heard with the greatest attention, they put him to
the proof as to the credibility of his extraordinary spiritual
communications. The test was this : he should state which
of the company would die first. Swedenborg did not refuse
to answer this question, but after some time, in which he ap
peared to be in profound and silent meditation, he quite
openly replied : ' Olof Olofsohn will die to-morrow morn
ing at forty-five minutes past four o'clock.' By this predic
tive declaration, which was pronounced by Swedenborg with
all confidence, the company were placed in anxious expec
tation, and a gentleman who was a friend of Olof Olofsohn
resolved to go on the following morning, at the time men
tioned by Swedenborg, to the house of Olofsohn, to see
whether Swedenborg's prediction was fulfilled. On the way
thither he met the well-known servant of Olofsohn, who told
him that his master had just then died : a fit of apoplexy
had seized him, and had suddenly put an end to his life.
Upon which the gentleman, tirrough the evidence of the

390 FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS.
death which really occurred, was convinced. At the same
time this particular circumstance also attracted attention :
the clock in Olofsohn's dwelling apartment stopped at the
very minute in which he had expired, and the hand pointed
to the time."
A peculiar and instructive answer was given by Sweden
borg to a question propounded by a foreign minister in 1 771,
in the following terms : —
" It is hoped that by means of Monsieur de Swedenborg
information may be obtained of what has become of the
Prince of Saxe-Coburg Saalfeld, named John William, who
was lost in the year 1 745, without any one having the least
knowledge of his fate. Neither his age nor anything else
respecting his person has been communicated."
Swedenborg replied in writing, —
" No one can find out anything about this, since the de
parted themselves do not know in what manner they died or
perished in the world ; for death to them is not death, but an
entrance into the other life and a continuation of the former.
They also fully believe and think that there is no death at
all ; wherefore, if any one is asked about his disease in the
world, it seems to him as if he was asked about a thing which
has not happened. Besides, it is difficult to meet with any one
who departed this life twenty-seven years ago ; for he is then
firmly established in some society where it is difficult for me
to enter. Should I ask the angels on this subject, they have
no such knowledge at all, and as to interrogating the Lord
Himself concerning it, it is too small a matter."
On the other hand, as by accident, we occasionally get
from Swedenborg's intercourse with the other world an in
teresting personal or historical hint. In his " Diary," under
date of December 13, 1759, he notes that Louis XIV., who
reigned in France from 1643 t0 I7IS. came near him in
spirit that evening, and went down some steps in front, then
stopped, and said that there he found Versailles, just as it had
been in his time. It seemed then that the King became

BISHOP HALENIUS. oqj
abstracted, as in sleep, and all kept silence about him for
some two hours, when he aroused as if out of sleep. Speak
ing with Swedenborg, he said that he had been with his
great-grandson, Louis XV., and urged him in various ways
to desist altogether from pushing the Bull Unigenitus,—
which, at the instigation of the Jesuits, he had hitherto
tried to force upon the Parliament and people.
Accordingly, for reasons unknown to history, Louis XV.
thereafter did nothing more to support the Bull ; and a few
years later he expelled the Jesuits from France.
Swedenborg was cautious about private conversations, es
pecially with unknown women who called to make inquiries,
and required the presence of his servants or a friend, and
the conversation to be in Swedish. Bishop Halenius, a suc
cessor of Bishop Swedberg, visiting him, and the conversa
tion turning on sermons, Swedenborg said to him : " You
spread falsities in yours." On this the Bishop asked the
servant to withdraw ; but Swedenborg told her to stay, and
went on to reprove the Bishop for his injustice and avarice,
saying : " there is already prepared for you a place in hell ;
but I predict to you that in a few months you will be attacked
by a severe illness, during which the Lord will seek to con
vert you. If you will then open your heart to His holy in
fluences, your conversion will be accomplished. Write me
then, and ask me for my theological writings, and I will send
them to you." After a few months an officer of the Bishop's
province called upon Swedenborg. "How is Bishop Hale
nius?" Swedenborg asked. "He has been very ill," he re
plied, " but he has now recovered, and is altogether a different
man. He is kind, benevolent, full of righteousness, and re
turns threefold, and sometimes fourfold, what he had before
acquired by unrighteous means." From that time the Bishop
was "one of the warmest friends of the doctrines of the
Lord's New Church, and he openly declared that the theo
logical writings of Swedenborg were the most precious trea
sures of humanity." * 1 Pernety.

392 FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS.
Pleasantly, a lady of Linkoping writes to the Rev. R. L.
Tafel, in 1869, that the daughter of this same Bishop Hale-
nius told her as follows : —
" When quite a child she and her brothers came up to
Stockholm, in the year 1767, in order to be present at their
father's funeral. One day [after the funeral] the children
were asked to dine with one of their father's friends, who
lived in the southern part of the town. While walking up
Hornsgatan they were overtaken by a violent shower of rain,
from which they sought refuge in the hall of a house. Here
an elderly gentleman came cheerfully towards them, and told
them that they were very welcome. This gentleman was
Emanuel Swedenborg. And when the elder brother, who was
then a mere boy, stepped forward to tell him why they entered
his house, and that they were the children of Bishop Halenius,
Swedenborg interrupted the lad by saying, ' I know it already,
for your father has just been with me, and told me that you
were coming.' He then asked them to step into his room ;
and after conversing with him about an hour, until the rain
stopped, they continued on their way."
Another elderly lady said that, —
" When four years old she took a walk one Sunday afternoon
with her parents from Kungsbaken to Swedensborg's property
in Hornsgatan, in order to visit his garden. This was open
to the public, but not to children whose manners displeased
this remarkable man. At the entrance to the garden, the
gardener gave the family to understand that they could not
enter, on account of the child's being with them. But Swe
denborg, who was at some distance from them in one of the
garden walks, called out to the gardener to open the gate, as
the child was so strictly trained to obedience that she would
do no harm. The little girl thought this remark quite natural,
because she knew it to be true ; but later in life she won
dered how Swedenborg could have known it, as her family
lived at a great distance, in the northern portion of the town,
and was not in the habit of visiting the southern portion."

CHAPTER XVI.
HOME LIFE OF SWEDENBORG.
Stockholm is built on a number of small islands, at the
junction of the Lake Mcelar with the Baltic. The islands
are joined by thirteen short bridges to each other and to the
mainland, north and south. On the islands are the palace,
the cathedral, the bank, and other public buildings. But most
of the residences are on the mainland, in the Norrmalm, or
northern suburb, and in the Sodermalm, or southern suburb.
The Norrmalm slopes gradually back from the shore ; but the
Sodermalm "rises in bold, abrupt cliffs, where the white
houses nestle beautifully among shading trees." x
In the Sodermalm, nestling among his own beautiful lime-
trees, was Swedenborg's humble one-story, gambrel-roofed
dwelling, quietly withdrawn, with its little red stable and
larger yellow plant-house, to the eastern end of the en
closure, leaving about an acre for the garden, upon which
the house faced.
In the garden was the chief attraction of the place. This
was laid out formally, in accordance with the taste of the
times, with straight border paths and two crossing at right
angles in the middle. At their crossing a rustic summer-house
was placed, with four doors opening in four directions on the
walks, and made to fold back across the corners of the room,
so that, when they stood open, they made of it an octagon.
Opposite this summer-house, against the high board-fence
which separated the garden from the street, was another
1 Bremner's Excursions, i. 342.

394 HOME LIFE OF SWEDENBORG.
summer-house, with three doors opening on the paths in
front and on the two sides. Opposite the front entrance
appeared another door. On opening this there was seen
another garden, the image of the one already traversed, seen
in a mirror, behind which was the wall of the building and
the board-fence.' From a third summer-house, which we
understand to have been at the middle of the west side, a
passage led into a neat, retired library, where Swedenborg sat
and wrote in peace, save when interrupted by friendly visitors,
for whose pleasure he had built the summer-houses, and also
a curious maze, or labyrinth, — his own pleasure being in his
fruits and flowers. Among his letters and accounts from
Holland we find items of rare bulbs and seeds and plants,
shipped by his correspondents. In an old almanac, for 1750,
are found his entries of the days on which he planted certain
choice auriculas, pinks, etc., the time they bloomed, and
what seed he saved from them. Certain quaint old box-trees,
curiously trimmed and trained in Holland, of whose importa
tion we have an account, were still to be seen a few years ago.
Of the gardener and his wife who had the care of these
premises we have found frequent mention. A pretty story is
told of them in a Swedish book by Dr. Wetterbey, called
Altartaflan, — Altar-pictures, of which the Rev. R. L. Tafel
gives us the translation. A young man sees pictures, or vis
ions, which his father explains. Says Alfred, the son, —
" I saw a large peasant-house, with a dark, pointed roof; under the
roof there were suspended long poles with bread, as is the custom in
Swedish peasant houses. It seemed to me, however, as if it were not
a common peasant's house, although the furniture, the open fire-place
with the burning logs, surrounded by men carving wood and women
spinning, indicated that it was really a peasant's house. An old man
was sitting on a three-legged stool, and seemed to be resting himself,
surrounded by his servants. Suddenly a young man entered the
house, went towards the old man, reached out his hand to him and
said, — ' Do you know, father, Jesper has been ordained a priest ? '
The old man folded his hands and said, — ' May God grant that this
was done in a blessed hour ; Jesper has a difficult office.' Then this
vision disappeared. Soon another took its place ; and I saw two pic-

THE SWEDBERG FAMILY.

395

tures. In one of them was a venerable, grave, but mild man, dressed
in a bishop's garb, and laying his hands upon the curly head of a boy.
The boy looked up, with his clear, penetrating eyes, as if he had asked
something to which he expected an answer. There was inspiration in
his look. In the other picture there was a peasant, who went over
his field sowing ; and at one end of the field there sat a boy reading a
book. But soon these pictures disappeared, and I saw nothing more."
The father looked smilingly on his son during this narration,
and at its close he said, —
" This is a legend from olden times. If I am not mistaken, you
have been at our old homestead, with Daniel Isaksson, in Sweden,
near Fahlun. I know this well, partly from our family history, as it
has been told me, and partly from other sources. You see, Alfred,
Daniel Isaksson was an honest miner, — half peasant and half miner ;
he was joint owner of several blasting furnaces, which were run at
common expense, according to the old mining usage which gave each
of the stockholders the blasting of a certain number of days. The
young farmer who came in and reached out his hand to the old man
was my grandfather, Isak Danielsson, and Jesper, who became a
priest, was his brother,— Jesper Swedberg. You saw him afterwards
as a bishop, and the inquiring boy at his knees, with the look of inspi
ration, was Emanuel Swedenborg. The peasant sowing was again my
grandfather, and the boy who sat at one end of the field was my
father ; he also became a priest, and called himself Danielius, which
I have changed into Danieli."
" We are then of the same stock as the noble seer," said Alfred.
" Yes, Alfred. When strange thoughts pass through my soul, and
I speak as it were not from my own mind, then I think to myself, —
'This is in our family.' There is something that has not yet been
cleared up in the heart of our family, a sort of family disorder. I can
not call it by any other name, for it is something so uncommon. But
enough of this, Alfred. There are strange thoughts among them, and
presentiments which are quite surprising : but ' This is in our family.' "
Alfred smiled and said, —
" It is in the whole human family."
" Yes, certainly, there is a. great deal in man of which we know
nothing ; there are faculties in him that none of us suspect. So, for
instance, the savage in Africa sees the water flowing deep under the
surface of the earth ; he says, — ' Here is water ; ' and on digging far
down it is found. This is neither sight, nor smell, nor hearing ; and
yet it is some kind of sense, however it may be called ; and it is a
sense of which we know nothing in Europe, and in the absence of

396 HOME LIFE.
which a civilized and enlightened human being dies of thirst, a few
feet from the spring that might save him."
" But, father, did you never in your youth see Swedenborg and talk
with him ? " said Alfred.
" No, my son ; only once during the lifetime of this remarkable
man was my father in Stockholm; but Swedenborg was at that time
in England, where he frequently resided, and we did not meet him.
We visited the house which he owned in the Sodermalm. I was then
a mere boy, but I recollect it as well as if 'it had happened only to-day.
My fancy was very much excited, and I expected to find the place
where this wonderful man resided something between a church and a
burying-vault. " My father, although he was an Orthodox priest, had nevertheless
also a tendency to mysticism. But he labored as much as possible
against this bias of his nature, and in his anxiety to overcome it he
went further than he otherwise would' have done. In consequence of
this, he always described Swedenborg to me as a sort of visionary, and
his doctrine as thoroughly un-Christian and without any foundation.
Yet, in spite of all this, I noticed that these prejudices were merely a
thin veil, under which there lay concealed a feeling of deep venera
tion for this uncommonly gifted man. Children generally- have this
faculty of seeing through the shell to the kernel. And it is this which
often renders them familiar and unrestrained in the company of a
stern old man, and in tumbling up his gray locks ; when, on the other
hand, they will hide away in a corner when a smooth-tongued cour
teous man of the world desires to flatter them. We can always rest
assured that children will gather around a man who loves them,
though he may not have expressed his fondness by a single word. In
short, I saw through my good old father, how his words belied his
inner feeling ; and this contradiction increased my curiosity to know
something about our absent kinsman, who it seemed to me was him
self a sort of spirit-being.
" But he was not at home ; the little building in which he used to
live was in the rear of a large garden, full of berry-bushes and fruit-
trees. How simple and unassuming was this house I Nothing like
the enchanted castle in the Arabian Nights, which I had pictured to
myself. Instead of the castle, I found a one-storied dwelling-house,
with a few dark rooms ; and instead of an enchanted dwarf there
came out a cheerful, friendly little woman, who asked whether We
wished to see the Assessor's room ?
" When the good old woman learned that we were distantly related
to her Assessor, the band of her tongue was loosed, and she related to
us a little story, which I have never seen in print, and perhaps better
than anything else characterizes Swedenborg as a man. ' Yes,' said

STORY OF THE GARDENER. 397
the little old woman, 'people judge without seeing, and this almost
cost me and Andersson our places. You see my old man who goes
yonder, raking the flower-beds : it almost cost us our whole happiness '
" ' How so ? ' asked my father.
'"You know, dear Pastor, there were so many among our friends
who said to me,— "You ought not to serve in Swedenborg's house, for
he is no Christian," they said. Now the truth is, that then, as now,
we thought ever so much of our Assessor, but when I heard that he
had not the true faith which leads to blessedness, I began to doubt
whether it was right to serve in his .house. It was a hard struggle,
for I thought as much of the Assessor as of my own father; and so
I lay many a mght weeping bitterly that the Assessor was not a Chris
tian, and praying for the salvation of his soul. I really fretted myself
ill out of mere sorrow, for you see my friends worried me so much,
and insisted that I should leave the house of this heathen, who did not
believe in Christ,— for so they said. At last Andersson noticed that
I no longer ate or drank, and wanted to know the cause, and begged
so hard that I told him all. Yes, Andersson is a good man, and he
always believes me rather than himself; and so he also began to
worry.' " But, if I should tell the whole story in her words," said Dan-
ieli, "it would make it too long, and so I shall relate more briefly what
happened. " One day the old man and the old woman, the modest gardener-folks,
dressed in their holiday suits, entered Swedenborg's silent study, the
room with the brown panel-paintings, the gable windows, and a view
out on the lilac bushes. Swedenborg sat with his head resting upon
both hands, poring over a large book. Astonished at the unusual
noise, he raised his head and looked towards the door. There stood
the good gardener-folks,- though but the middle of the week, both
dressed in their holiday clothes, bowing and curtseying. On Sweden
borg's grave but cheerful countenance there played an inquiring smile.
" ' Why dressed up so, Andersson and Margaret ? ' he said, ' What
do you want ? '
" This was not in truth easy to say, and, instead of an answer, Mar
garet began to cry, and her husband crushed his hat into a thousand
wrinkles, and in his heart wished himself more than a thousand miles
away. '"Is there any care that lies upon your hearts, any distress which
has suddenly come over you?' said Swedenborg, — 'Then speak out
plainly, and, with God's help, it will all go well again.'
" ' Yes,' at last said the old gardener, ' yes, we wish to leave the
Assessor's service.'
" Swedenborg seemed surprised. 'Leave me! and why?' he asked,

398 HOME LIFE.
with his penetrating, friendly look, which pierced them to their very
heart ; ' I thought, as we were growing old together, we should to our
very end remain faithful to one another, and never separate in this
life.' " ' Yes, so also we thought ourselves,' burst out the housewife, al
most overcome with tears; 'for thirty years we have served you, and
I thought it would be God's pleasure that we should die in your gar
den, and under your eyes ; but, but — '
" ' Speak out, woman ; what lies so heavily upon your heart ? I
know that both of you think a^reat deal of me. Is it not so ? '
" ' Yes, before God it is so,' said both of them together.
"'Speak out then,' said Swedenborg with a smile, 'and then we
may be able to help the matter.'
" The housewife, whose strong emotion gave her courage to speak,
and words to express her thoughts, at last began : ' Yes, people say
we ought not to serve you any longer, because you are not a right
Christian.' " ' Nothing else, my good woman,' said Swedenborg quietly ; ' noth
ing else ? Well, let the world judge so ; but why should you think
so ?'
" ' You see you never go to Church ; for years you have never been
inside St. Mary's Church.'
"' Have you never read,' replied Swedenborg solemnly, ' that, where
two or three are gathered together in the Lord's name, there is His
Church and meeting-place ? Do you believe that it is the steeple and
copper roof which makes a holy place of it ? Do you believe that it
is holy for any one else but him who has in his heart Christ's Church ?
Do you believe that it is the walls, organ, and pulpit, which constitute
its holiness ? '
" ' No, no ; I know that well enough.'
" ' Well, then, here at home, in this room, in the arbor, in the garden,
wherever a man or spirit lives within or without space and time, wher
ever a prayer is either thought or read, wherever a voice of thanks
giving is sent up to Him who is the Giver of all good, there is His
Church ; and it is consequently here where I live sheltered from the
world.' " Both the faithful servants bowed their heads and said, — ' But this
is not the way of the world.'
" ' The way of the world, my friends ? ' replied Swedenborg, ' I
suppose the way of the world is Christian, is it not ? '
" ' Yes, it is.'
" ' In name it is, but not in spirit and in truth. Faith without works
is a dead faith : a flower which does not live is nothing but lifeless
dust ; and faith which does not live in every action of man is a dead

STORY OF THE GARDENER.

399

faith,— it is no faith at all. Here, my friends, see what this Christian
world really does. They call, indeed, upon Him, the only Son, in
their times of need, but they forget both His teaching and His life.
Like an obstinate child who despises warning, they rush into all man
ner of lusts, into pride and wickedness, which are like a thin, frail
covering over an abyss ; and over this yawning abyss they scoff at
their teacher, and act foolishly and madly until this covering breaks.
Then they call out for help, but in vain, for they have long since for
feited it; sometimes they are dragged up again, but in their foolish
pride they let go the Saving Hand, they spurn the healing repentance,
and continue their course of vain talk and idle sport. So does the
Christian world, and they think that all that is necessary for them is
to have a priest to speak to them a few hours in the week about God
and the Saviour; and they do not think that any more is required of
them than to hear and to forget. They therefore believe that it is
outward gesture, the singing of psalms, and the tones of the organ,
together with the empty sound of recited prayers, which penetrate to
the Lord in heaven. Truly when the people prostrate themselves in
the churches, then it is the voice of a few only that penetrates to the
Lord. " ' Let me tell you something. To-day there was a little child sitting
in the street, a little blind girl, who folded her little hands upon her
lap, and turned her darkened eyes towards heaven ; and when I saw
her, and asked her, " What makes you look so happy, although you
are blind ? " — the little girl said, " I am thinking of God, our Father,
who will some day take me to Him, and show me all His splendor."
Truly, my good people, it was only at the corner of the street that she
sat, yet I took off my hat, and bowed my head, for I knew that God
was near, and that this was a holy place.
" ' No, there is a worm gnawing at the kernel of Christianity, al
though its shell is whole. Charity is the kernel, and the outward
forms are the shell. Where do you see charity in this uncharitable
world ? As long as violence prevails and rules, as long as selfishness
and avarice oppress mankind, as long as earthly happiness is the goal
which we endeavor to reach, so long the world is not Christian. But
when men at all times and everywhere recognize that they are in God's
Presence and under His eyes ; when each of their actions is the reflec
tion of His eternal love and of His example ; when their goal is
placed beyond the reach of time, and not here in the dust, — then only
are men Christians. Do you know, my friends, what I have done ?
Nothing else than what was formerly done in Palestine. When the
Christians were on the point of giving way, then the standard was
thrown beyond, as a goal for them to follow, and thither they pressed
over to the other side, and as they rushed they conquered. So also

400 HOME LIFE.
have I set up the goal for mankind, not only for their thoughts, but
also for their deeds, in another world, so as to let them know that it is
not enough for them to gather themselves together, but they need also
to struggle. Such, then, is my faith. If I believe more than others, I
certainly do not believe less. And now, my friends, look back upon
those thirty years during which you have followed me almost daily
with your eyes, and then judge whether it is I or others who are
Christian. Judge for yourselves. I submit myself to your judg
ment, and then do what you deem to be right.'
" He beckoned with his hand and they went away ; and then quietly,
as if nothing had happened, he continued his reading.
" The next day they stood again, in their week-day clothes, in the
presence of their master, who asked them with a friendly smile, —
' Well, how did the examination turn out ? '
" ' Oh, master Assessor,' said both of them, ' we looked for a single
word, for a single action, which was not in agreement with what the
Lord had commanded us, yet we could not find a single one.'
"'Very well,' said Swedenborg; 'but it is not quite so; many
thoughts have been, and many an action has been, not perfectly
straight ; yet I have tried to do as well as I could. And as a child,
who in the beginning spells out his words, and stumbles often before
he can read, provided he goes to work lovingly and cheerfully and
strives hard to do better, is loved by his father, so also it may have
been with me ; at least I pray and hope that it may be so. But you
will remain with me ? '
" ' Yes, master Assessor, until our death.'
" ' Thank you, my friends ; I knew it would be so. Let people say
what they please about my teachings, but do you judge them by my
life : if they agree, then all is right; but if there is the least disagree
ment between them, then one of the two must be wrong.'
" When the little old woman had finished her story, which she had
told after the manner of her people, by constantly repeating 'said the
Assessor,' and 'said I,' her eyes were glistening with emotion, and she
added, — ' God, indeed, must have forsaken us when He allowed us
to go astray so far as to suspect our own Assessor of not being a
Christian.' "The good old woman took us through the garden, which was
decked in its greatest "autumnal splendor, and was loaded with berries
and fruits ; and as we were walking along, with a side glance at me,
she said that the Assessor never allowed children in his garden ; 'but
sometimes,' she added, 'he lets one or the other slip in, but not before
he has looked at him and has said, — " Let the child pass, he will not
take anything without leave," — and he has never made any mistake.
This he sees from their eyes.' "

