for the motion of the blood, Blumenbach has the following remark: When the blood is expelled from the contracted cavities, a vacuum takes place, into which, according to the common laws of derivation, the neighboring blood must rush, being prevented, by means of the valves, from regurgitating.' In the notes, this discovery is attributed to Dr. Wilson, the author of An Inquiry into the Moving Powers employed in the Circulation of the Blood. But it appears that the same principle was known long before to Swedenborg; and is applied by him to account for the motion of the blood, in the Economia Regni Animalis. For in the section on the circulation of blood in the fœtus, and on the foramen ovale, he says, 'Let us now revert to the mode by which the cerebrum attracts its blood, or, according to the theorem, subtracts that quantity which the ratio of its state requires. If now these arteries, veins, and sinus are dilated by reason of the animation of the cerebrum, it follows, that there must necessarily flow into them thus expanded, a portion of fresh blood, and that indeed by continuity from the carotid artery, and its tortuous duct in the cavernous receptacles, and into this by continuity from the antecedent expanded and circumflexed cavities of the same artery; consequently from the external (or common) carotid, and thence from the aorta and the heart; nearly similar to a bladder or syphon full of water, one end of which is immersed in the fluid; if its sides be dilated, or its surface stretched out, and more especially if its length be shortened, an entirely fresh portion of the fluid flows into the space thus emptied by the enlargement; and this experience can demonstrate to ocular satisfaction. Now this is the beneficial result of a natural equation, by which nature, in order to avoid a vacuum, in which state she would perish, or be

annihilated, is in the constant tendency towards an equilibrium, according to laws purely physical. This mode of action of the brains, and their arterial impletion, may justly be called physical attraction; not that it is attraction in the proper signification of the term, but that it is a filling of the vessels from a dila-. tion or shortening of the coats, or a species of suction such as exists in pumps and syringes. A like mode of physical attraction obtains in every part of the body; as in the muscles, which having forcibly expelled their blood, instantly require a re-impletion of their vessels.' In another part, 458, he says, 'There exists a great similitude between the vessels of the heart, and the vessels of the brains, so much so, that the latter cannot be more appropriately compared with any other. 4. The vessels of the cerebrum perform their diastole, when the cerebrum is in its constriction, and vice versa; so also the vessels of the heart. 5. In the vessels of the cerebrum there is a species of physical attraction or suction, such as that of water in a syringe; and this too is the case with the vessels of the heart, for in these, by being expanded and at the same time shortened, the blood necessarily flows, and that into the space thus enlarged.' Swedenborg says also, that it is this constant endeavor to establish a general equilibrium throughout the body, which determines its various fluids to every part, whether viscus or member, and which being produced by exhaustion, the effect is such a determination of the blood, or other fluid, as the peculiar state of the part requires.'

Had Swedenborg been desirous of fame, he would have made a different use of his knowledge. He regarded scientific knowledge only as means of becoming wise. Speaking, in the Economia, of those who are in pursuit of genuine wisdom, he says: "They

reckon the sciences and the mechanical arts, only among the ministers of wisdom, and they learn them. as helps to their attainment, not that they may be reputed wise on account of their possessing them. They modestly restrain the external mind in its tendency to be elated and puffed up, because they perceive the sciences to form an ocean, of which they can only catch a few drops. They look at no one with a scornful brow or the spirit of superiority; nor do they arrogate any of their attainments to themselves. They refer all to the Deity, and regard them as gifts from him from whom all true wisdom springs as from its fountain.'

The Animal Kingdom (Regnum Animale) is divided into three parts. The two first were printed at Amsterdam, in 1744, and the third at London, in 1745; they make together a thick quarto volume. The first part treats of the Viscera of the Abdomen, the second of the Viscera of the Thorax, and the third of the Organs of Sense.

When he commenced this work it appears that it was his intention to have written a very large work ; for besides the above named subjects he promised the following:

6

It is my purpose afterwards to attempt a kind of Introduction to a Rational Psychology, or to establish some new Doctrines, by the aid of which we may be led from the material organization of the body to the knowledge of the soul, which is immaterial; viz. the Doctrine of Forms; the Doctrine of Order, and of Degrees; also the Doctrine of Series, and of Society; the Doctrine of Influxes; the Doctrine of Correspondences and of Representations; lastly, the Doctrine of Modification.

'From these doctrines I shall afterwards proceed to a Rational Psychology itself, or to a Treatise con

cerning Action; concerning External and Internal Sense; concerning Imagination and Memory; as also concerning the Affections of the Mind (animus); concerning Intellect, or concerning Thought and Will; concerning likewise the Affections of the Rational Mind (mens); and concerning Instinct.

6

Lastly, concerning the Soul and its State in the Body, its Commerce, Affection, Immortality; also concerning its State after the Life of the Body; to which will finally be added the Concordance to the various Systems.

This purpose was not carried into effect, at least, not in the form here expressed. In relation to this subject the editors of the Intellectual Repository make the following remarks:

The fragment found among his papers and printed after his death, under the title of A Hieroglyphic Key to Representatives and Correspondences, appears to be an outline of that part of the great work which was to deliver, as stated above, the Doctrine of Correspondences and Representations. But as about this time he received his superior illumination, and was called to the office of unfolding the interiors of the Word, and of delivering its genuine doctrines, for the use of the New Church, he discontinued his anatomical researches; but having been made acquainted with the true Rational Psychology, and with all the subjects connected with it, as enumerated in the summary above, from a higher and infallible source, he has fully treated of them in his theological works. Having, as he repeatedly states, been prepared from his youth by the Lord for the great office to which he at length was called, he appears to have been led by Divine Providence to pursue his researches in science in an ascending direction, till he arrived as near, as it were, to the spiritual world, as

it was possible for science to carry him; and then, his mind being furnished with all the sciences necessary for the full reception of the spiritual things which he was to be made the instrument of revealing to mankind, the Divine Hand, which hitherto had imperceptibly guided him, was openly discovered to him, and he was admitted into open communication with the spiritual world, and to the perception of interior spiritual truths by the opening to him of the spiritual sense of the Word. That this was the order through which his mind was led, appears, we think, evidently from an inspection of his philosophical works, and especially of the three parts of the work now before us, the Regnum Animale.'

At this period of Swedenborg's life his whole mind seemed to be employed in investigating the properties of the soul, and its relation to the spiritual world. The most satisfactory account of the objects which he had in view at that time, may be gathered from his own words. The following extract is from the introduction to the Regnum Animale:

To accomplish this grand end (the discovery of the soul) I enter the circus, designing to consider and thoroughly examine that whole world or microcosm which the soul inhabits; since I am persuaded she cannot be sought for anywhere but in her own kingdom. For tell me, where else is she to be found, but in that system to which she is adjoined and in-joined, and in which she is represented, and every moment exhibits herself for contemplation? The body is her image, resemblance, and type; she herself is the model, the idea, the head, that is, the soul, of her body; thus she is represented in her body as in a mirror. For this reason I am induced to examine attentively the whole anatomy of her body, from the heel to the head, and from part to part; and that I may come