and with powerful arm to burst asunder its versal principles and universal mechanism, confines, to draw aside the dark curtain of could be revealed to or made known by him, ages, to overthrow the barriers raised by an- to be useful to mankind now. To progress cient prejudices, and advance to some distance, further, the opening of the inner universe to though with cautious steps, over the uncertain mental vision must needs follow. For, as to ground beyond. With unwearied labor he universal principles and mechanism, he had had essayed every probable path, and hav- seen all that man could now see where man ing found the right one, proceeded along it doth dwell. He stood betwixt the darkness to the very gate of truth. Wonderful, in- of the past and the light of the present, a deed, were the results. At once, by a single humble instrument, holding in his hands the effort of his genius, worlds innumerable, in germs of those extraordinary discoveries and congregated spheres, were beheld in harmoni- revelations which even now astonish the world. ous operation, without end or limit the To enumerate them here, or even to hint their boundaries of the universe, so to speak, be-nature, would be to exceed our present limits. came to man at once illimitable; and the 74. One thing is clear to all who may have scattering goodness of the Divine Hand, read attentively these papers, and carefully strewing mercies and blessings amongst un- studied his voluminous writings, as a child numbered worlds, hitherto unseen, unknown, writing down his thoughts and experience, so and unconjectured, was a scene worthy of the has he been with regard to his opinions, his Almighty a prospective into a field so en- discoveries, and his almost universal experitirely new and unprecedented, that admiring ence. But it is equally clear "the world millions are struck with awe at the Mighty knows him not." - New Church Repository, vol. Power and Infinite Love and Wisdom of that iii., pp. 198, 199, 202-205, 249, 250, 293–297. Being who moves, provides for, and supports the whole. It was a Revelation of the attributes of his Being and the Resources of his Power, infinitely beyond any thing which the wildest imagination of the Atheist could ever have conceived, in demand for evidence of his existence. Literally, the heavens were opened that most glorious and magnificent region of our author's genius. We refer to what in the material universe, the Heaven of Heavens, formed, as Swedenborg expresses it, of innumerable heavens, in congregated spheres, beyond or outside our own was displayed first to the intellectual, and subsequently to the ocular vision, when one universal blaze of glory burst forth on an astonished world. "Behold!" says Swedenborg, on drawing aside the dark curtain of ages, which had intercepted creation from the view of mortals, "behold these new walks of the Almighty! Lift up your heads on high, and behold Him traversing the innumerable spheres with the same flowing richness, beauty, and care, as is so conspicuous on this atom of a world on which we dwell." Magnetic Spheres. 75. We cannot take leave of our extracts from this work, without noticing another feature of it, the coincidence of which, with a work that has recently appeared by Baron Von Reichenbach, marks another peculiarity has already been alluded to, viz., the doctrine of spheres around every material object, particularly around magnets. Many have been struck, recently, with the facts and illustrations contained in a work entitled “ PhysicoPhysiological Researches on the Dynamics of Magnetism, Electricity, etc., etc., by Baron Charles Von Reichenbach." Here we are presented with many engravings, showing the actual, substantial flame which goes forth from the ends of magnets, and from all sides of them, also from the human hand, body, and other materials. Reichenbach discovered these flames, at first, by what he calls "sick-sensitives," or cataleptic patients, (partially clairvoyant subjects,) when shut up in a dark 73. This humble and devout philosopher room. The flames sent forth from the poles was the first happy mortal on whom the high of a large horseshoe magnet, capable of supduty devolved of developing these mighty porting ninety pounds, were described as about truths for the benefit of mankind. He was a eight inches in length, mingled with irridessuitable instrument for so glorious a Revela- cent colors, flickering and waving, yielding tion. When the immensity of God's work, beyond or outside the visible starry heavens, had thus been opened to him, and, for the first time in human history, he had gazed mentally on the peculiar mechanism of our own immediate universe; had watched and measured 76. But it is interesting to observe, that, the play of its mighty forces; had proclaimed, in Swedenborg's Principia, we find precisely after geometrical measurement, the precise similar drawings, and in great variety, illussystem or cluster of stars to which our sun's trating the same sphere around magnets and system belongs; yea, had placed his finger around iron. Reichenbach's discoveries are, on the very spot in that cluster five years indeed, of a somewhat different nature; for he before Herschel was born; when these had demonstrated the existence of these spheres, been accomplished, nothing more, as to uni- not as spheres merely, but as magnetic flame when blown upon, and when the hand or other solid body was passed through them. Various experiments with other bodies are also here detailed, and the force which developed these flames is called the "odic," or "odylic," force. and light, by means of his "sick-sensitives" and from so many phenomena arising from the in the dark, in a way that we do not find in conjunction of the magnet with magnetic needles, any other author. But Swedenborg has the as to be placed beyond a doubt.”