frank sewall swedenborg and the sapientia angelica london 1910

8/14/2019 Frank Sewall SWEDENBORG AND THE SAPIENTIA ANGELICA London 1910

1/144


2/144


3/144


4/144


5/144


6/144


7/144

PHILOSOPHIES ANCIENT AND MODERN

SWEDENBORG


8/144


9/144

SWEDENBORGAND

THE 'SAPIENTIA ANGELICA'

ByFRANK SEWALL, M.A., D.D.

NEW YORKDODGE PUBLISHING COMPANY214-220 EAST 23RD STREET


10/144


11/144

CONTENTSCHAP. PAGE

i. YOUTH AND EABLY STUDIES: 16881720 . . 1ii. COSMOGONY AND PHYSICS: 17211734 ... 6iii. PHYSIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY : 17341745 . . 13iv. THE TBANSITION : 17451772 . 30

a. The Change of Literary Style ... 36b. The Seer 38c. Swedenborg not a Medium . . .43d. The Spiritual Diary . . '. .48

v. THE THEOLOGICAL WRITINGS : 1749 1772 . . 52Classification of the Theological Works . . 59The New Age 63

vi. PHILOSOPHY AND THE SAPIESTIA ANGELICA , 04Swedenborg's Nvcum Organum .... 69The Law of Correspondence .... 77The Spiritnal History of the World . . .81The Five Ages 83

V


12/144

vi , CONTENTSCHAP. PAGEvii. THE DIVINE ALTEUJSM, OR LOVE THE FINALCAUSE OF CREATION 87

The Great Categories : Kingdoms and Degrees 101vin. THE LAST DAYS AND DYING TESTIMONY . .105

ix. RELATIONS TO MODERN THOUGHT . . . .114

APPENDIXBIOGRAPHIES 123BIBLIOGRAPHY 124

Theological . . -. . . . . . .125Scientific and Philosophical .126Collateral Treatises . . . .127


13/144

SWEDENBORGAND THE 'SAPIENTIA ANGELICA'

YOUTH AND EAELY STUDIES16881720

OP Dalecarlian ancestry, his grandfathers onboth sides being peasant mine-owners in Fahlun,Sweden, Emanuel Swedenborg was born inStockholm on the twenty-ninth day of January,1688. He was the second son of Jesper Swed-berg, at that time an army chaplain, but latermade Dean and Professor of Theology at Upsala,and thence promoted to be the Bishop of Skarain "West Gothland, his episcopal charge em-bracing also the Swedish settlements in America.The family name was Isaacson, the name Swed-berg being derived from

'

Sweden,' the nameof their mining property in Fahlun, the titleSwedenborg being conferred with the rank ofnobility given to the family by Queen Ulrica

B I


14/144

SWEDENBORGEleanor in 1719, when Emanuel took his seatin the House of Nobles.Entering the University of Upsala in 1699 at

the early age of eleven years, he pursued hisstudies in the faculty of philosophy until histwenty-first year, in 1709. His brother-in-law,Eric Benzelius, the university librarian, a learnedscholar, afterwards appointed archbishop, en-couraged the young student's zeal for mathe-matics and the physical sciences, and offered tosupplement the somewhat reluctant and charyprovision of his father for further study byaiding him to make a tour abroad. He waseager to be released from study and paternalcontrol, and to gain touch with the real world,which seemed impossible under the limitedresources and the cramped scholasticism of theuniversity, where the lively controversy wasstill waging by the Cartesians for the introduc-tion of modern methods. His bent for theclassics and his youthful love of verse are shownin his graduation thesis on the Morals of Seneca,and a number of festive odes and other poemsin Latin, some of which were published laterunder the title of Ludus Heliconicus and CarmenaBorea. But his real aim was for a deeper andwider knowledge of nature.


15/144

YOUTH AND EARLY STUDIESIn the year 1710, with his brother-in-law's

assistance, he went abroad for a tour of fiveyears, embracing England, Holland, France andGermany. He spent a year in London andOxford, making the acquaintance of Flamsteedand Hailey, and, as he reports to his brother-in-law,

"studying Newton daily," with the re-sult that he became more and more impatient

of the slow progress of his native country inthe mathematical and physical sciences. Asfor himself he would " invent something newevery day

"; and he urgently recommends theUpsala University to obtain a better salary for

the mathematical professor by cutting down,if necessary, appropriations for the theologicaland historical faculties. To make himselfmaster of mechanical appliances he took uphis lodgings successively with a watchmaker,a cabinet-maker, an instrument-maker and agrinder of lenses ; and a list of his own pro-jected inventions at this time includes a flying-machine, a submarine war-vessel, a quick-firinggun, an air-pump and a mechanical piano-player.Returning to Sweden in 1715, he begins,

under the patronage of the young KingCharles XII., the publication, in the following


16/144

SWEDENBORGyear, of a mathematical journal, the DcedalusHyperboreu8 ; and in 1718 he published anAlgebra in ten books, it being the first workon that branch of mathematics published inthe Swedish language ; and so backward werehis countrymen in this branch of science that' he feared he would find no one capable ofcorrecting the printer's proofs.'

Before leaving home he had enjoyed theacquaintance and friendship of the distinguishedengineer Polhem ; and on his return, KingCharles XII., struck by the genius and abilityof the young inventor, called him to theservice of the Government as an assistant toPolhem and as an extraordinary Assessor inthe College of Mines. Two years later, duringthe attack on the Norwegian fortress ofFrederickshall, where the king met his death,Swedenborg planned the successful transporta-tion of the king's galleys overland for seventeenmiles from Stromstad to Iddefjord. His pub-lished treatises on mathematics and the in-dustrial arts at this time include such subjectsas the Manufacture of Tin Plate and its Use, theLevel of the Sea and the Tides of the AncientWorld and Information about Docks, Sluices andSalt Works. While associated with Polhem in


17/144

YOUTH AND EARLY STUDIEShis engineering undertakings and a frequentand welcome visitor at his house, Swedenborgfell in love with one of Polhem's daughters ;but notwithstanding the favour with which thematch was regarded by both the father andthe king, his offer of marriage was rejectedand Swedenborg remained unmarried. Hisposition as Assessor at the Royal College ofMines he held until the year 1747, when, athis own request, he was retired on a pensionof half his salary.


18/144

CHAPTER IICOSMOGONY AND PHYSICS

17211734IN 1721 Swedenborg commenced his second touron the Continent, and published in Amsterdamhis Studies in Chemistry, a Prodromus, or fore-cast of his Principia, wherein he attempts toreduce the phenomena of nature to a geo-metrical system. He published his Observationsand Discoveries respecting Iron and Fire ; A NewMethod of finding Longitudes by Lunar Observa-tions^ and other works pertaining to mechanics.In Leipzig appeared, in 1772, his MiscellaneousObservations connected with the PhysicalSciences, and twelve years later, also at Leipzig,under the munificent patronage of LudwigRudolph, Duke of Brunswick, the stately foliosof the Opera Ph'ilosophica et Mineralia, contain-ing, for their first part, the Prindpia RerutnNaturalium, or New Attempts toward the Philo-sophical Explanation of the Elementary World.The Principia, after an introductory chapter

6


19/144

COSMOGONY AND PHYSICSon ' The Means Conducive to a True Philosophy,'presents in Part I. ' A Philosophical Argumentconcerning the " First Simple " from whichthe world with its natural things originated ;that is, concerning the First Natural Pointand its Existence from the Infinite.' Thus hebegins his argument : * There is a first entityproduced from the Infinite, for the finite cannotexist per se, therefore it must exist by meansof that which can produce what is finite, andwhich is infinite per se. Therefore, compositethings derive their origin from simples fromthe Infinite, and the Infinite from itself, whichis also the cause of itself and of all things.The simple is the first entity existing bymotion from the Infinite, and thus in regardto existence it is a medium between theInfinite and the finite. For it is by the media-tion of this point, or most simple entity, thatfinite things exist from the Infinite. This pointis immediately produced from the Infinite, andits origin is purely a motion in the universalInfinite which is pure and total motion, andcannot be conceived of geometrically.' Later,he defines this origin of the point, and so of thecreated universe, as a ' conatus of motion in theInfinite.' 'In this [effort towards motion] lies


20/144

SWEDENBORGconcentrated all that quality which, is capableof bringing into act finite things, together withall their modes and contingencies, and even ofproducing the world itself (Principia, 22).The argument discusses the First Finite andits origin from Points ; the Second Finite andits origin from the Simple Finite, and so onto the Active of the First Finite, its motion,figure, state, etc., showing that this Active is onewith and constitutes the sun of our system, andthat in like manner it forms the first elementaryparticles. Further on are described the Firstand most Universal Element ; the Actives of theSecond and Third Finite ; the Third Finite,or Substantial ; the Magnetic, or Second Elementof the "World, its motion, figure, attributes andmodes ; and finally the existence of the Sun andthe formation of the Solar Vortex. Part II.treats of the Causes and Mechanism of theMagnetic Forces : the influence of the Magnetupon Iron, the Disjunctive and Repulsive Forcesetc., etc., and the Declination of the Magnet.Part III. treats of the Starry Heaven as com-pared with the Magnetic Sphere, of the Diversityof Worlds, of the Fourth Finite, the UniversalSolar and Planetary Chaos, and its separationinto Planets and Satellites, the Ether, or Third

8


21/144

COSMOGONY AND PHYSICSElement of the "World, the Fifth Finite, the Air, orFourth Element of our System, of Fire, of Water,of the Purely Material Finite, of Vapour, of theVortex surrounding the Earth, of the Paradiseformed upon our Earth, and of the First Man.

