LIFE
OF
EMANUEL S WEDENBORG,
TOGETHER WITH
A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF HIS WRITINGS, BOTH PHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL.
BY WILLIAM WHITE.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY B. F. BARRETT.
FIRST AMERICAN EDITION.
PHILADELPHIA
J. B. LIPPINCOTT  & CO.
1874.




Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
In the Cle.rk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
w    _ / _  a_       _____-                     __^we*



PREFACE.
DURING the few'past years many biographies of Swedenborg
have been offered to the public. Dr. Tafel, of Tubingen, in
1839, collected into one volume the testimonies of Swedenborg's'personal friends, his letters, and various documents relating to
him which were scattered through many volumes. This " Book
of Documents" was translated into English, and edited by the
Rev. J. H. Smithson, of Manchester, in 1841; and was again
reprinted in America and re-edited by Professor Bush, of New
York, in 1847. From this " Book of Documents," all the biographies which have appeared, have been more or less indebted.
Nathanael Hobart, of Boston, arranged these documents into
a connected biographical form, interspersed with judicious remarks of his own, and published it as a " Life of Swedenborg."
This "Life" has passed through three editions, and well deserves the success it has attained. In 1849, Elihu Rich published, in London, "A Biographical Sketch of Emanuel Swedenborg."  The edition was exhausted in the course of a few
months, and the work has not since been reprinted. In the
same year, J. J. G. Wilkinson produced his "Emanuel Swedenborg: a Biography," a work which, alike for its artisti(
excellence as a biography, and the originality and poetic beaut3
3




4                      PREFACE.
of its thought, has, I believe, no equal in the English language.
The comparative silence of our literary critics, in reference to
this work, proves that any one who cares to appreciate what is
best in the world, had better not be content to trust solely to
their eyes. From the quotations I have made in the course of
the following narrative, the reader will be able to appreciate a
few of the good things contained in this Biography by Wilkinson. In 1854, Edwin Paxton Hood published "'Swedenborg:
A Biography and an Exposition," a work which has been the
means of introducing Swedenborg to a large circle hitherto
almost ignorant of his existence. In the same year, Woodbury
M. Fernald published, in Boston, Mass., "A Compendium of
the Theological and Spiritual Writings of Swedenborg," to
which an excellent life of the Author was prefixed, compiled in
great part from previous biographies. In other forms, many
sketches of the life of Swedenborg have been published. The
Rev. O. P. Hiller gives an excellent little biography in his volume of "Gems from Swedenborg."  Emerson tells the story
of his life, in his own way, in " Representative Men;" and a
Lecture by George Dawson, on Swedenborg, is now circulating,
as a tract, by thousands throughout the land. All these things
evidence a growing interest in the greatest teacher of modern
times.
The present work does not enter into competition with anything that has before been written. It pretends to nothing but
simplicity, and would be ranked as a hand-book, a guide, a
directory. If it should lead any to form an acquaintance with
the writings of " the most unknown man in the world," as 3Lr.
Fernald calls Swedenborg, and I may add, the most abused man
in the world, my end will be gained. I believe the day is not
far distant when it will be the greatest reproach of these times




PREFACE.                       5
that the works of Swedenborg lay in our midst, and) only a few
men cared for them. Happily this number is steadily increasing;
and, by and by, we may expect a general acknowledgment of
the fact, that Swedenborg was, without exception, the most
gifted and extraordinary man that has ever lived.
36 BLOOMSBURY STREET, LONDON, January, 1856.
1 *








INTRODUCTION.
IT is difficult to paint in language the grandest scenes in nature.
To him who essays it, words seem powerless and wholly unequal
to the task of conveying an adequate description. Any one who
has stood by the side of Niagara, and listened to its deafening
roar, and felt the grandeur and inspiration of the scene, is never
quite satisfied with any written or oral description of that mighty
cataract. And the reason is plain. It is not in the power of
language, however skilfully employed, to kindle such emotions in
the soul as are awakened by the scene itself.
The case is similar in regard to all great geniuses, and especially great authors. It is not easy to describe the loftiest human
souls, or adequately to paint their characters in words. And
those who are most familiar with their writings, are usually least
satisfied with their biographies however vigorously or gracefully
written. It is with the most gifted thinkers and writers as with
the great Author of the volume of nature; they are best seen
and understood in their works. And in any biographies wherein
it is attempted to show us such -men apart from, or outside of,
their writings, it can hardly be otherwise than that they should
appear considerably dwarfed. We miss those grand and symmetrical features which reveal themselves on every page of their
7




8                    INTRODUCTION.
works, but are to be truly seen no where else. Doubtless it is
for this reason, in part, that no Life of SWEDENBORG which has
yet appeared, has been entirely satisfactory to those best acquainted with his writings. And for the same reason we doubt
if such a Life of him ever will appear.
The present volume, though not in all respects what we wish
it were, possesses, nevertheless, some estimable features, which
cannot fail to recommend it to the general reader. Among these
are its truthfulness, its brevity, its simplicity, and its generally
faithful though brief synopsis of the voluminous writings of the
great Seer. In introducing it to the American public, we cannot but cherish the hope that it may be the means of disabusing
the popular mind of many errors and prejudices in regard to one
of the greatest and best of men, and of exciting increased inquiry concerning writings of which the great mass of our people
are almost totally ignorant, but which, every year, are attracting
more and more the attention of thoughtful and serious minds.
There are no writings with which we are acquainted, which will
so richly repay the earnest seeker after truth for a thorough and
careful study, as the writings of Swedenborg; none that solve
so many difficult and perplexing problems; none that appeal so
powerfully to the understanding and the heart of every sincere
and rational inquirer; none that are so sure to resolve the doubts
of every honest doubter; none that shed such a blaze of light
upon the Sacred Page, as well as upon "our being's end and
aim;" none that bring Scripture, and reason, and science, and
the accepted laws of the human soul, into such beautiful and
perfect harmony. We say this with confidence, after a thorough
study of these writings, and a pretty careful reading of all the
reigning systems of theology.
But lest our opinion of this man and his writings should be




INTRODUCTION.                      9
deemed somewhat partial, and therefore not desertig of full
credit, we introduce here the testimony of a few witnesses who
cannot be suspected of any such partiality —of men who never
reckoned themselves as Swedenborgians, and were never in any
way identified with the Church of the New Jerusalem.
"It has been said by some, and received implicitly without
further examination by others, that Baron Swedenborg, after
receiving his extraordinary commission, was mad, and became
totally deprived of his natural senses; but this insinuation is
such a palpable contradiction to truth, and such an insult to
common sense, being overruled by every page of his writings, as
well as by every act of his life after that period, that we should
have thought it altogether unworthy of notice were we not aware
that it operates powerfully with many, even at this day, to prejudice them against a character which otherwise they would
revere, and against writings from which they would otherwise
receive the most welcome instruction, whilst, in the meantime,
they can give no reasonable account of their prejudice, nor trace
its origin to any better source than the unjust calumny uttered
of old against another respectable name —' Paul, thou art beside
thyself; much learning doth make thee mad."' (Acts xxvi. 24. )DR. HunD's History of the Rites and Ceremonies of all Nations,
p. 705.
"I fully concede indeed to Swedenborg what is usually denied
him, namely, an extreme sobriety of mind displayed under all
the exceptional circumstances of his career, and which ends by
making us feel at last his every word to be almost insipid with
veracity. I cordially appreciate moreover the rare destitution
of wilfulness which characterizes all his researches; or rather
the child-like docility of spirit which leads hin  to seek and to
A 




tO                   INTRODUCTION.
recognize, under all the most contradictory aspects of nature,
the footsteps of the Highest..... His books are a dry unimpassioned unexaggerated exposition of the things he daily saw
and heard in the world of spirits, and of the spiritual laws
which these things illustrate; with scarcely any effort whatever
to blink the obvious outrage his experiences offer to sensuous
prejudice, or to conciliate any interest in his reader which is not
prompted by the latter's own original and unaffected relish of
the truth. Such sincere books it seems to me were never before
written. He grasped with clear intellectual vision the seminal
principles of things, and hence is never tempted to that dreary
Socratic ratiocination about their shifting superficial appearances,
which give great talkers a repute for knowledge. " —Substance
and Shadow.  By HENRY JAMES, pp. 103, 104.
"What appears as Swedenborg's crudities and fantasies, however, are extraneous to his essential system, which has a unity
of its own, and an organic connection with Christianity, such as
avouches itself the genuine developement of the Christian system. His cosmology, his theology, and his pneumatology are
the Christian revelation breaking into more full and rational
light from the seals of the letter which had kept and preserved
it." (REV. E. H. SEARS, in the Monthly Religious Magazinefor
March, 1865, p. 147.)
And the same writer, speaking of one of Swedenborg's works,
in which the "Doctrine of Degrees" is treated of,' and whose
philosophy, he says, " the reader does not at first get the pith
of," adds: "But when he does get it, he sees the amazing
sweep of. the principle set forth, and its constructive power in
theology, and that by missing it every schoorof materialism has
stuck fast to the earth,-Pantheism, babbling of sacred names




INTRODUCTION.                    11
that mean nothing, the Church glooming among the sepulchres,
and modern Spiritualism offering us a future world of sublimated
matter; he sees, too, that without the key which this principle
offers, they will never get out of that prison-house, but knock
their heads eternally against the bars.'" —Foregleams of Immortality. By EDMUND H. SEARS. Note top. 41.
"It is said that Swedenborg was a Fanatic. What then is a
Fanatic?  One of the profoundest mathematicians of his age;
a deep and acute thinker; a subtle logician; a various and versatile scholar; above all, a calm and most quiet bookman and
penman, indisposed for every company, and never seen to court
the company of the ignorant and the vulgar [who are] ever the
resort of the fanatic; a man of few words, until compelled to
talk, or talking for a purpose; cool in temperament; never
rocked by passion or impulse; always, as far as humanity can
be, in equilibrium, weighing all his thoughts and all his actions;
perpetually bent upon giving reasons for things; a man of
strong inductive habits and powers, and consistent; a whole
life of invariable rectitude, and doctrines, and principles, ever
above the hour; and ever, from the period of his illumination,
the same. —Is this the portrait of a Fanatic?.... He was a
Titan, and must take his place among the very highest and
widest minds of our world; his was truly a Norse intellect; he
belonged to the wonderful race of Sea-kings; he was one of the
children of Odin, and we know that race —the writers and interpreters. of the runes-the utterers of the rythmic charm."
(Swedenborg; a Biography and an Exposition. By EDWIN
PAXTON HOOD, (Episcopalian,) pp. 169, 170.)
"I have often thought of writing a work to be entitled, a
Vindication of Great Men unjustly branded, and at such times,




12                   INTRODUCTION.
the names prominent to my mind's eye have been Giordano
Bruno, Jacob Behmen, Benedict Spinoza, and EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. I remember nothing in Lord Bacon superior, few
passages equal, either in depth of thought, or in richness, dignity and felicity of diction, or in the weightiness of the truths
contained in these articles. I can venture to assert, that, as a
JIoralist, Swedenborg is above all praise; and that, as a Naturalist, Psychologist, and Theologian, he has strong and varied
claims on the gratitude -and admiration of the professional and
philosophical faculties. "-SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, Literary Remains, Vol. IV. 423.
"His [SWEDENBORG'S] writings would be a sufficient library
to a lonely and athletic student. Not every man can read them,
but they will reward him who can. The grandeur of the topics
makes the grandeur of the style. One of the missourians and
mastodons of literature, he is not to be measured by whole colleges of ordinary scholars. No one man is perhaps able to
judge of the merits of his works on so many subjects. It
seems that he anticipated much science of the nineteenth century; anticipated in astronomy the discovery of the seventh
planet; anticipated the views of modern astronomy in regard
to the generation of earths by the sun; in chemistry, the atomic
theory; in anatomy, the discoveries of Schlieuting, Monro, and
Wilson; and first demonstrated the office of the lungs. Spwedenborg styles himself, in the title-page of his books, "Servant
of the Lord Jesus Christ:" and by force of intellect, and in
effect, he is the last Father in the Church, and is not likely to
have a successor. No wonder that his depth of ethical wisdom
should give him influence as a teacher. To the withexd traditional church yielding dry catechisms, he let in nature again,




INTRODUCTION.                     18
and the worshipper, escaping from the vesting of verbs and
tests, Is surprised Eto ffnd himself a party to the whole of his
religion:. Eis religion thinks fo-r him, and is of universal application.   e turns      ever side  it fits every part of life,
interprets and dignifies every circumstance. Instead of a religion which visited him diplomatically three or four times,when he was born, when he married, when he felt sick, and
when he died, and for the rest never interfered with him,-here
was a teaching which accompanied him all day, accompanied
him even into sleep and dreams; into his thinking, and showed
him through what a long ancestry his thoughts descend; into
society, and showed by what affinities he was girt to his equals
and his counterparts; into natural objects, and showed their
origin and.meaning, what aroe frienadly and what are hurtful;
and opened the future world, by indicating the continuity or
the same laws,  His disciples allege that their intellect is invigorated by the study of his books." —RALPHI WALDO EMERSON.
"SWEDENBORG was not a man to be carried away by an unbridled imagination; still less did he ever manifest, during his
whole life, the slightest symptom of mental aberration....
On the other hand, he was in life and disposition so blameless,
that no man dare even intimate any suspicion of concerted deception; and posterity have no right to call into question the
unsuspected testimony of those who lived in the same age as
Swedenborg, and who knew him well. If this mode of judgment be permitted, all historical evidence, even the holiest and
most venerable might be reduced to nothing..... If it be per
mitted to say of a man, to whose veracity, intelligence, science,
irreproachable conduct, presence of mind, and fidelity to truth,
his contemporaries bear' testimony-if it be permitted for pos
2




14                   INTRODUCTION.
terity to say that such a man had either imprudently deceived
himself and the world, or had knowingly dealt in mere falsehood
and lies, there is an end to the verification of historical events....He was guided in his researches by a mind clear, acutely
analytic, endowed with skill, and well disciplined in mathematics
and logic. He endeavored to raise the mind to that height from
which the first created germ, acted upon by the creative spirit
and power, might be contemplated, and from which the first
buds (or principles) of things might be seen growing from the
impulsive force which God has implanted in their nature....
Throughout the entire course of his learned researches and activity, we every where discover the pious and religious man,
who, in all his sayings and doings, was intent upon good. In
his inmost soul, he was entirely opposed to all those systems of
materialism and naturalism which so wantonly prevailed in his
time; and he built his own system on the foundation of an
Eternal Esse, and on its creating activities, (from which, as from
the only origin and cause, all things are created and preserved).
And, throughout the entire course of his labors, he seizes every
opportunity of pointing to this first great rational Cause of all
things, and, at the same time, he endeavors to show the absurdity of all opposite opinions. Nor did the sensualism of those of
his contemporaries which confines itself to the mere surface of
things, nor did the more refined Pantheistic abstraction of others, although penetrating mnore deeply below the surface, find
any place in his system and works. There no where appears in
the writings of Swedenborg a self-destroying contradiction,
nothing abrupt, disjointed, or unconnected, or arbitrary, or illogical, such as is accustonled to accompany the phenomena of
dreams, or the effusions of an unregulated fancy; but every
thing that he writes is so connected and uninterrupted, as to




INTRODUCTION,                     15
present a perfect whole.-REV. PROFESSOR VON G(EBRES,
(Roman Catholic,) " On Swedenborg and his Views."
"EMANUEL SWEDENBORG occupies a prominent position
among the master minds of humanity..... It is not our province or purpose to decide the question of his Seership, but we
may be permitted to remark that to all impartial and reflecting
minds his historical appearance presents a problem that still
awaits solution. The smile of incredulity begins to die upon the
lips of the conscientious sceptic, and the opprobrious termsdreamer and madman —are yielding to the more courteous epithet
-mystic. In vain will you ransack the archives of his family or
personal history for a trace of insanity. Equally fruitless will be
your endeavor to trace any symptoms of incoherence or raving
in his methodical pages. If he must needs be mad, there is a
rare method in his madness; and if the world insists on his being
a visionary it must admit that his visions are something anomalous, in their systematic and mathematical form. But we have
yet to learn that visionaries and dreamers can write a cool business-like style, and pen dry and well-digested folios. Nor is it a
common thing to find a madman deficient in the sallies of the
imagination, and remarkable for strong common sense. Such is
the problem and anomaly presented by this remarkable man,
whose gift of Seership is attested by such characters as
Kant and the sister of the great Frederick..... Swedenborg's philosophy, as developed in his scientific as well as theological works, may be characterized as a very decided system
of empirical realism, distinguished for an almost diophanic
introvision into the human heart for consummate simplicity and
consistency. He regards the science of Correspondence as the
key of knowledge-a divine philosophy, unlocking the treasures




16                   INTRODUCTION.
of the spiritual as well as the natural worlds, and sending
thought at a bound from the zoophite to the Seraphim. The
material world is the ultimate and pedestal. of the universe,
filled with various collations corresponding to others in the higher
ascending spheres of the universe. Thus nature is, initruth, a
rev.lation,.and -aidivine-book,-whose letters the groves, hills, and
rivers, the firmament and the lamps of heaven, are hieroglyphic
representatives:   o  corresponding  spiritual realities.... It is
refreshing, in the eleventh hour of the eighteenth century-the
age of Atheism, Libertinism, Freemasonry, and Rosicrusianism,
to meet a man who united a healthy, plain, and practical view of
life, man, and nature, with the sublimest, and at the same time
the most scientific, handling and treatment of things, spiritua:
and eternal. In the eyes of a discriminating posterity, Emanuel
Swedenborg will obtain an elevated rank in the illustrious brotherhood of the luminaries of the Church. "-TENNEMANN'S Manual
of the History of Philosophy.
Such is the testimony in regard to this man and his writings,
offered by independent and serious minds, who cannot be suspected of any undue bias in his favor. Not one of these witnesses was ever identified with what is popularly known as the
New Church, whereof Swedenborg is held to be the divinely
appointed herald. Let the candid reader ask himself, What
conceivable motive could have induced them to extol unduly the
virtues of this man, or to overestimate the wisdom and worth of
his writings.                                   B. F. B.
PHILADELPHIA, February 12th, 1866.




CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PACq
Birth and  Parentage.  Swedenborg's First Ideas of Religion, and
his Scholastic Life........................................................  21
CHAPTER II.
Travels, Becomes Author, and is crossed in Love............................. 26
CHAPTER III.
Travels again.  Publishes five Scientific Pamphlets, and "Miscellaneous Observations." Returns Home and enters on the Duties of his Assessorship.  Writes his "Opera Philosophica et
Mineralia," and goes abroad to publish it................................  35
CHAPTER IV.
"Opera Philosophica et Mineralia,"..............................................   40
CHAPTER V.
Doings and Travels.................................................... 47
CHAPTER VI.
"The Economy of the Animal Kingdom," and "The Animal Kingdom,"................................................................................  51
CHAPTER VII.
His Life, as a Man of Science, ends.......................................... 57
CHAPTER VIII.
His Spiritual Sight opened, and the Conditions of his Seership............  62
2*                                                          17




18                           CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
PA(G
Prepares for his New Office. Resigns his Assessorship.  His "Adversaria."  His "Spiritual Diary."  The death of Polheim..........  73
CHAPTER X.
"The Arcana Ccelestia."........................................................ 78
CHAPTER XI.
Anecdotes.........................................................  89
CHAPTER XII.
" The Last Judgment."..................................................... 95
CHAPTER XIII.
"Heaven and Hell."..................................................   102
CHAPTER XIV.
"The White Horse." "The Earths in the Universe." "The New
Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine."................................. 130
CHAPTER XV.
Anecdotes.............................................................................. 136
CHAPTER XVI.
"Doctrine of the Lord; The Sacred Scripture; Faith; and Life"........ 142
CHAPTER XVII.
"The Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom."  "The Continuation
of the last Judgment."................................................   151
CHAPTER XVIII.
"Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Providence."....................... 159
CHAPTER XIX.
Life in Amsterdam.  Character of the Dutch.   Meets Dr. Beyer.
Republishes his "New  Method of Finding the  Longitudes."
" The Apocalypse explained."................................................... 169




CONTENTS.                                   19
CHAPTER XX.
PAGE
"Apocalypse Revealed."............................................................ 173
CHAPTER XXI.
Travels.  Habits.  Anecdotes...........................................      180
CHAPTER XXII.
"Conjugial Love."....................................................................  191
CHAPTER XXIII.
Attacked by Dr. Eckebom.  Visits France.  Letter to Hartley, and
Hartley's opinion of Swedenborg............................................   204
CHAPTER XXIV.
"Brief Exposition  of the Doctrines of the New  Church," and the
"Intercourse between the Soul and the Body............................. 210
CHAPTER XXV.
Persecution. Letter to the Academy of Sciences. Leaves Stockholm for the last time..........................................................     219
CHAPTER XXVI.
Swedenborg in Intercourse with General Tuxen and Paulus ab Indagine. His reply to Dr. Ernesti. Letter to the Landgrave of Hesse
Darmstadt....................................................................... 227
CHAPTER XXVII.
" The True Christian Religion."................................................... 236
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Anecdotes and Traits of Character............................ 256
CHAPTER XXIX.
Last Days on Earth.................................................................. 262
CHAPTER XXX.
Progress of the New Church.......................................................   267








LIFE AND WRITINGS
OF
EMIANUEL SWEDENBORG.
CHAPTER I.
His Birth and Parentage-His fi/rst ideas of Religion, and his
Scholastic I-ife.
AUTHORS are never wiser than when they trust to time
for justice. The poor thinker, neglected by his age, unseen
amid the glare of mere show and pageantry, need not fret
himself. Time will roll on, the false and meretricious will
sink into forgetfulness, while his true words will become
accepted, and his thoughts the stars by which wise men
guide their course across the dark ocean of life.
It was the lot of Emanuel Swedenborg to be cast on a
shallow, sceptical, and perverse age. Living a life of the
utmost purity, and teaching truths which we esteem it our
great felicity to know, he had but poor thanks so far as
fame and disciples went. But the dawn of his day of
justice is approaching. His name, which in past times has
too often been used to point a sarcasm at whatever is
visionary and transcendental, has of late years been slowly
rising into estimation. Here and there, one eminent man
after another has spoken some brave words in honor and
21




22             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
admiration of the great Swede. Slowly,'but surely, his
writings are claiming attention; his disciples, though still
few, are quietly earnest and enthusiastic, and ever and anon
there is seen in the newspaper or periodical, the name of
Swedenborg mentioned with respect, if not with reverence.
Considerable curiosity exists in large circles to know more
of him, of what he did, what were his doctrines, and the
nature and number of his books. To satisfy, in some
measure, these queries and if possible to incite a desire
for an intimate personal acquaintance with the writings of
Swedenborg, is the purpose of the present work.
Emanuel Swedenborg was born at Stockholm, on the 29th
Jan., 1688. The year is a memorable one, as being that
in which outraged England drove the faithless Stuarts from
the throne. His father's name was Jesper Swedberg, and
his mother's, Sarah Behm; both descended from families of
worth and usefulness in Sweden. His father, at the time of
his birth, was chaplain to a regiment of cavalry. After
passing through several offices, one of which was a professorship of theology in the University of Upsal, Jesper Swedberg was, in the year 1719, elevated to the bishoprick of
Skara in West Gothland. His character stood high in
Sweden. Simple, patriotic, and honest, he was, without
being brilliant, a learned and industrious man. He wrote
much, and published occasionally, as the following extract
from his diary proves: "I can scarcely believe that anybody in Sweden has written so much as I have done; since,
I think, ten carts could scarcely carry away what I have
written and printed at my own expense, and yet there is
much, yea nearly as much, not printed." Of the professions
of his sons, he wisely remarks; "I have kept my sons to that
profession to which God has given them inclination and
liking: I have not brought up one to the clerical office,
although many parents do this inconsiderately, and in a




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                23
manner not justifiable, by which the Christian Chuich and
the clerical order suffer not a little, and are brought into
contempt."  Writing in his diary forty years after Emanuel's birth, he says: "Emanuel, my son's name, signifies'God with us,' a name which should constantly remind him
of the nearness of God, and of that interior, holy, and
mysterious connection, in which, through faith, we stand
with our good and gracious God. And blessed be the Lord's
name! God has, to this hour, been with him; and may God
be further with him, until he is eternally united with Him in
his kingdom."
Of Swedenborg's childhood we have little record. In a
letter which, late in life, he addressed to Dr. Beyer, he
remarks; "With regard to what passed in the earliest part
of my life, about which you wish to be informed: from my
fourth to my tenth year, my thoughts were constantly
engrossed by reflections on God, on salvation, and on the
spiritual affections of man. I often revealed things in my
discourse which filled my parents with astonishment, and
made them declare at times, that certainly the angels spoke
through my mouth. From my sixth to my twelfth year, it
was my greatest delight to converse with the clergy concerning faith; to whom I often observed, that charity or love is
the life of faith; and that this vivifying charity or love is no
other than the love of one's neighbor; that God vouchsafes
this faith to every one; but that it is adopted by those only
who practise that charity. I knew of no other faith or
belief at that time, than that God is. the Creator and Preserver of Nature; that He endues men with understanding,
good inclinations, and other gifts derived from these. I
knew nothing at that time of the systematic or dogmatic
kind of faith, that God the Father imputes the righteousness
or merits of the Son to whomsoever, and at whatever time,
iHe wills, even to the impenitent. And had I heard of such
2




24       ~      LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
a faith, it would have been then, as now, perfectly unintelligible to me."
This confession very vividly shadows forth the future
man. We see how earnestly his sound, practical mind
perceived and clung to the real and substantial in theology.
His experience of the doctrine of justification by faith alone,
finds parallels in the lives and experience of many eminent
men. It was not until after many years' preaching, that
the fact of the existence of such a doctrine was presented to
the mind of Dr. Chalmers, to whom also it was quite unintelligible; yet, overcome by the sphere of learning and
prestige with which the doctrine was environed, Chalmers
yielded assent to it, and fancied, as thousands do, he believed
what by no possibility he could ever understand. Swedenborg was too single-eyed in his pursuit of truth to be led
aside by authority, however imposing; and often, in the
following narrative, we shall have to observe with what
independence, yet with what humility and simplicity, he
recorded the truths which it was his mission to reveal.
This excellent son of good Bishop Swedberg received the
best education that the times and his country could afford.
In his twenty-second year, at the University of Upsal, he
took his degree of Doctor in philosophy. The dissertation
which he wrote for his degree was afterwards published. It
consisted of a selection of sentences from Seneca, Publius
Syrus Mimus, and other Latin writers, enriched by comments of his own, and notes illustrating the obscurities of
the Latin text. This work was so highly thought of, as to
occasion a poetic eulogy, written in Greek, to be inscribed
to its author. Swedenborg dedicated this, his first literary
production, to his father, in a prelude full of veneration and
love. Its length alone prevents our gratifying the reader
with the perusal of this beautiful tribute of filial affectioa




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                25
Among his many virtues, it should not be accounted the
least, that Swedenborg was a loving, dutiful son.
The same year he published, in a work of his father's, a
Latin version of the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes, which
proved, in a high degree, his mastery of the Latin language.
In 1710, was finished the strictly scholastic period of
Swedenborg's life. He had now reached manhood, and
must live as a man among men. His youth manifests less
precocity than solid and regular development of mind. The
record of his life at this time, evidences a common-sense
appreciation of life and its duties, an honest love of virtue,
and a desire to be useful in his day and generation. The
sequel will show that his day of life was not unworthy of
its dawn.
3                     B




26             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
CHAPTER II.
Travels-Becomes Author-Is crosse.d in 1ove.
HAVING completed his university education, Swedenborg
entered on his travels. In his journal, he thus briefly describes a four years' absence from Sweden.
"In the year 1710 I set out for Gottenburg, that I might
be conveyed, by ship, thence to London. On the voyage,
my life was in danger four times: first on some shoals, toward which we were driven by a storm, until we were within
a quarter of a mile from the raging breakers, and we thought
we should all perish. Afterwards we narrowly escaped some
Danish pirates under French colors; and the next evening
we were fired into from a British ship, which mistook us for
the same pirates, but without much damage. Lastly, in
London itself, I was exposed to a more serious danger.
While we were entering the harbor, some of our countrymen came to us in a boat, and persuaded me to go with them
into the city., Now it was known in London that an epidemic was raging in Sweden, and therefore all who arrived
from Sweden were forbidden to leave their ships for six
weeks, or forty days; so I, having transgressed this law, was
very near being hanged, and was only freed under the condition that, if any one attempted the same thing again, he
should not escape the gallows.
"At London and Oxford I tarried about a year. Then I
went to Holland and saw its chief cities. At Utrecht I tarried a long time, while Congress was sitting and ambassadors




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                27
were gathering there from nearly all the courts of'Europe
Thence I went into France, and passed through Brussels
and Valenciennes to Paris. Here and at Versailles I spent
a year. At the end of this time I hastened, by public coach,
to Hamburg, and thence to Pomerania and Greifswalde,
where I remained some time, while Charles the Twelfth was
coming from Bender to Stralsund. When the siege began,
I departed in a small vessel, together with- a lady named
Feif, and by Divine Providence was restored to my own
country after more than four years' absence."
While traveling he was not idle; for we find that in 1715,
while at Greifswalde, he published an oration on the return
of Charles XII. from Turkey, and a small volume of Latin
prose fables. On his return to Sweden, he issued, at Skara,
a little book of poems, written for the most part during his
journeyings. These have been republished at various times;
but, as poems, much cannot be said of them. Wilkinson, in
his "Biography of Swedenborg," remarks: "These poems
display fancy, but a controlled imagination. If we may
convey to the English reader such a notion of Latin verses,
they remind one of the Pope school, in which there is generally some theme, or moral, governing the flights of the
Muse."  Indeed, it was well that Swedenborg was but slightly
endowed with the poetic faculty. Much of his future mission lay in fields which require the coolest and calmest of
minds to describe; the sight and contemplation of which,
would have sent a Shaksperian or Byronic temperament intd
extatic frenzies.
Swedenborg, himself the son of a bishop, was connected
with high and influential families in Sweden. One of his
sisters was married to Eric Benzelius, afterwards Archbishop
of Upsal; and another to Lars Benzelstierna, governor of a
province. Other members of the family held high and responsible offices in the kingdom. A young man thus situated




28             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
would find little difficulty in settling for life in a sphere of
usefulness adapted to all his tastes. While on his travels on
the Continent he wrote letters to Eric Benzelius, detailing
every novelty in mathematics, astronomy, and mechanics,
which came under his observation; besides sending home
models of all such inventions as he thought might be useful
to his country. These letters and services won for him considerable notice; and on his return to Sweden, he assumed
the editorship of a new periodical work, entitled "Dsedalus
Hyperboreus." Among the contributors to this magazine,
was the celebrated mathematician, Christopher Polheim, who
has been called the Swedish Archimedes. Swedenborg's connection with Polheim seems to have led to his appointment
to the office of Assessor of the Board of Mines, which he
held with distinguished honor for many years.
In the year 1716, Polheim invited him to go with him
to Lund, on a visit to Charles XII., who had just escaped
from Stralsund. He was very kindly received by the King,
and obtained from him his official appointment as Assessor.
He was to assist Polheim in his undertakings, to have a seat
in the College of Mines, and to give his advice, especially
when any business of a mathematical nature was on hand.
Charles seems to have at once discerned the rare abilities
of Swedenborg, and with a desire of uniting him in still
closer bonds of amity with his favorite Polheim, he advised
Polheim to give him his daughter in marriage. To this
proposal Swedenborg appears to have been in nowise averse.
He lived with Polheim, at once as his coadjutor, and as his
pupil in mathematics; and having thus constant opportunities of seeing the fair Emerentia, -Polheim's second daughter,
had become enamored of her graces. In one of his letters,
he remarks: " Polheim's eldest daughter is promised to a
page of the king's. I wonder what people say of this in relation to myself. His second daughter is, in my opinion,




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                29
much the handsomest." The attachment, however, was not
mutual, and the lady would not allow herself to be betrothed.
Her father, who deeply loved Swedenborg, caused a written
agreement to be drawn up, promising his daughter at some
future day. This document, Emerentia, from filial obedience, signed; but, as ladies generally do, when forced to love
in this way, took to sighs and sadness, which so affected her
brother with sorrow, that he secretly purloined the agreement from Swedenborg. The paper was soon missed; for
Swedenborg read it over frequently, and, in his grief at its
loss, besought Polheim to replace it by a new one. But as
Swedenborg now discovered the pain which he gave to the
object of his affections, he at once relinquished all claim to
her hand, and left her father's house. This was his last, as
it was his first endeavor after marriage. In after years, when
jocosely asked whether he had ever been desirous of marrying, he answered: "In my youth I was once on the road to
matrimony." And on being asked what was the obstacle,
with his characteristic simplicity he said: " She would not
have me." Considering the studious and abstracted life
which he eventually led, it is not to be regretted that he remained unwedded. That he was no harsh despiser of the
sex, we know well from his writings; and that his'life was
in agreement with his books, we also know. The loveliest
descriptions of female grace and beauty we have ever met
with, are contained in his works, chiefly in his treatise on
"Conjugal Love."  M. Sandell, a member of the Royal
Academy of Sciences in Sweden, who pronounced a magnificent eulogium on his fellow-member, Swedenborg, shortly
after his death, says:" Though Swedenborg was never married, it was not owing to any indifference toward the sex;
for he esteemed the company of a fine, intelligent woman as
one of the most agreeable of pleasures; but his profound
3 *




