friend suggested that they should stand on their heads the remainder of the lecture, and see if that course would lead to a better understanding of this new Franklin declaiming in Orphic phrase. Young America listened, read, and believed it believed.

But Old America and the America of Middle Age? These have not remained with Emerson, for Emerson failed to satisfy their heartwants! That volume which begins with the command of the Eternal Father, Let there be Light! and which closes with the proclamation of an Everlasting Gospel and the revelation of an unending New Heaven and Earth," and there shall be no night there," for " the Lamb is the Light thereof"-that volume was to Transcendentalism a sealed book, for Emerson and his followers scorned to look to the LORD JESUS, the only breaker of those seals. As the individual ripens away from early manhood, and his experience of the depth of his inherent corruptions becomes more vivid and intense, it is not Idealism will assure him of a Divine Father who is "a very present help in time of trouble" yet it is towards Him faith then looks for hearthold.

LIFE IMMEDIATE AND MEDIATE.

THERE is one only source of life, that is God. He is the sole vivifying, animating, and sustaining cause of everything that lives. God in Himself is substantial life, He being self-essent and self-existent. Life from God, however, which is the life and support of every finite existence, is not substantial, it is an active force. Were it substantial it would be God from God, or God from Himself, which is an obvious absurdity. If the proceeding life from God were substantial, then, inasmuch as it exists only in what is finite, the Infinite would be literally in the finite, which is an impossibility. Of the Infinite finite beings cannot by any means form an idea: after stretching the thought to its utmost possible limit, nothing but what is finite is comprehended, and all that can be said in respect to the Infinite is, that it is not there, what is perceived is only finite, and therefore is no part of the Infinite. The Infinite having no finite limit, it is not an object of finite thought, it is consequently incomprehensible; all we can know respecting it is from revelation; and it is there declared, that we may believe and adore it as the origin of life, and the producer of all that is good. It must ever be remembered that influx is a descent of life from the spiritual to the natural world, or rather from God, through the spiritual world to man; and also that there is no influx of sub

stance. This is of the utmost importance, and must never be forgotten. Substance does not flow from God, nor from one plane to another; all the degrees of the created universe are retained in their places, and in their relative positions, never being removed, nor any part of them, which would not be the case if influx were substantial. By that retention of the various degrees of substance, both spiritual and natural order is preserved throughout the whole, and all confusion is thereby prevented.

Pure heat and light from the spiritual sun is what is meant by immediate life. Immediate life pervades all things, and it is the operation of the immediate life in the disposal and arrangement of things which is called the Divine Providence. It is the cause of all order, and preserves it both in the spiritual and in the natural worlds; and it is present in all things as their indispensable sustainer. It is consequently by immediate life that the distinction between the heavens is maintained, by which the angels are formed into societies, or by which classifications are effected-which is one of the greatest blessings of Providence, and without which heaven would not be a place of happiness. It is also by immediate life that representatives exist in one heaven from another, and by which they correspond to each. It is also the cause of days and nights and the seasons in this world. Immediate life is also the cause of all the involuntary motions in man in both soul and body; by it the heart propels the blood, the lungs respire, and all the other viscera perform their functions. It is likewise by immediate life that diseases are removed, and the body is restored to health, and by which man is strengthened and refreshed during sleep. Immediate life is the very life of mediate life; therefore where there is mediate life there is also immediate, mediate life being the immediate clothed, and without which clothing the influx of life would be altogether imperceptible. Indeed, what is done by mediate life is but little in comparison with what is done by immediate life. (A. C. 7004.)

Immediate life is life unaffected by human or angelic mediums. It is not only life as it proceeds from the spiritual sun, in which state it is too intense to be received even by the highest angels; but it is also that life as it is mercifully accommodated to angelic reception by divinely appointed accommodated mediums; by these its intensity is diminished and its ardency tempered. These mediums are spiritual atmospheres. But these do not render it mediate; it is still immediate life notwithstanding its having passed through and been tempered by these media.

Life as it flows from the spiritual sun is absolute, having no specific form, no moral or human quality; it is also undefinable and

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indeterminate. It creates a form, vivifies it, and assumes a nature therein; it also receives a quality in such forms as possess voluntary power, and as mankind, and the life is thereby rendered mediate. Life as a proceeding from God being absolute and undefined, no idea of it can be formed but as heat and light proceeding from the sun, which can scarcely be called an idea, inasmuch as heat and light apart from substantial existences are never made manifest.

When considering the different kinds of life, we are not to confound the life which man lives with the life by which he lives. The life by which man lives is immediate; but the life which he lives, whilst it implies both immediate and mediate, is itself neither, but voluntary life.

