EmanuelSwedenborg 10618196

C ONTE NTS .
S WE D E N B O R G LI F E
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S WE D E N B O R G P HI LOS OP HY
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C O N C LU S I O N
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E MA N U E L S WE D E N BO R G .
CHAP TE R I .
S WE D E N B OR G S
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LI F E .
MO S T educated people have heard somet h in g about

Swedenborg but o ne mee t s s t il l w i th many who
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know little more than the name o f that truly great

man It is vaguely identified in their minds with
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mysticism with spiritual istic e xperiences with dreams

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and visions and much that is suppo sed to be in

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cluded under the general term o f occultism Yet .
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thos e w h o have taken some trouble to become

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acquainted with S wedenborg s numerous scientific ,
philosophical and theological works are disposed to

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assert that he was no t a mystic in the proper sense

o f the word that he was actua ll y opp o s ed t o the
practice o f table turning tabl e rapping and other
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more o r less doubtful forms o f intercourse with

S pirits that much which is commonl y described as
occul t is no t even mentioned in his books and
that the visions t o whi ch he ha s referred in h is
later writin gs are real l y psychol ogical stat es entirely
EMANUEI S WE DENB ORG
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d i f f er ent fr o m w h at w e read o f 111 mediaeval l i v es o f
sa nts : i t ust h e r ef ore pr oposed that we shoul d con

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sider here Swedenborg s life and work briefly yet

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sufficiently t o enable us to realise his rightful place

in science his philosophical opini ons and the rela
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tion o f his theological teaching t o modern rel igious

thought .
Emanuel Swedenborg was born at Sto c kholm o n

the 29t h o f January 1 688 He was the second s o n .
o f Dr J esper Swedberg at that time a preacher to

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the C ourt of King Charles XI o f Sweden later a .

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Dean and Professor o f Theol ogy at Upsala and later ,
still B ishop of Skara in West Go t hl a nd His mother .

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Sarah B ehm was the daughter o f Al brec ht B ehm

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As sessor in the Royal C ollege o f Mines .
Great ca re was bestowed by B ishop Swedberg upon

the education of hi s s o n E manuel Entering the .
Uni versity o f Upsala in 1 69 9 he remained there as a ,
student until his twenty firs t year being special l y

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assisted and encouraged by hi s brother in law E ric - -
B er zelius a distingui shed s cholar while he devoted

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himself with much zeal t o the study o f mathematics

and the physica l sciences .
In 1 7 09 he took his degree o f Doctor of P hilosophy

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a n d soon after started o n a tour of nea rly five yea rs ,
going first t o England where he remained about t w o

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years principall y at London and O xford He there

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made the acquainta nce o f Flams teed and Halley ,
studied Newton daily as he wrote t o hi s brother in

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law and began his career as an inventor hi s fertil e

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brain being engaged together with the study o f

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S WE DENB ORG S LIFE ’
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higher mathematics and physics upon such subj ects ,
a s the production of a flying machi ne a quick ,
fir ing gun an air pump and a submarine war

, ,
vessel .
From England Swedenborg passed t o the Continent ,
and resided for two more years in France Holland , ,
and Germany retur ni ng at last t o Sweden in 1 7 15

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through Stralsund just a s King C harles XI I w a s

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about to be besieged in tha t city .
In 1 7 18 Swed enborg w a s invited by the celebrated

Swedi sh engineer P olhem to come with him to Lund
where C harles XI I who had just escaped from S t ra l
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sund was then staying The King seems to have

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taken much interest in Swedenborg whom he a p ,
pointed Ass essor E xtraordinary in the Royal Col lege

of Mines directing him at the same time to assist
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Polhem in hi s mecha ni cal works .
Thus it is that o ur young engineer came t o execute

a commission o f great difficulty and importance during
the siege o f Fr eder icks h a ll He trans ported over .
mountains and valleys on rolling machines o f hi s

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own invention two galleys five large boats and a

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sloop from St r o m s t a dt t o I der fj o l d a distance of ,
nearly seventeen miles Under cover of these vessels

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the King brought his heavy art illery whi ch could ,
not possibly have been conveyed by road under the ,
very walls o f Fr edericks h a ll .
In the same year Swe denborg brought out a work

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o n algebra the fir st treatise on that branch of mathe

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maties published in the Swedis h l anguage Indeed .

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algebra was s o l ittl e known in the country that

12 EMANUEL S WE DEN B ORG .
S wedenborg fear ed he would find no capable of o ne
correcting the printer s proofs He also pub l ished a

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book entitled A tt emp ts to fw d the Lo ngit ude of P la ces

by Luna r Obs erva t
In 1 7 19 the Swedberg famil y was ennobled by
Q ueen U l rica E leonora w h o with the rank
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o f nobi l ity
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granted t o its members the na me o f Swedenborg ,
E manuel as the eldest member o f the family being

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thus called t o a sea t in the House o f Nobles In the .
course o f the s ame year Swedenborg publis hed s everal

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works in w hi c h were treated such widel y difierent

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subj ects as A Proposal fo r a Decima l System of

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Money and Measures A Treatise o n the Motion
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and P osition o f the Earth and Planets and On ,
Docks Sluices and Sal t works

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In 1 7 21 we find Emanuel Swedenborg starting on

another j ourney This time h e visited Amsterdam
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Aix la C hape ll e Li ege and C ologne paying special

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attention t o the processes empl oyed in the mi nes and

smelting works o f those indust rial centres In 17 22
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he was at Leip zig where he published the first parts

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o f his Mis cella neo us Obs erva tio ns co n nected w i t h t he
P h ys ica l S ciences the fourth part being pub l ished at

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Hamb urg in the same year After fifteen months . .
labo riously spen t abroad Swedenborg returned t o ,
Stockholm and entered formally upo n his duties as

Assessor of the C oll ege of Mines .
The next eleven years were fil led w i th his official

occ upations at the College and the active interest he
took in the del iberations and discussio ns o f the House
o f Nob l es We find him there introducing important
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SWE DEN B ORG S LIFE . 13
measures fo r the much needed improvement o f the

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trade and fina nces o f S weden .
In 1 7 24 Swedenborg declined an invitation from

the University o f Upsala t o the Chair o f P ure Mathe
m a t ics rendered vacant by the death of Nils Ce l sius ,
but a few years later h e was a dmitted a member o f

the Royal Academy o f Sciences o f Up sa l a .
In 1 7 33 he goes once more abroa d t hi s time aecom ,
a nied by Count Gyl l enb o r g and some other friends

p .
This j ourney was rendered memorable by the fact

that during h is stay in Dresden Swed enborg began
the printing o f hi s great work the P ri ncip ea h is
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Op era P hi lo s op hica et Mi nera l ia being published in

the following year at Dresden and Leip zig the cost ,
o f that l arge underta king (three vol s in fo l io ) being .
defr ayed by the Duke o f B runswick .
Of the vast work o f the P ri ncip za it is di fficul t t o

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speak s o as t o convey briefly an adequate idea o f

its con tents .
Af ter an introductory c h apter o n T he Means

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C onducive t o a True P hil osophy Swedenborg in
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the fir st part c f h is P ri ncipia deal s with what he

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calls the First Simple that is the First Natural

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point and its Existence from the Infini te Th e

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fini te cannot exist p er s e he argues ; therefore it

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must be derived from the Infinite which alone po s ,
sesses p er s e uncreated uncaused existence T he

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simple is the first entity e xisting by motion from the

Infini te and thus in regard t o existence it is a
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me di um betwee n the Infinite and the fini te This .
firs t natural point is immediately pr o duced from the

14 EMANU EL SWEDEN B ORG .
Infinite a s a C onatus of motion in the Infinite .
In th is effort towards motion he sees all that qual ity

which brings finite things into act with all their modes
and contingencies and lea ds ul timately to the p ro
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duction o f the world itself Pure motion is there

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fore Swedenborg s conception o f the origin and con

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s t it ut io n of the created universe a conception which

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must have appeared t o the men o f the eighteenth

century far more venturesome and doubtful than it
appea rs to us t o day in the light of modern scientific
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investigations Thus in his French Es s a is de P hi lo s

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op h ic C ri t ique the d istinguished thi nker Va ch er o t did

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not hesitate to sa y When we assert after Leibnitz , ,
that matter is force we merely mean this that the

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rea l ity which we perceive by the help o f o ur senses

is essentiall y motion and a ctivity s o that the idea o f
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force is all that remains in any notion o f a material

subst ance when se nsation and ima ges have bee n
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removed from that notion It seems clear that
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M Va ch er o t coul d have named Swedenborg as well

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as Leibnit z in s upport o f his views .
In the second part of the P ri ncip ia o ur p h il o s figh er

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treats o f the caus es and mechanis m of the magnetic

forces ; of the influence o f the magnet upon iron ;
and of various other ma tters conn ected with that
fascinating subj ect .
In the third pa rt are treated some o f the vast

questions aff ecting the ori gin and existence of the
starry heaven and the formation o f planets and
satellites in o ur solar system with an originality
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which is now generally acknowledged by scientific

S WEDEN B ORG S L IFE ’
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authorities S wedenborg s V iew that t h e pl anets of

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our solar system derive their origin from the sol ar

matter came to be adopted also by the ph il osopher
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Kant and by the great French astronomer Laplace

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Of the priority o f Swedenborg s O pini on o n t h is point ’
there can be n o question As Dr Magnus Nyren . .
h a s said : It cannot be di sputed that t h e real

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germ of the nebular hypothesis namely the idea ,
that the entire solar system has formed itself out of

single chaotic mass which roll ed itself at first into
a colos sal spher e and afterwards thr ew o ff a ring
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which through continuous rotation at length broke

into parts these fin all y contracting into balls planets
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—fir s t found utterance in Swedenborg Kant s work .

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on the same subj ect appeared twenty o ne years l a ter -

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and Laplace published hi s hypothesis sixt y two years -
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later .
On the other ha nd Swedenborg s views that the ,

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earth and the other planets have gradually removed

themselves from the s un thus receiving a gradually ,
lengthened time o f revolution and that the earth s ,

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time o f rotation has also greatly increased in the

course of ages shoul d be compared with the views
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put forward by G H Darwin In S wedenborg s . . .

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P r i ncip ia we fin d as Dr Frank Sewall has said

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complete theo ry o f evolution embracing motions and

forms the nature and functions o f the successive
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auras the laws o f vibratory currents and the magnetic

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S ee S w ed en bo rg a nd th e N ebul a r Hy p o th es is , by Ma gn u s
N y ren , Ph D. .
, A st ren o m er at the O b serv a t o ry of P ul t a w a,
R us s i a .
16 EMANUEL S WEDEN B ORG .
force . This vast work of the P ri nci p ia marks

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the advance of Swedenborg s m ind from the scientific
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to the philosophic plane Swedenborg hi ms elf calls
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h is work phil osophical meaning by phi losophy ,
the knowl edge of the mechanism o f o ur world or ,
o f whatever in the world is subj ect t o the l aws o f
geometry o r wh ich it is possible t o unfold t o view

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by experience assis t e d by geometry o r reason Yet .

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meanwhile Swedenborg s m ind was being gradual ly

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l ed on by its o w n working as is the case with trul y ,
original thinkers t o the consideration o f s till higher

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and wider subj ec ts In 1 7 34 h e published again in

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Leip zig and Dres den a work in La tin entitled Out

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l i nes o n the I nfinite a nd the F ina l C a us e of C r ea t io n

Prodromus de I nfini t o et Causa fina l i Cr ea t io nis
a work which tended t o connect his c o s m ology with
the physiological ideas towards which his m ind was
moving At that period we find Swedenborg enj oy
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ing on account o f his scientific pub li ca t ions a con

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s idera b l e reputation n o t onl y in Swed en but a l l over
the Co ntinen t o f E urope and i i 17 34 the Imperial ,
Academy o f Sciences o f St P etersburg appoint ed him .
o n e o f its corres ponding members .
In 1 7 36 he a ga in went abroad and v isit ed Den ,
mark Holland France and Italy a whole yea r being

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spent at Veni ce and Rome He was away from home .
for several years but they were no t yea rs o f recrea

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ti o n o r idle sigh t s eeing -

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In the j ourna l he kept and wh ich has fortunately ,
been preserved we find a weal th o f obs er v atio ns on

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a ll sort s o f subj ect s In France h e c l ear l y dis cerns

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18 EMANUEL SWE DENB ORG .
Not a few imperfections have been noticed in his

anatomical descriptions and physiological views but ,
those imperfec tions in most cases should not be

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attributed t o hi m o r at any rate t o him alone for

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he had mad e it a rul e fo r hi mself to rely always o n

the consens us o f the highest scientific authorities o f
his time rather than upon his own researches o r
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expe riments T hi s prudent method o f work was no

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doubt inspired by the great obj ect he proposed t o

himself A knowledge of the soul w as the supreme
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obj ect o f h is inquiry P artly influenced by Cartesian

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ideas he was prepared to admit that under the

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empire of geometry and under the mechanical l aws

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o f motion l a y the whol e mineral as well a s the

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vegetable kingdom and indeed the ani mal kingdom

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al so with respect t o mec hani cal organs muscles

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fibres and membranes o r with respect to its ana

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t o mi ca l vegetative and organic relations
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but with ,
respect t o the soul and its various faculties he adds , ,
I do not think it possible that they can be explained

o r comprehended by any laws of motion known to
us. We s ee every emotion and mode of the soul

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exhibited mechanically I n the body B ut after all .

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what that intelligence is in the soul which knows ,
and is able t o deter mi ne to choose to let o n e thing

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pass o ut into act and not another o f this we ,
are obviously ignoran (P ri ncip i a I ) In suc h ,

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ignorance so simply and honestly confess ed

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Swedenborg a s we shal l see was no t to remain

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but he reach ed his knowl edge o f the true nature

o f the soul by a path the e xistence o f which he
SWE DENB ORG S LIFE ’
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coul d not even have suspected at thi s period of his

l ife
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Swedenborg s modesty a s regards h is o w n personal

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attainments in anatomy and physiology must not

lead us t o under estimate his remarkable knowledge
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of those branches of natural science Dr Gustav . .
Retzius in hi s presidential address at Heidel berg in

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1 9 03 before the C ongress o f Anatomi sts has not ,
hesitated to speak as follows

E manuel Swedenborg w a s not o nl y a great ex
pert in the knowledge of the brain accor ding to the
standard of his time but in f unda mental question s
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he w a s far in advance of h is contemporaries he

w a s n o t onl y a learned anatomist a n d s kil l ed observer
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but he w a s also a deep and critical anatomical thi nker .
One can understand more easil y h is life and hi s

work when o n e combines his achi evements in anat
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o m y and physiology with those in geology mechanics , ,
cosmogony and physi cs With thi s a s a backgrou nd

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his w hole a im becomes more manifest He sought

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in all t o find the principl e of the unity of the world

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and of life .
This undoubtedly Swedenborg meant when he pro

fessed hi s supreme obj ect in the study of man s ’
physical frame to be a kn owledge o f hi s soul and ,
when he wrote that in man the world is con “
cent ra t ed and in hi m
, as in a mi crocosm the whole
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uni verse may be contempl ated f rom the beginning to

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the end .
The year 1 7 45 brings us to a change in the mental

attitude o f Emanuel S wedenborg which is not easy
20 EMAN UEL S WE DEN B ORG .
to describe and which men w h o are most ab l e t o

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appreciate his scientific work before that date ex

p e rie nce perhaps
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most di fficulty
, in understand i ng .
They ackn owled ge the change but it s cau s e and ,
significance are often t o them what the preaching

o f St P aul w as t o the Jews and the Greeks
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The rigidl y mec hanica l physicist the sp ecul ative ,
philosopher the profound anatomist a nd physiologist

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n o w appea rs by an outwardly inexplicable transition

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as an illum i na ted Seer and the exponent o f a divine

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philosophy o f Life The world is always inclined to

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regard such psychological phenomena with suspicion ,
and to seek fo r an expla nation o f them on purely

natural grounds V oltaire tried t o have it believed
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that the paral l el case in the l ife o f B laise Pascal w a s

si mply due t o a loss o f mental equi librium ca used by
a n accident which Pasca l met with o n the bridge of
Ne uil l y in 1 65 4 B ut later researches have thrown

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much doubt o n thi s circumst ance and in any case ,
the fact remains that two years later in 1 65 6 Pascal , ,
was sane eno ugh t o write his famous Lett res Pro
v inci a l es and later still t o deal with some difficult
,
mathematical problems with remarkable intel lectual

power .
In the case o f Swedenborg it may e q ual ly be said

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that those w h o knew him best failed t o notice in him

any alte ration o f mental power o r any change in his
c haracter He stil l continued t o take an active part
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in the proceedi ngs o f the House o f Nobles in his o w n

c ountry and Count H6pken the Prime Mi nister of
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S weden states th at in 1 7 6 1 Swedenborg presented

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SWE DEN B ORG S LIFE’
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to the Diet the best memorial o n the subject of

National Finance This same Count HOpken had
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known Swedenborg intimatel y for ma ny years af ter

the change to which we are al l uding and had r e ,
mained h is warm personal and pol itical friend .
While enga ged o n his vast th eological works ,
Swedenborg also writes papers presented t o the Diet

o f Sweden on such subj ects as Additiona l Considera
tions with respect to the C ourse o f E xchange
A Memorial in favour o f a Return to the P ure
Metal lic Currency A Memorial t o the King
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against the E xp ortation o f Copper and other such
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papers exhibiting the same accuracy o f thought

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which had characterised hi s writings before the year

1 7 45 .
Of course it w i ll be remembered t h at such a

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transition from s cientific t o religious interes t h a s

occurred in the lives o f some o f the greatest men .
We have named P ascal we may al so name Leibnit z .
and Newton B ut Swedenborg s position implies

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much more than a change o f i nterests He h a s .
solemnly declared and repeatedly affirmed that ,
while he w a s engaged in the st udies which absorbe d

his whole at t ention and were the delight o f hi s
laborious l ife he was divinel y led to relin q uish such
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studies and to give himself under special ill umi na

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tion to the study o f the Word o f God alone Here

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are h is o w n words : I have been cal l ed t o a holy

e fli ce by the Lord who most gracious l y manifested
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Himsel f in person t o me His servant in the year

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1 7 45 and opened my sight into the spiritual world

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22 E MANUE L S WE DENB ORG .
granti ng me the privil ege o f conversing with spirits

and angels Likewise I testify in truth that
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from the first day o f that call ing I have not received ,
anything whatever relating to the doctrines o f that

C hurch from any angel but from the Lord alone , ,
whil e I w a s rea ding the Word ”

The reference t o .
that Ch urch is made c l ear by a p a ssage imme

d ia t el y preceding in which Swedenborg expl ai ns how
,
he came t o be made the instrument of s o wonderf ul

a grace .
Since the Lord cannot manifest Himself in per

so n
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and yet has foretold that He would come and
establish a New Ch urch which is the New Jeru ,
sale m it follows that this will be e ff ected by means

,
o f a man who is able not only t o receive the doctrines
o f that C hurch in to h is understanding but also to
publish them by the press The things related .
by me are no t miracles but are proofs that for , ,
certain ends I have been introduced by the Lord

