117. "Now such a resolution of the blood | 119. "The spirituous fluid, then, makes its globule had led Swedenborg, both experiment- appearance as the substantia prima, or first ally and reflectively, to its inner structure, or substance of the body; but Swedenborg has causal form, namely, the spherules of the pel- a doctrine of Series which always accompanies lucid blood; but he was by no means willing that of Degrees, and according to which the to pause here in contemplation of the soul, ex- first in a given system, or number of phenomcept indeed to observe the method by which ena, may be the last or any other denominashe proceeded to coalesce more closely with tion in another system. In this manner, the the body. The next step, therefore, was to spirituous fluid, which is regarded as the form resolve the pellucid blood, and obtain its causal of forms in the body, and as the formative form. In this attempt he was aware that substance, which draws the thread from the direct experience would fail him, on account first living point, and continues it afterwards to of the exceedingly volatile nature of the ani- the last point of life, is itself formed or pasmal spirit, which, according to tradition, and sive, when viewed in relation to the whole all the reason of the case, was exactly what he sought. It was possible, however, to obtain a good deal of indirect evidence, chiefly from observations on the brain, and the formation of the chicken in the egg, and on the fœtal stage of human existence; hence a large portion of the Economy is devoted to an examination of the phenomena presented by these subjects. On the reflective side of this problem, again, it was necessary to resolve the forces of the pellucid blood, and to accomplish this, we have already seen that our philosopher proposed to extend the limits of pure mathematics. We shall hereafter see that his continuous and profound thought on this problem was coincident with his earliest intimations from the world of spirits.

universe; and consequently derives its being from a still higher substance. On this universal substance, according to Swedenborg, the principles of natural things are impressed by the Deity, and in it are involved the most perfect forces of nature: hence it may be regarded as coincident with what Aristotle denominates pure reason, or the entelecheia of substances, and with the Platonic heaven of ideal forms. The substantia prima, however, according to Swedenborg, does not itself live, and consequently, the spirituous fluid of the body, which is derived from it, cannot be said to live, much less to feel, perceive, and understand, or regard ends. Life,' he remarks, in treating of this subject, corresponds as a principal cause to nature as an instrumental 118. "Thus, the deepest anatomical experi- cause. For what is motion in nature is action ence, and the most profound evolution it could in a living subject; what is modification in undergo in the rational mind, ended in expos- nature is sensation in a living subject; what ing this subtile fluid, just hovering on the bor-is effort in nature is will in a living subject; ders of the unknown, yet just within the bound- what is light in nature is life in a living subary of intuition. The question was whether ject; what is distinction of light in nature is this was the soul. If we grant,' Swedenborg observes, that the soul, as ours, is to be sought in ourselves, anatomical experience presents this fluid, as the highest and most inward, to the mind of the anatomist; and then hands it over to the philosopher to be discussed, and for him to settle whether what he 120. "Now, (following the Author,) it is by knows from his own axioms, and from the the continual influx of this life and intelligence rules of analytic order, should be attributed that the Deity impresses the ideal forms or to the soul, be predicable of this fluid. For principles of natural things on the primordial the anatomist proceeds no further than the fluid of the universe, and by a similar influx above step, unless he at the same time assume into the spirituous fluid, that men acquire inthe character of a philosopher. Something of telligence and active power. But,' to quote this kind seems to be taken as the fixed bound- Swedenborg's own words, 'to know the manary of their ideas by Aristotle and his fol-ner in which this life and wisdom flow in, is lowers; the former of whom treated system- infinitely above the sphere of the human mind: atically of the parts of the soul, and the there is no analysis and no abstraction that can latter of its physical influx. Wherefore if reach so high: for whatever is in God, and whatthe animal fluid and the soul agree in their ever law God acts by, is God. The only predicates, no sound reason will reject the fluid representation we can have of it, is in the way as disagreeing; if otherwise, no sound reason of comparison with light. For as the sun is will embrace it.' (Economy, 224.) Nothing the fountain of light and the distinctions therecan surpass this statement of his position, in of in its universe, so the Deity is the sun of honesty and clearness. It conceals nothing; life and of all wisdom. As the sun of the and it assumes nothing but what shall be granted as a fair deduction from experience and reason. But we have yet to see the conclusion to which it led him.

intellect of life in a living subject; what is cause and effect in nature is end in a living subject, etc.' (Economy, 235.) Life and intelligence, therefore, are regarded as flowing into nature from their First Esse, or Infinite Source.