LODGINGS IN LONDON. 4OI
From these simple friends who made Swedenborg's home
in Stockholm, let us turn to those who served him in a simi
lar way the last few months of his life in London.
Richard Shearsmith, of Coldbath fields, was a respectable
wig-maker, with whom Swedenborg had lodged for some two
years on his previous stay in London. On the arrival of the
vessel in which he sailed from Holland in 1771, Swedenborg
took a coach and directed the driver to Mr. Shearsmith's,
Great Bath Street. Mr. Shearsmith was just going out on
business, when he heard the foreigner's voice calling from the
coach-window to the driver, — "Dat be he ! Dat be he ! "
The coach was stopped, and Swedenborg was welcomed into
the house. But when he told his errand, that he wished to
renew his lodgings there, he learned that his rooms were then
"occupied by another family. Singularly enough, however, as
soon as the family heard of Swedenborg's wish, they imme
diately made way for him, though without previous acquain
tance. It was a place that the old gentleman found himself
at home in, for the reason that there was peace in the house.
He had come upon it in the first instance when in search of
a former landlord, who had left the neighborhood. Inquiring
at another place he declined to lodge there, frankly saying
that there was no harmony in the house. As frankly the
good woman admitted the fact and recommended the Shear-
smiths, where he himself, according to Mrs. Shearsmith, be
came "a blessing to the house, for they had harmony and
good business while he was with them." Mr. Shearsmith at
first was alarmed about his lodger, "by reason of his talking
night and day," sometimes while writing, and sometimes
standing in the door-way, as if holding a conversation with
some one entering or departing. Here, as at home, "he had
no particular regard for times or seasons, days or nights;
only taking rest when nature required it. He did not indulge
in needless gratifications. He went not to any place of wor
ship during his abode with Mr. Shearsmith. He did not
want money. . . . He lay some weeks in a trance, without
26

402 HOME LIFE.
any sustenance, and came to himself again. This was not
long before his death. He seldom or never complained of
any bodily pain, but was attacked before his death with a
kind of paralytic stroke. . . . The dress that he generally
wore when he went out to visit, was a suit of black velvet,
made after an old fashion, a pair of long ruffles, a curious
hiked sword, and a gold-headed cane. He ate little or no
animal food, only a few eels sometimes. His chief sustenance
was cakes, tea, and coffee made exceedingly sweet. His
drink was water. He took a great deal of snuff. . . . His hair
was not dark, but approaching to a pale auburn. His eyes
were gray, approaching to brown.1 He wore a wig, as was
the custom of his time." Whether this description of his
person is from Mr. Shearsmith, or from the lady who gives
other particulars on his authority, is not clear, nor important."
A certain professor of religion objected to Mr. Shearsmith
that Swedenborg could not be a good Christian, because he
did not pay particular attention to the Sabbath-day, forgetting
altogether the day of the week, in his spiritual labors, and yet
glad when reminded of it. To this Mr. Shearsmith replied,
—"To a good man, like Swedenborg, every day of his life is
a Sabbath." From the first day of his coming to reside at
this house, " to the last day of his life, he always conducted
himself in the most rational, prudent, pious, and Christian
like manner."
It was near Christmas when Swedenborg had the paralytic
stroke "which deprived him of his speech and occasioned
his lying in a lethargic state for three weeks and upwards,"
during which he took no nourishment, but a little tea and
cold water occasionally. Then "he recovered his speech
and health a little, and ate toast and drank tea and coffee, as
usual." From that time, however, he was visited by only a few
friends and always seemed unwilling to see company. About
a month before he died he told Mrs. Shearsmith on what
particular day he should die. "About a fortnight or three
1 Compare p. 341.

THE LAST BREATH.

403

weeks before he died, he received the sacrament in bed from
the hands of a foreign clergyman, and enjoyed a sound mind,
memory, and understanding to the last hour of his life."
About five o'clock on Sunday, March 29, 1772, he asked
the time. In expectation of the day he had been "pleased
as if he were going to have a holiday, to go to some merry
making ; " and now, when he learned the hour, he said, —
"Dat be good, me tank you ; God bless you," — and in about
ten minutes "he heaved a gentle sigh and expired in the
most tranquil manner."
We have aheady learned from his friends, Hartley, Messiter,
and Ferehus, of the brief conversations Swedenborg held with
them in these last days. There was then in London an emi
nent man, whose own life's work bore a strange and unknown
relation to that of Swedenborg, and to whom Swedenborg
sent a note, in the month of February, to the effect that he
had been informed in the world of spirits of his desire to
converse with him, and that he would be happy to see him if
he would favor him with a visit. This note John Wesley
received in company, and "frankly acknowledged that he had
been very strongly impressed with a desire to see and con
verse with Swedenborg, and that he had never mentioned the
desire to any one." He wrote in reply that he was then busily
engaged in preparing for a six months' circuit, but would
do himself the pleasure of waiting upon Swedenborg soon
after his return to London. To this Swedenborg replied that
the visit proposed would be too late, as he should go into the
world of spirits on the 29th day of the next month, never
more to return. Mr. Wesley left London on the first of
March and was gone some months ; when he returned, it was
quite too late to see Swedenborg.
Friendly Swedes in London took charge of the funeral
services, at which their pastor Ferelius officiated, and Swe- .
denborg's earthly remains were interred in a threefold coffin
in the vault of the Swedish Church, in Prince's Square,
Ratcliffe Highway, London. Could all have been gathered

404

HOME LIFE.

together who at that day revered Swedenborg as their teacher
and guide, the little Church might have held them, but, the
company would have been honorable in its intelligence and
position and private worth. Could all be together who a
hundred years later would have rejoiced to gather for such
a testification of their love, there are single churches in the
world that might perhaps have held them, though none that
could begin to hold the followers of Wesley. A hundred
years yet to come, we will not say that the relative numbers
will be changed, but, while the growth of the New Jerusalem
will be steadily advancing, we beheve that throughout the
Methodist Church, and all other Protestant Churches, the
name of Swedenborg will be revered above that of all human
teachers. On the 7th of October, after the death of Swedenborg,
a Eulogy was pronounced upon him in the Great Hall of the
House of Nobles, at Stockholm, in the name of the Royal
Academy of Sciences, by Samuel Sandels, Counsellor of the
Royal College of Mines, and member of the Academy. Of
this Eulogy, we copy the following passages, using the trans
lation of R. L. Tafel : —
" Gentlemen, — Allow me on the present occasion to direct your
thoughts, not to a distant or wearisome subject, but to one which it is
both a duty and a pleasure for us to consider ; namely, the memory of
a noble man celebrated alike for his virtues and the depth of his
knowledge, who was one of the oldest members of this academy, and
whom we all knew and loved.
" The feeling of affection and high esteem which we all entertained
for the late Assessor of the Royal College of Mines, Emanuel
Swedenborg, assures me that you will love to hear me speak of
him ; and happy shall I be if I can fulfil your desire, and pronounce
his eulogy as he deserves. But if, as artists declare, there are some
countenances of which it is difficult to give an exact likeness, how
much more difficult will it be to do justice to a vast and sublime
genius, who never knew either repose or fatigue ; who, occupied with
sciences the most profound, was long engaged with researches into
the secrets of nature, but in later years applied all his efforts to un
veil still greater mysteries ; who, in respect to certain principles of
knowledge, went his own separate way, but never lost sight of the

SANDELS' EULOGY.

405

principles of morality and the fear of God ; who was possessed of
remarkable power, even in the decline of his age, and boldly tried to
find how far the power of thought could be stretched ; and who, dur
ing the whole of this time, has furnished materials for a great variety
of thoughts and judgments upon himself, differing from one another
as much as do the faculties of the men who think and judge ; . . .
who worked so unremittingly and so zealously in the cause of knowl
edge and enlightenment, that, with the single exception perhaps of his
desire to penetrate too deeply, there is nothing whatever in his whole
character with which we can find fault."
After describing Swedenborg's parentage, his youth, his
studies, his appointment by Charles XII., for his merits, to
an important place while yet a young man, and his early
publications, Sandels proceeds, —
" We shall have now to follow him in many long journeys, under
taken for various purposes and pursuits, and at times in ways where it
is easy to go astray ; and in order that in his society no doubt or un
certainty may arise in your minds, which often happens when one has
not fully examined the character and disposition of another, picture
to yourselves an harmonious development of memory, understanding,
and judgment ; imagine these qualities united with an intense desire
of the heart, which can only be satisfied by the ceaseless endeavor to
become profoundly learned in philosophy, in almost all parts of math
ematics, in natural history,- physics, chemistry, in anatomy, and even
in theology, and to acquire proficiency in the Oriental and European
languages ; keep in mind also the power of habit, which in a certain
manner acts in accordance with reason, certainly in respect to the or
der of thought ; and remember that our thoughts when too much en
gaged with, and centred upon, abstract subjects, are wont to carry us
away in the same direction, and sometimes too fast, — especially when
accompanied with an ardent imagination, — so that we are unable
properly to discriminate the objects that come before us. Add to all
this a genuinely good disposition, proved by the Rules of Life which
I found among Mr. S wedenborg's manuscripts in more than one place,
and which he wrote down for his own use : First, diligently to read
and meditate upon the Word of God ; Secondly, to be content under
the dispensations of God's Providence ; Thirdly, to observe a propri
ety of behavior, and preserve the conscience pure ; Fourthly, to obey
what is commanded, to attend faithfully to one's office and other duties,
and in addition to make oneself useful to society in general.
" Any one who says that I have here presented any other than the
manifest and truthful features of Swedenborg's inner being, must be

406 HOME LIFE.
prejudiced either on the one side or on the other. Let such a one
consider more closely what I have already said, and what I have still
further to say."
After dwelling at some length on his various labors in sci
ence, in engineering, in the duties of the College of Mines,
and lastly in the publication of his Opera Philosophica, San
dels continues, —
" The Consistory of the University and the Society of Sciences at
Upsal felt proud at having previously recognized the merits of our
countryman, and at having publicly testified the high esteem in which
they held him; for the Consistory had, in 1724, invited him, 'for the
advantage of youth, and as an ornament of the university,' to apply
for the professorship of the higher mathematics, which had become
vacant by the death of Professor Nils Celsius, but which invitation he
thankfully declined; and the Society of Sciences had admitted him
into the number of its members in 1729. The learned abroad also
hastened to send him marks of their esteem. The Academy of Sci
ences of St. Petersburg by a letter of invitation, dated December 17,
1734, desired to admit him among its corresponding members. Chris
tian Wolff, and other foreign men of learning, addressed him by letter,
in order to obtain his ideas on subjects which they found it difficult to
fathom. The editors of the Acta Eruditorum in Leipsic, in which the
contents of the works of the learned are discussed, and impartial
opinions pronounced upon them, found in his work a rich store with
which to adorn their pages. Nor has time deprived this work of any
of its value. The authors of the magnificent Descriptions des Arts et
Metiers, which is now in course of publication in France, thought so
highly of that part of the Opera Philosophica et Mineralia which
covers the same ground as their own publication, that they translated
the second part, which treats of iron and steel, and inserted it entire
in their collection. Our Royal Academy, also, when it was founded,
hastened to enroll among its first members a man who already held
so distinguished a rank in other learned societies.
" I have hitherto spoken only of one part of Swedenborg's works ;
but the others take a different direction. Let us therefore dwell a
little longer on the former. These works are unmistakably proofs
that his desire for learning extended in all directions, and that he by
preference occupied himself with studies which cannot be mastered
without mature judgment and profound thought. No one can charge
him with having wished to shine in borrowed plumes, or with re
arranging and giving a different coloring to the work of others, and
then publishing it under his own name ; for everywhere we perceive

SANDELS' EULOGY.

407

that he did not depend upon others, but followed his own thoughts,
and often made observations and applications which cannot be found
in any other author of his times. Nor can he, like the majority of
those who make it a point to acquire, encyclopaedic knowledge, be
charged with having remained on the surface only ; for he applied his
whole strength in attempting to fathom the inmost recesses of things,
and to connect together the various links into one universal chain,
and show their derivation in a certain order from their first origin.
Neither can he be accused by any one of having, like other mathema
ticians and physicists, made use of the light he discovered during his re
searches, to hide from himself and others, and, if possible, to extinguish
the greatest light of all ; for, in his constant meditations on the work
of creation, he continually found reasons for acknowledging and ador
ing the Lord of nature. . . .
" I am perhaps not mistaken in believing that, from the time when
our Swedenborg began to build his thoughts upon his own ground, he
cherished a hidden fire to fathom the most secret things, and that,
even then, he was seeking for ways by which to reach his object ; at
least, a comparison of his earlier with his later works, although they
treat on different subjects, leads us to think so. He looked upon the
universe at large in the same light as he looked upon its parts, which
can be examined with greater certainty. He saw that all is ruled
simultaneously in a certain order, and according to fixed laws. He
paid particular attention to those parts of this great system which
can be examined mathematically. He therefore imagined that the
all-wise Creator had brought everything, even in its hidden parts, into
a certain mutual agreement, and this agreement he sought to bring
out in his capacity of mathematician and physicist, by advancing
from the less to the greater, and from that which may be distinguished
by the naked eye to that which requires the aid of the magnifying
glass. And, finally, he developed for himself a complete system,
based upon a certain mechanism, and supported by logic ; a system
which is so carefully constructed that there is much in it, in many re
spects, for the learned to reflect upon. As to the unlettered, they had
better not meddle with it. . . .
"But he went still further. He desired to combine this system
with the doctrine of salvation. With this we find him occupied
during most of the time after he had published his Opera Philosophica
et Mineralia. " I cannot help being filled with astonishment, in reflecting upon his
extraordinary industry; for besides numerous treatises, and among
them the great work I have already mentioned, he was the author of
the following works [here follows a list of Swedenborg's anatomical
and theological works].

408 HOME LIFE.
" The titles of all these works point out lofty themes ; and al
though they treat of different subjects, and follow different lines of
argument, being based upon anatomy, physics, and philosophy, upon
explanations of the Sacred Scriptures and, according to his own
statement, upon revelations, still, owing to his way of treating them,
they all lead to meditations on the Supreme Being, the human soul,
with other invisible and spiritual things, and the life after death. . . .
" If I were called upon frankly to state his faults, I should imagine
to myself some one who devoted his whole time to the preparation of
a universal solvent, — a menstruum which would solve everything that
either nature or art had produced, without remembering that no vessel
could preserve it. Our Swedenborg was not satisfied with knowing
much ; he desired to know more than can be comprehended by any
man here below, in that state of imperfection which belongs to him
while the soul dwells in a frail material body. Any one who con
demns this fault cannot be regarded as impartial, so long as he does
not first inveigh against those who ought to know much, and yet who
know nothing. But it is not so easy, to be displeased with a man
who was endowed with so many fine qualities.
" He had a sincere love for mankind ; and, in examining the dis
position of others, he always endeavored first to find this virtue, as a
sure indication of many good qualities besides. He was cheerful and
pleasant in company, and, as a recreation from his severe labors, he
enjoyed intercourse with intelligent persons, by whom he was always
well received and much respected. He could also properly meet, and
playfully direct into a different channel, that kind of curiosity which
frequently desires to obtrude itself into the consideration of serious
things. . . . Our Swedenborg, — and this I mention not as one of
his merits, — remained during the whole of his life unmarried. But
this was not owing to any indifference to the sex, for he esteemed
the company of a fine and intelligent woman as one of the purest
sources of delight ; but his profound studies required that in his
house there should be perfect stillness both day and night. He there
fore preferred being alone.
" He enjoyed a most excellent state of bodily health, having scarce
ly ever been indisposed ; and, as he was always content within him
self and with his circumstances, he spent a life which was in every
respect happy, nay, which, was happy in the highest degree. At last
nature demanded her rights. During his last sojourn abroad, while
residing in London, he had on December 24th of last year, an attack
of apoplexy, and on the 29th of last March departed this life, in his
eighty-fifth year, rich in the honorable monuments which he left be
hind him, satisfied with his life upon earth, and joyful at the prospect
of his final change."

HAPPINESS.

409

Let us take for our last look at the lonely old man his own
pictures of happiness. In his philosophical argument on the
Infinite he had said, —
" Inasmuch as the soul is formed and prepared in the
mortal body for an immortal state, so we men are in this
respect the happiest beings in the world, or else the un-
happiest; for those who are unhappy, are more unhappy
than the brutes, whose souls are extinguished, and their life
annihilated, when they perish. Christians again may be still
more happy, or still more unhappy ; for they possess a knowl
edge well calculated to lead to faith, and to comparative
distinctness and fulness thereof : yet those of them who are
unhappy, are more unhappy than the Gentiles to whom no
such knowledge has been granted. Those Christians again
who are learned in the Divine law, the prelates and doctors
of the Church, are still more happy, or unhappy ; for those
of them who are unhappy, are more unhappy than the rudest
members of the Christian commonalty, however defective in
learning and poor in knowledge and enlightenment. Among
the skilful interpreters of the Divine law, they again are hap
pier still who have the faculty to engraft reason upon reve
lation, and to make use of both as means to a knowledge of
the things conducing to faith ; that is to say, they who are
Christian philosophers, who, if unhappy, are more unhappy
than those who have obtained their knowledge from revela-
lation alone. For, the more knowledge we possess, the
more there is to make us happy, and the more to make us
unhappy. Hence the Christian philosopher may be the hap
piest or the unhappiest of mortals" (p. 149).
Again, after his spiritual experience had been opened to
him for some years, he wrote, —
" Some think that he who is in faith must put away all en
joyments of life and pleasures of the body ; but this I can
testify, that by no means have there been denied to me, but
have been granted, not only the pleasures of the body and of
the senses, such as are granted to other mortals, but also en-

410 HOME LIFE.
joyments of life and happiness such as, I think, have been
given to no others in the whole world, — greater and more
exquisite than any mortal can imagine, or in any way be
lieve." (S. D. 3623).
Would we inquire further what this happiness might be, we
may turn back to what we have read of the peace of the
Benediction.1 We may read what he says of the sweetness
of the heavenly perception that one does not think from him
self. " It was suddenly given me to perceive the sweetness
of the angels which they perceive ¦ from this, that they do
not think from themselves, and consequently do not speak
and act from themselves; for, from this is quiet and con
fidence, and very many enjoyments therefrom." (S. D.
2870). What, then, must have been the sweetness, the quiet, the
confidence, and the happiness of him who was permitted for
near thirty years to perceive that he thought and wrote, not
from himself, but from the Lord ! What is this but a fore
running fulfilment of that coming of the Lord described in
John as the coming of the Comforter, even the Spirit of
Truth, which should guide into, all truth?
Let it be granted that this prophecy was for the whole
Church, and, in addition to its first miraculous but temporary
fulfilment with the Apostles, is to have a final permanent ful
filment. Let it be granted that the prophecy of the coming
in judgment in the clouds of heaven is also a spiritual com
ing, and may be expected at the same time. Swedenborg's
explanation follows, that the one is the consequence of the
other ; that the admission of the Lord, by His Holy Spirit,
into the heart, throws that flood of light into the understand
ing by which He stands revealed, even in the clouds of the
letter of His Word, and perforce executes a judgment on
whatever stands in His Presence.
This seen to be the truth, it remains to read with patience
and heavenly desire what Swedenborg has written, from his
1 Page 237.

TUXEN. 41 1
illustration, in explanation of this Word, and to see whether
or no this explanation shines with Divine light in our own
minds. If so, we know well whence it comes. And if not,
let us not judge hastily, let us wait ; perchance the fault is
yet our own. New ideas, especially ideas involving a new
world within and above that to which we are accustomed, are
not presumably to be received at first glance, or without
deep thought and elevation of mind. Herein lies the test.
Only in our highest, most interior state, when nearest in
heart to God and His heaven, should we undertake to con
clude concerning what professes to come from Him, and
then only by comparison with His Word. Conclusions then
formed, and then alone, may be trusted. Many readers, too,
will sympathize with these words of Swedenborg's friend,
General Tuxen : —
" I confess that when I first began to read his works and
just cast my eye on the following passage, that ' a horse sig
nifies the understanding of the Word,' I found myself, as it
were, repelled and not very well pleased ; but afterwards,
when I read his works in series from the beginning, and with
attention, though I found many things which surpassed my
understanding and knowledge, yet happily I recollected at
the same time the answer of Socrates to the other Athenian
philosophers, who asked his opinion on the writings of He-
raclitus, — That he did not understand them everywhere, but
what he did understand was so excellent and good, that he
did not doubt but the rest, which he understood not, was
equally so. This encouraged me to read more and more,
and what I understood I found for my advantage ; and it
appears to me that no system of divinity is- more worthy of
the dignity of God, or more consolatory to man."
Some, though finding the doctrines set forth by Sweden
borg eminently rational, find great difficulty in believing that
his spiritual sight could be opened while he yet remained in
this world. Such, probably, have not become familiar with
the idea, old as the world, but for a time well-nigh lost, that

412 HOME LIFE.
the spirit-world is all around us and very near, and that the
passage into it is but the opening of a door. Let them, for
encouragement, call to mind the good old story of our
heathen ancestors : —
" In the year 626 of our era, when Edwin, the Anglo-Saxon king,
was deliberating on receiving the Christian missionaries, one of his
nobles said to him : ' The present life of man, O King, compared with
that space of time beyond, of which we have no certainty, reminds
me of one of your winter feasts, where you sit with your generals and
your ministers. The hearth blazes in the middle, and a grateful heat
is spread around, while storms of rain and snow are raging without.
Driven by the chilling tempest, a little sparrow enters at one door,
and flies delighted around us till it departs through the other. Whilst
it stays in our mansion, it feels not the winter storm ; but when this
short moment of happiness has been enjoyed, it is forced again into
the same dreary tempest from which it had escaped, and we behold it
no more. Such is the life of man, and we are as ignorant of the state
which preceded our present existence as of that which will follow
it. Things being so, I feel that if this new faith can give us more
certainty, it deserves to be received."
Mr. Emerson, who fitly quotes the above at the opening
of his Essay on Immortality, observes a marked change of
current sentiment in regard to the other life during this cen
tury, which he attributes to the influence of Swedenborg's
teachings. Mr. Coleridge wrote, in April, 1827, —
" I have often thought of writing a work to be entitled . . . ' Vin
dication of Great Men unjustly branded ; ' and at such times the
names prominent to my mind's eye have been Giordano Bruno, Jacob
Bohme, Benedict Spinoza, and Emanuel Swedenborg. Grant, that the
origin of the Swedenborgian theology is a problem ; yet, on which
ever of the three possible hypotheses (possible, I mean, for gentle
men, scholars, and Christians) 1 it may be solved, — namely : I. Swe-
1 " Si, dans les generations contemporaines et Epigones, il ne s'est pas
trouve line voix seYieuse qui eut voulu se compromettre, en osant accuser de
tromperie un homme dont Phonnetete £tait 6vidente et le sens inattaquable,
comment aurait-on ce courage aujourd'hui ? " [Matter ; p. 70.] Matter
cites the familiar visions of Descartes, Antoinette Bourignon, Madame Guyon,
and other mystics, as preparing the way for belief in Swedenborg's spiritual
sight. It was a time for signs and visions, when the power of light and the
power of darkness were contending for the control of mankind.