,
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into the spiritual worl d .
The obj ect o f this little book being simply to in

t r o d uce t o the reader a most remarkable and in
t er es t ing persona lity and to describe briefly h is con
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t rib ut io n t o the philosophical and religious thought

o f our time we shall leave the reader to form h is
,
I n h i s T rue C h r is tia n R el i gi o n , pp . 776 7 7 7, S w e de n b o rg

e xp l a i ns w h y t is h ca nn o t b e, in t hes e w or ds Th e rea s o n w hy
t h e Lo r d w ill n o t a p p em in p ers o n i s , t ha t si n ce His A sce n s io n
in t o Hea ven He is in t h e gl o r i fie d Hum a n , and in t i s h He
ca n n o t ap pea r to a ny m an unl es s He fir st Ope n t h e e yes o f h i s
i it ; a n d t hes e ca nn o t b e
Sp r o pen e d w i t h a n y o n e w h o i s i n
e vi l s a n d t h en ce in f a l s i t i e s
”
.
. 23
own j udgment on those cl aims of Swedenborg if he

is inclined to rej ect all belief in a f uture life and all ,
idea of a divine revelation in whatever form he will , ,
o f course refuse to accept doctrines which imply in

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the strongest sense a belief in a personal God who ,
h a s revealed Hi ms elf to mankind and in the im ,
mortal destinies o f the human soul .
If on the other hand the reader already ad mi ts

, , ,
in some definite way the inspiration of the Seers and ,
Prophets of the B ible ; if he accepts St Luke s

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s tatement about the disciples (L uke xxiv that .
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their eyes were opened and they kn ew Him then ,
h is di fficul ty will n o t be about a principle but it ,
will simply resol ve itself into a question of evidence .
O n one point only must we be permi tted to record

our own conviction without which of course this , , ,
l ittle work could not have been undertaken We .
believe in the absolute honesty and sincerity of

Swedenborg in the accounts he gives of hi s spiritual
,
experiences in h is numerous works wr itten after the

year 1 7 45 And our belief only reflects the belief of
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well known men who knew him and had ample o p

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p o rt u n it i e s to form an opinion on this point Thus .
B aron Grimm describes hi m a s a m a n not only

dis tinguishe d by h is h onesty but by h is knowledge
and intelligence and he adds This fact is
confirmed by authorities so respectabl e that it is
impossib l e to deny it ; but the quest i on is h o w t o
”
believe it .
M m Hi t Li tt t A n do t b y B o n G i mm i n
e . s . . L ndo n
e ec , ar r , . o
ed it .
, 1813 .
We have al ready given the Opinion which C ount

HOpken w h o had known Swedenbo rg intimately
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entertained co ncerning him Many simil ar testi

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m o nies could be a dded but they wo uld after all

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l eave the question where it stands namely w a s , ,
—
Swedenborg labour in g for so m any years (17 45 1 7 7 2)
under an unc onscious s t ate o f mental derangement ,
honestly but erroneously bel ievi ng that he sa w what

he never sa w and that he hea rd what he never heard
, ,
and can the steady orderly susta ined output of

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phi losophi ca l and theol ogica l works full o f profound ,
t houghts o n all sorts o f subj ects durin g all those ,
years be reconciled with such an hypothesis " If

,
h is mi nd coul d be thus a fiect ed h o w is i t that the

,
same mind remained capab l e o f the same scientific

a ccuracy as before when dea l ing with matters o f a
s c ientific nat ure such as the papers which for a time

, , ,
h e still continued t o write for the Swedish Diet "
It is as we have already pointed out the same prob

, ,
lem as the o ne rai s ed by Volt aire in the case of P ascal .
I f the religious ideas and the intense religious feelings

O f o ne who like P ascal h a d previously exhibited to
, ,
t h e world a m i nd O f transcendent power in scientifi c

investigations must b e considered as the resul t o f
t h e sudden o r gradual dete rioration of so great a
mind how are we t o account for P ascal as the author
,
o f the P ro vi ncia l es more than t w o yea rs after the

,
s uppose d decline of his mi ghty genius Many

hypotheses may no doubt be proposed to account
f o r this we may invoke the c urious facts whi ch we
laboriousl y end eavour t o c l assify under such headings
26 EMANUEL S WE DENB ORG .
what danger a man is expo s ed w h o speaks with

S pirits o r manifestly feel s their operation .
In h is S pi rit ua l Dia ry Swedenborg has some very

,
striking remarks o n this subj ect whi ch the reader ,
may find useful in forming a j udgment as t o the state

of mind in which Swedenborg approached such
questions He s ays
. When spirits b egin t o speak
with a man he ought t o beware that he bel ieves
nothing whatever from them fo r they sa y almost ,
anything T h ings are fabricated by them and they

.
,
lie . Therefore when spirits a re speaking I have ,
not been pe rmi tted t o have faith in the things which

they rel ated Fo r they have a passion for inventing
.
and whenever any subj ect o f conversation is pre

:
sented they think they know it and give their

,
Opinions upon it one after another o ne in o ne

, ,
way and another in another quite a s if they knew

, ,
and if a man then l istens and believes they press ,
on and de ceive and sed uce in di vers ways

Let men bew are therefore h o w they believe them .
( N O . A n d further Spirits can b e intro

d uced who represent another person Thus
yesterday and t o day (August 1 9 1 7 48 ) o ne known
-
,
to me in l ife w a s personated The personation was

.
s o like him in a ll respects s o far as known to me

, ,
that nothi ng co ul d be more l ik e Let th o se who .
speak with spirits beware therefore lest they be

deceived wh en they sa y that they are those whom
”
they have known and that have died (No . .
From th ese quotations it see m s clear that Sweden

borg l aboured un der few if any il l usions in hi s in
, ,
. 27
t erco ur s e with Spirits He w a s no me dium and he.

,
did not rel y on all that he saw or heard in the spir

it ua l world He says s o u n equivocally
. I have
had discourse with spirit s and angels no w for several
years and no spirit h a s dared nor h a s any a ngel
, ,
desired to tell me anything much l es s t o instruct me

, ,
in regard to anything of the Word o r o f doctrine ,
from the Word but the Lord alone h a s taught me

,
(D i v
. P r o v . Thus St P aul warned hi s converts
.
not to believe anything contrary to what he had

taught them a s being the Gospel received by hi m
from the Lord Himself (Gal i even if an angel . .
from heaven shoul d come and preach to them any

other Gospel (Gal i Final ly we have the solemn
. .
,
words uttered by Swedenborg on hi s deathbed ,
when the Rev A F er el ius minister of the Swe dish

. .
,
Lutheran Church in London came to ad mi ni ster ,
the Sacrament to him shortly before h is death I .
”
asked him wr ote the minister
,
if h e though t h e ,
“
w a s going to die and he answered in the a fli r m a t iv e ;

,
upon which I requested hi m since m any believed ,
that he invented h is new theological sy stem merely

to acquire a great name to take this opportunity o f ,
procl a iming the real truth to the world and to recant ,
either wholly or in part what he had advanced ,
especi a lly a s hi s preten s ions could no w be of no further

us e to hi m Upon this Swedenborg raised himself
.
up in bed and placing h is hand upon h is breast sai d

, ,
with earnestness E verything that I have written

is a s true a s that you now behold me I mi ght have
sa id much more had it been permitted me After
,
.
28 EMANUEL SWE DEN B ORG .
death y o u will s ee all and then we shall have much

,
t o s a y t o each other o n th is s u bj ec t
’
.
The same Rev A Ferelius has a l so stated h is im

. .
pressio ns of Swedenborg at an earl ier period Many .
would suppose he has said that Assessor Sweden

, ,
borg was a ve ry eccentric pe rson ; but on the con ,
t ra ry he w a s very agreeable and easy in s o ciety

, ,
conversed o n all the t Op ics o f the day a cco m m o ,
dated himself t o his company and never a l luded ,
t o h is principl es unl ess he was questioned in ,
which case he answered freely j ust as he wrote o f ,
them .
After the great cha nge in 1 7 45 Swedenborg re ,
mained indeed the man he was before healthy and ,
vigorous in his dail y life still a great worker with

, ,
the same sense of order the same comprehensiveness

,
o f method only his styl e of writing became sensibly

mod ified His Latin generally pure and sometimes
.
,
even elegant in h is philosophical works now becomes ,
S imple dry and formal He seems to avoid any

, , .
thing which coul d in any way add aesthetic e ff ect

to the truths he is declaring This change o f style .
was probably uni ntentional perhaps altogether um ,
conscious but was the resul t of his intense con

,
centration o f thought in endeavouring to convey

the sublime themes which henceforth were his sole , ,
preoccupation For from this period Swedenborg

.
, ,
entirely gave up his former studies even the books ,
so precious and dear to him in the past ; and his

later writings although O bviously resti ng upon the
,
substructure o f science and philosophy by whi ch

S WE DE N B ORG S LIFE ’
. 29
hi s m i nd had been prepared hardly contain an ,
allusion to h i s previous labours .
On h is return from London to Sweden in August

1 7 45 Swedenborg continued to act as Assessor of
,
the Royal B oard o f Mines till 1 7 47 when he resigned ,
h i s post making at the same time the request that

,
the King woul d per mi t him to receive o nly for pen

sion o ne half o f his sal ary a s an Assessor and that ,
h is retirement from office might not be acc ompanied

by any addi t ion (a s w a s probably the custom ) to his
rank a nd titl e Once free from O fficial duties
.
,
Swedenborg began at once the new work t o whic h

he believed hims elf called He diligently studied .
Hebrew t o be able to read the O T scriptures in the

,
. .
original tongue he travelled much to Holland and ,
E ngland especially in order to publis h hi s books

,
under conditi ons o f greater freedom When a t .
home ne ar Stockholm he spent much of h is time

, ,
.
in h is garden which he loved and in whi ch he

, ,
worked deli ghting to thi nk over those correspond

,
en ces between natural obj ect s and spiritual causes
which are so important an element in his doctrine

o f Life .
The following is a list of h is theological works

.1 Arca na C azl es tia (8 vols London
. 1 7 49 .
,
A stupendous production being a systematic ex ,
position in Latin o f the internal and spiritual sense

, ,
o f the books o f Genesis and E xod us intersper ed ,

s
with treatises o n various doctrinal subj ects whi ch

in themselves constitute volumes withi n the volumes
which treat specially of the first t w o books of the
30 E MANUEL SWE DEN B ORG .
P entateuch tr anslation o f this vast work h a s

. A
been publ ished in E n glish under the title : Heavenly
Arcana contained in the Holy Scripture o r Word of
the Lord unfold ed beginning with the B ook of ,
Genesis I t ogether with wonderful things seen in

,
”
the worl d o f spirits and in the Heaven of Angel s .
( 12 vo l s ) .
2 . The La s t J udg ment a nd B a byl o n des t ro yed .
3 . Hea ven an Hell a nd the I nter

d i ts w o nde r s a l so
media t e S t a te The substance o f this most important

.
book generally kn own as Hea ven a nd Hel l is alr eady

, ,
contained in the Arca na C cel es tia but it presents the ,
doctrine of Swedenborg in a more systematic form .
It h a s perhaps had more readers than any o f his

o t h er theological works First published 1 7 58
.
,
.
4 Th e Whi te Ho rs e (Rev
. Al so drawn from
.
the Ar ca na C ael es tia .
5 The E a rt hs i n the Univer s e w it h a n acco unt of

.
,
thei r I n ha bi ta nts a nd a l s o of t he S p i ri ts a nd A ngel s

,
ther e . The opinion one may form o f this

remarkable work must of course be influenced by , ,
the view o ne takes of Swedenborg s re l ation Of ’
Things Heard and Seen by him As far as one .
can s ee it is a book which no m a n who wished to

,
make bel ieve and was anxious not to compromise

-
,
the success o f hi s other books woul d ever have ,
written The fact that it was written and published

.
by its author is perhaps the clearest proof of h is

absolute sincerity and faith in his o w n statements .
6 The New J er us a l em a nd i ts Hea ven l y D oct r i ne

. .
(London 1 7 A nother
,
evidence of the wonder f ul
SWE DEN B ORG S ’
LIFE . 31
l iterary activity and industry of Swedenborg in that

year 1 7 58 A very useful summary o f doctrine
. .
,
giving abundant references to corresponding sub

j e ct s in that inexhaustib l e mine the A rca na ,
C cel es ti a .
7 The Doctri ne of the New J er us a lem resp ecti ng th e

.
Lo rd, the S acr ed S crip tures , Lif e a nd F a ith , or the f o ur

l ea di ng Doctr i nes of the New C h urch s ignified by the New
J erus a l em i n Revel a t i o n ( 1 7 In.those four trea
tises Swedenborg wrote summaries of the essentia l
points o f the teaching he bel ieved himself com
m i ssioned to impart to the world thr ough the press ,
for the use of those who could not or woul d not s eek
that teaching in h is larger works .
8 . A ngel ic Wi do m
s co ncer ni ng the Di vi ne Lo ve a nd
t he Di vi ne Wis do m .
(Amsterdam , P erhaps
the most remarkable work Of Swedenborg from a
philosophical point o f vi ew dealing with those
spiritual realities in whi ch human science and angelic
wisdom become u nified and the two worlds of human
experience the natural and the spiritu a l are ex
, ,
h ib it ed in their supreme harmony Thi s book must .
always occupy a dist inct position in the history of

human thought .
9 . Angel ic Wi s do m concerning the Di vi ne P rovidence .
A logical complement t o the preceding work (1 7 .
1 0 The Ap o ca l yp se Revea l ed
.
(A m s terdam
.
,
A valuable specimen o f Swedenborg s sys tem o f in

’
t erp r et a t io n o f Holy Scripture .
1 1 The D el igh ts of Wi s do m co ncerni ng C onj uga l

i
.
Lo ve af ter w hich f o l l o w the P l ea s ures of I ns a nity co n

,
32 E MANUEL S WEDEN B ORG .
cer ni ng S co rta to ry Lo ve .
(Amste r dam , An
other very remarkable work o n the e t ernal origin
and perpetuity o f the relation o f the sexes and the ,
spiritual laws a flect ing marriage Facts are faced .
a n d treated with a strange mixture O f fearlessne s s
and reserve .
12 . Th e I nt erco ur se bet w een t he S o ul a nd the B o dy .
( 1 7 psychological treatise founded on the

A
principles charac t eristic o f Swedenborg s philosophy ’
.
13 A B rief E xpo s it io n of t he Do ct r ine of t he New

.
C hurch signified by the New J eru s a l em i n the Revew

,
ti on .
( 1 7
14 . The C hr is tia n Rel igio n o r t he w ho l e
True ,
Theo lo gy of the New C h urch (L ondon . The ,
last book written by Swedenborg He di ed in 1 77 2 . .
It is a compl ete systematic presentation o f his system ,
interspersed with what the author ca ll s Memo ra bi l ia

or memorable relations Those relations have per
.
haps made the h ardes t c a l l upon Swedenborg s ’
readers Of them we may again sa y that no man

.
,
anxious in a worldly wise sense t o co ncili ate his

-
readers woul d have written and publish ed those

,
Memo r a bil ia B ut Swedenborg be l ieved hi mself

.
bound to p ublish them and hi s courage in doing s o

,
is the measure o f the faith that was in him A careful .
and patient r eading of those memorable relations

l eaves us in the end under the impress ion that we
, ,
S houl d be the p oo r er in o ur kn owl edge o f the spiritual
world as revea led by Swedenborg if th os e relations ,
had not been writt en .
All th es e works written in Latin were published

, ,
34 EMANUEL SWE DE NB ORG .
l ife—c h i y efl
consisting of co ff ee chocolate a n d h
, is
cuits taken at o dd times He certai nly stands a s

,
.
an example o f the amount o f work that can be

produced by a healthy man o n a mi nimum of
food .
After repeated j ourneys he finall y settled in

,
London where he enj oyed greater freedom and was

,
a ble t o superintend the publication o f his later

works He there led a retired life but st ill enj oyed
.
,
the society o f chosen friends and took an interest

i n the eve nts o f the day It is re corded that he
.
loved chil dren and was a great favourite with them .
In his book o n Hea ven a nd Hel l Swedenborg has told

,
us his views about life He says : . In order that

a man may receive the life Of heaven it is altogether ,
necessary that he live in the world a nd engage in it s

duties a nd occupations . In no other way can
s piritual life be formed in a man o r his spirit be pre ,
ared for heaven F r t o li ve an internal life and not

p o .
at the same time an external life is like dwelling in ,
a house that has n o foun dation A life of piety

.
without the l ife of charity whi ch can only be lived

,
i n the world does not lead to heaven

,
B ut a life of .
c harity does which consists in acting sincerely and

,
j ustly in every o ccupation in every transaction and

, ,
in every work from an interior that is fr om a

, ,
heavenly origin In those wise words Swedenborg

.
h as condemned the false views o f asceticism which

have s o mi sinterpreted in the p a st the Spirit O f
C h rist but he h as at the same time laid down a prin
,
ci pl e o f social conduct without w h ich all attempts

S WE DEN B ORG S LIFE
’
. 35
at social r eform and social advancement are Ob v i

o us l y doomed to failure .
Swedenborg h a d laid do w n for himself the follow

ing rul es
.1 O f t en to read and meditate on the Word of God .
.2 To sub m i t everything to the will of Divin e

Providence .
.3 To observe in everyt hi n g a propriety of b e

h aviour and to keep the conscience clear
,
.
.4 To di scharge with fidelity the functions of my

employment and to make myself in all things useful
,
to Society .
That he co nscientiously observed hi s o w n r ul es

seems borne out by C ount Ho pk en s testimony ’
I have not onl y known Swedenborg those two and

forty years but some time since frequented h is
,
company daily I do not recollect to have ever

.
known any man of more unifor ml y virtuous char

acter than Swedenborg ; always contented never ,
fretful or morose although thr oughout his life h is

,
soul w a s occupied with sublime thoughts and spec

ul a t io ns
. He w a s gifted with a most happy geniu s
and a fitness for every science whi ch made hi m ,
shine in all those whi ch he embraced .
Of Swedenborg s personal appearance it is said

’
that he was about five feet nine inches hi gh He .
w a s rather thin and somewhat dark of complexion

, .
Hi s eyes were brownish grey and rather small Hi s .
usual visiting dress was a sui t of black velvet with ,
ful l ruffles at the wrist a sword and a gold headed

, ,
-
cane .
Swedenborg passed away quietl y in London o n

Sunday March 29 1 7 7 2 being then eighty four
, , ,
-
years of age Th e good peopl e in whose house he

.
lodged have rel ated that he announced to them

when h is death w as to take pl a ce and that he appeared
,
much pleased in making that an noun cement He .
was interred with the usual rites o f the Lutheran

C hurch in the Swedish C hapel in Ra t cl ifle Highway ,
London E and in October o f the same year a e ul ogy

,
.
,
was pronounced by a C ouncillor o f the B oard of Mines

in the Swedi sh House of Nobles in the name o f the ,
Royal Academy o f Stockholm In o ur o w n times .

,
’
Swedenbo rg s fame never forgotten in his o w n
,
country received a fresh l ustre from an investiga

,
tion o f the numerous unpublished Swedenborg MSS .

,
wh ich has led t o the formation o f a committee a p

pointed by the Royal Swedi sh Academy Of Sciences ,
f o r the purpose of e diting the entire series of the

scientific and philosophi cal works in the original
l anguages Swedish and Latin
,
Then Swede n grieved
.
that the mortal remains o f one of her greatest sons

should lie buried in a foreign land In 19 08 at .
,
the request o f the King o f Sweden the B ritish ,
Govern ment gave its consent t o the removal o f

Swedenborg s remai ns A Swedish warshi p came
’
.
to receive them and conveyed them t o Sweden

,
.
At last with much befitting ceremony the body

, ,
o f Swedenborg was deposited in the Cathedra l o f
Upsala at a spot immedi atel y opposite the monu

,
m ent erected in h onour o f his great countryman

S WE DEN B ORG S LIFE
’
. 37
Thus in hi s native land has been honoured the

, ,
memory o f Emanuel Swedenborg the man o f science

,
and the philosopher It remains for us to cons ider

.
,
as briefly a s the vast subj ect will permi t the work o f

,
Swedenborg a s a re l igious teacher .