This vast work of the Principia marks theadvance of Swedenborg's mind from the scientificto the philosophic plane; it deals with what isimponderable and invisible, and what can onlybe apprehended by the imagination ; and yet thewhole realm of elementary being, thus regarded,is treated with rigid geometrical and mathe-matical precision and logic. Swedenborg callshis work ' philosophical ' ; but by philosophy hehere means 'the knowledge of the mechanismof our world, or of whatever in the world issubject to the laws of geometry, or which it ispossible to unfold to view by experience assistedby geometry and reason ' (Principia, ch. i). Thesuccessive steps in the evolution, through theprocession of Simples, Finites and Actives, ofa visible universe, follow in rational order fromthe assumed vortical motion of the First Simpleto the stability and order of our solar system,the relation and movement of star-groups andan explanation of the Milky Way.As in the Chemistry (1721) we find a science


22/144

SWEDENBORGof the invisibles such as Tyndall has latercontended for, treating of bodies in theirelementary forms and relations, so in thePrincipia is given a complete theory of Evolu-tion, embracing Motions and Forms, the natureand functions of the successive Auras, the lawsof Vibratory Currents and the Magnetic Force.The importance of Swedenborg's contributionsto physical science, not only in theories antici-pating modern discoveries, but in principles ofpermanent value in the pursuance of research,is beginning to receive extraordinary acknow-ledgment.

Of the doctrines of the first forms of matter,in the early work on Chemistry, published in1721, Van't Hoff, in his introduction to theArrangement of Atoms in Space, translated byEiloart, says that they embody the germs of themodern science of Crystallography or Stereo-Chemistry. Of Swedenborg's early geologicaltreatises, Professor A. C. Nathorst, of the RoyalSwedish Academy, says : ' Swedenborg's contri-butions in the field of geology are of suchimportance and scope that alone they wouldhave been sufficient to have secured him arespected scientific name : still, these works arebut the minor portion of his whole scientific,

IQ


23/144

COSMOGONY AND PHYSICSactivity, which in many respects was far aheadof the times. For he was also a mathematician,astronomer, cosmologist, physicist, mechanic,chemist, anatomist, and physiologist. "WhatAnders Retzius said concerning the Regnum'Animale, that it was a ' wonder-book ' in which arefound

'

ideas belonging to the most recent times,a compass, induction and tendency which canonly be compared to that of Aristotle,' seems,after the experience now attained, to be capableof application to the whole of his scientific ac-tivity (Introduction to the Geologica et Epistolce).In the Royal Swedish Academy's edition ofSwedenborg's Scientific Works, containing hiscontributions to cosmology, Svante Arrheniusmakes the following recognition :

' If we briefly summarize the ideas which werefirst given expression to by Swedenborg andafterwards, although usually in a much mollifiedform, consciously or unconsciously taken up byother authors in cosmology, we find them tobe the following.

' The planets of our solar system originatefrom the solar matter: taken up by Buffon,Kant, Laplace and others.

' The earth and the other planets havegradually removed themselves from the sun,


24/144

SWEDENBORGand received a gradually lengthened time ofrevolution : a view expressed by G. H. Darwin.

' The earth's time of rotation, that is to say,the day's length, has been greatly increased : aview again expressed by G. H. Darwin.

' The suns are arranged around a milky way :taken up by Wright, Kant and Lambert.' There are still greater systems in which themilky ways are arranged : taken up by Lambert '(Introduction to the Cosmologia ; vol. ii. ofedition mentioned above).

' It cannot be disputed that the real germof the nebular hypothesis, namely, the idea thatthe entire solar system has formed itself outof a single chaotic mass which rolled itself atfirst into a colossal sphere, and afterwards threwoff a ring, which through continuous rotation atlength broke into parts, these finally contractinginto balls, planets that this idea first foundutterance in Swedenborg. Kant's work on thesame subject appeared twenty-one years later,and Laplace published his hypothesis sixty-twoyears later.' See Article in Vierteljahrschriftder Astronomischen Gesellschaft p. 8 : Leipzig,1879; Swedenbwg and the Nebular Hypothesis^by Magnus Nyren, Ph.D., Astronomer at theObservatory at Pulkowa, Russia.

12


25/144

CHAPTER IIIPHYSIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY

17341745FROM the survey of the universe as a macrocosm,subject to the laws of mechanics and geometry,the author's studies now reach forth to theNature of the Infinite, its connection with thefinite, and the soul of man. He publishes, inDresden and Leipzig, in 1734, a Prodromus deInfinite et Causa Finali Creationis (' Outlineson the Infinite and the Final Cause of Creation,and on the Mechanism of the Intercoursebetween the Soul and the Body'). Here hecarries his mechanical and geometric methodover into the most subtle realm of research,producing the outlines of a physiological psycho-logy which may seem at first to assert an almostultra-materialistic view : yet he says to thosewho complain of his reduction of all things tomechanical law, 'It matters not if it be calleda mechanism, provided it is always an animatedmechanism.' For this term, ' an animated


26/144

SWEDENBORGmechanism' truly characterizes his entire viewof the world; a system shaped and dominatedby a Power and an anima above nature as abody by its soul.Of the seven years of travel which now

followed in Germany, France and Italy he hasleft an interesting journal in his Itineraria,showing the wide range of his observationsand interest, from the working of salt-minesand blasting furnaces, the discipline of troops,the merits of the various political constitutionsof countries visited, to the aesthetics and ethicsof religious ceremonials, the attractions of theopera and the beauty of public buildings andworks of art.What may be termed his philosophical period

closed with the production in London, 1740-45,of the two great works The Economy of theAnimal Kingdom, considered Anatomically,Physically, and Philosophically (CEconomia RegniAnimalis), and the Animal Kingdom (RegnumAnimate).

In these works he confesses that his searchis for nothing less than the soul itself. Thesearch follows, indeed, in orderly sequence, asoutlined in the Introduction to the Principia,where he says : ' Under the empire of geometry,

14


27/144

PHYSIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGYand under the mechanical laws of motion, weplace the whole mineral, as well as the wholevegetable kingdom, and indeed the animal, too,with respect to mechanical organs, muscles,fibres, and membranes, or with respect to itsanatomical, vegetative and organic relations;but with respect to the soul and its variousfaculties I do not think it possible that theycan be explained or comprehended by any lawsof motion known to us. Though the world ismechanical, and composed of a series of finitethings which originate by means of the mostvaried contingents, and, being such, may beexplored by means of experiment and pheno-mena, it does not follow that all things in theworld are subject to the laws of geometry.For there are innumerable things that are notmechanical or even geometrical, such as theInfinite and whatever is in the Infinite. Wemay learn the mechanism of the organs of thebody, how they are moved by muscles, tendons,fibres, and nerves; how the undulating air isreceived by the membranes of the ear, and isrepresented in the chamber of the brain bymeans of sound ; how the ether exhibits amodification of itself in the eye, and runsthrough the tissues of the nerves till it meets


28/144

SWEDENBOEGthe meninges of the brain. . . . We see everyemotion and mode of the soul exhibitedmechanically in the body. But, after all, whatthat intelligence is in the soul which knows,and is able to determine, to choose, to let onething pass out into act and not another, ofthis we are obviously ignorant' (Principia,ch. i.).The knowledge of the soul is now to be his

quest. The Regnum Animate means to him thesoul's domain, the human body. Here he willlearn what the soul is, and the modes of itsabode in and control over, not the body alone,but over all the forces of nature ; since ' inman the world is concentrated, and in him, asin a microcosm, the whole universe may becontemplated from the beginning to the end.'Of these two works, the Economia and the

Regnum Animate, only a portion was publishedby the author. Of the unpublished portions,the treatise on The Brain (De Cerebro) has beenin part translated from the photo-lithographedMSS., and published in London": James Spiers,1882. The complete work on The Soul, orRational Psychology (De Anima, etc.), has beentranslated from the posthumous Latin editionand published in New York, 1886.