COLERIDGE. 413
denborg's own assertion and constant belief in the hypothesis .of a
supernatural illumination ; or, 2. That the great and excellent man
was led into this belief by becoming the subject of a very rare, but
not (it is said) altogether unique, conjunction of the somniative faculty
(by which the products of the understanding, that is to say, words,
conceptions, and the like, are rendered instantaneously into forms of
sense) with the voluntary and other powers of the waking state ; or, 3.
The modest suggestion that the first and the second may not be so in
compatible as they appear, — still it ought never to be forgotten that
the merit and value of Swedenborg's system do only in a very second
ary degree depend on any one of the three. For, even though the
first were not adopted, the conviction and conversion of such a believer
must, according to a fundamental principle of the New Church, have
been wrought by an insight into the intrinsic truth and goodness of
the doctrines, severally and collectively, and their entire consonance
with the light of the written and of the eternal Word, that is, with the
Scriptures and with the sciential and the practical reason. Or say
that the secret hypothesis were preferred, and that by some hitherto
unexplained affection of Swedenborg's brain and nervous system, he
from the year 1745 thought and reasoned through the medium and in
strumentality of a series of appropriate and symbolic visual and
auditual images, spontaneously rising before him, and these so clear
and distinct as at length to overpower, perhaps, his first suspicions of
their subjective nature, and to become objective for him, that is, in-
his own belief of their kind and origin, — still the thoughts, the rea
sonings, the grounds, the deductions, the facts illustrative, or in proof,
and the conclusions, remain the same ; and the reader might derive
the same benefit from them as from the sublime and impressive truths
conveyed in the Vision of Mirza or the Tablet of Cebes. So much
even from a very partial acquaintance with the works of Swedenborg,
I can venture to assert, — that as a naturalist, psychologist, and theo
logian, he has strong and varied claims on the gratitude and admir
ation of the professional and philosophical student."1
To most readers of Svvedehborg the simplest way, by far,
is to believe that Swedenborg saw just what he thought he
did, with the eyes that were surely to be opened a few years
later, and might, for the Lord's good purpose, be opened be
fore those of the body were closed. But for those persons
to whom this seems too miraculous for belief, we give Mr.
Coleridge's alternative, earnest that none should be precluded
1 S. T. Coleridge : Literary Remains, p. 422.

414 HOME LIFE.
by the visions from gaining what good they can from the
doctrines and interpretations of Scripture. At all events it
may be said to them in the words of Matter, —
" The greatness of Socrates remains, whether his daemon be a poetic
fiction or a hallucination. It is the same with Swedenborg. His
greatness, — I mean his thought,- — remains, whether his character as
medium chosen of God to serve as an organ and interpreter of the
Word of God with men, be a pious fiction, or the most sincere illusion,
[or, let us add, the very truth]. His doctrine, so completely set forth
in his writings, has its value in itself ; independent of the visions cited
in its support, it is given in the sacred texts therein contained. Every
man of sense may do what Count Hopken did, — take the doctrine, and
let alone the visions. The true question for everybody is this : has
Swedenborg interpreted the Holy Scriptures better than the eighteen
centuries which preceded him ? The affirmative would not prove the
mission which he claims, but it would be a great prepossession in its
favor. The negative destroys his mission, but it leaves intact his
doctrine and his work." 1
In our study of Emanuel Swedenborg we have found such
penetration and training of mind, such industry and devotion
to truth, such store of wisdom, such integrity of character,
such piety and benevolence of heart, such spirituality and
humility towards God, that we may ask whether, if the Lord
needed a man through whom to make known the mysteries
of His Word and of His kingdom, He ever made one more
fit for the purpose. We have seen that the amount and
scope of these revelations through Swedenborg are fairly comr
mensurate with their subject. By specimens, we have seen
that in elevation and dignity they are not unworthy of it.
And we have seen that for thirty years their author, while
he found but few humble souls fully prepared to appreciate
and accept the new doctrines he was bringing down out of
heaven, yet found none to gainsay them in his presence ;
but, wherever he went, among the learned or the unlettered,
in humble tenement or in kings' courts, all hung upon his
lips, in silent reverence at the strange mysteries that fell from
them, or rejoiced in heart by their kindly cheer. As in
J M. Matter : Swedenborg, sa vie, etc., p. 73.

EFFECTS OF MISSION.

415

his infancy, so again in his age, it was perceived that angels
spake with him and through him to men. It may in part
reconcile us of English-speaking race to the strangeness of
revelations coming to us through Scandinavian stock,1 that
communication from the other world was not so strange to
the men of Sweden as to those of busy London, and that,
as Danieli says, there was in the family a tendency to re
ceiving strange thoughts, not their own. Yet in the religious
freedom of England Swedenborg found the best soil for
planting his heaven-fetched seed, the Doctrines of the New
Jerusalem ; and in Great Britain and America the seed has
as yet taken deepest root and borne the most fruit.
Not however by numbers of professed adherents, at the
present or at any time, is the magnitude of the work effected
through Swedenborg to be measured. This work was but a
part, inseparable and indispensable, of the vast work of over
coming and dispersing the power of Babylon and of the
Dragon, of freeing the souls of men here and in the world
of spirits, of again restoring order in the spirit-world as it
was restored at our Lord's first coming, and of causing Him
self again to be present with men, visible in His Word, felt
at the door of the heart, and everywhere recognized in His
Providence. As this work goes on, — and who cannot see
that it has been for a century begun ? — it may be difficult to
take the full measure of Swedenborg's instrumentality. Nor
is this a matter of great importance.9 It is sufficient that we
recognize in his works the help given us by the Lord to take
our part in the labor, and to receive our share of the blessing.
Everywhere let us seek to see the promised coming of our
Lord in His nearer Presence with our fellow-men, in their
fuller recognition of Him in His Word and in their hearts,
whether or not they are conscious of the help that has been
1 Sweden was early the stronghold of Protestantism. " Soon after (1630)
Gustavus Adolphus crossed the Baltic, and saved Europe from an impending
rei<m of the Jesuits. . . . The rescue of Germany was the work of the Swedish
King." Bryce : Holy Roman Empire, p. 336. 2 Appendix XII.

41 6 HOME LIFE.
given to this freedom and clearness of the spiritual atmos
phere by the enlightenment from the Lord of the mind of
Emanuel Swedenborg.
We prefaced our book with referring to the increasing re
cognition, among Christian students, of Swedenborg as a
pioneer of the advanced theology fast finding its way into the
thought of the Churches. We have endeavored to aid this
recognition to take another step, and to acknowledge all that
has come through Swedenborg as coming, not from the man,
but through him from the Lord Jesus, in His new coming to
His people.
In conclusion, let us take in this sense, giving God the
praise, such acknowledgments as the following, now thick
ening about us : —
" While Wesley was made the mediator of a new moral
force flowing out of Christianity, Emanuel Swedenborg be
came the organ of a new spiritual philosophy, the power of
which is hardly yet understood, but which seems likely to
leaven all religious thought, and change all arbitrary theolo
gies into a spiritual rationalism. But Swedenborg did not go
out of Christianity to find his ideas. Like George Fox and
John Wesley, he found them in Christ." *
"The most remarkable step in the religious history of re
cent ages is that made by the genius of Swedenborg. . . .
These truths, passing out of his system into general circulation,
are now met with every day, qualifying the views and creeds
of all churches, and of men of no church." 2
"Swedenborgianism has done the liberating work of the
last century. . . . The wave Swedenborg started lasts to this
day. . . . The statements of Swedenborg's religious works
have revolutionized theology." 3
1 Rev. James Freeman Clarke.
2 Ralph Waldo Emerson.
3 Rev. E. E. Hale, in a recent lecture.

APPENDIX.

APPENDIX.

I. — Page i.
The famous Bull Unigenitus was issued at the instigation of
the Jesuits. As a means for its enforcement, the Jesuit clergy in
France resolved that notes should be obtained of dying persons,
that these notes should be signed by priests who maintained the
authority of the Bull, and that without such notes no person
should receive the last sacraments of the Church. Among other
things this Bull denounced as false, blasphemous, heretical,»and
reprobate the following propositions, which had been published
by Father Quesnel, a Jansenist, with his New Testament: —
"That it is useful and necessary for all persons to know the
Scriptures. "That the reading of the Scriptures is for everybody.
"That the sacred obscurity of the Word of God is no reason
for the laity to excuse themselves from reading it.
"That the Lord's day ought to be sanctified by Christians, in
reading pious books and, above all, the Scriptures.
"That it is a great mistake to imagine that the knowledge of
the mysteries of religion ought not to be imparted to women, by
the reading of the Sacred Books.
" That to wrest the New Testament out of the hands of Chris
tians, is to keep it closed up, by taking from them the means of
understanding it, — is no other than to close up the mouth of
Christ as to them.
" That to forbid to Christians the reading of the Holy Scrip
tures, especially of the Gospel, is no other than to forbid the use
of light to the children of light.
"That to deprive the unlearned people of the comfort of join
ing their voices with the voice of the whole Church, is a. custom
contrary to apostolical practice and to the design of God."

420

APPENDIX.

II. — Page i.
Mademoiselle Bourignon, born and bred a Roman Catho
lic in the 17th century, was keenly alive to the state of the
Church. In The Light of the World, published in England in
1696, and giving a report of her conversations, it is said: —
"I asked her if she firmly believed that the last times were
come ; and whether the judgment approached.
" She said to me : Believe me, Sir, there is nothing more true ;
we actually live in the last times ; and the judgment is so near,
that before three years I believe you will see the effects of it.
. . . We may see by the lives of men now, that all the signs
are fallen out which Jesus Christ has foretold, namely, that iniqui
ty shall be multiplied, and charity in many shall wax cold, and so
of the rest.- . . . The life of men is the open book in which these
truths are written, and the Holy Scriptures are the equitable
Judge which pronounces the sentence. Read, Sir, with atten
tion* they will deliver you from the difficulty you find in believ
ing this ; for though indeed they do not determine precisely the
day of judgment, yet they will make you see sufficiently that the
chief signs which must precede it'do already appear. . . . Truth,
which is the true Sun of Righteousness, cannot any longer ap
pear openly ; it is become black and hateful to all the world, who,
desiring to be flattered and praised, cannot hear the truth, be
cause it reproves the falsehood which now prevails. ... I
entreat you to read attentively the 24th chapter of St. Matthew ;
it speaks of the present time. All the Parables do the same. I
wish I had time and leisure to explain them to you ; you would
see as well as I that the judgment approaches, for all the fore
running signs are already come. People do not perceive them,
for want of reflecting seriously enough on the Holy Scriptures,
or upon the inward life of men now-a-days : they amuse them
selves with regarding only their outward piety, imagining that
there are yet a great many good men, because they appear such ;
but before God all are corrupted. . . . Many souls will be de
ceived at death, who in their lifetime presumed they were true
Christians, while in the sight of God they will be worse than
heathens. Such is the blindness wherein we live at present, in
which nobody makes a right judgment of himself, or of others,
every one presuming to be saved without good works ; whereas

APPENDIX.

421

no works can be good if they do not proceed from charity,
which is at present banished from the hearts of all men; for
which cause there are no more perfect Christians upon earth, for
the Christian life is all charity, and the love of God, which is no
longer in use  There has been no longer charity upon
earth, Sir, since Christians left the Gospel simplicity; from that
time charity began to wax cold ; and when the Church would
needs establish herself in pomp, riches, and magnificence, this
outward splendor has utterly destroyed the spirit of the Gospel.
Studies have banished the Holy Spirit, and the learning of men
has stifled the wisdom of God" (p. 19).
Father Lambert, a Jansenist, wrote somewhat later, —
"In examining with a good faith the different characteristics
which, in the Apocalypse, the woman who is a harlot presents, it
is very difficult not to recognize under this emblem the city of
Rome. . . . There is then every reason to believe that the holy
Apostle, in casting his eyes forward to the future, which was
still separated from him by an interval of so many ages, shows
us a Christian city; but which will then be depraved, cor
rupted, laden with iniquities, making religion subservient to her
pride, her domination, her avarice ; and which will merit from
God the outpouring upon her of the cup of His wrath." x
In illustration of the proud domination here referred to, wit
ness the declarations by Leo the Great that he possessed, as the
Head of the Church and by participation, the power of Christ,
and that as such he was the head of a Church whose top
reached unto heaven ; by Count de Maistre, that the Sovereign
Pontiff is "the necessary, the only, the exclusive basis of Chris
tianity;" by Cornelius a Lapide, that "the Pope, as being the
vicar of God, represents God;" by Dionysius, that the One seen
by John sitting on the throne (Rev. iv.) is the Pope; by Alca-
sar, that "the Pope as the vicar of Christ is in a manner Christ
Himself," and that "the priests of the Church have a power
more sublime .than the very seraphim themselves, and one which
is especially proper to God; " by St. Bernard, that their order is
"preferred before angels, archangels, thrones, and dominations ;"
and by the Rhemish Testament, " The Father gave all power to
the Son; but I see the same power altogether delivered by the
Son unto them" — the priests.
1 Exposition of the Prophecies and Promises made to the Church, ii. 327.

422 APPENDIX.
III. — Page 7.
Dr. Watts had said, in his treatise on the Improvement of
the Mind, —
"Nor should a student in Divinity imagine that our age is
arrived at a full understanding of everything which can be
known by the Scriptures. Every age since the Reformation
hath thrown some further light on difficult texts and paragraphs
of the Bible, which have been long obscured by the early rise
of Antichrist ; and since there are at present many difficulties
and darknesses hanging about certain truths of the Christian
religion ; and since several of these relate to important doc
trines, such as the origin of sin, the fall of Adam, the Person of
Christ, the blessed Trinity, the decrees of God, etc., which do
still embarrass the minds of honest and inquiring readers, and
which make work for noisy controversy, — it is certain there are
several things in the Bible yet unknown, and not sufficiently
explained; and it is certain there is some way to solve these
difficulties, and to reconcile these seeming contradictions. And
why may not a sincere searcher of truth, in the present age, by
labor, diligence, study, and prayer, with the best use of his rea
soning powers, find out the proper solution of these knots and
perplexities, which have hitherto been unsolved, and which have
afforded matter for angry quarrelling ? Happy is the man who
shall be favored of Heaven to give a helping hand towards the
introduction of the blessed age of light and love."
In what manner Swedenborg was thus favored, the body of
this book should show. But independently of his labors, and in
wholly different manner, other men have been at work, and have
been favored, from the time of Bengel till now.
Philip Matthias Hahn (died 1790) said, "I regard this the
true spirit of Christianity, — when every word of God in the
Old and in the New Testament is sweet, important, and dear;
and when we find therein no favorite truths, but everything is
good and agreeable to us, because it is connected with the rest."
Johann Gottfried von Herder (died 1803) said, "It is certainly
a fine thread which pervades the Old and New Testaments,
especially in those passages where symbol and fact, history and
poetry, mingle together. Rough hands can seldom follow it,
much less unravel it, without breaking or tangling it, or without

APPENDIX.

423

injuring either the poetry or history which, knitting themselves
into it, constitute it a complete unity. It is truly said, 'To ex
plain belongs to God,' or to that man on whom there rests the
spirit of the gods, the genius of all ages, and, so to speak, the
childhood of the human race."
And again, " In order to be assisted, the revelation of God, as
found in the Bible, and even in the entire history of the human
race, must be believed, and thus ever return to the great centre
about which everything revolves and clusters — Jesus Christ, the
Corner-stone and inheritance, the greatest messenger, teacher,
and person of the Archetype."'
Hagenbach says, " The study of the Bible in the last decades
has gained not only in impartiality, but in freshness and interest.
How very different are a Pauline epistle and the Gospel of John
now explained at the universities from what they were a quarter
of a century ago ? . . . There is no more a disposition to explain
meagrely the written letter, but to penetrate the inmost depths
of the Biblical writer's soul and by them to understand him."
Dr. Dorner says, "The extension of vision in modern theolo
gy to the entire history and philosophy of religion, has already
produced not only new problems, but brilliant and fruitful re
sults, profitable not only to the theology of the New Testament,
but also to the elucidation and confirmation of Christianity itself.
. . . The entire Old Testament and its religion is beginning to
be treated ... as one great prophecy, a rich compensation for
those individual prophecies which had to be given up as exegeti-
cally untenable." *
The Rev. Andrew Jukes says, "The types of Genesis fore
shadow God's great dispensational purposes respecting man's
development; showing in mystery His secret will and way re
specting the different successive dispensations. The types of
Exodus bring out, as their characteristic, redemption and its con
sequences ; a chosen people are here redeemed out of bondage,
and brought into a place of nearness to God. Leviticus again
differs from each of these, dealing, I think I may say solely,
in types connected with access to God. Numbers and Joshua
are again perfectly different, the one giving us types connected
with our pilgrimage as in the wilderness ; the other, types of our
place as over Jordan, — that is, as dead and risen with Christ."
1 History of Protestant Theology, ii. 443.

424 APPENDIX.
And further, speaking of the types of Leviticus, — "Though
Christ in His work is the sum and substance of these types, it is
Christ as discerned by one who already knows the certainty of
redemption ; it is Christ as seen by one who, possessing peace
with God and deliverance, is able to look with joy at all that
Christ has so fully been for him. . . . Exodus gives us the blood
of the Lamb, saving Israel in the land of Egypt. Leviticus
gives us the priest and the offerings, meeting Israel's need in
their access to Jehovah." J
IV. — Page 7.
Fichte, first after Swedenborg, sought a philosophic reason
for the Incarnation: —
" Mankind is by the exertion of its freedom to destroy an an
tagonistic condition, and to form itself into a kingdom of God,
into a world in which God alone is the principle of all activity,
and in which nothing is done without Him from whom all human
freedom proceeds, and to whom it is surrendered. This must
indeed take place in detail through each individual, and that
power of freedom which determines him. But for this purpose
there was needed an example of this determination to self-immo
lation and self-surrender. Whence was mankind to have this ?
It could only have it by means of a previously possessed freedom,
and yet in its present state it can only obtain freedom by means
of this example. Thus a circle arises : freedom presupposes the
example, the example presupposes freedom. This circle is only
to be abolished by the fact that the example should once be actual
reality, absolutely original, beginning from the very roots, and
realizing itself in a person. Now this did take place in fesus.
He is unique through His originality. All who enter the king
dom of heaven attain it only through Him, through the exam
ple which He sets up in Himself for the whole race ; for all are
to be born again through Him, while He is the first and the first
born Son.- Thus does Fichte endeavor to infer from an a priori
law the necessity of the Person of Jesus." 2
So also, later, says Dr. Dorner himself, —
" The form and contents of Revelation only attain their con
summation in the Divine Incarnation, and in such a way that
1 The Law of the Offerings.
2 Dr. Dorner : History of Protestant Theology, ii. 339.

APPENDIX.

425

the consummation of Divine Revelation in itself becomes also
the consummation of religion, and therewith of humanity. This
perfective process is carried into effect first of all in One who, as
absolute God-man, is both the Revealer in the absolute sense
and the Man embodying God's perfect image, while at the same
time bringing about the consummation of the world.
"The meaning of the text is, that neither the form nor the
content of Revelation attains its perfection and the goal which
Revelation cannot but propose to itself, until it has passed into
Incarnation. On God's side, the purpose of His love from the
beginning is perfect self-communication; the form and contents
of Revelation. . . . The most perfect organ of Revelation can
only be the man w4io, from the first moment of his existence, in
his entire person lives in a sphere of being pertaining to Reve
lation and never separated from God. But in the circumstance
of his entire person being made an organ of Revelation, is given
at once in inseparable unity external as well as internal revela
tion and the completion of both. For now the Divine life itself
enters into a human life ; it assumes a shape that embodies and
manifests the Divine life in human form, and is therefore Divine-
human. In the God-man the inner spiritual miracle is so united
with the outer world-reality, that the union of the Divine and
human life, implied in the idea of inspiration without measure,
forms a man who in the midst of the world is a personal
miracle, — the God-man who, possessed of absolute worth in
himself, fully answers to the communicating will of Divine love,
and is withal destined both in himself to give perfect expression
to human nature, and outside himself to consummate human
nature." *
The views of Dr. Dorner are not precisely those of Sweden
borg, whom he treats with respect, but without accepting his
direct antagonism to Calvinism. Dr. D. is the greatest expo
nent of the effort in this new age to find a philosophic basis and
interpretation of the old Christian theology; and the approach to
the doctrines of Swedenborg is a sign of the times.
V. — Page ii.
"The history of the English Deists of the eighteenth century
is indeed a very singular one. At a time when the spirit of the
1 Dr. Dorner: A System of Christian Doctrine, ii. 205.