C H AP TER II .
S WE D E N B ORO S PHI LO S O PHY OF LI FE

’
.
WHE N Swedenborg a f t er the great change brought

,
about in him by the mysterious influence which trans

formed his whole life and gave a new direction to a l l
his interests s et himself
, t o O bey the h eavenl y
”
vision he did n o t cease t o be a philosopher in b e
,
comi ng a theologian B ut his phil osophy a s sumed

.
a ne w aspect His mathematical con ceptions h is

.
,
mechani cal theories h is ideas of the development o f

,
the world as given in h is P ri ncip ia remained but

, , ,
became il luminated by the new li ght whi ch flooded

his whole m i nd He sa w no w clearly what before
.
was v a gue and O bscure t o hi m C onsequently it is

.
,
di fficul t if not impossible t o draw accurately the

, ,
l ine between hi s philosophy and hi s theology Tak .
ing o ur stand upon hi s great prin ciple that all

”
religion has relation to life we may perhaps define
,
h is theology as a P h i l o s op hy of Lif e o r the heave nl y

,
wisdom whi ch realises life as the energy the a fi s c ,
tion and the active power o f Love ; not love con

,
ceiv ed in man alone but as the p o et Wordsworth

,
h a s expressed it in the well known lines -

SWEDEN B ORG S ’
P HILOSO P HY OF LIFE 39 .
A s en s s u b lim e e
Of s o m et hi n g f a r m o re deep ly in t e r fuse d ,
Wh o se dw e llin g is t h e light o f se t t in g s un s,
And t h e r o un d o cea n a n d t h e li v in g a i r
, ,
An d t h e b l ue s ky a n d in t h m in d o f m n
, e a
A m o t io n a n d a s pirit t h a t im p el s
All t hinkin g t h in gs a l l Ob j t s o f al l t ho ugh t

, ec ,
”
An d ro lls t h ro u gh a l l t hi ng s .
The very life of m a n is his l ove says Swedenborg a nd , ,
such a s the love is such is the life and even such is ,
the whole man Man knows of the existence but

.
,
not the nature of love To know this he must k no w

.
,
that God who is Life itsel f is Love itself and Wisdo m

, , ,
itself Love and Wisdom in themsel ves are substance

.
and f orm for they are very B eing and Existing ; if

,
they were not substance and form they woul d merel y ,
constitute a creature of rea son which in itself has no

reality .
B ecause God is Life it follows that He is uncreate

,
l ife cannot be created for to be created is t o exist

,
from another and if life existed from another there

, ,
woul d be another being that woul d be life and t hi s ,
would be l ife in itself How plain it is again says

.
,
S wedenborg in another place that life is not cre ,
atable " For what is life but the inmost activity of

love and wisdom whi ch are in God and which are
,
God no thing created exists subsists is acted upon , , ,
and moved by itself but by some other being o r agent

,
whence it follows that everyt hi ng exists subsists is , ,
acted upon and moved by the First B eing who h a s ,
no origin from another but is in Hims elf the livin g

,
force which is life .

We h ave given these passages in the very words Of

Swedenborg t o enable the reader t o appreciate more
,
directl y o ur author s fundamental conception O f life

’
and also t o make sure that we have n o t in any way , ,
misrepresented h is teaching We shall as much as .

,
possible continue t o use hi s o w n words in o ur s um

,
mary o f h is doctrines since o ur obj ect is no t t o

, ,
show what we wish t o understand about Swedenborg ,
but what he has himself taught .
Here then we see the starting point of his Ph il o s

, ,
-
O p h y o f Life which ,
for him is a Theology since
, , ,
Go d is Life itself B ecause li f e is not creatabl e it

.
,
follows o n one hand that God is uncreate and o n

, , , ,
the other hand that God cannot communicate His

,
o w n life s o as t o make another being hav ing life
in hi mself whi ch woul d be life itself As the reader .
will readily s ee there is some deep phil o sophy and

,
much di ffic ul t theology involved in this principle .
In h is great work Di vi ne Lo ve a nd Wi s do m No 5 2
, , .
,
Swedenborg says expressly on thi s point

Nothing whatever in the created Universe is a
substance and form in itsel f or life in itself or l ove
, ,
and Wisdom in itself That which is in itsel f is

.
, ,
uncreate and infi nite ; but that which is from t hi s ,
having nothi ng about it whi ch is in itself is created , ,
and finite An d this repres ents the image of Him

.
”
from whom it is and exists .
Life as such cannot be created How then shall .

, ,
we account for the e xistence of li ving t hi ngs in the

Universe 2
As Go d alone is substance in itself and hence ,
42 EMA NUE L S WE DEN B ORG .
created aft er nothing that is that there was , ,
nothing o f the world before it was created a posi t ion ,
whi ch Swedenborg did not mean to dispute It must .
n o t be however supposed that St Thomas Aquinas

, , .
,
in th us speaking was simply giving utte rance to a ,
truism His obj ect was to affirm against certain

.
heretics that God had not made the world o ut o f a

pre existing matter not created by Him and in this
-
,
again Swedenborg agrees with him .
B ut to sa y that the worl d w a s not created from

nothing in the mind o f Swedenborg raises another
, ,
and much more difli cul t question namely the pro , ,
ces sion O f what was not from what eternally is .
Swedenborg with irresistible logic says that a s

, ,
God alone is the very B eing the e xistence o f things ,
can be from no other source And Malebranche .

,
the great di sciple o f Descartes in his Medita tio ns ,
C hret ien nes et Meta p hys i gues says practically the

’ '
same t hi ng
There is no relation between Noth ingness and
B eing and it is not from Nothingness that man has
,
his origin I (the Lord is supposed to be speaking )

.
am the principle o f all things ; it is through the

infinite power of God that creat ur es receive exis
”
tence .
God then the eternal Love Wisdom and P ower

, , , ,
II n y
’
a p o in t a uss i , mon c h er fil s , d e ra pp o rt e n t re le
é
n a nt et l et re
’
e t cc n es t
’
é
p a s d u n a n t q ue t u t ens t o n o r i igin e .
C est m o i
’
q ui s u s l e i p ri n ci p e d e t o ut es c ho s es ct c es t p a r l a ’
p u i s s a n ce i n fi ni e d e Di eu q u e l es cr ea t ures reco i v ent l eur ex i s

t en ce .
” —M ed . Ob r i t ci M eta p h y s i v 1
. .
, . .
SWEDEN B ORG S P HILO S O P HY
’
OF LIFE . 43
in whom are all things from whom are a l l things , ,
is for Swedenborg the sole source and caus e of a l l

fini te existence spiritual and material
,
For him .
,
the whole uni verse is the expression of the spiritual ,
and the reason why infini te love and infini te ih

t ell igence are discernible in it even to o ur natural ,
sight is becau s e God is in the created universe by

, ,
immanence although dis cret ed from it by tran

,
s cen den ce ; the natural world exists from the Divine ,
and from that source h a s whatever intelligibility it

possesses for rational beings *
.
This view of the Source of a l l l ife may help us t o

understand how Swedenborg came to anticipate the
conclusions o f many modern scientific thinkers on
”
what is known a s Spontaneous Generation He w a s .
not afraid of any theory of spontaneous generation

in Nature in fact it w a s for him a necessary postu
”
late since life is not creatable He believed that .
life appeared whenever and wherever suitable physico

chemical conditions rendered that fact possible by
makin g inorgani c matter a fit receptacle for the
influx of life It seems clear that on his own
.
,
principles he woul d not have been afraid even of

,
the idea of a possible spontaneous generation in our

laboratories B ut we must well understand h is
.
position for a certain biological school spontaneous ,
generation means to obtain life from no life For .
Swedenborg it meant life taking into relation with

,
itself what before had no intrinsic relation to life .
Di eu t i r e le mon de , no n d u n ea n t q ui n
’
es t i
p a s, m a s de
Lui q ui es t l
’
e x i s t e n ce a b s o l ue . -
V . C
OU S N I .
44 E MANUE L SWE DEN B ORG .
Kant meant as much when he said Wh o will

ever be able t o s a y : Give me matter and motion
and I wi ll make a snail Swedenborg s views about
.
’
evolution were conditioned by the same principles

o n the nature o f life He recognised that the s uc
.
ces s iv e appearance o f the many types and species o f
plants and animals upo n the earth was due to pro

cesses o f an evolutionary charac t er but for hi m it was ,
not an evolution o f that ul timate Reality which is

l ife but o ne o f li v ing things ; an evolution o f the
,
organic receptacles o f that life o n discrete planes o f

existence .
Before o ur attempting to r ea l ise even faintl y the

natur e o f Creation our author warns us o f the a h
,
solute necessity o f the conception that Go d is not in

Space .This thought concerning God he says , ,
is fundamental for without it what is t o be said

,
o f the creation o f the universe cannot be r e

”
t a ined He freely grants the difficul ty wh ich this
.
idea presents t o the n atur al mind but t h ink s that ,
man can sufficiently grasp it if o nl y he admit some

”
thi ng o f spiri t ual light into his thought For a .
spiritual conception derives nothi ng from sp ace but ,
derives its all from s ta te Thus a truly spiritual con

.
,
ce t io n of love l ife wisdom & c h a s in itself nothing

p , , ,
.
,
in common with space In fact we are told the .

, ,
conception of dist a nces in space is no other than as of

di stances of good o r distances o f truth which are ,
affinities and l ikenesses according t o their states .
( D . L W . .
It is vain to pretend that such notions are easy to

SWE DEN B ORG S P HILOSO P HY
’
OF LIFE . 45
grasp but we can hardl y resist the conclusion that in

,
this f undamental thought of Swedenborg there lies a

profound truth B y a mere natural act of the human
.
intellect we cannot fully comprehend that the

Divine is everywhere and yet not in space ; that
God is in space without space
“
psychol ogic a l
experiences and mental representations cannot be
dealt with with a yard measure B ut they can in
-
.
o lude re l ations to concepts of space which yet do
not make them in themselves spatially measurable

, , .
The difficul ty is to say positively how far Sweden

borg s teaching here is id ealistic in vi ew of the fact
’
,
that he seems elsewhere to affirm the reality of the

material world in unequivocal terms In any case .
,
we note h is f undamental proposition God is not

”
in space feeling assured that no other concl usion
,
is rationally possible .
We now come to Swedenborg s doctrine o f Creation ’

.
”
There are t w o worlds he says ,
the Spiritual and ,
the natura l and the spiritual world derives nothing

from the natural world nor the natural world from
,
”
the spiritual world They are altogether distinct
. .
(D . L W . W
. e shall see f urther o n in what way ,
given such a distinction they commun icate wi t h

,
each other .
Then he goes o n to s a y Spiritual t hi ngs cannot

proceed from any other source than from love and ,
love cannot proceed from any other source than from

Go d who is Love itself
, The first P roceeding from
.
that Love is the spiritual Sun from whi ch a ll spiritual

things issue a s from their fountain ; thi s s un is pure
46 EMANUEL SWEDEN B ORG .
love yet it is not God but is from God ; i t is the

, ,
proximate sphere about Him from Hi m Through .
this s un the universe was created by God the word ,
universe including a l l the worl ds and systems o f

worlds which are as we know , as the stars for,
”
mul titude . From the heat proceeding from that
sun angel s and men derive whatever will and love
,
they have and from its light a ll their un derstanding

,
and wisdom .
The expans e o f the centre o f l ife thus constituted

is what is meant by the Spiritual world but l et it be ,
care ful ly remembered that as space and time cannot

be predica t ed o f love and wisdom but only states , ,
therefore the exp a ns e around the sun o f the angel ic

heaven is not an extens e This statement brings us
.
back t o the difficul t question already discussed since ,
we are distinctly told that that spiritual expanse is

the extense of all natural things and present with
all l iving subj ects according t o their reception
, .
We must not however allow ourselves to be unduly

, ,
surprised and puz zled by this idea of a spiritual s un

a s the fir st P roceeding from the ultimate Reality .
For Swedenborg there are two worlds distinct from

, ,
each other but absolutely corresponding in every

,
detail each with the other There are not two ideas .
o f existence in the D ivine Mind but only one al , ,
though that one idea may be considered under two

aspects ; hence if we find in the universe a sun (or
any number of similar suns ) which is the source of
heat and light for the system derived fr om it we ,
must ass ume that that s un is the representation to

SWE DE N B ORG S ’
P HI LOSO P HY OF LIFE . 47
us of a spiritual reality to whi ch the name of Sun

may also without incongruity be applie d and which
, , ,
must also be considered a s the spiritual source of

heat and light It is easy to exp ress surprise at the
.
idea of a s un it is not perhaps s o easy to say what

other spiritual term Swedenborg could have used to
convey the notion of correspondence Ar e not o ur .
abstract and even our most metaphysical ter ms de

rived from material notions and material obj ects "
Ar e not some o f the most lovely images o f o ur poetry
borrowed fr om the natural world 7 Was Keb l e going
too far when he sang
S un of my S o ul , Th o u S a vio ur d ea r
No it is useless t o quarrel with Swedenborg about

,
his thought o f a spiritual s un We mus t simply .
realise the thought h e meant to convey .
There are then we are told two sun s by which a ll

, , ,
things of creation are what they are the sun o f the ,
spiritual world and the s un o f the natural world ,
because the spiritual world and the natural world

are si mi lar with the o nl y di fferen ce that each and
,
everything in the spiritual world is spiritual and ,
each and everyt hing in the natural worl d is natural .
(D.L . W
.
Obviously Swedenborg by the natural worl d

, , ,
meant the world constituted by our solar system ,
the conditions of whi ch are alone more o r less acces

sible to o ur direct observation He coul d n o t have .
meant that o ur sun was the centre and sole source

o f heat and l ight and l if e in the universe Any oth er .
s un in the starry heavens s t ands therefore in a simi l ar

relation to Swedenbo rg s spiritual s un as o ur
’
o w n s un does Our nat ural sun derived from the

.
,
sun o f the angel ic heaven consists o f created s ub

,
stances the activity o f which produces fire (T C R

,
'
. . . .
”
It is says S wedenborg (pure fire and there
, ,
“
,
fore l ifeless and since nature in o ur solar syst em

, , ,
derives its origin fr om that s un it is al so l ifeless ; ,
such life a s is found o n the earth is sole l y derived

from the liv ing power proceeding from the sun o f
the spiritual world .
The t w o worlds spiritual and natural be ing al ike

, , ,
therefore in both there are atmospheres waters , ,
earths as the general principles from which every

,
t h ing is constituted with infinite variety The diff er .
ence however between the spiritual atmospheres

, ,
and the natural is that the spiritual atmospheres a re

receptacles of di vine fire and di vine l ight thus o f ,
l ove and wisdom whil e the nat ural atmospheres are

,
no t receptacles o f di vine fire and light but o f the ,
fire and light o f their o w n s un which as already , ,
stated is devoid o f lif e Stil l those natural atmos

,
.
,
h s are surrounded by the spiritua l atmospheres

p er e
proceedi ng from the spiritual sun This essential .
contiguity of the spiritual and the natural in a l l

creation is an original idea in Swedenborg s system ’
,
without whi ch we cannot follow hi s complex des crip

tions of it .
Treating o f the origin o f matter such a s that whi ch ,
makes up the c r ust o f o ur ea rth he considers matter ,
t o be the end and terminat ion o f the natural

c oncer t ing t o us with o ur modern physical ideas ,
must not however be taken too strictly for Sweden

, , ,
borg is care ful to state (D L W 30 3) that when the . . .
expansion and activity of the natural atmosphere

cease in ul timates the resul ting substanc es and ,
matters o f which the earth is composed retain from

the atmospheres whence they origi nated an eff ort
”
and endeavour t o produce uses The inertness .
o f matter is therefore more apparent than real for ,
by use (another important technical expression

in Swedenborg s works ) is meant all goods that
’
”
exist in act and those goods include all thi ngs that
,
appear o n the earth such a s plants and animals o f ,
every kind (D L W . . . .
Of that gradual evolution of all things atmospheres , ,
suns earths and all that the uses of earths can

, ,
produce Swedenborg entertains no doubt whatever

, .
Those he says who do not evolve the creation of

, ,
the universe and all things therein by continual

mediations from the First (the sun of the spiritual
world whose First is God Himself) cannot but build
,
hypotheses that are incoherent and di s connected

fr om their causes (D L W B ut his view of
. . . .
evolution partly s o like modern views o f evolution

, ,
diff ers from them as we have already said in some , ,
very essential pa rticulars : first there has been an ,
evolution if we may s o speak from (no t o f ) a first

, ,
p h eres ha v e no t been a n d a re n o t c o n cer ned in t h e fo r m a t io n

o f w o r l d s o ut o f n eb ul ae, s uc h as t ho s e w e a re a b l e t o o b s er ve ,
thro ugh m o des of ac t v i it y in t ho s e a t m osp heres of w hi ch we

a r e igno ra n t .
S WE DEN B ORG S ’
P HILOSO P HY OF LIFE . 51
principle to ul timates then uses in those ul timates

(always under the gui ding energy of that principle ,
wo rking through the successive degrees it has caused

to be ) have deter m ined an evolution n o longer
centrif ugal but centripetal not away from life but , ,
tending step by step towards high er expressions of

life Swedenborg s evolution may be repr esented
.
’
by a tree in its biological details but in its ens embl e ,
it must be represented by a circle in which all flows

from life and ultimately tends to life His evolution .
is a vast scheme implying not merely the evolution

,
of plants animals and m a n but also that of worlds

, , ,
and of the material subst a nces of which they are com

posed ; it is the evolution of all created existence .
This cos mi c process is produced and governed by

”
what Swe denborg regularly calls infl ux It is the .
Truth from the i nfini te Divine B eing Himself whi ch ,
proceeding through the suc cessive mediums of

crea ted exi s te nce reaches even to t h e last things in
,
nature and in man .
For Swedenborg therefore all things exist and are

, ,
maint a ined through influx that is through the , ,
operation of Life itself according to a series of recep

tive forms or planes each separated from the other
,
by a distinct degree until Life reaches the plane,
which to us is the plane of time and spa ce

, , .
Every created thing ,
Up fro m the cree p in g p la n t to so ve re ign m a n,
isa recipient o f life This thought being f undamental

.
in th is philosophy has to b e constantly recalled

,
.
The recipient such as it is by its extent quality and

, , ,
character determines the degree of reception of influx

, .
Thus the transcendent influx which brings us within

,
the sphere o f the Divine Immanence is everywhere

active but we witness it s operati on more especially
,
within oursel ves in the mysterious inte rcourse between

the soul and the bod y between the interior form and,
the exterior form of man .
The exte rnal world according t o Swedenborg w h o

, ,
here was influenced b v C artesian ideas is an in ,
d ispensable outward co nd it io n o f sens ation under ,
present terrestrial relations These last words raise .
important questions aff ecting the mod es o f existence

o f the future life and perhaps also the nature of the
,
material world In this life at any rate the external

.
, ,
w orld represented s a y in the ca s e o f sight by the

, , ,
luminiferous ether comes into contact with the organ

,
o f sense the eye ; this contact forms what we may

,
call a bas is fo r the reception of the influx from the

soul ; a change o f state takes place in the organ of
sight and into that change of state the influx from
,
the soul descends and the sp ecific se ns ation is ex

,
er ie nced by the subj ect who sees

p .
Thus in a manner whi ch for obvious reasons

, , ,
baffles scientific inqui ry our own sel f beco m es con ,
s cio us l
y m o di fied in presence of a cha nge in the
material substance t o whi ch it is vitally related In .
plain words thi s means that between consciousness

,
a nd physical motion there is a ul f whi ch cannot be

g
bridged .
S wedenborg in partic ul ar al ways insists upon the

, ,
SWE DE NB ORG S ’
P HILOSO P HY OF LIF E . 53
fa ct that the eye itself does not s ee Thi doctrine .