16


29/144

The author's desire to be guided by thesimple facts of nature unbiassed by prejudice,or by the ambition to establish a theory, isshown by his unwillingness to rely upon his ownexperiments, and his availing himself of thehighest scientific authorities extant. It is onlyfair, therefore, that the defects that have beenpointed out in some of his scientific datashould be attributed to the crudeness of scien*tific knowledge in his day, rather than to thegeneral principles he was endeavouring toillustrate.Of Swedenborg's anatomical and physiologi-cal discoveries, the distinguished anatomist,Dr. Gustav Retzius thus gives his judgment inhis address at Heidelberg, in 1903, before theCongress of Anatomists, over which body he waspresiding.

' Emanuel Swedenborg was not only a greatexpert in the knowledge of the brain accordingto the standard of his time, but in fundamentalquestions he was far in advance of his con-temporaries. If we ask for the reason, wecan only find it in the fact that Swedenborgwas not only a learned anatomist and skilledobserver, but that he was a deep and criticalanatomical thinker. He stands out in the


30/144

SWEDENBORGhistory of craniology as a single, wonderful,phenomenal spirit and ideal seeker of the truth,who, step by step, grasped at ever higherproblems. One can understand more easily hislife and his work when one combines hisachievements in anatomy and physiology withthose in geology, mechanics, cosmogony, andphysics. With this as a background, his wholeaim becomes more manifest. He sought in allto find the principle of the unity of the worldand of life. He believed that this fundamentalprinciple was to be found in motion, in thetremulation of the finest particles. It was thisprinciple that led him ever farther on into analmost universal research, and to an insightinto the nature and workings of creation thatwas truly wonderful in his time. Led on bythis controlling view (of vibratory motion) hearrived at knowledges and constructed theorieswhich only at the present day are beginningto receive an appreciative recognition.'The special localization of intellectual func-

tions in the brain, the coincident respiration ofbrain and lungs, the vitality of the blood, andthe process by which sensation becomes con-verted into imagination and idea by a series andcorrespondence of the subtle tremulations in

18


31/144

PHYSIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGYthe respective substances in which they occur,are among the subjects treated with great clear-ness and lucidity in these remarkable volumes.The Animal Kingdom, than which title that ofthe Soul-Kingdom would more accurately conveythe meaning of the original Regnum Animale,included a great series, parts of which werenot published until after the author's death,including two of the volumes on the Brain,the volume on Generation, the Soul, or RationalPsychology, and special treatises on the Senses,the Fibre, etc.The volumes published by Swedenborg treatof the following subjects. In the Economy ofthe Animal Kingdom : The Composition andGeneral Essence of the Blood, its Circulation,the Formation of the Chick in the Egg, theCirculation of the Blood in the Foetus, theMotion of the Adult Heart, the Motion of theBrain, its Animation coincident with the Respi-ration of the Lungs, the Cortical Substance ofthe Brain, and the Human Soul. In the AnimalKingdom: The Tongue, Lips, Mouth, etc., theStomach and other Intestines; the Nose, Larynx,etc.; the Lungs and Pleura; the Diaphragm; theSkin and Sense of Touch, the Use of Touch andthe Sense of Taste.


32/144

SWEDENBORGIn all these researches the author was content

with nothing short of a definite knowledge ofthe soul itself. ' Bending my course inwardcontinually, I shall open all doors that lead toher/ he says, 'and by Divine permission contem-plate the soul herself.' In the work on The Soulwe find a symmetrical and exhaustive treatiseon Physiological Psychology ranging in itsdiscussions from the Simple Fibre, the properanimal essence that ' Form of Forms, celestialand immortal by nature,' to the Senses, theIntellect, the Mind in its three planes as Animus,Mens, and Anima, and the Affections properto each ; the Pure Intellect ; and the Soul inits Immortal State; concluding with a sublimesociological forecast or conception of a Societyof immortal souls as the end of creation and therealization of the City of God.

' The end of creation, or the end on accountof which the world was created, could be noother than the first and the last, or the mostuniversal of all ends, and that which is perpetu-ally reigning in the created universe, which isthe complex of means conspiring to that end.No other end of creation can be given than thatthere may exist a universal society of souls, ora heaven; that is, the kingdom of God. That


33/144

PHYSIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGYthis was the end of creation may be provedby innumerable arguments. For it would beabsurd to say that the world was created onaccount of the earth and terrestrial societies,and this miserable and perishable life ; since allthings on earth are for the sake of man, and allthings in man for the sake of his soul ; and thesoul cannot be for no end. If, then, it exists forany end, it must be for a society in which Godis present; for His providence regards souls,which are spiritual, and His works are adaptedto men and to their consociation.'

' In order that a celestial society, or a societyof souls, may exist, it is necessary that therebe a most perfect form of government, namely,souls distinct among themselves, and everypossible variety, which may be called harmonies,between the souls; and so from such harmonythere will arise a consensus and accord whichshall produce that entire effect and end whichis always foreseen and provided.

' That this end may be attained it is necessarythat man shall be allowed a free will. Thecause of variety of subjects arises solely fromfree exercise and liberty of the will. Withoutthis there would be no intellect, no morality, novirtue, no vice, no crime, no guilt, no affection


34/144

SWEDENBORGof the mind or change of state. This is thereason why God has wished to preserve thefree human will strong and inviolate, even forthe doing of evil deeds ; so that we wouldseem to be almost willing to deny a divineProvidence for the same reason that we wouldaffirm it.'

It is at the close of this work thatSwedenborg presents his forecast of the Uni-versal Mathesis, or a Mathematical Philosophyof Universals, which, based upon inductiveknowledge of the soul's reign in the body andof certain a priori principles governing all ofthe mind's operations, extends itself into arealm of pure truth beyond science.

' There is a Science of sciences, or a universalscience which contains all others in itself, andparts of which can, as it were, be resolvedinto these and those particular sciences. Sucha science is not acquired by learning, but itis connate, especially in souls, which are pureintelligences. The soul from this science con-templates all things immediately as they arein themselves, thus whether good or evil, andaccording to their nature it asserts or isaverse.

4 Unless the soul were furnished with such22


35/144

PHYSIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGYa science it would naturally be unable to flowinto our thoughts and to infuse, as it were,the power of understanding or of expressinghigher things : as also it would be unable toadapt all its organic forms to the inmost andsecret laws of mechanics, physics, chemistry andmany other phenomena : therefore that sucha science exists there can be no doubt.

' For there are truths a, priori, or propositionswhich are at once acknowledged as true ; nor isthere any need of demonstration of them aposteriori, nor of confirmation of them fromexperience or by the senses. The truth itselfpresents itself naked, and as it were declaresitself true.

' The mind is often indignant that such truthsshould have to be proved when they are aboveall demonstration. For all harmonies and thusall order naturally soothe and delight the organsof our senses, while disharmony constrains andwounds them. So it is with truths in whichthere is, as it were, an intellectual order.'Wherefore if we were not overburdened

with the fetters of science, with the turbulentdesires of the lower mind and similar hindrances,we should be able to know truths purely ; sincea certain consent shines forth as something

23


36/144

SWEDENBORGharmonious and as from a sacred shrine, Iknow not where.'

In these glimpses at the possible range ofknowledge of a pure soul ' not overburdenedwith the fetters of science,' we seem to havea foregleam of that higher system upon whichhe was entering, when, through the gateof that extraordinary experience which he de-scribes as his illumination or intromission intothe spiritual world, he is admitted into theconscious and simultaneous experience of thetwo worlds of man's life, and into the sapientiaangelica. For we see here not only how thevisible universe is regarded as itself an extensionof the body or regnum of each soul, and thetremulations proceeding from the sun beingby a continuous series of media and formsconveyed to

the senses and so subjected tothe soul's control, but beyond the physicalworld there lies yet the ' shrine, I know notwhere,' of higher essences and higher know-ledges, which yet must have a place in ascience which is truly perfect and universal.Throughout the whole philosophic period the

devout and worshipping spirit of a seekerafter not only the soul but God, its Author, iseverywhere manifest. ' No man/ he writes,

24


37/144

PHYSIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY' can be a complete and truly learned philosopherwithout the utmost devotion to the SupremeBeing. True philosophy and contempt of Godare two opposites.' The conception of man inhis state of integrity as the true philosopher,portrayed in the Introduction to the Principia,will hardly find a rival in literature for great-ness of theme couched in sublime simplicity oflanguage.

{ When the most subtle active principle ofman, by the providence of God, clothed itselfwith a body, and added, by degrees, partsupon parts, all the motions in the most subtleelements which were present would necessarilymove or affect that extremely yielding andtender substance, and would gradually impressthemselves and their own mechanism uponit. ... The man thus formed, in whom all theparts were co-ordinated to receive the motionsof all the elements, and to convey them success-fully when received through a contiguousmedium to the extremely subtle active principle,must be deemed the most perfect and the firstof all men, being one in whom the connectionof ends and means was continuous. So perfecta material and active being would by the sensesalone in a short time become possessed of all the


38/144

SWEDENBORGphilosophy and experimental science natural tohim ; for whatever could present itself to hissenses would immediately flow, by connectionand contiguity, to his extremely subtle andactive first principle. . . .