426 APPENDIX.
theology of the Church was eminently rationalistic, they were
generally repudiated, and by the middle of the eighteenth cen
tury they had already fallen into neglect. ... A latent scepti
cism and a wide-spread indifference might be everywhere traced
among the educated classes. There was a common opinion that
Christianity was untrue, but essential to society, and that on
this ground alone it should be retained. . . . The old religion
seemed everywhere loosening around the minds of men, and it
had often no great influence even on its defenders. . . . Butler,
in the preface to his Analogy, declared that 'it had come to be
taken for granted that Christianity is not so much as a subject of
inquiry, but that it is now at length discovered to be fictitious.
... As different ages have been distinguished by different
sorts of particular errors and vices, the deplorable distinction of
ours is an avowed scorn of religion in some and a growing dis
regard of it in the generality.' . . . Montesquieu summed up
his observations on English life by declaring, no doubt with
great exaggeration, that there was no religion in England, that
the subject, if mentioned in society, excited nothing but laugh
ter, and that not more than four or five members of the House
of Commons were regular attendants at church. . . . ' People of
fashion,' said Archbishop Seeker, ' especially of that sex which
ascribes to itself most knowledge, have nearly thrown off all ob
servation of the Lord's Day, . . . and if to avoid scandal they
sometimes vouchsafe their attendance on Divine worship in the
country, they seldom or never do it in town.' . . . Sunday card-
parties during a great part of the eighteenth century were fash
ionable entertainments in the best circles." 1
"Sir William Blackstone 'had the curiosity, early in the reign
of George III., to go from church to church and hear every
clergyman of note in London. He says that he did not hear a
single discourse which had more Christianity in it than the writ
ings of Cicero ; and that it would have been impossible for him
to discover, from what he heard, whether the preacher were a
follower of Confucius, of Mahomet, or of Christ.'" 2
1 Lecky : History of England in the Eighteenth Century, ii. 567-581.
2 Abbey and Overton : The English Church in the Eighteenth Century,
"¦ 37-

APPENDIX... 427
VI. — Page 1-2.
It was about the year 1686, that Philip Jacob Spener founded
what soon came to be called contemptuously Pietism, in an effort
to unite brethren in a life of practical piety. A Lutheran, he
had no wish to renounce or supplant Lutheranism, but contented
himself with getting kindred spirits to read and pray together,
to renounce worldly vanities, and to live a pious, charitable life.
The rapidity with which the people caught at his system shows
the readiness of their hearts for something more satisfying than
dogmatic theology. The same spirit of the times is shown in
the phenomenon of "the praying children," which appeared in
connection with the Pietists in 1707. Children from four years
old and upwards suddenly began assembling in the open fields,
singing and praying, especially for the recovery of the churches
that had been seized by the Catholics. From field to field the
contagion spread, in spite of prohibition and even of blows, till
it extended over the whole country, and was checked only by the
providing of churches for their meetings. Then it soon died
out. ¦ At Halle the Pietists were permitted to control the new
university, and by the year 1727 more than six thousand the
ologians had received from them their theological education.
Their system was violently opposed by the Orthodox, for they
taught that regeneration was not effected by baptism, as Luther
and Calvin held with the Mother Church, but was an awakening
or conversion, which was conditioned in subsequent life by the
Word of God; that only living faith attained justification, and
that it must be active in preserving it, a sure guarantee existing
only in a faith which gave evidence of being alive in a pious life
and active Christianity. Later Pietism became more formal and
declined, but it had already "poured a mighty religious stream
into the national life, and sustained it by zealous preaching,
pastoral care, devotional meetings, and an almost exuberant
devotional literature."1 Moreover, Pietism widely and in
creasingly modified the teaching of the whole Lutheran Church,
as Methodism had done that of the Anglican Church, and as
Moravianism, in less degree, that of the Reformed or Calvinist
Church. A spirit nearly akin to that of the Pietists became conspic
uous in the Roman Catholic Church, at the incoming of the
1 Kurtz, ii. 250.

428 APPENDIX.
eighteenth century, in the lives and writings of Madame Guyon
and- Archbishop Fenelon. Nothing purer and more elevated
had appeared in the Church. Nothing perhaps has exercised
greater influence for good both in the Catholic and in the Pro
testant Churches, to this day. Yet their substitution of inward,
spontaneous, fervid prayer in place of the formalities of the
Church was thought to interfere with its power, and Madame
Guyon and the good Archbishop both fell under its condemna
tion, — the one being sent to pass, her days in a dungeon, the
other meekly bowing in submission to the Holy See.
It is remarkable that the Moravians, under Zinzendorf, with
their ecstatic profession of affectional union with their Saviour,
attracted the interest first of Wesley and somewhat later of Swe
denborg, at their meetings in London. Wesley was much influ
enced by them, about the beginning of his great revival, in 1738;
but Swedenborg soon discovered their insincerity and denounced
them, for which he was denounced in turn. Of the great move
ment set on foot by the Wesleys and Whitefield it is to be re
membered that nothing equal in extent and power had occurred
since the Reformation. And indeed it was, with Pietism, a re
formation like that of John the Baptist in the wilderness, laying
low the mountains and raising up the valleys in preparation for
what was to come.

VII.— Page 13.
The conditions of a consummation are as obvious in the
causes of the French Revolution as in the catastrophe itself.
Among these causes we may reckon first the oppression of the
laboring class by Church and State and Gentry, all for mere
voluptuous indulgence. Fenelon wrote to the king, —
"Your people are dying of hunger. The tillage of the land is
almost abandoned. Towns and villages are being depopulated.
All the trades languish and no longer feed the workmen. ... In
place of drawing money from this poor people, they ought to re
ceive alms and be fed. All France is nothing now but a great
hospital, stripped and without provisions. Popular movements, .
which had been long unknown, are becoming frequent. . . . You
are reduced to the deplorable extremity, either of leaving sedi
tion unpunished, or of massacring the people whom you drive to

APPENDIX. 429
despair, and who are perishing every day with disease caused by
famine. While they want bread, you yourself want money, and
you will not see the extremity to which you are reduced."
An official account in 1698 had said, —
" In the greater part of Rouen, in Normandy, which was
always one of the most industrious and well-to-do provinces, out
of seven hundred thousand souls there are not fifty thousand
who eat bread at their ease and who sleep oh anything better
than straw. In the greater part of Caen the population has
diminished a half by poverty."
In 1707 Vauban wrote, —
" The tenth part of the people is reduced to beggary, and begs
in Tact: two million beggars out of twenty million people. Of
the other nine tenths there are five who are not in condition to
give alms to the one tenth, because they are within a trifle of
being reduced to the same wretched condition; and of the four
remaining tenths, three are very poorly off."
In 1725 Saint Simon wrote,—
" The poor people of Normandy eat grass, and the kingdom is
turned into a vast hospital of the dying and of those driven to
despair." In 1740 Bishop Massillon wrote to Minister Fleury, —
"My lord, the people of our country live in frightful poverty,
without bed, without furniture. The greater part even lack, for
half the year, oat and barley bread, which makes their sole sub
sistence, and are obliged. to tear it from their own and their chil
dren's mouths to pay their taxes."
In 1745 the Duke of Orleans said to Louis XV. on presenting
him with some fern bread; "Sire, see on what your subjects
feed." !
When we consider that the clergy held the third part of the
soil of France and exacted a tithe of the produce of the rest,
affecting to call this tithe a free-will offering, while they prose
cuted forty thousand lawsuits to enforce,it, we ajn see that the
crash must come, and can understand why Church and State
domination must go down together.
"During the eighteenth century men were speculating on re
ligion, government, and society in a more daring way than they
had ever speculated on so great a scale before. . . . This whole
period, then, was one of very great importance, but it was mainly
1 Lacombe : Petite Histoire du Peuple Francais, p. 202.

43O APPENDIX.
in thje way of preparation for what was coming. ... In most
branches of art, learning, and original composition the eight
eenth century was below either the times before or the times
after it. It seemed as if the world needed to be stirred up by
some such general crash as was now near at hand. ... It was
a time [the latter part of the century] which saw such an up
setting of the existing state of things everywhere as had never
happened before in so short a space of time. . . . But in this
general crash the evil of the older times was largely swept away
as well as the good, and means were at least given for a better
state of things to begin in our own time." l

VIII.— Page 115.
This topic is nowhere more finely treated than in Matheson's
Growth of the Spirit of Christianity : —
"Let us marshal once again the testimonies of the past. We
have seen the mind of man sleeping profoundly in China, dream
ing wildly in Brahma, reposing restlessly in Buddha, half-waking
in Persia, fully conscious in Egypt, strongly active in Greece.
Then we have seen the life of strength taken up into the life of
sacrifice, the power to do transmuted into the power to suffer,
and Paganism fading in the light of Christianity. Christianity
itself we have beheld rising from very small beginnings: first,
the infant that could only wonder; next, at the Pentecostal out
pouring, the child learning to speak; then, in the home associ
ations of Jerusalem, the child learning to feel. By and by we
have seen these home associations broken, and Christianity
driven forth to seek an enlarged sympathy and a wider brother
hood. We have seen the child's first guesses at truth, its first
experiences of worldly contact, and its first dreams of worldly
ambition. We have marked how these dreams were disap
pointed in the very act of their fulfilment, and how the attain
ment of childhood's §oal was the death of childhood's joy.
Then we have followed the spirit of Christianity from the life of
childhood into the life of school: have seen it first trained under
the abbot, and afterwards under the rod of the Roman bishop.
We have observed the gradual yet steady development of that
scholastic life, from its beginning in the representation of truth
1 Edw. A. Freeman : General Sketch of History (Am. ed.), pp. 325-27.

APPENDIX. 4,j
by images, to its glorious consummation in the incarnation of
truth in art. We have marked how. at each successi've stage of
development, the school-life became more and more dissatisfied
with school, and how as the spirit grew larger than the form, the
form became increasingly repulsive to the spirit. We have
traced the violent revolutions by which that repulsiveness was
manifested, from the image controversy of the East to the rising
of Wycliffe in the West. At last, in the Council of Constance,
we have beheld the close of the school-life and the entrance
into the age of youth. We have followed Christianity through
its youthful Utopian dreams, have seen the castles of its fancy
-and the lands of its imagination beyond the sea, and have heard
the proud boast of independence by which it asserted its newly
found freedom. And we have seen how the castles crumbled
into ruins; we have marked how the lands faded into empty
space; we have heard how the proud boast was transformed into
a bitter cry, — the cry of disappointed hope, the cry of unsatis
fied desire. We have seen, finally, how the conscious helpless
ness of youth was to be the regenerative hour of manhood,
joining together the long-separated elements of individual free
dom and individual responsibility, — the power of self-action and
the necessity to act for God. Thus far we have journeyed, and
we need journey no farther in order to reach the great conclu
sion that this world is not a chaos, but a cosmos; not a series
of chances, but a grand moral order. It is not that here and
there in the history of the past we observe the outburst of great
practical movements; it is not that in some apparently isolated
events the historian can succeed in tracing a- deep connection, —
such facts would be powerfully suggestive, but they would not
necessarily be persuasive. But there is a river of life, never
diverted, never broken; a river sometimes corrupted in its
waters by the soil it is passing through, sometimes retarded in
its course by the artificial embankments raised by man, yet
through all corruptions and through all retardations swelling
surely onward to the mighty sea. The course of humanity has
been an onward course. Individual men have gone back, indi
vidual nations have gone back, but humanity itself has never
receded. And wheresoever Christianity has breathed, it has
accelerated the movement of humanity. It has quickened the
pulses of life ; it has stimulated the incentives to thought; it has

432 APPENDIX.
tuned the passions into peace; it has warmed the heart into
brotherhood; it has fanned the imagination into genius; it has
freshened the soul into purity. The progress of Christian
Europe has been the progress of mind over matter. . . . We
see the universal life moulding the individual lives, the one
will dominating the many wills, the infinite wisdom utilizing
the finite folly, the changeless truth permeating the restless
error, the boundless beneficence bringing blessing out of all"
(ii. 392). IX.— Page 125.
A recent writer in the German Astronomical Quarterly
(1879), Magnus Nyren, in an exposition of the cosmogony of
Swedenborg's Principia as a contribution to the history of the
nebular hypothesis of Kant and Laplace, draws the following
conclusions : —
" As one sees, this [the cosmogony of Swedenborg] differs .
in a single important particular from the later, regarded as the
most probable, accepted hypothesis on the same subject ; and in
general his conclusions, with the exception of the vortical theory,
are founded on the most scientific basis. In spite of this defect,
and even of many evident faults in regard to what is possible
according to the theory of gravitation, it cannot be denied that
the true fundamental principle of the nebular theory was first
declared by Swedenborg, — namely, that the entire solar system
was formed out of a single chaotic mass, which was at first col
lected in the form of a colossal sphere, and afterwards by rota
tion threw off a ring, which then, during the continued rotation,
divided into separate portions, and these at length gathered
themselves up into spheres — the planets.
"The work of Kant on this subject, 'Universal History of
Nature and Theory of the Heavens,' was not published until
1755, twenty-one years later. Laplace did not make known his
theory until sixty-two years later. It is here also to be remarked,
that Swedenborg gave to his hypothesis the correct form ac
cording to all the probabilities, — that (as was also adopted by
Laplace) the planets came into existence from separated rings,
. . . not as Kant thought, in already formed masses directly out
of the original mass of vapor. ... In regard to the correctness

APPENDIX. 433
of the above-given explanation of the statement that the Milky
Way is the common axis of the starry heavens, I do not here
undertake properly to make reliable conclusions concerning
Swedenborg's views of the question touched upon. But when,
as it seems to me, no other meaning can be found therein than
that the Milky Way is the equatorial intersection — zodiac — of
our entire visible- sphere of the heavens, the priority belongs to
Swedenborg. In reference to the first ideas advanced concern
ing the star-system of the Milky Way, that, while one metes out
justice to Swedenborg, one does not in the least diminish the
merit due to Kant and Laplace in regard to the question spoken
of, is well understood. For, firstly, neither of these two evi
dently knew anything of Swedenborg's opinions on the same
subject, although a reference to them appeared in the Acta
Eruditorum, Leipsic, for 1737 ; and Kant mentions in his
treatise giving forth his views, that these writings were accessi
ble to him ; so that there can be no doubt that he would have
mentioned it, if he had borrowed for his ideas anything from
Swedenborg. Secondly, Kant and also Laplace have the undis
puted credit of having elucidated and explained the hypothesis
in question from the standpoint of the theory of gravitation,
while, on the other hand, Swedenborg worked out every con
clusion deductively according to the demands of the vortical
theory." This is not the first nor the broadest claim that has been
made for the astronomical speculations of the Principia, but
we select it, in preference to claims that have been made by
Swedenborg's friends, for its recent and high authority, and for
its generous fairness. It is not uncommon to lay stress on the
fact that Laplace credited Buffon with the first suggestion of a
nebular theory, and that Buffon is known to have possessed a
copy of Swedenborg's Principia, which was published ten years
before his own theory.1 But we like the spirit of the writer
now quoted, and join him in crediting all these great thinkers
with having worked out their own conclusions independently.
We will but add the single remark, that the Principia can afford
to wait another hundred years, if need be, for the acceptance
of its vortical theory.
1 Translator's Introduction to the Principia, ii. So.
28

434 APPENDIX.
X. — Page 134.
M. Matter says,—
"The same year he published also at Dresden a volume on
the three great questions of the time: The Infinite; The Final
Cause of nature ; and The Mysterious Bond of the Soul and the
Body (Outline of Rational Philosophy, etc.).
"And here again it will be necessary for us to give an idea of
this work in order to have some comprehension of the extent of
the science of the author, the elevation of his mind, and its
familiarity with the highest speculative regions, with which the
learned man of Stockholm must soon enter into the third, so
extraordinary, phase of his life. The author means that every
thought be reasonable, and every exposition of idea simple, even
to familiarity. Never is the reasonable contrary to revelation,
he says, and never is what is not clear philosophic.
"This simplicity does not prevent originality,
"The question of the Infinite then agitated is always still to
be resolved, human intelligence being incapable of embracing
the thing which is in question, and comprehending only the idea,
or the word which is used to designate it. It had just been
treated in Sweden by the creator of modern philosophy. For
Descartes, the world was the infinite whole of worlds, the uni
verse without bounds, the Divine creation or formation of which
offered difficult problems. The friend of Queen Christina
boldly explained its origin by means of three elements, — subtile
matter or fine dust, little globules, and matters deprived entirely
or animated with little motion (see our History of Philosophy
in its relations with Religion, p. 265). Swedenborg, who was
Cartesian for philosophy properly so-called, logic and method,
was very little so for psychology and metaphysics, and not at
all for cosmology. He changed from the foundation all this
theory, and demanded, without any disrespect for a great name,
but with entire independence, that incontestable facts should
be put in place of those conceptions which are little else than
assertions. "From Descartes, Swedenborg passed to Bacon with the same
ease, the same respect, and the same superiority in the question
of the final causes of each of the great works of nature, or of
the final cause of the whole.

APPENDIX.

435

" Bacon, to lead philosophers to become observers of facts, —
in a word, naturalists, and not inventors of systems, that is to say
hypotheses, — had proscribed final causes ; or, rather,. he had in
terdicted search for them. What is given us in phenomena is
phenomena, he said. Let us establish it: that is our part. As
for the cause, it does not belong to us. That is the part of the
Creator. This manner of clearing up the question by closing
the eyes, did not suit Swedenborg. It is not in the power of
the human mind to renounce it, said he, and it would be wrong
to do it if we could.
"After Descartes and Bacon, the turn of Leibnitz came in the
study of the third question, — the problem of the bond between
the soul and the body. Leibnitz had just given that hypothesis
of pre-established harmony of which he made much, but which
satisfied nobody, not even Wolff, the most faithful of his disci
ples. Swedenborg, who aimed at the soul in all his studies on
the animal kingdom, so eminent in the creations of nature, could
not help desiring to do better with this problem. And if ever
the question of the soul was treated loftily, it was by him.
"He began by proclaiming this great principle and this fine
rule, — that in order to explain the soul we must go to the body,
the microcosm, the world which it inhabits: the secret or the
science of the soul is there alone. But it is not by the synthetic
way, in which we find and affirm what we please ; it is by the
analytic way, in which we establish and declare what we can,
tha~t we must proceed in this field.
"The great merit of Swedenborg in the discussion of these
three questions is in having aided, in the name of facts, in
giving liberty to philosophy. In philosophy, as in politics, in
order that life and natural movement may return, it is necessary
to begin by overturning the despotism which stops the circula
tion. Swedenborg was rightly impatient with the state of stag
nation in which three overgrown authorities, — Bacon, Descartes,
and Leibnitz,— held minds enchained; and Wolff was right in
paying homage to him who worked so well for the deliverance of
thought. Swedenborg, it is true, did not finally settle any of
these questions, and every philosopher knows why ; but he set
them all three free."1 1 Swedenborg ; sa vie, p. 41-43.

436 APPENDIX.
XL— Page 168.
The question is a serious one, whether science is really any
nearer now to an acknowledgment of the God of heaven than it
was in the middle of the last century. It is true that there are
still men of science, eminent in their way, who seek to find all
causes in physical forces and conditions, and who ignore the
Deity and immortality. But on the other hand there are men of
science not less eminent, and who have the heart of the world
with them, to whom the phenomena of nature are but revelations
of the mind of an all-wise and all-beneficent God. A few years
ago there were working side by side, within hearing of our
printing-press, three professors of natural science, each unsur
passed in the world in his chosen department, — Agassiz, Pierce,
and Gray. In Professor Agassiz's Preface to his famed Essay
on Classification he said, in speaking of the divisions of the
animal kingdom, —
"Are those divisions artificial or natural ? Are they the de
vices of the human mind to classify and arrange our knowledge
in such a manner as to bring it more readily within our grasp
and facilitate further investigations, or have they been instituted
by the Divine Intelligence as the categories of His mode of
thinking ? Have we, perhaps, thus far been only the uncon
scious interpreters of a Divine conception, in our attempts to
expound nature ? . . . To me it appears indisputable, that this
order and arrangement of our studies are based upon the natural,
primitive relations of animal life, — those systems to which we
have given the names of the great leaders of our science who
first proposed them, being in truth but translations into human
language of the thoughts of the Creator. And if this is indeed
so, do we not find in this adaptability of the human intellect to
the facts of creation, by which we become instinctively, and, as
I have said, unconsciously, the translators of the thoughts of
God, the most conclusive proof of our affinity with the Divine
Mind ? And is not this intellectual and spiritual connection
with the Almighty worthy of our deepest consideration? If
there is any truth in the belief that man is made in the image of
God, it is surely not amiss for the philosopher to endeavor, by
the study of his own mental operations, to approximate the
workings of the Divine Reason, learning from the nature of his

APPENDIX.

437

own mind better to understand the Infinite Intellect from which
it is derived. But who is the truly humble? He who, pene
trating into the secrets of creation, arranges them under a
formula, which he proudly calls his scientific system? — or he
who in the same pursuit recognizes his glorious affinity with the
Creator, and in deepest gratitude for so sublime a birthright
strives to be the faithful interpreter of that Divine Intellect with
whom he is permitted, nay, with whom he is intended, according
to the laws of his being, to enter into communion ? "
"If it can be proved . . . that this plan of creation, which so
commends itself to our highest wisdom, has not grown' out of
the necessary action of physical laws, but was the free con
ception of the Almighty Intellect, matured in His thought before
it was manifested in tangible external forms ; if, in short, we
can prove premeditation prior to the act of creation, — we have
done, once and for ever, with the desolate theory which refers us
to the laws of matter as accounting for all the wonders of the
universe, and leaves us with no God but the monotonous, un
varying action of physical forces, binding all things to their
incurable destiny. I think our science has now reached that
degree of advancement, when we^nay venture upon such an
investigation." Professor Gray prefaced his Botany for Young People with
the beautiful verses from Matthew: "Consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow : they toil not, neither
do they spin : and yet i say unto you, that even
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one
OF THESE.''
Then he said, " Our Lord's direct object in this lesson of
the Lilies was to convince the people of God's care for them.
Now, this clothing of the earth with plants and flowers — at once
so beautiful and useful, so essential to all animal life — is one
of the very ways in which He takes care of His creatures.
And when Christ himself directs us to consider with attention
the plants around us ; to notice how they grow, — how varied,
how numerous, and how elegant they are, and with what exquisite
skill they are fashioned and 'adorned, — we shall surely find it
profitable and pleasant to learn the lessons which they teach."
Again he said, in his address on " Natural Science and
Religion," —

438 APPENDIX.
" I accept Christianity on its own evidence, . . . and I am
yet to learn how physical or any other science conflicts with it.
... I take it that religion is based on the idea of a Divine
Mind revealing Himself to intelligent creatures for moral ends.
... I suppose that the Old Testament carried the earlier reve
lation and the gfrms of Christianity, as the Apostles carried
the treasures of the Gospel, in earthen vessels. . . . But how
ever we may differ in regard to the earlier stages of religious
development, we shall agree in this, — that revelation culminated,
and for us most essentially consists, in the advent of a Divine
Person, who, being made man, manifested the Divine Nature
in union with the human ; and that this manifestation consti
tutes Christianity."
Professor Benjamin Pierce began his great text-book of
Analytic Mechanics, with these three propositions: —
" i . Motion is an essential element of all physical phenomena ;
and its introduction into the universe of matter was necessarily
the preliminary act of creation. The earth must have remained
forever 'without form, and void,' and eternal darkness must
have been upon the face of the deep, if the spirit of God had
not first ' moved upon the face of the waters.'
" 2. Motion appears to be the simplest manifestation of power,
and the idea of force seems to be primitively derived from the
conscious effort which is required to produce motion. Force
may, then, be regarded as having a spiritual origin, and when it
is imparted to the physical world, motion is its usual form of
mechanical exhibition.
"3. Matter is purely inert. It is susceptive of receiving and
containing any amount of mechanical force which may be com
municated to it, but cannot originate new force, or in any way
transform the force which it has received."
In the " Conclusion " of the book are found the following
memorable words : —
" In the beginning, the creating spirit embodied in the material
universe those laws and forms of motion which were best ad
apted to the instruction and development of the created intellect.
The relations of the physical world to man as developed in space
and time, as ordered in proximate simplicity and remote compli
cation, in the immediate supply of bodily wants by the mechanic
arts, and the infinite promise of spiritual enjoyment by the con-

APPENDIX.