s
is far from new To the Pythagor ean philosophe r

.
Epich a rm us who flourished about 450 B C

, is a t . .
,
tributed a sayi ng which may be thus rendered

Wh a t s ees is m in d w ha t h ea rs is m ind
,
”
All t hin gs e ls e a re dea f a n d b lin d .
On the other hand onl y recently Dr Haldane of

, ,
.
,
Oxford h a s w rit t en t h a t the popul ar idea that the

,
‘
progress of physiology is in the direction of confirming

or supportin g the mechanical conception of life is a
”
complete illusion Th e doctrine of Swedenborg as
.
,
conta ined in his conception of Spiritual Influx would ,
therefore seem to be at once very old and very modern .
To explain the n ature of influx Swedenborg com ,
pares the various things of nature even the mi nd of ,
m a n to ve s sels or receptacles into which t h e spiritual

,
power of influx is poured Life is not creatable but

.
,
it can be communicated to forms in the mea sure of

their organic adaptability for receiving it He says .
in h is Arca na C cel es ti a No 880 , .
There are t h ree things in man which concur and

—
unite the Natural the Spiritual the C el estial His
, ,
.
natural receives no life except from the spiritual nor ,
his spiritual except from the celestial n o r h is celestia l ,
except from the Lord alone who is Life it self Th e ,

.
natural is a receptacle which receives o r vessel into ,
which is poured the spiritual and the spiritual is a

, ,
receptacle o r vessel into which is poured the celestial .
Thus through the celestial life is rec eived from the

, ,
”
Lord Such is the order of influx
. T his brings us .
’
to another fundamental doctrine in Swedenborg s
phil osophy namely hi s d o ctrine of De grees We
, ,
.
shall best approach th is a l l important subj ect in h is

-
o w n words
The knowled ge o f Degrees is a s it were the key

, ,
to open the caus es of thi ngs and give entrance into

them Without this kn owledge scarcely anything of
.
Cause can b e kn own for the obj ects and subj ects of
,
both worlds app ear without this kn owledge of o ne

, ,
significance as if there were nothi ng in them ex cept

, ,
o f such a nature as that which is seen with the eye .
Unless D e grees are understood the interior ,
things which lie conceal ed can by no means be dis

covered for exterior things advance to interior and
, ,
these to inmost by degrees not by continuous but

, ,
by discrete d egrees .
(D L W . . .
Degrees are o f two kinds there are continuous

degrees a nd degrees that are not continuous discrete ,
degrees C ontinuous degr ees are a s the degrees of

.
dimi nution of light from the flame to darkness or a s

, ,
the d egrees o f diminution o f light from the t hi ngs ,
that are in the light to those that are in the shade .
Distance deter mi nes these de grees .
B ut non continuous or discrete degrees are dis

-
t ingui s h ed as p r ior and posterior a s cause and efiect

, ,
as that whi ch produces and that which is produced .
He who does not acquire a perception of these

degrees can by no means have a kn owledge of the .
di stinctions of the heavens and the distinctions of

,
the interior and exterior faculties of man no r of the ,
di stinction between the spiritual worl d and the

SWE DEN B ORG S ’
P H I LOSO P HY OF LIFE . 55
natural world nor of the di stinction between the

,
spirit of m a n and his body and therefore cannot ,
understand what and whence correspondences and

representatio ns are nor what is the nature o f influx
, .
(H . H .
Al l t hi n gs even the l east that exist in the spiritual

,
world and in the natural world cc exist from di screte ,

-
degrees and at the same time from continuou s

degrees or f rom degrees of height a n d degrees o f
,
breadth .When degrees of height or discrete

degrees are in succe s sive order they may be com ,
pared to a column divided into th ree degrees through

whi ch there is an ascent and d escent B ut the .
simultaneous order which consists of similar degree s

presents another appearance In th is order the .
,
highest things of successive order which are the most

perfect a nd beautiful are in the i nmost ; the lower
thing s are in the middle and the lowest in the cir
,
cum fer en ce They are as in a solid consisting of

.
these three degrees in the centre of which are t h e

,
most subtle part s around thi s are the less subtle

,
parts and in the extremes which form the circum

,
ference are the parts composed of these and therefore

the grosser It is like the column mentioned above
.
,
subsiding into a plane the highest part of which forms

,
the inm ost the middle part for m s the intermediate

,
and the lowest forms the extreme ”

(D L W . . . .
To understand clearly the mea ni ng and importance

of discrete degrees we must now take up the subj ect
,
from a hi gher point of view from whi ch the whole

subj ect can be considered In the whole realm of .
Be ing ,
Swedenborg discerns the const ant presence
o f three essentials without whic h nothing can be
conceived as existing These a re E nd Ca use and

.
, ,
E ffect The end is the purpose f o r which a thi ng

.
exists (ca use fina l is ) ; the cause is the law or the

manner by which it exists (w us a efi cie ns ) ; and
the e ff ect is the thing resulting from the operation
o f the cause These three te rms connote di screte
.
degrees because any tra nsmutation o f one into

,
either of the others is impossible Thus the end or .
purpose may actuate the ca use but it can never ,
become identical with it ; the cause may reside within

and actuate the e ff ect but it cannot become identical
,
with the e ffect Let us take as an example another

.
series o f disc rete degrees the psychological trine

,
will intellect action Wi l l may determine the in

, ,
.
t ell ect in thi s o r that way and both will and intellect
,
may thus at t ain expression in the form o f bodily

action o r o f Significant speech Yet all the while .
, ,
will has not become intellect and intellect has not ,
become identifi ed with speech or action these three

degrees are discrete not continuous They d o not
,
.
represent the more or less of a thing they represent

fundamental dis tinctions .
In the same way the trine God spirit the natural , , ,
world are discrete degrees : God is the end the

, ,
reason and the centre of all existence spirit is the

caus e thr ough whi ch and within whi ch God s purpose ’
is realised ; the natur al world is the effect The .
Spiritual cause is in the e ffect as God is in the cause ,
yet Go d spirit t h e natur al world remain eternally

, ,
58 EMANU EL S WE DEN B ORG .
point is perhaps one of the most far reaching co n -
elusions in a system replete with profou nd spec ul a

tions and suggestive thoughts .
As Dr Frank Sewall treating o f this same subj ect

.
,
*
,
has finely said T hese discrete degrees are thus

essential ly constructive degrees they are productive ,
even dynamic in character as they imply the acti o n ,
o f o ne force through various med ia under a fixed l a w .
The force is l ife itse l f ; the media are the s eries ,
orders and degrees through which life descends from

its source t o its ul timates ; the descent itself is in
flux and the l a w o f relation and adaptation by which
,
the descent is possibl e is the La w o f C orrespondence .
This law is another conception in Sweden b org s ’
philosophy which is intimately related t o the law

o f discrete degrees It means that each thing in the .
natural world co rr es p o nds t o something in the spir

it ua l world in other words that there is a posit ive
, ,
relation between the world o f caus es and the world

o f eff ects These t w o orders o f existe nce are in
.
themselves discrete ; they admit o f no conf usion ,
but they co m m u nica te by a perfect correspondence

between the sp iritual and the natural Such cor .
respondence must not be conf ounded with mere

metaphors comparisons o r sym bols for the relation
, ,
between spiritual and natural things is a causal

relation and n o t merely o ne o f resemblance or
,
analogy Thus the affecti ons belonging to the mi nd

.
,
says Swedenborg are represented plainl y in the face ,
S w eden b org nd th e S p i en t i a A ngel i ca

a b y F ra nk S ew ll
a , a ,
M . A .
, D D
. .
, p . 72 .
SWEDEN B ORG S ’
through the various expressions of the countenance ,
n o t by some sort o f analogy but in virtue of an ,
esse ntial relation caused by the mi nd s activity upon ’
the body In the same way

. each and all things ,
in t h e spiritual world are represented in the natura l

world b ecause the internal (cloth es ) itself with
,
appropriate thi ngs in the external whereby it pre ,
sents itself visibly and becomes apparent The end .
thus clothes itsel f with suitable things s o a s to pre

sent itself as the cause in a lower sphere and a f t er ,
wards as the efiect in a sphere l ower s till and when t h e ,
end through the cause becomes the e ff ect it becomes ,
visible that is it appears before the eyes

, , ( 0
A . . .
57 1 1 )
Thu s Swedenborg accounts for the relation whi ch
m any thi nk er s sin ce the days of P lato have discerned
, ,
between spirit and matter betwee n appearance and ,
reality between divine ideas and visible phe n omena

, .
E very form of existence is conceived as endowed

w i th two asp ects one identified wit h the spiritual
,
realm of causes the other participat ing in the phe

,
n o m en a l transient S how of the natural world

,
Thos e .
two aspects without losing their discrete existence

, ,
u ni te for us in the mind when consciousness under

the operation of spiritual influx rises to the f ull
sens e of obj ect representation Correspondence as
-
.
,
u n derstood by Swedenborg thus brings us in pres ,
ence o f the central and most mysterio us problem

o f human psycholo y B ut the doctrine of corre
g .
s o n den ce logical ly carries our author much f urther

p
still B y it he reaches the solution of anot h er
.
60 EMANUEL S WE DENB ORG .
fundamental problem in Christian Th eo l o gy Fo r .

,
given t h at every t hing in natur e has a spiritual

meaning a nd therefore expre s se s some divine end ,
he is able t o conclude that if God has at sundry

times and in dive rs mann ers revealed Himself t o
manki nd us ing for that purpose s ome o f the l a n
,
guages spoken among men such a revel ation in , ,
t erms eXp reM V S o f natura l thi ngs and ideas must ,
contain a spiritu a l meaning If for instance there

.
, ,
is a correspondence between water or bread o r a ,
tree o r a stone and certain spiritual concepts founded

,
on Divine Truth then an understan di ng of what

,
those spirit ual concep t s are wil l e nable us to s ee the

internal o r sp iritual se nse o f water or a tree or a
stone as those terms appear in the litera l sens e
,
given th rough men t o men in revelation Al l that .
is required is that we shoul d in some way be able t o

learn what is the intern a l sens e o f such natural
obj ects .
It is obvious that in ma ny cases such an in t ernal

, ,
or spiritual sense woul d cons iderably relieve our

perp lexiti es in reading the s acred text and might ,
even contribute to a strengthening of o ur faith in

it s sacredness Swedenborg in his quaint style deal s
.
, ,
very plainl y with this question in his work on The

True Chris tia n Rel igi o n the last book pub l ished by
,
him shortly before h is death He says .
It is in the mouth of a l l tha t the Word is fr om

God is di vinely inspired a nd therefore hol y B ut
, ,
.
yet it has been unknown hi therto where withi n it

its d ivini ty res ides For in the l etter the word
.
, ,
SWEDEN B ORG S P HILOSO PHY
’
OF LIFE . 61
appears like a common writing in a foreign style , ,
neither lofty nor luminous as to appearance secul ar , ,
writings are From thi s it is that a m a n

. may
ea sily fall into error concer ning the Word and even
into contempt for it and s a y withi n hi ms el f when
,
he is reading it : What is this " What is that Is

this divine Ca n God who h a s infini te wisdom
speak thus Where and from whence is its holiness
but from religious feel ing and thence persuasion " ,
Thus no man who does not know that

,
there is any Spiritual s ense in the Wor d like the soul ,
in the body can j udge of the word otherwise than

,
fro m it s literal sense So long as thi s is not

.
known it is no t t o be wondered at if this casket

,
(the l etter o f S cripture ) shoul d be es timated o nl y

accordin g t o the value of the material o f it whic h
”
appears t o the eye .
Without the spiritual sense no o ne coul d kno w ,
w h y the prophet J eremiah w a s commanded t o buy
hi mself a girdle and put it on hi s loins and not to ,
draw it through the wa ters but to hide it in the hole ,
—
of a rock by the E uphrates (Jer x m 1 7 ) o r why . .
the prophet Isaiah w a s commanded to l o ose the sack

cloth from o ff his loins and to put o ff his shoe from ,
o ff h is foot and go n aked and barefoot three years

,
( I s
. a xx 2 3
.
) o r,why the prophet E z ekiel was com
m a n d ed to pass a ra z or upon h is head and upon hi s
beard and afterwards t o divide the hairs o f them
,
and burn a third part in the mi dst of the city smite ,
a third part with the sword scatter a t hi rd part in ,
the wind and bind a little of them in h is skirts and

, ,
62 EMANUEL SWEDENB ORG .
at l ast t o cast them into the midst of the fire (E ze k .
v 1
.
(S. S .
B ut wh ile S wedenborg shows how hopele s s it is

t o di scover a reaso nab l e and a profitabl e meani ng in
these and many other p a ssages o f Scripture unl es s ,
th ey mean somethi ng beyond and above their l iteral

s ense it mus t not be suppos ed that h e has no respect
,
fo r that sense Th e letter may kill u nless it be

.
v iv ified by the spirit but neverthel ess the l etter is

,
precious in his eyes In the sense of t h e l etter t h e

.
,
Word he says is in its ful ness its ho lines s and its

, , , ,
po wer because the two prior o r interior senses which

,
are called the spiritual and t h e celesti a l exist sim ul ,
taneously in t h e na tur al sense This s ens e is the .
basis a n d t h e fo undation o f it s spiritua l and cel es tial

”
s enses . And in a nother place he actuall y states
that the doctrine o f t h e Ch urch must be confirmed
h our the l itera l sense of the Word in order that there
may be any sanctity a nd po wer in it ; and indeed
from those books o f the Word in whi ch there is a
”
spiritual sense .
(A E . .
This last rema rk raises another important question ,
t hat o f the C anon of Holy Scripture We know how .
difficul t that question has proved t o b e and h o w ,
l itt le church his tory and internal criticism have

hel ped t o solve it apart from the recogni tion of an
,
i nfalli ble authority divinely commissi oned to s a y

which books belong to the Canon and wh ich boo ks
must be rej ected Swedenborg s Law o f C orre
.
’
s o n dence comes t o solve the prob l em i n dependentl y

p
o f general C ouncils o r ex ca thedm definitions o r ,
S WE DEN B ORG S ’
P HILOSO PHY OF LIFE . 63
Higher Criticism o r pragmatic Moderni sm The .
books of the Word he says are all those that have

, ,
an inter nal sense and tho s e that have not are not
the Word That is to say those books al one are ,
Scripture whi ch are written accordi ng to the Law of

C orrespondence ; t h ose books in which that law is
not verified may be most valuable and use f ul but ,
they are not the Word ”

.
Thus in the New Testament Swedenborg guided

, , ,
by th at rule finds the Word o nl y in the four

,
Gospels and the Apocalypse The style of the .
”
(other ) dogmatic writings is q ui te d i ff erent This .
,
o f course excludes all the epistles of St P aul and

,
.
all the other epistles a s well as the B ook of Acts

, .
Those documents says Swedenborg are excellent

, ,
”
books for the C hurch but neverthele ss they do not
,
contain a spiri tual sens e they m ean what they say ,
and no more their authority is human not divine , .
They are not the Word ”

.
In the Old Testament accordi ng to the same prin ,
ci l e
p ,
Ruth 1 and 2 ,C hronicles E z ra Nehe m iah , , ,
E sther J o b the B ook o f P roverbs E cclesiastes and

, , , ,
the Song of Son gs are found not to be written in

the style o f the Word ”
They are not theref ore
.
, ,
part of the C anon of Holy Scripture To some .
readers this revelation wil l co me as a shock ; to

others no doubt it may bring a sen s e of relief since
, , ,
some of the books thus excluded from the Old Testa

ment and from t h e New present special difficulties ,
a n d have not been accorded a place in the Canon
w ithout much controversy in the past .

To return t o the question of Swedenborg s pro ’
found veneration for the B ible when th us defined

,
by the application of his doctrine of C orrespondence ,
we may quote his o w n words (T C R . .so char.
a ct e ris t ic o f the m a n and of his Spirit
Man h a s life through the Word B ut it should .
be wel l kno w n that they onl y obtain life from the

Word w h o rea d it for the p urpose o f dr awing divine
truth s fr om it as from their fountain and for the
, ,
purpos e at the same time of applying the divine

truths thence drawn t o the life ; and that the co n
t ra ry takes pl a ce with those who read the Word for
”
the purpose o f acquiring honour and worldly gain .
B ut it may be asked Did Swedenborg originate

,
the idea o f an internal o r spiritual sense within the

l etter o f Holy Scripture We know from the testi
mony of history that he di d not Long befo re the
.
Chr istian era there was an a l l egorical m ethod of

,
inte rpretation among the Jews and that method

,
was no t mere l y bo rn of a desire t o meet the att a cks

of an advancing civil isation for we find it existing
,
l ong before the Jewish peopl e had begun to hold any

regul ar po l it i ca l and co m mercial intercourse with the
”
Grmco Roman world
-
. It is more than likely ,
says Hermann Olshausen that in their studies o n

, ,
the sacred b oo ks a l l educated Jews looked upon the

,
plain meanin g o f words as being only the shell withi n

whi ch was contained a profound spiritual sense Al l .
their intel l ectua l c ul ture consisted in the knowledge

”
and r esearch of that spiritual sense .
Phil o t h e Al e xandrian Jew

, ,
wrote that the
66 E MANUE L S WE DEN B ORG .
in th eir spiritual sense but onl y inte rpreted accord ,

”
ing t o the lette r .
In his work aga i ns t Cel s us which is professedly ,
an apologetical boo k Origen re futing the sneers o f, ,
C elsus about the creation o f Ev e the serpent tempt ,
ing her and the fall of Adam distinctly says

, Ce l sus ,
is pretending t o ignore that su ch things are to be

”
explained allegorically This is j ust what Sweden .
borg has taught onl y h is Law o f C orrespondence is

,
no t a system o f mere al legory .
In the same work however occurs the following , ,
passage which woul d seem t o Show that Origen had

some idea o f a method of inte rpreta tion foun ded o n
correspondences
Those writings of Moses and the Prophets the ,
most ancient o f all books a cknowledge that all the ,
things which we s ee in this world and whose us e is

common among men have other things o f the s ame ,
name resp o nd ing to them which are the real things ,

.
For instance these books speak t o us o f a true light

, ,
o f a heaven other than the vi sible fir m a m ent and of ,
a Sun o f righteousness which di ff ers from the visible

”
sun .
Nevertheless Origen s interpretation is mainl y

,
’
allegorical and therefore failed t o yield that sp iritua l

,
sense a fter whi ch his religious mind hungered and

thirsted and the existence o f whi ch w a s hi s main
,
theological principle Af ter Origen E usebius bishop

.
, ,
of Caesarea St B asil the Great St Gregory o f Nyssa

,
.
,
.
h is brother St Gregory Na zia nzen all follow him

, .
,
in their sea rch after a spiritual sense on allegorical

S WE DEN B ORG S P HILOSO PHY OF LIF E ’
. 67
lines In the West the same tendency w ith perhaps

.
, ,
more soberness of expression is noticeable but with , ,
hardly more soberness o f method Fo r we o ften .
find not one internal sense taught but three o r four , ,
which came to be formulated as a help to memory , ,
in the following Latin verses

Li t era ges t a d o cet q uid cre d a s a llego ria , ,
Mo lis q u id a g a s q u o t en d a s a n a g o gi
ra , a ,
" a:
The Mi ddle Ages with more or less caution r e, ,
mained fa ith f ul to the exegetical ideas of the early

Fathers Then we come to the sixteenth century
.
and the rise of P rotestantism when a great change ,
took place in the form and spirit of B ible interpreta

tion It may appear strange but it seems t o be a
.
,
f a ct that the Reformers did not formulate any specia l

method of exegesis C alvin in his I n s tit ut es declares
.
, ,
that the authority o f the Scripture s is cer tain it s ,
inspiration beyond doubt and that it is impious to ,
s a y that the authority of the B ible is depending upon
the j udgment of the Church but he does not say ,
anything defini te as to how the real meaning of the

sa cred books is to be obtained It must neverthel ess .
be recogni sed that C alvin j ustl y shocked by the uh ,
measured abuse o f allegory in the past w a s naturally ,
inclined to seek the truth exclusively in the literal

sense He seems to have pronounced the allegorical
.
method to be an invention of Satan Luther and .
Melanchthon did not think di ff erently .
Th e l t t d e l s w i t h f a ct ;
e er a l l g y sa y w h t m us t b e
s a e or s a
bel i ev d t h m l n w h t m u t b e d n t h n go gica l
e e o ra se se a s o e e a a
s en se , w hi t h er we s ho ul d b e t en d ing .
68 E MANUEL SWEDEN B ORG .
Th e fact is that the early Reformers absorbed in ,
t h e arduous task o f repe l ling the attacks of the

Church and asserting their fundamental doctrines ,
c hi efly insisted o n j ustifi cation by faith and the

“
”
authority o f the Scriptures and it was o f great ,
importance t o their theol ogical position that the

B ibl e shoul d be considered as a book which means
j ust what it says and which he w h o runs may read
and understand without having recourse t o the
subtleties of an internal s ense except in those p l aces
,
where a spiritual se nse is obviously signified The .
sixteenth century still permitted thi s attitude since ,
there were no scientific obj ections nor Higher Crit i

cis m t o be met . Protestant theology thus assumed
a position the danger o f wh ich onl y became apparent
at a l a ter period .
The danger is f ul l y realised t o day as is shown by -

,
the difli cul t ies experienced in all the Prot estant

C hurches with scarcely any exception
,
It is more .
a n d more felt that unl ess a higher mea ning can be

,
attached t o certain thi ngs those things m ust go, ,
with much connected with them whi ch has been

considered as religious truth in the past The .
s ituation is only made more delica t e in the case o f
those ancient C hurches which founded o n a prin ,
ci l e of authority are tied to definite interpretations

p ,
by i nfa llible decisions B ut the position of the

“
.
P rotestant Reformers unsupported o n o ne hand by

,
traditional authority and on the other mi ned and

,
countermined by modern science is no doubt in , , ,
more immediate danger given human nat ure as it

,
P HILOSO P HY
’
SWE DEN B ORG S OF LIFE . 69
is In h is recent work Letter or S ymbo l Mr C harles

. .
B yse o f Lausanne h a s wel l sum med up the difli cul t ies

of the situation : The dogma of inspiration a s ,
established by Pro t estant orthodoxy h a s become un ,
acceptable for a l l educated minds Yo u wil l say .
It has been modified Yes no d oubt but those .