30                LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
studies rendered expedient for him  the quiet of a single
life."
Swedenborg seems to have had much intercourse with the
King. In one of his letters, he says: "I found his Majesty
very gracious to me; more so than I could expect.  This is
a good omen for the future. Every day I laid mathematical
subjects before his Majesty, who allowed everything to please
him.  When the eclipse took place, I had his Majesty out to
see it, and we reasoned much thereupon.  He again spoke
of my'DIedalus,' and remarked upon my not continuing
it; for which I pleaded want of means. This he does not
like to hear of; so I hope to have some assistance shortly."
But assistance did not come, and " Dsedalus" went the way
of many such undertakings. Talking of mathematics one
day, Charles remarked that "he who knew nothing of mathematics, did not deserve to be considered a rational man;"
a sentiment which Swedenborg thought "truly worthy of a
king." *
* The following account of Charles XII., written by Emanuel Swedenborg, was printed in the " Gentleman's Magazine," for September, 1754.
It is a portion of a letter which Swedenborg wrote to M. Nordberg, while
the latter was engaged in writing his "Life of Charles XII.," in which
work theJetter appeared at full length. It is too long to be quoted here;
the following extracts contain the pith of it. It may be proper to observe,
that it was written by the author prior to his being called to the sacred
office which occupied the'last twenty-nine. years of his life. This accounts
for his speaking of the celebrated Swedish hero with so much greater respect than he is known to have afterwards entertained for his memory.
"Having been frequently admitted to the honor of hearing his late most
excellent Majesty, Charles XII. discourse on mathematical subjects, I
presume an account of a new arithmetic invented by him, may merit the
attention of my readers.
"His Majesty observed then, that the denary arithmetic, universally received and practiced, was most probably derived from the original method
of counting on the fingers; that illiterate people of old, when they had run
through the fingers of both hands, repeated new periods over and over
again, and every time spread open'both hands; which being done tep




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                          31
Charles XII. was now engaged in the siege of Frederickshall, and Swedenborg's aid was called in. He very ingentimes, they distinguished each step by proper marks, as by joining two,
three, or four fingers. Afterwards, when this method of numeration on the
fingers came to be expressed by proper characters, it soon became firmly
and universally established, and so the denary calculus has been retained to
this day. But surely, were a solid geometrician; thoroughly versed in the
abstract nature and fundamentals of numbers, to set his mind upon introducing a still more useful calculus into the world, instead of ten, he would
select such a perfect square, or cube number, ashby continual bisection, or
halving, would at length terminate in unity, and be better adapted to the
subdivisions of measures, weights, coins, etc.
"Thus intent on a new arithmetic, the hero pitched upon the number
eight, as most fit for the purpose, since it could not only be halved continually down to unity, without a fraction, but contained within it the square
of 2, and was itself the cube thereof, and was also applicable to the received denomination of several sorts of weights and coins, rising to 16
and 32, the double and quadruple of 8. Upon these first considerations,
he was pleased to command me to draw up an essay on an octonary calculus, which I completed in a few days, with its application to the received
divisions, coins, measures, and weights, a disquisition on cubes -and
squares, and a new and easy way of extracting roots, all illustrated with
examples.
" His Majesty having cast his eye twice or thrice over it, and observing,
perhaps from some hints in the essay, that the denary calculus had several
advantages not always attended to, he did not at that time seem absolutely
to approve of the octonary: or, it is likely he might conceive, that though
it seemed easy in theory, yet it might prove difficult to introduce it to practice. Be this as it may, he insisted on fixing upon some other that was
both a cube and a square number, referrible to 8, and divisible down to
unity by bisection. This could be no other than 64, the cube of 4, and
square of 8, divisible down to unity without a fraction.
"I immediately presumed to object that such a number would be too
prolix, as it rises through a series of entirely distinct and different numbers, up to 64, and then again to its duplicate 4,096, and on to its triplicate
262,144, before the fourth step commences; so that the difficulty of such a
calculus would be incredible, not only in addition and subtraction, but to
a still higher degree in multiplication and division; for the memory must
necessarily retain in the multiplication table, 3,969 distinct products of the
63 numjbers of the first step multiplied into one another; whereas only 49
are necessary in the octonary, and but 81 are required in the denary arith



32                 LIFE  AND  WRITINGS OF
iously planned rolling machines, by which two galleys, five
large boats, and a sloop, were conveyed from Stromstadt to
metic; which last is difficult to be remembered and applied in practice, by
some capacities. But the stronger my objections were, the more resolute
was his royal mind upon attempting such a calculus.
Obstructions made him eagerly aspire
All to surmount, and nobly soar the higher.
He insisted that the alleged difficulties might be overbalanced by very
many advantages.
"A few days after this I was called before his Majesty, who, resuming
the subject, demanded if I had made a trial. I still urging my former objections, he reached me a paper written with his own hand, in new characters and terms of denomination, the perusal of which, he was pleased, at
my entreaty, to grant me; wherein, to my great surprise, I found not only
new characters and numbers, (the one almost naturally expressive of the
other) in a continued series to 64, so ranged as easily to be remembered,
but also new denominations, so contrived by pairs, as to be easily extended
to myriads. by a continued variation of the character and denomination.
And further casting my eye on several new methods of his for addition and
multiplication by this calculus, either artificially contrived, or else inherent in the characters of the numbers themselves, I was struck with the
profoundest admiration of the force of his Majesty's genius, and with
such strange amazement, as obliged me to esteem this eminent personage,
not my rival, but by far my superior in my own art. And having the
original still in my custody, at a proper time I may publish it, as it highly
deserves; whereby it will appear with what discerning skill he was endowed, or how deeply he penetrated into the obscurest recesses of the
arithmetical science.
"Besides, his eminent talents in calculation further appear by his frequently working and solving the most difficult numerical problems, barely
by thought and memory; in which operations others are obliged to take
great pains and tedious labor.
" Having duly weighed the vast advantages arising from mathematical
and arithmetical knowledge in most occasions of human life, he frequently
used it as an adage, that he who is ignorant of numbers is scarce half a
man.
"While he was at Bender, he composed a complete volume of military
exercises, highly esteemed by those who are best skilled in the art of
war."




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                  33
Iderfjol, overland; a distance of fourteen miles.'Under
cover of these vessels, Charles was enabled to transport his
heavy artillery under the very walls of Frederickshall; but
it availed little, for at the siege of this town, on November
30, 1718, (old style,) this inveterate warrior received the
fatal blow which ended his troublous and eventful career.
Hie was struck in the head with a cannon ball, and though
death must have been instantaneous, he was found with his
right hand firmly grasping the handle of his sword; so
prompt was he to put himself in an attitude of defence.
" His fall was destined to a barren strand,
A petty fortress and a dubious hand;
He left a name at which the world grew pale,
To point a moral or adorn a tale."
In 1719 the Swedberg family were ennobled by Queen
Ulrica Eleonora, and Swedenborg from that time took his
place with the nobles of the equestrian order, in the triennial
Assemblies of the States. This distinction conferred little
else than a change of name. He was neither a Count nor a
Baron, as has very commonly been supposed.
Emanuel Swedenborg was rapidly winning for himself the
name of a deep thinker and a ready writer. In 1717 he
published "An Introduction to Algebra," under the title of
"The Art of the Rules." It was highly praised for its
clearness, and the order and force of its examples. The first
portion of the work, however, was all that was published.
The second, containing the first account given in Sweden
of the differential and integral calculus, still remains in MS.
His second publication this year was, "Attempts to find the
Longitude of Places by Lunar Observations." Both works
were written in Swedish.
In 1719 four works proceeded from his increasingly fertile
pen. "A Proposal for a Decimal System of Money and
Measures;" "A Treatise on the Motion and Position of the




34             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
Earth and Planets;" "Proofs derived from Appearances in
Sweden, of the Depth of the Sea, and the greater Force of
the Tides in the Ancient World;" and "On Docks, Sluices,
and Salt Works."
His work on the Decimal system of coinage and measures
was republished in 1795. Swedenborg's ideas on this and
most other subjects were far ahead of the times in which he
lived. In one of his letters he thus alludes to the discouragements he met with on this account. "It is a little discouraging to me to be advised to relinquish my views, as among
the novelties the country can not bear. For my part, I
desire all possible novelties; aye, a novelty for every day in
the year; for in every age there is an abundance of persons
who follow the beaten track, and remain in the old way;
while there are not more than from six to ten in a century
who bring forward innovations founded on argument and
reason."




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                  5
CHAPTER III.
Travels again-Publishes flve Scientific Pamphlets and "Aiscellaneous Observations "-Returns Home and enters on the duty of his
Assessorship —Writes his " Opera Philosophica et Mineralia," and
goes abroad to publish it.
IN the spring of 1721, Swedenborg visited Holland a
second time, and chose Amsterdam as a place of publication
for the following five little works:-" Some Specimens of a
Work on the Principles of Natural Philosophy, comprising
New Attempts to Explain the Phenomena of Chemistry and
Physics by Geometry;" "New Observations and Discoveries
respecting Iron and Fire, and particularly respecting the
Elemental Nature of Fire, together with a new construction
of Stoves;" "A New Method of finding the Longitude of
Places, on Land or at Sea, by Lunar Observations;" "A
New Mechanical Plan of constructing Docks and Dykes;"
and "A Mode of Discovering the Powers of Vessels by the
application of Mechanical Principles."
The titles of these pamphlets prove that their author was
no ordinary man. But the publication of them was not his
only object in this visit to the continent. It was his desire
to improve his practical knowledge of mining, to enable him
the better to fulfill his duties as Assessor. For this purpose
he left Amsterdam for Leipsic, passing through Aix-laChapelle, Liege, and Cologne, and visiting the different
mines and smelting works which lay in his route. At
Leipsic lae published, in 1722, "Miscellaneous Observations
connected with the Physical Sciences," Parts I. to III.; and




36              LIFE AND- WRITINGS OF
at Hamburg, in the same year, Part IV., principally on
minerals, iron, and the stalactites in Beaumann's cavern.
The reigning Duke of Brunswick, Louis Rudolph, most
hospitably received Swedenborg, defrayed his traveling
expenses, and on his departure, testified his admiration of
the young savant by presenting him with a gold medallion,
and a weighty silver goblet. In return for these favors,
Swedenborg dedicated Part IV. of his "Miscellaneous Observations" to him.
In speaking of the foregoing works, it is difficult, in the
few words to which we must limit ourselves, to do them the
justice which their originality and daring speculation deserve.
As Wilkinson remarks, "the fortress of mineral truth was
the first which he approached, and with the most guarded
preparation. His method was furnished by geometry and
mechanics; the laws of the pure sciences were to be the
interpreters of the facts of chemistry and physics. The
beginning of nature, says he, is identical with the beginning
of geometry; the origin of natural particles is due to mathematical points, just as is the origin of lines, forms, and the
whole of geometry: because everything in nature is geometrical, everything in geometry is natural. Carrying out this
theory, he seeks to define the laws of chemical essence and
combination, by the truths of mathematics." Mr. Strutt,
the translator of these works into English, says: "This
extraordinary attempt to bring invisible things to light, has
been thoroughly justified by the success which has attended
Dalton's hypothesis, in an age better prepared for its application; and by the equally remarkable fact that the definitions given of solids, acids, and alkalies, have gradually
approximated very near indeed to those which result from
Swedenborg's hypothesis. We say nothing here of a latent
connection between the principle on which it is founded, and
some of the results obtained by Berzelius, whose fame, as a




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                37
chemist, is as wide as the civilized world." It need only be
added that M. Dumas, the French chemist, ascribes to these
works by Swedenborg, the origin of the modern science
of'crystallography. He says, "It is to him we are in
debted for the first idea of making cubes, tetrahedrons,
pyramids, and the different crystalline forms, by the
grouping of spherical particles; and it is an idea which
has been renewed by several distinguished men, Wollaston
in particular."
After an absence of fifteen months, Swedenborg returned
to his home in Stockholm, at midsummer, 1722. He now
for the first time entered fully upon the duties of his Assessorship; having deferred doing so until his knowledge of
metallurgy had become sufficiently practical and extensive.
At this time he published an anonymous pamphlet "On the
Depreciation and Rise of the Swedish Currency."  The
currency seems to have been a favorite subject with Swedenborg; and in his senatorial capacity, it engaged much of
his attention. The pamphlet seems to have been much
thought of, for we find that it was republished at Upsal
in 1771. There are few productions of this kind that
will endure a revival forty-nine years after their first publication.
The tenor of Swedenborg's life for eleven years after this,
seems to have flowed quietly on in the regular fulfilment of
the duties of his office. It may be supposed that he had become tired of writing and publishing scientific works, and
that for a time he wished to rest from this kind of labor.
His abilities were appreciated by his countrymen, for we
find that he was solicited to accept the Professorship of
mathematics in the University of Upsal, in 1724. He declined the honor. It appears that he had a distaste for the
unpractical and merely speculative character of the pure
mathematician. We find him writing to his brother-in-law
4




88            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
in this strain:-"I wonder at Messieurs the mathematicians
having lost all heart and spirit to realize that fine design of
yours for an astronomical observatory. It is the fatality of
mathematicians to remain chiefly in theory. I have often
thought it would be a capital thing, if, to each ten mathematicians, one good practical man were added, to lead the
rest to market: he would be of more use and mark than all
the ten." In 1729, Swedenborg became a member of the
Royal Academy of Science at Stockholm.
Discontinuing the pamphlet style of publication, Swedenborg now centered his thoughts upon the production of a
much larger and more laborious work than he had hitherto
attempted. It was entitled "Opera Philosophica et Mineralia." In order to secure its proper publication, he went
abroad, for the third time, in May, 1733. After spending
five months in Germany, seeing everything note-worthy, he
commenced the printing of his work at Leipsic, in the month
of October. In the course of the year 1734, the whole was
finished in three handsome folio volumes, enriched with numerous copper-plates, and an engraved likeness of the
author. At this time he was again a visitor at the court of
the Duke of Brunswick,who munificently defrayed the cost
of his expensive publication. The volumes were published
at Leipsic and Dresden.
At the same time he issued a little work called "A Philosophical Argument on the Infinite, and the Final Cause of
Creation; and on the Mechanism of the Intercourse between
the Soul and the Body." It may be regarded as a supplement to the foregoing.
His work being finished, he left Leipsic for Cassel, and
passing homewards through Gotha, Brunswick, and Hamburg, arrived at Stockholm in July, 1734. It is to be remembered that in this journey he had still the duties of his




EM ANUEL SWEDENBORG.               80
office in view. He visited mines everywhere, studied their
modes of working, and sought continually to make himself
useful to his country.
It now becomes necessary to speak of his great volumes
of philosophical and mineral works.




-40              LIFE AND WRITINGS -iF
CHAPTER IV,
Opera Philosophica et Mineralta.
IN attempting to give the reader an idea of the contents
and aims of this great work, within the compass of a few
paragraphs, one feels extreme difficulty in knowing where
or how to begin. It starts so many topics, is so full of the
deepest scientific truth, speculates so boldly, and reaches to
such heights of subtle thought, that we must necessarily confine ourselves to a very superficial view, and the enumeration
of a few of its prominent features.
As before said, the work occupies three large folio volumes.
Of the second and third of these, it does not lie in our province to say much. Both are strictly practical works; one
on iron, and the other on copper and brass. They are evidences of Swedenborg's ardent devotion to the duties of his
office; and as a testimony to the worth of the books themselves, it need only be said, that portions of them have been
repeatedly reprinted, and that they are held in high estimation by those who study metallurgy as a science, or follow it
as a profession. The publication of the secrets of trade and
manufacture in these volumes, was not relished by the narrow-minded and selfish. Of such the author observes:"There are persons who love to hold their knowledge for
themselves alone, and to be the reputed possessors and guardians of secrets. People of this kind grudge the public
everything, and if any discovery, by which art and science
will be benefited, comes to light, they regard it askance, with




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                41
scowling visages, and probably denounce the discoverer as a
babbler who lets out mysteries. But why should such secrets be grudged to the public? Why withhold from this
enlightened age? Whatever is worthy to be known, should
by all means be brought to the great and general market of
the world. Unless we do this, we can neither grow wiser
nor happier with time." These are true, liberal, and noble
words.
But it is the first volume which is the greatest and most
important of the three. It has recently been translated into
English by the Rev. Augustus Clissold, and published in
two considerable octavos. It is entitled "Principia; or the
First Principles of Natural Things, being New Attempts
toward a Philosophical Explanation of the Elementary
World."  In this volume an attempt is made to explain the
generation of the elements, the creation of matter, and the
nature of the occult forces playing within nature.  To
pronounce an absolute opinion upon such a work would
be highly hazardous; for positive science at present,
affords no sufficient data to test many of its highest
reasonings. So far, however, as such tests have been granted,
they serve to manifest the fact that among speculative
natural philosophers, Swedenborg is second to none. Goerres, an eminent German philosopher, speaking of the "Principia," remarks:-'" It is a production indicative of profound
thought in all its parts, and not unworthy of being placed by
the side of Newton's mathematical'Principia of Natural
Philosophy."' We will now adduce a few proofs of the
truth of this assertion.
Humboldt, in his " Kosmos," remarks: "That great and
enthusiastic although cautious observer, Sir William Herschel, was the first to sound the depths of heaven, in order
to determine the limits and form of the starry system we
inhabit." The discovery of the place of our sun and system
4*                  B*




42              LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
in the Milky Way, is certainly due to Herschel, but Swedenborg has a prior claim to the honor. In the "Principia,"
written four years before Herschel was born, the statement
of our sun's position in the heavens was explicitly made,
with the method by which the fact was observed. But this
is not all. The changes observed in the planetary orbits,
seemed at one time to warrant the belief in a final destruction of all things through the falling of creation into chaos.
After awhile, however, La Grange brought forward his
beautiful theory, by which was established the doctrine, that
though the solar system is liable to certain mutations in the
form and eccentricity of its orbits in very long periods, yet
in consequence of a certain relation which prevails in the
system, between the masses, orbital axes, and eccentricities,
in time all orbits return again to what they originally were,
oscillating between very narrow limits. This discovery of a
cyclar return, confirmed by the most eminent astronomers,
is pronounced by Professor Playfair to be, "next to Newton's
discovery of the elliptical orbits of the planets,-without
doubt the noblest truth in physical astronomy." This discovery has also to be claimed for Swedenborg.  In his
"Principia," the fact of this cyclar mutation and return of
the planets to order, is repeatedly stated, and with great
accuracy and plainness. Want of space alone forbids several
quotations in proof. It need only be noted that the "Principia" was published forty-four years before La Grange an-nounced his famous theory. Again, the doctrine of the
translatory or progressive motion of the stars along the
Milky Way, and their streaming out at the northern end,
and in at the southern; diverging at the northern end in
every direction, while at the southern end they converge at
every point,-one of the most magnificent truths of modern
astronomy,-is clearly set forth in this wonderful work of
Swedenborg's, years before the full fact had dawned upon




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                43
the scientific world. Again, the sublime doctrine of the
cosmical arrangement of the stars, or of the clustering of
stars into distinct systems, forming starry systems, as planets
do solar systems, generally attributed to Kant, Mitchell, and
one or two others, was promulgated by Swedenborg in the
"Principia," when Kant, the first of the acknowledged propounders of the theory, was a boy of ten years of age. The
first enunciation of the nebular hypothesis, is also to be referred to Swedenborg's "Principia."  Indeed La Place, to
whom the hypothesis is generally attributed, indirectly owed
some of his ideas on the subject to Swedenborg. La Place
owned that Buffon was the first that suggested the theory of
the origin of the planets and their satellites from the sun.
Now Buffon was acquainted with Swedenborg's "Principia,"
as is evident from the fact that an eminent London bookseller recently sold a copy of the "Principia" containing
Buffon's autograph.*  It need only be added, that, fifteen
years before Buffon published his theory, and seventy-five
years before La Place offered his own to the public, Swedenborg had propounded his version of the nebular hypothesis
in the "Principia."  It is true that La Place and Swedenborg differ on several points; but recent science and experiment have tended to prove that, wherein they differ, Swedenborg's theories are the most accurate.
While advancing these high claims for Swedenborg, in
astronomical science and theory, it is but right to remove
from the public mind an erroneous idea, which, like his
titles of Baron and Count, has no foundation in fact. We
allude to his common repute as the announcer of the existence of the seventh planet, Uranus, discovered by Herschel
in 1781. That he announced the existence of this planet
long before its actual discovery, has been stated innumerable
* The bookseller referred to was Mr. Bohn, of Henrietta. street, Covent; arden.




44    -        LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
times, at home and abroad; and Emerson in his lecture on
the Mystic, takes opportunity to be witty in regretting that
he did not discover the eighth. The mistake has arisen from
Swedenborg's talking of a seventh planet in "The Worship
and Love of God," a book of his yet to be noticed. Now
the belief in the existence of a seventh planet was entertained by most of the astronomers of his day, and even so
far back as Kepler, in 1584. Swedenborg, in speaking as
he did, only expressed a general idea. Astronomers observing the wide space between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter
conjectured that some planet must roll between. The after
discovery of numerous asteroids between these orbits, gave
some-show of truth to their conjectures. It was of this supposed planet between Mars and Jupiter, and not of Uranus,
(afterwards discovered by Sir William Herschel,) that Swedenborg spoke.
In magnetism, as in astronomy, the "Principia" is no
less rich in original thought and discovery. It was not
until the close of the eighteenth century that the position
of the magnetic equator was discovered to be different from
that of the geographical. After observations confirmed the
fact that the mean latitudinal positions of the magnetic poles
and equators, are identical with those of the earth's ecliptic
and ecliptical poles. This fact, over which there has been
much congratulation, was set forth in the "Principia" many
years before it was confirmed by actual observation. Again,
the fact that the southern magnetic pole has a longer axis
from the center of the magnetic equator, than the northern,
and hence occupies a higher latitudinal position; and, as a
consequence, that the revolution of the north magnetic pole
is quicker than that of the southern; also that the south
magnetic pole possesses a greater attractive force than the
north,-facts not suspected till the investigations of Hansteen
in 1819, and only fully confirmed by observation very




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                45
recently,-were all proclaimed in the "Principia" nearly a
century before positive science had embraced them in her
domain. Swedenborg also takes precedence of all other
discoverers in the announcement of the identity of the
magnetic streams forming the aurora, and those influencing
the magnetic needle. So full is the "Principia" of truths
respecting magnetism,-which the world generally supposes
to be a novelty of the present day —that we could not
imagine a greater pleasure or surprise awaiting any one
devoted to the prosecution of magnetic science, than the
perusal of this commonly supposed old-fashioned and antiquated "Principia" of speculative science.
We will now say a few words on the great chemical truths
which the "Principia" revealed. In 1734, not a whisper
had been breathed regarding the composite nature of the
atmosphere. The earliest date which can be assigned for
the practical discovery of the two-fold nature of atmospheric
air, is 1772-4, the date of Priestley's celebrated experiments.
But we find in the "Principia," that Swedenborg sets forth
the following facts:-that pure and dry atmospheric air is a
compound of two constituents; that these constituents are
combined in unequal proportions; that the element greatest
in quantity is the extihguisher of combustion; and lastly,
that the element greatest in quantity is a constituent of
water as well as of air. The. merest tyro in science will, at
a glance, perceive the importance and extent of ground
which these propositions cover, and how profound must have
been that genius, which, in the midst of the deepest scientific
darkness, could draw from nature these deep and choice
truths. But this was not all. Water as well as air yielded
to him the secret of its constitution. In Swedenborg's day,
the whole world thought and spoke of water as an element,
and even after the composite nature of air was revealed,
water maintained its elemental character up to 1783, when




46             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
the discovery was almost simultaneously made by Watt,
Priestley, Cavendish, and Lavoisier, that water, like air, is
a result of the combination of two gases. Now in the
"Principia," written fifty years before, we are expressly told
that pure water is a compound substance, and the particulars
and quantities of the two elements in its composition are
correctly given. There are many other truths in modern
science which the "Principia" anticipates; such as the atomic
theory, and the identity of electricity and lightning; but we
must draw to a close. Enough has been said to show the
high merits of the book, and to prove how worthy it is of the
study and attention of all true lovers of science.
The publication of the "Principia" gained for its author
great reputation, and his friendship and correspondence
were eagerly courted by all the philosophers of his day. In
December, 1734, the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg
appointed him one of their corresponding members. The
Pope honored the work by placing it in that noble catalogue
of books, the Index Expurgatorius, in 1739.
It may be very pertinently asked, how it happens that a
work abounding in such important doctrines and theories
should be so little known. The neglect is easily accounted
for in the great subsequent fame of its author as a religious
visionary: His later reputation effectually out-shone that
which he so deservedly won in his younger days; and few,
even of his own disciples, until recently, thought of lifting
from the dusty shelves those great books of scientific theory,
which, of themselves, established for their author a place
among the greatest of men. The "Principia," as its translator truly says, "is a book for the future;" and taking
these words in their full import, it would be hardly possible
to pronounce a higher panegyric.




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                47
CHAPTER V.
Doings and Travels.
FROB 1734 to 1736, Swedenborg remained at home. In
July, 1735, his father died; and a year after, Swedenborg
went abroad, as he states in'his diary, "for a sojourn of
three or four years, to write and publish a certain book."
During his absence he resigned half of his official salary to
his substitutes. His father having left him some money, he
was the better able to do so. He journeyed through Denmark, Hanover, and Holland, and arrived at Rotterdam
during the fair. Observing the amusements of the people,
mountebanks, shows, etc., he took occasion to moralize thus
upon the character and prosperity of the Dutch. "Here at
Rotterdam, it has suggested itself to me to inquire why it
is that God has blessed a people so barbarous and boorish as
the Dutch, with such a fertile and luxuriant soil; that He
has preserved them, for so long a course of years, from all
misfortune; that He has raised them up in commerce above
all other nations; and made their provinces the mart and
emporium of the wealth of Europe and the world. On
consideration, the first and principal cause of these circumstances appears to be, that Holland is a republic, which
form of government is more pleasing to God than an absolute monarchy. In a republic, no veneration or worship is
paid to any man, but the highest and lowest think themselves equal to kings and emperors; as may be seen from the
characteristic bearing of every one in Holland. The only




48             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
one whom they worship is God. And when God alone is
worshiped, and men are not adored instead of Him, such
worship is most acceptable to Him. Then again, in Holland,
there is the greatest liberty. None are slaves, but all are as
lords and masters under the government of the most high
God; and the consequence is, that they do not depress their
manliness either by shame or 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 property to God, who alone ought to govern all things.
It is not so in absolute monarchies, where men are educated
to simulation and dissimulation; where they learn to have
one thing concealed in the breast, and to bring forth another
upon the tongue; where their minds, by inveterate custom,
become so false and counterfeit, that, in divine worship itself,
their words differ from their thoughts, and they proffer their
flattery and deceit to God himself, which certainly must be
most displeasing to Him. This seems to be the reason why
the Dutch are more prosperous in their undertakings than
other nations." Then, with rare discrimination, he adds,
"but their worshiping mammon as a Deity, and caring for
nothing but gold, is a thing which is not compatible with
long prosperity." - The silent and uninfluential place which
Holland now fills in Europe, places the seal of truth on these
quiet lines.
The Roman Catholic Church seems to have attracted
much of his attention in his travels, and the grossness and
sensuality of its priesthood were strongly remarked upon.
"The monks," says he, "at Roye, are fat and corpulent, and
an army of such fellows might be banished without loss to
the State. They fill their bellies, take all they can get, and
give the poor nothing but fine words and blessings; and yet
they are willing to take from the poor all their substance for
nothing. What is the good of bare-footed Franciscans?"




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                 49C
In Paris, he spent a year and a half. There also'he was
amazed at the clerical riot and corruption. "It is found,"
he observes, "that the tax which they term the dixiimes,
yields annually thirty-two millions sterling; and that the
Parisians spend two-thirds of this amount over their own
city. One-fifth of the whole possessions of the kingdom is
in the hands of the clerical order. If this condition of
things last long, the ruin of the empire will be speedy."
He little dreamed of the fearful verification which these
words would receive.
His journal in Paris reveals the fact of his hearty enjoyment of sight-seeing and amusements. Visits to churches,
monasteries, palaces, gardens, museums, and theatres, evidence with what zest he drank the cup of life, and with what
interest he looked upon men and their affairs. In this respect we do well to compare Swedenborg with many whom
the world in its ignorance associate with him. At no period
of his life was he a cold self-righteous ascetic, looking abroad
upon men with a bitter and accusing scowl. At no time did
he insult his'Maker with upbraidings that his fate was to
live in an evil world, and with a wicked generation. He
received life with thankfulness, partook temperately of all
its lawful pleasures, did his duty, and took care while living
with the world to keep himself unspotted from its evil.
This social discipline was one of the Divine means by which
he was fitted for the full performance of his future mission.
We are not informed of the nature of the work which he
at this time went abroad to write and publish. From his
manuscripts, however, it appears that he was preparing materials and disciplining his mind for his great work, the
"Animal Kingdom," by writing short papers on various
physiological subjects. Many of these papers have been
translated and published under the title of "Posthumous
Tracts."
~5              a~~




50             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
Leaving Paris in March, 1738, Swedenborg directed his
steps toward Italy, and after visiting its principal cities,
arrived at Rome on the 25th September. Mr. Rich, in his
"Biography of Swedenborg," remarks,-" This visit should
be a memorable one, for it brought the church of the past
and the future into a singular communion with each other;
-Rome in the still atmosphere and fading light of autumn,
with all its trophies of Pagan art, and its hoary traditions;
and Swedenborg, the predestined Seer of the last ages, whose
eye was just kindling with the light of inspiration. We
should lose all faith in the instinctive prescience of the human spirit when great events are at hand, if we might not
believe that a presentiment of something in the shadowy
distance, connecting his future with the strange mystery of
the city, did not cross, for a moment, the mind of Swedenborg, when he entered the once holy and revered metropolis
of the faith."
After a sojourn of five months, Swedenborg left Rome on
the 15th of February, 1739, varying his homeward route.
His journal from the 17th of March, 1739, when he was at
Genoa, is a blank, and his after wanderings we can only
conjecture. "It is most probable," says Wilkinson, "that
he deposited the manuscript of the " Economy of the Animal
Kingdom," at Amsterdam, on his way from Leipsic to
Sweden, in'1740; that he lived in his own country from
1740 or 1741 till 1744, and in the latter year went again to
Holland, and from thence came to England, where we meet
him in 1745."
In 1740-41, Swedenborg published at Amsterdam  his
"Economy of the Animal Kingdom;" and in 1744-45, the
"Animal Kingdom," Parts I. and II. at the Hague, and
Part III. in London.