439

templation and study of unlimited change and variety of phe
nomena, are admirably adapted to stimulate and encourage the
action and growth of the mind. . . . But it is time to return to
nature, and learn from her actual solutions the recondite analysis
of the more Obscure problems of celestial and physical mechanics.
In these researches there is one lesson which cannot escape the
profound observer. Every portion of the material universe is
pervaded by the same laws of mechanical action which are in
corporated into the very constitution of the human mind. The
solution of the problem of this universal presence of such a
spiritual element is obvious and necessary. There is one
GOD, AND SCIENCE IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF HlM."
Later, in his series of Lowell lectures, Professor Pierce had
-for his leading idea the revelation of the one God in all His
works : —
" That the perfection of theology requires that all the gods
should be reduced to one God, will be admitted. But let us
consider where the proposition lands us, that all science can
be reduced to one fact. Among the facts to be embodied are
the facts of omnipresent ideality, the intelligible cosmos, and the
all-comprehending intellect. The law of universal gravitation
must be incorporated in it, and the laws of rest and motion, of
chemistry and heat and electricity, of sound and light, and of
all vibrations audible and inaudible, visible and invisible, and
of all forms of sensation actual or possible. All the laws of the
material world must be included, and they will constitute its
least part. The mind of man must be in it, with its philosophy,
its emotions, and its infinite capacity of development. It must
contain the law of love, the Sermon on the Mount, and the
Lord's Prayer. What can this mighty fact be but God Him
self?" >
" We need not search the obscure past to find out God. It
is not in the first appearance of animal life or of man himself
that He need be sought, any more than in the whirlwind or the
earthquake. His dwelling is not where the law of continuity is
broken. There would be the proper home of some heathen
deity,' who rejoiced in lawlessness. But our God proclaims
Himself in the silent law of gravitation ; He is forever present
in the quiet grandeur and intellectual simplicity of the processes
of the nebular theory, and in the soul of man, which is fitted to

440 APPENDIX.
understand the Divine harmony. The Creator is not ruled out
of the universe by our theory of evolution. That which we
call evolution is but the mode in which He is present on whom
mortal cannot look with physical eyes and live. It is the mani
festation of His paternity. He becomes through it, more leg
ibly than ever, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the
Omega, the eternal I am, the omnipresent Father, the breath
of whose nostrils is wisdom and power and love."
"O ye of little faith! Accept the Divine record of the
sidereal universe, or ye would not believe in God if His name
were written in letters of fire upon the firmament ! To reject
the ideal history is to strengthen the stronghold of scepticism.
It is to deny the celestial doctrine written upon the heavens
and the earth. It is to reject the law of the Lord, which is
perfect, converting the soul. Let the children be faithful to the
Father, and loyally receive the declaration that He made the
light with which He shines through the stars, and that it is
good." " The birth of Christianity changed the whole firmament of
thought. It was a new spiritual world into which the race was
transported. Centuries of profound brooding were required, ere
mankind could shake off the torpor of the ancient darkness and
awake to the morning light of the Gospel. But when at last
the eyes were fully opened, the natural world was revealed in a
new light, learning revived in grander aspects, and science was
transformed from speciality to generality."
" Why have such curious and intricate celestial problems
been presented to man's appetite for knowledge? . . . The
changing surface of the sun and his planets; the wonderful
system of Saturn, with his mysterious ring and his many satel
lites ; the intricate maze of the cluster of Hercules and of the
Pleiades; the immense nebular and stellar transformations,—
are a stimulus to research, presented by the Divine teacher, and
a promise, surer than the rainbow, that we shall be delivered
from this deep flood of ignorance. . . . Such is the glory and
majesty of the intellectual future life, naturally suggested to
the faith of the Christian philosopher. How infinitely grand,
in comparison with the sensual joys promised by other forms
of religion ! " x
1 Ideality in the Physical Sciences, pp. 32, 57, 70, 190, 192.

APPENDIX. 44I
Associated with these three great teachers, in labor and in
deep converse on such inspired themes, was our late friend,
Professor Theophilus Parsons, to whom the public is more in
debted for an intelligent apprehension of the philosophy of the
New Church, than to any other student of Swedenborg. In re
ference to the naturalistic tendency of the age, Mr. Parsons
says, — ¦,
" It is to avert this danger and arrest the decay of religious
belief, as well as to lay the foundations of a faith that will en
dure every test, and last through the ages, that this new reve
lation [through Swedenborg] is given. Its work of reanimating
and refounding religion, of clearing away the ruins which cum
ber the old and immovable foundations of religion, and building
upon them a new structure that will endure every test, and re
sist every assault, and abide the test of time, must be gradual
and slow, and hardly perceptible in its early stages ; for it can
be wrought only through reason, and reason working in freedom,
¦ — and human reason is in these days greatly cumbered and
darkened. But it is impossible for those who have studied and
learned the truths taught by Swedenborg to doubt that this
work will be done ; to them the result is inevitable.
" Already a city is 'descending from God out of heaven,'
which 'the glory of God will lighten,' — 'and the nations of
them which are saved will walk in the light of it, and the kings
of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.' . . . From
God, by the agency of His angels, a new system of truth and
doctrine is being given to men, as a city for their minds, where,
although entering each through his own among the many gates,
men may dwell together in the peace of certainty, and in pos
session of truth irradiated with light from the knowledge that
and how God is, and is the source and centre of all being ; and
nations will be saved from ignorance and sin by walking in this
light ; and the kings of the spirit, or the certain and sovereign
truths of genuine knowledge of every kind, will bring their glory
and honor into it, by acknowledging that it is the teacher and
the mother of all wisdom." *
1 Outlines of the Philosophy of the New Church, p. 31.

442

APPENDIX.

XII. — Page 415.

Whatever help is given us to know our Lord is given us
from Him, and it is a matter of indifference, relatively, whether
or not we know through whom it comes. But those who know
that their light has come through Swedenborg have a certain
duty and responsibility. Recognizing their faith as given
through him, they recognize him as divinely commissioned to
instruct them; they recognize his teachings as not his, but their
Lord's ; and they acknowledge the Lord as the source of all the
lio-ht that shines in their minds. It then behooves them, first, to
let their light so shine in their works that men may be led to its
source ; second, to preserve and study and publish to the world
the teachings which have been intrusted to them. Led by
this duty, those who have become convinced of the reality of
Swedenborg's mission have for the most part felt called upon to
associate in church fellowship with others of the same convic
tion, although no instruction of this kind was left by their great
teacher, and though many most sincere receivers of his teach
ings have construed their duty otherwise, and have remained in
their first church connection. This is a practical question of
use, which every one may decide best for himself.
Meanwhile, as under the influence of the New Heaven and
by the permeation of the teachings of the New Church on earth
the preaching in all the Churches is rapidly losing its former
error and approaching nearer and nearer to the doctrine re
vealed through Swedenborg,1 the distinction between what is
1 The remarkable objection has already been made against the revelations
. given through Swedenborg, and will be urged more and more, that they are only
what enlightened common-sense would teach, and but cany farther what we
have always known or felt. Let us put with this the following wise remarks of
Mr. Matheson : —
" The most powerful revelation will be that message which speaks deepest
home to all that we have known ; and if Christianity has obtained that pre
eminence, it is because pre-eminently it possesses this quality. . . . When
Christianity came, the world recognized it, not instantaneously indeed, but yet
with wonderful rapidity ; and the reason of this recognition, apart from its
supernatural power, was the meeting-place it presented to the conflicting views
of men. Around this centre the most diverse beliefs could nestle ; Judaism,
Orientalism, the features of the Western mythology, and the best elements in
all the current systems of philosophy, all rested here." — Op. Cit. vol. i. p. 8.
How true this is again of the revelations through Swedenborg, none can
believe but by experience.

APPENDIX.

443

taught in the professed New Church and what is taught in
other Churches, is growing every day less apparent. It is be
coming a question to the children of the New Church, What is
the difference ? And of what consequence is it what Church
we belong to ? A full appreciation of the duty and responsi
bility we have just stated answers these questions. It must be
the permanent distinction between Churches in which the reve
lations made through Swedenborg are acknowledged, and those
in which they are not, that in the one the light by which the
Sacred Scriptures are unfolded is known to be given from
Heaven, and in the other it may be supposed to come from the
intelligence of men. Nor is this distinction an intellectual one
only. Whoever appreciates the sweet, and not pangless, heart-
change by which Swedenborg was led to see all the light that
came to him as from the Lord alone, cannot fail to recognize
the deep, interior regeneration effected by such acknowledg
ment.

XIII.
PORTRAITS OF SWEDENBORG.
There are several painted portraits of Swedenborg, which
have been variously reproduced by the brush, in engravings,
and in photographs. The earliest portrait is that of the en
graving prefixed to the Principia, from we know not what paint
ing, or drawing. This was pronounced by Cuno still an excellent
likeness when Swedenborg was forty years older. There are,
however, serious faults in the drawing, and the likeness cannot
be fully relied on.
Of the later portraits, the best known is the one presented by
Swedenborg to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm,
still hanging in their Great Hall. It is known to us through
Martin's engraving, executed in 1782, which has been several
times copied, — as by Mr. Joseph Andrews for the Boston edition
of The True Christian Religion, and in a lithograph published
by Dr. J. F. I. Tafel. It is a well-balanced face, mild and amia
ble, but rather feeble in expression.
The best likeness, in the judgment of the Rev. R. L. Tafel,
who has had good opportunities for comparison, is an oil paint-

444 APPENDIX.
ing that was found hanging in Swedenborg's bedchamber. This
was imported into America by Mr. S. A. Schoff, and after
wards came into the hands of the Trustees of the Central Con
vention, of whom the Rev. W. H. Benade, of Philadelphia, is
the survivor. Its features are also well known through photo
graphs, but it has not been very popular by reason of a certain
hardness of expression, — in this differing alike from all other
portraits, and from the uniform description of Swedenborg's ap
pearance. Yet there is a certain honesty and strength of char
acter expressed which give a probability of likeness.
The best painting and most agreeable portrait is that of
which we are kindly allowed to present Mr. Schoff's excellent
engraving, for our frontispiece. The original painting was made
for Swedenborg's good friend, Count Hopken, probably by
Kraft. It is now in the National Gallery of Gripsholm. Our
engraving was made for the Board of Publications of the Gene
ral Convention, and for the American N. C. Tract and Publi
cation Society, and is to be found also in the Compendium of
Swedenborg's Theological Writings, by the Rev. Samuel M.
Warren. It is from a copy of the Kraft portrait in the posses
sion of the American Swedenbor-g Printing and Publishing
Society, New York. Another copy is in the possession of the
Rev. James Reed, Boston.
Of other portraits of less authenticity we will mention only
the -two medals struck in Swedenborg's honor, — the one by
the Swedish Academy, and the other by the Royal Academy
of Sciences of Stockholm, which give a marked profile, with
prominent Roman nose, — we know not on what authority.

XIV.
WRITINGS OF SWEDENBORG.
The following is a chronological catalogue of the writings of
Swedenborg, in condensed form, from the Rev. R. L. Tafel's
Documents, preserving his numeration. "Photolith" means
photolithographed by him in 1870.
1. Select Sentences of L. Annaeus Seneca and Pub. Syrus
Mimus ; with notes. (Academical Thesis.) 62 pp., 8vo.
Upsal, 1709.

APPENDIX.

445

2. Ecclesiastes xii., in Latin verse. Skara, 1709.
3. Latin verses in honor of Sophia E. Brenner. 2 pp., 4to.
1710.
4. The Northern Muse sporting with the deeds of Heroes and
Heroines. 112 pp., i6mo. Greifswalde, 1715. — Second
edition (including Nos. 3, 6, 34) ; Dr. J. F. I. Tafel. 1845.
5. Heliconian Sport, or Miscellaneous Poems., 16 pp., 4to.
Skara, 1716. — Second edition, Stockholm, 1826. — Third
edition ; Dr. Tafel. 1841.
6. A Sapphic Poem, celebrating my dearest father's Birth-day.
Skara, 17 16.
7. Daedalus Hyperboreus ; six nos. 154 pp., 4to. Upsal,
1716-1718.
8. Information concerning the Tinware of Stiernsund. In
Swedish, 4 pp., 4to. Stockholm, 1717.
9. Importance of an Astronomical Observatory in Sweden.
In Swedish; 4 pp., folio, MS. 1717.
10. On the Causes of Things. 4 pp., 4to. 1717.
11. New Theory of the End of the Earth. In Swedish, 38 pp.,
MS. 1717.
12. Mode of Aiding Commerce and Manufactures. In Swedish,
6 pp., 4to, MS. 1717.
13. Establishment of Salt-works in Sweden. In Swedish, 4 pp.,
folio, MS. 171 7.
14. Nature of Fire and Colors. In Swedish, 6 pp., folio, MS.
1717.
15. Algebra: in ten books. In Swedish, 135 pp., i6mo. Upsal,
1718.
16. Geometrical and Algebraical Matters. (A treatise on
Higher Mathematics.) 169 pp., 4to, MS. Photolith by
R. L. Tafel.
17. Attempt to find Longitude by the Moon. In Swedish, 38
pp., 8vo. Upsal, 1718. — Second edition in Latin, Am
sterdam, 1721, No. 30.
18. On the Motion and Station of the Earth and Planets. In
Swedish, 40 pp., i2mo. Skara, 1718.
19. The great Depth of Water and strong Tides of the Prime
val World. In Swedish, 40 pp., iomo. Upsal, 1719.
20. Swedish Iron Furnaces. In Swedish, 84 pp., 4to, MS.
1719.
21. Anatomy, showing our moving and living Force to consist
of Tremulations. In Swedish, 48 pp., 4to, MS. 1719.
22. New Directions for discovering Metallic Veins. 14 pp., 4to,
MS. 1719.

446 APPENDIX.
23. Docks, Canal-locks, and Salt-works. In Swedish, 8 pp.,
4to, MS. 1719.
24. Regulating our Coins and Measures. (Decimal System.)
In Swedish, 8 pp., 4to. Stockholm, 1719. — Second edi
tion, 1795.
25. Rise and Fall of Lake Wener. In Swedish, 7 pp., folio,
MS. 1720.
26. First Principles of Natural Things. 560 pp., 4to, MS. 1720.
Photolith.
27. Letter to Jacob a Melle. 4 pp., Acta Lit., Sueciae. 1721.
28. Sketch [Prodromus] of First Principles of Natural Things ;
199 pp., i6mo. Amsterdam, 1721. — Second edition, Am
sterdam, 1727. — Third edition, Hildburghausen, 1754. —
English edition, entitled "Some Specimens of a Work on
the Principles of Chemistry," etc. (including Nos. 29-31);
London, 1847.
29. New Observations and Discoveries about Iron and Fire.
56 pp., 16 mo. Amsterdam, 1721. — Second edition, 1727.
30. New Method of finding Longitudes (No. 17 in conciser
form). 29 pp., 8vo. Amsterdam, 1721. — Second edition,
1727. — Third edition, Hildburghausen, 1754. — Fourth
edition, Amsterdam, 1766.
31. Construction of Docks and Dykes, and Measurement of
Vessels. 21 pp., 8vo. Amsterdam, 1721. — Second edi
tion, Amsterdam, 1727.
32. New Rules for maintaining Heat in Rooms. 3 pp., in Acta
Lit. Sueciae. 1722.
33. Miscellaneous Observations on Natural Things. Parts I.-
III., 164 pp., i6mo; Leipsic, 1722. Part IV., 56 pp.,
l6mo ; Schiffbeck, 1722 (?). Twelve chapters photolith.
— English edition entitled "Miscellaneous Observations
connected with the Physical Sciences" (including No.
35); London, 1847.
34. Fable of the Love and Metamorphosis of the Muse Urania.
8 pp., 4to. Schiffbeck, 1722.
35. Power of the Deep Waters of the Deluge. 3 pp., in Acta
Lit. Sueciae, 1722.
36. Rise and Fall of Swedish Currency. In Swedish, 20 pp., 4to.
Stockholm, 1722. — Second edition, 1769.
37. The Magnet and its Qualities. 299 pp., 4to, MS. 1722.
38. The genuine Treatment of Metals. Nineteen Parts were
projected, if not written, of which four are preserved in
1481 pp., 4to. 1723.
39. The Motion of the Elements in general. 5 pp., 4to, MS.
1724-1733.

APPENDIX.

447

40. Notes for the Principia. 13 pp., 4to, MS. 1724-1733.
41. The Mechanism of the Soul and Body. 16 pp., 4to, MS.
1724-1733.
42. Comparison of Wolff's Ontology and Cosmology with our
Principia. Photolith by R. L. Tafel. 49 pp., 4to, MS.
1 724-1 733.
43. Observations on the Human Body. 6 pp., 4to, MS. 1724-
1733-
44. Itinerary for 1 733-1 734. 80 pp., 4to, MS. Dr. Tafel. 1840.
Photolith.
45. Philosophical and Mineral Works. 3 vols, folio. Dresden
and Leipsic, 1734. Vol. I., Principia, 452 pp. Vol. II.,
On Iron, 386 pp. Vol. III., On Copper, 534 pp.
46. Sketch of a Philosophical Argument on the Infinite. 270
pp., 8vo. Dresden and Leipsic, 1734.
47. Epitome of the Principia. 27 pp., 4to, MS. 1734. Photolith.
48. Fragments of three treatises on the Brain ; 1004 pp., 4to,
MS. 1735-1738, Photolith.— English edition, 1882.
49. Description of my Travels. 40 pp., 4to, MS. 1736-1739.
Dr. Tafel, 1840 and 1844. Photolith.
50. Way to the Knowledge of the Soul. 5 pp., 4to, MS. 1738.
London, 1846. — In English, "Posthumous Tracts." Lon
don.
51. Faith and Good Works. 10 pp., 4to, MS. 1738. London,
1846. — In English, "Posthumous Tracts." London.
52. Economy of the' Animal Kingdom. Part I., 388 pp., 4to,
London and Amsterdam, 1740. Part II., 194 pp., 4to,
London and Amsterdam, 1741. — English edition, two
vols., 8vo, London, 1845.
53. Characteristic and Mathematical Philosophy of Universals,
5 pp., folio, MS. Photolith.
54. On the Bones of the Skull and Ossification. 49 pp., folio,
MS. 1.740. Photolith.
55. Corpuscular Philosophy in Brief. I p., folio, MS. 1740.
Photolith.
56. Anatomy of all the Parts of the Brain. 636 pp., folio, MS.
1740. Photolith.
57. Introduction to Rational Psychology. 366 pp., 4to, MS.
1 740-1 741 ; Photolith.— A portion published by Dr. Wil
kinson, as the Third Part of the "Economy." London,
1847.
58. Declination of Magnetic Needle. (Controversy in Academy
of Sciences.) 1 740-1 741. Tafel's Documents, vol. i. pp.
565-585-

448 APPENDIX.
59. Introduction to Rational Psychology. Part II. 9 pp., folio,
MS. 1741. Photolith.
60. Hieroglyphic Key of Natural and Spiritual Mysteries. 48
pp., 4to, MS. 1741- London, 1784. — English edition,
London, 1792. — Second English edition, London, 1847.
61. Comparison of the Three Systems concerning the Inter
course of the Soul and Body. Fragment, 44 pp., 4to.
1 741. London, 1846. — English edition,. London, 1847.
62. The Red Blood. 24 pp., 4to, MS. 1741. London, 1846.
— English edition, London, 1847.
63. The Animal Spirit. 24 pp., 4to, MS. 1741. London, 1846.
— English edition, London, 1847.
64. Sensation of the Body. 11 pp., 4to, MS. 1741. London,
1846. — English edition, London, 1847.
65. Origin and Propagation of the Soul. 6 pp., 4to, MS. 1741.
London, 1846. — English edition, London, 1847.
66. Action. 30 pp., 4to, MS. 1741. London, 1846. — English
edition, Londou, 1847.
67. Rational Psychology. 234 pp., folio. MS. 1741-1742. As
Part VII. of The Animal Kingdom: on the Soul. By
Dr. Tafel, 1849. Photolith.
68. Ontology. 21 pp., folio, MS. 1742. Photolith.
69. Anatomy of the Human Body. II. and III. 269 pp., folio,
MS. 1742-1743. Part II. as Part VI., section 2, of The
Animal Kingdom. By Dr. Tafel, 1849. — Part II., in
English, as The Generative Organs. London, 1852.
Photolith.
70. Swammerdam's Book of Nature. 79 pp., folio, MS. 1743.
Photolith.
71. The Animal Kingdom. Part I. 438 pp., 4to. Hague, 1744.
Part II. 286 pp.. 4to. Hague, 1744. — English edition,
Dr. J. J. G. Wilkinson, 2 vols. London, 1843-1844.
72. Dreams. In Swedish, 101 pp., i6mo, MS. 1743-1744.
Stockholm, 1859.
73- Sense. 200 pp., folio, MS. 1744. As Part IV. of The
Animal Kingdom. Dr. Tafel, 1848. Photolith.
74. Muscles of the Face and Abdomen. 13 pp., folio, MS. 1744
Photolith. ,m
75- Physical and Optical Experiments. 6 pp., folio, MS. 1744.
Photolith.'
76. The Brain. 43 pp., folio, MS. 1744. Photolith.
77. The Animal Kingdom. Part III. 169 pp., 4to. London,
1745. — English edition of The Animal Kingdom, in Vol.'
II. London, 1844.