, ,
modifications l ogically l ead to a denial of the dogma

in question and this amounts to giving up the
,
”
position of P rotestantism .
We hope that this somewhat l engthy historical

digression will appea r to be j ustified by the importance
’
o f the question raised by Swedenborg s teaching co n
cerning the l iteral and spiritual senses in what he con

”
siders to be alone the Word Swedenborg did .
not originate a s we have said the idea o f a spiritual

, ,
sense ; the need of such a sense had been felt long

before his time and in proposing one not a s devised
, ,
by himself but a s he believed revealed to him in

, , ,
its most mi nute detail s he w a s only giving e ff ect to

,
an idea vaguely ob s curely expressed in an a l l ego r

, ,
ical manner but firmly and constantl y felt at least

, ,
since the days of P hil o o f Cl ement of Al exandria of

, ,
Origen down to the times of the P rotestant Reforma

,
tion in the sixteenth century His attitude repre .
sents however something more than a return t o

, ,
pre reformation methods since his Law o f C orre

-
,
sp o ndence h a s nothing to do with any mere system
o f al legorical interpretation For him C orrespond .

,
ence is not simply a way o f escape out o f a dil emma

created by the irresistible advance o f human thought .
It is a science founded on a caus al relation His .

70 E MANUE L SWEDENB ORG .
p osition wi l l n ot o f,course be appreciated by,

those
to whom all ideas o f a revelation however philosoph ,
ical in their presentation are essential ly repugnant

, ,
but those mi nds which welcome ideal s felt to be the

l ogical outcome o f higher views o n life on nature , ,
a n d o n m a n may b e inte rested by a doctrine whi c h

, ,
by the side o f reveal ed Truth still finds a pl a ce fo r ,
human reason and scientific facts .
We should however fail in what we consider t o be

, ,
o ur duty in writing t hi s l itt le bo ok if we did not he re
put cl early before o ur readers t h e real diffic ul ty in

connecti on with the Law of Correspondence It is .
obvious that we may especially if we have read

,
Plato t o some p urpose e xperience litt l e difficul ty

,
in accepting the principle of a correspondence b e

tween the phenomenal and the rea l between things ,
in the natural world and ideas thoughts mental

, , ,
images o r visions whatever h e the name we choose

,
t o att a ch t o thin gs in the sp iritual world The .
trouble begins when we seek t o know whi ch things

in o n e world are correspondentiall y related to certain
thi ngs in the other world The proble m h ad n o .
doubt appeared in these terms t o such men a s Philo

or O rigen or St August ine of Hippo but the di fli
.
,
cul t ies were such that in the end they h a d t o fall
back upon such all egories as seemed t o be permi tted

o r invited by the text or — ,
—
possin were required
t o meet a theological argument Swedenborg in thi s .
matter does n o t apparently take the sl ightest c a re

to Spare o ur susceptibili ties He is s o assured of his
.
position s o clear a s t o the message he brings that

, ,
SWE DE NB O RG S ’
P HILOSO P HY OF LIF E . 71
he at once puts things before us without hardl y any

preparatory explanation I well know h e says that
.
, ,
people w il l not receive my message but I have ,

”
seen and heard and therefore must del iver it
, .
Swedenborg declares unh esitatingly that enlight

”
en m ent is fro m the Lord alone by which is meant
,
that the probl em of correspondences cannot be

solved by man s own efforts o r intell ectual subtl ety
’
.
Then comes this sol emn statement al ready quoted

Since the Lord cannot mani fest Himself in Person
and yet h a s foretold that He woul d come and estab
lish a New Church which is the New Jerusal em i t ,
follows that this wil l be e ff ected by means o f a man

who is ab l e not onl y to receive the doctrines o f that
Church into his understanding but also to publish
,
them by the Press I testify in truth that the Lord

.
mani fested Himsel f to me His servant and sent me ,
to this office ; and that afterwards He opened the

sight o f my spirit and s o intromitted me into the
,
spiritual world and h a s granted me to see the heave ns

,
and the hell s and al so to converse w i th angels and

,
spirits and this no w continually fo r many years ;

,
l ikewise that from the first day o f that calling I have

,
not received anyt h ing whatever relating to the

doctrines of that Church from any angel but from ,
”
the Lord alone whil e I w a s reading the Word .
This sol emn decl aration occurs in the Tr ue Christia n

Rel igio n printed in London in 1 7 7 1 in March o f the
,
fol l owing year Swedenborg died It may therefore.
be considered a s his l a st word o n t h e subj ect .
In another work (Ap o c E xp l 1 183 ) Swedenbo rg

. .
72 EMANUEL SWE DE N B ORG .
has even more di stinctly stated the facts He says .
It has been given me t o perceive dis tinctly what

comes from the Lord and what from the angel s ;
what h a s come from the Lo rd has been writte n and ,
”
what from the angels has not been written .
In his S p ir itua l Dia ry no t wri t ten for pub l ication

,
but embodying h is priva t e thoughts remarks and , ,
experiences from day t o day Swedenborg all ows us ,
t o follow the workings of his m ind while he en

dea v o ured t o dist inguish what he shoul d preserve
f o r use a n d what he shoul d rej ect o ut o f t h e mul titude
o f s ights and impressions rep resented before him .
He s ays (to himself )

Wh enever there has been any representation ,
vision or conversation I was kept interiorly and

, ,
most deeply in reflection upon it as t o what there ,
fr om w a s useful and good s o that I might learn about

‘
it Thus have I been instruc t ed therefore by n o

.
, ,
spirit nor by any angel but by the Lord only from

, , ,
whom is a ll truth and good On the contrary when

.
,
t hey wished (the spirits ) t o in struct me on various

subj ects there was scarcely anyt hing but what w a s
,
false ; fo r which reason I was prohi bited from be

l ieving anyt hi ng they sa id Moreover when ,
th ey wi shed t o persuade me I perceived an interior

,
o r inmost persuasi on that it is s o — not as they

vi s h ed — at whi ch they also marvelled The per .
cep t io n was manifest but cannot easily be described

”
t o the apprehension o f Man (S . D . .
This passage is important becaus e it clearly show s

,
that th ere was nothi ng that might be described as

74 E MANUEL S WE DENB O RG .
does claim is in itself very great for it amounts t o a ,
distinct and special direction implying a power of

selection and o f intuitive perception of truth which
if not ins piration in a s pecific sense at any rate ,
led t o the discovery o f the hi gher meaning o f the

inspired text through a n acquired knowledge o f
,
tho s e correspondences between Spiritual things and

thi ngs natural which no unaided natural mind can
,
surely discern F o r enl ightenment is from the

.
”
Lord alone .
Such is the di ffi c ul ty in this supreme question

plainl y s t ate d It was necessary t o make it cl early
.
understood before we approach the consideration o f

Swedenborg s specific theol ogical doctrines sin ce
’
they are a ll founded upon the assumption that they

”
are related t o thi ngs seen and heard and that ,
the meaning o f correspondences has been deriv ed ,
not from imagination fanciful likenesses or a ll ego r

, ,
”
ical devi ces but from actual seeing and hearing
, ,
We shall not o f course presume t o press any par

, ,
t icul a r V iew upon o ur readers on this most serious

quest ion It raises s cientific and p hi losophical
.
proble ms whi ch are not new Former generations .
o f learned men since the days o f Swe denborg have

, ,
believed that they had finally settled such problems

either by denying the truth of alleged facts or by ,
explaining them as they thought in a rational

, ,
manner Some scientific men such as Dr Maudsl ey

.
, .
,
h ave gone s o far as t o attribute the whole matter t o

mental derangement and ha l lucination That physi .
ol ogist based his opinion l argely upon t h e fa ct that

SWE DE NB ORG S ’
S wedenborg in his scientific days had invented a

kind of aeroplane He thought it pos itive evidence
.
o f madness in a man to have imagined that aviation
coul d ever become a practical proposition To day -
Dr Maudsley woul d have had to revise h is opinions

.
,
at any rate concerning aeroplanes An d we fin d

, .
that in these days men are revi sing their opinions

, ,
o n other things also A deeper knowledge of psycho

.
l ogical states ; new views on the nature of matter ,
o n ether on cosmic continuity in the uni verse

,
new
arguments such a s those brought forward by Dr
, .
Haldane of Oxford or by Monsieur Henr i B ergson ,
in favour o f a view o f l ife which ra di cally excludes

any purely materialistic interpretations o f it must ,
be carefu ll y considered .
O nl y a few months ago in a remarkable articl e

,
published in the C o ntemp or a ry Review o n The ,
Spiritual Signi ficance of Nature Sir William B arrett

,
did not hesitate to define a miracle a s essentiall y

the direct control by mind of matter outside the
organi sm In other words said the disting ui shed
.
,
physicist a mi racle means

,
a super normal and -
incomprehensible mani festation o f mi nd As such .

,
miracles di d not cease with the Apostolic Age but ,

”
have continued down t o the present time .
In view o f such st atements and o f many others

which clearly indicate at the pres ent day a trend of
thought away from past materialist ic a fli rm a t io ns
and to wards a more and more Spiritual i nterpretation
of l iving phenomena readers will perhaps be disposed
,
t o suspend their judgment and t o see what came a s ,

76 EMANUEL S WEDE N B ORG .
a system o f philosophy and rel igion from those won

,
derful spiritual states a nd those constant relations

,
with the o t h er world which Swedenborg simply but

,
unhesitatin gly affirms to have cc exist ed within him

-
with the normal conditions o f everyday life Given .
the pres ent state o f o ur psychological knowledge it ,
seems clear that we are to day l es s than ever in a

-
position t o reason a p rio ri o n the possibil ities of t h e

case Al l we can do is t o examine the results o h
.
t a in ed,
and weigh them without prej udice We .
bel ieve that Swedenborg himself woul d have asked

for no more from any conscientious student o f h is
works .
C HAP TER III .
NE W -
CHU RCH D O CTRI NE .
WE no wcome to the specific theological doctrines

o f Swedenborg based upon the f undamental prin
cipl es o f h is phil osophy— notably upon his doctrine

,
o f D egrees his view o f Divine Influx and h is Law of

, ,
Correspondence .
First we have his doctrine of God Muc h as

, .
S wedenborg k new and admi red (with great inde

nden ce of thought ) t h e works o f D escartes he does
p e ,
not seem to have foll ow ed hi m in hi s metaphysical

demonstration of the existence of God In fact .
,
Swedenborg nowhere delays t o prove it by formal

argument He only says. All the principles of
human reason unite and a s it were concentrate in
, ,
this that there is one God the Creator o f the Uni

, ,
verse A man who has reason therefore from a

.
, ,
common attribute of his understanding does not ,
and cannot think otherwise ”

(D L W . How
. . .
ever when asking himself why human reason in a

, ,
n ormal state should be naturally inclined t o such a

,
concl usion he answers in a way whi ch strongly r e

,
78 EMAN UEL S WEDENB ORG .
mi nds o ne o f D escartes argument in his Di s co ur s de

’
l a Métho de, P art IV Swedenborg says .
Th ere are t w o reasons why t h is is so First .

,
because the very facul ty o f thinking rationa ll y in ,
itself conside red is not man s but is God s in him

,
’ ’
.
Secondl y because by means o f that facul ty man

,
either is in the li ght o f heaven o r derives thence the

”
common principl e o f his thought .
Knowing as we do Swedenborg s conception of the

’
soul his mode o f reasoning does no t cause surprise

, ,
but it is very interesting to find that Descartes who ,
looked fo r truth not through any spiritual sight

,
but by the way o f uni versal doubt sh oul d have ,
reached a simil ar concl usion .
Then Swedenborg defines the n ature o f God .
There are two things wh ich constitute the essence

o f God love and wisdom
,
The divine love which .
,
—
in the divine wisdom is l ife itself which is God
cannot be conceived of in its essence ; for it is in
finite and so transcends human apprehension The .
divine love a nd the divin e wis dom in the ms elves are

substance and form for they are very B eing and ,
D es ca r t e s w o rd s a re
’
L i d ee d un et re p l us p a r fa i t q ue
’ ’
l e m i en [ n e p o u va i t m e ven i r d u n éa n t " C a r d e l a t e ni r d u
.
n éa n t c ét a i t c h o s e m a n i fes t e m en t i m p o s s i b l e ; et p o ur l a qu el l e
’
n y a p a s m o i ns d e r é p ugn a n ce q ue l e p l us p a r f a i t s o i t u n e
’
s u i t e e t un e de p e n d a n ce d u m o in s p a r fa i t qu i l n y e n a q u e ’ ’
,
d e r i en p r o ced e que lqu e ch os e j e us Is po u va is n o n p l us t en ir

d e m o i m em e d e f a co n qu il res t a i t qu el l e a i t é t é m i s e e n m o i
’ ’
-
p a r u n e na t ure q ui f u t vér i t a b l em en t p l us p ar fa i t e q ue j e n et a l a
’
,
e t m em e q ui e ut e n s o i t o ut e s l es p erf ect i o ns d o n t j e p o u va is
a v o ir qu e lqu e id ée c es t a d ir e po ur m e x p l i q u er en un m o t
’ ’
, , ,
q ui f ut Di eu
”
.
NE W CHUR CH DO C TRINE
-
. 79
Existing Here Swedenborg makes an important

.
”
remark : It is he says b ecause the very Divine
, ,
Essence is love and wisdom that man h a s two faculties

o f life from o n e o f which he h a s h is understanding
,
and fr om the other h is will The faculty from which .
he h a s h is understanding derives a ll that it has fr om

the influx o f wisdom from God ; and the faculty
from which he h a s h is will derives all that it h a s from
the influx of love from God That man is not j ustly .
wise and does not exercise hi s love justly does not

, ,
”
take away the facul ties but inwardl y closes them .
(D L
. . W .
Th e reason of t hi s great fact lies in another fact

—
very strange and s tartling at first sight yet funda
mental for Swedenborg namely that God is very , ,
”
Man . Al though in some profoun d sense thi s h a s
, ,
a mysterious reference to the Incarnation and it s

divine eff ects yet it is n o t merely in that sense that
,
Swedenborg makes that wonderful statement God

is Man (D L. W .Nor is.it in h.is mi nd an , ,
extreme anthropomorphi c idea of Deity It means .
for him that in the essential nature o f God there is

t hat which accounts for the form of heaven and for
t h e form of man and for the form of every livi n g
,
t hi ng It is not God who is thus conceived in the

.
image and likeness of man ; it is man who is con

ceiv e d in the image and likeness of God— a distant
and imperfect image yet an image from which we ,
can rise in some inadequate manner t o a conception

of the supreme a n d onl y perfect P ersonality whi ch
is Go d Lot z e finely expressed thi s thought when
.
80 EMANUEL SWEDE NB ORG .
he said tha t the natural s um of a l l existences tends

t o prove that perfect P ersona l ity is possible onl y
in the infinite B eing and that we see only a pal e
,
reflection o f it in finite creat ures In fact he .