It is a remarkable fact, that the life of man, or of any other living thing, can be seen only in the existence of that thing; for this obvious reason, it is neither more nor less than the thing itself living. The life of man is the life which he lives, and not the vivifying force by which he is animated; this latter is the same in all things. Man's voluntary life is that particular mode which life assumes, or which is given to it by his free determination, which is in all cases peculiar to the man himself; hence there are as many lives, or modes of life, as there are men. When we think of the life of man, we are necessitated to associate therewith the idea of the man himself. For examplewhen we think of him speaking, his speaking is not anything apart from himself as a subject; the same with regard to the act of walking, for whether he be talking or walking there is nothing but himself as a substantial form, both these being actions of the man, they are only the man acting; and whether acting or not, he is nothing more than himself as substantial form. It is the same with any particular organ or limb as it is with the aggregate; the foot when walking, or the hand when manipulating, is simply a foot or a hand; walking being the foot acting, and manipulating being the hand acting, and nothing more; action adding nothing to either, but, as said, the action of any thing is only the thing acting. It is likewise the same with the sentient organs of the body and their sensations; each sensation being nothing more than the organ's own consciousness of some variation which has been produced in itself. For instance, sight is not anything apart from the eye, but it is simply the eye seeing, and whether seeing or not seeing, it is neither more nor less than an eye. This affirmation will, no doubt, be a paradox to those who have been accustomed to think of the life of man as something which flows into him, and also to those who believe that influx is substantial. But the life which flows into man is not substantial, nor is it his life; his life does not enter into him at all, but comes out of him only; it originates in his will, and proceeds thence to the extremities of his body, where

it terminates in action. This life is simply the exercise of man's internal and external capabilities, or those of his mind and body, and it must be obvious that such exercise is only those capabilities in action; and what are capabilities in action more than the capabilities themselves? A capability is the power which is peculiar to an organ, and which is inherent therein; it is grounded in its form, and is made to exist by the presence and action of immediate life. There are in man two kinds of organs, and although each possesses its own peculiar capability, yet the process of life in each is different, yea, opposite, from the other; one being from without to within, and the other from within to without; the former is sensitive, the latter motive the former commences in the organs of sensation, and terminates in the memory; the latter commences in the will, and terminates in the actions of the body. The former is involuntary, the latter is voluntary. This latter process is what is meant by man's life; it is so because it is from man's will, commencing with his determinations, and is continued through his nerves and muscles into external action. For what is done by this process he is responsible. Now, the will and its capability to determine are a one; we may think of the will existing as a substantial form without the capability, but we cannot think of the capability of determining existing apart from the will; because it is only the will's power to determine. When the will's capability of acting is brought into action, it is by the will's own effort, and the determination is nothing more than the will determining its own power to the production of some effort. As it is with any one organ so it is with their aggregate, or with the whole man; therefore, as the action of an organ is only the organ acting, so the action of a man is only the man acting, and as the man is substantial so is his action; not action alone, there being no such thing, but action in the sense of its being a subject acting. This view of the life of man, or of man living, will account for certain remarks made by Swedenborg, which, without this understanding of action or living, must appear extraordinary and anomalous, and which have proved to some of the students of his writings most perplexing, viz., that affections, perceptions, and thoughts, "are actually and really the subjects themselves which undergo changes according to the influences which affect them" (D. L. W. 42). Notwithstanding all this, the influx of life is not substantial, but it is the result of a proceeding living force from the source of life. Some have actually concluded that the influx of life is substantial, and, as a consequence, have arrived at the notion, that the life of each individual is a spark struck off from the Divinity; that each one possesses in himself literally what is divine; and that God has no personality, but is infinitesimally divided amongst all His creatures, and

therefore that He is universally diffused. These, however, are mere hallucinations, altogether apart from the truth; and the more they are indulged in, the further will they lead the mind from an understanding of the true nature of life.

Mediate life is life together with the mode it has assumed in living subjects in the spiritual world; it proceeds from those subjects, and is continued to others who are recipients, and by which they are affected. It is not influx by reason of its flowing to man; as it flows to him it is only afflux, and it becomes influx only when it flows into him. The influx of which we are now treating is that which takes place with man. Besides this there is a general influx which flows from a superior to an inferior heaven, and from the spiritual into the natural world, into homogeneous substances, and arranges them into an agreement with itself, producing such things and states as correspond, and which are called correspondences.

Life becomes mediate only by virtue of flowing through conscious living beings who possess quality, good or evil. Those mediums are good and evil spirits in the spiritual world. In consequence of life passing through such mediums, it is brought under the denomination of "mediate life." Hence mediate life always possesses a quality, being good or evil in agreement with the quality of the spirits through which it has passed. Life is therefore properly called mediate only when it is in such a condition. But still the flow of mediate life to man is not, strictly speaking, influx; that alone being influx which flows into him. Mediate life when it flows to man is only afflux. When man is first made conscious of its presence, it is only objective, and can be inspected, approved, or disapproved, at discretion, according to the free determination of his will, and it is only when it is approved and accepted that it becomes influx. Although this distinction between afflux and influx is not commonly pointed out, it must be evident to every thinking mind that such a distinction exists. That such is the case will be clear from the fact that evil influence comes to the good as well as to the wicked, and that good influence comes to the wicked as well as to the good; but still such influence does not give to either a quality, which it would do if it flowed into them; it simply flows to them, and is thereby afflux, and if it subsequently flows into them, it is by their own approval and reception, when, and not before, it is influx. Respecting the difference between afflux and influx Swedenborg is silent; still he makes use of phrases which imply both. In A. C. he frequently uses the words "flow in into," which can mean only afflux and influx; by flowing in he means flowing to, or afflux; and by flowing into, influx. He also speaks of God flowing into man, and of His being received or