APPENDIX.

449

78. The Worship and Love of God. Part I. 120 pp., 4to. Lon
don, 1745. Part II. 24 pp., 4to. London, 1745.— English
edition, London, 1801.
79. The Worship and Love of God. Part III. 9 pp., 4to. 1745.
Photolith.
80. History of Creation given by Moses. 1745. As Adversaria,
25 pp., in Vol. I. Dr. Tafel. 1847.
81. The Messiah about to Come. 32 pp., folio, MS. 1745. As
Adversaria, in Vol. I. Dr. Tafel. 1847.
82. Explication of the historical Word of the Old Testament.
169 pp., folio, MS. 1745-1746. As Adversaria. Dr.
Tafel. 1842-1847.
83. Biblical Index of Historical Books of the Old Testament.
581 pp., folio, MS. 1746. To letter D published by Dr.
Tafel. 1859. '
84. Isaiah and Jeremiah Explained; 107 pp., folio, MS. 1746-
1747. As Adversaria, Part IV., by Dr. Tafel.
85. Notes on Jeremiah and Lamentations. MS. Bible Margins.
1 746-1 747. Photolith.
86. Biblical Index of Isaiah and part of Jeremiah and Genesis.
1 746-1 747. 300 pp., MS.
87. Memorable Things. Part I., MS. 1747. Spiritual Diary
, (nos. 1-148). Dr. Tafel.
88. Fragments of Notes on Genesis and Exodus. MS. Bible
Margins, 1747. Photolith.
89. Fragments of Notes on the Prophets. MS. Bible Margins,
1747. Photolith.
90. Names in the Sacred Scripture. 275 pp., folio, MS. To
letter D published by Dr. Tafel, 1859. In part as Sup
plement of Biblical Index. London, 1873.
91. Biblical Index of Old Testament, except Genesis. 636 pp.,
folio. MS. 1747-1748. Dr. Tafel and Dr. Kahl. 1859-
1868.
92. Biblical Index of New_ Testament. 435 pp., folio, MS.
1747-1748. Dr. Tafel and Dr Kahl. 1859-1868.
93. Memorable Things. Part II. 516 pp., folio. 1747-1748.
Spiritual Diary, Part I. Vols. I. and II. Dr. Tafel.
1 844- 1 845.
94. Heavenly Arcana in Genesis. Five volumes, "4to. London,
1747-1758.
95. Heavenly Arcana in Exodus. Three volumes, 4to. Lon
don, 1747-1758.
96. Memorable Things. Part III., MS. 1748-1750. Spirit-
y ual Diary, Part II. Dr. Tafel. 1843.
29

45O APPENDIX.
97. Memorable Things. Part IV. 134 pp., i6mo, MS. 1750-
1751. Spiritual Diary, Part IV '. Dr. Tafel. 1843.
98. Index to Notes and Memorable Things. 988 pp., folio, MS.
1748-1751. Spiritual Diary, Part V. Dr. Tafel. 1846-
1847-
99.* Memorable Things. Part V. 602 pp., 8vo, MS. 1752-1765.
Spiritual Diary, Part III.
99. b Index to Memorable Things. Parts III.-V. 100 pp., folio,
MS. 1752-1765. Spiritual Diary, Part VI. Dr.
Tafel.
100. Index to Arcana Ccelestia. 1749-1756. London, 1815.
101. Heaven and Hell. 272 pp., 4to. London, 1758.
102. The White Horse. 1757-1758. 23 pp., 4to. London, 1758.
103. The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine. 1 757—
1758. 156 pp., 4to., London, 1758.
104. The Earths in our Solar System and in the Starry Heaven.
1756-1758. 72 pp., 4to. London, 1758.
105 The Last Judgment. 1757-1758. 55 pp., 4to. London,
1758.
106. The Apocalypse Explained. Four volumes, 1992 pp., 4to,
MS. I7S7-I759- Four volumes, London, 1785-1789.
Photolith.
107. The Athanasian Creed. 42 pp., 8vo, MS. 1759. London,
1840.
108. The Lord. 7 pp., 8vo, MS. 1759. London, 1840.
109. Summary Exposition of the Prophets and Psalms. 1759-
1760. Dr. Tafel. i860.
no. Papers for Swedish Diet. 100 pp., folio, MS. 1760. R.
L. Tafel's Documetits (nos. 174-196). 1875.
in. The Last Judgment. 100 pp., folio, MS. 1760. spiritual
Diary, Part VII. App. 1. Dr. Tafel, 1846. Photo
lith.
112. The Spiritual World. 30 pp., folio, MS. 1760. Spiritual
Diary, Part VII. App. 1. Dr. Tafel, 1846. Photolith.
113. The Sacred Scripture. MS. 1761. Spiritual Diary,
Part VII. App. 2. Dr. Tafel, 1854. Photolith.
114. The Precepts of the Decalogue. 6 pp., 8vo, MS. 1761.
Spiritual Diary, Part VII., pp. 38-41. Dr. Tafel, 1846.
Photolith.
115. On Faith. 2 pp., folio, MS. 1761. Spiritual Diary, Part
VII. App. 1. Dr. Tafel, 1846. Photolith. -
116. Doctrine of the Lord. 64 pp., 4to. Amsterdam, 1763.
117. Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture. 54pp.,4to. Amster
dam, 1763.

APPENDIX.

45 I

1 1 8. Doctrine of Life. 36 pp., 4to. Amsterdam, 1763.
1 19. Doctrine of Faith. 23 pp., 4to. Amsterdam, 1763.
120. Continuation concerning the Last Judgment. 28 pp 4to.
Amsterdam, 1763.
121. The Mode of Inlaying Marble. Translation for Royal
Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, June, 1763. R. L.
Tafel's Documents (no. 202).
122. The Divine Love. 22 pp., folio, MS. 1762-1763.
123. The Divine Wisdom. 46 pp., folio, MS. 1763. Both the
above in Appendix to The Apocalypse Explained. 1780.
Photolith. f ' *
124. Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the
Divine Wisdom. 151 pp., 410. Amsterdam, 1763.
125. Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Providence. 214
pp., 4to. Amsterdam, 1764.
126. Doctrine of Charity. 49 pp., folio, MS. 1764. London,
1840. Photolith.
127. The Apocalypse Revealed. 629 pp., 4to. Amsterdam,
766. •
128. New Method of finding Longitude. 8 pp., 4to. Amster
dam, 1766.
129. On the Horse and Hieroglyphics. MS. As Appendix to
no. 102, and in R. L. Tafel's Documents (no. 300).
130. Index to The Apocalypse Revealed. 75 pp., 4to, MS.
1766. London, 181 5.
131. Five Memorable Relations. 13 pp., folio, MS. 1766.
Spiritual Diary, Part VII. App. 1. Dr. Tafel. 1846.
132. Conversations with Angels. 3 pp., folio, MS. 1766. Spirit
ual Diary, Part II. App. 1. Dr. Tafel. 1846. Photo
lith.
133. First Treatise on Conjugial Love. MS. 1766-1767.
Known only by Indexes, covering two thousand num
bers, which have been photolithographed.
134. Memorable Things on Marriage. 19 pp., folio, MS. 1767.
Spiritual Diary, Part VII. App. 4. Dr. Tafel. 1854.
135. Delights of Wisdom concerning Conjugial Love. 1767-
1768. 328 pp., 4to. Amsterdam, 1768.
136. The Natural and the Spiritual Sense of the Word. MS.
1768. Sent to Oetinger. R. L. Tafel's Documents
(no. 238).
137. Justification and Good Works. MS. 1768. Spiritual
Diary, Part VII., section 5. Dr. Tafel. 1854.
138. Sketch of the Doctrine of the New Church. MS. 1768.
Spiritual Diary, Part VII. App. 1. Dr. Tafel. 1846.

452 APPENDIX.
139. Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church.
1768-1769. 67 pp., 4to. Amsterdam, 1769.
140. Intercourse between the Soul and the Body. London,
1769.
141. Answer to a Letter from a Friend [Rev. T. Hartiey]. 3 pp.,
4to. London, 1769.
142. Nine Questions concerning the Trinity, and Answers. 6
pp., 4to, MS. 1769. London, 1775.
143. Canons of the New Church. 45 pp., folio, MS. 1769.
London, 1840.
144. Confirming Passages of the Old and New Testaments.
1769. 39 pp., folio, MS. Dr. Tafel. 1845.
145. The True Christian Religion. 541 pp., 4to. Amsterdam,
1771.
146. Notes for The True Christian Religion. 23 pp., folio, MS.
1770. R. L. Tafel's Documents (no. 302).
147. Ecclesiastical History of the New Church. 1 p., folio, MS.
1771. R. L. Tafel's Documents (no. 301).
148. SummarjFof the Coronis to The True Christian Religion.
Spiritual Diary, Part VII. App. Dr. Tafel. 1846.
5 pp., folio, MS. 1771. — English edition,' London, 1807.
149. Coronis, or Appendix, to The True Christian Religion.
MS. 1771. London, 1780. — English editions, London
and Manchester, 1810.
150. The Consummation of the Age. 15 pp., folio, MS. 1771.
Spiritual Diary, Part VII. App. 1. Dr. Tafel. 1846.
ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS BOOK.
A. C  Arcana Ccelestia.
A. E  The Apocalypse Explained.
A. R  The Apocalypse Revealed.
Adv  Adversaria.
C. L  Conjugial Love.
D. L. & W  The Divine Love and Wisdom.
D. P  The Divine Providence.
H. D. . . The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine.
H. & H  Heaven and Hell.
Int. S. & B  Intercourse of the Soul and Body.
L. J  The Last judgment.
S. D  Spiritual Diary.
S. S  The Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture.
T. C. R  The True Christian Religion.

APPENDIX. 453
XV.
PRINCIPAL DATES IN SWEDENBORG'S LIFE.
1688. January 29. Born at Stockholm, and lived there till
1692. 1692. Spring: family removed to Vingaker; November, to
Upsal. 1703. At Upsal. The family removed to Brunsbo. Sister
Anna married : perhaps Emanuel remained with her at Upsal.
1709. Graduated at Upsal; went home to Brunsbo. Pub
lished thesis.
1710.-1713. At London pursuing studies.
1713. At Utrecht and Paris for a year.
1714. September, at Rostock.
1715. April, at Griefswalde, publishing Camena Borea.
1715. Returned home ; worked on the Dcedalus and Algebra.
1716. Appointed Assessor Extraordinary.
1717. Received in the College of Mines.
1716-1718. Worked with Polhem for Charles XII.
1719-1720. Pursues studies.
1721. Spring: to Holland and Leipsic publishing Miscel
laneous Observations, and studying metals.
1722. Returns home, and tries to introduce improved methods
of working copper.
1723. At the College of Mines, in regular attendance.
1724. July 15, appointed Ordinary Assessor; regularly em
ployed till 1733.
1733. May, to Leipsic, to publish Opera Philosophica.
1734. July, at the College of Mines and the Diet, regularly
till 1736.
1736. July, went to Paris to pursue anatomical studies.
1738. March 12, left Paris for Italy, on same studies.
1739. May, arrived again in Paris. December, finished the
Economy of the Animal Kingdom, and went to Amsterdam to
publish it.
1740. November, at the College of Mines till 1743.
1743. July, went to Amsterdam and the Hague, to print The
Animal Kingdom. Had remarkable dreams in the autumn, and
afterwards. 1744. May, arrived in London. First revelation, according
to Gj or well.

454 APPENDIX.
1745. April, first open vision. Wrote The Worship and Love
of God. August, returned to Stockholm, and was at the College
of Mines till July, 1747; also writing A dversaria and Biblical
Index. Retired from the College.
1747. February, began the Spiritual Diary. August, arrived
in Holland. Celestial change of state. Wrote the first volume
of the Arcana Ccelestia.
1748. October, arrived in London to publish the "Arcana."
1749. Summer: in Amsterdam; to Aix-la-Chapelle for the
winter. 1750. Spring: in Stockholm. Continued the "Arcana" till
1758. The " Diary " was continued till 1765.
1755-1762. Sundry Memorials to the Diet. Wrote The Apoca
lypse Explained.
1762. To Amsterdam. Published the Four Leading Doctrines.
1763. At Amsterdam. Published The Divine Love and Wis
dom and The Divine Providence.
1764. At Stockholm.
1765. Summer: at Amsterdam, to publish The Apocalypse
Revealed. 1766. Spring: to London ; September, to Stockholm.
1768. Spring: to Amsterdam, to publish Conjugial Love.
1769. March, at Amsterdam; published "Brief Exposition."
April, to Paris and London ; October, to Stockholm.
1770. July, to Amsterdam, to publish The True Christian
Religion. 1771. July, at Amsterdam; finished The True Christian Re
ligion, and went to London.
1772. March 29, died in London.

XVI.
BIOGRAPHIES OF SWEDENBORG.
1769. Autobiography in a letter to the Rev. Thomas Hartley,
See p. 323.
1772. Eulogy before the Royal Academy of Sciences, Stock
holm, by Samuel Sandels. See p. 404.
1790. Life of the Hon. Emanuel Swedenborg, in New-Jeru
salem Magazine. London.
1806. Assessor Swedenborg's Life, in Danish. Copenhagen.
by S. H. Walden.

APPENDIX.

455

1820. Emanuel Swedenborg, in a Journal of Biography.
Upsal. See R. L. Tafel's Documents, no. 288.
1827. Biography of Swedenborg, by the Rev. D. G Goyder
pp. 40.
1 83 1. Life of Emanuel Swedenborg, by Nathaniel Hobart.
Boston, pp. 188.
1839-1845. Collection of Documents respecting the Life and
Character of Emanuel Swedenborg, by Dr. J. F. I. Tafel. Tu
bingen. — English editions published in Manchester, 1841, 1855.
New York, by Professor Bush, 1847.
1840. Swedenborg, in the Penny-Cyclopaedia, by Dr. J. J. G.
Wilkinson. 1841. Life of Swedenborg, by the Rev. B. F. Barrett. New
York. pp. 160.
1849. Biographical Sketch of Emanuel Swedenborg,by Elihu
Rich. London pp. 192.
1849. Emanuel Swedenborg ; a Biography, by James John
Garth Wilkinson. London, pp. 370.
1849. Emanuel Swedenborg, in Biographical Lexicon. Upsal.
pp. 60.
1 85 1. Life of Emanuel Swedenborg, by Nathaniel Hobart;
third edition ; prepared by Benjamin Worcester. Boston, pp.
280. 1852. Memoir of Swedenborg, by the Rev. O. Prescott Hiller,
in his "Gems from the Writings of Swedenborg."
1854. Swedenborg ; a Biography and Exposition, by Edwin
Paxton Hood. London, pp. 402.
1854. Life of Swedenborg, by the Rev. W. M. Fernald, first
published in his Compendium, pp. 128.
1856. Life of Swedenborg for Youth, by Mrs. S. P. Doughty.
Boston. 1856. Swedenborg; His Life and Writings, by William
White. London.
i860. Emanuel Swedenborg, for the Swedish Academy, in
Memorial, by Bernhard von Beskors.
1863. Emanuel de Swedenborg, sa Vie, ses Ecrits, etc., by
M. Matter, Hon. Counsellor of the University. Paris, pp. 436.
1867. Memoir of Swedenborg, by the Rev. O. P. Hiller.
Chicago, pp. 72.
1867. Emanuel Swedenborg; his Life and Writings, by
William White. London. 2 vols. pp. 1278.
1868. The same in one volume.
1872. Emanuel Swedenborg ; an Outline of his Life and

456 APPENDIX.
Writings, by a " Bible Student " (the Rev. John Hyde). Lon
don, pp. 120.
1875. Emanuel Swedenborg, in Tales from Swedish History,
by A. Fryxell. Stockholm, pp. 120.
1875-1877. Documents concerning the Life and Character of
Emanuel Swedenborg, by the Rev. R. L. Tafel ; published by
the Swedenborg Society. London. 3 vols , royal octavo, pp.
2107. [This is a work of great labor, conducted under extra
ordinary facilities; it is well-nigh exhaustive, and indispensable
to the student of its subject.]
1876. Emanuel Swedenborg, a Biographical notice. Paris.
' 1877. E?nanuel Swedenborg, the Spiritual Columbus, by
U. S. E. [Speirs.] London, pp. 216.
1882. The Man and his Mission, by the Rev. B. F. Barrett.
pp. 60.
1883. Emanuel Swedenborg, The Man and his Works, by
Edmund Swift, Jr. London, pp. 218. [A clear and excellent
summary of facts about Swedenborg and his writings.]

INDEX.

INDEX.

A.
Abbey and Overton, cited, 5, 425.
Abram, 222, 232, 251, 270.
Academy of Sciences at Paris, 97 ;
Royal at Stockholm, 98, 406;
Imperial, Russia, 98, 406.
Acta Eruditorum, 406.
Adam, 270.
Addison, Joseph, 37.
Adoration of saints, 107.
Affection, spiritual ; looks, natu
ral, 296.
Agassiz, Louis, App. XL
Alchemists, 199.
Alcuin, 115.
Algebra, Swedenborg's, 64, 67, 70.
Almanac, with entries of sowings,
etc., 394.
Altartaflan, 394.
Alzog, cited, 146.
Amsterdam, Swedenborg visits,
105, 261, 316; lodgings at, 341,
342-
Anatomy, Swedenborg studies, 77,
81, 101, 147, 152; use of studies,
297.
Angels awaiting the last judg
ment, 282.
Angels, classes of, 251 ; conversing
about the One God, 256-259; in
charge of such matters as inter
views with spirits, 387 ; speaking
through Swedenborg's mouth,
. 33-
Answer, to inquiry about Prince of
Saxe-Coburg, 390; to Thomas
Hartley's letter, 314; to his nine
questions, 314.
Apocalypse briefly explained, 301-
3°3-

Apostles visit Swedenborg, 338.
Arabian philosophy, 116.
Aristotle, in, 142, 166.
Asceticism, not approved, 132.
Assessorship Extraordinary, 57,
59, 60, 83, 87 ; Ordinary, 91 ;
retired from, 261, 262.
Assyria, 251, 320.
Astronomy, Swedenborg's interest
in. 37. 38. 47, 7°-
Athanasius, 259.
Atmospheres, 293, 294.
Augsburg Confession, 357, 364.
Autograph, of Swedenborg, 320.
Axmar, 91. B.
Babylon, 284, 285, 302.
Bacon, Francis, 117.
Bacon, Roger, 116.
Barham, Francis, 45.
Barnard, Sir John, cited, 5.
Bebel, visited by Swedberg, 17.
Bede, 115.
Behm, Brita, 75, 91.
Behm, Sara, 29, 73, 74.
Benediction, the peace of the, 237.
Bengel, John Albert, 2, 7, 12, 13.
Benzelius, 78.
Benzelius, Eric, the younger, 40,
44. 46, 49. 53. 61, 63, 64, 71.
Benzelius, Ericus, marriage, 29;
ennobled, 30 ; correspondence
with Swedenborg, 35-82 ; sent
him his share from his father's
hymn-book, 22; appointed arch
bishop, 81.
Benzelius, Lars, 73, 74, 75,91, 100.
Bergstrbm, Eric, 339.
Berkeley, 117, 119.

460

INDEX.

Beyer, Dr. Gabriel A., 33, 351,364,
365, 370 ; collection of sermons,
353 ; indexes, 350, 370 ; letters
from E. S. to, 351-356, 366.
Bible, prohibited to laity, 116;
Hebrew, all of Swedenborg's
library in London, 338, — given
to Ferelius, 340; Swedish, re
vised by Swedberg, 21, 22, 30.
Bignon, Abbe, 41.
Bishop of St. Asaph's predic
tion, 4.
Bishops of England, treatment of
Swedenborg, 336 ; treatment of,
in Memorable Relations, 351.
Bjelke, Count, 363.
Bbhme's writings, 412; Sweden
borg asked about, 253.
Bolton, cited, 119.
Bonde, Count, 363.
Boneauschald, 150.
Bourignon, Antoinette, 412, Ap
pendix II.
Boyle, 81.
Brain, the seat of the soul, 156,
163; work on, 161.
Brask, Bishop, 61.
Breathing, different modes of, 200,
201 ; with a certain cadence fol
lowing choirs in heaven, 256.
Bremner's Excursions, cited, 393.
Brockmer's false statements de
nied, 340.
Bromell, Dr. 54.
Brown's Estimate of the Manners
of the Times, 3.
Brunner, Swedberg's preceptor,
16, 20.
Bruno, Giordano, 117, 412.
Brunsbo, Swedberg removed to,
25 ; burned, 25, 26 ; motto over
gate-way, 26.
Brunswick, 92 ; Duke of, 96.
Bull Unigenitus, 1, 1 1, 390, App. I.
Bullernassia, Anna, 29.
Bullernaesius, Petrus, 29.
Burkhardt's account of Sweden
borg, 340.
Burnet, Bishop, 4.

C.

Cabot, 117.
Cairns, Dr. John, 9.