EMANUET, SWEDENBORG.               51
CHAPTER VI.
The "EJconomy of the Animal Klingdom,-' and the ". Animal
KSingdom."
IN the "Animal Kingdom," Swedenborg referred solely to
the human body, it being the microcosm, or representative
of all inferior systems. In the "Economy of the Animal
Kingdom," he treats of the blood, and the organs which
contain it; the coincidence of the motion of the brain with
the respiration of the lungs; and of the human soul. The
method pursued in this work is admirable. A careful series
of extracts, containing facts from the best anatomists, is
prefixed to each chapter, and thence is deduced the author's
theory. It would be very difficult indeed to present, in an
abstract, the substance of these quotations, and without this,
(which would be inconsistent with our limits,) the theories
could not be fairly understood or appreciated. His demonstration of the coincidence of the motion of the brain with
the respiration of the lungs, is well worthy of notice. Wilkinsonj speaking of this in his "Biography of Swedenborg,"
says: "Let any reader think for a moment of what he
experiences when he breathes, and attends to the act. He
will find that his whole frame heaves and subsides at the
time; face, chest, stomach, and limbs, are all actuated by
his respiration. His sense is, that not only his lungs but his
entire body breathes. Now mark what Swedenborg elicited
from this fact. If the whole man breathes or heaves, so also
do the organs which he contains, for they are necessarily
drawn outwards by the rising of the surface; therefore they




~6              LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
all breathe. What do they breathe? Two elements are
omnipresent in them, the blood-vessels anl the nerves; the
one giving them pabulum, the other life. They draw then
into themselves blood, and life or nervous spirit. Each does
this according to its own form; each, therefore, has a free
individuality like the whole man; each takes its food, the
blood, when it chooses; each wills into itself the life according
to its desires. The man is made up of manlike parts; his
freedom is an aggregate of a host of atomic, organical
freedoms. The heart does not cram them with its blood,
but each, like the man itself, takes what it thinks right.
"But, furthermore, thought commences and corresponds
with respiration. The reader has before attended to the
presence of the heaving over the body; now let him feel his
thoughts, and he will see that they too heave with the mass.
When he entertains a long thought he draws a long breath;
when he thinks quickly, his breath vibrates with rapid
alternations; when the tempest of anger shakes his mind, his
breath is tumultuous; when his soul is deep and tranquil, so
is his respiration; when success inflates him, his lungs are as
tumid as his conceits. Let him make trial of the contrary:
let him endeavor to think in long stretches at the same time
that he breathes in fits, and he will find that it is impossible;
that in this case the chopping lungs will needs mince his
thoughts. Now the mind dwells in the brain, and it is the
brain, therefore, which shares the varying fortunes of the
breathing. It is strange that this correspondence between
the states of the brain or mind, and the lungs, has not been
admitted into science; for it holds in every case, at every
moment. In truth it is so unfailing, and so near to the
center of sense, that this has made it difficult to regard it as
an object; for if you only try to think upon the breathing,
in consequence of the fixation of thought, you stop the
breath that very moment, and only recommence it when the




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                53
thought can no longer hold, that is to say, when the brain
has need to expire. Now Swedenborg, with amazing observation and sagacity, has made a regular study of this ratio
between the respiration and the thoughts and emotions; he
shows in detail that the two correspond exactly, and moreover that their correspondence is one of the long-sought links
between the soul and the body, whereby every thought is
represented and carried out momentaneously in the expanse
of the human frame. It is difficult to give a more plain or
excellent reason of the tie between the body and the soul,
than that the latter finds the body absolutely to its mind;
while on the other hand, the living body clings to the soul,
because it wants a friendly superior life to infuse and direct
its life."
The "Animal Kingdom," written after the same plan as
the " Economy," treats of the organs of the abdomen, of those
of the chest, and of the skin. Swedenborg, in setting forth
his plan of operation, in which he announces his intention to
examine, physically and philosophically, the whole anatomy
of the body, and lastly of the soul, and of its state in the
body, says: "From this summary or plan, the reader may
see that the end I propose to myself in the work, is a
knowledge of the soul, since this knowledge will constitute
the crown of my studies. This, then, my labors intend, and
thither they aim. To accomplish this grand end, I enter the
circus, designing to consider and examine thoroughly the
whole world of microcosm which the soul inhabits; for I
think it vain to seek her anywhere but in her own kingdom.
I am, therefore, resolved to allow myself no respite, until I
have run through the whole field to the very goal, or until
I have traversed the universal animal kingdom to the soul.
Thus I hope that by bending my course inward continually,
I shall open all the doors that lead to her, and at length
contemplate the soul herself, by the Divine permission."
5-*            a~-~C




54              LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
One of his manuscripts repeats this design in these words:
"I have gone through. anatomy with the single end of investigating the soul. It will be a satisfaction to me if my labors
be of any use to the anatomical and-;:medial world, but a
still greater satisfaction if I afford any light towards the
investigation..of -the soul."''
In striving to compass such high spiritual knowledge, by
merely natural means, he necessarily failed. In one of his
books, written several years after, when a brighter light had
dawned upon his mind, he says: "Many in the learned world
have laboured in investigating the soul, but as they knew
nothing of the spiritual world, and of the state of man after
death, they could not do otherwise than construct hypotheses,
not respecting the soul's nature, or its operation on the body.
Of the soul's nature, they could. have no other idea than as
of something most pure in ether, and of its continent as of
ether. Now having such a conception of the soul, and yet
knowing that the soul acts on the body, and produces everything in it that has relation to sense and motion, therefore
they labored, as we before observed, to investigate the
soul's operation on the body, which some said was effected
by influx, and some by harmony. But these means discovered nothing in which the mind desirous of seeing the
ground of things, can acquiesce."  We have in these sentences the cause of the fruitlessness of his own labors at
this period, in their highest aims. They formed, however,
a part of that providential discipline which was fitting him
for his future office.
Fruitless though these works necessarily were, in their
highest aim, yet in lower ends they are treasure-houses of
thought and suggestion. Taking for his basis the dry facts
of the anatomists, he proceeds to clothe them with life and
comeliness. He shows how part is bound to part in the
human system, and fills the cold details of science with a




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                5
warm and human interest. Emerson well says: "The'Animal Kingdom' is a book of wonderful merits. It
was written with the highest end, to put science and
soul, so long estranged from each other, at one again. It
was the anatomist's account of the human body in the
highest style of poetry; and nothing can exceed the bold
and brilliant treatment of a subject usually so dry and
repulsive."
It was hardly possible for books to be ushered into the
world to die more quietly than did these physiological
treatises. Slightly noticed in a few catalogues and reviews
of that day, they were laid on the shelf, and reposed in dust
and forgetfulness for a full century. Called to other thoughts
and higher labors, their author was arrested midway in his
plans; and ceasing to exist behind his books, and by his
life, conversation, and activity, to keep up the public interest,
the world soon forgot their existence. But their worth has
been their preservative; and now we behold their resurrection, and slow, but certain, growth into acceptance and
fame. Translated by Wilkinson, and enriched by him with
prefaces which Emerson describes as "throwing all the
contemporary philosophy of England into the shade," they
are now placed before the world, and, in their excellence
serve to manifest the profound understanding and genius
of their author.
In 1745, Swedenborg terminated his long series of scientific
works, by the publication, in London, of "The Worship' and
Love of God." This book is an embodiment, in a story,
of its author's scientific doctrines. In a connected narrative,
it treats of the origin of the earth, the birth, infancy, and
love, of Adam; and of the soul in its state of integrity, in
the image of God. It is a book of which little need be said,
as it was probably written as much for an exercise of fancy,
as with any serious intent. Cast into shade, as it is, by the




56             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
brighter light of his after knowledge, it remains to mark the
point of intellectual development at which Swedenborg had
at this time arrived; and in this respect it will always have
a strong interest to those who delight in tracing the growth
and education of his mind.




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                57
CHAPTER Vl I.
His Life, as a Mann of Science, ends.
THE biographer of Swedenborg can feel no difficulty in
distributing under proper heads the principal events of his
life. It divides itself so distinctly into two parts, at this
juncture, that, between his past and his future there is what
he himself would call a "discrete degree."
In 1745, when the merely scientific phase of Swedenborg's
life closed, he had arrived at the mature age of fifty-seven
years. As we have seen, he had, from early manhood,
united an active and practical, with a deeply philosophic,
life. An earnest student of nature, he had never become so
engrossed in thought as to forget the end of all thought-the
improvement and the happiness of mankind. His long
series of scientific works had gained him a wide-spread reputation, and wherever he went, he was hailed as a friend
and brother by the thoughtful and philosophical. In Sweden, as before said, he was well connected; and had he been
desirous to live at home, and immerse himself in the cares
and politics of his country, he might have reached the highest offices and honors which royalty could confer. At the
age of fifty-seven, with Swedenborg's attainments, success,
and fame, a worldly man might have been content. Such
a one would, probably, have taken his ease, reposed upon
the past, and have been content with the competence of
comfort and reputation which he had attained. But Swedenborg was a man of a very different character. Love of




58              LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
ease formed no part of his constitution, and if he had not
been led by the hand of Providence to the contemplation
of the spiritual world and its glorious realities, he would, to
the end of his life, have remained a zealous and single-eyed
seeker after the truths of the natural world.
The annals of science do not furnish an instance of
any one who surpassed Swedenborg in that humility of
spirit, and that simple desire for truth, which is the crowning grace and glory of the true philosopher. Although, at
times, he propounded views which he knew were antagonistic to the ideas of some of the leading savans of his time,
yet we never find him getting angry or attempting to scold
the world into belief with him. He simply lays down what
he believes to be the truth; and with the most charming
modesty trusts for its acceptance among men, to its agreement with reason and facts. Full of this trustful spirit we
find him saying in the " Principia:" " In writing the present
work, I have not aimed at the applause of the learned world,
nor at the acquisition of a name or popularity. To me, it
is a matter of indifference whether I win the favorable opinion of every one, or of no one; whether I gain much or no
commendation. Such things are not objects of regard to
one whose mind is bent on truth and true philosophy.
Should I, therefore, gain the assent or approbation of others,
I shall receive it only as a confirmation of my having pursued the truth. I have no wish to persuade any one to lay
aside the principles of those illustrious and talented authors
who have adorned the world, and in place of their principles to adopt mine. For this reason it is, that I have not
made mention so much as of one of them, or even hinted at
his name, lest I should injure his feelings, or seem to impugn
his sentiments, or to derogate from the praise which others
bestow upon him. If the principles I have advanced have
more of truth in them than those which are advceated by




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                59
others; if they are truly philosophical, and accordanit with
the phenomena of nature, the assent of the public will follow in due time, of its own accord; and in this case should
I fail to gain the assent of those whose minds, being prepossessed by other principles, can no longer exercise an impartial judgment, still I have those with me who are able to
distinguish the true from the untrue, if not in the present,
at least in some future age. Truth is unique, and will speak
for itself. Should any one undertake to impugn my sentiments, I have no wish to oppose him; but in case he desire
it, I shall be happy to explain my principles and my reasons
more at large. What need, however, is there of words?
Let the thing speak for itself. If what I have said be true,
why should I be eager to defend it? Surely truth can defend itself. If what I have said be false, it would be a
degrading and silly task to defend it. Why then should I
make myself an enemy of any one, or place myself
in opposition to any one?" And again, in the "Economy," he remarks: "Of what consequence is it to me
that I should persuade any one to embrace my opinions?
Let his own reason persuade him. I do not undertake this
work for the sake of honor or emolument; both of which I
shun rather than seek, because they disquiet the mind, and
because I am content with my lot; but for the sake of truth,
which alone is immortal."  These are long extracts, but they
are well worthy of citation, alike for their own intrinsic truth
and beauty, and for the illustration they afford of the spirit
and sentiments of their author.
The little thought he gave in after years to his scientific
writings, and the little care he seemed to have lest the world
should forget them, is very evident from his subsequent
writings, in which they are scarcely alluded to. Some of
the friends he made in the latter portion of his life, appear
to have had very faint ideas of the extent of his achieve



60              LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
ments in natural science. Count Hopken, a very intimate
friend of his, for many years, remarks: "Swedenborg made
surprising discoveries in anatomy, which are recorded somewhere in certain literary Transactions." Thus it appears
that he was entirely ignorant of the existence of Swedenborg's great work, the "Animal Kingdom." What stronger
proof could be given than this, of the sincerity with which
the foregoing extracts were penned, in which he commits
his works to the care of the God of truth, in humble acquiescence in whatever verdict his justice might pronounce.
Great and manifold were the merits of these scientific
works; yet we should, perhaps, do well to look upon them,
as their author seems to have done, as school-boy exercises.
Through the severe training and development of the whole
powers of his mind, by the composition of these works, his
Divine Master was fitting him to gaze upon the awful realities of the spiritual world, and to become a worthy exponent
of the hidden wisdom of the Holy Scripture.
It must, necessarily, be a matter of interest with many to
know what were the religious opinions of Swedenborg at this
period of his history. Occupying himself so intensely with
natural science, it was hardly to be expected that theology
could receive much of his attention. Among his posthumous
papers,- however, we find a little treatise on faith and -good
works, in which he comes to the wise conclusion that "there
is no love to God if there be none to:the neighbor;" or that'herey nihaItreb sno works;" and therefore, that
"faith without works is a phrase involving a contradiction."
Throughout all his scientific writings we find a simple and
open assent to the primary truths of religion, and a constant
endeavor to confirm some truth of religious doctrine by the
natural facts which came under his notice. His religious
views up to this time were generally such as the Christian
world held, with here and there a quiet dissent as to par



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                61
ticular points, and a strong tendency to eschew the merely
theoretical and mystical belief, for the practical and active.
We have his own testimony to the fact, that dogmatic and
systematic theology formed no part of his otherwise extensive reading; and thus he came to the study of the Word of
God unperverted by the sophisms of creed-makers. Of the
gentle and earnest piety of his soul, we have striking proof
in his "Rules of Life:"
1. Often to read and meditate on the Word of God.
2. To submit everything to the will of Divine Providence.
3. To observe in everything a propriety of behaviour, and
to keep the conscience clear.
4. To discharge with fidelity the functions of my employment, and the duties of my office, and to render myself in
all things useful to society.
More need not be said on this head than that he kept
these vows.
We now close the first book of Swedenborg's life, and open
the second. Emphatically his was a double life.- So rich
in thought and action were both parts, that either would
have been reckoned sufficient to render him a remarkable
man.  The one life was an orderly and-regular growth
out of the other: the first was a providential preparation for
the second. Careifullydiciplsined by thought and investigation in the outer world, through   a long series of laborious
years, the curtain which separated the seen from the nnseen
was, for him, drawn aside, and his prepared eyes saw in clear
sunlight those mysteries'of life and.spirit, wh-ich-the-best and
wisest of men have most ardently desired-to see. Let us,
then, leave Swedenborg the Man of Science, and turn to him
as the Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, the worthy exponent
of the spiritual sense of the Word of God, and the announcer
of the New Era in which reason and faith are to be at one,
and men everywhere friends and brothers.
6




62             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
CHAPTER VIII.
His Spiritual Sight opened, and the Conditions of his Seership.
WE will now proceed, without circumlocution, to lay before our readers, in all its fullness, the claim which Swedenborg made, at this period, to open intercourse with the spiritual
world, under the sanction and protection of the Lord. This
assumption runs through the whole of his after life, and
without a clear idea of its nature and conditions, we shall be
unable rightly to appreciate aught else that follows. In one of
his letters, he says, "I have been called to a holy office by the
Lord himself, who most graciously manifested himself to me,
his servant, in the year 1743, when he opened my sight to a
view of the spiritual world, and granted me the privilege of
conversing with spirits and angels, which I enjoy to this day.
From that time, I began to print and publish various arcana
that have been seen by me, or revealed to me; as respecting
heaven and hell, the state of man after death, the true worship of God, the spiritual sense of the Word, with many
other most important matters conducive to salvation and
true wisdom." Again, in the preface to his work entitled,
"Arcana Ccelestia," he writes: " Of the Lord's Divine mercy,
it has been granted me now for several years to be constantly
and uninterruptedly in company with spirits and angels,
hearing them converse with each other, and conversing with
them. Hence it has been permitted me to hear and see
stupendous things in the other life, which have never before
come to the knowledge of any man, nor entered his imaginaf




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                 63
tion.  I have there been instructed concerning different
kinds of spirits, and the state of souls after death; concerning hell, or the lamentable state of the unfaithful; concerning heaven, or the most happy state of the faithful; and particularly concerning the doctrine of faith which is acknowledged throughout all heaven."
We are aware that these pretensions will be received by
many with ridicule, and by some with contempt, arising
from a distaste for spiritual subjects; while by a few they
will be treated with respectful attention. All that we ask,
is, a little patience; and to readers of every class, we would
say,-Do not be hasty; do not prejudge the matter; condemn
not till you are conversant with the whole circumstances
of the case. Swedenborg's claim, we admit, does appear
startling; but to greet its announcement with the laugh
of scepticism, and to deny its validity, as many do, without
an attempt at examination, is anything but philosophicalis anything but righteous.
No reader of this sketch can have failed to perceive the
high philosophical genius, and perfect truthfulness of Swedenborg; and all must agree with us in believing that wilfiul
deception was an impossibility with such a man. No
explanation of what Swedenborg himself calls the opening
of his spiritual sight, can be offered, that is more transparently ridiculous than that of imposture. The degree
of vehemence with which some have preferred this charge
against him, may be taken as an accurate index of their
ignorance of the man, or of their inability to discern a
truthful and earnest spirit.
No denial of the possibility of such spiritual vision as is
claimed by Swedenborg, can be accepted from the Christian.
Such denial is alone the privilege of the professed materialist.
WVe all know how much of our loved and common faith
rests on claims that are quite as startling as those of Sweden



64             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
borg. From the visions of Abraham to those of John in
Patmos, the whole Scriptural narrative is interwoven with
supernatural incident. Now, how is it that we yield such
ready faith to whatever is related in Scripture, however
marvelous, and have so much wonder to spare over the
unbelieving Jews? The Rev. O. Prescott Hiller, in a short
memoir of Swedenborg, prefixed to a collection of "Gems"
from his writings, has some very apposite remarks on this
subject. He says: "Swedenborg states that there are three
heavens; so does Paul, for he speaks of the'third heaven.'
Swedenborg affirms, calmly, that his spiritual senses were
opened and elevated in such a manner that he might have a
perception of that state of existence, and see and hear what
is there. So does Paul. Swedenborg states that he had, in
spirit, been permitted to behold the Lord: so does Paul:-'Have I not seen,' said he,'Jesus Christ our Lord?' (1 Cor.
ix. 1.) Thus parallel are the cases. But, exclaims the
prejudiced observer:'Paul! Paul! Paul was an apostle!
Paul was one of the founders of the Christian Church!
Paul lived eighteen hundred years ago! There are no
visions now-a-days! The case is entirely different!' To
these exclamations it may be replied: Your last remark is
but a begging of the question under consideration. We
affirm that though indeed unfrequent, yet there are occasionally spiritual visions in these times, as well as in former,
and that there is good and very strong testimony that a
remarkable case of the kind exists in the instance of this
philosopher, Swedenborg, not by any means on account
of his own declaration merely, but from the nature of the
truths and statements brought forth by him, of which our
own minds, enlightened, we trust, by reason and God's
Word, are the judges. The burden of proof-it may be
continued in answer-falls upon you to show by what law
of Divine order, by what change in the character and




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                65
structure of man's mind, a spiritual vision can not exist
now, as well as in the time of Paul,-in the eighteenth or
nineteenth, as well as in the first century. The truth is,
antiquity has a wonderful charm for the mind, and a great
power over it:'distance lends enchantment to the view.'
It is not difficult to believe anything, however wonderful, to
have taken place in that misty and mysterious region, the
distant past; but now in these dull, common times, to believe
such strange things to be capable of happening, seems absurd.
But do you not suppose that those times, to the men then
living, appeared as dull and common-place as our times to
us? Did not the regardless rain fall on Paul's head, as well
as on yours and mine? and this very sun and moon light
his steps as well as ours? Did not Paul, do you think, rise
often in the morning with a heavy heart, and after breakfast,
go forth to his duties, or sit down to write his epistles, sad
and oppressed in spirit, dejected at the thought of the heavy
responsibilities upon him, and awed with the idea that he
Irmust address the Athenians to-morrow? And when at
length he stood before them and began, did they not ask:'Who is this?' Think you that gaping crowd knew anything
about any great and celebrated Paul, whose name has become
so familiar to our ears? They had not heard of such a
person.'And some said, What will this babbler say? others,
He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods; because he
preached to them Jesus, and the resurrection. And when
they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked;
and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.
Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed; among
whom was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named
Damaris, and others with them.' (Acts xvii. 16-34.) Here
we have a picture of human nature, as it was, and as it still
is. A new person comes forward, a stranger, unheard of
before, and utters strange ideas, something new and unusual,
6                   C*




66             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
something different from What men have been accustomed
to hear, and think of, and believe; most of the hearers jeer
and mock, and turn away, calling him a babbler; some are
rather pleased at some things they have heard, but the
interest has not taken sufficient hold of them to make them
anxious to pursue the subject farther just now, and they go
away and forget what they have heard; a few, whose minds
were in a receptive state, whose hearts had been prepared,
perhaps, by torturing doubts, and secret meditations, and by
trials and sufferings of spirit-these at once perceive and
seize upon the truths they have heard, clasp them to their
bosoms as something long looked for, as precious treasure,
and go away rejoicing in their new faith, and resolved to sell
all they have and follow the Lord. Gradually the truth
spreads; these few tell what they have heard to others, their
friends, who they know have been troubled with similar
doubts and difficulties.  By and by these believers meet
together and form a little congregation, and appoint the
ablest of their number to preach to them in regard to these
new truths, both for their own fuller instruction and for the
information of strangers. Years roll away. It becomes an
established religious society. Similar societies in neighboring
cities league with them; and they form a General Church,
which begins to have a name-the'Christian Church.' Ages
roll on, and this becomes a vast establishment, extending
over whole nations, and reaching to distant qDiarters of the
globe. This Paul, who was once a nameless preacher,'a
babbler,' and'mad,' is now looked back upon with the
utmost veneration; his words are oracles of truth; whatever
he affirmed, whether in regard to himself or others, is
implicitly believed. Custom, general acceptance, the belief
of ages, undoubting confidence in the opinions of our parents
and friends, all go to render the mind perfectly ready to
believe those things. Faith is now an easy and natural




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               67
thing, and we wonder at those strange and hard-hearted
unbelievers of Paul's own time, who had the glorious opportunity of listening to him with their own ears.'Oh! that
we could have enjoyed such an opportunity,' exclaim many,'how gladly would we have listened!'
"But these persons know not what they say, nor the nature of the human mind. If they are so anxious to have
such an opportunity, so ready to be tested, and to show that
they would have discernment enough to see genuine truth,
though heard for the first time, and to acknowledge a great
teacher and apostle, though yet unknown to the world-that
opportunity is now before them. A Paul is again preaching
to the Athenians and to the world. A great teacher is again
uttering new and sublime truths. The Lord Himself has
come a second time, not in Person, but in Spirit; not as the'Word made flesh,' as before, but as the essential Word, by
the opening of the interior truth-the spiritual sense —which
it contains. Those who believe, that, had they been on
earth, they would have acknowledged the Lord at His First
Coming, or would have readily received the teachings of
His Apostles, have now the opportunity of making trial of
their faith; of showing whether they are able to overcome
the inveteracy of custom, the natural opposition of prejudice,
the fear of public opinion, the love of the world and its
powers and pleasures, (all which difficulties the first Christians had to encounter,) whether, in the face of all these,
they can, looking for the truth with a single eye, discern it
now at its feeble dawn; and, advancing steadily and earnestly towards it, be among the first to hail the rising day."
What more can be said on the subject? The Christian
has no choice but to acknowledge, or refute, Swedenborg's
claims on the ground of their own intrinsic merit.
Swedenborg was gifted with peculiar powers of respiration. From early childhood, when on his knees at prayer,




68             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
and afterwards when engaged in profound meditation, he
found that his natural respiration was for the time suspended.
As we have seen in his work on the "Animal Kingdom,"
his attention to the correspondence between thought and respiration had been of long continuance,-probably from the
fact that his own system supplied him with such constant
illustrations of its nature. This power of suspended respiration under deep thought, common to all men, was preternaturally developed in Swedenborg. At this period he discovered
the use to which these peculiar powers of his were to be
applied; for he writes: "My respiration has been so formed
by the Lord, as to enable me to breathe inwardly for a long
period of time, without the aid of the external air; my respiration being directed within, and my outward senses, as
well as actions, still continuing in their vigor, which is only
possible with persons who have been so formed by the Lord.
I have also been instructed that my breathing was so directed,
without my being aware of it, in order to enable me to be
with spirits, and to speak with them." Those who have
studied mesmerism and clairvoyance know many facts that
confirm and illustrate this position of Swedenborg's with
regard to respiration; and it is quite evident that the Hindoo
Yogi are capable of a similar state. There is this great difference, however, between such instances and the case of
Swedenborg, that his powers were natural, and continuous
in their exercise, and not sought after and induced by himself; while theirs are only occasional, and are frequently
brought about by artificial means.
Swedenborg's intromission into the spiritual world was a
gradual process; and for this reason the date of his illumi
nation is variously given, ranging between 1743 and 1745.
It appears, however, that he came into the full exercise of
his spiritual seership while living in London.
Of late years it has become common to talk of Sweden



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                69
borg as a clairvoyant, to associate him with mesmeric
subjects, and make him a kinsman of French and American
spiritualists, such as Cahagnet, and Andrew Jackson Davis.
This mistake is made through ignorance. It is a law of the
spiritual world that every man is associated with his like.
Supposing, therefore, that any man's spiritual sight were
opened, he would come into conjunction only with spirits
like himself; that is, with those who would echo his own
ideas and opinions, and repeat his own feelings. It is evident, then, that in such a case the nature of the revelations
are entirely dependent upon the character of the revelator,
and in all cases must be suspiciously received by the lover
of truth. Now Swedenborg claims to have been under the
special protection of the Lord, and to have received the doctrines he promulgated directly from Him,'and not in any
case from spirits. Of course, every one will decide for himself as to how far he can receive this assertion; but it is well
that all should be informed of the precise character of Swedenborg's claim, and of his own testimony as to the source
of his information. In his Diary, written about this time,
he says, that "spirits narrate things wholly false, and lie.
When spirits begin to speak with man, care should be taken
not to believe them; for almost everything they say is made
up by them, and thay lie; so that if it were permitted them
to relate what heaven is, and how things are in heaven, they
would tell so many falsehoods, and with such strong assertion, that man would be astonished; wherefore it was not
permitted me, when spirits were speaking, to have any belief
in what they stated. They love'to feign. Whatever may
be the topic spoken of, they think they know it, and form
different opinions about it, altogether as if they knew; and
if iran then listens and believes, they insist, and in various
ways deceive and seduce."
Any one who has paid attention to the phenomena of




70             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
spirit-rapping, and to the communications received through
clairvoyants from the woild of spirits, and has observed the
very Babel of contradiofions uttered by these "mediums,"
will be able to appreciate the truth of the passage we have
quoted, as well as our desire to draw a broad and distinct
line between such and Swedenborg.
It is a very natural question, and one often put by those
unconversant with the nature of spiritual intercourse, how it
happens that such a man as Swedenborg, sitting quietly in
his chair, could see and speak with angels and spirits, and
travel through vast spaces in the spiritual world. It is thus:
Space and time are attributes of matter alone. Their appearances do, indeed, exist in the spiritual world, but not as
the fixed and mensurable things of our material sphere.
Did not our subject forbid digression, it would be easy to
bring this truth down to the comprehension of every one, by
reference to a few items of experience which must at some
time have fallen to the lot of all. We are all, as to our
minds, in constant, though insensible, communion with
spirits; and from them we receive thoughts and feelings of
every kind. A good man and a wicked man may be, as to
the body, in the same room, while between their minds there
may be the wide gulf that separated Dives and Lazarus.
Now if the spiritual sight of these two men were opened,
where would they be? One would be in heaven, and the
other in hell; and that, too, without either moving from
the place where he stood. It was in virtue of this principle
of the spirit's perfect independence of space, that Swedenborg, under the Divine guidance and protection, was led
through spiritual societies of all kinds: and in his various
works we have the record of the wondrous things thus heard
and seen.
Again, it may be asked: What is the nature of this
spiritual sight so often referred to? In the words of Paul,




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                71
we answer: "There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual
body;" and, as a consequence, there is a natural sight, and
there is a spiritual sight. The natural body lives from the
spiritual body, and derives its form and parts from it. The
natural body is the instrument of the spiritual body, and
through it as a medium, it is enabled to exist in this lower
world, and in constant contact with matter. Now it is possible for the spiritual body to be raised partially above the
natural body, without causing death, or the entire withdrawal of its life from the natural body. This partial withdrawal of the spiritual body, and the enjoyment of sight in
the spiritual world, is what is meant by the opening of the
spiritual sight. Time forbids us to draw upon the innumerable illustrations of this fact which the history of the past
and the experience of the present, in conjunction with the
Word of God, afford. Let one instance from the Bible suffice. In 2 Kings, vii. 8-17, we read that Elisha, compassed
about with horses, chariots, and a great host, sent by the
king of Syria to seize him, was on a mountain with his servant, who, -full of terror, exclaimed: "Alas! my master, how
shall we do? And he answered, Fear not, for they that be
with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha
prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee open his eyes, that he may
see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and
he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses and
chariots of fire round about Elisha." Here is a case quite
to the point. The natural eyes of the young man were
already open; for how otherwise could he have seen the
Syrian host, and have been afraid? Elisha prayed that his
eyes might be opened. What eyes? Why, clearly, the eyes
of his spiritual body; which done, he was enabled to perceive
the heavenly guardianship which was extended over his
master. Every one will now understand what we mean,




72              LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
when we shall have occasion to speak of the opening of
man's spiritual sight.
Having thus defined the conditions of Swedenborg's
spirituad:l vision, and cleared away some questions which, if
answerd, would have impeded our narrative, we will now
proceecd.with our history.