,
concludes personal ity is an ideal whi ch like every

, ,
other ideal be l ongs ab s ol utely t o the I nfinite B eing

,
alone and is with us like every other good merely

, , ,
”
conditioned and therefore imperfect .
Mr Ra v a is s o n has al so expressed the same idea

.
in even clearer terms where he said that the

,
absolute o f perfect Personality namely the i nfinite , ,
l ove and wisd om is the perspective centre whence

,
can be understood the system represented by o ur

o w n imperfec t personality and represented also in
,
Every other form o f existence Go d helps thus t o

.
understand the soul and the soul to understand

,
”
nature This is (unconsciously no doubt ) a distinct
.
,
Swedenborgian st atement o f what o ur author meant

”
by saying God is Man .
We are th us perhaps l ess surprised t o find that

Swedenborg considers the heavens that is the ,
spiritual worl d t o be also in the form o f man re

, ,
generate m a n himself being a heaven in the least

form .
”
In hi s work Hea ven a nd Hell he says ,
That heaven in its whole complex resembles a man

is an arcanum yet not known in the world .
On this ind eed many other thi ngs depend which

without it as their general principle woul d not enter
, ,
distinctly and clearly into the ideas o f the mi nd .
B ecause they know that a ll the heavens together

with their [ angel ic" societies resembl e a man [the ,
82 EMANUEL S WE DEN B O RG .
God crowns thos e loft y views of Swedenborg about

t h e Divine Natu re Yet he is not a Unitarian in the
.
Arian o r Socinia n sense of the word His doctrine .
o f the divine unity is not intended t o exclude the
Word made flesh but on the contrary distinctly

”
, , ,
t o include it Moreo ver h is unity implies a ccording

.
, ,
to his theology a Trinity not of persons but of

, ,
”
essentials The Father the Divine Love is the
.
, ,
E s s e o f the primal substance the Wis dom or Word -
by whom are all things its Exi s ter e the Holy Spirit ,
is the proceedi ng and perpetual ope ration of the

D ivine Love and Wi s dom in the c r eated worl d .
Love Wisdom and U se exist essentially from

, ,
E ternity in the o n e God but the Trinity becomes ,
actual in Time in the Divine Humanity o f the Lord

J esus Christ In Hi m the Father is m ade manifest
.
,
but thi s does n o t imply another per sonality in

J ehovah .
The Holy Spirit is the divine truth a nd power

roceeding from the glorified Humanity o f the Lord
p .
Hence it follows that the Holy Spirit lik e the mani ,
f es t a t io n in time o f the Word made flesh is not

”
,
an eternal procession from the Divine and Sweden ,
borg thus understands the well known passage in -
J ohn vii 39 . The Holy Spirit w a s not y et because ,

”
J esus w a s n o t yet glorified This would explain .
I n h i s T rue C h ri s ti a n R el i gi o n , S w e en b o r d g re m a r k s t ha t
in t h e Ol d T
es t a m e n t t h e Ho S p r t is no w ly ii he re m e n t io n e d ,
b ut t h e S p r t o f ii h li n es s
o ,hree p l a ces (P S Ii 1 1
an d o nl y in t . .
I sa l. x iii
1 0 and
. B ut i n t h N w T e s t a m e n t ref er en ce
e e ,
t h e Ho l y S p i rit a p p ea r s ve y fre qu en t l y
”
to r .
—
NE W C HURC H D O C TRINE . 83
Swedenborg s view that the Holy Spirit is an es sential

’
of the one true Go d the Lord J esus C hrist not a — ,
person In fact h is concept of the Trinity is an

.
,
essential Tri nity of Love Wisdom a n d their opera , ,
tion leaving absolutely unobscured t h e idea of t h e

,
divine Uni ty He felt most strongly on this point

. .
He says A Trinity of Divine P ersons from E ter

nit y or before the world was created is for our minds ,
a trinity of Gods ; and this can n ot be done away

with by an oral assertion that there is o nly one
God .
For Swedenborg this doctrine is not merely t h e

theological sol ution of a difli cul t y which h a s always
been felt and h a s become more and more an obstacle
,
to faith It has conseq uenc es of the highest im

.
portance particularly in respect t o the dogmas o f

,
the Incarnation the Redemption the Sa cr ed P a s sion

, , ,
th e Atonement M ediation Propitiation and Inter

, , ,
cess ion T hi s will appear from the following pa s sage

.
( T. C R
. which shows
. clearly his m i nd o n the
subj ect
God is never angry with any one ; He never
avenges tempts punish es casts into Hell or con
, , ,
d em ns Such things are a s far from God nay

.
, ,
infinitely far t her than hell is from heaven They are

,
.
forms of speech then used o nl y according to a p

, ,
p ea r a n ces S o also but in

. a di fferent sense are
,
t h e ,
terms atonement propitiation interces sion a nd , , ,
mediation ; for these are forms of speech expressive

o f the approach which is opened t o God by means
o f His Hu m anity These terms being mi s under .

84 EMANUE L SWE DEN B ORG .
stood men h ave divided Go d into three ; and upon

,
that divisi on they have grounded all the doctrine

o f the C hurch and so have fa lsified the Word
,
”
.
Thus according t o o ur author R edemption in par

, , ,
t icul a r di d n o t cons ist in a plan whereby Divine

,
Justice was t o be satisfi ed by what has been termed

a vicarious sacrifice Man needs t o be reconciled
.
to Go d ; Go d never has in His l ove and pity t o b e

reconciled to His erring creatures He is the Father .
,
tenderly watching for the return of the prodigal son ,
long before the prodigal thought of arising to go to

his Father We love Him because He first loved
.
us and in C hrist He is ever reconciling the world

”
unto Hi mself not Himself t o the world These
, .
thought s seem clear enough t o us t o day ; we coul d -
not imagine God as doing otherwise given o ur con ,
cept io n o f Him B ut these thoughts were by no

.
means generally received in the days when Sweden

borg wrote They represe nted a ver y advanced
.
form o f theological inte rpretation s uspected o f ,
heresy and considered unscriptural They enable us .
t o day t o measure the road along which C hur ches

-
and sects have travelled in t h e direction of a purer

thought o f God and greater charity t o our neigh
bour .
N 0 less original is Swedenborg s teaching about the

’
Spiritual World Speaking as one who has actually

.
s een what he describes he tells us that the sp iritual

,
world is entirely simil a r t o the universe of the natural

world w i th the onl y diff erence that these things are
,
not fix ed and stationary as in the natural worl d ,

NEW C HUR CH DO CTRINE
-
. 85
because nothing there is natural but a l l is spiritual ,

.
Thus countries with mountains hills valleys

, , , ,
plains fields lakes rivers fountains appear there as

, , , , ,
in the natural world thus all things of the mi neral

kingdom are there trees a n d shrubs of every
kind with fruits and seeds ; plants flowers herbs
, , ,
and grasses Ani mals bir ds and fishes of every

.
, ,
kind appear also ”

(D L W 3 2.1 This si mi . . .
,
l a r it y between the two worlds is for our author as , ,
we have al ready seen a l ogic a l consequence of the ,
principle that a causal correspondence exists between

them The natural world bears the impress of the
.
spiritual world as the warm wax b ears the mark of

the seal appli ed to it .
B ut if there is such striking si mil arity be tween the

two worlds there are also striking differences
,
.
Angelic inh abitants of the spiritual world we are ,
told do not know what time is because in heaven

, ,
there are not years and days but changes of state .
Whatever is from time in our world is changed w i th

an angel into an idea respecting state Y et — and .
—
this is truly diflicul t to realise all things succes
s iv el y advance with angels j ust a s with us ; they
have the sense of succession without the notion of
time (H H
. . .
Again although all t h ings in heaven appear in

,
place and in space just a s in our world yet the , ,
angels have no notion or idea o f plac e and space .
”
As thi s says Swedenborg cannot but s eem a
“
, ,
paradox I wish t o present the subj ect in a clear

,
l ight for it is of great moment

, All progres sions in .
86 EMANUEL SWED ENB ORG .
the spiritual world are made by changes o f the states

o f the interiors (the f a cul ties having relation t o the
u nderstanding and the will ) As progressions are

.
thus made it is evident that approaches are si m ili

,
t udes a s to the state o f the interiors and that with ,
d ra w a l s a re dissimilitudes Hence it is that they are

.
near t o each other who are in a si mi lar state and ,
they are at a dis tance who are in a dissimilar state .
It is from no o t h er cause that the heavens are dis

tinct from each other It is also from this cause
.
that in the spirit ual world one is presented in per

s o n t o another if only he intensely desires h is pres
ence ; for thus he sees hi m in thought and puts

himself in his st ate ; and conversel y that o ne is r e ,
moved from another in pro portion as he is averse t o

him . When al so anyone goes from o ne place t o
another whether in his o w n city or in courts or in
, ,
gardens o r t o others o ut of his o w n society he

, ,
arrives sooner when he desires and later when he

,
does n o t desire The very way although it is the

.
,
same is lengt hened o r shortened according t o the

,
”
desire This I have often seen and wondered at
. .
( H .H 1 9 1.
,
E ven if we a r e disinc l ined t o receive the testimony

o f the Swedish See r about such t hi ngs we cannot ,
help feel ing t ha t in his descriptions o f the condi tions

o f existence in the spiritual world there are pro
,
f ound thoughts r es ting upon a philosophical Idealism

which perhaps may throw some light upon many
, ,
obscure questions not o nl y in hea ven but al so in our ,
selves Am ong such questions stand pre e mi nently

.
-
NE W C HUR CH DO C TR I NE
-
. 87
those having reference to the di fficul t prob l ems o f

Time and Space .
But an interesting point is raised by the passages

just quoted Who are those celestia l inhabitants of
.
whom Swedenborg has s o much to s a y to us It

is believed ,
”
he says in h is book on Hea ven a nd Hel l ,
that the angels were created from the beginning ,
and that thi s w a s the origin of heaven and that the

Devil o r Satan w a s an angel of light but because he , ,
became re bellious was cast down with his crew and

, ,
that this was the origin of hell B ut there is

.
n o t a single angel in the u ni versa l heaven who w a s
created such from the beginning ; nor any devil in

hell who was created an angel o f light and cast
down ; but all both in heaven and in hell are from
”
the human race .
(No It
. is plain there
fore that the natural world the abode of men o n ,
earth cannot be compared with that world a s r e

,
gar ds the multitude of the human race When a .
man passes from the natural world into the spiritual ,
it is a s from a vil l age into a mighty city (L J . . .
Swedenborg however h a s not found dwellers in

, ,
heaven and hell alone B etween these he saw an

.
intermedi a te state which he calls the world o f spirits .
He di stinctly says : The world o f spirits is not

heaven nor is it hell It is a place or state inter
, .
medi ate between the two for t hi ther man fir st goes

,
after death and then after the r equired time accord

, ,
ing to his life in the worl d he is either elevated into

,
heaven or cast into hell There is a vast number

.
in the world of S pirits because the fir st meeting o f a ll

88 E MANUE L S WE DE N B O RG .
”
is there and all are there examined and prepared
, .
( H .H 4 2 1
.
I have conversed with some a fe w days after

their decease and as they were then recently come
, ,
they were in a degree o f light there which to them

diff ered little from the light of the world Some .
believed that they should first rise again at the time

o f the last judgment when the world would perish , ,
and that they sho uld then rise with the body which ,
though fallen i nto dust would then be collected to ,
gether and that they were to rise again with flesh

,
and bone B ut they were instructed that the

.
last judgment of eve ryone is when he dies and tha t ,
he then appears to himself endowed with a (spiritual )

body as in the world but purer and more exquisite , ,
”
because things corporeal no longer hinder (A C . . .
It is thus that Swedenborg understands St .
Paul when he says that there is a natural body ,
there is also a spiritual body (1 Co r xv . .
while for hi m the world of spirits or the inter

, , ,
mediate state is that great gulf of which Abraham

,
speaks to the rich man in the parable (Luke xvi . .
That intermediate state is not however to be ident i , ,
fied with the P urgatory o f Roman theology for it ,
is no t a place o f torment where sins are puni shed ,
but a transitional state in whi ch the real interior

di sposition o f human spirits is revealed and those ,
whose will is good are prepared for heaven by in

struction .
Swedenborg tells us al so of the fate of infants after

”
death (A R . It is the belief of some he
. .
,
90 E MANUE L SWE DE NB ORG .
to myself was taken away but yet thought and per

,
ce t io n rema ined
p I was. in this state f o r some
ho urs The spirits who were about me then with

.
drew supposing that I was dead An aromatic o dour

,
.
was also perceived as o f an embalmed body ; for

,
when celestial angel s a re prese nt what is cadaverous

is perceived as aromatic—whi ch when spirits per
c eiv e they cannot app r oach Thus t o o evil spirits
.
, ,
are kept away from the spirit o f man when he is

first introduced into eternal l ife .
The [t w o " a nge l s who were sitting at my head

were sil ent commu nicating only their thoughts with
,
mine and when these are received the angels know

that the spirit o f the man is in the state in which it
can be withdrawn from the body Th e communies .
tion o f their thoughts w a s efiect ed by l o oking into

my face for thus communications o f thoughts are
,
effected in heaven As thought and perception r e

.
mained with me in order that I might know and

,
re member how resuscitation is e ff ected I perceived ,
that these angels first e xam i ned what my thought

—
was whether it was like that o f those w h o die ,
which is usuall y about et ernal lif e and that they ,
wished to keep my mi nd in that thought I w as ,
afterwards told that a man s spirit is held in it s last

’
thought when the body is e xpiring un til he returns ,
t o the thoughts which come from his general o r

rul ing a ff ection in the world It was given me espe .
cia ll y to perceive and al so t o fee l that there was an
attraction and a s it were a pul ling o f the interiors

,
o f my mi nd thus o f my spir it o ut o f the body ;

, ,
NE W CHUR CH DO CTRINE
-
. 91
and it was said that thi s is of the Lord and that ,
thereby the resurrection is e ff ected These angels .
appeared as it were to roll o ff the tunic of the left

, ,
eye towards the septum of the nose that the eye ,
might be ope ned and be enabled to s ee The spirit .
perceives no otherwise than that it is efiect ed in this

manner but it is an appearance
, When the tunic .
seems to have bee n rolled o ff a certain brightness is,
visible but obscure a s when a man looks through

, ,
the eyelashes o n first awake ni ng T hi s obscure .
brightness app eared to me of an a zure colour but I ,
w a s told afterwar ds that t hi s takes place with variety .
A ft er this something is felt t o be gently rolled from

o ff the face which being done spiritual thought is
, ,
induced Thi s rolling from o ff the face is also an

.
appearance for it is represented thereby that from

,
natural thought he comes into S piritual thought .
The angels are extremely careful lest any idea should

come from the resuscitated that does not savour of
”
love They then tell him that he is a spirit
. .
Having now some idea o f the interme di ate world ,
we must further consider Swedenborg s description of ’
Heaven and Hell the meaning which he attaches to

,
these terms being very diff erent from the sense in

which they are commonl y used He tells us in h is .
,
usual metho di cal manner that Heaven is divided ,
generally into two kingdoms specifically into three ,

”
heavens and par t ic ul arly into innumerable societies
, .
The two kingdoms are distingui shed by the inner

F fu t her d t a i l s o n t hi s ubj ect see Hea ven nd H l l
or r e s a e
pp 4 4 5—
, ,
. 450 .
92 E MAN UEL SWE DENB ORG .
qual ity o f l ove of their inhabitants There are ange l s .
who stand foremost in their love o f God there are

others in whom predominates t h e good of charity
towards the neighbour And because the love o f the
.
Lord is a more interior good and a more interior

love therefore the former are cal led celestial angels
, ,
and the latter in whom a less interior love exis ts

, ,
are called spiritual angels Th us Heaven itself comes .
t o be divided into t w o kingdoms a celestial kingdom ,
and a Spiritual kingdom .
The essential di stinction between the t w o c l asses o f

angels is expressed by Swedenborg in te r ms which
constitute a wonderful angelic psychol o gy pecul iar to ,
the angels it is true but o ne by which we are reminded

,
o f their human origin For what makes them celestial

.
o r spiritual angel s is also what can make us within ,
certain limi ts and under certain conditions celestial ,

”
o r spiritual men Th ese [cel estial " angels says
.
,
Swedenborg , are such because they have received
and do receive Divine Truths immediately into the

l ife and n ot as the S piritual angels into previous
, , ,
memory and thought They therefore have those .
Divine Truths inscribed o n their hearts and perceive ,
them as it were in themselves nor do they ever

, , ,
reason about them whether it be s o o r no

, .
B ecause there is such a distinction between the

angels of the cel estial kingdom and those o f the
spiritual kingdom they are not toget her nor have
, ,
they intercourse with ea ch other There is only co m .
m unica t io n by intermediate angelic societies which

are call ed celestial spiritual through these the celes
-
NE W CHUR CH
-
DO CTRINE . 93
tial kingdom flows into the S piritual Hence it is .
that although Heaven is divided into two kingdo ms

, ,
yet it makes one ”

(H.H 20 . .
Swedenborg describes thr ee heavens a Celestial ,
Heaven a Spiritual Heaven and a Natural Heaven

, , .
This thi rd o r lowest heaven al though called natural

, ,
h a s nothing to do with the natural world Indeed .
it has the celestial and the spiritual within it It is .
therefore called by Swedenborg Spiritual Natural and -
C elestial Natural and s o are al so cal led the angels

-
,
who fill that heaven Those are called spiritual

.
natural who receive influx fr om the second or spiritual .
heaven a nd those are called celestial natural who

,
-
receive influx from the h ighest or celestial heaven .
Thi s explains how while there are o nl y two king

,
doms there are nevertheless three heavens Again

, .
,
there is much delicate psychology in such a co ncep

tion It means that the conformity to the Divine
.
Will which constitut es the lowest or natural heaven

is modified in heaven a s we find it on earth by the
, ,
higher feelings and tendencies of the soul It is the .
eternal di stinction between Martha and Mary b e ,
tween the intellectual and practical activities and

the contemplative love the absorbing aspiration to
,
wards a divine goal intens ely realised .
An interesting point in connection with the heavens

is the social condition of their angelic inhabitants .
Th ey are not assembled together in one place com ,
el l ed to l ive with uncongenial so ul s There a great

p .
,
progress is realised above earthl y con ditions Those .
angels that are in similar good form one society and ,

94 E M ANUEL SWE DEN B ORG .
thus innumerable societies exist whose dis tance from

o ne another is determined by the di ff erence in the
states o f their love They that diff er much are .
widely distan t and they that difier little are but

,
l ittle distant Si m ilarity brings people together an

.
,
ideal condition which indeed recall s earthly t enden

cies but w ithout o ur disappointments and fail ures 1
,
Al l who are in similar good we are told know each , ,
other although they have never see n each other

,
before . This says Swedenborg ,

it h a s some ,
“
times been given me to s ee when I have been in the ,
S pirit and in company with angels Some of t hem .
have then appeared as if known to me from infancy ,
and others as if entirely unknown Those who a p .
r ed as i f I had known them from infancy were

p ea
such as were in a state similar to the state o f my

S pirit ”
.
(H H . .
One conse quence of the life in societies is that in ,
large s ocieties co nsisting perhaps o f thousands o f

an gels all are indeed in similar love but all are no t
, ,
in simi lar wisdom Some government is therefore

.
necessary s o that principles o f hea venl y order m a y

be observed .
In the celes tial kingdom government is called ,
Justice b ecause what is from the good o f love t o

Go d is cal led jus t In the spiritual kingdom govern
.
,
”
ment is called J udgment becaus e the good of ,
charity towards t h e neighbour which rul es there is

the ess ence o f truth Truth is o f j udgment as good
.
,
is o f justice There are various for ms o f government

.
in the spiritual kingdom but a l l agree in this that , ,

NEW C HURC H D O C TRI NE
-
. 95
they regard the public good as the end and in that ,
the good of every indi vidual As to rulers we are .