6

world flows in one only manner, and without unition, into the subjects and objects of its universe, so also does the sun of life and of wisdom. As the sun of the world flows in

.

by mediating auras, so the sun of life and of wisdom flows in by the mediation of his spirit. But as the sun of the world flows into subjects and cojects according to the modified character of each, so also does the sun of life and of wisdom. . . The one is physical, the other is purely moral: and the one falls under the philosophy of the mind, while the other lies withdrawn among the sacred mysteries of Theology. 251. Thus two distinct principles are supposed to concur in forming the human soul, namely, the spirituous fluid, formed and determined by the substantia prima of the universe, and a continual influx of life and intelligence from God, the one natural, the other spiritual.

121. "After establishing these principles, Swedenborg does not hesitate to call the spirituous fluid itself, or, strictly speaking, its operation, the soul, and to speak of it as having intelligence, and all the attributes, in fact, which constitute man; although before explaining its reception of an influx from God — and consequently, when describing it as an organic substance or body of the soul - he had spoken of it as incapable of feeling and perception. The inference is that a man's real individualityhis interior man - consists in a state of conscious being occasioned by the influx of God's universal spirit into the subtile fluid which runs through the nervous channels of the body—and which has since been called, in the vocabulary of animal magnetism, the nerve spirit. Beyond this spirit or pneumatic vehicle, as it was termed by the ancients, there is no identity or individuality provided for man in the Economy of the Animal Kingdom; and accordingly it becomes an important question whether the spirituous fluid is to be called material or immaterial. This question Swedenborg has answered for himself.

elements of the earth, as salts, minerals, etc. The first aura of the world is not matter in this sense; for neither gravity nor levity can be predicated of it; but on the contrary, active force, the origin of gravity, and levity in terres. trial bodies, which do not of themselves regard any common centre, unless there be an acting, causing, and directing force. Hence neither gravity nor levity can be predicated of this fluid, made up as it is of this force or aura. When, according to the rules of the doctrine of order, I have shown what matter is, what form is, what extension is, and what a fluid is, we shall confess that the controversy is about the signification of terms, or about the manner in which something that we are ignorant of is to be denominated, we shall confess that we are fighting with a shadow, without knowing what body it belongs to: however, this slight garment alone is prepared, before we have the measure, or have seen the form of the body; and in order to make it fit, we figure to ourselves an idea of the body, which idea may be immaterial. But tell me whether the ideas of the animus are material or not? Perhaps they are, inasmuch as images, and even the very eyes are material. But, as it is the office of the soul to feel, to see, and to imagine, equally as to understand and think; yet the ideas of the latter faculties are called immaterial, because intellectual; perhaps because the substances that are their subjects are not comprehended by sense; and still material ideas not only agree but communicate with immaterial; are they then any ideas at all before they partake of the life of the soul? Apart from this, are they not modifications? If they are modifications, or analogous to modifications, then I do not understand in what way an immaterial modification is distinguished from a material modification, unless by de122. "We have often said,' he observes, grees, in that the immaterial is higher, more 'that in regard to substance the soul is a universal, more perfect, and more imperceptifluid, nay a fluid most absolute; produced by ble. Is not every created thing in the world the aura of the universe; enclosed in the and nature a subject of extension? and may fibres; the matter by which, from which, and not every thing as extended be called material? for which the body exists ; the superemi- In fact, the first substance itself in this sense We have also said that the influx- is the materia prima of all other substances, ion of its operations is to be examined accord- and every controversy, even our present one, ing to the nexus of organic substances, and is a matter of dispute. But let us trifle no according to the form determined by the fibres: longer. According to sound reason, whatalso that its nature, or operations collectively, regard this fluid as their subject; and that these operations, in so far as they are natural, cannot be separated [from the fluid] except in thought; so that nothing here occurs but appears to be fairly comprehended under the term matter. But, pray, what is matter? If it be defined as extension endued with inertia, then the soul is not material; for inertia, the source of gravity, enters the posterior sphere simply by composition, and by the addition of a number of things that through changes in the state of active entities have become inert and gravitating; for instance, all the mere

nent organ.