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                73
CHAPTER IX.
Prepares for his New Office-Resigns his Assessorshiop —Mis "tAdversariWa" —is' "Spiritual Diarjy"-The Death of Polheim.
CALLED to a high and holy office, Swedenborg set about
preparing himself for the fulfilment of its duties. Leaving
London in the beginning of July, 1745, he took ship for
Sweden, where he arrived on the 7th of August. On this
voyage, his spiritual intercourse was suspended. He lived
quietly at home during 1746; probably in the performance
and enjoyment of the settled routine of his Assessorship, and
in earnest meditation on the heavenly arcana now fully
opened to his view. In 1747, in order that he might be
more at liberty to devote himself to the mission to which the
Lord had called him, he asked leave of King Frederick to
retire from his Assessorship, and that he might enjoy, during
life, as a retiring pension, half of his official salary; requesting, at the same time, that no addition to his rank or title
might be conferred upon him. The King yielded to his
wishes; but in consideration of his long and faithful service of thirty-one years, continued to him the whole of his
salary.
Meanwhile, he learned Hebrew, and read the Bible through
several times in its original languages. Like all true students, he read and thought with pen in hand; and as the
hidden and Divine wisdom of the Word was opened to him,
he embodied in "'Adversaria," or notes, the truths thus revealed. These Adversaria extend over the historical books
7                    D




74             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
of the Old Testament, and several of the prophets. They
have all been printed of late years, from their author's original Latin manuscript, by that indefatigable and learned
Newchurchman, Dr. Tafel, of Tiibingen. They have not
yet been translated into English, probably because they were
not published by Swedenborg himself, aifd are only to be regarded as preparatory studies for future works. They also
abound with indistinct views on many subjects, which subsequent knowledge rendered clear. As records of their author's spiritual progress, as well as for the many valuable
facts which they contain, it is to be hoped that the day is not
far distant when the "Adversaria" will appear in an English
dress. WVe cannot spare anything which serves to illustrate
the mental history of such a man as Swedenborg.
In 1747, he ceased writing his "Adversaria," and commenced a Spiritual Diary, which he continued for twenty
years. This Diary, written also in Latin, (as all his theological works were,) has been lately published by Dr. Tafel in
ten closely printed octavos. Two volumes have been translated and published in England and America, and the remainder will probably soon follow. It will hardly be necessary for us to go into a detailed account of the principles
and facts scattered throughout its long and miscellaneous
record. We shall meet with all the leading ideas in noticing
the books published by himself, and laid before the world as
matured and finished productions. It may be said, however,
that the "Diary," as a work, is perfectly unique; for in no
literature can we -find its counterpart. We have in it, for
twenty years, an almost daily record of Swedenborg's spiritual states and temptations; his interviews and conversations
with angels, spirits, and devils; and accounts of their pleas.
ures, punishments, and thoughts. No one who makes an
intimate acquaintance with this "Diary," will ever after
allow a shadow of doubt to cross his mind as to the candor




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                75
and truth of Swedenborg; for in every page, he will perceive
that quiet and solemn earnestness which belongs alone to the
upright and honest in heart. In its whole range of experience, he will detect no vanity, shuffling, double-dealing, or
anything inconsistent with his published works; but all as
straightforward, open, and unreserved, as truth itself. Although written in the quietude of his own study, and for his
own eye and use alone, he could not have been more ingenuous and sincere had the whole universe been looking down
upon its pages.
On the page of history, the "Diary" throws some wondrous light. In it, we read of interviews with many of the
famous men of ancient and modern times. From some
names which the world has learned to revere, the mask of
excellence is quite torn away, while the infamy of others is
proved to have been but judgment from appearance, and
from scandal. Any one who is infected with the spiritual
disease of hero-worship, should read the "Spiritual Diary."
He will there discover that the most dazzling intellect fades
into moping idiocy and insanity, when it lacks the sterling
heart, and honest aim; and that goodness alone is the life
and soul of true wisdom. He will also learn why it is so.
We would here say a word upon a jest started by Emerson, (and which has re-appeared under many forms,) to the
effect that all the souls with whom Swedenborg held converse, talked Swedenborgese. In reply, we would ask, how
they could speak in any other way? Swedenborg did not
profess to be a mimic; and if Cicero or anybody else spoke
with him in the spiritual world and in the spiritual language, Swedenborg, in translating the speech into his own
simple diction, would, of course, seize the substance, and
care nothing for the form. That the language was not
Cicero's, might be true; but if the ideas were, what matter?
The subject would hardly be worth mentioning, did we not




LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
see the jest receiving a wide currency; but a few words of
common sense are all that are necessary to take the life out
of it.
There is no work with which we are acquainted, that can
give its readers a better idea of the reality of the future life,
than the "Spiritual Diary." No other book, we know, can
so stir up a man to set his mind, or spiritual house, in order
here, so that he may be spared the turmoil and sorrow which
otherwise he will encounter beyond the tomb. In its pages,
the life after death is portrayed in all its stern reality; not
as a vague dream, or a shadowy vision, of which the mind
can form no fixed idea. We read of the awful states induced
in the other life, by evil habits contracted in this; from loose
speech, jesting upon sacred subjects, indulgence in idleness
and luxury, down to blacker crimes. We learn from sight,
as it were, how evil is its own torment, and how goodness
is its own sweet and rich reward; and in view of the
momentous issues of what we too often regard as the trifles
of life, we feel impelled to make our peace and heaven here,
that we may bear them with us into the Hereafter. Such
high uses does the "Spiritual Diary" subserve.
The "Diary" is, however, a work not suited for an early
student of Swedenborg. The principles upon which it is
written, not being understood, a young reader could hardly
fail to form erroneous ideas from it, and misjudge the work
itself. It is only after some acquaintance with the spiritual
laws expounded in Swedenborg's theological writings, that it
can be read with profit. Incidents, which, at first sight,
might appear ridiculous and irrational, are brought within
the pale of reason and belief when the laws upon which they
are founded are understood; and as effects, not causes, constitute the burden of the "Diary," the need of this caution
will be apparent. When, however, the laws of spiritual life




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               77
are understood, the "Diary" becomes a work of peculiar
and most profitable instruction.
While Swedenborg -was living in Sweden, in 1751, his old
friend and coadjutor, Polheim, died; and Swedenborg was
favored with a view of both sides of his grave. Writing in
his "Spiritual Diary," he says: "Polheim died on Monday,
and spoke with me on Thursday. I was invited to the
funeral. He saw the hearse, the attendants, and the whole
procession. He also saw them let down the coffin into the
grave, and conversed with me while it was going on, asking
me why they buried him, when he was alive. And when
the priest pronounced that he would rise again at the day
of judgment, he asked7 why this was, when he had already
risen. He wondered that such a belief should prevail,
considering that he was even now alive; he also wondered
at the belief in the resurrection of the body, for he said he
felt that he was in the body: with other remarks." Such a
relation will seem strange, very strange to many. But have
patience. When the laws and principles upon which such
phenomena take place, are comprehended, all their strange.
ness and improbability will straightway disappear.
7 *,




78             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
CHAPTER X.
The Areana Ccelestia.
IT was about the middle of 1749, that Swedenborg made
his first appearance as a theologian, by the publication of the
first volume of the "Arcana Ccelestia." At the beginning
of 1750, we find his publisher, John Lewis, of Paternoster
Row, announcing the issue of the second volume, in cheap
numbers, both in English and Latin. The issue continued
in volumes till 1756, when the work was completed in eight
good sized quartos. His publisher states in one of his
advertisements, that though he is "positively forbid to discover the author's name, yet he hopes to be excused for
mentioning his benign and generous qualities."  He avers
that "this gentleman, with indefatigable pains and labor,
spent one whole year in studying and writing out the first
volume of the'Arcana,' was at the expense of ~200 to print
it, and advanced ~200 more for the printing of the second;
and when he had done this, he gave express orders that all
the money that should arise in the sale, should be given
towards the charge of the propagation of the gospel. He is
so far from desiring to make a gain of his labors, that he
will not receive one farthing back of the ~400 he has
expended; and for that reason his works will come exceedingly cheap to the public."
The "Arcana Ccelestia" is an exposition of the books
of Genesis and Exodus, with intervening chapters which
describe the wonders of the future life. At the outset, it




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                79
will be necessary to state that Swedenborg believed the
Bible to be the Word of God. "Well, what Christian does
not believe so?" it may be asked. Few expressions pass
more glibly over the lips of religious people, than the short
phrase, "the word of God;" but how many take time to
consider its infinite meaning? The Word of God-a production of the infinite Father of all, the Creator and Sustainer
of the universe, —must be infinitely superior -to any human
composition; and, like God's other volume, the book of
nature, must yield up fresh wonders to every investigator;
and the more it is searched into, the more real unceasing
beauties of wisdom and design, till at length the strained
intellect of man finds its truest wisdom lies in the deepest
humility and adoration. Thus logically thinking, we experience a serious reverse when we turn to the opinions expressed
regarding the Word by even its most reverential commentators. At no period of history has the Bible been submitted
to more earnest study than in these times; but the results
have been in the highest degree meagre and unworthy, when
placed in comparison with the same exercise of mind on the
subjects of natural creation. We have most elaborate and
minute criticisms on the sacred text; we have treatises on
the animals, the insects, and the vegetables mentioned in the
hallowed record; we have books filled with descriptions of
domestic life among the Jews, their customs, and their
language; the prophecies have been subjected to all manner
of ingenious interpretation, but after all, with the poorest
spiritual results, and such as can in no wise excite a deeper
respect, or a warmer love, for God's holy Word, than was
entertained centuries ago, when such learning was a rarer
thing. Yet if we believe that God inspired this Book, can
we for a moment suppose that it should have no other end
than the narration of the history of a petty people, and the
enunciation of dark prophecies, which the acutest of men




8O              LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
pronounce impenetrable mysteries, and which the daring
and the foolish turn to all manner of profane purposes in
political soothsayings? If the Bible be indeed the Word
of God, it must contain within itself much more than the
majority of Christians suppose; otherwise it presents a most
startling anomaly when viewed in comparison with the other
Divine work, the natural universe.
The assumption, then, with which Swedenborg starts, is,
that the Scripture is in very truth the Word of God; that
every syllable and expression therein are His; that Moses,
David, the prophets, and the Evangelists, were simply the
inspired penmen, who wrote implicitly according to Divine
dictation.
He teaches, moreover, that the Word does not belong to
men alone, but is the possession likewise of the angels of
heaven, to whom it wears different forms according to the
degree of their love and intelligence. In general, it may be
said to have three senses, or meanings; first, a celestial sense,
apprehended by the celestial or highest angels; secondly, a
spiritual sense, apprehended by a lower range of angelic
minds, the spiritual; and thirdly, a natural sense, with which
we are all familiar, written down to the comprehension of
the lowest, most worldly, and sensual of men-the Jews.
These three senses make one by correspondence; although
diverse, they are still harmonious, and connected by one
divine life.
The Word, moreover, we are taught, has worn different
garments, or varied natural senses, at different eras. The
first church, Adam, or the primeval race of men, did not
possess a* written Word, but were gifted with a perception
of spiritual essences. Nature was literally spread before
them as an open book. To them, Nature was the expression
of the Divine Wisdom; and they saw in every beast of the
forest, in every flower of the field, and in every scene of cre



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                81
ation, evidence of the Divine presence, and material emblems of spiritual and heavenly things. As men declined
from purity, and, together with their innocence, lost their
wisdom and their powers of celestial perception, a written
Word became necessary, accommodated to the changed
state of the new spiritual church called Noah. In time,
this Word had also to be withdrawn, for its purity and language transcended the apprehension of a falling and sensualised world. Yet this Ancient Word, Swedenborg tells
us, is not lost, but still exists in Tartary, probably as an unvalued treasure, which may be restored to the church in due
season. To this Ancient Word, we have two allusions in
the Jewish Scriptures; the first in Numbers xxi. 14, where
we read: "Wherefore it is said in the book of the TWars of
Jehovah;" and the second in Joshua x. 13: "Is not this
writ-ten in the book of Jasher?"  The book of the Wars of
Jehovah, and the book of Jasher, forming parts of the
Ancient Word, became unintelligible from being written in
high correspondential and emblematic language; and uninteresting because not associated with the personal and
worldly interests of men. The Jewish Scriptures were then
written. The Divine Wisdom clothed itself in such words,
histories, and laws, as the earthly-minded Jews could love
and reverence, and thus be kept, in some measure, in connection with heaven, and in the possession of the most
general and leading truths of religion. The Gospels, added
in the course of time to the Jewish Word, served still
further to preserve the church in union with heaven and the
Lord. But now we see that mankind having in the course
of centuries re-ascended to a higher degree of intellectual
life, begin to be dissatisfied with the Scriptures, to arraign
the truth of science against them, to wonder how it is possible
that such writings can be the Word of God, and to ask,
with Emerson, "What have I to do with jasper and sarD -




82              LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
donyx, beryl and chalcedony, what with arks and passovers,
ephahs, heave-offerings, and unleavened bread; what with
chariots of fire, and ephods; what with lepers and emerods;
what with dragons crowned and horned, behemoth and unicorn?" But the Lord anticipates all man's wants; and,
caring above all things for his spiritual well-being, never permits him to live without a witness of His love and designs
towards him. By His Word, the Lord reveals himself to
man; and without it, man could know nothing of God, of
heaven and hell, and of a life after death. How necessary
then it is that man be preserved from falling into contempt
of its teachings; and yet if it contains no other than a literal
sense, what can a Christian. say in reply to such questionings
as those above quoted? and what tenable theory can be advanced to meet the objections of the sceptic drawn from
geology, astronomy, and many other sciences which clash
with the letter of Scripture? In the "Arcana Ccelestia," we
find a solution of all such doubts in the clear manifestation
of the Divine authorship of the Word, through the revelation of its spiritual sense, whereby reason and faith are perfectly conjoined; and man,, while here below, is fed with
angels' food.
But it is not to be concluded from this that Swedenborg
in any way slights or undervalues the literal sense of the
Word. Far from it. He says: "The literal sense of the
Word is the basis, the continent, and the firmament of its
spiritual and celestial senses; and hence in it the divine
truth is in its fulness, its sanctity, and its power; therefore
the doctrine of the church should be drawn from the literal
sense, and confirmed thereby." From this, every one will
see that no mysticism can be sheltered under a belief in the
spiritual sense of the Word; for, from the literal sense, determined by the severest criticism, all doctrine must be
drawn, and all creeds tested. Swedenborg also teaches, that




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                 83
by means of the literal sense, men enjoy conjunction with
the Lord; for His divine spirit is with all who read his
Word devoutly. To promote this divine communion, the
letter of Scripture has been so framed as to possess a universal interest. The child reads the Bible, and is delighted
with its charming stories; the simple cottager loves it and
prizes it as he prizes no other book; the poet draws from it
his richest inspirations; and the man of learning, who has
gathered knowledge from all times and lands, turns to its
hallowed page, and in the light of its divine wisdom sees
himself but a child in knowledge.
Though the Scriptures are thus marvellously adapted, in
the literal sense, to the tastes, feelings, and necessities of men
of all grades and states, yet, as before said, many portions
of them do, in our days, require to be vindicated from the
charge of being inconsistent with science-from the charge
of insignificance, and dealing in petty details. They need,
in fine, to be elevated from mere history, poetry, and obsolete law, into practical use and connection with the daily life
and conduct of every man and woman; so that they may be
to us, in very deed, the Word of God, as truly as they were
to the Jews three thousand years ago.
Let us now see how, in the "Arcana Cdelestia," all this is
effected.
"From  the posterity of the most Ancient Church, Moses
received what he wrote concerning the creation, the Garden
of Eden, etc., down to the time of Abraham," writes Swedenborg. Describing the method by which the people of
that church expressed themselves, he adds: "When they
mentioned earthly and worldly things, they thought of
the spiritual and celestial things which they represented;
so that they not only expressed themselves by representatives, but also reduced. their thoughts into a kind of series, as
of hi;storicalparticulars, in order to give them more life; and




84             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
in this they found their greatest delight." Understanding
this fully, we shall not be surprised to learn that the first
eleven chapters of Genesis are purely allegorical; written not
as a description of the creation of the material world, and
its fortunes, but as a description of the internal life of the
earliest people, of the development of their minds up to celestial perfection, and then of their gradual declension from
purity, their love of the evil and the false, and finally the
destruction of their souls, symbolized by the deluge overspreading the face of the whole earth. These chapters were
thus written by the Lord in accommodation to the tastes of
the men of the Ancient Church, who, as we read, had "their
greatest delight in the expression of spiritual and celestial
things in a series of historical particulars;" just as, in after
times, He clothed His Wisdom in Jewish history and law,
so that He might be with the Jews, and preserve within them
some small remains of spiritual life. What a relief to the
mind, torn and troubled with the thousand doubts which
science has cast upon the early chapters of Genesis, is the
acceptation of the truth of their entirely allegorical signification! And how plainly, in their spiritual sense, do we
find testimony of their divine authorship! It should not be
forgotten that the doctrine of the symbolical nature of these
chapters, was set forth by Swedenborg long before science
had demonstrated that their merely literal sense was wholly
irreconcilable with the facts of nature; thus quite independently of any external pressure or necessity. It must be
known.to every one that geology —the science which, above
all others, has brought the most weighty objections against
the six days' creation, and the deluge of the whole earth by
a flood which covered the tops of the highest mountains,is a new science. At the time when Swedenborg wrote, it
was entirely undeveloped. The reconciling of the literal
sense of these chapters with the facts of geology, has per



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                85
plexed more minds, and engaged more intellect, than did
ever perpetual motion and the squaring of the circle. The
amount of speculation which has been expended upon this
theme, is immense, as every one at all acquainted with the
religious history of the last fifty years is aware; and still
the labor is vigorously prosecuted. We have no inclination
to undervalue the motives that prompt to it. For all sincere lovers of the Word of God we entertain the deepest respect, and rejoice to think that their faith in the Bible remains unshaken amid such fiery trials. Yet if Christians
were wise and unprejudiced, they would turn to Swedenborg's " Arcana Coelestia," and there find all that heart or
mind could wish. Its readers, who have been many, (and
yet, when compared with the wide world of Christendom,
insignificantly few,) have had, during all these seasons of
doubt, the fullest peace; and have been ready to welcome
every truth of science, however militating against the literal
sense of the early chapters of Genesis; and all the while
have remained such lovers of the Word as none but believers in its spiritual sense can be. We believe that the religious world will, in process of time, when all methods of
reconciling the letter of Scripture with geology shall have
manifestly failed, finally turn to Swedenborg; and when the
heavenly truth glowing in his pages shall beam upon their
opened sight, they will wonder why they did not read his luminous volumes sooner.
From the Call of Abram, the Word is to be looked upon
as a narration of historical events. Yet while, as history, it
possesses a great charm and interest to every mind, from its
matchless and beautiful simplicity, we cannot see what claim
it could have to the title of the Word of God, did it not
contain within itself, as Swedenborg abundantly demonstrates, a spiritual sense, universally applicable'to men in all
states, times, and situations.  In the highest or celestial
o




86              LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
sense, the Word refers solely to the Lord, and is a description of his nature and attributes, of his assumption of corrupt humanity, and -the process of its glorification.  Man
being formed in the Lord's image and likeness, whatever
treats of Him, is, in a secondary sense, or in a lower degree,
descriptive of man, his nature and regeneration.  This
secondary application of the Word forms its spiritual sense,
which when understood, transforms Genesis and Exodus from
mere history and dull ceremonial law, into a Divine revelation
of the laws of spiritual life, pregnant with practical benefit to
all men, because applicable to every incident and thought
of life.
Time and space would alike fail were we to attempt to
give the most general outline of the multitude of spiritual
truths which are unvailed. in the course of the exposition of
Genesis and Exodus; and not of these two books alone, but
of passages from all parts of the Word, which are drawn
upon to illustrate and confirm the truth of the interpretation. As Wilkinson says, "Consider, gentle reader, twelve
goodly 8vo volumes [in English,] written with such continued power that it seems as if eating, drinking, and sleeping, had never intervened between the penman and his page,
so unbroken is the subject, and so complete the sense. Add
to the other health and harmony of this unflagging man, a
memory of the most extraordinary grasp, which enabled him
to administer the details of an intellect ranging through all
truth on the one hand, and through the whole field of Scripture illustration and text upon the other. Then take into
account the unity of the work from first to last; the constant
reference that binds all parts of it together, and shows the
caution with which each strong affirmation is at first set
down. Observe also the felicity of phrase, the happiness of
mind, the easy greatness, which shine along and dignify
those serious pages. Remark also, that the author does not




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                  87
deal in generalities, but sentence for sentence, and word for
word, he translates his text into spiritual meaning, and criticises and supports himself with nearly every parallel text in
the sacred writings."
The earnest reader of the "Arcana" will never question
the reality of Swedenborg's mission. He would as soon
question the reality of the world, or his own existence. This
is a strong assertion, a stranger to the work will perhaps
say; but it is only a stranger to these wondrous volumes that
will say so; for every one at all familiar with them will
agree with us. We never take down a volume of the
"Arcana" to read, without feeling more and more assured
that Swedenborg was an anointed servant of the Lord. The
depths of spiritual experience he reveals, his insight into the
inmost recesses of the heart, his explanation of the causes
of thoughts, and the origin of our various desires and inclinations, of lowness of spirits, of pleasant and dull moods, in
short, of all spiritual trials and temptations, with the heavenly ends they are permitted to serve, together with a
thousand other matters which it concerns us all to know, are
of such a nature that we cannot but feel that such knowledge must have been derived from a Divine source, and
that unless his stand-point had been most peculiar, and providentially appointed, it would have been impossible for him
to have written as he has. To speak of the "Arcana" as it
deserves, would, to one unacquainted with it, appear like
exaggeration, while every reader would feel that we had
fallen far short of the truth in many points. No criticism,
however reverential, can adequately express the innumerable and marvellous excellencies of the work; and should.this feeble testimony to its worth excite any one to read and
study it,-and it is a work which should be studied, if read
at all,-we know that he will say, as the Queen of Sheba
said of Solomon, "It was a true report that I heard of thy




88       S    LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit I believed'not the words,
until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and behold the
half was not told me."
We have not spoken of those chapters which come between the expositions of Scripture, because the subjects
therein treated of will recur in notices of his other books.
They serve to diversify the work, and to relieve the mind
tasked with the deep thought involved in the spiritual expositions, by the contemplation of some of the leading facts
of the future life.
The "Arcana Coelestia" was translated into English by
the late venerable John Clowes, a clergyman of the Established Church in Manchester, and a most cordial receiver
and preacher of the doctrines of the New Church. It
is published in twelve octavo volumes, with an index prepared by Swedenborg himself, which forms a thirteenth
volume. This index has been greatly extended by Elihu
Rich, filling two large octavos. Several editions of the "Arcana" have also been published in America; and the
sale, considering the size and cost of the work, has been in
both countries very considerable. It is a work which will
in coming days run through many cheap editions; and when
that time shall come, many will wonder why such a treasury
of spiritual wisdom lay so long in our midst, and yet men
thought so little of it. But the world is approaching Swve
denborg as fast as steady progress will permit.




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                89
CHAPTER Xi.
Anecdotes.
OF Swedenborg's external life, during the composition
of the "Arcana Ccelestia," we know little. From his "Spiritual Diary," we incidentally learn that he was in Stockholm
on the 23d of July, 1756. A revolution had been attempted,
and the leaders of the conspiracy, Count Brahe and Baron
Horn, were executed on that day. Swedenborg writes of
Brahe thus:- "Brahe was beheaded at ten o'clock in the
morning, and spoke with me at ten at night; that is to say,
twelve hours after his execution. He was with me almost
without interruption for several days. In two days' time,
lihe began to return to his former life, which consisted in
loving worldly things; and after three days, he became as
he was before in the world, and was carried into the evils
that he had made his own before he died." (S. Diary, 5099.)
Robsahm, a friend of Swedenborg's, probably alludes to
this circumstance, when he writes: "One day as a criminal
was led to the place of execution to be beheaded, I was by
the side of Swedenborg, and asked him how such a person felt
at the time of his execution. He answered:'When a man
lays his head on the block, he loses all sensation. When he
first' comes into the spiritual world, and finds that he is
living, he is seized -with the fear of his expected death, tries
to escape, and is very much frightened. At such a moment
no one thinks of anything but the happiness of heaven, or
the misery of hell. Soon the good spirits come to him, and,8 *,




90             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
instruct him where he is, and he is then left to follow his
own inclinations, which soon lead him to the place where he
remains for ever."' It appears that whatever happens at
the hour of death, is carried into the other life, and the state
is continued for some time. Thus we read in the "Spiritual
Diary" of a person who had been reduced by melancholy
to despair, until being instigated by diabolical spirits, he
destroyed himself, by thrusting a knife into his body. "This
spirit came to me," writes Swedenborg, "complaining that
he was miserably treated by evil spirits. He was seen by
me, holding a knife in his hand, as though he would plunge
it into his breast. With this knife he labored very hard, as
wishing rather to cast it from him, but in vain."
It soon became widely known that Swedenborg had intercourse with spirits; and many and various were the demands
made upon him, for information of one kind and another.
The Queen of Sweden asked him  whether his spiritual
intercourse was a science or art that could be communicated
to others. He said: "No, it is the gift of the Lord." "Can
you then," said she, "speak with every one deceased, or only
with certain persons?" He answered, "I can not converse
with all, but only with such as I have known in this world,
with all royal and princely persons, with all renowned
heroes, or great and learned men, whom I have known,
either personally, or from their actions or writings; consequently with all of whom I could form an idea; for it may
be supposed that a person whom I never knew, and of whom
I could form no idea, I neither could or would wish to speak
with."
The Prince of Prussia was brother to the Queen of
Sweden, and shortly after his death, Swedenborg being at
court, the Queen perceiving him said: "Well, Mr. Assessor,
have you seen my brother?" He answered, "No." Whereupon she replied: "If you should see him, remember me to




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                91
him." In saying this, she did but jest. Eight' days afterwards, Swedenborg came again to court, but so early that
the Queen had not left her apartment called the white room,
where she was conversing with her maids of honor, and
other ladies of the court. Swedenborg did not wait for the
Queen's coming out, but entered directly into her apartment,
and whispered in her ear. The Queen, struck with astonishment, was taken ill, and did not recover for some time.
After she was come to herself, she said to those about her:
"There is only God and my brother who can know what he
has just told me." She owned that he had spoken of her
last correspondence with the prince, the subject of which
was known to themselves alone.
The following is narrated by J. H. Jung Stilling:"About the year 1770, there was a merchant in Elberfeld
with whom, during seven years of my residence there, I
lived in close intimacy. He spoke little; but what he said
was like golden fruit on a salver of silver. He would not
have dared for all the world to have told a falsehood. His
business requiring him to take a journey to Amsterdam,
where Swedenborg at that time resided, and having heard
and read much of this strange individual, he formed the
intention of visiting him. He therefore called upon him,
and found a very venerable looking, friendly old man, who
received him politely, and requested him to be seated.
Explaining his errand, and expressing his deep admiration
of Swedenborg's writings, he desired that he would give him
a proof of his intercourse with the unseen world. Swedenborg said:'Why not? Most willingly.' The merchant
then proceeded to tell that he had formerly a friend, who
studied divinity at Duisburg, where he fell into a consumption, of which he died. Visiting this friend a short time
hefore his decease, they conversed together on an important
topic. The question he then put to Swedenborg, was:'Can




92             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
you learn from the student what was the subject of our
discourse at that time?' Swedenborg replied:'We will see;
what was the name of your friend?' The merchant told his
name, and Swedenborg then requested him to call in a few
days. Some days after, the merchant went again to see
Swedenborg, in anxious expectation. The old gentleman
met him with a smile, and said:'I have spoken with your
friend; the subject of your discourse was the restitution of all
things.' He then related to the merchant, with the greatest
precision, what he, and what his deceased friend, had maintained. The merchant turned pale; for this proof was
powerful and invincible. He inquired further:'How fares
it with my friend?  Is he in a state of blessedness?'
Swedenborg answered:'No, he is not in heaven; he is still
in the world of spirits, and torments himself continually
with the idea of the restitution of all things.' He ejaculated:'My God! What! in the other world?' Swedenborg replied:'Certainly; a man takes with him his favorite inclinations
and opinions, and it is very difficult to be divested of them.
TWe ought, therefore, to lay them aside here.' The merchant took his leave, perfectly convinced, and returned to
Elberfeld."
An ambassador from Holland, named Martville, died at
Stockholm. After his death, a considerable sum of money
was demanded of his widow in payment of a debt. She felt
certain the debt had been paid, but was unable to find the
receipt for the money. Being advised to consult Swedenborg, who, she was told could converse with the dead whenever he pleased, she adopted the advice, more from curiosity
than from a belief in his powers. The lady called on Swedenborg and- told him her trouble; and he promised if he
met her husband in the spiritual world, he would inquire of
him about the matter. Eight days afterwards Martville
appeared to his wife in a dream, and mentioned to her a




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                93
private place in his cabinet, where she would not only find
the receipt, but also a hair pin set with twenty brilliants,
which had been given up as lost. This happened about two
o'clock in the morning. Full of joy, she arose and found
them in the place designated. She returned again to rest,
and slept till nine o'clock. About eleven Swedenborg was
announced. His first remark, before Madame had time to
speak, was, that he had, during the preceding night, seen
several spirits, and among others her late husband. He had
wished to converse with him, but Martville excused himself
on the ground that he must go to discover to his wife something of importance. This account, attested by the lady
herself, was noised through all Stockholm. It may be added
that Madame desired to make Swedenborg a handsome
present for his services, which he, of course, declined.
Sometimes Swedenborg's announcements of the states of
the departed alarmed his auditors. We read of a case
of this kind which took place on a voyage from Gottenburg
to London. The vessel staying at Oresound, the Swedish
Consul invited the officers of the custom house, together
with several of the first people of the town, all anxious to
see and know Swedenborg, to dine with him at his house.
Being all seated at table, and none of them taking the liberty of addressing Swedenborg, who likewise was silent, the
Consul thought it incumbent on him to break silence, and
asked Swedenborg, as he could see and speak with the dead,
whether he had seen Christian VI., King of Denmark, after
his decease. To this he replied in the affirmative; adding,
that when he saw him the first time, he was accompanied
by a bishop or other prelate, who humbly begged the King's
pardon for the many errors into which he had led him by
his counsels. A son of the deceased prelate happened to
be present at the table: the Consul therefore fearing that
Swedenborg might say something further to the disadvan



94             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
tage of the father, interrupted him, saying: "Sir, this is his
son!" Swedenborg replied: "It may be, but what I am
saying is true."
Such anecdotes might be greatly multiplied, but space
forbids. No one, perhaps, has a lower idea of the worth of
these stories, as testimonies to Swedenborg's veracity, than
the writer; yet they could not well be omitted from an account of his life. Gossip spread them far and wide in his
own day, as is evidenced by the various forms in which they
have come down to us; and any biographer would fail in
his duty did he not show how the common world of men
dealt with, and regarded Swedenborg. These anecdotes also
in some degree manifest what a kind, affable, simple, and
honest man Swedenborg was.
Having finished the "Arcana Ccelestia," Swedenborg's pen
yet knew no rest. In 1758 he published in London the five
following works: —1. An Account of the Last Judgment
and the Destruction of Babylon; showing that all the predictions in the Apocalypse are at this day fulfilled; being a
relation of things heard and seen. 2. Concerning Heaven
and its wonders, and concerning Hell, being a relation of
things heard and seen. 3. On the White Horse mentioned
in the Apocalypse. 4. On the Planets in our solar system,
and on those in the Heavens; with an acconnt of their inhabitants, and of their spirits and angels. 5. On the New
Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrines; as revealed from
heaven. Let us now examine these works in order.




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                95
CHAPTER Xll.
The Last Judgcmnent
To the early reader of Swedenborg's writings, few of his
declarations appear stranger, at first, than his affirmation
that the Last Judgment is past, that it took place in 1757.
Yet although startling at first, it is a doctrine which, on
closer acquaintance, readily comes within the grasp of reason
and common sense; and we discover that all its early strangeness was owing to our having looked at it through the mist
of prejudice and preconceived opinion.
The treatise on the Last Judgment, (although, as to size,
only a pamphlet,) is a most effective and masterly exposition
of the nature of the end of the church, the new heavens,
and the new earth of the Apocalypse.
In the first place, it is shown that the day of the Last
Judgment does not mean that of the destruction of the
world; for neither the visible heaven nor the habitable
earth will perish, but both will remain forever. The reason
is. that the heaven of angels is formed from the human race,
all angels having lived the life of men, and none having
been so created; and as the perfection of heaven increases to
eternity with the increase of regenerate men from the world,
it follows that the earth will never cease to exist, nor men to
live and be born upon it. The world is the seminary of
heaven. Heaven depends upon the world for its growth,
increase, and perfection. Heaven could not exist without
worlds.