' I have said that, in his state of integrity,man was master of aphilosophy,

orworldlyknowledge, and this too of himself, by virtue

of the perfect mechanism of his organization,that is, by nature ; and thus being furnishedwith such excellent senses, nothing could beconcealed from him, because he was formedaccording to all the motions and operations ofthe world and nature. I have said further,that nothing could exist in the world, from theregular connection of causes, which would notinstantly flow, as through a most clear andpellucid medium, with a certain sensation, tothe mind; that is, that all the sensations ofeach of his organs would penetrate to theirmost subtle principle, without delay, confusion,or obscurity. But when every modification inthe world, of whatsoever kind, had thus arrivedat its ultimate, or at his soul, it necessarilyfollows that his knowledge and attainmentswould stop there, and that he would regardand venerate, with a most profound admiration,

26


39/144

PHYSIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGYthose other and infinite things that exceededthe bounds of his intelligence ; that is to say,that most vast Infinite infinitely intelligent,infinitely provident, which begins where manand his finite faculties, intelligence and provi-dence terminate : he would see that in thisInfinite all things have their being, and thatfrom it all things have their existence. . . .

' We may therefore conclude, again, that thewiser a man is, the greater are his venerationfor and love of the Deity. His delights whollyterminate in the love of God a love whichexhausts and replenishes all sense of delight.All the delights of the world, resulting fromits variety, are nothing unless the mind alsopartakes of them; for no human delights canbe real without the participation of the soul,since the more refined delights are lacking :and the delights which the body and soul arecapable of enjoying together are not genuineand true unless they have some further con-nection, and terminate in the veneration andlove of God ; that is, unless they have referenceto this love and ultimate end, in a connectionwith which the sense of delight most essentiallyconsists.'

It would be a grave misconception, but one


40/144

SWEDENBORGinto which it would be easy to fall, at thisstage, to identify this knowledge declared bySwedenborg as that to be enjoyed by ' thosesouls which are pure intelligences' with theimmediate knowledge of the Gnostics, or ofthe various schools of theosophy and occultismwhich prevail in the world to-day. It is notthe exceptional individual in this world who isto enjoy this supreme vision by means of someprocess of self-discipline or self-abnegation: itis rather the soul-principle in every individualthat at all times possesses the universal know-ledge, as that of a queen in her realm, andthat makes the mind and the senses in theirrespective lower planes to acquire a knowledgeof both the macrocosm and the microcosm ofthe universe at large and of the smaller butequally perfect universe of its own body. Thisknowledge even includes many things thatnever come to the individual's conscious in-telligence, but remain in the secret and sacredsanctuary of the subconscious, where onlythe universal control of a divine guardian isactive.From the mysticism, both of the Gnostics

of past ages and of the Orientalists of to-day,Swedenborg must be entirely sundered, for it

28


41/144


42/144

CHAPTER IVTHE TRANSITION

17451772HAD Swedenborg's labours ceased at this point,the knowledge of the soul would have remainedwhere his illustrious predecessors in these in-vestigations, from Plato down, had left it, andwhere Kant, his contemporary, acknowledgedit must ever be left, so far as the power ofpure reason is concerned a sublime speculationwithout the elements of certainty and reality.Swedenborg's discussion of the nature of thePure Intellect would have, side by side withKant's Critique of Pure Reason, challengedin friendly rivalry the admiration of the world,and the resemblance which Kant admits that hefound between many of his principles and thoseof Swedenborg would have resulted possibly inthe public's acceptance of Swedenborg's as thesafer, because more logical, guide in these trans-cendental paths. 1

1 ' The system of Swedenborg is, unfortunately, very similar tomy own philosophy. It is not impossible that my rational views


43/144

THE TRANSITIONFor the abundant data recently brought to

light touching Kant's relation to Swedenborg,including his direct allusions to Swedenborgand the unmistakable borrowings from him, seeKant's Lectures on Psychology in Carl du Prel'sEdition: Leipsic, 1889; P. von Lind's Karri'sMystische Weltanschauung: Munich, 1892; Heinze'sObservations on the Lectures of 1790-91 on RationalPsychology and on the Lectures on Metaphysics; inthe Abhandlungen der Sachsischen Oesellschaft derWissenscha/ten : Leipzig, 1894. For a full dis-cussion of these see the Introduction to Kant'sDreams of a Spirit Seer, translated by EmanuelGoerwitz ; Swan Sonnenschein & Co. : London,1900.But the ' contemplation of the soul itself ' was

to come to Swedenborg in quite another way,and his transition from the attitude of therigidly mechanical physicist and the speculativephilosopher to that of the illumined seer andthe exponent of a philosophy no longer humanonly, but angelic constitutes an experienceunique in the annals of human thought. Itmay be considered absurd because of that affinity. As to theoffensive comparison, I declare we must either suppose greaterintelligence and truth at the basis of Swedenborg's writings thanfirst impressions excite, or that it is a mere accident when hecoincides with my system ' ( Works : Leipsic, vol. iii. p. 95, 1838).


44/144

SWEDENBORGinvolves a self-renunciation, a quenching of theloftiest ambitions of the unaided human intellect,which is in itself tragical. The principle in hisphilosophy of Discrete Degrees, viz. that theorder of influx is from within outward, fromcentre to circumference, from the spiritual tothe natural, and not the reverse, was to claimfor its illustrious first martyr the author ofthese sublime researches, who had boldly aspiredto open all doors and force an access to the soulitself through the avenues of natural experi-mental knowledge. Not, however, as in Kant,was the quest to go for ever unrewarded and bedogmatically proscribed. Swedenborg claimsthat in himself a new kind of human, nay, evenexperimental knowledge was granted to man-kind. Religion and a knowledge of the soul, ofimmortality and of a spiritual world of objectivesubstantiality were indeed to be enjoyed withinthe ' bounds of practical reason,' but through'things seen and heard,' by the extraordinaryopening of the spiritual senses of a man tothe experience of the unseen world of spiritand all its realities, and to a rational under-standing of the laws of that world.

It was in the year 1744, at the very time whenhe was diligently pursuing his duties as Assessor


45/144

THE TBANSITIONin the College of Mines, corresponding withthe Academies of Science at Paris, St. Peters-burg and Stockholm, and contributing paperson important civic and national questions in theHouse of Nobles of the Swedish Parliament,that he heard, as he declares, in the midst ofhis most ambitious researches into the natureof the human body and of the soul itself, thevoice of God bidding him to lay down all hisambitious strivings in science, to close his greatbooks the Principia, the Animal Kingdom, andthe Soul, and to open one Book alone hence-forth the Holy Scripture and seek therewhat, by a special, divine illumination, shouldbe revealed to him as the Word of God inits internal and spiritual sense. The voice wasreverently heard and obeyed. With awfulinterior struggles of soul, in which worldly andintellectual ambition fought with the impulseto this higher calling, nights and days passedin agony until at length, on an Easter Sundayin April 1744, he goes to the Holy Supper andhears the hymn, 'Jesus is my best of friends,'and on returning it seems to him ' as if thebuds had opened and were green.' In therestless night that followed there came a feelingof holiest peace, 'as if he were in heaven ;D


46/144

and lie can only cry out " Holy, holy, holy,Lord God of Hosts ! Praise and honour andglory be to the Highest ! " Thenceforward hesaid, ' I accepted the following creed : God'swill be done ! I am Thine and not mine. Godgive His grace for this work, for it is notmine ' ! (Doc. vol. ii. and pp. 164, 172).Then comes the vaster journey, the greaterexploration in which, at the call of his Maker,this spiritual Columbus explores the livingspheres of the other world, beholds the structure,the laws, the life of heaven, the vast relationof correspondence existing between the spiritualand natural worlds, and the intimate andmomentous relation between our present lifeand the future life for which it is shaping us,for good or for bad, in the world to come.The change in Swedenborg's study from the

science of nature to that of the spiritual worldand of divine revelation is not without itsparallels in the case of his great contemporariesLeibnitz and Newton, both of whom in theirlater period devoted themselves to theologyand to the explanation of Scriptural prophecies.The remarkable feature of Swedenborg's casewas that, while his spiritual quest involved theabnegation of all pride of invention or of


47/144

THE TRANSITIONcreation, so that he ' was not permitted to betaught even by any angel, but by the Lord alonewhile reading the Word,' still, the substructureof earthly science and philosophy by which hehad climbed thus far, instead of being set asideas worthless, was found to be in its general formthe exact material setting of the interior spiritualprinciples now to be revealed from above. Thatwhich was submissively renounced is thus re-stored tenfold, and in a glorified reality. Thesplendid system of psychology and physiology,and of the elementary world, is now found tobe part of a stupendous series of sciencesmutually corresponding and dependent, reachingeven to the now revealed true knowledge ofthe soul, of the spiritual world, of heaven andthe divine nature itself. It is the apotheosisof the human philosophy which had yieldedits self-life upon the cross of the world's con-tempt. It was the beatification of the sciencewhich had sought to be the handmaid of theLord, and which had uttered, in the final despairof human searching for the real knowledge, ' beit unto me according to Thy Word ! '

There are features of this self-renunciationof Swedenborg in the transition from hisphilosophical to his theological labours that


48/144

SWEDENBORGhave been but little appreciated by those whohave formed a hasty estimate of his personalityand his work. Of these the following may behere mentioned.

a. THE CHANGE OF LITERARY STYLEThe classic elegance of his Latin style, which

has elicited in his philosophical works the ad-miration of critics, and which in the mysticprose poem, De Cultu et Amwe Dei, de OrtuPrimogeniti, et de Paradiso, 1 a work written justat the transition period, reminds one of Dantein its grave simplicity and beauty of diction,now gives place to a mode of statementabsolutely without ornament, following closelythe English construction, as if with a view tothat English reading public which, accordingto his own prophecy, was to be the centralvehicle of the distribution of his teachings tothe world.