ever is substantial and flows from a substantial in the created universe of nature, is matter: therefore modification itself is matter, as it does not extend one iota beyond the limit of substances. (Part II., n. 293.) But as for the more noble essence or life of the soul, it is not raised to any that is more perfect, because it is one only essence; but the soul is an organism formed by the spirituous fluid, in which respect greater and lesser exaltation may be predicated of it. This essence and life is not created, and therefore it is not proper to call it material: so for the same reason we cannot call the soul material in respect to its

reception of this life; nor therefore the mind; tion, and reduce them to one common or gennor therefore the animus, nor the sight, nor eral result, we shall perceive, that if the the hearing, nor even the body itself, so far respiration does not always actually extend as it lives. For all these live the life of their beyond the thorax, still it is in the effort to do soul, and the soul lives the life of the spirit so, or to be in action every where.' (367.) of God, who is not matter, but essence; This action is shown to extend even to the whose esse is life; whose life is wisdom; and smallest blood vessels, and to the nerves, in whose wisdom consists in beholding and em- which it promotes the circulation of the fluids bracing the ends to be promoted by the deter- by an external action, which coincides with minations of matter and the forms of nature. the internal action of the cerebellum through Thus both materiality and immateriality are the same fibres. This law, indeed, is a part predicable of the soul; and the materialist of the general concordance between the animaand the immaterialist may each abide in his own opinion.'-n. 311.

tion of the brains and respiration, and is a beautiful_provision for insuring muscular 123. "This was the point then which Swe- action. For, if the circle of the red blood denborg reached by his first effort to obtain a were performed in the arteries at the same knowledge of the soul analytically, or by rigid intervals as the circle of the nervous fluid in induction; and every one must admit how the nerves, I scarcely know,' Swedenborg obadvanced his perceptions were, and how ad- serves, whether any muscle in the body, with mirably he preserved the idea of man's entire the exception of that of the heart and arteries dependence upon the Infinite source of life (which are stimulated to action solely by the inand wisdom, though, as yet he was far from fluent blood), would suffer itself to be excited to the solution of the great problem with which act; for in proportion as the nerve acted, the he had set out. It is the innocence of his blood would react, when nevertheless, in order to wisdom with which we are delighted even produce any alternate motion, action and remore than with the wisdom itself. The more action must be so ordered that one may altercogent or logical his reasons, the more clearly nately overcome the other.' (P. II., c. i. § 9.) we discern God in them, and man's utter im- To sum up the whole, the leading principles espotence and nothingness: the more glowing tablished by Swedenborg on this curious and and ornate his style, the deeper is the rever- important subject are these. 1. The animaence and awe which he breathes into it, so tion of the brains is the universal motion of that self-intelligence is constrained to hang the whole body, and of all the nervous fibres, its head, where it would otherwise glory in which, during animation are provided with its gifts and apparent attributes. Granting their spirit or fluid. 2. The intercostal nerve Materialism the utmost demand it could sus- and the par vagum are kept in this animatory tain by any show of argument, Swedenborg or universal motion, and the latter reduces the proves that, even so, its machinery is utterly subaltern motions of the body to it. 3. The helpless without the perpetual influx of the lungs, as already observed, are in the same breath of God; and here we may remark that motion. 4. By means of the lungs, and the establishment of this theological tenet was through the mediation of the pericardium, the first step towards the preparation of science the heart is also associated in this regimen, so for the Church. The genius of religion, that it never loses its vital spirit on the one therefore, only imitated, in her humble sphere, hand, or its state of perfect liberty on the the Descent and Incarnation of the Divine other. (551-2). We close the work here, Being, when she came to the salvation of philosophy in its own frailties; and it is praise enough for Swedenborg that he was her chosen and faithful apostle."

Brains, Heart and Lungs.

not because we have alluded to all its disclosures in physiology, but because it is impossible to do so within the limits to which we have confined ourselves; and we have dwelt upon it at sufficient length to establish its claims to respectful and earnest attention."*

Posthumous Tracts.

124. "Before closing the Economy we must not omit to record the Author's discovery of the animation of the brains, and of its coincidence 125. Connected with the same period of our during formation with the systole and diastole of the heart, and after birth with the respira- author's life as the Economy, are the Posthution of the lungs. Connected with this is another mous Tracts, which are, for the most part, great discovery which can hardly be said to condensed statements of the subjects and arhave transpired beyond the circle who are ac- guments of the larger works, to the study of quainted with his works, even to the present which they furnish good introductions. They moment. We allude to the universal motion are on the following subjects: 1. The Way to generated by the lungs and distributed to the a Knowledge of the Soul; 2. the Red Blood; whole animal machine. It would seem at 3. the Animal Spirit; 4. Sensation, or Pasfirst sight, as if the effect of respiration did sion of the Body; 5. the Origin and Propanot extend far beyond the thorax; but if we gation of the Soul; 6. Action; 7. Fragment contemplate the several varieties of respira

*The price of this Work is now $7.50.