— Vol. ii. p. 64. same, or similar drawings, going to illustrate 78. In the work which we are now considprecisely the same thing, all but the flame; ering, our author has much to say of the magof which any one may be convinced by look-netic needle, and the causes of its variations, ing into the first and second volumes of the the matter of which is so abstruse and extendPrincipia. And as the spheres, of course, in-ed, that we cannot here go into it. 79. On the whole, this is so magnificent a work, that one feels little able to guide another through the chambers of that vast edifice. It is easy to see and admire the unrivalled ingenuity of the conceptions, the consistency of the details with the whole, and the self-supporting proportions of the theory; its congeniality with thought, and felicity with which clude the flames, though not seen, we can but regard this coincidence as decidedly interesting. We should have thought, if we had not known the contrary, that we were looking at some of Reichenbach's engravings. But the dif ference appears to be, that in Reichenbach's case, he was led to his fact by the eyes of his partially clairvoyant subjects, while Swedenborg reasoned his out, as he did the identity of elec- its principles apply themselves and other tricity and lightning. And yet we know not but we misjudge the keenness of his vision, for we shall find that he was no stranger even to flames, and those, too, of a more spiritual character, even before the full opening of his spiritual sight, as will appear when we come to notice his advances into the spiritual region. 77. We cannot here present any of his drawings, but we will quote a few of his remarks, and then take leave of the subject: "By reason of the connection between the vorticles which extend from one pole to another, and of the formation of the sphere, there exist poles, one on each side of the magnet: there exist, in like manner, polar axes extending in the sphere to a distance from the magnet; and these axes do not receive their determination from the magnet, but from the sphere and its figure. That not the magnet, but the sphere, forms the polar axis on each side, is evident from this circumstance; that the polar plane passes through the whole magnet from one side to the other; as in Fig. 10, where the whole side, f, o, g, is polar, as also the opposite side, a, c, b, and the elements of the effluvia travel within the mass rectilinearly from f, o, g, to a, c, b, according to the interior texture. Hence the polar axis cannot have any fixed place in the magnet, but the place and situation of the poles are owing entirely to the sphere, which is compelled to encircle the magnet according to the figure of the latter; thus sometimes in one way, sometimes in another. Principia, vol. i. p. 230. 64 things, and marshal around them new details; 80. But Swedenborg does not stop here. The essential reasons of chemistry, some branches in most departments of physics, and many arts tending to improve the natural life, have employed the mind and pen of our author; yet still the watchword is on- — onwards, to witness other displays of his genius and industry. Did we all toil like him, and improve our talents to the utmost, how would the world By the application of two or more magnetic bless our tillage with a new, supernatural prospheres, the figure of each is immediately changed: from two or more spheres arises one that is larger; ductiveness. Verily, heaven would tell out and the whole of the distance between the spheres unknown riches into the hand of humanity. becomes an axis."- p. 234. This is a declared fact, precisely similar to Reichenbach, who instances and illustrates, by engravings, how the flame of one magnet will displace that of another. Swedenborg has also a drawing to illustrate the same displacement of one sphere or flame by another. "The sphere of the effluvia around iron extends itself to a considerable distance; so that the vorticles or gyrations of effluvia emit themselves like radii on every side, and dispose the magnetic element itself into the same situation, whence the magnetic element regards the iron as its pole or centre from which the vorticles issue in a long series. Not only does a tide of effluvia perpetually emanate from the iron, but it also constipates and rounds its surface; a circumstance so evident, 81. The PEOPLE have a perfect right to claim Swedenborg as one of their best champions and benefactors; because, for them he labored, wrote and published. He says, "There are persons, who love to hold their knowledge for themselves alone, and to be the reputed possessors and guardians of secrets: such persons grudge the Public any thing; and if any discovery comes to light, by which art and science will be benefited, they regard it askance with scowling looks, and probably denounce the discoverer as a babbler, who lets out mysteries. I know it is impossible for me to gain the good will of this class; for they think themselves impoverished whenever the knowledge they have, becomes the knowledge of the MANY. For surely no man has a right to hold his knowledge for himself alone, accounts, not only of the methods and newest but rather for others, and for the whole world. improvements, in metalic works, in all places Why should such things be grudged to the Pub- beyond the seas, but also those in England lie? Whatever is worthy to be