96             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
Heaven being formed from the human race, so likewise is
Hell; all devils and satans having at one time been men on
this or some other earth. " That is not first which is spiritual,
but that which is natural."
These doctrines, it will be seen, militate against what are
called orthodox opinions, which teach that angels were created before the world, and that no man can go to heaven or
to hell before the time of the Last Judgment; when the
souls of men having returned into their bodies, the visible
world will be burned up; the sun and moon be quenched in
nature's night; and the stars, each surrounded with its own
system of worlds, having first fallen upon this speck of a
globe, are to be wiped out of existence. These common but
crude and unscriptural ideas have afforded the best subjects
for scoffing at the Christian religion which the skeptic could
desire. For he triumphantly asks, How can so vast a heaven, and so many stars, with sun and moon, be destroyed
and dissipated? And how can the stars fall from heaven
upon the earth, when they are larger than the earth? How
can men's bodies, eaten up by worms, consumed by putrefaction, scattered to all winds, absorbed by vegetation, and
again incorporated into other men's systems, be re-collected
for their souls? What is this day of, Judgment? And has
it not been expected for ages in vain? Together with many
other such questions, all pertinent, but to which the church
can give no rational answer.
And yet ignorance on such subjects cannot be excused;
for men might have known from the Word that heaven and
hell are from mankind, and that man is raised up and lives
immediately after death. Information on these subjects
might have been obtained from the Lord's words to the thief
upon the cross, "Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou
be with me in Paradise;" and from those which he spoke
concerning the rich man and Lazarus, that the one went to




EMANUTL SWEDENBORG.                 97
hell, and spoke with Abraham, and that the other went to
heaven; and what the Lord told the Pharisees respecting the
resurrection, that "God is not the God of the dead, but of
the living." And then we see how inconsistent men are with
themselves on these subjects. A worthy church-member,
who is a firm believer in the burning up of the world, and
the resurrection of the dead at the Last Judgment, comes to
his death-bed, and straightway all his doctrine passes into
forgetfulness; and he talks of going home to glory in heaven,
and being within a few hours of the angels. He dies; and
his friends, as orthodox as himself, think of him as happy in
heaven; and yet they profess to believe in the resurrection
of his corrupt and diseased body. What strange inconsistency is this! But it is one of the marks of error, that it
is always inconsistent with itself.
The leading fact in Swedenborg's doctrine of the Last
Judgment, is, that it takes place in the spiritual world,
where all men congregate after death. A judgment takes
place in the world of spirits whenever a church comes to its
end; that is, when its charity, and consequently its faith is
dead, and.all things that remain are mere empty forms of
life. A judgment took place at the end of the Jewish
church. For proof of this, we need only turn to the Gospel of
John, (xii. 31,) where Jesus said: "Now' is the judgment of
this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out."
We all know there was at that time no visible judgment in
the natural world. Everything went on as before; yet, we
learn from the Lord's own lips, that a judgment was effected.
It is a great mistake, and one which even the best of men
labor under, to suppose that the soul of man exists alone,
and independent of any influences but those that are external
to him, and of which he is conscious. We would ask, Who
ever saw a grain of matter independent of the law of graviE




98             LIFE AND WRITIAGS OF
tation,-that cause which binds it to kindred matter with a
bond as indestructible as its own existence? It is the same with
men's souls. No man lives independent of spiritual association. Place a man in the middle of some distant and desolate island; yet he is not alone. Around his soul are the
spirits of those who have left the world before him, who love
as he loves, and think as he thinks. T-he minds of men and
spirits are most closely and intimately conjoined; for in the
universe of mind, as in the universe of matter, there is no
such thing as isolation and independency. And what can
be more'philosophical than such a doctrine? The laws of matter represent the laws of spirit; in every particular there
exists a perfect correspondence. As matter is everywhere
bound to matter, and compacted in firm communion, so likewise are the minds of men to be regarded as a universe of
atoms, bound together by loves and affections. In meditating on this subject, we must remember that spirit knows
nothing of material space.
The church had been declining from the days of the
Apostles. Men had forsaken the pure spirit of the gospel,
and had sought to hide their evils of life by doctrines and
creeds formed from  their own darkened understandings.
The popedom had arisen; and in the black night of the
dark ages, had established its fearful assumptions, and blasphemously invoked the name of the Highest to sanctify its
crimes. The Reformation, the last flicker of an expiring
candle, had indeed established free thought, but it failed in
its highest aims; and in the erroneous doctrine of justification by faith alone, had deadened the consciences of men,
and extinguished all aspirations after spiritual life. Last
and worst of all, Atheism reared its horrid front, and openly
manifested itself; yet what of it was open and confessed,
was as nothing to what lay concealed even under the vestments of the church. Toward the middle of the last cei-t




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                99
tury, Christendom had reached its lowest point of degradation; and any one who is anxious to test this affirmation of
Swedenborg's, need only turn to the history and literature of
that period, and observe the selfishness, the negation and
ridicule of everything pure and spiritual, the gross ignorance,
Ithe licentiousness and intemperance, and in fact the reduc-'tion of humanity to its lowest and most bestial condition.
He will then understand the cry of the good, at that time,
in the world of spirits, " How long, O Lord, holy and true,
dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell
on the earth?",It is to be noted that from the time of the Lord's advent,
when he effected the Judgment upon the Jewish church,
there had been pouring into the world of spirits, in countless
myriads, the souls of those who were full of evils and falsities, and who, collecting around terrestrial humanity, lay as
thick clouds between it and heaven. Forming themselves
into societies by spiritual affinities, the reformed churches
were in the middle; the Romanists around them; the Mahommedans in a still outer ring; and the various Gentile
nations constituted a vast circumference; while beyond all, lay
the appearance of a sea as a boundary. Of the states of those
associations, we have a most graphic picture in Swedenborg's
treatise; and no where else out of the Apocalypse, do we
find a more thorough exposure of the internal atheism of
the priests of Rome, their blasphemies and subtlety. But
the time of the end had come; the world groaned to be delivered; and the eyes of Swedenborg were favored to behold
the process of the great redemption.
The vast concourse of these spirits, formed into societies,
is what is meant in the Revelation by the first heaven and
the first earth which passed away. The manner in which
these societies were dissolved, Swedenborg describes as follows:- "Visitation was made by angels, and admonition




100            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
given, and the good were singled out and separated by the
heavenly ministers, agreeable to the Lord's words,'He shall
send his angels, and they shall gather together the elect from
the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other;' and
again,'All nations shall be gathered together before the Son
of Man; and he shall separate them one from another, as a
shepherd divideth the sheep fiom the goats, and he shall set
the sheep on the right hand, and the goats on the left."' Then
followed destruction. There were great earthquakes, and a
vehement wind, which swept all before it. Then gulfs
yawned, and seas appeared, into which the wicked threw
themselves, and were drawn to their place in hell. " Then,"
says Swedenborg, "I saw angelic spirits in great numbers
rising from below, and received into heaven. They were
the sheep who had been kept and guarded by the Lord,
and who are understood in the Word by the bodies of saints
which arose from their sepulchres and went into the holy
city; and by the souls of those slain for the testimony of
Jesus, and who were watching; and by those who were of
the first resurrection.
" After this, there was joy in heaven, and light in the world
of spirits, such as was not before; and the interposing clouds
between heaven and mankind being removed, a similar light
also then arose on men in the world, giving them new
enlightenment."
Such was the Last Judgment. Its centenary draws nigh;
and how fruitful in good to mankind has been that century
which is now drawing to a close! It is unnecessary to repeat the hackneyed phrases which tell of the progress of the
world during the last hundred years. Every newspaper
speaks of it. Everybody with open eyes observes it. It
has become the universal opinion that the world is moving
onwards and upwards; yet how few understand why the
world is so moving. Men have yet to learn that effects can




EMANUJL SWEDENBORG.              101
no more take place without adequate causes in the universe
of mind than in the universe of matter. Nowhere out of
Swedenborg can we find a description of those spiritual
causes which are changing society and revolutionizing the
whole world. We, who live in the dawn of the new era, can
form, even in our highest states, but a faint conception of
its coming glory. Yet we see in the wonderful movements
of our age, in its growing benevolence, in its increasing intelligence and thoughtfulness, and in the prodigious advances
that are making in every department of science and art, so
many indubitable signs that the former things have passed
away, and that the Lord is making all things new.
Every one knows that in the Scripture, the second coming
of the Lord is described as simultaneous with the Last
Judgment. We will hereafter endeavor to prove that the
Lord has indeed come, and will describe the manner of his
coming.
The reception of the doctrine of the Last Judgment is
somewhat difficult, because the comprehension of it demands
the understanding of many principles and spiritual laws unknown to the world at large, yet most worthy of any amount
of labor requisite to master them. The remembrance of
this fact will serve as an apology for any appearance of
unfounded assumption in the outline of the doctrine we have
given.
9*




102            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
CHAPTER X111.
Heaven and Hell.
THE treatise on Heaven and Hell is among the most
charming of Swedenborg's writings. Its subjects possess a
universal attraction; for, what believer in the immortality
of man has not, at times, longed to penetrate the awful mysteries of the unseen world? And there is nothing unreasonable in the desire. True it is, that, until Swedenborg came,
any but the most general knowledge of the nature of the
future life had been withdrawn from mankind since the days
of primeval innocence; yet not from anything hurtful in the
knowledge itself, but simply because the sublime facts of the
future state transcended the apprehension of men immersed
in worldly loves and cares, and denying and ridiculing every
idea which was not an object of sensual perception. For
this reason the Lord said to his disciples: f'I have yet many
things to say unto you, but ye can not bear them now."
(John xvi. 12.) We frequently see this inability to "bear"
things spiritual and divine, manifested' in our own experience. We offer Swedenborg's treatise, for perusal, to some
man of science, full of self-confidence, with the laws and
facts of the universe at his finger's ends; or to some deep]yread theologian. The title page is read,-"Heaven and its
Wonders, the World of Spirits, and Hell; being a relation
of things heard and seen." It is enough. "What nonsense! What foolishness! The lunatic! What could he
know of heaven or hell? How could he get there?  The




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                103
impostor! None but a fool could write such a book!"  And
so on. The title page settles the whole question. Now what
can be said in reply to these railers, of whom the world is
full?  How can one argue with, and combat, such inveterate
prejudice? Yet these people are professing Christians.
They profess to believe there is a heaven and a hell. But,
does not their condemnation of Swedenborg betray a lurking
infidelity in their hearts? If they really possessed a living
faith in the existence of heaven and hell, it could not appear
to them so utterly preposterous that some account of their
nature might in these times have been revealed, through the
abounding mercy of the Lord.
But the world now contains many who are willing to receive, and able to understand, the truths of the future life.
The Lord, who never allows his children to lack any good
thing, has, in due season, given them, through Swedenborg,
this precious and delightful volume. Let us briefly enumerate its important statements.
The spiritual world divides itself into three great regions,
-Heaven, the World of Spirits, and Hell.
Heaven is formed of all who have loved the Lord on
earth by living a life in accordance with his laws. The laws
of spiritual life are known, more or less perfectly, in all nations, even among the heathen. The lowest of the Gentiles
have some faint rays of the light of spiritual truth; and if
they live in obedience thereto, regeneration, and consequently, heaven, is attainable by them. Yet heaven has its
degrees of bliss. Good persons of every variety of character pass into it. But the promiscuous association of these
different kinds of character would not be orderly, and could
not be blissful. By the law of spiritual gravitation, (from
which the law of natural gravitation is but a derivation, and
of which it is a type and image,)>all who possess similar affections and intelligence are drawn together, and co-ordinated




104            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
in the most blissful harmony. The infinite variety of heaven
thus arranges itself, in general, into two kingdoms; specifically into three heavens; and in particular, into innumerable societies. The two kingdoms are respectively called
celestial and spiritual. The angels forming the celestial
kingdom are characterized by their exceeding love of the
Lord and of go6dness; and the angels who form the spiritual
kingdom are distinguished by their exceeding love of their
neighbor and of truth. The celestial angels are immensely
wiser than the spiritual, and their blessedness is ineffable.
Specifically there are three heavens, perfectly distinct, called
the first heaven, the second or middle heaven, and the third
or highest heaven; or they may be called external, internal,
and inmost; or natural, spiritual, and celestial. Of these
three heavens the highest or third, together with the internal
of the first or lowest heaven, forms the celestial kingdom;
and the middle or second, together with the external of the
first or lowest heaven, forms the spiritual kingdom. These
three heavens and two kingdoms, arising out of the varieties
of the human mind, are not arbitrary distinctions. The external, first, or natural heaven, is formed of those who, from
a principle of obedience and duty, live in accordance with
the Divine will. The second, spiritual, or middle heaven, is
formed of such as love truth, delight in things intellectual,
and at the same time are in disinterested love to the neighbor. The inmost, third, or celestial heaven, is formed of
those who, full of love to the Lord, are in innocence. These
celestial angels, gifted with the highest wisdom and peace,
yet full of humility, indefinitely exceed all beneath them in
beauty and wisdom. The existence and order of the three
heavens was represented by the courts of the Jewish temple.
The celebrated Oberlin, a diligent reader of Swedenborg,
had a plan of the courts of the temple hung upon the walls
of his church, by which he taught his hearers, that, accord



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                105
ing to their humility, piety, fidelity, and love of being useful
to each other, would be their elevation in the Lord's kingdom, either to the first, second, or third heaven. We think
that no one, in whom reign the heavenly principles of "love"
to the Lord and the neighbor; "joy" in duty under all circumstances; "peace" in every change of state; "long-suffering" under all provocations; "gentleness" of behaviour;
"goodness" of disposition, ever manifesting itself in good
actions; "faith" or truth, believed, loved, and thence trusted
in; "meekness" in doing and in suffering; "temperance" both
in external and internal delights, Gal. v. 22, would be an
unwilling inhabitant of such a heaven as Swedenborg describes. Is not this at least presumptive evidence that he has
spoken truly?
The three heavens are further subdivided into innumerable
societies, some smaller, and some larger; some consisting
of myriads of angels, and some of hundreds.. Their association into societies, is a result of similarity of character, which
similarity is imaged in their faces; and a general likeness
of countenance is observed among the angels who form one
society. All who are in similar love know each other, just
as men in the world know their kindred, relations, and
friends; and thus, as it were, spontaneously associated, they
feel at home and in freedom, and thence in the full delight
of their life. From this it also follows that angels who differ
much are far apart; and few depart out of their own society
into another, because to go out from their own society is like
going out of themselves, or out of their own life, and passing
into another which is not so agreeable. Nevertheless all the
societies of heaven are bound together in one perfect form,
which is strictly human.
All angels are in the human form, and are just such men
and women as they were on earth, except that they have
rejected the material body. That we should have to write
E*




106            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
and enforce such truisms-for such they must appear to a
mind really rational,-is owing to the strange and ridiculous
fancies that are commonly entertained on this subject. We
often hear the departed talked of as shades, and thought
of as minds without forms, or mere thinking principles
composed of some sort of ethereal vapor; and when artists
draw them, we see perhaps an exquisitely beautiful human
form, but disfigured with large feathery wings, which, having
no adequate muscles, would have no power of motion. None
of these vague, shadowy, and erroneous ideas do we find in
the Bible. The angels seen by Abraham, Lot, Manoah, the
prophets, and the Lord's disciples, were all seen as men, and
talked with as men. Our author writes thus explicitly on
this subject. "The angelic form is in every respect human;
angels have faces, eyes, ears, breasts, arms, hands, and feet;
they see, hear, and converse with each other; and, in a
word, no external attribute of man is wanting, except the
natural body."
And now comes a doctrine which on a first view may
appear very mystical, and yet when pondered over, and
understood, commends itself to our belief by a thousand
irresistible evidences drawn from analogy, and confirmed
by right reason. It is, that every society of heaven is in
the human form; and that the universal heaven, viewed
collectively, is also in the human form; and is called by
Swedenborg the Grand or Greatest [Maximus] Man. Wilkinson well expresses this sublime truth. "Heaven," he
says, "is supremely human-nay more, it is one man. As
the members of the body make one person, so before God,
all good men make one humanity: every society of the
angels is a heavenly man in a lesser form, and every angel
in a least. The reason is, that God himself, (the Lord Jesus
Christ,) is a Divine Man, and He shapes His heaven into
His own image and likeness, even as He made Adam. The




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                107
oneness of heaven comes from God's unity: its manhood from
His humanity. Heaven has, therefore, all the members,
organs, and viscera of a man; its angel inhabitants, every
one, are in some province of the Grand Man. Indefinite
myriads of us go to a fibre of its humanity. Some are in
the province of the brain; some in that of the lungs; some,in that of the heart; some in that of the belly; some are in
the legs and arms; and all, wherever humanized, that is to
say, located in humanity, perform spiritually the offices
of that part of the body whereto they correspond. They all
work together, however spaced apparently, just as the parts
of a single man. Their space is but their palpable liberty,
and they touch the human atoms, more "closely, by offices
which unite them in God, than the contiguous fibres of our
flesh." Every society of heaven also increases in number
daily, and as it increases, it becomes more perfect; and from
its perfection the universal heaven becomes more perfect,
because heaven is composed of societies. Since increasing
numbers make heaven more perfect, it is evident how much
they are deceived who believe that heaven will be closed
when it becomes full. On the contrary, heaven will never be
closed, for the greater its fullness, the greater its' perfection;
and therefore the angels desire nothing more earnestly than
to receive new comers.
This part of our subject would require considerable expansion to make it intelligible to minds that have never meditated on these high themes, and whose theological education
has perverted all perception of the truth on these matters.
The subject is enticing, but our limits command restraint.
It was a remark of a profane wit and epicure that "as to
heaven, he had no great longing, as he could not see what
great pleasure there could be in sitting on a cloud and
singing psalms to eternity." We have in this expression a
thought -which we know to be common to many minds, but




108            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
respect for the externals of religion forbids its expression.
The general belief respecting the nature of life in heaven, is
so vague, and contains so much of clouds and psalm-singing,
that it is not to be wondered at that some free and daring
spirits should openly avow their preference for the more
substantial realities of this life. And is it not a pity that
the divine glories and delights of the heavenly life should
become so vailed in mystery as to lose their attraction, and
cease to be desirable? With the exception of the church's
ignorance of the humanity, unity, and divinity of its Saviour
and Lord, no surer evidence could be adduced of its consummation, than its inability to answer the simplest child's
questions as to the nature of life in heaven. Let us be
thankful that man's utmost wants, in this respect, are satisfied in the writings of that New Church- which the Lord is
now raising up, and of which Swedenborg was the divinelyappointed herald.
The sun of heaven is the Lord. The light of heaven is
the divine truth, and its heat the divine love; both proceeding from the Lord as a sun. The sun of this world is not
seen in heaven. Nature commences from the sun of this
world, and everything which is produced from it, and subsists by it, is called natural; but the spiritual world in which
heaven is, is above nature, and entirely distinct from it, although it is ever to be remembered that nature is a derivation from spirit, and communicates with spirit by correspondences. We shall have more to say on this conjunction
yet perfect separation, between nature and spirit, when we
come to speak of the doctrine of degrees.
The sun of heaven, or the divine sphere of glory surrounding the Lord, the "light which no man can approach unto,"
1 Tim. vi. 6, appears variously to the angels of heaven according to their states of love and intelligence. To the
angels of the third heaven, the sun appears fiery and flam



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               109
ing; to the angels of the second heaven, white and brilliant;
while to those of the first heaven its light is more subdued
and vailed with clouds, yet at intervals bursting forth and
pouring his glorious radiance upon them. Although the
Lord is thus seen by the angels as a sun above them, yet at
times He appears in their midst, in an angelic form, and
with a resplendent countenance. What tongue can describe the rapt adoration and ineffable joy which must thrill
angelic bosoms on these occasions!
Heaven has its times and its seasons, but they are not like
those of earth. In heaven there is no winter and no night.
The times and seasons of heaven are consequences of the
variations of the states of angelic minds. While to all appearance they are objective as on earth, they are in reality
strictly subjective. The external changes of light and heat
correspond to the internal changes of love and wisdom in
the angelic mind. Now as the angels are sometimes in a
state of intense love, and sometimes in a state of love not so
intense, morning, noon, evening, and twilight, exist in heaven
as the external emblems of these changes. Without such
changes life would lose its zest. Eternal uniformity would
be eternal dullness.
Since angels are men, and live together in society like
men on earth, therefore they have garments, houses, and
other things similar to those which exist on earth, but of
course infinitely more beautiful and perfect. The garments
of the angels correspond to their intelligence. The garmrents of some glitter as with flame, and those of others are
resplendent as with light; others are of various colors, and
some white and opaque. The angels of the inmost heaven
are naked because they are in innocence, and nakedness corresponds to innocence. It is because garments represent
states of wisdom that they are so much spoken of in the
Word, in relation to the church and good men. Thus in
10




110             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
Isaiah liii. 1,'Awake, put on strength, O Zion; put on thy
beautiful garments, 0 Jerusalem." And in Ezekiel xv. 10,
the Lord says of his church: "I girded thee about with fine
linen, and covered thee with silk." And in the Apocalypse
iii. 4, 5, it is said: " They who have not defiled their garments,
shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He that
overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment."
What a depth of meaning appears in these passages when we
remember the spiritual signification of garments!
" The garments of the angels," writes Swedenborg, "do not
merely appear to be garments, but they really are garments;
for they not only see them, but feel them, and have different
ones, which they take off and put on, laying aside those which
are not in use, and resuming them when they come into use
again. That they are clothed with a variety of garments, I
have witnessed a thousand times; and when I inquired whence
they obtained them, they told me'from the Lord,' and that
they receive them as gifts, and that they are sometimes clothed
without knowing how. They also said that their garments
are changed according to the changes of their state."
Since there are societies in heaven, and the angels live as
men, it follows that they have habitations, various, like all
else in heaven, according to the degree of love and wisdom
in which they are principled. No words are like Swedenborg's own on this subject. "Whenever I have conversed
with the angels mouth to mouth, I have been present with
them in their habitations, which are exactly like the habitations on earth called houses, but more beautiful. They contain chambers, parlors [conclavia], and bed-chambers, in
great numbers; courts also, and around them gardens,
shrubberies, and fields. Where the angels are consociated
their habitations are contiguous, or near to each other, and
arranged in the form of a city, with streets, ways, and
squares, exactly like the cities on our earth.




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                 11i
"I have seen palaces in heaven, magnificent beyond description. Their upper parts were refulgent as if they were
pure gold, and their lower parts as if they were precious
stones: some were more splendid than others, and the splendor without was equaled by the magnificence within. The
apartments were ornamented with decorations which neither
language nor science can adequately describe. On the south
were paradises, in which all things were similarly resplendent; for in some places the leaves of the trees were like
silver, and the fruits like gold, while the colors of the flowers
which were arranged in beds, appeared like rainbows; at the
boundaries appeared other palaces, which terminated the
view. Such is the architecture of heaven that one might say
it is the very art itself; nor is this to be wondered at, because the art itself is from heaven. The angels said that
such things, and innumerable others still more perfect, are
presented before their eyes by the Lord, but that nevertheless they delight their minds'more than their eyes, because
in everything they see correspondences of things divine.
"The angels who constitute the Lord's celestial kingdom,
dwell for the most part in elevated places, or mountains;
those who form the spiritual kingdom, on hills; but those
who are in the lowest parts of heaven, in places which appear as rocks. There are also angels who do not live consociated, but separate. These dwell in the midst of heaven,
and are the best of the angels.
"The houses in which the angels dwell, are not constructed
by hand, like houses in the world, but are given them freely
by the Lord, according to their reception of good and truth.
All things whatsoever which the angels possess, they hold as
gifts from the Lord; and they are supplied with everything
they need."
We thus learn that in heaven there are not external, phy



112             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
sical, or mental occupations to support bodily wants, as in
this world.
It was said above that the angels have not wings, as is
commonly supposed. Their power of progression far exceeds
anything that wings could supply. They have no idea of
space, such as we have in the world. All who are of like
disposition spontaneously associate together in the spiritual
world. It thus follows that those are near each other who
are in a similar state, and distant who are in a dissimilar
state; and that what appears to be space in heaven is merely
an external appearance, representative of internal differences
of mind. From this cause alone the heavens are distinct
from each other, and each society of heaven, and every individual in each society. Hence also the hells are altogether
separated from the heavens.
From the same cause, any one in the spiritual world appears to be present if another intensely desires his presence;
for from that desire he sees him in thought, and puts himself in his state. Again one person is removed from another
in proportion as he holds him in aversion; for all aversion is
from contrariety of the affections and disagreement of the
thoughts; therefore many who appear together in one place
in the spiritual world, so long as they agree, separate as soon
as they disagree.
Further: when any one goes from one place to another,
whether it be in his own city, in the courts, or the gardens,
or to others out of his own city, he arrives sooner when he
has a strong desire to be there, and later when his desire is
less strong; the way itself being lengthened or shortened
according to his desire of arrival. Hence again it is evident that distances, and consequently spaces, exist with the
angels altogether according to the state of their minds.
These principles settle that often asked question, "Shall
we know each other in the future life?" We shall, if we




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               1 J
are in the same state as to love and truth; but if in different states, we shall not, but shall be separate; and, moreover, we shall have no desire for acquaintance. The only
friendships in heaven are those formed on the ground of
similarity of character. If this similarity does not exist,with the exception perhaps of a short meeting in the world
of spirits-death is an everlasting, though in such case not a
mournful, farewell.
There are governments in heaven, various according to
the varied classes of mind which compose the heavenly societies. The government of mutual love is the only government which exists in heaven. Governors in heaven are
distinguished by love and wisdom more than others, and by
willing well to all from love; and knowing, from their superior wisdom, how to realize the good they purpose. They
do not domineer, and command imperiously, but minister
and serve: not making themselves greater than others, but
less; for they put their own good last, and the good of their
society first: nevertheless they enjoy honor and glory; for
they dwell in the midst of their society, in a more elevated
situation than others, and inhabit magnificent palaces; but
they accept glory and honor, not for the sake of themselves,
but for the sake of obedience; for all in heaven know that
they enjoy honor and glory from the Lord, and that, therefore they ought to be obeyed. These are the things which
are meant by the Lord's words to his disciples: "Whosoever
will be chief, among you, let him be your servant; even
as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister." Matthew  xx. 27, 28.  "He that is greatest
among you, let him be as the younger: and he that is chief,
as he that doth serve." Luke xxii. 26. A similar government prevails also in every house in heaven; for in every
house there is a master, and there are servants, the master
loving the servants, and the servants loving the master, so
10 *




114            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
that they serve each other from love. The master teaches
the servants how they ought to live, and directs what
they ought to do, while the servants obey, and perform their
duties.
Divine worship performed in heaven, is much the same in
externals, as on earth. In the heavens, as on earth, there
are doctrines, preachings, and temples. As the angels have
houses and palaces, so also they have temples in which
preaching is performed. Such things exist in heaven because the angels are continually perfecting in wisdom and
love. But real divine worship in the heavens does not consist, any more than on earth, in frequenting temples, and
hearing sermons, but in a life of love and usefulness; sermons
and prayers being only means whereby the mind is enlightened to perform its various duties. "To work is to pray," is
a heavenly precept which we should all do well to engrave
upon our hearts.
The sermons of heaven are fraught with such wisdom that
nothing of the kind in the world can be compared with
them. They are all drawn from the Word. The same
Bible that we read here, the angels read in heaven; but to
them it is a very different book from what it is to us
Where we read and think of earthly and material things,
they read and think of spiritual and divine things. To them
its spiritual and celestial senses are as open as the natural
sense is to us. From the Word they derive their highest
wisdom; and through continual converse with it, they grow
wiser and wiser day by day. The Word is the wisdom of
the Lord, and eternity can not exhaust it.
All infants go to heaven, whether born within the church
or out of it; whether of pious parents or wicked ones.
When infants die, they are still infants in the other life.
They are not angels, but become angels. Every one, on his
decease, is in a similar state of life to that in which he was




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               115
in the world; an infant in the state of infancy, a boy in a
state of boyhood, and a youth, a man, or an old man, in the
state of youth, of manhood, or of age; but the state of every
one is afterwards changed. As soon as infants are raised
from the dead, which takes place immediately after decease,
they are carried up into heaven, and delivered to the care
of angels of the female sex, who in the life of the body
loved infants tenderly, and at the same time loved God.
By these good angels, they are educated and brought up
until they attain a suitable age, when they are transferred
to other teachers. They grow up and become young men
and women; are instructed in wisdom, and trained in the
duties of the heavenly life: and when their character is
fully developed, they become settled in some society, either
of the celestial or spiritual kingdom, in agreement with their
inherited genius or disposition. What a delightful faith is
this! Do not its beauty and rationality prove its truthfulness?
Many persons imagine that infants are forever infants in
heaven, and that there is indeed something infantile about
all angels. This idea probably arises from  the pictures
which are frequently seen, in which angels are drawn as
infants. But this is a great mistake. Children in heaven
grow up into young men and women, and the aged return to
the freshness of early manhood. They who are in heaven
are continually advancing to the spring-time of life, and the
more thousands of years they live, the more delightful and
happy is the spring to which they attain; and this progression
goes on to eternity. Good women who have died old and
worn out with age, after a succession of years come more and
more into the flower of youth, and into a beauty which
exceeds all the conceptions of beauty which can be formed
from what the eye has seen. In a word, to grow old in heaven is to grow young. It is worthy of note, that the human




116            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
form of every man after death, is beautiful in proportion as
his love and practice of divine truths is interior. The
angels of the inmost heaven are consequently the most
beautiful, because their love of truth is the deepest, and
their lives are the most perfect. "I have seen," says Swedenborg, "the faces of angels of the third heaven, which
were so beautiful, that no painter, with the utmost power of
art, could depict even a thousandth part of their light and
life; but the faces of the angels of the lowest heaven may,
in some measure, be adequately depicted."
It is believed by many in the world that heaven is a place
of idleness, full of refined sensual delights, of pleasant
sights and harmonious sounds; in short, some such place as
a laborious tradesman, struggling for a fortune, fancies he
shall enjoy when his gains shall have enabled him to "retire."
But this is a great mistake. Man's nature remains the same
in heaven as on earth; and who has not felt that his happiest moments are not those of mere pleasure and idleness,
but those in which he was rendering himself most eminently
useful? Happiness is as little consonant with idleness in
heaven as on earth.  Jesus himself said: "My Father
worketh hitherto, and I work." John v. 17. The angels are
employed. All the delights of heaven are conjoined with
uses, and are inherent in them. In proportion to an angel's
usefulness, is his bliss. Some spirits, we read, conceived the
opinion that heavenly happiness consisted in a life of ease,
and in being served by others; but they were told that happiness by no means consists in mere rest from employment,
because every one would then desire. to take away the happiness of others to promote his own; and since all would
have the same desire, none would be happy; that such a life
would not be active but indolent, and that indolence makes
life torpid; and that without activity there can be no happiness, and that cessation from employment is only for the sake




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               117
of recreation, that a man may return, with new vigor, to the
activity of his life. They who entertained the idea that
heavenly joy consists in a life of indolence, and sucking in
eternal delight without employment, were allowed some experience of such a life; and they perceived that it is most
sorrowful, and that all joy being destroyed, they would after
a time loathe and nauseate it.
Some spirits who believed that heavenly joy consists solely
in praising and celebrating God, were instructed that to
praise and celebrate God is not properly an active life; and
that God has no need of praise and celebration. The Lord's
will is that all should perform uses; and the angels testify
that in the performance of good works is the highest freedom, conjoined with ineffable delights.
From all this it follows that heaven is full of employments,
in comparison with which those of the world are few. There
are societies whose occupation consists in taking care of
infants; other societies, whose employment is to instruct and
educate them as they grow up; others which in like manner
instruct and educate the young; others which instruct the
simply good from the Christian world, and lead them in the
ways of heaven; others which perform the same office to
Gentile nations; others which defend novitiate spirits, or
those who are newly arrived from  the world, from  the
infestations of evil spirits; some also are attendant a l those
who are preparing in the world of spirits for heaven; and
some are present with those who are in hell, to restrain them
from tormenting each other beyond limit: there are also
others who attend those who are being raised from the dead.
In general, angels of every society are sent to men, that they
may guard them, and withdraw them from evil affections
and consequent evil thoughts, and inspire them with good
affections, so far as they are willing to receive them. All
these employments are performed by. the Lord through their




118            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
instrumentality; and hence it is that by angels in the Word,
in its internal sense, are not meant angels, but something
of the Lord; and for the same reason, angels in the Word
are called gods.
These employments of the angels are their general employments, but every one-has his own particular duty; for every
general use is composed of innumerable others, which are
called mediate, ministering, and subservient uses. But in
heaven there are so many offices -that it is impossible to
enumerate them on account of their multitude. All angels
feel delight in their employment derived from the love
of use, and none from the love of self or of gain; nor is any
one influenced by the love of gain for the sake of his maintenance, because all the necessaries of life are freely given
them; their habitations, their clothes, their food.
It is De Quincey, we think, who accuses Swedenborg
of sensualizing heaven, and reducing its sublime glories to
the common order of things in this world. The assertion
could only have been made through want of personal
acquaintance with the writings of Swedenborg. No one can
use the words, Isaiah lxiv. 4, quoted by theApostle, 1 Cor.
ii. 9: "Eye- hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath
prepared for them that love him," with more fervor and
truth than the New Church preacher. Everywhere we are
told by Swedenborg, that the joys and delights of heaven
transcend the highest power of language to express; everywhere we are told that our highest ideas formed from
natural things, fall indefinitely short of the common realities
of the heavenly life. Yet we also learn that the common
humanities and pleasures of this life are not lost in the next,
and that as men and women we carry with us to our eternal
home every faculty of thought and affection which we
possess here. In this most rational doctrine there is gain




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                119
every way. In thinking of heaven we know we can never
overrate its bliss, think as we will; and yet with this idea is
associated nothing of dreamy vagueness. We feel that as
we live well we are but walking onwards to a pleasant home,
in which all that is truest and best in this life will go with
us. What stronger incentive can a man have to a pure and
religious life than this divine faith. Entertaining it, with
what feeling may he, at the close of life, utter the poets's
words,"Draw near, sweet death;
Come raise me into life!"
The condition of admission into heaven is the possession
of a soul whose existence is a continual fulfillment of those
two commandments on which the Lord says, "hang all the
law and the prophets "-love to God, and love to man. To
enter heaven, we must habitually place self last, and our
neighbor first; and unless we can do this, we can never
know eternal bliss. Now we are born into this world selfish;
and hence it is truly said we are hereditarily depraved. It
is the Divine will to take all to heaven. To do this, it is
necessary that we should be divested of our corrupt hereditary
nature; as the Lord said to Nicodemus: "Verily, verily, I
say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom  of God."  This regeneration of mind, this
change from a supreme love of self, to a supreme love
of God and our neighbor, is, of necessity, a gradual work.
It is not accomplished in a day, nor in a month, nor in a
year. Like all Divine works, it proceeds gradually, step by
step; "first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn
in the ear." The regeneration of man is a Divine work, and
as the Divine end in the creation of man was the formation
of heaven out of the human race, the Lord's providence is
unceasingly exerted to draw man out of evil, by all namanP




120             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
consonant with the maintenance of the inalienable freedom
of his will. It thus follows that the Lord, in all his dealings
with man, has respect solely to his eternal state, and amid
all the apparent accidents and vicissitudes of life, he is
present, bending them and making them all conduce to
man's everlasting peace. Life in this world, its cares, trials,
pleasures, comforts, friendships, sympathies, and affections,
form the divinely-appointed regenerative process; and those
who will only believe this great truth, and submit to the
Divine leading, will encounter nothing in life but what is
good for them; and existence here, however bitter and
painful at times, will resolve itself into a series of lessons
devised by infinite wisdom to uproot all latent and known
evils, transforming the patient sufferer into a true child
of God. The Lord permits one man to be rich, powerful,
and famous, and another to be afflicted with disease and
perplexed with poverty; one to have a settled and calm
peace of mind, while another is tried and tormented with
doubts and anxieties; nor for any ultimate purpose on earth,
but solely as a means of spiritual regeneration,-as a means
of making man happy in the eternal life to come. All
man's states are under the minute guardianship of the Lord;
and each day comes round with its circle of pleasant and
unpleasant occurrences, often, apparently, the result of accident and chance, but in truth all provided of the Divine
Providence for the eradication of evil, and the growth and
nurture of goodness. There is no trial encountered, no
circumstance met, or cross endured, but has its eternal issue;
and man's conduct in relation to it is looked upon by the
Lord with a love and interest infinitely transcending our
highest conception. All has been foreseen; and these daily
recurring tasks are appointed by that wisdom which guides
the stars in their courses, and by that love which requires
eternity to satisfy the ardor with which it would blesh.