on the Harmony Subsisting between the Soul of Stockholm. One of these little works is and the Body; 8. Faith and Good Works. The De Sanguine Rubro'-'Of the Red Blood.' first one again proclaims the absence of meta- We do not propose to give an account of his physical modes and investigations from the views on this subject; for they are so exceedmind of the author; for he says, psychology ly condensed in this small treatise, that a furis to be pursued by gaining a previous knowl- ther abridgment would be unintelligible. It edge of the whole of the sciences, including is enough to say, that he declares the blood to the experience of the mental, or of the bodily be more than merely living matter; it stands, senses; and proximately by anatomy; because as it were, half way between spirit and mat"it is impossible to know the inner action of ter, partaking of the qualities of both; it is the mind, without examining the face of the as if the point of contact between the soul mind; i. e., without investigating its brains and the body; and from it, or rather through and marrows; and the soul is nowhere to it, the body derives its life. Thus the headbe found but in her own kingdom." Then, on ing of the eleventh chapter of this treatise is, the basis of the science, by a higher and high- That the globule of the red blood contains in er generalization, must be reared our unitary itself purer blood and the animal spirit, and science, a Mathematical Doctrine of Univer- that the purest essence and soul of the body sals, which science is the philosophy of the is here; so that the red blood is a spirituous soul. Other roads, which do not pass through and animated humor' (humor spirituosus et acquired knowledge on either side, - knowl- animatus). The heading of the next chapter edge referable, whether immediately or ulti-is, That the red blood partakes almost equalmately, to effects and the senses, - lead only ly of soul and body, and that it may be called to increased ignorance of the subject; espe- as well spiritual as material.'

"

cially so, the pretended investigation of con- 127. Now it is an interesting circumstance, sciousness; a thing which Swedenborg quite that while this long-neglected work was passleft out, as a means of edification: for what is ing through the press, science has at last, and man's intellect, other than the understanding by accident, discovered the vitality of the of Nature's Revelation, and Society? When blood, and placed this fact upon a firm basis. he understands these, or in proportion as he The number of Silliman's Journal, just pubunderstands them, his own faculty will be lished, contains, on page 108, under the head worth being conscious of-worth investigat- of Researches on blood,' some experiments ing as a distinct object; but originally, there of the celebrated chemist, M. Dumas, pubis nothing in it, either to digest, classify, or account for. Vacaney, i. e., metaphysic consciousness, involves no series, and wants no theory it is puerile, nay cruel, publicly to invite analytic attention.

:

lished by him in June last. After some account of his experiments and their results, the statement goes on thus: in attempting to overcome this difficulty, M. Dumas discovered the remarkable property of the blood globules, 126. In the work above alluded to, on the that as long as they were in contact with the Red Blood, there is a mention made of the air or aerated water, in short, as long as they vitality of the blood, which again shows how were in the arterial condition, the saline solufar in advance of the times our author stood tion containing them passed colorless through in this respect. "It is said in the Bible, the filter, and left them upon it: on the con'But the flesh with the life thereof, which is the trary, as soon as the globules have assumed blood thereof, shall ye not eat.' (Gen. ix. 4). the violet tint of venous blood, the liquid And the opinion that the blood was a living passes colored.' After detailing certain experisubstance has existed from the remotest an- ments then tried by Dumas in consequence tiquity. Harvey, the celebrated discoverer of this discovery, the following statement is of the circulation of the blood, held this made:-Thus the globules of the blood seem opinion very strongly, and it has been adopt-to possess vitality, as they can resist the solvent ed by some other learned men at different action of sulphate of soda as long as their life times, as may be seen in the works of Good, continues, but yield to this action readily when Carpenter, Elliotson, and others on Medicine they have fallen into asphyxia from privation of or Physiology. But it was never, at least air.". - New Jerusalem Magazine, Feb., 1847. in modern times, generally received, and 128. The Fragment on the Soul is mainly was held by all who maintained it, only hypo- a criticism on the Preëstablished Harmony of thetically, and as a supposition of greater or less Leibnitz; on principles, however, which cause probability. From this we must, however, it to apply to the whole of modern philosophy. except Swedenborg. In his philosophical The author arraigns Leibnitz, and, by impliworks, written more than one hundred years cation, the Philosophers, for aiming to convert ago, he distinctly asserts the vitality of the common, into systematic ignorance, or to make blood, not only as a truth, but as a fundament- emptiness the grand organ of the spiritual: al truth of all sound physiology. The Swe- for philosophy takes a number of dates, by no denborg Society of London have just published means peculiar to itself, but which it draws from a thin volume of his 'Opuscula,' or little common experience, such as the fact, that things, works, in the orignal Latin, from his manu- sensations, imaginations, perceptions, and the scripts in the library of the Royal Academy like, exist; and, without inquiring what they