known, should by and our colonies in America, with draughts of all means be brought to the great and general the furnaces, and of the instruments to be Market of the World. The rights of civilized man convince us of this; the natural functions of the employed." individual, equally with the laws of the Republic 85. "In forming our estimate of Swedenof Letters, attest and enforce it. Unless we all borg's calibre at this time," as we have obcontribute to make the arts and sciences flourish served elsewhere, "we cannot omit taking more and more, we can neither grow wiser nor happier, with time." 82. Notwitstanding the signal learning and sincere piety displayed throughout the PRINCIPIA, the work was prohibited by the Pope, in 1739; probably because the Church of Rome professed to believe that God made all things out of nothing, and could not reconcile such a process of creation as Swedenborg presents, with their literal interpretations of the first chapter of Genesis. Did not the Papists imprison GALILEO for proving that our earth turns on its axis every day, and goes round the sun once a year? Now, no definition is more common, than that TRUTH is that which Is; hence, in a corresponding sense, UNTRUTH, error, or falsehood, is that which IS NOT; and, of course, that which is the genuine nonentity, is nothing. Upon this ground, to say that God created all things out of nothing, is to attribute the origin of all things to error, and hence, to evil or the devil! Behold the result of denying the truth and believing a lie! notice of his large Treatises on Iron and Copper, each occupying a folio volume, and busied with the practical details of mining in various parts of the world. That a mind of such potent theoretical tendency should have had strength to undergo the dry labor of these compilations - that one who breathed his native air in a profound region of causes, should come for so long an abiding into the lower places of the earth, to record facts, processes, and machineries, as a self-imposed task in fulfilment of his station as Assessor of Mines this is one remarkable feature of a case where so much is remarkable, and shows how manly was his will in whatever sphere he exerted himself. The books of such a man are properly WORKS, not to be confounded for a moment with the many-colored idleness of a large class who are denominated' thinkers.'' 86. During the journey, which our author undertook, to facilitate the publication of the above-mentioned works, he improved every opportunity of making himself acquainted with distinguished mathematicians, astronomers, mechanists, &c.; and of examining public libraries and museums, galleries of arts and trades, churches and governments, as well as mines, mineralogy, forests, gardens, climate, and every thing else that was worthy of memory and attention. 83. The second volume of this great work treats of the various methods employed, in different parts of Europe, for smelting iron, and converting it into steel; of iron ore, and the examination of it; and also of several experiments and mechanical preparations, made with iron and its vitriol: but neither this, nor the third volume, is rendered into our 87. In the memorial of his travels, we find language; though the authors of the magnifi- traces of the books he read, of the notes he cent French works, called Descriptions of made, and abundant evidence of a growing Arts and Manufactures, published at Paris, taste for anatomical and physiological rein 1772, have thought so highly of the second searches: whence it is quite obvious, that he volume, that they have translated a large por- was now reflecting a passage, with labori tion of it into French, and inserted it in their collection. ous and cautious steps, from the Elementary World, which he had previously examined, 84. The third volume treats of the various towards the well-spring of Life and Motion. methods adopted for smelting copper, of sepa- He was, indeed, looking through Nature, up rating it from silver, and converting it into to Nature's God. He applied the whole brass, and other metals; of lapis calaminaris force of his mind, to penetrate into the most of zine; of copper ore, and the examination hidden things, to connect together the scattered of it; and lastly, of several chemical prep- links of the great chain of universal Being, arations and experiments made with copper. and to trace up every thing, in an order agreeaIn England, this work is esteemed very high- ble to its nature, to the First Great Cause. ly; and in the translation of Cramers, "Ele between Soul and Body. ments of the Art of Essaying Metals," given Philosophy of the Infinite, and the Intercourse by Dr. Cromwell Mortimer, Secretary of the Royal Society, in 1764, it is mentioned by the translator in the following terms: "For the 88. We now contemplate Swedenborg in sake of such as understand Latin, we must another capacity: he has dived so profoundly not pass by the magnificent and laborious into nature, always commencing from the surwork of Emanuel Swedenborg, entitled Prin- face of common sense, that he has entered a ciples of Natural Things;' in the second and sphere, where identical principles take new third volumes of which he has given the best forms, where physics become philosophy, and Is it where all things lie outspread in one great The title indicates the scope of its contents. amity and cooperation within the mighty hori- Is the soul finite, or infinite? As certainly as it zon of natural truth. Matter, nature, geome- is not God, so certainly it is finite. try, animation, thought, all suppose each other, amenable