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                121
With what dignity does such a faith clothe existence!
What earnestness and celestial patience must it infuse into
life!
From all that has now been said, it will be very evident
that heaven is not a gift of immediate Divine mercy, to be
obtained by a verbal confession of faith at the hour of death.
If man could be saved by immediate mercy, all would be
saved; even the inhabitants of hell, and hell itself would not
exist; because the Lord is Mercy itself, Love itself, and
Good itself, and wills the salvation of all, and the damnation of no one. But man's spirit is substantial; and if
formed to evil, to change it would be equivalent to annihilation. "The angels declare that it were easier to change a
bat into a dove, or an owl into a bird of paradise, than to
change an infernal spirit into an angel of heaven." "Ample
experience," writes Swedenborg, "enables me to testify that
it is impossible to implant the life of heaven in those who
have led an opposite life in the world. There were some
who believed that they should easily receive divine truths
after death, when they heard them from the angels; and that
they would believe them then, amend their lives, and be received into heaven; and the experiment was made on great
numbers of them, in order that they might be convincrd
that repentance is not possible after death. Some understood the truths they heard, and seemed to receive them; but
as soon as they returned to the life of their love, they rejected them, and even argued against them. Some rejected
them instantly, from entire unwillingness to hear them; but
others were desirous that the life of the love they had contracted
in the world, might be taken away from them; and that angelic
life, the life of heaven, might be infused in its place. This was
permitted; but when the life of their love was taken away,
they lay as if dead, and deprived of all their faculties.
From this it was manifest that no one's life can possibly be
11                    F




122              LIFE AND WPITTINGS OF
changed after death, that evil life can not be changed into
good life, nor the life of an infernal into that of an angel;
because every spirit is from head to foot of the same quality
as his love, and therefore of the same quality as his life; and
consequently to transmute his life into its opposite is to
destroy him altogether." All this goes to confirm the Lord's
declaration before quoted, "Except a man be born again, he
can not see the kingdom of God." On no other terms can
heavenly bliss be gained.
We now come to speak of the World of Spirits, which
Swedenborg thus defines: "The world of spirits is neither
heaven nor hell, but an intermediate place or state between
both, into which man enters immediately after death; and
then after a certain period, the duration of which is determined by the quality of his life in the world, he is either
elevated into heaven, or cast into hell.
"The spirits in the world of spirits are immensely numerous, because that world is the general assembly of all ilmmediately after their resurrection, and all are examined there
and prepared for their final abode; but the length of their
sojourn in that world is not in all cases the same. Some
only enter it, and are immediately taken up into heaven, or
cast down into hell; some remain there a few weeks, and
others several years, but none (since the Last Judgment,)
more than thirty years."
A belief in the existence of an intermediate state has been
entertained in all times and churches, except among Protestants, who, in their anxiety to divest themselves of every
remnant of Popery, rejected the doctrine entirely, through
aversion to the follies of Purgatory. A return to the truth
is however slowly taking place; not a few Protestant divines
having expressed their faith in the existence of Hades, or
the intermediate state alluded to in the literal sense of Scripture. But the world of spirits is not to be thought of as a




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               123
revived idea of Purgatory. The soul of no man is changed
in the world of spirits.. "As the tree falls so it lies." The
discipline of this life is perfected at death, and its opportunities never return. The world of spirits is a place where
the externals of man are brought into correspondence with
his internals; for no one, either in heaven or in hell, is
allowed to have a divided mind, understanding one thing
and willing another. What any one wills, he must understand, and what he understands he must will; therefore he who
wills good in heaven, must understand truth; and he who
wills evil in hell, must understand falsities. On this account
also, falses are removed from the good in the world of spirits,
and there are given them truths which agree and harmonize with their good; but truths are removed from the evil,
and they take to themselves falses which agree and harmonize with their evil. Let us explain this subject further.
We suppose the generality of our readers will admit that
countless thousands of good men and women among the
Mahommedans, Chinese, Hindoos, and all the heathen nations, who live according to the measure of their light, are
saved and taken to heaven. But it is very evident that they
can not go to heaven carrying with them false notions on
religious subjects, and knowing nothing of that good Lord
into whose kingdom they are about to pass. They must be
instructed. They must have errors removed from their
minds, and truths implanted in their stead. Time is required to effect these changes, and the world of spirits is the
school in which the process is accomplished. Instruction in
truth is readily received by the simply good; and after being
enlightened and purified from falsity, they are led to their
eternal homes among the blessed-to those of a disposition
and order of mind like themselves.
Then, again, among Christians, there are many who die
with slight failings pertaining to them, with infirmities of




124             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF.
temper, with bad habits of one kind and another; yet who are
really sound-hearted and good men. Their lot can not be
hell; yet with these flaws in their character, their presence
in heaven could not be pleasant, becaase their state of mind
is at variance with the perfect order and peace of heaven.
Such, then, remain in the world of spirits, passing through
trials, and temptations, and sufferings, until they reject all
that is disorderly and impure. The processes by which this
removal of external evils is accomplished, are frequently
extremely painful, and extend over many years. Their
removal might with less difficulty have been accomplished
in the present life. The Lord warns us of this in these
words: "Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art
in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver
thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer,
and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou
shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the'uttermost farthing." Matthew v. 25, 26. Our adversary is
the truth. Truth is ever an adversary to the evil. Elijah
the prophet represented the Divine Truth. When he approached the wicked Ahab, Ahab cried: "Hast thou found
me, 0 mine enemy?"  "In the way with him" is in the
present life; and the "prison" is the world of spirits, often
so called in the Word, out of which we shall not be delivered
until entirely divested of selfish affections, and false principles
of thought. How practical, thus viewed, becomes our Lord's
advice! But without a knowledge of the world of spirits,
and the spiritual sense of Scripture, it is quite mystical and
unintelligible.
There are many in the Christian world who have confirmed their minds in false ideas on many religious doctrines.
With such erroneous ideas they can not enter heaven, where
truth alone prevails. They therefore remain in the world
of spirits until, through instruction, they see and reject the




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                125
false persuasions they had contracted on earth. In some
cases, where false doctrine has been deeply reasoned upon,
and ground, as it were, into the mind, the process of its
removal and rejection is attended with deep and prolonged
suffering.
As the good reject all false ideas in the world of spirits,
so the evil cast off all true ones. It may be asked, Why?
Why should bad be made worse?  Bad is not made worse.
It is for the peace of the evil themselves that they should be
divested of all truth. The presence of truth with the wicked
only adds to their torment by the continual protest it makes
against their sin. It is also well that the evil lose all truth,
for the sake of the good, whom they might trouble and
disturb through the power that truth would afford them to
assume an angelic appearance; to become wolves in sheep's
clothing; or as Paul states it, "Satan transforming himself
into an angel of light." Hypocrites, who have used truth
to subserve their own selfish ends, remain longer than others
in the world of spirits, and endure much suffering ere they
allow their means of subtlety and mischief to depart from
them. The process of divesting the evil of the truths they
possess, is described by the Lord in these words: "Take
heed, therefore, how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him
shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be
taken even that which he seemeth to have." Luke viii. 18.
What is heard is truth. The good alone have truth, for
their goodness loves truth, and cherishes it. Truth thus
loved, multiplies; therefore it is said, "more shall be given."
The bad may have truth in their memory, may use it for
selfish purposes, and talk much about it; nevertheless it is
not theirs. Their internal evil hates it. "Every one that
doeth evil hateth the light;" and in the future life the truth
which he seemed to have, is taken from him. How just,
and at the same time how merciful, is this judgment!
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126             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
Hell is the congregation of all evil spirits. As there are
many heavens, so likewise there are many hells. As the
inhabitants of heaven are arranged from similarity of goodness and truth, so the inhabitants of hell are arranged from
similarity of evil and falsity. The hells are arranged so
distinctly according to the differences of evil, that nothing
more orderly and distinct can be conceived. The Lord,
speaking through David, says: Psalm lxxxvi. 13: "Thou
hast delivered my soul from  the lowest hell."  Thus from
Scripture we derive a direct proof, if proof were wanted,
of the gradations of evil. There are several other texts to
the same effect.
The scenery of hell, like that of heaven, is in perfect
correspondence with the states of those there. It is an
outbirth from the minds of its inhabitants; and as they are
deformed and full of every pollution, so their scenery is full
of horrors and things abominable. "In hell there is no sun,
but the inhabitants roam in darkness corresponding to
themselves, for they are darkness: their light is artificial, as
of coal fires, meteors, ignes fatui, and the lights of night.
They inhabit scenery of which they are the souls, as bogs,
fens, tangled forests, caverns, dreary deserts, charred and
ruined cities. In the milder hells, there appear, as it were,
rude cottages, which are in some cases contiguous, and
resemble the streets and lanes of a city. Within the houses
infernal spirits are engaged in continual quarrels, enmities,
blows, and violences, while the streets and lanes are full
of robberies and depredations. The inhabitants are at
continual war, hating and tormenting one another, and the
cruelties they practice are indescribable." "It is impossible
to give a description of the horrible forms of the spirits
of hell. No two are alike, although there is a general
likeness in those who are in the same evil. They are forms
of contempt of others, of menace against those who do not




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                127
pay them respect, of hatreds of various kinds, and of revenge;
and in these forms, outrage and cruelty are transparent
from within; but when others commend, venerate, and
worship them, their faces are drawn up, and have an
appearance of gladness arising from delight. Some of their
faces are direful and void of life, like corpses; some are
black, and others fiery, like torches; others are disfigured
by pimples, warts, and ulcers; and frequently no face appears,
but instead of a face something hairy and bony, and sometimes nothing but teeth. Their bodies are monstrous, and
their speech is the speech of anger, of hatred, of revenge;
for every one speaks from his own false, and the tone of his
voice is from his own evil. In a word they are all images
of their own hell."
"And does Swedenborg relate such horrors?" some may
ask. For facts, we answer, Swedenborg is not to blame.
Like the Israelites of old, we would fain have our prophets
"speak unto us smooth things." Let us rid ourselves of all
morbid delicacy, and seek to know the truth. We should
all d'o well to peruse with patience those pages wherein our
author narrates the horrors of hell, so that we may see, shun,
and detest the evils which make hell. It is well that every
man should know whither his lust, his pride, his avarice,
or anger, is leading him. If he shudder, it is for his eternal
good.
The universal hell, like heaven, is as one man, —not of
beauty, as heaven, but a hideous monster. In its collective
capacity, it is the Devil and Satan; the Devil is the name
of its evil, and Satan is the name of its falsity. There is
no individual evil spirit ruling hell, and bearing either of
those names. An enlightened view of Scripture confirms
this doctrine in every point, and rids us of the innumerable
absurdities which the commonly received theory in regard to
the Devil involves. There is no spirit in hell who was not




128            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
once a man on earth. There is no spirit in hell who was
ever an angel in heaven. The Lord himself rules the hells,
and by all means possible restrains their violence and mitigates their suffering.
Some people believe that God turns away his face from
man, rejects him, and casts him into hell, and that he is
angry with him on account of his evils; and others go still
further, and affirm that God punishes man, and brings evil
upon him. They also confirm this opinion from the literal
sense of the Word, in which expressions occur that appear
to sustain it. But these opinions are formed through ignorance of the real sense of these passages, and from a blind
neglect of others, the literal sense of which teaches that God
is goodness and mercy itself, and that fury is not in him.
Isaiah xxvii. 4. True doctrine declares that the Lord never
turns away his face from man, never rejects him, never casts
any one into hell, and is never angry. The Lord is continually withdrawing man from evil and leading him to goed;
but man's freedom is never taken away. If man will love
evil and will do perversely, the Lord does not prevent.
That man should go to hell is at variance with the Divine
design; but to infringe man's freedom would be to destroy
his life and take from him all that is human, reducing him
to the level of a machine or a brute. Those who are in
hell, cast themselves down thither, and keep themselves
where they are. " This is," as Wilkinson says, "the last
dogma of free will,-that of a finite being perpetuating for
ever his own evil, standing fast to selfishness without end,
excluding Omnipotence in all its dispensations, and making
the'will not' into an everlasting'cannot,' to maintain itself
out of heaven, and contrary to heaven."
This is a very brief abstract of the leading ideas in Swedenborg's wondrous treatise on Heaven and Hell. We are
well aware how far short it falls of doing full justine to the




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.              129
work. Let us hope that what has been said may induce
some to make a personal acquaintance with it; and then they
will understand the difficulties we labor under in condensing within a few pages its multitudinous facts and closely
linked logic.
It remains only to add, that the treatise on Heaven and
Hell has been translated into English, French, and German.
The English editions have been many, and in some cases
large. The latest may be accepted as a sign of the times,
being in the form of an eighteen-penny volume, a second
edition of which has been called for. We lay no claim to the
gift of prophecy, but we feel certain that the time is coming
when Swedenborg's "Heaven and Hell" vill be the most
popular and extensively read of religious books.
FX




130            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
CHAPTER XIV.
The White Iorse-The Earths in the 1Universe-The New Jerusalem
and its Heavenly Doctrine.
1. THE treatise on the White Horse mentioned in the
Apocalypse, forms a tract of about twenty pages. It is an
exposition of the spiritual sense of Revelation xix. 11-16.
It is shown that by the heavens being opened, the White
Horse, and its rider, are represented the Lord and his Word,
and the quality of those to whom the internal truth of the
Word is revealed. The particulars of the text are all gone
into and expounded, and copious references made to the
Arcana Coelestia for fuller details. It is to be noted that
voluminous as are Swedenborg's theological works, that they
form one harmonious whole bound together in the unity of
truth, and mutually confirming each other. Literature, we
believe, contains no example of so great a mass of writing
permeated with such a consistent spirit, and so little affected by the author's humors and fluctuations of mood.
So far does this uniform spirit extend, that, had it been possible, we might imagine his many volumes had been struck
out of thought in one short day, instead of being written
continuously through a course of nearly thirty years.
In this small treatise we have a list of the books in our
Bible which form the true Word of God. They are, in the
Old Testament, the five books of Moses; the book of Joshua;
the book of Judges; the two books of Samuel; the two books
of Kings; the Psalms of David; the Prophets, Isaiah, Jere



EMANRUEL SWEDENBORG.              131
miah, the Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel,
Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi; and, in the New Testament, the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John: and the Revelation. The rest have not the internal
sense, and are not to be regarded as a part of the inspired
Word. We shall have to speak of the plenary inspiration
of the Word, when we come to Swedenborg's treatise on the
Sacred Scripture, and show how broad is the line of distinction between the Word of God and the writings of men.
It requires but a slight acquaintance with the doctrine of
correspondences, to perceive that this distinction between the
books contained within the covers of the authorized version
of the Bible is not arbitrary;. that it is a distinction as
marked and visible as that between God and man, or nature
and art. Apart, however, from the doctrine of correspondences, the distinction may be sustained by the authority of
the Jews, and the indirect testimony of many of the Fathers
of the Christian Church, coupled with numerous natural
reasons founded on a critical examination of style, etc.
"The book of Job," says Swedenborg, "was a book of the
Ancient Church," and therefore, with the exception of the
first chapters of Genesis, is the oldest portion of the Bible. It
has a kind of internal sense, but not like that of the Word.
The exclusion of the Epistles from the Books of the
Word, is perhaps, to a new reader, the most startling of
Swedenborg's announcements. For this exclusion and its
reasons, we will simply quote his own words. Writing to
Dr. Beyer, he says: "With regard to the writings of St.
Paul, and the other Apostles, I have not given them a place
in my'Arcana Ccelestia,' because they are dogmatic writings
merely, and are not written in the style of the Word, as are
those of the Prophets, of David, of the Evangelists, and of
the Revelation of St. John. The style of the Word consists




132            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
throughout in correspondences, and thence effects immediate
communication with heaven; but the style of these dogmatic
writings is quite different, having, indeed, communication
with heaven, but only mediately or indirectly. The reason
why the Apostles wrote in this style, was, that the First
Christian Church was then to begin through them; consequently, the same style as is used in the Word would not
have been proper for such doctrinal tenets, which required
plain and simple language, suited to the capacities of all
readers. Nevertheless, the writings of the Apostles are very
good books for the-Church, inasmuch as they insist on the
doctrine of charity, and faith from charity, as strongly as the
Lord himself has done in the Gospels, and the Revelation of
St. John, as will appear evidently to any one who studies these
writings with attention."
2. The treatise on the " Earths in the Universe" is formed
from several of those portions of the "Arcana Coelestia,"
occurring between the chapters, expository of the spiritual
sense of Genesis and Exodus. It forms a pamphlet of about
fifty pages.
Many and prolonged have been the discussions as to
whether other planets are, like our own, the abodes of human
beings. Great as has been the progress of astronomical
science, the learned are yet far from being unanimous on
the question, as is evident from the recent controversy between Prof. Whewell and Sir David Brewster. Swedenborg
does not entertain us with prolix reasonings as to whether or
not the earths of the universe are inhabited. That was a
question far too trivial for his masculine understanding.
He saw that these vast spaces were not formed by the Lord,
except for the highest end, the creation of a heaven of intelligent human beings, capable of satisfying the infinite desires of Divine Love. The earths of the universe are peo.
pled even as our own globe, or are in course of preparation




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               133
for it. Any other view than this is unworthy of acceptance,
and dishonorable to the highest truths of reason and revelation.
Swedenborg was permitted to see, and hold converse with,
the inhabitants of other earths; and most interesting are
his relations concerning them. Wilkinson aptly remarks
that the work now under consideration "may be characterized as a Report on the Religion of the Universe."  Swedenborg tells us that the dwellers in these distant spheres
think of the Lord and worship him. He describes the
quality of their love and wisdom, and how they conduct
themselves toward each other. It is a pleasant thought that
the people of this world are the worst of humanity, the
most sensual, and the least abounding in true intelligence
and spirituality. In other words there is sin, and its consequent suffering, arising from the same cause as with us; but
it is not so deep nor so wide spread. The fact of the Divine
Incarnation is likewise known in other worlds, and is regarded as the great truth of faith.
Swedenborg affirms that the moon is inhabited. We know
that even those scientific men who hold to the doctrine of a
plurality of worlds, do not believe in the habitability of the
moon; because, say they, it lacks alike water and atmosphere. To say that it has no atmosphere is very unphilosophical. The atmosphere may not be of the same density
as that of our earth; but that it should have no sphere or
aura around it, we cannot for a moment believe. Swedenborg tells us that the Lunarians are dwarfs, like boys of
seven years old, with robust bodies and pleasant countenances.
They do not speak from their lungs, on account of the attenuated nature of their atmosphere, but from a quantity
of air collected in the abdomen.
It is but just to state that Swedenborg speaks of Saturn
as the outermost planet of the solar system, he not being
12




134            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
permitted to anticipate Herschel or Neptune. An opponent
might make merry over this, and say: "Don't you see that
Swedenborg was but a dreamer? How could he know aught
of the inhabitants of other earths when he did not even
know that beyond Saturn rolled two immense worlds?" We
reply, that it would have been disorderly for him to have
becomepossessed of such knowledge by spiritual means. "But
how so?" Because it would have compelled belief in the spiritual doctrines he taught, without due thought and examination, as soon as science had established the existence of these
orbs; because miracles and prophecy are not permitted in these
times, for they force and destroy man's freedom. How easy it
would be for the Lord to witness to the truth of His Word by
supernatural signs in the natural world I Yet he does not,
although belief in his Word, and life according to it, is essential to man's highest happiness. Belief so induced would
be worthless, because compelled. It may be said that this
is mere special pleading; but it is not so. Tbhe laws laid
down in a later work of Swedenborg's, on the "Divine
Providence," fortify, in a most rational manner, the truth
as we have endeavoured to set it forth. It is also to be remarked that natural truth must be discovered by its appropriate means,-natural investigation. It was necessary that
Swedenborg should be skilled in all natural science previous
to his illumination, so that he might possess a basis' for
many spiritual facts which could neither have been expressed nor made intelligible without at the same time giving
their correspondence in nature. It would have been altogether contrary to the Divine order to have taken Swedenborg in his early youth and ignorance, and, making him a
seer, have communicated natural truth to him in a supernatural manner.
3. "The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine" is a
brief exposition of the leading truths of the New Church.




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               135
After each of its chapters follow references, (in some cases
more extensive than the chapter itself,) to the "Arcana
Coelestia." These references, so numerous in Swedenborg's
writings, do not form a dry and unreadable index, but may
be looked on as a series of precepts pertaining to moral and
spiritual life. Were we gathering a volume of gems of
thought, we should find an abundance to suit our purposes
in these references.
This work has been printed as a cheap pamphlet. We
know of no other work which could more appropriately be
placed in the hands of a stranger desiring to know, without
much reading, the nature of those doctrines which Swedenborg was commissioned to reveal to the world.




136           LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
CHAPTER XV.
anecdotes.
TEE trite observation that the lives of literary men are
devoid of those incidents which make up a stirring and
lively biography, applies with great truth to the career of
Swedenborg. His quiet and unostentatious life afforded but
few materials for anecdotes; hence we have but faint traces
of his outward course. While writing the works we have
just noticed, from 1747 to 1758, the principal portion of
his time must have been passed in London. Few men in
those days were capable of sympathy or communion with
the elevated and spiritualized mind of Swedenborg. Yet
though living as it were alone, he could not have been melancholy or desolate. Under the care and guidance of the
Lord, favored with the company and converse of angels,
and enjoying the consciousness of fulfilling high and holy
duties, he had every reason to be the cheerful and contented
man that contemporary testimony represents him.  His
evenings he used often to spend with his printer, Mr. Hart,
of Poppin's court, Fleet street. Mrs. Lewis, his publisher's
wife, knew him, and "thought him a good and sensible
man, but too apt' to spiritualize things." Beyond a few
particulars such as these, we know nothing of his private
life.
On the 19th of July, 1759, we find Swedenborg at Gottenburg. Here occurred the following circumstance, of which
Immanuel Kant, the celebrated transcendentalist, is the
narrator.




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.              137
"On Saturday, at 4 o'clock, P. M.," says Kant, "when
Swedenborg arrived at Gottenburg from England, Mr. William Castel invited him to his house, together with a party
of fifteen persons. About 6 o'clock, Swedenborg went out,
and after a short interval returned to the company, quite
pale and alarmed. He stated that a dangerous fire had just
broken out in Stockholm, at Sundermalm, (distant three
hundred miles from Gottenburg,) and that it was spreading
very fast. He was restless, and went out often. He said
that the house of one of his friends, whom he named, was
already in ashes, and that his own was in danger. At 8
o'clock, after he had been out again, he joyfully exclaimed:'Thank God! the fire is extinguished the third door from
my house.' This news occasioned great commotion among
the company. It was announced to the governor the same
evening. The next morning, Swedenborg was sent for by
the governor, who questioned him concerning the disaster.
Swedenborg described the fire precisely, how it had begun,
in what manner it had ceased, and how long it had continued.
On the same day the news was spread through the city; and
as the governor had thought it worthy of attention, the
consternation was considerably increased, as many were in
trouble on account of their friends and property, which
might have been involved in the disaster. On Monday
evening, a messenger arrived at Gottenburg, who was
despatched during the time of the fire. In the letters
brought by him, the fire was described precisely in the
manner stated by Swedenborg. On Tuesday morning, a
royal courier arrived at the governor's with the melancholy
intelligence of the fire, of the loss it had occasioned, and
of the houses damaged and ruined, not in the least differing
from that which Swedenborg had given the moment it had
ceased: the fire had-been extinguished at 8 o'clock.
"What," continues Kant, "can be brought forward against
12 a




138            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
the authenticity of this occurrence? My friend who wrote
this to me, has not only examined the circumstances of this
extraordinary case at Stockholm, but also, About two months
ago, at Gottenburg, where he is acquainted with the most
respectable houses, and where he could obtain the most
authentic and complete information, as the greatest part
of the inhabitants, who are still alive, were witnesses to the
memorable occurrence."
This narrative is taken from a letter written by Kant, in
1768, to Charlotte de Knobloch, a lady of quality. Kant,
it may be remarked, was no adherent of Swedenborg's.
Two years before writing this letter, he had attacked him in
a small work entitled, "Dreams of the Great Seer Illustrated
by Dreams of Metaphysics." Received from such a source,
we can entertain no doubt as to the truth of the story.
At home, in Stockholm, Swedenborg did not fail to excite
much curiosity and attention, and his conduct and deportment were carefully watched. It was observed that he
seldom went to church, or received the sacrament. This
was owing partly to the contrariety of the Lutheran doctrine
to his own views, and partly, Robsahm says, to the disease
of the stone, which troubled him. In 1760, two bishops, his
relations, remonstrated with him in a friendly manner upon
his remissness. He answered, that, religious observances
were not so necessary for him as for others, as he was
associated with angels. They then represented that his
example would be valuable, by which argument he suffered
himself to be persuaded. A few days previously to receiving
the sacrament, he asked his old domestics to whom he should
resort for the purpose, for "he was not much acquainted
with the different preachers." The elder chaplain was mentioned. Swedenborg objected that "he was a passionate
man and a fiery zealot, and that he had heard him thundering from the pulpit with little satisfaction." The assistant




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.              139
chaplain was then proposed, who was not so popular with
the congregation. Swedenborg said, "I prefer him to the
other, for I hear that he speaks what he thinks, and by this
means has lost the good-will of his people, as generally
happens in this world." Accordingly he took the sacrament
from this curate.
"In general," says Robsahm, "Swedenborg would not
enter into dispute on matters of religion. If he was necessitated to defend himself, he did it with mildness and in a few
words; but if any one would not be convinced, and became
warm in argument, he retired, saying,'Read my writings
attentively and without prejudice; they will answer you in
my stead, and will afford you reason to change your ideas
and opinions on such things.'
"He used, at first, freely to speak of his visions and
spiritual explications of the Scriptures; but as this displeased
the clergy, who proclaimed him a heretic and madman, he
resolved to be less communicative of his knowledge in
company, or, at least, more cautious, lest the censorious
should have room to blame what they could not comprehend
like himself. I once," says Robsahm, "addressed the rector
of the parish where he lived, an old and respected clergyman,
asking him what he thought of Swedenborg's visions and
explanations of the Bible. The venerable man answered:'God alone can judge of this; but I can not think him to be
such a person as many do; I have myself conversed with
him, and in company where we have been together, and I
have found him to be a good and a holy man.'
"It was remarkable that Swedenborg never endeavored
to persuade any person to receive his opinions. He was in
nowise led by that self-love which is observable in those who
publish new opinions concerning church doctrines; neither
did he seek to make many proselytes, not even communicating his thoughts and sentiments, except to those whom he




140             LIFE AND WRITINGS' OF
thought virtuous, disposed to hear them with moderation,
capable of comprehending them, and lovers of truth.
"It is a very singular circumstance," continues Robsahm,
"that all who have read the writings of Swedenborg, with a
desire to refute them, have finished the attempt by adhering
to his sentiments." This assertion must be received, however, with qualification.
Though busied with the composition of his works, and immersed in spiritual contemplations, Swedenborg was not forgetful of the world and of his duties to his country. In
1761 he took part in the Swedish Diet or Parliament.
Three of his memorials or addresses to'the Diet, are preserved. In the first of these he congratulates the House
upon its meetings, and counsels the redress of all grievances
which cause disaffection. In the second he advocates an
alliance with France instead of England from prudential
motives, at the same time strongly protesting against the evil
of despotic governments, and the danger to liberty in the
extension of the Roman Catholic faith. The third memorial is on the subject of finance. Count Hopken, the Swedish prime minister at that time, leaves on record that "the
most solid memorials, and the best penned, at the Diet of
1761, on matters of finance, were presented by Swedenborg;
in one of which he refuted a large work in 4to on the same
subject, quoted the corresponding passages of it, and all in
less than one sheet." He was likewise a member of the
secret committee of the Diet, an office to which only the
most sage and virtuous were elected. Consider, reader, for
a moment, the dignity, the wisdom, and the abounding common sense which must have permeated the whole being of
Swedenborg, to enable him to live down the obloquy attached to the name of a "ghost-seer," and be received with
high favor and acceptance by men of the world, sceptical
and sensual!




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               141
Soon afterwards Swedenborg left Stockholm; and we find
him in July, 1762, at Amsterdam. Jung Stilling received
from a friend the following interesting anecdote respecting
him at this time. "I was in Amsterdam," says he, "in
1762, in a company in which Swedenborg was present, on
the very day that Peter III., Emperor of Russia, died. In
the midst of our conversation his countenance changed, and
it was evident that his soul was no longer there, and that
something extraordinary was passing in him. As soon as
he came to himself again, he was asked what had happened
to him. He would not at first communicate it; but at
length, after having been repeatedly pressed, he said:'This
very hour, the Emperor Peter III. has died in his prison,'
mentioning at the same time the manner of his death.'Gentlemen will please to note down the day, that they may
be able to compare it with the intelligence of his death in
the newspapers.' The newspapers subsequently announced
the Emperor's death as having taken place on that day."




142            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
CHAPTER XVI.
Doctrines of the Lord —The Sacred Scripture, Faith, and Life.
IN 1763, Swedenborg published, at Amsterdam, the following works:-I. The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem
respecting the Lord; 2. TheSacred Scripture; 3. Faith; 4.
Life; 5. Continuation respecting the Last Judgment and
the Destruction of Babylon; and 6. Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom. We will
now speak of these works seriatim.
1. The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the
Lord, is a small treatise: but within its limits is concentrated
so much light and rationality, that we might say the question
it deals with was finally settled, did we not too well know
the perversity and pertinacity of theological error, in closing
the mind against the perception of truth, though it were
manifested with angelic wisdom.
The great truth in the treatise is the Supreme Divinity of
the Lord Jesus Christ. This truth isAbrought forth from the
collation of nearly every passage of Scripture which, in the
literal sense, bears upon the subject. It is shown, by an invincible logic, that there is but one God; and that, in the
Bible itself, the doctrine of three persons in the Godhead is
not to be found. It is then shown that God the Lord, in
the fullness of time, came to earth, and put on human nature,
or became incarnate. The object sought to be effected by
the incarnation, was the salvation of man. From the days
of Adam, mankind had been treading a downward path.