Thus, by way of comparison in style, Dantebegins his great poem, the Divina Comedia, withthese words :

1 Londini : apud Kegan Paul, Trench et soc. (MDCCCLXX1II.)


49/144

THE TRANSITIONNel mezzo del cammin di nostra vitaMi ritrovai per una selva oscuraChe la diritta via era smarrita.In the midst of the journey of this lifeI found myself in a dark forestWhere the straight way was lost.

Swedenborg begins thus his poem entitled,Tfie Worship and Love of God : the Birth of ourEarth and of Paradise :

Cum solus quondam in Luco urbano cogitationumturbas discutiendi gratio obambularem ac videremviduari foliis arbores :Walking once alone in a pleasant grove and observ-

ing that the trees were shedding their foliage ... Ireflected ... on the vicissitudes of things.

Compare this with the bald simplicity andthe English phrasing of the following, fromthe theological work De Ccelo et ^Inferno:

De Luce in CoeloLux Coeli non est naturalis sicut mundi, sed estspiritualis ; est enim a Domino ut sole et sol est

Divinus Amor. Quod procedit a Domino ut Solein Coelis vocatur Divinum Verum est tamen inessentia sua Divinum Bonum unitum Divino Vero :inde Angelis Lux et Calor ; Ex Divino Vero eatangelis Lux : et ex Divino Bono est illis Calor.


50/144

SWEDENBORGb. THE SEER

For nineteen years since the beginning ofthose writings which claim to have been pro-duced under supernatural illumination, theworks appear anonymously, and for a longtime their authorship is an entire secret. In1768 the work on Gonjicgicd Love bears the titleAb Emanele Swedenborgio, Sueco ; and on thetitle-page of the great final summary VeraChristiana Religio, continent Universam Thcolo-giam Novce Ecclesice, published in 1771, appearsthe author's name with the words added : DominiJesu Christi Servo, revealing the character inwhich he would henceforth be known in rela-tion to these writings, namely, as a messengerof divine truths rather than as a leader inspeculation. Still another remarkable phase ofthis laying down of a prior life of earthlylearning, and the taking up of a life andlearning given from above, was the entire ab-sence therein of either the ascetic self-morti-fication or of the ecstatic trance which weassociate in our minds with the oriental andmediaeval ' illuminati.' Nothing of this kindexisted in Swedenborg's case. The life resumedwas not only a healthy and vigorous one, with


51/144

THE TRANSITIONnothing suggestive of the visionary or fanatic,but in this stage of his literary activity appearthe same logical order and clearness of reason-ing, the same vastness and comprehensivenessof method, the same firm grasp of particularsunder universal unities, which elicit our wonderin the philosophical works.The splendid intellectual instrument polishedfor use by the discipline of the earlier periodnow seemed to have found its true and worthyfield of application. In a subject-matter whollynew, the art and the skill are the same as before.The change of plane from material to spiritualrealities produces no flaw, no yielding in thelogic. The flippant assumption of lunacy andmadness at this period of his writing is con-fronted with the majestic presence of a systemof theology and of spiritual philosophy soperfect in its rational consistency, not onlywith itself, but with the other realms of know-ledge, that for this very cause some have beenled to call it ' too logical a system to be re-vealed.' Utterly as the human philosopherhad subjected his rational faculties to the em-ployment of the divine Master in communi-cating to men through his understandingthe '"Wisdom of Angels,' it was not by the


52/144

SWEDENBOKGlsacrifice of reason but by its illumination andinspiration from the Author of reason itselfthat this new light was given. The manwho was ' daily in intercourse with angels,'who was writing the 'Heavenly Secrets' ofthe Holy Scripture, and Claimed to be wit-nessing the awful scenes of a

' Last Judgment'

in the World of Spirits preparatory to theintroduction of a new age of the world, so farfrom being a dazed and dreamy mystic or arecluse from society, as so many have ignorantlyassumed, was in the very years of such em-ployment the warm personal and political friendof the then Prime Minister of Sweden, CountAndrew von Hopken, and was taking a veryactive part in the deliberations of the SwedishDiet.Thus in the year 1760, in which he writes

his treatise on the ' Last Judgment,' and { Onthe Spiritual World,' the year in which itbecame first publicly known that he was theauthor of Arcana Ccelestia, he presents to theDiet the following papers : { Memorial in favourof a return to the Pure Metallic Currency';' Additional Considerations with respect to theCourse of Exchange ' ; ' Memorial to the Kingagainst the Exportation of Copper ' ; ' Memorial


53/144

THE TRANSITIONdeclining to become a member of the PrivateCommission on Exchange.'In 1761, the year of Swedenborg's memor-

able announcement of the ' Queen's Secret,'and of the discovery of the ' lost receipt ' forMme. de Marteville events which so arousedthe wonder of Kant when verified by him be-yond the possibility of doubt (see Kant's letterto Fraulein von Knobloch), Swedenborg pre-sents to the Diet a ' Memorial on the Maintenanceof the Country and the Preservation of itsFreedom,' and conducts a political contest withCouncillor Nordencrantz in defence of theSwedish Government. 1Such is the normal character of a man living

in two worlds and performing conscientiouslyhis functions in both.

His self-renunciation was not that of themonk or quietist : it was simply that of a manwhose understanding, trained in all the learning

1 Count Hb'pken, the Prime Minister of Sweden, who hadknown Swedenborg intimately during the long period of thetwenty-seven years of his professed continuous experience ofopen intercourse with the spiritual world, testifies that in theyear 1761, which was in the midst of Swedenborg's other-worldexperiences, the ablest papers submitted to the Diet of Swedenon matters of national finance were those of Swedenborg, sittingas a member of the House of Nobles.


54/144

SWEDENBORdof earth, was willing to be employed in con-veying a supernatural knowledge rather than inpresenting speculations of his own on thingsthat transcend the human senses. The crucialtest of the kind of intellectual self-renunciationwhich Swedenborg attained -is one which fewof his contemporaries in the ranks of speculativephilosophy, and few of those who would fain behis followers and admirers on the natural plane,have been able to sustain. Kant was sufficientlyattracted by his claim of a specially illuminedreason to feel that he must remain either toworship or to scoff. He chose the latter ; but indoing so he had to divest the object of his mirthof the garments of the seer and clothe him inthe mask of the harlequin a mask which thesober reason of subsequent time has been lessand less willing to accept. In representingSwedenborg as the arch medium of the spiritistsand writing under his name a treatise ofSpiritism, 1 Kant chooses to fight a man of straw,rather than to assail principles of truth which,as he is driven elsewhere to acknowledge,

'

beara striking resemblance to his own.' The truerelation of Swedenborg to the Spiritism whetherof Kant or of the present time can best be seen

1 Kant's Traume eines Geittersehers. Reclam. Leipsic.42


55/144

THE TRANSITIONby the following statements from his ownwritings.

C. SWEDENBORQ NOT A MEDIUM' It is believed by many that they may be

taught by the Lord by spirits speaking withthem ; but they do not know that this is fraughtwith danger to their souls. As soon as spiritsbegin to speak with man, they come out oftheir spiritual state into the natural state ofman, they join themselves with the thoughtsof his affection, and from these they speak withhim. The Pythonists of old were such, andalso the Magi in Egypt and Babylon. Thus theworship of God was turned into the worshipof demons, and the church perished. Thereforesuch intercourse was forbidden the childrenof Israel under penalty of death ' (ApocalypseExplained, 1182).While Swedenborg claims to have had intro-

mission into the spiritual world an experiencenot to be confounded with the admission ofspirits from that world into this yet he disclaimsentirely any office of mediumship wherebyspirits spoke or acted through him, in communi-cating truth from the other world.

' I have had discourse with spirits and angels


56/144

SWEDENBORanow for several years, and no spirit has dared,nor has any angel desired, to tell me anything,much less to instruct me in regard to anythingof the "Word, or of doctrine from the "Word;but the Lord alone has taught me' (DivineProvidence, 135).'From the first day I have never receivedanything of the doctrines from any angel, butfrom the Lord alone while I was reading theWord' (True Christian Religion, 779).

