A considerable part of this work was first published by the author, under a different arrangement, in the Arcana Coelestia. The editors of this edition have therefore been careful to discover and examine the parallel passages in the translation of that work; and they are happy to be able to state, that, where the original in both works is entirely the same, they have had little more to do than to transcribe the version of the Arcana Coelestia, the fidelity of which is such that they have seldom ventured to deviate from it. One peculiarity in the following work it may be necessary to explain. It is well known to the readers of the writings in the original, that the author uses a great number of adjectives in the neuter gender as substantives. One of the most common of these is the neutral adjective Divinum, which in some of the translated works is rendered by the English substantive Divinity, and in others by the adjective Divine, with the addition of the expletive substantives [being or principle]. The former translation is not adopted in the following work, because the editors conceived that had the author intended to convey exactly the same idea as is conveyed by the English substantive Divinity, he would have used the corresponding substantive Divinitas, which in this work occurs but twice (at n. 289), where it is used simply to signify the Deity: and on the other hand they were apprehensive that the use of expletive substantives might have a tendency to introduce extrinsic ideas not intended to be conveyed by the simple term of the author, and which it is desirable to avoid respecting so sacred a subject. In the following work, therefore, except where the original translation has been inadvertently retained, Divinum is simply rendered the Divine; a latinism which has indeed an unusual sound to English ears, but which is not altogether unprece dented. Thus writers on criticism and the arts use many adjectives in a similar manner; as the sublime, the beautiful, the picturesque, the pathetic, the profound, and several others: an authority which may be sufficient to evince that though the adjective used absolutely is not common in our language, it is yet not altogether foreign to its genius. But whether these reasons for the editor's practice may appear satisfactory or not, no inconvenience can result from it after this explanation. The work is submitted, with great deference, to the church and to the public. May the divine blessing render it useful. |