,
told they are those who excel others in love and

,
wisdom thus who fro m love will t o do good to all

, ,
and from wisdom know how to provide that it shal l

be done They do not make themselves great er than
.
others b ut les s they do not s o much rule and com

mand as minister and serve Generally all angels .
,
delight in service and their life is a constant j oyful

, ,
”
l oving activity The kingdom of the Lord con
.
,
”
cl ud es Swedenborg is a kingdom of uses
,
.
Such descriptions make us thi nk of More s Utopia ’

,
and read a s subtle criticisms of human society and

human governments Yet granted that there is a .
,
divine kingdom where God s Will is done as we

,
’
,
pray that it may also be done upon earth what ,
other forms of associations what other principles of ,
order can exist there

, And what shall we s a y of
Swedenborg s description of divine worship in heaven 2
’
Divine worship in the heavens a s to it s externals

is not unlike divine worshi p on earth but a s to in ,
t er n a l s it is di ff erent Divine worship in the

.
heavens does not consist in frequenting temples and

in listening to preaching but in a life of l ove charity , , ,
and faith accor di ng to the doctrines The preach

, .
ings in the temples serve only a s means of instruction

in matters relating to life In the celestial king
dom the sacred edifices are without magnificence ;
but in the spiritual kingdom they are more o r less
magnificent ”
(
. H H . .
Some of Swedenborg s remarks on the speech o f ’

96 E MANUEL SWE DE N B O RG .
angels are interesting and contain much phil o

,
sophy .
In the univers al hea ven they have all one lan

guage and they all unde rstand each other from what
,
ever society they may b e whether near or distant , .
The language there is not learnt but is inherent ,
with everyone for it flows from their very aff ection

,
and thought Whoever directs his attention to

.
the subj ect may know that every thought is from an

a fiect io n which is of love ; and that the ideas of
,
thought are the vario us forms into whi ch the general

aff ection is distributed For there is no thought
.
o r idea without an a ff ection Hence it is that .
the angel s know the character o f another from his

speech alone and they know a l l things of another s
,
’
life from a few ideas o f his thought because from ,
thence they know his rul ing love The same .
kind of speech that is in the spiritual world is in

herent in every man but in h is interior intellectual
,
part however as with man this does not fall into

,
words analogous to affection ; as with the angels ,
man is not aware that he is in it Yet it is from .
this that when a man comes into the other life he ,
speaks the same language as the spirits and angel s

there and knows thus how to speak without in
,
struction .
We cannot conclude this rapid examin ation o f

Swedenborg s doctrine o f Heaven w i thout quoting
’
an impo rtant passage from hi s great work the A rca na ,
C w les tia which is of interest if we remember when

,
it was written (17 47 inasmuch as it shows a

98 E MANUE L SWE DEN B ORG .
heaven withi n hi m but he whose moral life is onl y

,
natural resting o n self " has no t heaven with in

him . The cas e with C hristians and Gentiles in
the o t h er li fe in fact is this : that Christians w h o
'
, ,
have ackn owl edged the truths o f faith and at the ,
same time have led a good life a re received before

—
,
Gentiles but there are few such at thi s day { this —

was written between 1 7 47 and o n the other
hand Gentiles w h o have lived in obedi ence and in

,
mutual charity are received before Christians w h o

”
have not led s o good a life (A C . . .
Dante in placing popes and pote ntates in his Hel l

,
and some Gentiles in h is P aradise and Cato at the ,
gates o f h is P urgatory woul d seem t o have felt very ,
much as Swedenborg on this momentous question .
B ut he has not formul ated the principle s o di stinctly

and s o forcibly .
Swedenborg s teaching about the Church is no l ess

’
remarkable and renders still clearer his conception o f

,
a practical religion First there is he tells us the

.
, , ,
Chur ch Uni versal The C hurch o f the Lord is

scattered over the whole terrestrial globe and thus is ,
universal Al l they are in it who have lived in the

.
”
good of charity accordi ng t o their religious belief .
( H H
. . Then he explains in another place , ,
the meaning o f that exceedi ng broad statement .
There are many among them [those ignorant o f the

C hristian Religion " w h o from rational light have come
,
t o know that there is one Go d that He created a ll

things and preser ves all things that all good con ,
se quently a l l truth is from Him and that simil itude

, ,
NE W C HUR C H DO C TR INE
-
. 99
with Him m a kes m a n blessed and who l ive more ,
o ver
,
accor di ng to their religious belief in love t o ,
Go d and in charity towards the neighbour ; who

from an aff ection for good do the works o f charity
and from an aff ection for truth worshi p the Supreme .
Men o f such a character among the Ge ntiles are in

the Lord s spiritual Church An d although ignorant
’
.
o f the Lord whil e they are in the world yet they ,
have within them the worship and tacit a ck no w l edg

ment of Him when they are in good for in a ll good
the Lord is present (A O . .
'
.
T his large and li beral conception o f mank ind a s

the u ni versal Church o f Him whose love and tender
mercies are over all His works is not however a
”
, , ,
s urrender o r abando nment of Christian Truth on the

part o f Swedenborg Within the Universal Church
.
with it s many see kers after God if ha ply they mi ght

feel after Him and find Him though He is not far ,
”
from each o ne o f us as P aul told his Athe ni an
,
hearers Swedenborg places what he calls the Specific

,
C hurch that is
,
the Church where the Lord is
,
acknowledged and where the Word is

, E l sewhere .
he says : The C hurch is nowhere els e than where

the Word is rightly understood and such as is the ,
understandi ng o f the Word among those who are in

”
the C hurch such is the C hurch
, (8 S . . .
Yet he is caref ul t o guard agains t the danger o f

formal ism which ever tends to s eparate theory and
practice faith and life in religious systems
, ,
They
that do no t live according to the Word or accord
ing to doctrine fr om the Word so t h at it is the rul e
of l ife are not of the Church but are out of it and

. ,
those w h o l ive in evil thus w h o live contrary to

,
doctrine a re fa rth er o ut o f the C hurch than t h e

,
Gentiles w h o kn ow nothing at a ll of the Word o f ,
the Lord and of the Sacraments For since they

, .
,
know the goods and truths of the Church they e x ,
t inguis h the C hurch with in them which the Ge ntiles ,

”
A
( C
’
cannot d o because they do not know them
,
. . .
An d he concludes The C h urch is o ne

thing and Religion is another Where there is .
doctrine and n o t life it cannot be said that there is

,
either a C hurch or Religion because doctrine looks

,
—
t o life as one with itself j ust as do tr uth and good ,
faith and charity wisdom and love understanding

, ,
and will There is therefore no C hurch where there

.
”
is doctrine and not li fe (A R . . .
Space wi ll not permit us to pl a ce with any detail

before the rea der Swedenborg s most interesting ’
statements about what he deems (not as a private

opinion but as a thing seen and heard
, to have
been the succession of Churches upon thi s earth
since specific prehistoric tim es He discerns five .
great religious crises correspondi ng to as many

C hurches each of which is constituted by the way
,
in which the men of tho s e C hurches di d obey the

divine revelation received by them o f old by di vers
”
portions and in divers manners Thus we have .
the Most Ancient C hur ch symbolis ed as Adamic ;

,
the An cient Church said t o have been established

over Asia and part of Africa symbolis ed as No a h t ic
,
t h e Israel itish Church embodying the teac hi ngs o f

,
’
firififiis r SWEDENB ORG
“
. .
nd a fncw Church He certainl y woul d

f ou .
have repu di ated t he idea o f establishi ng a Sweden

'
”
b o rgia n Ch urch if by that name i s meant another
,
o f those l ittl e s yste ms which have their day and cease
t o be . B ut it must be acknowledged that Sweden

borg although he contented hims elf with writing
,
and publishing his doctrines because he believed that

h e was divinely commanded t o do s o constantly ,
refers in his works t o a new Ch urch that is t o b e .
This Church he says will first begin among a few

, , ,
afte rwards embrace a larger number and finally be ,
filled. This Church will be the cro w n of all t h e

C hurches that have hitherto exis ted upon the ea rth .
At the present day the interior Word has been ,
opened and di vine truths o f a stil l more interior

nature have been thence revealed which are to be of
service t o the New C h urch whi ch wil l be ca l led the ,
”
New Jerusal em And he sa w a reference to that
.
new C hurch in the words o f the Gosp el : I have

yet many things t o s a y unto you but ye cannot ,
bear them no w Howbeit when he the Spirit o f

.
,
”
Truth is come he wil l guide y o u into a ll truth
, , .
( J ohn xvi 12.

,
Th us some years aft er his death earl y readers o f

, ,
his works w h o felt unable t o remain associated with

orthod ox forms and doctrines began t o o rgani se
themselves into societies for worship and study and
the di ffusion o f religious ideas whi ch were then new
t o the world In this way began that New Churc h
.
about whi ch Swedenborg with such strong assurance , ,

”
declared that it woul d first appear among a few .
NE W CHUR C H DO C TRIN E
-
. 1 03
It exists comparatively among a few still although ,
it has commended itself to men of no mean intel lectual

attainments in E urope and in America Through .
the agency of that Church the works of Swedenborg

have been translated for the larger part into E nglish ,
German French Swedish Danish and Italian while

, , , , ,
singl e treatises al ready can be obtain ed in Russian ,
S panish Norwegian Dutch Welsh Icelandic Japan

, , , , ,
ese Arabic Hindi and al so in E speranto

, , ,
.
Of the f uture o f that Church it is not proper for ,
us to speak here Our duty is no t to prophesy but

.
,
simply to record the fact that Swe denb o rg s prophetic ’
utterance h a s so far in a measure been fulfille d in ,
this sense that hi s philosophy and his distinctive

theology are t o day accepted and religiously valued
-
by associated groups o f C hristian people in many

parts of the world .
To our brief reference t o Hea ven must be added

a few words o n Hell al so The fact that Sweden .
borg speaks of Hell and does not see m to make any

reassuring statement as to it s duration has creat ed in
many minds 9 strong prejudice agains t his doctrin e
. .
B ut hi s te ac hi ng o n that dread subj ect is very dif

fer ent from what the word Hell commonl y imp l ies .
First he asserts that evil arose f rom ma n Go d did

,
.
not create evil and never inspires any evil into His
creatures because He is Good itsel f It is man who .
,
h aving been gift ed with free will turns into evil the ,
good which continually flows in from God The love .
o f self and the love o f the world acco rdi ng to Sweden ,
borg constitut e Hell and he thus exp lains how thi s

, ,
104 EMANUEL SWED ENB O RG .
takes pl ace Man was created t o love h imself and

the world t o l ove his neighbo ur and heaven and also
, ,
t o l ove the Lord Hence it is that after man is born

.
, ,
he first loves himself and the world and then in pro ,
portion as he grows wise he loves his neighbour and

heaven and a s he becomes more wise he loves the
,
I
Lord When this is the cas e then m an is in divine

.
,
order and is l ed o f t h e Lord actually and of himself ,
apparently B ut in so far as he is not wise he abides

.
,
in the first degree which is t o love himse l f and the

,
world and if he lov es his neighbour heaven and the

, , ,
Lord it is for the sake o f himself before the worl d

,
.
An d if he is altoget her unwise then he loves himself ,
alone and the world and his neighbo ur for the sake
,
o f himsel f These are the origin s o f the love o f

.
self and the love o f the world and as these l oves

*
,
are hell it is evident whence hell is

, (A E . . .
1 1 44 )
in man is hell in him for whether we speak
E vil ,
o f evil or of hel l it is the same Now since man is

, .
,
in the cause o f his own evil he therefore and not , ,
the Lord brings himsel f into hell

, All man s .
’
will and love remains with him after death he

w h o in the world wills and l oves a n evil wil l s and ,
loves the same evil in the other lif e and then he ,
no longer s ufiers himse lf t o be withdrawn from it .
Hence it is that a man who is in evil is bound t o

hell a n d even a s to his spirit is act ually ther e
, , , ,
In f ern a l .
v
fir e i s t h e l o e o f s el f an d of th e w o rl d . a n d
t her e fo re ev er y l us t w i c h h
co m es fro m t h os e lo ves .
”
(H
. H .
1 06 EMANUEL SWE DENB ORG .
This seems t o imply the doctrine of everl asting

punishment but here the cause o f that everlasting
,
fate is reversed It is not God who decrees that it

.
shal l be everlasting but the creature who clinging , ,

”
with loving delight t o the evil which is hell in him ,
prefers t o have it s o It is not God who casts into .
”
hell that is who inspires that evil love ; it is the evil
, ,
m a n himsel f w h o desires noth ing more than to be

where his evil is ”
We see enough o f such evil pro
.
en s it ies here on ea r th enough o f those strange and

p ,
inexplicable aversions to all order goodness and ,
truth often beyond the reach of moral assistance and

,
example and only modera t ed in their outbursts by

fear t o be able at least to conceive s imi lar states
,
beyond the grave such states may well be described

as hell whether here o r t here
,
.
The difficulty has always been t o rec oncil e such

states cons idered as unchangeable and for ever uh
alterable with the good ness and wisd om o f God It .
looks like a permanent defeat o f that goodness and

wisdom On the other han d can we speak of duration
.
,
in a sphere o f existence where time a nd space ceas e

to be what they are at present to us Apart from
real time how can we a s k the meaning of an un ending
,
hell 2 I do not s a y of an unen ding p unis h m en

of o n ci n e ;
c s f e th y w ho
c re i n h l l h ve n
or e co ns c i nce
a e a o e ,
and t h f o ca n n o t b e o t o m en t d
e re re (A C s r e . . .
T h e t o rm en t d
oes n o t a r s e f r o m i
r ef o n ac co un t o f t h e gi
evi l t e h y h v
a e d o n e , b ut f ro m t h e f a c t t h a t t e ca nn o t d o h y
evi hi d i h h i li ”
l , f or t s is t h e el g t o f t e r fe (A C . . .
i h ld
To b e w t h e h i vil l v
[ f ro m t e r e o es " is t o b e t o r m e n t e d .
S uc h a res t r a i n t i s t h e c o m m o n to rm en t of hell . o ut of w h i ch
inn um er a b l e o t h e rs a r i se
”
(A E . . .
NE W CHUR C H DO C TRINE
-
. 107
because in the doctrine o f Swedenborg punishment

, ,
is an occasional form o f restraint and not an essenti a l

,
part o f hi s conception of hell He says in fact .
( A. C 8.232 ) They who had pu n ished and tor

m ent ed others [ other evil spirits in hell " are in turn
puni shed and tormented by others and this unt il a t ,
l ength s uch a rdo ur a ba tes f r om f ea r of p uni s h me nt

, .
When such ardour abates evidently puni shment ,
ceases also and here we have at any rate some escape

,
from the awful thought o f everlasting pu ni shment .
N 0 o n e before Swedenborg had said anyt hing s o

defini te on that subj ect Still there remains that
.
unchangeable st ate of the will after death God

m a d e that will free .
The di fficul ty is caused by our inability to s ee how

God could t urn that will t o Hi mself by aff ecting its
freedom without altering the very nature of the
,
human spirit Swedenborg apparently w a s not

.
shown that and he could therefore onl y say what he

,
h a s said Mr Howard Spalding has a very striking

. .
passage bea ring upon t hi s quest ion in his S p i ritua l

Wor l d p 9 5 He says
, . . It is possible to conceive
o f a very high order of external civi lisation exhibiting ,
the most polished f orms of human intercourse and ,
apparently a high regard for the public good whi ch ,
woul d nevertheless have self for it s central motive and

, ,
therefore be ess entially infernal in its nature Such de .
v el o m ent s may be possible in Hell If they are

p p o
. s
sible and if they would be beneficial they will come ;

, ,
”
for the Lord is inexhaustible unchanging Mercy ,
.
We must no w leave thos e regions o f the ot h er

10 8 EMAN UE L S WE DEN B O RG .
world and return t o th is earthly sphere to cons ider

,
wha t Swedenborg has to say of man of his soul and , ,
o f t h e relations between the soul and the body .
His conception o f the soul diff ers o n many points

from the views general ly held by his contemporaries .
The soul for hi m is a unity but o ne which does no t

,
e xclude multiplicity no t onl y o f faculties but a l so

,
o f degre es establishing a s ort o f hierarchy amo ng
those fa culties The so ul is a substance fo r it has

.
,
existence and it is also a form by which Swedenborg

, ,
d oes no t mean a shape In phi losophic langu a ge

.
,
essence would be the correlative to form ess ence ,
being that which makes anything t o be what it is a nd ,
form being that in which and by which the thi ng has

existence The soul o f man then is a spiritual sub
.
, ,
stan ce and form but a form ad m itti ng in the depths

,
o f substance o f various degrees one being more ih ,
t erio r than another but each existing subsisting from

, ,
another Such are fo r instance the human will the

.
, , ,
understanding the memory o r the facul ty o f speech

, , ,
all those degrees o r forms having a distinct perf ection

accordi ng to their capacity o f receiving life whether ,
proximately o r remotely from the o ne source o f li fe

, ,
the Life o f God That is Swedenborg s funda mental

.
’
philosophical conclusion From thi s he goes o n t o

.
sa y that man is s o made as t o be at the s ame time in
the spiritual a nd in the natural world Therefore .
his spirit is interiorly related t o the spiri tual world ,
and outwardly through the body to the natural

, ,
world the body itself being merely a superadd ed form

,
d estined to be al together and perm an entl y rej ected

1 10 EMANUE L SWE DE N B O RG .
internal there are thousands of thin gs which in t h e

external appear a s one general thing s o that thought ,
and perception are clearer in proportion as they are

more interior Th is is a profound truth the same
.
,
truth which Wordsworth expressed when he wrote

that
Th e m ea nes t fl o w er t ha t bl o w s ca n give
”
Th o ught s t ha t d o o fte n l i e t o o d ee p fo r t e a rs .
According t o Swedenborg the human spirit pre

,
sents three dis c r ete degrees the natural the spiritual

, , ,
and the celestial How and in what order do these

.
degrees work " When a man is born we are told he , ,
comes first into the natural degree and this increases ,
within him o n that continuous plane according to

his knowledge a nd the understanding acquired
thereby t o the hi ghest point o f understanding which
, ,
Swedenborg calls the Rational .
B ut yet the second or sp iritual degree is not thereby

O pe ned This is opened by the love o f Us es another
.
,
characteristic expression const antly found in h is

writings He defines it thus
. That which con
duces t o use is t o know what is good and tru e and ,
that which is o f us e is to will a n d do it To do .
truths is to perform uses ”

(A
. C 5 2 93 ; D L. W . . . .
His doctrine of Uses has a universal applica

tion fr om God t o man and from man t o Go d B ut .
we may not dwell here o n that vast question We sa y .

,
then that the second or spiritual degree is opened

,
by the love o f us es a spiritual l ove manifested in a

,
l ove towards our neighbour .

N E W C HUR C H
-
D O C TRINE . 1 11
B ut the third celestial degree still remains

or
closed It is only opened by a celestial love of us e

.
,
which is love to God Himself Now what is that .

,
love and h o w is it known 4 That love is expressed

,
"
in a life showing forth in a livi ng way the divine pre

cept To shun evil and to do good from the highest
m otive i e because we love s o to live and know that
, . .
love to be divine Thus in the successive opening

.
,
of those three degrees we are initiated into the

mystery of the soul s ascent from darkness to light’
from the lower regions of the earthl y to the resplendent

summits of goodness and truth realised in love A .
man says Swedenborg knows nothing of the openi ng

, ,
of those degrees within him s o long as he lives in the

world B ut when a man puts o ff the natur al degree
.
( which he does when he dies ) he comes into the ,
degree that w a s opened within him in the world .
There is one question of special interest of which

a few words must be said namely the relations b e , ,
tween the intell ect and the will in the human mi nd .
The love and w i sdom which proceed from God as

Life into the soul of man according to Swe denborg , ,
proceed from God a s one but they are not received ,
into the soul as one They are o nl y received sepa .
r a t el y and gradually into the human understanding
and will An d this is a matter of the highest mo

.
ment ; for if the u ndersta n ding coul d no t be sepa

ra t el y perfected and the will by means o f it a man
, ,
woul d be practica lly in the position of an a nimal .
Man s understanding being under the do mi na tion

’
,
o f h is will would be at the mercy o f hi s desires

, he
1 12 E MANUE L SWED E NB O RG .
woul d not b e able t o act from reason but only from

a form o f instinct and consequently the will o f man
, ,
not being in any way modified curbed by an under ,
standing illuminated by it s own cognitions of tru t h ,
the most disastrous consequences must inevitably fo l

l o w since instinct in man is no longer as in ani mal s
, , ,
a safe and constant guide .
“
Yet,
it is accord ing to divine order that good
which is o f the wil l and truth which is o f the under
,
standing should be conj oined ih the soul and n o t

,
”
separated that they should be o ne and not two
, .
We cannot conceive o f any real perfection in a man

whose underst anding says o ne thi ng and whose will
tends t o another thing In the perfected man the
.
,
will and the understanding make trul y o ne mind .
”
B ut this union this marriage in the soul is a con
, ,
summation It is not s o from the beginning Never

. .
t h el ess it must never be forgotten that the will ,
rather than the understan ding constitutes the man , ,
and this is the reaso n why it is s o ess ential that the

un derstanding should b e capable o f an independent
perfection of its o w n Love says Swedenborg is
.
, ,
what distinguishes for every man is h is o w n love

,
.
Wisdom is but the form of love What tends t o .
deceive us in thi s is that the understanding can be

elevated above the quality o f the will and appear ,
outwardl y as the supreme facul ty in man Unfo r .
t una t el y experience teaches us h o w little even the

,
hi ghest geni us in a man wi l l show us what that man s ’
moral nature reall y is The attitude o f the will the

.
,
upward o r downward gl an ce o f his spirit i f we may ,

114 E MANUEL SWE DEN B ORG .
do good works and that they think of nothing l ess

,
than o f merit by them F o r this is of the ne w w il l .
w hic h is gi ven by the Lo r d to tho se w ho a re regenera ted.