' At this day, revelation is only made bymeans of the Word' (Arcana Ccelestia, 10355).Emerson, in a later day, enchanted the newlyawakened Puritan mind with beautiful glimpses

of spiritual verities and universal ideas directlytraceable to the influence of Swedenborg whomas a natural philosopher he cannot too highlyextol; but the delights of intellectual creationwere too dear to Emerson to allow him toaccept the dictates of a direct revelation, andhis only resource is to treat lightly the spiritualreceptivity in another mind of which his ownnature was incapable.

'

Sandy deserts'

he callsnow those honest and prosaic narrations anddefinitions of spiritual phenomena which theseer, for whom rhetoric has lost all value, dealsout with tiresome repetition ; forgetting that he

44


57/144

THE TRANSITIONhas unconsciously absorbed from this homelyand despised source the spiritual content of hisown ideality and ethics. It is this, clothed withhis own oracular brilliancy, that Emerson hashanded down as the chief heritage of what isknown as the New England Transcendentalism.Its message, above all, is that of man's im-mediate environment in a world whose sub-stance is superior to matter, but related to itas a man's soul to his body. To take fromEmerson Swedenborg's doctrine of Correspon-dence would leave much of his writing dull anddark. 1

It was during the years of transition (1743-45) that Swedenborg wrote two works whichreveal unmistakably the trend his mind wasfollowing, as anticipating a goal ahead whosereal significance he could not yet comprehend.One of these is the Adversaria, a book of notesupon the Old Testament for his own use, incompiling which, and by a study of the originaltexts, he acquired a minute knowledge of theletter of the Scriptures, with some glimpses of

1 See Article, ' Swedenborg,' by Francis Hedge, Christian Ex-aminer, November 1833 ; Article in New Jerusalem Magazine,Boston, November 1893 ; Emerson's ' Essay on Poetry and Im-agination ' in Letters and Social Aims.


58/144

SWEDENBOBGan historical-allegorical sense to form a kind ofbasis of his later strictly spiritual interpretation.The other transitional work was The Worshipand Love of God, treating of the Birth of theEarth, Paradise and the Abode of LivingCreatures ; also of the Nativity, Infancy andLove of the First-begotten, or Adam (DeCultu d Amoi^e Dei, etc.). The style of the workis that of a prose poem. It might be calleda drama of Creation, in which figure thevarious orders of the intelligences and loves ofthe human soul moving upon a background ofthe world's elemental activity in evolving acosmos. As a theory of evolution, in its splendidaudacity it puts the more modern theorieswhich pass by that name quite into insignifi-cance. The language is graceful and elegant,suggesting reminiscences of the author's earlystudies of the Metamorphoses of Ovid. Thereis 110 claim in it of supernatural knowledge,the purpose being avowedly to study theBiblical narrative of Creation in the light ofa scientific cosmogony and psychology andpurely ' according to the thread of reason.' l

1 For a full account of this remarkable work and an attemptat its interpretation see the Essay, ' A Drama of Creation ' inThe Neio Metaphysics,. by Frank Sewall. London: J.. Spiers.1887.

6


59/144

THE TRANSITIONA description of the formation of our planetout of the sun in the bursting forth of worldsout of its womb and their projection into thewhirling spheres, is followed by that of its findingits true orbit and the fixing of temperaturesand of seasons and the successive productionof vegetable and animal life, and, at last, ofthe human creature; each of these ordersbeing truly evolved from the one below, butimmediately and successively, the transitionbeing not from the highest vegetable to thelowest animal, but from the highest vegetableto the highest animal ; so that man is bornfrom the fruit of the tree in which all the finestessences of nature are centred and combinedand which grows in the midst of the earthlyParadise. Nowhere else does the author speakof this_theory of the origin of man. It seemsas if it were the poetic copestone to thesystem of combined physics and metaphysicswhich had occupied his mind for so many years,but one which was, by an abrupt lifting of thecurtain, to give place to a vision no longer ofthe phenomenal and theoretical but the real,the immortal and the eternal the true know-ledge of the spirit and of the spiritual world.


60/144

SWEDENBOEGd. THE SPIRITUAL DIARY

In this Spiritual Diary, an immense body ofmemoranda written during the years 1747-52,Swedenborg describes with prosaic exactnessthe new world opened to his vision, the placesvisited, the characters met, the conversationsheld in the spiritual world.The most startling and wonderful scenes arehere related, in the matter-of-fact manner ofevery-day occurrences. The entries in thispurely private record, published from the LatinMSS. in 1844, number over 5,500, and theyconstitute, with their careful analysis ofcharacters and situations, a storehouse ofspiritual data of an entirely unique value.The following extract will serve as a sampleof these entries, and will at the same time

throw light upon the problems of modernhypnotism, spiritism, telepathy, and like ex-periences.

Self-Delusion of Spirits.' It has been shown

to me many times that spirits who spoke withme imagined that they were the men I wasthinking of; nor did other spirits know other-wise. For instance, yesterday and to-day, one

48


61/144

THE TRANSITIONof them was so much like a person known tome in life, in everything (so far as I knew)pertaining to him, that nothing could be morelike. Wherefore, let those who speak withspirits beware when spirits say that they arepersons who are known to them, and that theyare the dead.'For there are classes of spirits of a similarnature. When accordant things are calledforth in the memory of a man and are thusrepresented to them, they suppose that theyare the identical person about whom he isthinking : then, all the things representing theperson thought of are called forth from thememory, even the words, speech, tones of voice,gestures, and many other things ' (Aug. 18,1748).

Concerning the Lord's Prayw. 'When theLord's Prayer, which comprehends all celestialand spiritual things, is read, there may beinfused into each particular so many thingsthat heaven itself shall not be capable of com-prehending them, and that, too, according tothe capacity and use of every one. The moreinternally and intimately any one penetrates,the more fully or abundantly the things ofheaven are understood ; by those in lower states


62/144

SWEDENBORGthey are not comprehended but are a kind ofarcana to them, some being ineffable. Celestialideas which all emanate from the Lord, thelower they descend, or the lower the characterof the men to whom they come, the more com-plete appears the closing up of the mind, tillat length a certain hardness ensues in whichthere is little or nothing besides the sense ofthe letter or the ideas conveyed by the words ;whence it was given to know, from the Lord'sPrayer, what kind of souls they had been inthe life of the body as to the doctrine of theirfaith, inasmuch as it was granted to them tohave their former sense of these things whenoffering prayer (April 1, 1748). Thus it is thatthe idea expands upwards or inwards fromcorporeal things, and indeed to indefinite extentin every degree, or, in other words, throughindefinitely multiplied expansions in the in-teriors of the mind, and so in the more interiorparts, and in the inmosts.'At length with the first volume of the ArcanaCcelestia, written in the full and certain lightof the new revelation, Swedenborg begins thoseremarkable treatises in which he publiclyclaims to set forth, for the enlightenment of thewhole Christian world, the truths of a super-


63/144

THE TRANSITIONnatural and divine origin by the divine mercyrevealed to him.The Arcana itself is a work in Latin in

twelve volumes, and consists of an expositionof the internal and spiritual sense of the booksof Genesis and Exodus.


64/144

CHAPTER VTHE THEOLOGICAL WRITINGS

17491772INTERSPERSED between the chapters of theArcana are treatises on various phenomena ofthe spiritual world and statements of 'heavenlydoctrine.' The publication of this stupendouswork, begun in London in 1749, covered aperiod of seven years. The handsome quartovolumes, as they appeared anonymously fromtime to time, were mainly distributed in gifts tothe bishops and to the leading universities ofEngland and the Continent. Whatever fundsaccrued from their sale were devoted to theBritish Society for the Propagation of theGospel. After this initial work appear in suc-cession at short intervals, for a period of fifteenyears, the following treatises :

In 1768 : Heaven and Hell ; also the Inter-mediate World, or World of Spirits. A Relationof Things Heard and Seen.

The Last Judgment and the Destruction of


65/144

THE THEOLOGICAL WRITINGSBabylon: showing that all the Predictions inthe Revelation are at this day fulfilled : beinga Revelation of Things Heard and Seen.On The White Horse mentioned in the Revela-tion, ch. xix., with particulars respecting theWord and its Spiritual Sense ; extracted fromthe Arcana Ccelestia.On The Earths in our Solar System and the

Earths in the Starry Heavens, with an accountof their Inhabitants and also of the Spirits andAngels there.On The New Jerusalem and its HeavenlyDoctrines according to what has been heardfrom Heaven ; to which is prefixed informationregarding the New Heaven and the NewEarth.

In 1763 appear Angelic Wisdom (SapientiaAngelica*), concerning the Divine Love andWisdom, and the Four Leading Doctrines of theNew Church signified by the New Jerusalem in theRevelation', being those respecting the Lord,the Sacred Scripture, Faith and Life.