Calculus, essay on, 67.
Camus, 98.
Canaan, signification of, 266.
Canal project, 58, 61-^63, 68-70.
Carlscrona, 58.
Carlsbad, 94.
Carlsberg, 103.
Carlsgraf, 72.
Carlyle, Life of Frederick the
Great, 6 ; Signs of the Times,
6; Charles XII., 45, 118, 119.
Carriage left at Gottenburg, 352.
Cassel, 92.
Castel, William, 348.
Catechism of Dr. Beyer, 351.
Catechisms given by Swedberg to.
soldiers, 18.
Catholic services, 93-95, 107.
Causes of things, essay on, by
Swedenborg, 67.
Cedarholm, 63.
Celestial kingdom, 250.
Censor of books, 77.
Changuion's bookstore, 341.
Charity, beginning to be more
spoken of, 354.
Charlemagne, 115.
Charles XI., dealings with Swed
berg, 18-20; trusted nobody, 20;
death, 48.
Charles XII., dealings with Swed
berg, 23, 24, 65 ; with Swe
denborg, 56-64, 70 ; draining
strength of Sweden, 24, 53, 69 ;
return to Sweden, 44-49, 54, —
not ^igain to Stockholm, 55 ;
letter from, 59; new mode of
counting, 63-68 ; against Fred
erickshall, 72-75; death, 75;
character of, by Swedenborg, 76.
Children, Swedenborg's interest
in, 341, 343, 392 ; their instinct,
396 ; blind girl, 399.
Chillingworth, cited, 2.
Christian Church, 113, 274, 301.
Church, has been closed by I'alses,
can be opened only by truths
received from the Lord, 369.
Cities, in spiritual world, 322.
City of God, 145, 147, 165; the
Holy City, 214,303.
Clarke, J. F., 416.
Claudius Matthius, 372.
Clergy, tax on, 24.

INDEX.

46I

Clergyman, who went to hell, 382.
Clissold, Rev. Augustus, 96.
Clowes, Rev. J., 209; letter to,
from Hartley, 325.
Coleridge, S. T., cited, 144, 317,
412.
Collection of Sermons by Dr.
Beyer, 353.
College of Commerce, 52 ; of
Mines, 57-60, 83, 87, 149, 261,
262 ; Royal Medical, 78.
Collin, Rev. Nicholas, 388.
Colony, Swedenborg's doctrines
good for, 333. See Swedish.
Columbus, 117.
Coming of the Lord, 198, 199, 281,
283, 310, 315.
Commerce and Manufactures, es
say on, 67.
Comte, 113.
Condillac, 117, 119.
Confiscation, ordered of Sweden
borg's works, 359-361.
Conjugial, the word, 305.
Conjugial love, nature of, 290, 305-
308.
Consistory, authorized to summon
Drs. Beyer and Rosen, 359.
Constantinople, Greek literature
banished from, 116.
Copper, exporting of, 276; new
mode of working, 86.
Copenhagen, 103.
Corporeal life represents spiritual
life, 159.
Correspondences, 147, 160, 212.
Cosmogony, 97.
Council of Trent, 309.
Counting heaps of balls in tri
angular form, 72.
Creation, history of, 229 ; not out
of nothing, 294 ;' of man, to re
ceive Divine Love and Wisdom,
295; Divine end in, 158, 165,
299'
Crell's Biblical Concordance, 31.
Criminals, their condition after
death, 382.
Cronhjelm, 47.
Cuno, John Christian, 340 ; ac
count of Swedenborg, 341-343 ;
remonstrance of, 343.
Currency, Swedenborg on, 276-
278.

D.
Daler, value of, 21, 91.
Danieli, 395,414.
Danielsson, Isak, 395.
Dathan, 202.
Decimal system of coins and meas
ures, 79.
Degrees, 141, 144, 160, 212, 293.
Deism, 3, 10, 11.
Delft, 179.
Delights, every one allowed to en
joy his own, 299.
Demoralization, in England, 41.
Desolation, of the Church, 1-12,
315- , ,
Descartes, 56, 67, 117, 119, 124,
133. !42, 412-
Descriptions des Arts et des Ml tiers,
406.
Diet, Swedenborg takes his seat
in, 87, — sends memorials to, 87-
90, 275, — his intention of com
plaining to, 365, 366. _
Diet and Privy Council, resolve
not to touch Swedenborg, 360.
Dieterich, 31.
Diseases depending on the mind
do not leave at once after death,
33i- ,
Divine end, realized in man's abil
ity to acknowledge God, 130 ; in
creation, 158, 165, 299.
Divine Providence, nature and
laws of, 297 ; governs the life of
man, 171, 173, 179.
Dixon, Captain, 336, 352. _
Doctrines of Swedenborg" drawn
from the Word, 172 ; best for a
colony (Hopken), 333 ; lead men
to good, 383 ; in substance, that
men should go to the Lord Jesus
Christ directly, 364.
Documents, of J. F. I. Tafel, 316.
Documents, of R. L. Tafel, 15, 66,
82.
Doddridge, 10.
Dog, Swedenborg dreams of, 185.
Dorner, J. A., cited, 2, 3, 8, 10, 367,
App. III., IV.
Dragon, 193, 283, 302.
Dragoons, furnished by the clergy,
24.
Dreams, of Swedenborg, 173-197.

462

INDEX.

Dreams, may be useful, 381.
Dresden, 92-94.
Duke of Brunswick, 96.
Dumas, Chemical Philosophy, 85.
Dutch, 105.

E.
Earth, approaching the sun, 76,
Earths, other, spirits of, 254, 255.
Edwin, King, 412.
Edzardus, visited by Swedberg,
18.
Egypt. 25r. 32°-
Ekeblad, Count, 336, 339, 363.
Eleonora, Hedwig, 48.
Eleonora, Ulrica, wife of Charles
XI. ; death of, 48.
Eleonora, Ulrica, sister of Charles
XII. ; Swedberg petitions, 23,
25, 54 ; ennobles his family, 30,
78; assumes place of Charles
XII. in his absence, 25 {note) ;
becomes Queen, 78.
Elfvius, 39, 43, 53, 65.
Elsinore, 61, 329, 330.
Emerson, R. W., 168, 412, 416.
Empress Elizabeth, in the other
world, 330, 378.
Ennoblement of Swedberg's fam
ily, 29, 30, 78.
End of the earth, theory of, 67.
Epistles, their authority and use,

35'. 352-
Esbe

Esberg, 70.
Eustachius, 136.
Evangelical churches, 314.
Evelyn, John, cited, 4.
Evil, state of the, after death, 218-
223.

Fac-simile, of Swedenborg's writ
ing, 320.
Fahlstrom, 62.
Fahlun, 15.
Fahlun Board of Mines, 87.
Faith, superior to reason, 153.
Faith alone, beginning to be called
Moravian faith, 354.
Faith and good works, 146.

Fenelon, Abp., App. VI., VII.
Ferelius, Rev. Arvid. 337, 338.
Fichte, 113,, App. III.
Filenius, Bishop, 359, 364.
Finance, Swedenborg on, 88, 90,
276, 278.
Fire and colors, 67, 85.
Fire at Upsal, 23 ; Brunsbo, 25, 26;
Stockholm, 346, 348 ; London,
from which Apocalypse Ex
plained was saved, 287.
Fires of hell, 79.
Flamsteed, 37.
Flamy lights and other signs, 173.
Flood, first understanding of, 230.
Flying machines, 43, 54, 55.
Formula Concordice, 309, 357, 358,
3^4-
France, 40, 107, 108.
Franciscan monks, 106.
Frederic, King of Sweden from-
1720 till 1751, 86, 103, 151, 261,
262.
Frederic, Adolphus, King of Swe
den from 1751 till 1771, 332, 335,
359-
Frederic V. of Denmark, 331.
Frederickshall, 72, 75.
Frederick the Great, Life of, 6, 335.
French Revolution, 7, 120, App.
VII.

G.
Galileo, 117.
Gamaliel, 334.
Gardener and wife, Swedenborg's,
379. 38°. 394-400.
Geier, 31.
Gentiles, in the Judgment, 285.
Genuine Christianity, Swedenborg
calls his doctrine, 358.
Geology, studied by Swedenborg,
77, 7».
Gerard, Prof. Alexander, 327.
Gerhardi, 31.
German thinkers, 168.
Gjorwell, account of Swedenborg,
384
Glorification in heaven, 256, 283.
Goethe, theory of color, 85.
Golden Age, 273.
Gortz, Baron, 70.

INDEX.

4^3

Gottenburg, 35, 58, 63, 348.
Gottenburg Consistory, Minutes,
two letters of Swedenborg
printed in, 358.
Government, Swedenborg on,
277-280.
Grabe's Septuagint, 37.
Gray, Asa, App. XI.
Greatest Man, heaven so called,
222, 271, 299.
Greek philosophy, 115.
Griefswalde, visited by Sweden
borg, 44.
Grotius, 142.
Gullspangelf, 58, 61.
Gustav, brother of Benzelius, 48.
Gustavus Adolphus, 415.
Guyon, Madame, 412, App. VI.
Gyllenborg, Countess, 72.

H.
Hagenbach, 2, 8, 372, 374, 423.
1 Hahn, Philip, M., App. III.
Hale, E. E., 416.
Halenius, Bishop, reproved by
Swedenborg, illness, and change
of heart, 391 ; his children at
Swedenborg's house, 392.
Halley, Dr., 39.
Hamburg, 92, 152.
Hamilton, Prof. Robert, Messi-
ter's letter to, 327. .
Hammarberg, Mr., orders four
copies^)f Swedenborg's works,
366. W
Handel, 36, 37.
Happiness, 408, 409.
Harmony in the house, Sweden
borg required, 401, 408.
Hart, John, Swedenborg's printer,
340; seen in the other world,
341 ; his son's account of Swe
denborg, 340, — who was fond
of his little girl, 340.
Hartley, David, Observations on
Man, 4, 117.
Hartley, Rev. Thomas, 314, 322-
327-
Hasselbom, 69.
Head of the Swedish Church,
according to Swedenborg, is
the Houses of the Diet, they

being the vicar of the Lord,
365-
Heart and Lungs, will and under
standing reside in, 295.
Heaven, all created for, 299, 300;
evil allowed to go to, but can
not bear, 299 ; two kingdoms of,
25, 296 ; as a whole corresponds
to the Divine Human of the
Lord, 271; seen opening before
Swedenborg's eyes, 256 ; the
three heavens, 293.
Hell, permanence of, 218-223.
Helvetius, De l'Esprit, 5.
Heraclitus, 411.
Herder, Johan G. von, Appi III.
Hess, Felix, Lavater inquires
about, 371.
Hesselius, 81.
Hindmarsh, Robert, 314.
Hire, De La, 41.
Hjarne, 72, 73, 77.
Hjelmar, 58, 61.
Hobbes, 117.
Holberg, Professor, 104.
Holland visited by Swedberg, 17,
106 ; by Swedenborg, 40, 83.
Hoog, the Misses, 342.
Hopken, Count Anders Johan
von, 279, 332, 334, 363. _
House of Clergy, committee re
port favorably for Dr. Beyer,
359 ; not the only judge, accord
ing to Swedenborg, 379.
Hume, David, 3, 11, 12, 117-119.
Hyde, Zina, 388.
Hymn, quoted by Swedberg, 31 ;
by Swedenborg, 358.
Hymn and psalm-book, by Swed
berg, 21, 22.

Iderfjol, 72.
Illustrare (note), 172.
Illustration, 238-247.
Incarnation, nature of, 208, 235,
312, 313, App. IV.
Infinite, should not be concluded
on from the finite, 128.
Influx, 236, 241, 243.
Intellectual Repository, cited, 374.
Iron Age, 274.

464

INDEX.

Isaac, 222, 251.
Isaksson, Daniel, 15, 29, 394, 395.
Israel, signification of, 320.
Israelitish Church, 274.
Italy, Swedenborg visits, 107.

Jacob, 222, 251.
James, cited, 210, 211.
Jansenists, 11.
Jerusalem, signification of, 266 ;
in the world of spirits, called
Sodom, 303.
Jerusalem, New, 311, 328.
Jesuits, 1, n, 390, 415.
Jews, carried Arabian philosophy
through Europe, 116.
John, the Baptist, 12, 14, 32; the
Apostle, 32, m, 285, 286, 301.
Judgment, 7-13, 281-285,301,315.
Jukes, Rev. Andrew, App. III.
Jung-Stilling, J. H., 345, 373.
Jupiter, spirits of, 254, 255.

K.
Kant, 117, 119, 124, 125; cited,
.348, 349, APP- IX.
King's Arms Tavern, Swedenborg
at, 339-
KinnekiiUe, proposed observatory
at, 47-
Konauw, Nicolam, 342.
Korah, 202.
Kramer, 104.
Kurtz, cited, 7, 345, 367, 371.

L.
Lacombe, App. VII.
La Mettrie, cited, 6.
Lambert, Father, 421.
Lecky, W. E. H., App. V.
Lavater, John Casper, 371, 372.
Leibnitz, 3, 117, 133, 142, 166.
Leipsic, 84, 92, 95 ; letter from,
98.
Lewes, George Henry, cited, 113,
119.
Lewis, John, 264.

Leyden, 41.
Life, bodily typical of spiritual,
159.
Linkoping, 103, 391.
Little girl allowed in Sweden
borg's garden, 392, 401.
Locke, John, 106, 117-119, 133,
142, 166.
Logos, 112, 231.
London, Swedenborg first visits, ,
35 ; lodgings at, 263, 401.
Longitude, Swedenborg's mode
of finding, 38, 39, 41, 47-
Lost Receipt, 349.
Lord, The, so called without other
names, 269 ; as the Sun of
heaven, 233, 253, 288, 292-294;
yet not the Sun itself, but with
in it, 258.
Louis XIV., 390.
Louis XV., n, 98, 390.
Love, of truth for the sake of
truth, 172, 240, 246, 275 ; of
one's own works, 185, 194-196.
Ludolphus, visited by Swedberg,
•7-
Ludwig (Louis) Rudolph, 84, 96.
Lunstedt, captain, 74, 75.
Luther, Martin, 146, 309, 358.

M.
Magnetic theory, 96, 98.
Mahometans in Spain, 116; in
the Judgment, 285.
Man, his freedom and power of
acting, 297, 298; not thinking
from himself, 298, 299; created
for heaven, 299; habit of thought
carried with him, 346; his first
estate, and change at this day,
123.
Manderstrom, 171.
Manuscript, Swedenborg's, print
ed from without a copyist, 381 ;
harder to read as he grew older,
381 ; fac-simile of, 320.
Marble table of Swedenborg, 377.
Marquis de Thome, 98.
Marriage, Dr. Beyer asked Swe
denborg to write on, 351.
Marshall's microscopes, 40.
Marteville, Madame, 349.

INDEX.

Mathematics, studied by Sweden
borg, 35, 39, 4°. 42-
Mathesius, 338, 339.
Matheson, kev. George, 14, 116,
App. VIII., XII.
Matter, M., 98, 280, 412, 414,
App. X.
Memorable relations, why in
serted, 332, 333.
Memorials to Diet, 87-90, 275;
Hbpken's account of, 332.
Merchant, John, 265.
Merchant's story, 345-347.
Mercury, spirits of, 255.
Messiter, Dr. H., 326-328.
Microscope, described by Swe
denborg, 40.
Mill, J. S., 113.
Ministers, new, necessary for the
• New Church, 354.
Miracles, do not happen now, 363.
Mission of Swedenborg, 318-320.
Morals in Sweden, 307.
Moravians, 193.
Morell, J. D., 166.
Morner, Count, 70.
Moser, Rev. Mr., 388.
Mosheim, cited, 1.
Most Ancient Church, 252-254,
270, 273.
Mother of Swedenborg, 29.
Music, Swedberg fond of, 31 ;
studied by Swedenborg, 35;
enjoyed, 331.

N.
Naarden, 105.
Nature, everything in, adores God,
132.
Natural degree loves self, spirit
ual degree loves the Lord, 300.
Natural things lead to spiritual,
3°9.
Nebular hypothesis, 125, 126,
App. IX.
New Church, which is the New
Jerusalem, 240, 311, 315, 319;
coming of, 328, 335, 336, 353,
355,365; faith of, 310,311.
New Heaven, 302, 310, 311 ; not
yet (1766) fully established, 353,
3&"5-

465

New Jerusalem, 311, 328.
New-Jerusalem Magazine, cited,
218.
Newton, Sir Isaac, studied Apoc
alypse, 120; cited, 285; Swe
denborg studies, 36, 120 ; his
Principia, 37 ; theory of color,
-. 8S- '
Nexus, between the Infinite and
the Finite, 129-133; restored
by the Messiah, 132.
Nilson, Isaac, 15 (note).
Noah, 230, 270.
Nordencrantz, 277, 278.
Nordenskbld, cited, 328.
Norkoping, 68.
Norway, expedition against, 75.
Noxious animals and plants, 295.
Nunc licet, 228.
Nya Kyrkan i Sverige, 280.
Nyren, Magnus, App. IX.

O.
Oberlin, Father, 373-375.
Observatory projected by Sweden
borg, 47, 62, 67.
Oetinger, 171, 367, 368, 370.
Oldenburg, Kings of House of,
331-
Olofsohn, Olof, death predicted,
389- . . v
Oronoskow, inquiry about Em
press Elizabeth, 378.
Otteson, Nils, 15 {note).
Otto, 15 {note).
Outer mind had still something of
sadness, 213.
Ovid, 43, 47, 305, 332.

P.
Palmer, cited, 3.
Palmquist, visited by Sweden
borg, 41.
Paris, visited by Swedenborg, 40,
107, 108.
Parsons, Theophilus, App. XI.
Particles, theory of, 66, 67, 85,
175-
Pattison, Mark, cited, 5.
Paul, cited, 209.

3°

466

INDEX.

Paulus ab Indagine, assumed
name of Cuno, 343.
Peace from the presence of the
Lord, 236, 237.
Peckitt, Henry, 287.
Peirce, Benjamin, App. XI.
Pernety, cited, 392.
Persecution of Drs. Beyer and
Rosen, 356, 359.
Peter, 338; cited, 210.
Peter the Great, 44.
P ;ter III., story of, 347.
Philosopher, believes with diffi
culty, 179.
Philosophy, Arabian, 116; Greek,
m, 115; Swedenborg's studies
of, 109-16S ; use of, no; in
agreement with revelation, and
study of, should begin from
God, 127.
Pietism, 12 ; favored by Swedberg,
25, App. VI.
Plato, in, 166.
Poetry of Swedenborg, 26 (note),
34, 39, 43, 44, 46, 47, 52-
Polhem (Polhammar), 38, 44, 49-
57, 59, 60, 62, 63, 76 ; daughters,
62, 71, 72.
Politics, of Swedenborg, 278, 280.
Pope, Alexander, 4, 37.
Portraits, of Swedenborg, 96, App.
XIII.
Prague, 92.
Prayer, effects of, 106, 107.
Pride in what one has written
overcome by laying it away for
a while, 138.
Prince Augustus William, of
Prussia, 336.-
Professorship at first desired by
Swedenborg, 47, 51, — then de
clined, 65, 68.
Progress of religious thought, 314.
Prophets wrote from dictation,
242.
Proof-reading, faulty, of Sweden
borg's works, 38 1.
Property and income of Swed
berg, 18, 21, 27, 40, 73, 74 ; of
Swedenborg, 39, 73-75, 83, 91,
101, 151, 263.
Proprium, doctrine of, 213, 317.
Protestant Church, decline of, 1,
n.

Provo, Peter, 339, 340.
Psalter, prohibited in language 01
people, 116.
Purpose of creation, 158, 165. -

Q-
Queen Anne's reign, 36.
Queen Louisa Ulrica, 336; story
of, 33°, 334, 346, 348, 388-
Queen Ulrica Eleonora. See Ele
onora.
Quesnel; Father, II.
Question, at issue, whether we
may go direct to the Saviour,
357- R.
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 117.
Rational Psychology, 141, 142,
163.
Reason, development of, 1 13-123;
limitations of, 118-120, 123,
128, 129; its affirmation for ex
istence of God, 132; when per- ,
plexed must go to revelation,
and vice versa, 133; delightful
faculty of, 137, 157.
Receipt, story of the lost, 349;
confirmed by Swedenborg, 346,
348.
Reception of Swedenborg's teach
ings, in five ways, 265 ; difficult
with clergy, 353, 379.
Reformation, 170.
Reformed, in the Judgment, 285.
Regeneration, nature of, 170, 178,
197, 26S, 269 ; effect of, 209.
Regnum, Minerale, Swedenborg's
intended prosecution of, 149,
151.
Repentance, need of particular
confession of sin, 305.
Representation of correspondence
of will and understanding with
heart and lungs, 296.
Representations, 159, 160, 248;
of the Messiah in the sepulchre,
248.
Reucher, 81.
Revelation, solely by the Word,

INDEX.

467

172, 247 ; mediate and imme-
. diate, 247.
Roberg, Dr., 58, 61, 66, 67.
Robsahm, Carl, 203, 375-3S3.
Roman Catholic Church, decline
of, 1 ; reformation, 8 ; domina
tion, 115, 116, App. I.; service
of- 93~95* I07-
Roman Catholics, come into New
Church more easily than the
Reformed, 311 ; advancing in
theology, 168.
Rome, Church of, 302, 303.
Rosen, Dr. Johan, 356, 364-367,
370.
Rosencrantz, 104.
Rpstock, visited by Swedenborg,
42-
Rotterdam, visited by Sweden
borg, 105.
Royal Medical College, 77.
Ruckerskold, 71.
Rudolph, Ludwig, 96.
Rules of life, 169, 405.
Russians, approach of, 44.