to laws? Surely; for apart from and subsist in the region of principles and laws, the finite is not finite-is not at all. ends in inseparable union. Humanity cannot But the laws of the finite sphere are ultimatedispense with one of them, but resumes them ly presented by geometry and mechanics, and all. Thus, in 1734, in his forty-sixth year, presuppose extension, or some analogue of exhe published his "Philosophy of the Infinite, tension: hence, the soul is, in an eminent or Outlines of a Philosophical Argument on sense, a real body, and amenable to finite, i. e., the Infinite, and the Final Cause of Creation; geometrical and mechanical laws, which latter and on the Intercourse between the Soul and come from the Infinite, and admit of superlative the Body." This work, published in 1734, in perfection, as well as any other laws. He then his forty-sixth year, is an attempt to prove, deduces the immortality of the soul in a manifold not the existence of God and the soul, but argument: from the connection of man with equitably to take the suffrage of reason and God by acknowledgment and love; from the experience respecting it, and to abide, once for fact, that those who truly believe in the existall, by its decision; for the author was too real-ence of God, ever believe in immortality; ly industrious, to waste his efforts on impenitent also because the soul's sphere is so inward, scepticism; indeed, no man parleys long with that there is nothing in creation, which can that, who is not more than half a sceptic himself, or else troubled with a sad irresolution of understanding. After duly certifying himself of those great realities, he proceeds at once to inquire how much of their nature may be known, and what is the means to know it. touch or harm it; but it can conform to all the impressions of its own sphere, without ceding its essence; also, from love of offspring, in which the soul declares its own immortality, by imparting a yearning for perpetual life to the mortal body itself; whence parental love 89. The course of the work is somewhat as increases in order as it descends to our chilfollows: First, the existence of an Infinite is dren's children; also from the love of fame, extorted from reason, as a necessity of thought; or natural immortality; and from the desire as presupposed in the whole finite, and es- of good men for the deathless condition of the pecially in the inmost and primordial finites; soul; and again, from the connection of the next, the same is gained from the contempla- Infinite with the soul, as of the soul with the tion of nature, and the final causes extant body. And here the author declares his aim, throughout the human body; and it is al-to "demonstrate immortality to the very leged, that there is a tacit consent of mankind senses;" for he remarks, "we are better led to the existence of an infinite God; a consent to acknowledge the Infinite by effects and the which, like reason, comes both from within senses, than by the reasons of the soul:" and and from without, from the nature of the soul, again, "the end of the senses is, to lead us and the senses, and circumstances of the body. sensually to an acknowledgment of God." Having established, for all sane reason, the 91. But the connection between the soul existence of the Infinite, the question occurs, and the body is next to be considered; a conWhat is the connection between the Infinite nection which is rendered intelligible, the moand the finite? Is creation for the Infinite or ment we apprehend with clearness, that there finite, as a primary end? To which the au- is no absolute, but only a relative distinction thor replies, that the connection, or nexus betweeen the two terms - that both are finite, must itself be infinite, and the creation, for both real forms, that difference of form, in the Infinite. He then asks, whether, besides finite things, is real difference of essence: reason, there be any other source of informa- therefore, that the soul may, and must be, tion respecting this connection; and here contiguous to the body, and conterminous to Revelation at once occurs, and asserts the the bodily series; that the soul itself has its same thing, viz., the existence of a nexus in passive side, or surface. Our author here the person of the Only-Begotten Son, and the joins issue with Materialism on its own ground, infinity of the nexus. He concludes the First by admitting all that it urges, on the score of Part, by showing that the divine and infinite organization, agreeing to call the means of inend of creation is attained in finite and fallen course between the Soul and Body a Mechanman, in the person of a Mediator; and thus ism; and having established a certain consent obviates the objection, that if the realization between the principles of Faith and Sceptiof the divine end depends on the sustained cism, he rests his case on the fundamental goodness and wisdom of man, that end has failed; an objection which would otherwise raze to the foundation the doctrine of ends, and, like a central darkness, scatter obscuration through all the sciences. tenets of the Principia, which are admitted in evidence of what Mechanism and Matter itself really consist. We can but admire the sagacity here manifested, and its approach, even at this early stage of his development, to 90. The Second Part is, On the Mechanism that true spiritual seeing which afterwards deof the Intercourse between the Soul and Body.monstrated the human soul a substantial form and organism in the heavens. On all these and sympathy with humanity, he passed subjects, this Part of the Outlines is