”
That w il l is indeed the Lord s in man
’
.
Then we have his criterion of character by whi ch

he urges every man t o exami ne his o w n life It .
see ms very simple both in thought and l an guage

, ,
but it is the perfect expression o f h is great principle ,
which is as the Creed o f the faith that was in him ,
namely that All religion has rel ation to life and

, ,
”
the li fe of reli gion is to do good .
He puts the question : How may a man know

which he is among whether among the infernal ,
spirits o r the angelic 2 And h is answer is t hi s :

If he intends evil t o his neighbour think s noth ing ,
but evil o f him and actuall y does evil when he ca n

, ,
and finds delight in it he is am ong the infernals and

,
even becomes an infernal in the other life ; but if

he intends good t o his neighbour and thinks nothing
but good o f him and actually does good when he
,
can he is among the angelic and becomes an angel

, ,
t o o in the other life This is the criterion Let. .
”
everyone examine himself by it (A C . . .
An d thus he concludes : Love lif e works with , , ,
e very m a n make o n e s o that whether you s a y love

, ,
o r life or works it is the same

,
As h a s been already .
shown love constitutes the l ife o f man and his lif e

, ,
is such as his love If the works are evil it

.
,
follows that there is no faith o f t ruth in him but a

faith o f falsity fo r evil and fal sity cohere b ut no t ,
evil and truth B ut i f the works are goo d it foll ows

.
,
NE W C HUR C H DO C TRINE
-
. 1 15
that there is a faith o f truth for good and truth

,
mutually love each other and conj oin B ut if a .
man s works in the external form appear good and

’
,
yet he is interiorly evil it follows that his is a faith

,
o f fal sity
,
however with hi s mouth he may spea k
—
truth but tr uth that is conta mi nated with evil from
”
hi s interior .
(A E . .
Al l t hi s is summed up in these words taken from

S wedenborg s S pi r itua l Dia ry in whi ch he noted hi s
’
,
most intimate thoughts and reflections Love is

t h e fundam ental principl e from whi ch and by whi c h
”
h eaven e xists .
CHAP TER I V .
C ON CLU S I ON .
THIS brief summary the l ife a n d teac hi ng o f

of
'
Eman uel Swedenborg whi ch we have as much as

, ,
possible given in his o w n words will perhaps suffice

, ,
t o supply the reader with a general idea of the man

and o f his thoughts It is almost impos sible t o ex
.
press in a few pages the full contents of his numerous

works but we have perhaps said enough to S how
,
that Swedenborg as an original thinker and as a

,
religious reformer deser ves a place among the men

,
who have honestly laboured for the a dvancement of

human civilisation and the progress o f human ideals .
As a man o f science his claims are t o day generally

,
-
recognised ; as a philosopher it is more and more

,
seen that his views far from being Obsol ete either
, ,
in their fundamental principles or in their tendencies ,
are o n the contrary strangely modern in many r e

, ,
s p ect s
, and if in his o w n day h is views did not
, ,
attract the atte ntion which is accorded to them at

the present time the reason evidently is that they
,
were addressed t o a worl d whi c h was not yet pre

1 18 E MANUEL SWE DENB ORG .
about them ) Thus the key is O btained for a better

“
understandi ng of the doctrines and the difficulty o f ,
reading the original texts is thereby greatly dimin

is h ed .
Moreover t o o much wil l no t be made o f th at

,
difficul ty in the case o f Swedenborg if it is remem ,
bered how O fte n the same difficulty is experienced

in studyi ng the works o f other famous philos oph ers .
Descartes in spite o f his beautiful Fr ench styl e is

, ,
not al ways easy t o f oll ow ; Kant is anyt h ing but

c l ear in many pl a ces ; and we a re grateful for any
help we can Obtain in reading Fichte Schell ing o r , ,
Hegel Generally S peaking it is the subject which

.
,
is the true cause o f o ur trouble rather than the

author himself and as regards Swedenborg we may ,
well forgive hi m for the trouble he gives us in co n

sideration of the broader outlook o n life o n human ,
thought and o n religion which we can derive from a

,
study o f his writings Such men as S T C oleridge . . .
the poet Thoma s C arlyle C oventry Patmore Robert

, , ,
B rowning Emerson and many others have felt this

, , , ,
and while reserving the independence o f their judg

,
ment have freely expressed their adm iration for the

,
man and the philosopher .
Many thoughtful min ds in Spite o f any obj ections ,
which they may entertain to some Of the theological

implications o f Swedenborg s philosophy are di sposed ’
,
to r ec o gnise the position whi ch that philosophy oco n

0
Mo s t of t ho s e w o rk s a re p ubl i s hed by t h e S w ed en bo rg
S oc ie t y , a nd ma y b e o b t a i ned at the S oc iet y s ’
B o o k s ho p .
1 B l o o m s ur b y S t r eet ,W .
C O NCLUSION . 11 9
pies tod ay as a factor in the intellectual movement

whi ch seems t o be leadi ng modern s cience in the
direction O f more spiritual ideals If S O there is .
,
ample j ustification for the vi ew of many dist inguished

students o f Swedenborg that the time has come t o
,
pay more serious attention to his philosophy I n .
deed the times ih which we live seem to support

,
that conclus ion Underlying the social unr est so

.
characteristic o f this age there is a deeply felt need

,
o f certain foundation truths w hi ch men at present

-
vainl y look for where their forefathers had found

satisfaction and peace To o vague appear to be the
.
answers t o o ur anxious questionings Yesterday it .

,
was some kind o f material istic Moni sm ; to day it ,
is Pragmatism ; t o morrow we are told it is t o be

-
, ,
B ergsonism I S it not therefore natural that we

.
S houl d desire t o become more ful ly acquainted with

a philosophy whi ch has al so much t o sa y o n the unity
o f substance like Moni sm
,
o n the practical applica
tions Of First Princip l es t o human l ife l ike P rag ,
m a t is m ; and on mi nd in its re l ation t o cerebral

activity l ike B ergsonism
,
P erhaps we shall be reminded that as it has O ften ,
been said that P lat o s phil osophy was no t s o much

’
a phil osophical system a s t h e intrusion o f a rel igious

conviction the same may al so be said o f Swedenborg
,
.
N O doubt in thi s woul d l ie for certain mi nds the

, , ,
c h ief imperfection o f those t w o grea t thinkers B ut .

,
a s regards Emanuel Swedenborg whi le it must cer ,
t a inl y be admi t t ed that his inmost thought s were

instinct with rel igious conviction that conviction in ,
120 EMANUEL S WE DE NB O R G .
him w a s as clea r and definite as it was in Plato vague

and undefined . Hence Swedenborg s phil osophy
,
’
,
whatever may be thought o f it as a solution o f the

problems o f life ca n at any rate in n o way be con
, , ,
s id e red as a disgui sed intruder it w as Openly meant

t o be as the B eauti fu l Gate O f a gl orio us temp l e not
”
made with hands .
From the day when Swedenborg believed h imsel f

t o have been called from a p h ilosophy o f thought t o
a philosophy of life every page he wrote bore the
,
mark o f that lofty ideal ; hi s religious aim was t o

substitute t o a mere worship of the lips a true worship
o f Use through a living sympathy with the needs o f
t h e human soul and a practical application of rationa l

and spiritual truths to the conditions o f human life
every e ff ort O f his untiring energy was directed t o the
realisation of a r egenerated social state in Humanity
by the power o f spiritual ends made clearer by the

removal o f fal se ideas superstitious traditions and
, ,
selfish habits D oes no t perhaps in this lie the secret

.
, ,
o f his quiet but continuous influence —the persistence
o f which mere inte ll ectual e mi nence can hardly suffice
t o explain 2
1 22 EMANUEL S WE DEN B ORG .
Spaldi ng ,
J . Howard The S p i r it ua l or ld W as de
s cr ibed i n t he W ri t i ngs of E S w eden bo rg
. .
(Fred
erick Warne CO .
,
B ayley Rev Dr
, The Di vi ne
. . Wo rd Op ened .
(Me
mori a l E dition ) .
B uss Rev James F

,
. The S ta r . i n the Ea s t a nd o ther
S t ud ies i n Doctr i ne a nd S p i r it ua l I nterp reta tio n .
Warren Rev Samuel M A C o m pend i um of the The

,
. . o
lo gica l Writ i ngs of E ma nuel S w eden bo rg .
P otts , Rev Faulkner B A The S w eden bo rg C on

. J .
, . .
co rda nce B ased on the original Latin writings

.
of the author .
Richer E dward The Rel igio n of C om mo n S ens e

, .
[ Translated fro m the Frenc h "

INDEX .
AQU INAS , St . Th o m as , 4 2 . H ell , 8 3, 1 0 3- 10 7 .
Ho p k en , Co un t , 20 , 24 , 35 .
B ARRE TT S ir Willi m 75 , a , .
B e r g s o n H en r i 7 5 1 1 9
, , , . K AN T, 1 5 , 44 , 1 18 .
B y s e Pa s t o Cha r les 69
, r , .
LA P L AC E , 15 .
CALV IN 67 , . Le ib n it z , 14 , 21 .
C n o n o f H o ly S crip t ur e 62
a , . Life , n a t u re o f , 39 .
Ch rit y d o ct in e o f 1 13
a , r , . Linn aeu s , 36 .
Ch a l XI I o f S w ed en 1 1
r es .
, . Lo t ze , 7 9 .
Ch ild en in H v en 8 9
r ea , .
Ch ur ch 9 8 —1 0 3 MA L E B RAN C HE 42 .
Ma t t er o r ig in o f 48 —
.
, ,
Co rr es po n d n ce La w o f 5 8 e , , , , 50 , .
59 . Ma u ds ley Dr 7 5 , .
, .
C o u sin , Vict o r , 4 3 .
NYRE N , Dr . Ma gnus , 15 .
D E GR E E S , d o ct ri n e o f , 54 .
D e s ca rt es , 4 2 , 7 7 . OR IGE N , 65 , 66 .
F E RE LI U S , R ev E . .
, 27, 28 . PA S C AL, 20, 24 .
GE N E RATION , s p o nt a n eo us , R E T" IU S , Pro f . Dr . Gus t a f,

43 . 19 .
R us kin , Jo hn , 1 1 3 .
H ALD ANE , Dr . of Ox fo rd , 5 3,
75 . S E WALL , R ev Dr Fra nk , 1 5,
. .
H ea v en , 9 3-9 8 . 58 .
1 24 INDE X .
Spa ldin g H o w ar d 1 0 7
, , . TI ME a nd s pa ce , 44 .
Sp iri t is m 25 —2 7 7 3
, , .
S un s p ir it ua l a n d na t ura l
, , U LR I C A E LE O N O RA, Queen, 12 .
U s es , d o c t rin e o f, 1 10 .
S w eden bo rg , Em a n uel , hi s
fa m ily 10
, . VO LTAIRE , 20 .
E ND .
IN GR E AT
T HE PBOPLE S B OOKS ’
Co n t i n ued ) .
B y S id y D k
fifii i
5‘ h l i D iCk en s ne ar .
a c t o a r y 0 f s y no n m s y B y Au i K G y B A
iil
st n . ra .
H
.
6x o me R
. e By L G R d m d H d e on ow ar
P i y
.
B y H M ph
. .
62 ra ct c a l A s t r o no m
. .
Jac e rs o n , r. ,
6s A fi a t l o n s e 0 B y S F W lk R N M I E E
. a er, .
N vig i
. .
B y W i ll i m H ll R N B A
.
, . .
a . a t on a a
P o n d Li fe
.
' .
By E 0 A h M R A C
.
. s . .
Die t e t i
.
, .
By Al x B M D D P H
.
cs e . cc ,
A ri t o tl e
. . .
,
s B y P f A T yl M A F B A
ro . a o r,
F ri e dri ch N ie t z s ch e
. . . . .
By M A M
B u k e n : P hil o s o ph o f l e
. .
J MA B S
B y C {6 V l i B
c .. A . Ph D
o nes . c
E x p e im e n t a l P
.
o l o g y o f B e a ut y
.
hA
, .
,
Trut hh
r a e n t ne ,
T h e P r o b l em
.
B y H Wi ld C
. on a rr .
Chur h f E n l nc o a . By R C ev . M m a no n a s t er an .
A n gl C t h o- c d a By A E M i g F an n n - o s t e r.
H c nd Mi s io n o f t h e Free C hurch es
m
. .
a s B y R Ed d Shilli M A
e v. w ar to . .
By E L vi M A
,
Ism e ne ,
hy
. .
sop By A i B nn e e s a nt .
W lli g
e n t o n a nd W a t er o o l By M G W R d
a or . e w a .
i v l i is m By
.
M ed a e a S o c a l J e O P I A
a r re t t , .
, . .
By H H l y M A
.
y di iS n ca l s m . ar e , . .
i
C c-o p e r a t o n By o sep h Cl y a t o n.
In u ra n c e
s M ea ns o f I nv es t m e nt
as a By A R b uF F A o e rt s o n , . . .
A His Of E n gl is h Lit er a t ur e By A C m t Ri k M A LL D
C h a r let a b
. . o on c ett ,
.
, .
s B y Fl o ra a ss o
Go e e B y P f C H H f d Li t D
ro . . er o r , t .
T ra in i n g o f t h e Chil d A Pa ren t s
.
’
M n ua l a .
.
B y G S pill
. er .
T en n s o n By A Wt
a ro n a s o n.
The t ur e o f M a t hem t ics

a a By P E B J u d i M A
. . . o r a n, . .
l ic a t i n o f E l e c t rici t y fo r N o n
} By A C il B t l t t
A
h n ic l Rea de rs
ec
o
a
s
By A le xa nd O gilvi B Sc er e, . .
9 6 Ga r d n in g e . . ec ar e .
S Chi h l m
.
V e t a b l e G r deni g a n By . . s o .
A o f t h e W o ld r By B t h l m
. ar o o ew
By n d D A g t M A
,
n o r.Lu t h r a nd t h R e f o m t i n
e e r a o ar . a e, . .
10 3 T u r k e y a n d t h e E t e rn u
Qn e t i o n as s B y h n M d n ld M A
o ac o a . . .
4 A r chit ect u r e ( 8 Illu t r a t i o By A t hu B ll

.
10 ) 10 s s rs . r r e .
V 10
5 T a de U ni ns
r o B y p h Cl yt n
ose a o .
10 6 E ve ry da y La w B y J Ad m
. . a s.
ui v
.
ro q R o b e r t L o s S t e e n on s li
os a M ne a s s o n.
B y yd W t l M A
.
i L S h ll e y
g
ne a er o w
ik
re e , . .
ra n B ri t i h B i ds
. s r y B i k m B A r a n, . .
xxx. S pir i t u a l i m s J A t h u Hill

r r .
By T M m b f t h N a t i na l
.
K in de g a r t e n T e a hin g a t Ho m e
wo e e rs o e o
F eb l U i
3 1 2. r c
ro e n o n.
S h n h u er By M g i t B M A
ar r e a ee r ,
g k
11 3 c o e a . .
h F Wh l
.
t o c E xc
gL B n u n
1 : 4 T . a ng e By . ee e r.
u s C o l e ridg e . e s sa .
By M M C C lth mp
‘
T h e C r u a d es
.
1 1 6. s . . . a .
B y M g g Sk B Sc
.
1 1 7 W ild F lo er s ( g Il lu t t i o ns )
w zo s ra ac re or e ne , . .
P rinci l e o f L o gic B y S t nl y Will i m B A

.
1 1 8. a
s a e s, . .
By St l y A C k M A
.
1 19 . F o un ti f R l igi o n
o ns o e an e . oo . .
B y A F G il M A ( E d i & Ox n
,
1 20 A Hi t o ry f R o m e
s o . . es , . . n. o .
By F dk V i d
.
L n d In dus t y n d T a x a t io n
.
m s. a r a re . er n er.
1 22 C a n da a
, ,
By F d F i f d
or a r or .
B y L Wi t n l y M A
.
To l t ns a e
Gr ee k yit e a t u e
1 23 s o .
B y H J W T il l y d M A
.
. ,
1 2 4. r r . ar ,
. .
B y P iv l Hi l m
. . .
‘
t l $~ Th e N a vy f T d y o o- a e rc a s a .
1 2 8. A F r e n ch S e l f T u t o r - By W M C h o na c e r.
B y W T W gh Mi A
. .
129 Ge r m a n y . . au , . .

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C ONTE NTS .

MO S T educated people have heard somet h in g about

know little more than the name o f that truly great

mysticism with spiritual istic e xperiences with dreams

and visions and much that is suppo sed to be in

thos e w h o have taken some trouble to become

philosophical and theological works are disposed to

assert that he was no t a mystic in the proper sense

more o r less doubtful forms o f intercourse with

d i f f er ent fr o m w h at w e read o f 111 mediaeval l i v es o f

sa nts : i t ust h e r ef ore pr oposed that we shoul d con

sider here Swedenborg s life and work brieﬂy yet

sufﬁciently t o enable us to realise his rightful place

tion o f his theological teaching t o modern rel igious

Emanuel Swedenborg was born at Sto c kholm o n

o f Dr J esper Swedberg at that time a preacher to

the C ourt of King Charles XI o f Sweden later a .

Dean and Professor o f Theol ogy at Upsala and later ,

still B ishop of Skara in West Go t hl a nd His mother .

Sarah B ehm was the daughter o f Al brec ht B ehm

As sessor in the Royal C ollege o f Mines .

Great ca re was bestowed by B ishop Swedberg upon

Uni versity o f Upsala in 1 69 9 he remained there as a ,

student until his twenty ﬁrs t year being special l y

assisted and encouraged by hi s brother in law E ric - -

B er zelius a distingui shed s cholar while he devoted

himself with much zeal t o the study o f mathematics

In 1 7 09 he took his degree o f Doctor of P hilosophy

a n d soon after started o n a tour of nea rly ﬁve yea rs ,

going ﬁrst t o England where he remained about t w o

years principall y at London and O xford He there

made the acquainta nce o f Flams teed and Halley ,

studied Newton daily as he wrote t o hi s brother in

law and began his career as an inventor hi s fertil e

brain being engaged together with the study o f

higher mathematics and physics upon such subj ects ,

a s the production of a ﬂying machi ne a quick ,

ﬁr ing gun an air pump and a submarine war

From England Swedenborg passed t o the Continent ,

and resided for two more years in France Holland , ,

and Germany retur ni ng at last t o Sweden in 1 7 15

through Stralsund just a s King C harles XI I w a s

about to be besieged in tha t city .

In 1 7 18 Swed enborg w a s invited by the celebrated

sund was then staying The King seems to have

taken much interest in Swedenborg whom he a p ,

pointed Ass essor E xtraordinary in the Royal Col lege

Polhem in hi s mecha ni cal works .

Thus it is that o ur young engineer came t o execute

mountains and valleys on rolling machines o f hi s

own invention two galleys ﬁve large boats and a

sloop from St r o m s t a dt t o I der fj o l d a distance of ,

nearly seventeen miles Under cover of these vessels

the King brought his heavy art illery whi ch could ,

not possibly have been conveyed by road under the ,

very walls o f Fr edericks h a ll .

In the same year Swe denborg brought out a work

o n algebra the ﬁr st treatise on that branch of mathe

maties published in the Swedis h l anguage Indeed .

algebra was s o l ittl e known in the country that

S wedenborg fear ed he would ﬁnd no capable of o ne

correcting the printer s proofs He also pub l ished a

book entitled A tt emp ts to fw d the Lo ngit ude of P la ces