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                143
Through wickedness, all true faith and spirituality had perished. Hell had drawn near to men, even to the possession
of their bodies, as we read in the Gospels. Isaiah describes
the state of mankind thus: "Hell hath enlarged herself,
and opened her mouth without measure." Humanity was
thus hastening to destruction, and final extinction. But the
Lord Jehovah interposed. Clothing himself with an arm
of flesh, he met the powers of hell on their own ground;
and rendering himself accessible to their attacks, in a series
of the most direful temptation-combats, He reduced Hell to
order, and redeemed mankind forever from the absolute dominion of devils. But this was not all. The human nature
that the Lord had assumed, full of hereditary corruption,
was taken from the race of Jewish kings, the most depraved
and perverted to be found on earth. He purified, glorified,
and made it divine, ascending with it to heaven. The new
influences flowing through the medium of this Divine Humanity, are called the Holy Spirit. Of the truth of this we
have the most convincing proof in John vii. 39, where it is
said, "the Holy Ghost was not yet, because Jesus was not yet
glorified."
From this it is very evident that the Trinity is not, as
commonly taught, a Trinity of persons, but of principles.
In ourselves we see a finite image of this Divine and Infinite
Trinity. The soul of man may be taken as the representative of Jehovah; his body represents the Divine Humanity,
or Jesus Christ; and his action or influence on others corresponds to the Holy Spirit. Regarded in this light, that
most mystical and incomprehensible dogma of three Persons,
and yet one God, is annihilated, and we come into the enjoyment of a faith at once scriptural, intelligible, and
rational. It is impossible for us here to go into the details
of this doctrine, or give even an outline of its proofs. To
an earnest seeker after truth we can conceive no pleasure




144            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
exceeding an acquaintance with this treatise on the Lord.
If, especially, he has vexed and worn himself in reading the
profitless controversies and lucubrations of learned divines
on the Trinity, his fretted and heated mind will experience
a spiritual relief similar to the natural one which results
when patience has become exhausted in vain endeavors to
unfasten a lock, and a skilled mechanic draws near, takes
the work out of our hands, and with dexterity and ease accomplishes the task in a moment. Swedenborg lays his
hand on the tangled mass of mysticism and perverted Scripture, and straightway the Gordian knot is untied. The
simplicity of explanation fills us with amazement, and we
wonder that it was never done before.
2. The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem respecting the
Sacred Scripture, next demands our attention. The primary
truth of this treatise is, that the Sacred Scripture, or the
Word, is Divine Truth itself, thus the Lord himself. Let
us see how this can be.
We are too apt to abstract books from their authors, and
to regard them as matters impersonal,-as type and paper
merely. Now this is a childish error, and a proof of the
loose and external way in which we are accustomed to think.
When I speak, or write, I manifest spiritual influences; and
the force of these influences is proportionate to my earnestness, and their effect is proportionate to the state of reception
of my hearers. Words are thus perceived to be the representatives of spiritual forces. The action of spirit on spirit
is inappreciable by the senses; but could we look behind the
vail of nature when a crowd or a congregation is swayed
hither and thither by the speech of one man, we should see
that the influence exerted was as real'and actual as muscular force. From this we learn that words are not mere
sounds, but are the sheaths or cases of spiritual life, and on
this ground we at once see the force of the Lord's declara



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                145
tion, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and
they are life." John vi. 63.
When we think of the Lord's words, we must conjoin with
the thought an idea of the Divine Nature and Attributes.
The Lord's speech being the manifestation of His life, must
partake of its every quality, thus of infinity and of independence of time, and consequently of adaptation to every
possible condition of mind, for infinity includes all. Bearing these facts in mind, we can easily perceive how true it is
that the Word is the Lord Himself.
But while the Word in its inmost is the Lord, and is thus
infinite, yet as apprehended by man, who is finite, it necessarily wears a finite aspect. It is plain that as man's ideas
become sensualized and bound down to matter, his view of
the Divine Truth, or Word, must involve many illusions;
true, certainly, in relation to him, but very far removed from
the absolute Divine Truth. Now the literal sense of the
Word, as we read it in our Bibles, is the presentation, if we
may so phrase it, of the aspect of the Lord to the natural
man, whose senses constitute his court of appeal. The Jews,
to whom the Word in its literal sense was delivered, were
just such men.
Above this natural state of mind, there are two marked
grades of intelligence —the spiritual and celestial. To these,
the Lord's words bear a far wider meaning, and are more
fully instinct with the glory of the Divine Wisdom, and the
warmth of the Divine Love.
It is thus said that the Word of God has three sensesthe natural, the spiritual, and the celestial. We attribute
these senses to the Word: more correctly we should charge
them to the universal human mind, whose capacity of reception they express. To no two men, or angels, does the
Lord, —or in fact anything,-bear precisely the same appearance, or suggest the same meaning.
13                   G




146            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
These three grades, separated by discrete degrees, make
up the universe of humanity; and the enlightened eye of the
true philosopher may trace in every object of external creation an image and representation of them. But space forbids further explanation on this head; our author's reasoning
is, moreover, so closely linked as to admit of no curtailment.
Suffice to say, that after demonstrating the existence of an
internal sense in the Scripture, he proceeds to show the many
uses of the literal sense, and, at the same time, the manifold
abuses to which it is liable, when the laws by which it is
written are not understood.
Accepting the sublime philosophy of this treatise, we find
in it a perfect refuge from the attacks of the sceptic, and
discover a thousand reasons for one we had before, for loving
God's Holy Book, trusting in its wisdom, and committing
our lives to its guidance.
3. The Doctrine of Faith of the New Jerusalem, may be
best understood by a few extracts from the treatise itself.
Swedenborg writes: "The idea attached to the term faith at
the present day is this, that it consists in thinking a thing to
be so, because it is taught by the church, and because it does
not fall within the scope of the understanding. For it is
usual with those who inculcate it, to say,'You must believe,
and not doubt.' If you answer:'I do not comprehend it,'
it is replied:'That is the very circumstance which makes a
doctrine an object of faith.' Thus the faith of the present
day is a faith in what is not known, and may be called a
blind faith: and as being the dictate of one person abiding
in the mind of another, it is a historical faith. But this is
not spiritual faith.
"Genuine faith is an acknowledgment that a thing is so,
because it is true. For he who is in genuine faith thinks
and speaks to this effect:-'This is true; and therefore I
believe it.' For faith is the assurance with which we e: nbrace




EMANUEL SWEDENBOBR.G.              147
that which is true; and that which is true is the proper
object of faith. A person of this character, also, if he does
not comprehend a sentiment, and see its truth, will say:'I
do not know whether this is true or not; therefore I do not
yet believe it. How can I believe what I do not comprehend? Perhaps it may be false.'
"But the common language is, that nobody can comprehend things of a spiritual or theological nature, because they
transcend our natural faculties. Spiritual truths, however,
are as capable of being comprehended as natural truths.
The reason that spiritual things admit of being comprehenedd,
is, because man, as to his understanding, is capable of being
elevated into the light of heaven, in which light no other
objects appear than such as are spiritual.
"Hence now it is that those who are in the spiritual
affection of truth, enjoy an internal acknowledgment of it.
As the angels are in that affection, they utterly reject the
tenet that the understanding ought to be kept in subjection
to faith: for they say,'How can you believe a thing, when
you do not see whether it is true or not?' And should any
one affirm  that what he advances must nevertheless be
believed, they reply:'Do you think yourself a God, that I
am to believe you? or that I am mad, that I should believe
an assertion in which I do not see any truth? If I must
believe it, cause me to see it.' The dogmatizer is thus
constrained to retire. Indeed, the wisdom of the angels
consists solely in this, that they see and comprehend what
they think.
"There is a spiritual idea of which few have any knowledge,
which enters by influx into the minds of those who are in
the affection of truth, and dictates interiorly whether the
thing which they are hearing or reading is true or not. In
this idea are those who read the Word in illumination from
the Lord. To be in illumination is to be in perception.




148              LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
Those who are in this illumination are said to be taught
of Jehovah, and of them it is said in Jeremiah:'Behold,
the days come that I will make a new covenant: —this shall
be the covenant,-I will put my law in their inward parts,
and write it in their hearts; and they shall teach no more
every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying,
Know ye the Lord; for they shall all know me.' xxxi. 31,
33, 34.
"From these considerations it is plain that faith and truth
are one. This also is the reason that the ancients, who were
more accustomed to think of truth from affection than the
moderns, instead of faith used -the word truth: and for the
same reason, in the Hebrew language, truth and faith are
expressed by one and the same word, amuna, or amen.
"If any one thinks with himself, or says to another,'Who
can have that internal acknowledgment of truth which is
faith? I can not.' I will tell him how he may. Shun
evils as sins, and apply to the Lord; then you will have as
much as you desire."
Such then is the New Church doctrine of faith. Faith is
the perception and acknowledgment of truth from a right
understanding of it. True faith is something that grows.
It is not the gift of a moment. It is attained by leading a
good life, and through obedience to the truth so far as we
know it. In the course of time we find that a pure life is
clearing our spiritual vision, and extending its range. Spiritual truths which we had laid up in our memories, and
perhaps fancied that we had believed, are brought forth, are
seen in new and striking light, are elevated into the understanding, and are in reality believed. Thus a living faith is
attained. This doctrine finds a Divine seal in these words
of the Lord: "If any man will do his will, he shall know
of the doctrine, whether it be of God." John vii. 17.
The remainder of this little treatise is taken up with an




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               149
exposure of the fallacies involved in the common doctrines
of faith prevailing in the Protestant- and Roman Catholic
churches. Faith separated from charity, is proved to have
no existence, because evil can by no possibility love truth.
Spiritual and Divine Truth may, it is true, be reasoned
upon, defended, and expounded, by wicked men, for the
promotion of their own selfish ends; but internally they are
in deep hatred and denial of them, and in the other life their
detestation of them causes them to cast them forth even
from the memory. Thus the wicked have no faith and no
truth.
4. The treatise on the Doctrine of Life is a brief and
compendious exposition of the nature of that life which leads
to heaven and happiness. In the first place, it asserts that
all religion has relation to life, and that the life of religion is
to do good; agreeable to the Lord's saying: "He that hath
my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth
me." John xiii. 17. It is then shown that no one can do
good, which is really good, from himself, as is taught in
John, where we read: "A man can receive nothing, except
it be given him from heaven," iii. 27; and again: "He that
abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much
fruit; for without me ye can do nothing;"-" He that abideth
in me, and I in him, the same bririgeth forth much fruit,"
signifies that all good is from the Lord; fruit signifies good:
"without me ye can do nothing," signifies that no one can
do good from himself.
Now, it may be asked, "Why can a man not do good of
himself?" For this simple reason, that, as there is no goodiess out of the Lord, if man does good, his power and disposition to do it must, in all certainty, be derived from the
Lord alone. Man' in his highest state, is but a medium for
the manifestation of the Divine Life or Goodness. Yet
while only a medium, he must act in freedom, as of himself.
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150            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
The appearance is that the good he does is self-originated, and
born of his own will; and this appearance can never be removed, because on it depends his freedom of action. Man
must subdue all tendencies to spiritual pride arising therefrom, by habitual reference to the truth that the Lord is all
in all; and that if he has done good, or been useful, he has
been indebted for the motive as well as for the wisdom, to
the Divine Mercy alone; as Paul said to the Philippians:
"For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do
of his good pleasure." ii. 15. While thus saved by the Divine Mercy, through a good life, and brought into spiritual
health by obedience to divine laws, man has no reason whatever to boast, or to take credit to himself for his bliss and
salvation. The advocates of justification and salvation by
faith alone, charge spiritual pride and merit, as a necessity,
upon all who believe that heaven and its happiness are
attained through the regenerative influence of a good life;
but this accusation falls to the ground when it is acknowledged that the power to lead a good life is the continual
gift and inspiration of God. If man would only think
truly, he would see that humility is the acknowledgment of
the grand primal truth of existenice, that nothing we have
or can do that is good, is of ourselves, but solely of the
Lord; and that just as we are left to ourselves and our own
wisdom, we do evil, and perpetrate folly and mischief. Salvation through a good life, when thus rightly stated and
understood, is seen to involve nothing of merit, but only the
strongest reasons for gratitude, humility, and worship.




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               151
CHAPTER XVII1.
The Divine Lrove and Divine Wisdom-The Continuation of the Last
J.udgment.
THE treatise on the Divine Love and Wisdom, is a book
which, when mastered, affords a key to the whole philosophy
of the New Church, and to a rational understanding of all
the writings of Swedenborg. When we say this, it will be
easily understood that it is not a book to be read in a few
hours, or hastily glanced over. Every page is pregnant with
thought, and many of its peragraphs might be expanded
into volumes. It is a book which, full of thought on the
deepest subjects, demands an exercise of like thought on the
part of its reader; and if he has patience, and a simple love
of truth for its own sake, happy will he be -when he has
made himself familiar with the divine thoughts which, like
stars, gem every page of this matchless treatise.
The book is divided into five Parts. The First Part sets
forth, in the simplest language, the doctrine of the Divine
Nature. The Lord's essence is shown to be Infinite Love,
and its manifestation to be Infinite Wisdom. It is proved
that the Divine Love is the only life in the universe, and
that in God "all things live, move, and have their being."
The Lord is also proved to be very and essential Man, yet
above and independent of all space and time, filling all
spaces of the universe without space, and all time without
time; and being in the greatest and the least things evermore
the same. These statements may appear inconsequential,




152            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
but in our limited space, we can not explain more fully.
We could not give the proofs satisfactorily, without quoting
the volume itself. Argument is so linked to argument, that
they hardly admit of separation.
The Second Part of the work treats of the sun of heaven,
and the sun of our world. It is shown that from the Lord
flows a Divine Sphere, which appears in the spiritual world
as a sun. From its heat, angels and man have their love,
and from its light their wisdom, thus their life. This sun is
not God, but it is the first proceeding from the Divine Love
and the Divine Wisdom of God-Man. By means of this
sun the Lord created the universe and all things in it. The
sun of the natural world is pure fire, and therefore dead; and
since nature derives its origin from that sun, it also is dead.
Without two suns, the one living and the other dead, there
could be no creation. The end of creation is, that all things
may return to the Creator, and conjunction may exist in its
ultimates.
Part Third declares that in the spiritual world there are
atmospheres, waters and earths, as in the natural world; but
that the former are spiritual, whereas the latter are natural.
We are then introduced to the doctrine of degrees-a doctrine which must be studied and understood, before any one
can with justice speak of Swedenborg; for it is a doctrine
which lies at the basis of that peerless spiritual philosophy
of which he was the promulgator. All that we can do here
in the way of exposition, is to quote the heads of his articles
which express the truth far.more lucidly than we could do.
"There are three degrees of Love and wisdom, and thence
degrees of heat and light, and degrees of atmosphere. Degrees are of two kinds, degrees of altitude and degrees of
latitude. The degrees of altitude are homogeneous, and
Dne derived from the other in a series, like end, cause, and
effect., The first degree is in all the subsequent degrees.




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                 153
All perfections increase and ascend with degrees, and according to degrees. In successive order the first degree constitutes the highest, and the third the lowest; but in simulaneous
order, the first degree constitutes the inmost, and the third
the outmost. The ultimate degree is the complex, continent,
and basis, of the prior degrees. The degrees of altitude in
their ultimate, are in their fullness and power. There are
degrees of both kinds in the greatest and least of all created
things. There are three infinite and uncreated degrees of
altitude in the Lord, and three finite and created degrees in
man. These three degrees of altitude are in every man
from his birth, and may be opened successively, and as they
are opened, a man is in the Lord, and the Lord in him.
Spiritual light flows into man by three degrees, but not
spiritual heat, except so far as he avoids evils as sins, and
looks to the Lord. If the superior or spiritual degree is not
opened in a man, he becomes natural and sensual. The
natural degree of the human mind, considered in itself, is
continuous, but by correspondence with the two superior degrees, while it is elevated, it.appears as if it were discrete.
"The natural mind, being the tegument and continent of
the higher degrees of the human mind, is a re-agent; and if
the superior degrees are not opened, it acts against them, but
if they are opened, it acts with them. The abuse of the faculties which are proper to man, called rationality and liberty, is the origin of evil. A bad man may enjoy these two
faculties as well as a good man; but a bad man abuses
them to confirm evils and falses, while a good man uses
them to confirm goods and truths. Evils and falses, when
confirmed, remain; and become parts of a ma'n's love and
life. The things which become parts of a man's love and
thence of his life, are communicated hereditarily to his
offspring.
"All these evils and consequent falses, both hereditary and




154             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
acquired, reside in the natural mind. Evils and falses are
entirely opposed to goods and truths; because evils and
falses are diabolical and infernal, and goods and truths are
divine and heavenly. The natural mind, which is in evils
and falses, is a form and image of hell, and descends by
three degrees. These three degrees of the natural mind,
which is an image and form of hell, are opposed to the three
degrees of the spiritual mind, which is a form and image of
heaven: thus the natural mind which is a hell, is in complete opposition to the spiritual mind which is a heaven.
All things of the three degrees of the natural mind, are
included in works, which are performed by acts of the
body."
Part Fourth teaches that the Lord from eternity, who is
Jehovah, created the universe and all things therein from
Himself, and not from nothing; this would not have been
possible if the Lord were not a Divine Man; He from himself producing the sun of the spiritual world, and by it creating all things. In the substances and matters of which
earths consist, there is nothing of the Divine in itself; but
still they are from the Divine in itself. All created things
in the created universe, viewed from uses, represent man in
an image; this testifies that God is Man. All things created by the Lord are uses; and they are uses in the order,
degree, and respect, in which they have relation to man,
and by man to the Lord their Creator. Evil uses were not
created by the Lord, but originated together with hell, after
man's fall. The visible things in the created universe testify
that nature has produced nothing, and does produce nothing; but that the Divine has produced and does produce
all things from Himself, and through the spiritual world.
Part Fifth is devoted to a description of man's spiritual
nature. It is shown that "the Lord has formed and created
in man two receptacles and habitations for Himself, called




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.              155
the will and the understanding; the will for His Divine
Love, and the understanding for His Divine Wisdom. The
will and understanding are in the brains, in the whole and
every part thereof, and thence in the body, in the whole and
every part thereof. There is a correspondence of the will
with the heart, and of the understanding with the lungs;
and all things that can be known of the will and understanding, or of love and wisdom, consequently all that can
be known of man's soul, may be known from the correspondence of the heart with the will, and of the understanding
with the lungs."
There are many volumes in the world whose thinly spun
thought, spread over page after page, it would be easy to
condense into one brief paragraph; but the treatise on the
Divine Love and Wisdom is not such a work. It is one of
those rare books which suggest and expand thought, but can
bear no abridgment or compression. We have well studied
it, but do not expect to finish it during our life on earth.
Time was, when, immersed in man made systems of faith,
and wont to walk abroad in the green fields and woods, by
the sea-side, and on the mountains-we found it difficult, nay
we should rather say impossible, to see the God we read of
in our books, and thought of in our chamber, to be the same
kind Father to whom those wide and beauteous scenes owed
their existence. Justification by faith-Jerusalem-the Jews
-ephod and teraphim —the Temple, and the sacrificeseemed to have no connection with the landscape, the wind,
the falling rain, the flowing river, and the broad and limitless ocean. We knew it should not be so. If the Bible
were God's book, it must have some closer affinity with his
great work of nature. We knew that one Lord was over
all, and that this disunity should by no means exist. Much
mental pain and travail were our portion. The easy soothsayings of Atheism  beguiled us. We "wandered in the




156            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
wilderness in a solitary way, and found no city (doctrine)
to.dwell in." We longed for the rest of Zion. We sighed
not in vain. The divine philosophy of this precious book
was revealed to us, and we knew the blessing of a faith
which finds a confirmation in every item and phase of creation, and makes the Bible and nature evermore at one, each
confirming and illustrating the other. It gave to life new
aims and aspects. It brought a mental peace we had
never hoped to enjoy, and we went on our journey of life
rejoicing.
"The Continuation of the Last Judgment," is a small
pamphlet forming a supplement to the treatise on the Last
Judgment, with which it is now generally published. It
contains a very interesting account of the Last Judgment
upon the Reformed. By the Reformed, upon whom the
Last Judgment was effected, Swedenborg means those who
professed a belief in God, read the Word, heard sermons,
partook of the sacrament of the Supper, yet lived in all
manner of evils. Living like Christians in externals, and
outwardly in unity with heaven, while inwardly united with
hell, they were permitted after death to form societies, and
to live as in the world; and by arts unknown in the world,
to cause splendid appearances, and by this means to persuade
themselves and others that they were in heaven. From this
outward appearance, therefore, they called'their societies
heavens. The heavens and the lands in which they dwelt,
are understood by the "former heaven, and the former earth,.which passed away." Rev. xxi. 7.
At the time of the Last Judgment, the hypocrisy of these
spirits was revealed in the light of heaven, and the simple
good with whom they had associated, separated themselves
-with horror from them. No longer able to simulate Christian lives, they rushed with delight into evils and crimes
of every description, openly appeared as devils, and found




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                157
for themselves the hells corresponding to their loves. At
the same time all the splendid appearances they had made
for themselves vanished away; their palaces were turned
into vile huts; their gardens into stagnant pools; their
temples into piles of rubbish; and the hills on which they
dwelt, into heaps of gravel, in correspondence with their
depraved dispositions and lusts.
"After the Judgment was effected," writes Swedenborg,
"there was joy in heaven, and also light in the world of
Spirits, such as was not before. A similar light also then
arose on men in the world, giving them new enlightenment.
I then saw angelic spirits, in great numbers, rising from
below, and elevated into heaven. They were the sheep there
reserved, and guarded by the Lord for ages back, lest they
should come into the malignant sphere of the dragonists,
and their charity be suffocated. These are they who are
understood in the Word by those who went forth from the
sepulchers; also by the souls of those slain for the testimony
of Jesus, who were watching; and by those who are of the
first resurrection."
After this follows a description of many things seen in the
spiritual world. He writes: "There are lands in the spiritual
world, just as in the natural world: there are hills and
mountains, plains and valleys, also fountains and rivers,
lakes and seas; there are paradises, and gardens and groves,
and woods, and palaces, and houses; there are writings, and
books, functions, [functiones,] and employments; there are
precious stones, gold and silver; in short, there are all the
things, in general and in particular, which exist in the
natural world; but in the heavens all these things are
infinitely more perfect."
He then describes "the noble English nation" in the
spiritual world; the more excellent of whom  are in the
centre of all Christians, because they have interior intellectual
14




158            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
light. This light they derive from the liberty they enjoy
of thinking, and thence of speaking and writing. The Dutch
are then described, and then the Papists, and the Popish
saints. The Mohammedans, the Africans, and the Gentiles
follow; and finally the Jews, the Quakers, and the Moravians. The description of all these people, as they appear
beyond the grave, has an interest of a most absorbing kind;
and the light thrown by Swedenborg on their internal
character, serves to show cause for much that happens in
the external world, otherwise difficult of explanation.




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                159
CHAPTER XVIII.
Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Ditvine Providence.
STILL living in Amsterdam, Swedenborg published, in
1764, his work entitled "Angelic Wisdom Concerning the
Divine Providence." Its purpose is to
" assert eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to man."
In the first place, it is shown that the Divine Providence
is the government of the Love and the Wisdom of the Lord.
This Providence has for its sole end the formation of a
heaven from the human race, and thus has respect only to
what is infinite and eternal. In the Divine sight, things
temporal and natural are of no importance except so far as
they contribute to man's salvation.
Although the Lord thus wills and works for man's eternal
happiness, yet, after all, heaven can only be attained through
man's cooperation. The Lord ever performs his share of the
work, but man too often fails to do his. Weeping over
Jerusalem, the Lord exclaimed: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are
sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children
together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings, and ye would not!" Matthew xxiii. 37. How powerfully and tenderly is here expressed the Divine willingness
to save, and how pointedly and decisively is man's misery
atr;ibuted to his own obstinacy. As the Lord Jesus is




160            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
another place says: "Ye will not come to me that ye might
have life." John v. 40.
In all the operations of the Divine Providence, human
freedom is respected. The Lord forces no man to do what
is good, or believe what is true. He drives none to heaven.
It is of the Divine Providence that whatsoever a man hears,
sees, thinks, speaks, and does, should appear altogether as
his own. Without this appearance, men would have no
reception of Divine Truth, no determination to do good, no
appropriation of love and wisdom or of charity and faith,
and thence no conjunction with the Lord; consequently no
reformation and regeneration, and thereby salvation. Without this appearance, it is evident there could be no repentance and no faith; and man would not be man, but void
of rational life like a beast. It is plain, then, that in order
that man may be saved, he must be induced to live a good
life by means which in nowise trench upon this appearance
of free and independent life. Regeneration is effected by
man's removing evils from his external life, as of himself;
yet, knowing that all good and truth is from the Lord, he
acknowledges, as a consequence, that all power to remove
these evils is derived from the Lord alone.
Intensely as the Lord desires that man should shun evils
and lead a holy life in obedience to his commandments, yet
He only seeks to win man to peace and heaven by means
which do not infringe upon his freedom. It is a law of'
His Divine Providence, that man should not be forced by
external means to think and will, and so to believe and love
the things which are of religion. It has been asked by
atheists, "If there be a God, why does he not write so on the
sun, and so save men from unbelief?" Swedenborg answers
this question most satisfactorily, by showing that miracles,
signs, visions, conversations with the dead, threats, and
punishments, are totally ineffective to produce that state of




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               161
love and spiritual life which make true happiness and heaven; because these force, and destroy the rationality and
liberty which constitute the inmost life of humanity, and by
the exercise of which, man can alone be delivered from
evil.
Let us read Swedenborg's testimony on miracles. He
writes: "That such is the nature of miracles, may plainly
appear from those wrought before the Jewish and Israelitish
people. Although they saw so many miracles in Egypt, afterwards at the Red Sea, others in the Desert, and especially
upon Mount Sinai, when the law was promulgated, yet, in
the space of a month, when Moses tarried upon that mountain, they made themselves a golden calf, and acknowledged
it for Jehovah who brought them out of the land of Egypt.
The same also may appear from the miracles wrought afterwards in the land of Canaan, notwithstanding which the
people so often departed from the worship that was commanded; and from the miracles which the Lord wrought
before them when he was in the world, notwithstanding
which they crucified him. The reason why miracles were
wrought among the Jews and Israelites was, because they
were altogether external men, and were introduced into the
land of Canaan merely that they might represent a church
and its internal principles by the external things of worship;
and a wicked man may be representative, as well as a good
man. The external things of worship among them were
rituals, all which signified spiritual and celestial things.
Even Aaron, although he made the golden calf, and conducted the worship of it, could, nevertheless, represent the
Lord and his work of salvation. And as they could not,
by the internal principles of worship, be-led to represent
these things, therefore they were led, yea forced and compelled, to do it by miracles. The reason why they could not
be brought to such representation by the internal principles
14 *




162            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
of worship was, because they did not acknowledge the Lord,
although the whole Word, which was among them, treats of
Him only; and he who does not acknowledge the Lord, can
not receive any internal worship. But after the Lord manifested himself, and was received and acknowledged in the
churches as the eternal God, miracles ceased.
"The effect of miracles upon the good, however, is different
from what it is upon the wicked. The good do not desire
miracles, but they believe the miracles which are recorded
in the Word; and if they hear anything of a miracle, they
attend no otherwise to it than as a light argument which
confirms their faith; for they think from the Word, consequently from the Lord, and not from a miracle. It is otherwise with the wicked: they indeed may be driven and forced
into faith, and even into worship and piety, but only for a
short time; for their evils being shut in, the inclinations
thereto, and the delights thence derived, continually act
against the external of their worship and piety; and in order
that these evils may escape from confinement and break
out, they think about the miracle, and at length call it a delusion, or an artifice, or an operation of nature, and so return
into their evils; and he who returns into his evils after worship, profanes the truths and goods of worship, and the lot of
profaners after death is the worst of all. Besides, if miracles
were to be wrought before those who do not believe in consequence of the miracles recorded in the Word, they must
be continually performed, and constantly presented to their
view. From these considerations, the reason may appear
why miracles are not performed at this day."
It is thus seen that the Lord will not force a man to
lead a good life; because, in forcing him, his humanity would
be destroyed, and all that makes life worthy and manly
would be lost, seeing that the exercise of rationality and
liberty would be annihilated.




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               163
It is a law of the Divine Providence, that a man should
be led and taught from the Lord out of heaven by the Word,
and by doctrine and preaching from the Word, and this in
all appearance as from himself. The Lord, as we have before seen, is the Word; and when man reads the Word, he
brings his thought into contact with the Divine Wisdom,
and when he obeys its teachings he is in very truth led by
the Lord. Yet we all see that this teaching and leading of
the Lord is effected without any violation of man's freedom,
for he is led and taught in externals to all appearance as
of himself.
It is a law of the Divine Providence that a man should
not perceive and feel anything of the operation of the Divine Providence, but yet should know and acknowledge it.
If a man perceived and felt the'operation of the Divine
Providence, he would not act from liberty according to reason, nor would anything appear to him as his own. It
would also be the same if he foreknew events. " The reason
why it is not granted man to foreknow events, is, that he
may be able to act from liberty according to reason; also,
that there is nothing that a man revolves in his reason which
is not from a desire that it may come into effect by thought.
If, therefore, he knew the effect or event from divine prediction, reason would become quiescent, and with reason love;
for love, with reason, terminates in the effect, and from that
begins anew. It is the very delight of reason, that from
love in the thought it may see the effect,-not in the effect,
but before it, or not in the present, but in the future. Hence
a man has what is called Hope, which in reason increases
and decreases, as it sees or expects the event. This delight
is fulfilled in the event, but afterwards is obliterated with the
thought concerning the event; and it would be the same
with an event foreknown."  The whole zest of life would be
dissipated coul] man foreknow the future.




164             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
While the operation of the Divine Providence is thus
veiled from man's eyes, and it appears to him that he is alone
in the world, and that on his small prudence hangs all
things,-if he would be wise he must not be led by appearances, but rising above them, acknowledge the truth "that
self-derived prudence is nothing, and only appears as if it
were something, [and ought so to appear;] but that the Divine
Providence in things most singular is universal." And
because our life and intelligence are momentarily derived
from the Lord, it follows as a necessary consequence, that
all which we do that is orderly and effective, is done by
the Lord, through our yielding ourselves to Him as His
instruments.
It is often urged as a reason against believing in an overruling and universal Divine Providence, that the world is
full of evil and wickedness; and if there be an omnipotent
God, he would surely never suffer such things to exist.
Swedenborg enters very fully into this question. The reasons why Adam was permitted to fall, and Cain to slay
Abel; Solomon to establish idolatrous worship, and many
kings after him to profane the holy things of the church;
the Jews to crucify the Lord; why impiety is allowed to exist, and the impious and profligate to be promoted to riches
and honors, while the worshipers of God and the doers of
righteousness remain in contempt and poverty; why wars
are permitted, men slaughtered, the property of the innocent
destroyed, and victories go with force and not with justice;
why the earth is permitted to remain covered with idolatries,
and the Christian religion to occupy so small a place, and
even there to be deeply corrupted and devastated with heresies,-are stated at length and most satisfactorily. It is
made plain, that, were the Lord to interfere and prevent
such evils by force, it would defeat the end fbr which He
created man, namely, salvation and eternal life in heaven.




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               165.Now as man can only be regenerated and enter heaven
through the free exercise of his understanding and free
choice of his will, any external interference of the Divine
Providence with outward circumstances would suspend the
action of man's faculties; would, in short, dehumanise the
race, and leave only animals to be dealt with. It is not of
the Lord's will, indeed, that evil should exist; and His
Providence is unceasingly exerted to modify and mitigate it,
alike in its origin and in its effect; but, since to prevent its
manifestation would be to take from man all that makes him
man, its permission is a necessity.
It was said that the Providence of the Lord is unceasingly exerted to modify and mitigate evil, alike in its origin
and in its effects. Swedenborg very beautifully and amply
illustrates this truth, and shows that the Divine Providence
is equally with the wicked and the good. The wicked man,
of his own free choice, continually plunges himself more
and more deeply into evil; because as he wills and does evil,
he introduces himself more and more deeply into infernal
societies. But the Lord, by a thousand invisible means,
continually withdraws him from evil; and where a cure or
complete prevention is impossible, mitigates his fearful fate
by providing circumstances and situations in life which serve
to lead the evil into less hurtful developments. The operation of the Divine Providence in saving man begins at his
birth, and continues to the end of his life. The Lord sees
what a man is, and what he desires to be, consequently what
he will be; therefore the Lord foresees his state after death,
and provides for it from his birth to the end of his life; with
the wicked He provides by permitting and continually withdrawing them from evils; with the good He provides by
leading them to good. Thus the Divine Providence is continually in the effort to save men; but more cannot be saved
than desire to be saved. Those who acknowledge God and




166            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
are led by Him, desire to be saved; and those who do not
acknowledge God, but guide themselves, do not desire to be
saved: for the latter do not think of eternal life and salvation, but the former do. This the Lord sees; but still He
leads them according to the laws of His Divine Providence,
against which He cannot act, for to act against them would
be to act against Himself. Now, as the Lord foresees the
states of all after death, and knows the places of those who
are not willing to be saved, He, as far as is consistent with
human freedom, labors to soften man's evil; and if He cannot lead him to heaven, still preserves him from sinking to
the lowest hell.
From this it follows that every man may be reformed,
that there is no such thing as predestination, and that it is a
man's own fault if he is not saved. All are created for
heaven, and none for hell; and if man sink into perdition,
he does so through his own obstinacy, and through the
deliberate choice of a life of evil. As saith the Apostle:
"The Lord is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2
Peter iii. 9. And the Lord himself says: "Fear not, little
flock; it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Luke xii. 32.
Such, in brief, are a few of the principles in the treatise
on the Divine Providence. Nothing but a perusal of the
work can give an adequate idea of its multiplicity of details,
from the laws which regulate the affairs of kingdoms, to
those which govern games of chance; and all expounded
with a lucidity of thought, which finds few parallels in works
on such recondite themes. No book in the whole circle
of literature more satisfactorily disposes of the objections
against religion, current among secularists and worldlings.
The inward temptations and doubts of the devout heart, and
the weariness, cares, and fret of life, are shown in its pages




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               167
to be all permitted by that Divine Love which suffers not a
sparrow to fall unheeded; and the minutest incidents of life
are seen to be forever encircled by that Omniscience, which
knows how most effectually to guard us from evil and draw
us into the holy courts of heaven.
Any view which we take - of the Divine Providence that,
does not recognize this life as a beginning, a progress, and
not a consummation, is necessarily erroneous. Life here is
but a discipline, an apprenticeship. It is a school wherein
we are scholars, learning such lessons as will fit us for uses
in a higher and eternal sphere. Were life consummated by
what men call death, we might have reason to complain
that the comforts and pleasures of existence were so unequally
distributed; and the natural man might exclaim with the
Psalmist: "I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the
prosperity of the wicked. They are not in trouble as other
men; neither are they plagued like other men. Their eyes
stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could
wish. Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the
world; they increase in riches." But when we look at the
matter from higher grounds, and in the light of the Divine
wisdom, or as the Psalmist did when he said: "I went into
the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end: how are
they brought into desolation as in a moment! they are
utterly consumed with terrors:"-" The evil doers shall be
cut off; but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit
the earth: for yet a little while, and the wicked shall not
be; yea thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall
not be: for the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not
his saints;"-then we obtain a right view of the matter, and
find an all-sufficient reason for being patient and not fretting
ourselves. Hard though our lot in life may seem, let us
remember that




168               LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
"The vain and fleeting things of earth,
(Though counted vain, alas! by few,)
In his esteem are nothing worth,
Who keeps eternal ends in view."
Or, as Cowper says:
" The path of sorrow and that path alone,
Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.
No traveler ever reached that blest abode
Who found not thorns and briers in his road."