In 1764: Angelic Wisdom concerning the DivineProvidence.

In 1766: The Apocalypse Revealed, in whichare disclosed the Arcana therein foretold.

In 1768 : Conjugial Love and its Chaste De-


66/144

SWEDENBORGlights ; also Adulterous Love and its InsanePleasures.In 1769 : A Brief Exposition of the Doctrine ofthe New Church signified by the New Jerusalem inthe Revelation. Also tlie Intercourse between theSoul and the Body.

Finally in 1771 appears the great summaryof his system, The True Christian Religion; con-taining the Universal Theology of the New Church,foretold in Daniel vii. 13, 14, and in the Apoca-lypse xxi. 1, 2. In this work we have a com-plete body of theology systematically presented,proceeding from a profound discussion ofAbsolute Being to the doctrine of the Lord theRedeemer, the Holy Spirit and the DivineTrinity ; the Sacred Scripture ; the Catechism,or Decalogue, explained as to its External andInternal Sense ; Faith, Charity, Free Deter-mination ; Repentance, Reformation and Re-generation ; Imputation, Baptism, the HolySupper ; the Consummation of the Age, theComing of the Lord and the New Heaven andthe New Church.The chapters of this work, like those of theArcana, are interspersed with Memorabilia, oraccounts of the author's personal observationsand conversations in the spiritual world, em-


67/144

THE THEOLOGICAL WRITINGSbracing visions in the heavens and in the hells,remarkable pictures of a Dantesque simplicityand strength without the least indication ofpoetic fancy or rhetorical effort. They arerelations of ' things heard and seen ' by atraveller returned from a hitherto unknownland. Bizarre and uncouth as many of thescenes depicted are, being all of them phenomenaappearing according to the universal law ofspontaneous symbolic representation which pre-vails in that world, they have their nearestparallels in the prophetic visions contained inthe Holy Scriptures, and when carefully analysedare found to be only the rational embodiments,or Darstdlung, of spiritual states and relationsactually existing. In these narratives figurespirits who had been inhabitants of other planets.Scenes are portrayed as occurring in the LastJudgment, the great Aufkldrung in the worldof spirits where were taking place those moralchanges from an old to a new age, which, fromthe beginning of the French Revolution untilnow, have been taking form on earth in thetransformation of all things political, economicaland religious.

All these narrations will bear the closestrational scrutiny as to their credibility, provided

55


68/144

SWEDENBORGthe single premise be granted that the otherworld exists. So consistent, so realistic indeedare they that the reader is compelled to admit thatthese very experiences, instead of being extra-ordinary and fanciful, are the things mostnatural and likely to occur provided there be asphere of spiritual causes behind the shiftingscenes of the drama of our life here.A Memorable Relation. ' Awaking one morningfrom sleep, I saw two angels descending fromheaven, one from the southern quarter and theother from the eastern, each in his chariotdrawn by white horses. The chariot of theangel from the southern quarter shone likesilver, and that of the angel of the easternquarter like gold, and the reins which theyheld in their hands glowed with a flaming lightlike the dawn of day. These two angels appearedthus to me when at a distance, but when theycame near they did not appear in chariots, butin their own angelic human form. The onefrom the eastern quarter of heaven was cladin bright purple raiment, and the one from thesouthern quarter in raiment of a violet blue.As soon as they reached the inferior regionsbelow the heavens they ran to meet each other,ts if they strove which should be first, and

56


69/144

THE THEOLOGICAL WRITINGSmutually embraced and kissed each other. Iwas informed that these two angels, duringtheir abode on earth, had been conjoined in thebond of an interior friendship, but that now onewas in the eastern heaven and the other in thesouthern : in the eastern heaven are those whoare in love from the Lord, and in the southernheaven those who are in wisdom from the Lord."When they had conversed together some timeabout the magnificent objects and scenery intheir respective heavens, they entered upon thediscussion of this question: whether heaven, inits essence, be love or wisdom. In this theyagreed that the one derived its origin from theother ; but the debate was which was the primi-tive and which the derivative. The angel fromthe southern heaven then asked the other," What is love ? " to which he replied, " Loveoriginating from the Lord as a sun is the vitalheat of angels and men, consequently the easeof their life ; and the derivations of love arecalled affections, and by them are producedperceptions, and thus thoughts, whence itfollows that wisdom in its origin is love, con-sequently that thought, in its origin, is theaffection of that love ; and it is evident, fromthe derivations examined in their order, that

57


70/144

SWEDENBORGthought is only the form of affection. Thereason why this is not known is, becausethoughts are in light and affections in heat,so that the mind reflects upon its thoughts,but not on its affections. That thought isonly the form of the affection of some par-ticular love may also be illustrated by the caseof speech, which is only the form of sound;which is a just illustration, because soundcorresponds with affection, and speech withthought; therefore affection forms the soundor tone of the voice, and thought the speechor words of a discourse. This may be furtherelucidated by this consideration, that if youtake away sound from speech, nothing ofspeech remains ; and in like manner if youtake away affection from thought, nothing ofthought remains. Hence, then, it is plain thatlove is the all of wisdom ; consequently theessence of the heavens is love and their exist-ence is wisdom; or, what is the same thing,the heavens have their being from the divinelove and exist from the divine love by thedivine wisdom ; therefore, as was said above,the one derives its origin from the other. '.... The angels conversed on these subjectsspiritually, and spiritual discourse contains and


71/144

THE THEOLOGICAL WRITINGSinfolds in it thousands of things which naturallanguage cannot express, and, what is won-derful, such as do not so much as fall withinthe ideas of natural thought. After conversingtogether for some time on these and similarsubjects the angels departed, and, as they re-tired to their respective heavens, their headsappeared encompassed with stars, and whenthey were removed to a distance from me, theyagain appeared in chariots as before.'CLASSIFICATION OF THE THEOLOGICAL WORKSThe treatises on Theology, like those on

Philosophy, may be classified in three divisions :the Analytic, the Synthetic and the Doctrinal.The first, the Analytic, embraces the recordof things heard and seen in the spiritual world,and the particulars of truth revealed in theinternal sense of the Scriptures. Here belongthe Arcana, The 'Apocalypse Revealed, Heaven aridHell, The Last Judgment, The Earths in theUniverse, and The Memorabilia interspersedthrough all the works.The Synthetic class embraces those which con-tain the laws governing all spiritual phenomenaand Divine operations, and the relation of matterto spirit, or of the two worlds. These are the


72/144

SWEDENBORGAngdic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love andWisdom, and Concerning the Divine Providence,and the work on Influx.The Doctrinal class, in which, from all theseparticulars and summaries, a complete systemof theology and ethics is evolved, forming thefinal and perfected form of Christianity, thatof a New Universal Church. Here are to benamed The True Christian Religion, The FourLeading Doctrines, and The New Jerusalem andits Heavenly Doctrines.For a discussion of the loftiest and most

sacred relation of human life, that upon whichthe whole social economy must rest or goasunder the marriage relation the reader willresort to the work on Conjugial Love and itsChaste Delights, in which the complementaryrelation of the sexes is shown to be mentalas well as physical, and hence having asignificance beyond the earthly life.The twofold nature of the human mind inwill and intellect, patterned as ' the image ofGod,' after the union of love and wisdom inthe divine nature, finds its ultimate expressionin both the mental and physical differences ofthe two sexes. Their union in marriage con-stitutes the complete man ; and from its origin


73/144


74/144

SWEDENBOBGthe duties of his own office in society, togetherwith the shunning of all evils as sins againstGod. In this doctrine man is represented asa 'form of charity,' or as that moral and freeinstrument through which the universal loveof God the Creator can be dispensed amongmen in their doing of useful service and in theirhappiness realized in this doing. Neither thegood nor the happiness is man's own ; but itflows down from God into those channels ofuseful, neighbourly livingwhich a truly organizedsociety provides ; and man's entire share in thedoing and the blessing consists in his removingfrom his motives and his acts those evils ofself-love which are opposed to the inflow of thedivine Altruism. The little work on Charitydiscusses the relation of the individual to thecommon good, and what conduct constitutescharity in the Ruler, the Magistrate, the Priest,the Soldier, the Servant and other offices. Onits largest scale Swedeuborg's system of socialorder is displayed in his doctrine of the GrandMan (Maximus Homo), in which Society as awhole or the Kingdom of God is representedas forming an organic unit patterned after thehuman form and so in the image of God. Thusit reflects the perfections of the Creator who is


75/144

THE THEOLOGICAL WRITINGSessential love, on the plane of the infiniterelations and uses of men in their severalcapacities for loving and serving the neighbour.The work on The Earths in the Univerxe brings in animportant phase of this doctrine, showing how theinhabitants of the several planets \)y their distinctmoral qualities, go to make up the completenessin the spiritual world of the great Social Man.