S.
Saalfeld, Prince of Saxe-Co-
burg, fate of, 390.
Saint Paul's Cathedral, 36, 37.
Salvation, to be sure of being in
the way of, 330.
Salt Manufacture, 61, 62, 67.
Saridels, Samuel, 72, 169, 404-408.
Saxony, Duke of, 93.
Schelling, cited, 12.
Scherer, Professor, his stories of
Swedenborg's spiritual inter
course, 389.
Schleiden, Professor, 98.
Schmidt, J., 31.
Schmidt, Sebastian, 17, 31 ; Bible
of, 17, 229.
Schutenhjelm, 104.
Schwegler, History of Philosophy,
cited, 6, 12, 112.
Scott, Samuel, diary of, 324.
Scripture, passages cited or ex
plained : Genesis i., p. 229, 267-
270 ; xlvii. 22, p. 24. Exodus
xxxi. 3, p. 240 ; xxxi 13, p. 273.
• Numbers, xxiv. 4, p. 370. Isaiah

xix. 23, 25, p. 319. Daniel ii.
43. P- 274 ; v. 1 1, p. 370. Zech-
ariah, xiv. 19, p. 336. Matthew
xxiv. 3, p. 13 ; xxviii. 18, p. 364;
xxviii. 30, p. 13. John i. 1-14,
P- 3*3 ; |v- 52. P- 9 J xiii. 13,
p. 270; xiv. 6, pp. 323, 369; xiv.
6-1 1, p. 270; xiv. 17, p. 121;
xxi. 18, p. 114. Acts xvii. 18-
34, p. 145; xix. 21, p. 368. Ro
mans iii. 28, p. 146. 2 Corinth
ians xii. 2, p. 218. Colossians
ii. 9, p. 358. 2 Timothy iii. 1-
10, p. 145. James iii. 14-17,
p. 211. I John v. 20, 21, p. 343.
Revelation iv. p. 301 ; xii. 14,
P- 355 5 xxi- 1. 2. P-353; xxi- 2,
P; 335 ! xx1- 2, 5, pp. 309, 320.
Scriptures, interpretation of, 149,
213, 229.
Searching of heart and reins, 159.
Seeker, Archbishop, cited, 5.
Second sight, in Sweden, 388 ; in
Switzerland, 373.
" Self-formation," cited, 200.
Semler, attacks the views of La-
vater and Swedenborg, 372.
Seneca, 34, 138, 140.
Series and degrees, 141, 144, 160,
212, 293.
Service of Danish Church, 103 ;
Roman Catholic Church, 93-95,
107.
Seven Years' War, 12.
Shearsmith, Richard, 328, 401.
Shibboleth, of Swedberg, 64, 73.
Ship-building, directions, 72.
Sign, Swedenborg has the, 175.
Silver Age, 273.
Simons, 81.
Sinclair, John, 118.
Sjoberg, Captain, commissioned
to buy Swedenborg's books,
366.
Skara, Swedberg's diocese, 25.
Skinskatteberg, 74, 80, 83.
Smithson, Rev. J. H., 316, 373.
Socrates, in, 414.
Soul, in infancy, 154; nature of,
162, 164; conclusion of, as to
God, 128; forms the body to its
own likeness, 134, 162 ; effort to
reach, 135, 153.
Souls, society of, 164 ; in captivity,

468

INDEX.

Swedenborg comforting, 282 ;
liberated, 282, 283.
Speech, heavenly, sound of, first
heard; then the speech itself,
256.
Spence, Dr. William, cited, and
account of, 328.
Spener, 12 ; visited by Swedberg,
17; App. VI.
Spinoza, 117, 119, 412.
Spirit, the, opposed by Sweden
borg, 174, 175 ; manner of speak
ing of, 192, 202, 235 ; the Holy
Spirit, need of, 234, 244.
Spirits, operation of, perceived be
fore seen, 173 ; not thought to
be in human form, at first, 215-
217 ; carried about to find their
places in heaven, 282; great
numbers being set in order, 353 ;
danger of trusting, 234 ; do not
know the manner of their death,
nor recognize such a thing, 390;
their senses, 217; world of,
needing instruction, 284; ruled
by the Lord, 235-237 ; of other
earths, 254, 255.
Spiritual intercourse of Sweden
borg believed, 347, 348, 368, 388.
Spiritual life, represented in cor
poreal life, 159.
Spiritual things now revealed, to
be understood naturally and
rationally, 368.
Springer, Christopher, 334-336,
340.
Spurgin, Dr., cited, 144.
Starbo, 74, 80.
Steele, Richard, 37.
Stephen, Leslie, cited, 2, 4, 10.
Stewart, Dugald, 106.
Stiernhjelm, 54, 62.
Stiernsund, 50, 55, 66.
Stockholm, Charles XII. did not
return to, 54, 55 ; described, 393 ;
morals of, 307 (note) ; in world
of spirits, 321.
Stories of the Queen, etc., time of,
350-
Story, of the Queen, 330, 334, 346,
348, 388 ; of the fire at Stock
holm, 346, 348 ; of the lost re
ceipt, 346, 348, 349 ; of the- mer
chant, 345-347 ; of the sparrow,

412 ; Wetterbey's, of Sweden
borg, his family, and gardener
and wife, 394-400.
Stralsund, besieged, 45, 49; Swe
denborg visits, 92, 131.
Stromstadt, 70, 72.
Sun, the seat of energy, 79 ; the
Sun of heaven, 233, 253, 258,
288, 292-294.
Sundborg, 15 (note).
Svardsjo, 29.
Swedberg, Albrecht, 29.
Swedberg, Anna, 29, 34; men
tioned by Swedenborg, 35, 40,
44, 47-49, 53, 55, 58> 6l> 64. 103 ;
death of, 82.
Swedberg, Catharina, 28, 29 ;
daughter, 53 ; husband, 74.
Swedberg, Daniel, 29.
Swedberg, Eliezer, 28, 29.
Swedberg family, ennobled, 29,
30 ; strange thoughts in, 395,
415 ; venerated Swedenborg, but
thought him visionary, 390.
Swedberg, Hedwig, 29, 40, 74.
Swedberg, Jesper ; ancestry, 1 5 ;
mother, 29 ; birth, 1 5 ; narrow
escape, 15 ; sense of Divine pro
tection, 16, 30; early piety, 16;
went to school at Upsal, 16;
suffered at school, 20 ; went to
school at Lund, 16; developed
youthful vanity, 16; pupil of
Brunner, and learned better, 16 ;
travelled in Denmark, 16; prac
tised preaching and received
degree of Magister, 17 ; was
married, 17; travelled in Eng
land, France, Holland, and Ger
many, 17; visited Bebel, Spener,
Ludolphus, Schmidt, 17 ; visited
Edzardus, 18 ; Swedish gram
mar, 17, 27; ordained, 18; ap
pointed chaplain, 18 ; gave cate
chisms to soldiers, 18; preached
to Charles XL, 18 ; dealings
with Charles XL, 18-21 ; op
posed' by the court, 19 ; baptism
of child, 19; improved schools,
20 ; pastor at Vingaker, 20, 21 ;
a reformer, 21 ; professor, dean,
and rector at Upsal, 21, 22 ;
revised Swedish Bible, 21, 22,
30; hymn and psalm book, 21,

INDEX.

469

22 ; stone house at Upsal, 23 ;
success at Upsal, 22, 23 ; ap
pointed bishop, 23 ; removed to
Brunsbo, 25; dealings with Ul
rica Eleonora, 23, 25 ; dealings
with Charles XII., 23, 24, 65 ;
furnished dragoons, 24 ; labors
as bishop, 25 ; motto over gate
way, 26; house at Brunsbo
burned, 25, 26; pocket Bible,
26 ; engraved portrait, 26 ; style
of preaching, 25, 34 ; bishop of
Swedish colonies, 27, 386 ; Sun
day child, 28 ; wives, 27, 29 ;
children, 27, 28, 29, — reason of
their names, 28, 33 ; family en
nobled, 29, 30, 78 ; petitions for
place for Emanuel, 45 ; love of
writing and printing, 26, 27 ;
works printed, 27,34, — expected
they would be used to wrap
cakes and pies, 361 (note) ; char
acter, 30-32 ; belief in spirits
and angels, 30, 31 ; fondness for
music, 31 ; spiritual experience,
31 ; use of money, 18, 21, 27, 39,
40, 41, 73 ; Shibboleth, 64, 73 ;
failure of strength, 26; death,
30.; burial, 100; mentioned by
Springer, 335 ; by Wetterbey,
395-
Swedberg, Jesper, son of pre
ceding, 28, 29, 73.
Swedberg, Margaretha, 29; hus
band, 74, 75.
Sweden, the homestead, 15, 395.
Sweden, left by Swedenborg for
the last time, 379 ; stronghold
of Protestantism, 415.
Swedenborg, Anna. See Swed
berg, Anna.
Swedenborg, Emanuel, parentage,
15-33. Mother, 29. Birth, 29,
34. Christian name, 28, 33.
Childhood at Upsal, 22, 34.
Childhood thoughts, 33. Early
life, to Dr. Beyer, 33, 355. Grad
uated, 34. Proposed course,
35. 39- Learns to play the
organ, 35 ; book-binding, 35 ;
other trades, 37, 38, 41. Dan
gers of first voyage, 35, 36.
Travels in England, 35; France,
40, 107, 108; Germany, 42, 44,

92; Holland, 40, 83, 105, 182;
Italy, 107. Studies astronomy,
37,38; chemistry, 68, 81 ; math
ematics, 35, 39, 40, 42 ; mechan
ics, 37, 42-44, 51, 56, 58 ; min
ing, 77, 80, 97 ; music, 35 ; New
ton, 36, 120; geology, 77, 78;
anatomy, 77, 8i, 101, 134, 147,
1 52, 297 ; Hebrew, 229 ; Scrip
tures, 229-261. Plans for air-
guns, 43, 46 ; cords and springs,
43 ; docks and dykes, 84 ; draw
bridge, 42 ; drawing mechanical
ly, 43 ; fire-engine, 42, 47; flying-
machine, 43, 54 ; the future, 79,
80; method of analyzing de
sires, 43; mechanical carriage,
43 ; musical instrument, 43 ;
mode of working copper, 86;
mode of working steel, 91 ; new
stoves, 77 ; new mode of count
ing, 63, 64, 66, 68 ; siphon, 42 ;
sluices and locks, 42, 46 ; trans
porting ships, 46, 72 ; sub
marine vessel, 42, 46; observa
tory, 47, 62, 67 ; water-clock,
43. Talk of professorship, 47,
51, 65, 63, 406. Intercourse
with Flamsteed, 17 ; with Abbe
Bignon, 41 ; with De La Hire,
41 ; with Charles XII., 56-70.
Engineering for Charles XII.,
58-69. Daedalus, 33-58 ; hopes
future things to be better than
Daedalus, 68, 78. Little encour
agement in Sweden, 69, 79, 80.
Love of novelties, 66. Proposes
to go to Norway with Charles
XII., 73 ; glad he did not go,
75. Family relations, 73, 74.
Contemplated marriage, 71, 72,
408. Takes his new name, 78.
Takes seat in Diet, 87 ; mem
orializes Diet, 87, 89, 90, 275,
332, 333; interest in Diet, 381.
Appointed to College of Mines,
57, 59, 60 ; petitions for salary,
83 ; takes seat in college, 87 ;
petitions for leave of absence,
91, 98, 100, 102, 149 ; resigns
seat, 261, 262. Income and
property, 22, 39, 73, 74, 75, 83,
91, 101, 151, 263, 265. Improve
ments in copper-working, 86;

470

INDEX.

in iron, 90 ; in mining, 98. Lan
guages used, 40, 49, 341, 377.
Poetry, 26, 34, 39, 43, 44, 46, 47,
52, 332. Mode ot reasoning,
86. No desire for applause, 1 24,
141. Writings for those who
have not faith, 153. Sought
First Cause, 86. Philosophical
studies, 109-168. Did not use
his own experiments, 136. Spir
itual preparation, 169-194, 318,
. 369 ; dreams, 173-197 ; relieved
from love of the sex and his
own works, 174; the Lord ap
peared to him, 180, 203 ; motto,
186; thought on the wood of
the cross, 187 ; ideas of the
Trinity, 182, 231, 258, 259,
309, 310; thought himself the
greatest sinner, 184; arrogance
would come, 185 ; prayed for
grace not to be his own, 187 ;
saw inner man to be distinct
from outer, 188 ; first open
vision, 202-204. Why from a
philosopher he became a theo
logian, 173, 368. Preparation
from youth, 171, 190. Appetite
to be restrained, 191, 203. Pu
rification represented by appear
ing to write a fine hand, 197.
Swoon, 197. Early respect for
the Word of God, 79. Thoughts
of interpreting Scripture, 149.
Learned that he was to unfold
the Word, 261. Experienced
that there was no evil with him,
205 ; that he was not anything,
206. Neglect of self in theolog
ical works, 260. Protected, 206.
Voyages prosperous, 206, 336,
352 ;. foretold their duration,
336. Freed from care, 263, 264.
Learned nature of spirits, 202,
215,222,235. Growth of spirit
ual ideas, 215-228. How in
structed, 238, 351 ; how directed
in writing, and that to be de
stroyed which was not from the
Lord, 244, 245. Gjorwell's
statement of inspiration, 386.
Hebrew first to be learned, and
correspondences, 353. Forbid
den to read systematic theology,

353. Word had to be read many
times, 353. Prepared from
1710-1744,369. His part in the
judgment, 284. Experience in
other world, lay as dead, 303.
Enabled to see from whom any
evil or falsity came, 299. Intro
duced into the good represented
by John, 286. Change of spirit,
and angelic company evident,
322 ; yet a sinner while in this
sinful body, 337. Life not per
fect, but had tried to do as well
as he could, 400. Infested at
times with evil spirits, 206, 338,
379, 380. Character described
by Hartley, 326 ; Messiter, 328 ;
Hopkins, 332; Springer, 335;
Cuno, 341; Jung-Stilling, 345;
Claudius, 372 ; Robsahm, 378 ;
Andersson, the gardener, 379,
380; Gjbrwell, 384 ; Collin, 388 ;
Scherer, 389 ; Shearsmith, 402 ;
Sandels, 404, 405. Appearance
and manners, 398. Described by
Tuxen, 329-331 ; Ferelius, 339 ;
Bergstrbm, 340 ; Hart, 340, 341 ;
Burkhardt, 341 ; Cuno, 341-343 ;
Robsahm, 381, 382 ; Gjbrwell,
384 ; Collin, 388 ; Shearsmith,
402 ; Sandels, 408. Fond of mu
sic, 331 ; of good children, 340,
343. 392,400; of gardening, 264,
275> 394- Happiness, 408, 409.
Health, 99, 379, 402 ; tooth
ache, 379 ; food, 335, 340, 376,
402 ; snuff, 402. Modest style
of living, 263, 342 ; dress,
339, 342, 377, 402. Manner of
speech, 339, 341, 342, 377, 384.
Sleep, 376, 401. Originality, 407.
Aim as a philosopher, 407. Pre
ference for quiet life in Sweden,
150. Lodgings, 263, 341, 342,
401. Wanted harmony in the
house, 401, 408. Own house and
garden, 373, 376, 377, 384, 393,
394, 396, 400. Gardener and
wife, 394 ; their story, 397-
400. Not lacking, nor wasting
money, 401. Paid for print
ing his books, proceeds go for
propagation of the Gospel, 265.
Rules of life, 169, 405. Not

INDEX. 471

in peace at church, 338, 398,
401. Receiving the commun
ion, 176, 192, 194, 337, 403.
Every " day a Sabbath, 402.
Spiritual association, 251, 253,
321. Friends of later life, 322 ;
exhorts them to good life, 328,
336, 342. Affirms the truth of
his mission and revelations, 328,
333, 337. 362> 387- Nature of
mission, and doctrines as told
by Gjbrwell, 385. Could not
cause spirits to speak with
others, 363. Declined to seek
an interview with Collin's broth
er, 387. Would not ask about
the fate of the Prince of Saxe-
Coburg, 390. Conversible with
honest men, 339, 343, 377. De
clined answering impertinent
questions, 339, 340. Cautious
about private conversations,
391. Manner abstracted in later
life, 341. Heard talking with
spirits, 338, 401 . Appearance as
coming out of a trance, 330.
Expression after speaking with
angels, 380; with evil spirits,
380. Attached his name to
C. L., 306; to B. E„ 309; to
T. C. R. 315, — induced by
Hartley, 326. Correspondence
with Benzelius, 35-82; Dr.
Beyer, 309, 352-357, 365, 366;
Tuxen, 359; Oetinger, 368.
Charged with ' heresy, 377 ;
letters of remonstrance to the
Consistory, etc., 358-378. Death
not to come till after printing
T. C. R. 379. Foretold his own
death, and Dr. Messiter's, 328,
402 ; Olofsohn's, 389. Willing
ness to leave the world, but not
so much difference if one is
conjoined with the Lord, 343.
Has set a standard in advance,
399. Thought visionary by fam
ily, but venerated, 396. Offered
a home in England, but de
clined, 323. On friendly terms
with royal family and digni
taries of his country, 323. Con
clusion of life, 321 ; paralytic
stroke, 338, 402, 408 ; in bed for

several days, 380 ; in a trance
some weeks, 402 ; death, 403,
408; burial, 337, 403. Sandels'
eulogy, 404-408.
Swedenborg's published works :
Academical thesis, 34. Eccle-
siastes, xii., in Latin verse, 34.
Camena Borea, 47. Daedalus,
46-72; dedication, 49; little
thought of by its author, 68.
Ludus Heliconius, 44, 52. Al
gebra, 64, 67, 70. Mode of find
ing longitude, 38, 39, 41, 47, 70,
84. On the tinware of Stiern
sund, 66. Miscellaneous obser
vations, 84. Principles of Chem
istry, 84. Opera Philosophica,
including Principia, 87, 92-98,
125, 213, 406; cited, 121-124;
Oetinger on, 368. On the Infi
nite, 92, 126; cited, 127-134.
Economy of the Animal King
dom, cited,76, 135-145. J75. J97 !
published, 108; described, 134,
152, 153. Faith and Good
Works, 146. On the Soul, 163,
170. On the Brain, 161. Ra
tional Psychology, 141, 152, 163,
170. Hieroglyphic Key, 148.
Dreams, 174-196. Worship and
Love of God, 195-197. 203, 207,
223,224,226,229,231,261. Ad
versaria, described, 229 ; cited,
171, 219, 229-238, 244, 245, 250.
272, 282. The Messiah about
to come into the world, 230.
Animal Kingdom, described,
147, 152; cited, 153, 159, 161,
163, 170, 175, 189, 191, 194, 197.
200, 261. Biblical Index, 249,
250, 264, 272. Spiritual Diary,
173, 202, 205, 206, 215-222,245-
253, 264, 265, 282, 283, 322, 410.
Arcana Ccelestia, cited, 172, 206,
217, 220, 222,225, 241-243, 253;
described and cited, 264-275;
English translation of second
volume, 265 ; cost and price,
265 ; sale slow, only four copies
in two months, 265 ; all but nine
copies sold, 338 ; purchased by
Kant, 125; sent to Dr. Beyer,
352. Intercourse of Soul and
Body, 126, 173, 271, 314. On

472

INDEX.

Heaven and Hell, 217,218, 271.
Earths in the Universe, 272.
Last Judgment, 284. Continu
ation of Last Judgment, 284,
291. New Jerusalem and its
Heavenly Doctrine, 272, 280.
White Horse, 272. Doctrines
of the Lord, the Sacred Scrip
ture, Life, Faith, 291. Apoca
lypse Explained, cited, 217, 239,
240 ; described, 284-290, 300 ;
publishers of, 286, 287, 328.
Apocalypse Revealed, 284, 287,
300; cited, 305, 351, 354. Di
vine Love and Wisdom, 291-
297. Divine Providence, 146,
225, 238, 297-299. Conjugial
Love, 305-308, 360, 363. Brief
Exposition, 309, 355. True
Christian Religion, cited, 209,
217, 225, 231, 238,256; publica
tion of, 306, 308, 315, 365 ; style
and contents, 316; bought by
Paris booksellers, 316; distri
bution, 365, 366. Answer to a
letter from a friend, 314. An
swer to nine questions, 314;
Canons of the New Church,
315. Coronis to T. C. R , 321.
Works declared heretical, 363 ;
distributed to clergy, universi
ties, etc., 328, 337, 354, 384;
their style, 316.
Swedenborgianism, 358, 361, 362,
37o.
Swedish Bible, revised by Swed
berg, 21, 22, 30.
Swedish Church, in Delaware and
Pennsylvania, 22 (note), 27, 74,
386 ; in Lisbon, 27 ; in London,
17-
Swedish Grammar, 17.
Swedish King, Gustavus Adol
phus, saved Protestantism in
Europe, 117, 415.
Sweetness of perception of not act
ing from one's self, 410.

Tafel, J. F. I., 163, 229, 250, 316,
388.

Tafel, R. L, 62, 66, 161, 230, 264,
348, 39', 392, 394, 404
Temple, in vision, 228.
Temptations of Swedenborg, 176-
179, 182, 183, 205, 237.
Tessin, Count, 363.
Thales, in.
Thomas, 112.
Timber-worm, 93.
Tracy, Destutt de, 119.
Traill, Professor R., 327.
Translators of Swedenborg, 84,
96, 209, 305 (note), 317, 325.
Transporting vessels over land,
46, 72, 332-
Trinity, ideas upon the, 182, 231,
258, 259, 309, 310, — angels ob
jected to those in Swedenborg's
mind, 259; change necessary,
286.
Trolhatta, 58, 61, 70.
Truth, in descent changed to fal
sity, 298.
Tulk, Charles Augustus, 317.
Tuxen, General, 328 ; his account
of Swedenborg, 329-331, — to
whom he reported what was
done in Sweden, 362, 411.

U.
Ulrica Eleonora. See Eleo
nora.
Unge, Dean and Magister, 26, 27,
73-75-
Universities first to be instructed,
354-
Upmark, Professor, 47.
Upsal, 22; fire at, 23; Literary
Society, 38.
Uses, good and evil, 295.
Utrecht, 41.

Valerius, Professor, 67, 71.
Vassenius, 63, 69.
Vaughan, Thomas, 199.
Venator, letter to, 348.
Vibrations, vital nature consists
. of, 72, 77.

INDEX.

473

Vinglker, Swedberg pastor at, 20,
21.
Visions, various kinds, 248, 249.
Voltaire, 120.
Vortical theory, 78, 96.

W.
Wallerius, Dr., 387.
Walpole, Sir Horace, 5.
Warrignon, 41.
Watts, Dr. Isaac, 10, 37, App. III.
Webster, Daniel, 114.
Wener, Lake, 58, 68.
Wenersborg, 63, 68.
Wenngr«T,350. Wesley, John, 12, 193, 339, 403,
App. VI.
Wetter, Lake, 47, 68.
Wetterbey, Dr., his Altartaflan,
394-
Whiskey, Swedenborg on, 275.
White, William, cited, 20-22.
Whitefield, George, 12.
Wilkinson, Dr. J. J. G., 45, 84, 160,
161, 200, 207, 317.

Wilson, Bishop, 11.
Wisdom, how attained, 121, 122.
Witt, Secretary, 104.
Wolf, Christopher, 104, 105.
Wolff, Johan Christian von, 95,
104, 117, 124, 142, 405.
Wollan, Colonel, 90.
Word, The, of God, the founda
tion of all wisdom, 79; full of
heavenly arcana, 213, 214, 233,
266, 287-298; interior senses,
287, 290, 294, — how to be reveal
ed, 214 ; angels near when man
reads, 288; the source of all
theology, 353.
Wren, Sir Christopher, 37.
Wiirtemberg, Duke of, 368.
Wycliffe, 116.

V.
Ystad, 51, 92, 151. Z.
I Zinzendorf, 12, App. VI.

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