at once through Denmark, Hanover, and Holland, and plain and profound, and brilliantly suggestive; arrived at Rotterdam during the Fair. Here especially on the doctrine of physical limits, he pauses a while in admiration of its Repubor ends, and their correspondence to ends lican Institutions, in which he says, he "disproperly so called, its instructions are worth covers the surest guaranty of civil and relitaking; also on the correspondence of the gious liberty, and a form of government better body with the mundane system, of the element-pleasing in the sight of God, than an absolute al contiguum with the human contiguum, for Monarchy. In a Republic," he continues, the "corporeal space of man," plenitude of "no veneration or worship is paid to any limits or ends, is a complete respondent to the universal space of nature, and the membranes are exactly and geometrically formed for the reception of the motions of the elements. man; but the highest and lowest think themselves equal to kings and emperors: the only Being they venerate is GOD; and when He alone is worshipped, and men are not adored in His place, it is most acceptable to Him. None are slaves, but all are lords and masters, under the government of the Most High God; and the consequence is, that they do not lower themselves, under the influence of shame and fear, but always preserve a firm and sound mind, in a sound body; and with a free spirit and an erect countenance, commit themselves and their concerns to God, who alone ought to govern all things and beings. It is not so in 92. To pursue further this very inviting book, is impossible; suffice it to say, that it displays a noble liberty of thinking, and claims the right to philosophize on the deepest subjects; and itself plants positive conceptions in some of the dimmest regions of inquiry, discarding metaphysics as a mere simulation of method and knowledge, and leaning on the sciences, as the needful step between common sense and Universal Philosophy. Like all the rest of Swedenborg's works, it insists, or Absolute Monarchies, where men are eduimplies, that the human mind has no innate ideas, but that man begins from total ignorance, and has every thing to learn; and that all knowledge may properly be questioned, which is not capable of being carried on by stages and series, from less to more, and involving greater multiplicity of details, as well as increased unity of principles: thus those intuitions, which are supposed to arrive at once at completeness, may safely be thrown into the retort of the receiver, to be distilled into other and more tractable forms; for progress is a law at once most general and particular.* 93. The publication of the " Principia and the Philosophy of the Infinite and Finite," gave Swedenborg a European reputation, as a scientific man, and a Christian Philosopher, and his correspondence was eagerly sought by such learned men as Wolff, Flamstead, Delahire, Varignon, Lavater, &c., &c., and in December of 1734, the Imperial Academy of Sciences, at Petersburg, appointed him a corresponding member. At this time, he was a diligent student of Wolff's philosophy; and whoever compares the works of those two men, will find that those of our Author's are immeasurably superior. Travels, and Remarks on Political and Religious Institutions. 94. From 1734 to 1736, at the ages of fortysix and forty-eight, he remained at home; during which time he conceived the project of his great Physiological Works: and in July 1736, he again obtained from the King leave of absence in order to execute his plans, which involved a tour of three or four years' duration. Impelled by the same law of knowledge * This work is translated into English, and sells in London for $1.50; but it has been stereotyped in Boston, and printed in excellent style, on fine paper, and sells for 25 cents, single, and $12 per hundred copies. cated to simulation and dissimulation; where they learn to have one thing concealed in the breast, and bring forth another on the tongue; and where the minds of men, by long custom, become so false and counterfeit, that even in Divine worship, they say one thing and think another, and then palm off upon God their adulation and hypocrisy." Are not those great thoughts, to come from a man whom the people have been taught by sectarians, to calumniate and despise? The ardent love of freedom, that breathes in every word, was the result of no short-lived impulse; for years afterwards the same ideas are presented in his Memorials to the assembled Nobles of Sweden, of which notice will be taken in the proper place. 66 95. In his journey from Antwerp to Brussels, he seems to have paid great attention to the condition and ordinances of the Popish church, and deeply felt the destitutions of those times. He could not help observing how fat, lazy, and sensual a large portion of the priests were, giving nothing to the poor but fine words and blessings; while they rapaciously helped themselves to all the good things of this life. He says The monks are fat and corpulent, and do nothing; an army of such fellows might be banished without loss to the State." And did not the Revolution that took place half a century afterwards, furnish ample evidence of the deplorable influence of that whole religious institution? Thus Swedenborg was unconsciously preparing himself, in 1738, to comprehend the spiritual conditions of Christendom in 1745, and the subsequent years. 96. In 1738, at the age of fifty, he arrived. in Paris, where he spent more than a year. Of this city he says, That pleasure, or more properly speaking, sensuality, appears |