THE NEW AGEThe distinctive character of the New Age is

the return to a rational unity in man's concep-tion of God, of the Universe and of Life ; in theconception of God as the unity of the threeessentials of personality in the Divine Humanityof Jesus Christ glorified, the one Lord God ofHeaven and Earth ; in the conception of theunity of the Universe through the influx ofOne life in the three degrees God, Spirit, andNature which are one, not by confusion, but bycorrespondence ; and in the conception of theunity of Life by the restored unity of faith in Godwith charity to the neighbour. Swedenborg, onbeing asked to explain his theology, replied,' There are two principles of it that God isOne, and that there is a conjunction of Charityand Faith.'


76/144

CHAPTER VIPHILOSOPHY AND THE SAPIENTIA ANGELICA

OF the twofold series of Swedenborg's writings,the Scientific and the Theological, we have asa unique result a complete Weltanschauung, orWorld-system, which embraces in harmoniousand strictly logical accord the two worlds ofhuman experience, the natural and the spiritual.Probably no such a complete survey of thewhole realm of Being in a scientific form hasever been presented to rational contemplation.Not to mention the open conflict between scienceand revelation which from time immemorial hasbeen looked at as belonging necessarily to theexisting order of things, the attempts towardsa harmony hitherto essayed have reduced them-selves without exception either into the mystic'sacceptance of the transcendental knowledge,together with his abandonment of naturallearning as illusory and worthless ; or into thedenial of any real knowledge beyond the natural,and the consequent regarding of ideas of God


77/144


78/144

SWEDENBOEGteaches natural truths, and afterwards spiritualtruths, in a rational manner : for the latter arefounded upon the former ' (Influx, 20).

It is a positive transcendentalism in that itis a knowledge transcending the senses of thephysical body, but real to those organs of thespiritual body which in every man becomereleased into conscious activity at death, andin extraordinary instances enjoy this activityeven in this world. The two great fields ofresearch in all their distinctiveness claim eachits period of exhaustive development. ' Philo-sophy' is the term which Swedenborg appliesto the kind of research employed in the first ofthese fields. The term is used in the sense ofthe natural philosophy of his day, as the surveyof nature, whether in the physical or psycho-logical fields, as a grand mechanism, subjecteverywhere to the laws discoverable in geometry,physics and mechanics. Only he adheres to thatelement as essential which he calls the soul ; andwhile he confesses that his cosmogony reducesitself to a perfect mechanism so absolute anduniversal is the sway of physical law in nature

still the presence of this supernatural factmust everywhere be conceded.

' I have no objection,' he says, ' to my system


79/144

PHILOSOPHYof the world being called mechanism, only letit be an animated mechanism.' This pursuitof the soul throughout the first period is there-fore always within the limits of a time-and-spaceworld. He sought its first essence in the fibreand animal spirit, just as in physics he soughthis initial atom in the point and the first finite.The conception of God throughout the philo-sophic period is that of the Infinite as therequisite source of initial motion, the idea ofan infinite personality and of a divine humanitybeing as yet but dimly conceived.All this becomes changed in the secondperiod. The philosophy of the first period nowgives way to the Sapientia Angelica, which termwe must take to mean, not the particular know-ledge of a superior kind which the angelspossess and can impart to each other and tomen, but the kind of knowledge of which thehuman soul becomes capable when translatedinto a world above time and space and wherethe very elements are spiritual, the sun of thatworld being itself the first effulgence of theinfinite love and wisdom of God, and, conse-quently, the very atmospheres, and the heatand light conveyed in them, being tremulouswaves of substantial good and truth. The


80/144

SWEDENBORGSapientia Angelica, hence, is a knowledge ofspiritual realities or of those truly vital sub-stances and forces which go to furnish the greatmechanism of nature with a soul. It is theactual vision and touch of a world of spiritualsubstance which the purified human spirit iscapable of experiencing after rising out of theworld of symbolic material phenomena byputting off the material body with its senses.Rarely, if ever, does Swedenborg employ theterm ' philosophy ' in reference to this immediateangelic experience, which he calls

'

wisdom.'He uses this term intentionally in distinctionfrom knowledge or intelligence, the first ofthese being, in his definition, applied to theacquiring of information through the sensesand their environment ; the second, to theorderly arrangement of these acquired know-ledges in their respective groups by means ofthe rational faculty ; the third, the wisdomitself, being the truth acquired now seen andloved truly, in its own nature and worth, as theform of good. Wisdom, therefore, while restingupon knowledge and reason, yet is a distinctkind of immediate perception which the purifiedspirit enjoys after death in the degree in which,in his own experience, the truth has become the


81/144

PHILOSOPHYform of his action from his very love of it asthe form of good. It is not to be identified withthe Gnostic's or the theosophist's immediatevision of the truth as a state above and apart fromvoluntary and intellectual activity. In wisdomthe propriiim, or the personality of the angel, isrealized in its most intense form. If it were notso this angelic contemplation of reality wouldfail of its purpose in the divine scheme of theround of uses. The angelic contemplation ofreality comes from the shining of a real heavenlylight in the mind.Can there, now, be any comprehensive philo-sophy of Swedenborg, strictly speaking? Weanswer Yes, for the two reasons that there arecertain fundamental constructive laws thatcharacterize alike both systems, the natural andthe spiritual, and that accordingly the two worldsand their respective cosmogonies are broughtvisibly into their relation of a perfect correspon-dence. The harmony of the two systems canonly be attributed to their being constructedaccording to a common organon, or method.

SWEDENBORG'S NOVUM OROAKUMThis truly new organum, which constitutes

Swedenborg's great contribution to philosophy,


82/144

SWEDENBORGis his doctrine of Influx, of Discrete Degreesand their Correspondence.The world is vibration, action, and reaction.The Universe is the theatre of altruistic love.Force originates in will, and the primal willis the Divine Love. Life is love emanating bywisdom into created spheres, and there operatingin uses. These spheres are not a continuousplane, but are in discrete degrees, and relatedby correspondence.

These discrete degrees are, in their eternaldivine potential nature, Love, Wisdom and Use ;in their cosmological functions, End, Cause andEffect ; in theology, God, Spirit and the NaturalWorld ; in revelation they are given the namesof a holy Trinity Father, Son and Holy Spirit.In ontological terms they become Substance,Form and Thing ; in philosophy, the Real, theIdeal and the Actual ; in psychology, the Will,the Intellect and Action; in speech, Affection,Thought and Utterance ; in the building oflanguage, the Vowel, the Consonant and theWord ; the Verb, the Subject and the Predicate.In all these trines, which cover with sufficientcompleteness the whole realm of being andactivity, there will be found the invariablepresence of these three essentials, which are


83/144


84/144

SWEDENBORGPantheism, or the confusion of God withnature.These 'discrete degrees,' thus distinguishedby Swedenborg from ' continuous degrees,' orthe ordinary degrees of comparison which meanmerely more or less of the same quality, arethus essentially constructive degrees; they areproductive, even dynamic in character, as theyimply the action of one force through variousmedia under a fixed law. The force is lifeitself; the media are the series, orders anddegrees through which life descends from itssource to its ultimates ; the descent itself isinflux ; and the law of relation and adaptationby which the descent is possible is the law ofCorrespondence.

It is by virtue of correspondence that thoughtcan express itself in the definite form of air-waves we call a word the two orders of exist-ence being in themselves utterly discrete. Sothe mind finds its utterance or activity in thebody, and the whole spiritual world its ex-pression and its symbol in the whole physicaluniverse. There is no confusion of substanceeven by means of the finest electron. The twoworlds are absolutely discrete in nature, butthey communicate by a perfect correspondence.


85/144

PHILOSOPHYThe eye itself is formed in correspondence withthe nature of the ether vibrations which reachit, and so is capable of transmitting, not theether, but its motions in the substance of thenerves and fibres of vision and so to the seatsof sensation. Here these motions are againtaken up by the vessels of the mind in thesoul's vision, imagination, thought and deter-mination, from which begins the reactionthrough the motor nerves. There is no inter-fusion of matter and thought. There is a seriesand order of degrees, and there is a corre-spondence, and so an influx of motion and offorce.Viewed under the same law, the cosmos

is a system of spheres emanating from theinfinite Divine. The same law which governsthe series God, the Spiritual Word and Nature,controls the relation of the successive atmo-spheres aura, ether, atmospheric air. The sametrinal series is visible in the succession of formsvortical, spiral, circular in the formation ofthe material atom. It is the transmission ofone force by vibratory motion through variousmedia that constitutes what is known as thetransmutation of energy. The various planesof the human mind, volitional, intellectual and


86/144

SWEDENBORGsensuous, constitute the same trinal series, andso in consequence the same trinal division ofthe angelic heavens. Of these the highest, orcelestial, is characterized by the spontaneity oflove, the second or spiritual by the guidanceof faith, and the lowest by the simple will toob

frank sewall swedenborg and the sapientia angelica london 1910

Documents