are, and thereafter, what their causes are it ANIMAL KINGDOM, considered Anatomically, revolves incessantly round the already plain Physiologically, and Philosophically:" that is, fact of their bare existence, casting it into a at first in its dead truths; secondly, in its new jargon, looking idly at its uniform surface relations with the physical universe, which on every side, and ending, for the most part, sways it with motion, as the herald of vitality; not by realizing any thing, but by questioning and thirdly, as possessing our common sense, the reality of even that mean object of thought. in the lowest degree: the first volume treats Such philosophy, therefore, consists of a few of the Viscera of the Abdomen; the second, of the poorest generalities of common sense, of the Viscera of the Thorax, or Chest; and spoiled by interpolation with various formulas the third, of the Organs of Sense; which has of ignorance. Now Swedenborg first brushes not yet been translated. The first and second away the irresolvable terms of the current make two large octavo volumes, which sell at philosophies, and leaves behind the small nu- $7.50. The new doctrines and the general cleus to its rightful place under common sense, method of the ECONOMY of the Animal Kingor the sciences, from which it was stolen at dom, are pursued in this work; but they are the beginning, only to be modified for the pressed to results far exceeding those of the worse. Of the bare existence of things, the former. The author says in his Preface, clown is be ter aware than the metaphysician," Not very long since I published the Economy because he has not made it his business to of the Animal Kingdom, and before traversing question them to him, therefore, the true the whole field in detail, I made a rapid passage philosopher would rather appeal on gross to the Soul, and put forth a prodromus respectquestions of fact, than to the other. ing it but, on considering the matter more deeply, I found that I had directed my course thither both too hastily and too fast after exploring the blood only, and its particular organs,

mined to allow myself no respite until I have run through the whole field, to the very goal, until I have traversed the universal animal kingdom, to the Soul. Thus, I hope, that by bending my course inwards, continually, I shall open all the doors that lead to her, and at length, by the Divine permission, contemplate the Soul Herself."

"He knows what's what; and that's as high As metaphysic wit can fly.” But on the question of Cause and Reason, there is no light to be gained from either; nor I took the step, impelled by an ardent desire is there any difference between the two, save for knowledge. But as the Soul acts in the the difference between ignorance, culpable and supreme and innermost things, and does not innocent, conscious and unconscious, personal come forth, until all her swathings have been and accidental. The upshot hitherto has successfully unfolded, I am therefore deterbeen, that what is true in philosophy is not new; but existed as well, and better, before philosophy was born; also exists better at this moment in the common world, where philosophy is unknown. And the conclusion is, that in regard to the affections, metaphysics, after a two thousand years' opportunity given, has done nothing more, than obstruct and regurgitate the current of the lifeblood of humanity; 131. The plan of this great undertaking is and in regard to the understanding, nothing thus alluded to in the Prologue : more than deepen our initial ignorance of all things, by actuating it into pernicious falsity. 129. A Hieroglyphical Key to Natural and Spiritual Mysteries, by way of Representatives and Correspondences · is a small work, which belongs to the same series as the Economy; it is mentioned in the Third Part of that work as the Part on Correspondences. This Tract "Afterwards, the cortical substance of the two is an attempt to eliminate a natural doctrine brains, and their medullary fibre; also the nervof correspondences, and to show its application ous fibre of the body, and the muscular fibre; and by examples; and although it may appear little the causes of the forces and motion of the whole successful, in comparison with the plenitude organism; Diseases, moreover; those of the head particularly, or which proceed by defluxion from of bodily truth on the same subject, in the the Cerebrum. author's theological works, yet, it should be "I propose afterwards to give an introduction to observed, that the aim in the two cases is Rational Psychology, consisting of certain new docsomewhat different, and that the truth of one trines, through the assistance of which we may be series does not exclude that of the other; conducted, from the natural organism of the Body analogies of nature to nature, being perfectly to a knowledge of the Soul, which is Immaterial: these are, the Doctrine of Forms: the Doctrine of compatible with the more vital or concrete Order and Degrees: also, the Doctrine of Series analogies between the spiritual world and the and Society: the Doctrine of Influx: the Doctrine of Correpondence and Representation: lastly, the Doctrine of Modification.

natural.

The Animal Kingdom.

"I intend to examine," he says, "physically and philosophically, the whole Anatomy of the body; of all its Viscera, Abdominal and Thoracic ; of the Genital Members of both sexes; and of the Organs of the five senses.

Likewise, "The Anatomy of all parts of the Cerebrum, Cerebellum, Medulla Oblongata, and Medulla Spinalis.

"From these Doctrines I come to the Rational Psychology itself; which will comprise the sub"THE jects of action; of external and internal sense; of

130. In 1744 and 1745, at the ages of 56 and 57, he published another work