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               169
CHAPTER XIX.
Life in Amqsterdam-Character of the Dutch-M-eets Dr. BeyerRepublishes his "New Method of Finding the Longitudes"-Th-~re
Apocalypse REplained.
IT is very trying to the biographer of Swedenborg that he
can find so little to narrate of his outward life. Of his life
in Amsterdam we have no particulars whatever, No Boswell was there to note down his sayings, describe his doings,
his company, and conduct. Q.ut had even a Boswell been
there, we fear he would have found but little to note. Quiet
days in his study, calm reserve toward all around, musing,
solitary-rambles in the streets, would supply but few incidents for the pen of the biographer. We must be content
to know that, from out his quiet study in Amsterdam,
proceeded books destined to be centers of spiritual light to
the church and to the world.
Swedenborg liked the Dutch, and with good reason, for
he was favored to know them in that land where the secrets
of all hearts are unvailed. He reports that the Dutch,
above all other people, are under the influence of the
spiritual love of trade, valuing it for its uses, and regarding
money only as a means to these uses, and not, like the Jews,
as the final end. They are, moreover, inflexible in their
obedience to the truth, when known; and in many other
respects are an estimable people.
It is probable that Swedenborg returned home toward the
end of 1764; for in the first half of the next year, we find
him in Stockholm. Soon, however, he set out upon new
15                II




170            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
travels; and in 1765, while at Gottenburg, waiting for a
vessel to England, he accidentally (as men say) met with Dr.
Beyer, Professor of Greek, and a member of the Consistory
of Gottenburg. Having heard that Swedenborg was mad,
he was surprised to hear him talk sensibly, and manifest no
symptom of his suspected infirmity.  He therefore invited
Swedenborg to dine with him the following day, in company
with Dr. Rosen. After dinner, Dr. Beyer expressed a desire to hear from himself a full account of his doctrines;
upon which Swedenborg, animated by the request, spoke so
clearly, and in so wonderful a manner, that the Doctor and
his friend were quite astonished. They gave him no interruption; but when he ceased, Dr. Beyer requested Swedenborg to meet him the next day at Mr. Wenngren's and to
bring with him a paper, containing the substance of his conversation, in order that he might consider it more attentively.
Swedenborg came the day following, according to promise;
and, taking the paper out of his pocket, in the presence of
the other two gentlemen, he trembled, and appeared much
affected, the tears flowing down his cheeks. Presenting the
paper to Dr. Beyer, "Sir," said he, "from this day the
Lord has introduced you into the society of angels, and you
are now surrounded by them." They were all greatly affected. He then took his leave, and the next day embarked
for England.
Dr. Beyer sent immediately for Swedenborg's writings,
and soon became deeply engrossed in their study. In order
to arrange their subjects more distinctly in his mind, he set
about compiling an Index to them; which as he prepared it,
he sent, sheet by sheet, to Amsterdam to be printed. He
was thirteen years in compiling the work, and on the day he
sent off the last sheet corrected, he sickened, took to his bed,
end in a few days departed to the spiritual world.
The result of Dr. Beyer's study of Swedenborg's writings,




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               171
was a firm belief in their doctrines, and an open and enlightened advocacy of them, declaring in the public Consistory his full assent to them. As might naturally be expected,
he suffered much obloquy and persecution for his adherence
to the truth; but he was consoled in having the firm friendship of Swedenborg, and in being favored with receiving
from him many letters, sympathizing with him in his trials,
and answering many of his questions on doctrinal and
psychological matters.
Swedenborg did not make a long stay in England; but
after a few weeks, or perhaps months, proceeded to Holland,
spending the winter of 1765-66 at Amsterdam. There, in
the spring of 1766, he republished (it is supposed by the
solicitation of friends,) his youthful work on a "New Method
of Finding the Longitudes."  "This method," as he informed the Swedish Archbishop, Menander, "of calculating
the ephemerides by pairs of stars, several persons in foreign
countries were then employing, who had experienced great
advantage by the observations made according to it for a
series of years."
From the time of the completion of the Arcana Ccelestia,
in 1756, Swedenborg had been gradually composing an extensive work on the Apocalypse. The exposition was continued as far as the tenth verse of the nineteenth chapter,
filling four large quarto volumes. He then laid the work
aside-thinking, probably, that it was too voluminous and
elaborate-and commenced anew, but on a considerably reduced scale. The former Exposition, a clearly written
manuscript, ready for the printer, after sustaining a narrow
escape from burning, (the house of a gentleman who had it
for perusal having caught fire,) was published in the original
Latin, in four quarto volumes, in 1790, eighteen years after
the author's death. It was translated into English and
printed in six octavos, under the title of the Apocalypse




172            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
Explained, in 1815. It is a most valuable work, and one
that could not well be spared from the Swedenborg Library.
Within its pages are several distinct treatises on very important subjects, which, if extracted, would form complete
and excellent books of themselves. The exposition of the
spiritual sense of the text is very copiously illustrated by
parallel passages from other parts of the Word; and thus
it must ever be a most useful work to the New Church
preacher, as affording him a ready key to the internal sense
of the Scriptures.
The shorter exposition Swedenborg himself published at
Amsterdam, in 1766, under the title of the Apocalypse Revealed. As was his custom, he distributed copies of the
work widely, sending it to the universities and superior
clergy, and to many eminent persons in England, Holland,
Germany, France, and Sweden.
We will now make a few notes on some of the most remarkable features of Swedenborg's exposition of that strange
and mysterious book, the Apocalypse.




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG                173
CHAPTER XX.
The Apocalypse Revealed.
EVERY one who is acquainted with theological literature,
knows that innumerable volumes of speculation have been
written in attempted explanation of the Apocalypse. He
is aware that expositors have differed about it from the earliest times; that Protestants have found Catholicism the
subject of all its denunciations, and that Catholics have discovered that Paganism and Protestant heresy were in reality
the matters alluded to; that sceptics have proved that it
refers to none of these creeds, but is a worthless astrological
treatise; and that many good Christians, vexed and wearied
with this endless contest of opinion, have wished the book
expunged from the canon of Scripture, as altogether incomprehensible, and a mere breeder of strife. And still the
controversy goes on. The press swarms with volumes and
pamphlets, all professing to have found the key to the mystery, informing the world of the future destiny of Europe,
of the result of its wars and battles, the precise month of
the fall of the Papacy, and the time of the descent of the
New Jerusalem, the Second Advent, and the restoration of
the Jews to Canaan, and, so far as the political arrangement
of the kingdoms of the earth is concerned, almost superseding the necessity of newspapers to the credulous believer.
Wise men generally now turn a deaf ear to these soothsayings, convinced by long and repeated experience of their
utter futility, and thinking shrewdly enough that had the
15 *




174           LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
Divine Providence intended that man should know the future, the foreknowledge would have been communicated
intelligibly and not through the medium of mysteries interpreted by men more conspicious for temerity than for any
endowment of wisdom or common sense above their fellows.
"It is a part of this prophecy," as Sir Isaac Newton remarks,
-and the same principle is applicable to all prophecies,"that it should not be understood before the last age of the
world; and therefore it makes for the credit of the prophecy that it is not yet [about 1710] understood. The folly
of interpreters has been, to foretell times and things by this
prophecy, as if God designed to make them prophets. By
this rashness, they have not only exposed themselves, but
brought the prophecy also into contempt. The design of
God was much otherwise. He gave this, and other prophecies of-tlmhOld.Te.stament, not to gratify men's curiosity by
enabling them to foreknow things, but that, after they
were fulfilled, they might be interpreted by the events; and
his own Providence, not the interpreters, be then manifested
thereby to the world. For the event of things, predicted
many ages before, will then be a convincing argument that
the world is governed by Providence. For, as the few and
obscure prophecies concerning Christ's first coming, were for
setting up the Christian religion, which all nations have since
corruzpted; so the many and clear prophecies concerning the
things to be done at Christ's second coming, are not only for
predicting but also for effecting a recovery and re-establishment of the long-lost truth, and setting up a kingdom
wherein dwells righteousness. The event will prove the
Apocalypse; and this prophecy, thus proved and understood,
will open the old prophets; and all together will make
known the true religion, and establish it."
With no claim to superior understanding or acuteness did
Swedenborg present his exposition of this mysterious book




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               175
to the world. He humbly declares that the mysteries of
the Apocalypse are totally beyond the power of human intellect to unravel, and that whatever of truth is to be found
in his work, owed its existence to the immediate illustration of his mind by the Lord. We shall presently show
what powerful reason there was for this protestation on his
part.
The Apocalypse, we are taught, is a portion of the Divine
Word. It was dictated directly by the Lord,-John, in
Patmos, being simply an amanuensis.
The Apocalypse is a prophetic book, descriptive of the
decline and consummation of the Christian Church, and the
establishment of the new and spiritual dispensation signified
by "the New Jerusalem descending from God out of
heaven."  Being a prophetic book, it would have been at
variance with the laws of the Divine Providence for man to
have understood its prophecies until after the events it described were past; for, as we have seen, a knowledge of the
future would take from man all freedom of action, all inclination to labor, and the whole hope and pleasure of life.
Therefore it was that the Apocalypse remained a sealed
book until the Christian Church had reached its consummaition, and the Last Judgment was effected, in 1757, when
the Lord graciously opened the eyes of Swedenborg and
manifested to him, in clear light, the deep mysteries of this
prophecy.
Wilkinson, in his admirable Biography, well says: "A
volume, unless it were a reprint, would not give an analysis
of the Apocalypse Revealed. When we say that the commentary takes the text word by word, and translates it into
spirit, we still convey but a slender idea of what is done.
Our own first impressions on reading the work will not soon
be forgotten. Following thewriter throughthe long breadths
and flights of this vast empyrean, we were momently in




176            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
anxious fear that to sustain a context of such was impossible. Each fresh chapter seemed like a space that mortal
wing must not attempt; and yet the fear was groundless, for
our guide sailed onward with a tranquil motion as if he knew
the stars. History and common sense, panting and grasping
science, philosophy in its better part, above all, the confidence in a Divine support and a supernal mission, appeared
to be covertly and unexpectedly present, to annihilate difficulties, and pave the skyey way of this humble voyager.
And when we had again alighted from that perusal which
strained every faculty to the utmost, it was as though we
had been there before, so entire was the impression of selfevidence that was left upon the mind. -Genesis and the
Revelation were closely at one in this marvellous Apocalypse-thenceforth the most open of the Bible pages: the
two ends of the Scripture called to each other; an arch of
Divine light spanned the river of the Word, and the original
Eden blossomed anew in the midst of the street of the holy
city."
The Rev. O. P. Hiller, in his Memoir of Swedenborg,
writes: "In the Apocalypse Revealed, the mysterions book
is taken up and examined chapter by chapter, verse by
verse, word by woid, in the same manner as was done with
the books of Genesis and Exodus in the Arcana Ccelestia;
and the interior meaning, the spiritual sense, of every part,
set forth in such a manner as to present a clear, connected,
and rational meaning throughout the whole book, from the
first chapter to the last. And what is especially to be
remarked, the spiritual sense of this book, the last of the
New Testament, is shown to be founded on the same principles, and discovered by the same rules of interpretation, as
the spiritual sense of the books of Genesis and Exodus, the
first of the Old Testament, written, as they were, by other
hands, and more than fifteen hundred years before; a strong




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                177
proof, certainly, that however varied the human instruments
there was One Divine Author of the whole. Thus, with
any particular word, for instance, occurring in the book
of Genesis, and declared to have a certain spiritual signification,-when that word occurs in the book of Revelation, it
is shown to have the same signification; and this holds good
in all cases. And, moreover, while all these various signfications, taken together, make in the book of Genesis a
complete spiritual sense, so in the book of Revelation they
make their own complete spiritual sense. Now it will be
readily seen, that such a coincidence would be altogether
unaccountable, nay, impossible, unless there really existed
such a spiritual sense in the Word of God: and it is, indeed,
this uniform spiritual sense, full of high and heavenly truth,
that raises the holy volume infinitely above all other works
of history or morals; and the existence of such a sense is
the strongest proof of the Divine character of those writings
which we call the Sacred Scriptures.  And truly, had
Swedenborg done only this, he would have deserved the
gratitude of all who seriously revere the Word of God, for
thus bringing a new and most powerful argument from
internal evidence, in favor of the inspiration and divinity
of the sacred volume."
Well, then, might Swedenborg disclaim the authorship
of the ideas in the Apocalypse Revealed, and ask: "What
man can draw such things from himself?" Those who tell
us that Swedenborg was self-deceived, must either know very
little of what they speak about, or must be quite as ignorant
of the capacity of the human mind and its powers of invention. For ourselves, we could as readily believe that Swedenborg created the world, as we could believe that the
spiritual sense of the Apocalypse, and of the whole Word,
was a fiction of his brain. Were the spiritual sense of the
Word such a fiction, then it must be said that there lived a




1:78           LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
man in the last century, with an intellect and creative
faculty, compared with which those of all the philosophers
and poets of past and present time combined, were as
nothing. We leave revilers of Swedenborg to make their
choice; either to admit the existence of the spiritual sense:of the Word; or, denying its existence, and pronouncing
Swedenborg's discovery either a delusion or an imposture,
to admit that Swedenborg was a man wholy unique-a
genius infinitely surpassing any which the world has ever
known, and endowed with a power of invention which the
mind of a nation incarnate in one man could never hope to
rival.
But it will never come to such a pass. Any one who will
take the trouble candidly to examine the subject, will become
convinced of the spiritual sense of the Word, and of the
truth of Swedenborg's revelations regarding it. The denial
and mockery of them can only coexist with an ignorance,
more or less profound, of their nature; or, worse still, from
a hatred of the truth, grounded in the life and love of evil.
The spiritual sense of the Word is no invention. It is a
discovery,-accomplished by Divine means, however,-just
as the finding of Australia was a discovery; and we shall
believe in its existence if we become practically acquainted
with it through reverent thought and study; even as we
should know Australia best, did we go there.
It may be said: "Well, suppose the spiritual sense of the
Apocalypse does describe the fall of the Christian Church,
and the inauguration of the New Church; and typifies the
doctrine of justification by faith alone by the Dragon; and
the Romanists and their lust of dominion and atrocious
deeds by Babylon and the great Harlot sitting upon many
waters; what then? It is true such descriptions must ever
have a certain interest, but not sufficient to render them
subjects of universal study in all ages. and worthily forming




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                179
a part of that Divine Book which is read by angels in
heaven, as well as' by men on earth." The objection is a
sound one so far as it goes, but it is made in ignorance of a
great but very simple truth, namely, that all that is true
of a church is true of an individual. The:~trst.- in mere
truth in the intellect, and the lust of power and glory,-the
former signified by the Dragon, and the latter by Babylon,are evils whicheitin all mindsto  greater or less degree;
and the Divine description of their nature and. awful consequences -may; be bte hiugof aparf    any-idea of Geneva
or Rome. The Apocalypse being a divine work, has infinite
applications, and will be read to eternity in spheres where
the names of Romanist and Protestant are unknown; and in
societies of glorified spirits, compared with whose number
and influence this world is insignificant.




180            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
CHAPTER XXI.
Travels-lHabits-Anecdotes.
IN April, 1766, Swedenborg again visited England in
order to observe the effect of his writings upon the English
people. Of this visit we have no account, except in reference
to its conclusion, in September of the same year, when he
returned to Stockholm. Mr. Springer, the Swedish Consul
in London, an old friend of Swedenborg's, has left the following interesting record of some incidents connected with
his return.
"Swedenborg was about to depart for Sweden, and desired
me to procure him a good captain, which I did. I made
the agreement with a person named Dixon. Swedenborg's
effects were carried on board the vessel, and as his apartments were at some distance from the port, we took, for that
night, a chamber at an inn near it, because the captain of
the vessel was to come and fetch him in the morning. Swedenborg went to bed; and I went to sit in another room,
with the master of the house, with whom I was conversing.
We both heard a remarkable noise, and could not apprehend
what it could be, and therefore drew near to a door, where
there was a little window that looked into the chamber
where Swedenborg lay. We saw him with his arms raised
toward heaven, and his body appeared to tremble.  He
spoke much for the space of half an hour, but we could understand nothing of what he said, except that when he let
his hands fall down, we heard him say with a loud voice,




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               181'My God!' But we could not hear what he said more. He
remained afterwards very quietly in his bed. I entered into
his chamber with the master of the house, and asked him if
he was ill.'No,' said he;'but I have had a long discourse
with some of the heavenly friends, and am at this time in a
great perspiration.' And as his effects were embarked on
board the vessel, he asked the master of the house to let
him have a shirt; he then went again to bed, and slept till
morning.
"When the captain of the vessel came to fetch Swedenborg, I took my leave of him, and wished him a happy
voyage. I then asked the captain if he was provided with
good and necessary provisions. He answered me, that he
had as much as was needful for the voyage. On this, Swedenborg said:'My friend, we shall not need a great quantity:
for this day week we shall, by the aid of God, enter the port
of Stockholm at two o'clock.' It happened exactly as he
foretold, as Dixon informed me; saying, that a violent gale
accelerated the voyage, that the wind was favorable at every
turn of the vessel, and that he never in all his life had so
prosperous a voyage."
Arriving at Stockholm on the 8th of September, Swedenborg resided in the Sudermalm, the southern suburb of the
city. Robsahm tells us: "His house was built and arranged
after his own taste; the apartments were rather small, but
suitable for himself. Although he was a man of most profound learning, no other books were seen in his study than
the Hebrew and Greek Bible, together with his own indexes
to his works, whereby he saved himself the trouble, when referring to different passages, of going through all he had
before written.
"Adjoining the house was a rather large garden, in the
midst of which he had a summer-house, or pavilion. There
were four doors to the apartment, which formed a square,
16




182            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
and was occasionally turned, in an instant, into an octagon,
by means of four other doors that belonged to it. One of
these doors shut with a secret lock, which being opened,
there appeared a glass door placed opposite a fine green hedge,
where a bird was seen in a cage. This new spectacle produced an agreeable surprise of a second garden to the person
who opened the door, which Swedenborg used to say was
more agreeable than the first. At the entrance of the garden
there was a parterre, well covered with flowers, which he was
very fond of. He derived no other advantage from the
garden, for he gave the whole produce of it to the gardener
who waited on him; so also that of a very excellent greenhouse, in which he took much pleasure.
"The gardener and his wife were the only servants he
had; of the latter he never desired other service than that
of making his bed, and of bringing water into his apartment.
He generally made his own coffee on the fire in his study,
and took much of it, well sweetened. When at home, his
dinner consisted of a small loaf put into boiled milk, and at
that time he neither drank wine nor any spirituous liquor,
nor did he take any supper. Though he was very sparing
in his eating and drinking, yet he would sometimes, when in
company, take a glass of wine, but was always in one equal
temper of mind, and cheerful.
"He had a fire constantly kept up in his study, from
autumn, throughout the winter, until spring; but his bedroom, contrary to the usual custom in Sweden, was always
cold; and according as the cold was more or less severe, he
made use of three, or four, blankets. When he awoke, he
went into his study, where there were always live coals, on
which he laid wood, with birch-bark, having a number of
small bundles ready for use, and to make a quick fire before
he sat down to write.
"In his parlor was a table of blaciK marble, on which, one




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               183
would have supposed, at first sight, that a hand of cards had
been carelessly thrown, the imitation being so perfect. He
made a present of this table to the Royal College of Mines,
who preserve it with great care. This room was neat and
genteel, but furnished in a plain style.
"His wardrobe was simple, yet suitable to the season. He
wore in winter a fur gown; and when at home, in summer,
a morning robe.
"He spoke very distinctly. When he began to talk in
company, every one was silent, as well from the pleasure
they had in hearing his discourse, as from a sense of his well
known great erudition, which he did not show but on occasions in which he found himself compelled to prove his assertions, or the little weight of the arguments of some with
whom he conversed. Besides the learned languages, in
which he was well versed, he understood the French, English, Dutch, German, and Italian."
We are thankful indeed for these details, trifling though
they are. They evince the quiet practical character of Swedenbdrg, and the strong common sense which guarded him
from all extravagance and eccentricity.
From the gardener's wife, Robsahm received the following
statement:-" Entering one day, after dinner, into Swedenborg's chamber, I saw his eyes like unto a most bright flame.
I drew back, saying,'In the name of goodness, Sir, what
has happened extraordinary to you? for you have a very
peculiar appearance.''What kind of look have I?' answered he. I then told him what struck me.'Well, well,'
replied he, which was his favorite expression,'don't be frightened, the Lord has so disposed my eyes, that by them spirits
may see what is in our world."' In a short time this appearance passed away, as he said it would. "I know," said she
to Robsahm, "when he has conversed with heavenly spirits,
for there is a pleasure and calm satisfaction in his counte



184             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
nance, which charm those who see it; but after he has conversed with evil spirits, he has a sorrowful look."
Concerning his temptations, they said that their master,
in the night, often spoke aloud, when evil spirits were with
him, which they could easily hear, their room being adjoining. When asked what caused his disturbance in the night,
he answered that it had been permitted the evil spirits to
blaspheme, and that he had spoken against them zealously.
It happened often that, weeping bitterly, he cried with a
loud voice, and prayed to the Lord that he might not be
forsaken in his temptation, when they assailed him. His
words were,'Lord help me! Lord, my God, do not forsake
me!' Those who saw him in these states, supposed he was
sick; but when delivered from them, he returned thanks to
God, and said to those who were troubled for him,'God be
eternally praised!- Comfort yourselves, my friends, all has
passed away; and be assured that nothing happens to me
but what the Lord permits, who never lays a burden on us
more weighty than we are able to bear."'
Once it was remarkable that after such a state he went to
bed, and did not rise for several days and nights. This gave
his domestics much uneasiness, and they consulted together,
and supposed he was dead. They intended to break open
the door, or to call their neighbors. At last the gardener
went to the window, and discovered, to his great joy, that
his master was alive, and turning in his bed. The next
day he rang the bell. The woman went in, and related her
own and her husband's uneasiness for him. He told her
with a cheerful countenance, that he had been very well, and
had wanted nothing.
The following anecdote, narrated to Robsahm by the gardener's wife, places Swedenborg's moral courage in a strong
Light, and shows the use of judicious plain speaking. Bishop
EIalenius, the successor of Swedenborg's father, paying Swe.




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               185
ienborg a visit one day, the conversation turned on the
nature of common sermons. Swedenborg said to the bishop,
"You insert things that are false in yours;" on this, the
bishop told the gardener, who was present, to retire, but
Swedenborg commanded him to stay. The conversation
went on, and both turned over the Hebrew and Greek Bibles, to show the texts that were agreeable to their assertions.
At length the interview ended, by some observations intended as reproaches to the bishop on his avarice and various
unjust actions; "You have already prepared yourself a place
in hell," said Swedenborg: "but," added he, "I predict that
some months hence you will be attacted with a grievous illness,
during which time the Lord will seek to convert you. If
you then open your heart to his holy inspirations, your conversion will take place. When this happens, write to me
for my theological works, and I will send them to you."
Some months after, an officer from the province and bishopric of Skara visited Swedenborg. On being asked how
bishop Halenius was, he replied: "He has been very ill, but
at present he is quite recovered, and has become altogether
another person, being now a practicer of what is good, full
of probity, and returns sometimes three or four-fold of the
property which he had before unjustly taken into his possession."  From that time to the hour of his death, he was one
of the greatest supporters of the doctrine of the New Church
of the Lord, and declared openly, that the theological writings of Swedenborg were the most precious treasures given
for the welfare of mankind. What a blessed result was
this of the few severe but really kind words of Swedenborg,
spoken in season!
In Stockholm, Swedenborg was very accessible, and visitors sought his advice for all purposes. Widows went to
him to inquire about the state of their husbands in the other
world; and others fancying him a wizard, beset him with
16 *




186            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
questions about lost and stolen property. Notwithstanding
the number and frequency of these visits, from people of
all ranks, he would never receive any particular ones, and
more especially those of females, without one of. his domestics being present. He also required his visitors to-speak
in the language of the country, saying, "I will have witnesses of my discourse and conduct, that all pretensions to
malicious assertions and scandal may be taken away."  He
had probably suffered from the tongues of busybodies: it
would have been strange if he had not; and it was prudent
for him to take this effectual plan to cut away the foundation
of all idle and malicious gossip.
Nicholas Collin, a young clergyman, at this time visited
Swedenborg, and thus pleasantly narrates his interview.
"In 1765, I went to reside at Stockholm, where I continued
for nearly three years. During that time, Swedenborg was
a great object of public attention in the metropolis, and his
extraordinary character was a frequent topic of discussion.
He resided at his house in the southern suburbs, which was
in a pleasant situation, neat and convenient, with a spacious
garden and other appendages. There he received company.
Not seldom he also appeared in company, and mixed in private society; sufficient opportunities were therefore given to
observe him. I collected much information from several
respectable persons who had conversed with him; which was
the more easy, as I lived the whole time as a private tutor
in the family of Dr. Celsius, a gentleman of distinguished
talents, who afterwards became bishop of Scania. He, and
many of the eminent persons that frequented his house,
knew Swedenborg well.
"In the summer of 1766, I waited on him at his house.
Introducing myself with an apology for the freedom I took,
I assured him that it was not in the least from youthful presumnption. I was then twenty. but had a strong desire to




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                187
converse with a character so celebrated. He received me very
kindly. It being early in the afternoon, delicate coffee,
without eatables, was served, agreeable to the Swedish custom; he was also, like pensive men in general, fond of this
beverage. We conversed for nearly three hours; principally
on the nature of human souls, and their states in the invisible
world; discussing the principal theories of psychology by
various authors.  He asserted positively, as he often
does in his works, that he had intercourse with spirits of deceased persons. I presumed, therefore, to request of him,
as a great favor, to procure me an interview with my brother,
who had departed this life a few months before, a young
clergyman, and esteemed for his devotion, erudition, and
virtue. He answered, that God, having for good and wise
purposes separated the world of spirits from ours, a communication is never granted without cogent reasons; and asked
what my motives were. I confessed that I had none besides
gratifying brotherly affection, and an ardent wish to explore
scenes so sublime and interesting to a serious mind. He replied, that my motives were good, but not sufficient; but
that if any important spiritual or temporal concern of mine
had been the case, he would then have solicited permission
from those angels who regulate these matters. He showed
me his garden. It had an agreeable building, a wing of
which was a kind of temple, to which he often retired for
contemplation; its dim religious light rendering it suitable
for such a purpose.
" We parted with mutual satisfaction; and he presented by
me, to the said Dr. Celsius, an elegant copy of his Apocalypsis Revelata, then lately printed in Amsterdam."
Swedenborg was of a very mild temper, upright, just, and
incapable of perverting the truth. Robsahm, one day, asked
him if a certain preacher, lately deceased, and greatly esteemed in Stockholm for his flowery sermons, had a place in




188            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
heaven. "No," said Swedenborg, "he went directly into the
abyss; for he left his devotion in the pulpit: he was not pious,
but a hypocrite; proud and greatly vain of the gifts he had
received from nature, and the goods of fortune he was continually seeking to acquire. Truly," continued he, "false
appearances will stand us in no stead hereafter; they are all
separated from man at his decease; the mask then falls from
him; and it is then made manifest to all, whether he is inwardly good or evil."
The exact month of Swedenborg's next foreign travel is
uncertain; but just before he undertook it, Robsahm met
him in his carriage, and asked him how he could venture to
take a voyage to London, at the age of eighty, and expressed
a fear lest he should not see him again. "Be not uneasy,
my friend," said he, "if you live, we shall see one another
again, for I have yet another voyage of this kind to make."
At Elsinore, on these voyages, he frequently visited M.
Rahling, the Swedish Consul, and during this transit, he
made the acquaintance of General Tuxen, at the Consul's
table. The General asked him how a man might be certain
whether he was on the road to salvation or not. Swedenborg
answered, "That is very easy. A man need only examine
himself and his thoughts by the Ten Commandments; as,
for instance, whether he loves and fears God; whether he is
happy in seeing the welfare of others, and does not envy
them; whether on having received a great injury from others,
which may have excited him to anger and to meditate revenge, he afterwards changes his sentiments, because God
has said that vengeance is His, and so on; then he may rest
assured that he is on the road to heaven: but when he discovers himself actuated by contrary sentiments, he may
know that he is on the road to hell."
This led Tuxen to think of himself, as well as others; and
he asked Swedenborg whether he had seen King Frederick V..




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               189
of Denmark, deceased in 1766, adding that though some
human frailty attached to him, yet he had certain hopes that
he was happy. Swedenborg said, "Yes, I have seen him,
and he is well off; and not only he, but all the kings of the
house of Oldenburg, who are associated together. This is
not the happy case with our Swedish kings." Swedenborg
then told him that he had seen no one so splendidly ministered to in the world of spirits as the Empress Elizabeth of
Russia, who died in 1762. As Tuxen expressed astonishment at this, Swedenborg continued: "I can also tell you
the reason, which few would surmise. WVith all her faults,
she had a good heart, and a certain consideration in her
negligence. This induced her to put off signing many
papers that were from time to time presented to her, and
which at last so accumulated that she could not examine
them, but was obliged to sign as many as possible on the
representation of her ministers; after which she would retire
to her closet, fall on her knees, and beg God's forgiveness, if she, against her will, had signed anything that was
wrong."
At the conclusion of this interesting interview, Swedenborg went on board his vessel, leaving a firm friend and future disciple in General Tuxen. Some years after, Tuxen
wrote: "I thank our Lord, the God of heaven, that I have
been acquainted with this great man and his writings. I
esteem this as the greatest blessing I ever experienced in
this life, and hope I shall profit by it in working out my
salvation."
Swedenborg's stay in London at this time must have bepn
brief; for on the 28th of November, 1768, we meet him
again in Amsterdam, whither he had gone to print another
important work, "Conjugial Love, and its chaste Delights;
also Adulterous Love and its insane Pleasures." This
book be published with his name, as written "by Emanuel




190            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
Swedenborg, a Swede." This is the first of his theological
works to which he affixed his name. His reason for giving
it in this instance, is said to have been, that no other person
might be censured for writing on this delicate subject. We
wil now examine the contents of this wondrous book.




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               191
CHAPTER XXII.
Conjugial;ove.
A WISE man might well suspect the soundness of any
system of morals which did not take into careful consideration the conjugial relation. Marriage-the most important
event in life, the relation which occupies the whole thought
of one sex, and the most serious regards of the other, the
institution around which all that is highest and holiest in
life groups itself, family, home, all that human hearts hold
dear-must ever hold a prominent place in a true code of
moral and spiritual laws. How then could the subject be
omitted from the heavenly writings of the New Jerusalem?
or how could its apostle forget or pass it by.
Swedenborg, in his treatise on Conjugial Love, first speaks
of marriages in heaven. He shows that a man lives a man
after death, and that a woman lives a woman; and since it
was ordained from creation that the woman should be for
the man, and the man for the woman, and thus that each
should be the other's,-and since that love is innate in both,
it follows that there are marriages in heaven as well as on
earth.
Marriage in the heavens is the conjunction of two into one
mind. The mind of man consists of two parts, the understanding and the will. When these two parts act in unity,
they are called one mind. The understanding is predominant in man, and the will in woman; but in the marriage
of minds there is no predominance, for the will of the wife




192           LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
becomes also the will of the husband, and the understanding of the husband is also that of the wife; because each
loves to will and to think as the other wills and thinks, and
thus they will and think mutually and reciprocally. Hence
their conjunction; so that in heaven, two married partners
are not called two, but one angel. When this conjunction
of minds descends into the inferior principles which are of
the body, it is perceived and felt as love, and that love is
conjugial love.
To this doctrine of marriage in heaven will arise an objection from the Lord's words to the Sadducees, when they
asked Him whose wife, in the resurrection, a woman should
be, who had been married in succession to seven brethren.
The Lord replied: " The children of this world marry, and
are given in marriage; but they which shall be accounted
worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the
dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage."-Luke xx.
34, 35. To understand this reply, we must bear in mind the
nature of the question. A woman had been married, quite
in accordance with worldly usage, to seven husbands. Of
course, nothing of this kind takes place in heaven; for, as
the Lord says, there "neither can they die any more." After that fashion indeed there is no marrying or giving in
marriage in heaven. In truth, marriages, such as they are
in heaven, could never have been comprehended by the gross
and carnal-minded Jews; and had the Lord entered into
detail, He would have been as grossly misapprehended by
them as when He said, "Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up." And they said: "Forty and six
years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up
in three days?" not knowing that he "'spake of the temple
of his body." John ii. 19 —21. Now Swedenborg very
plainly shows that Christians think as naturally of marriage
as the Jews did of the temple, if they suppose that the true




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                193
marriage of minds does not take place in heaven, or that it
was any but the carnal and sensual connections of earth
that the Lord declared had no place in eternity. In the
spiritual sense of the Lord's words, by the marriage that
does not take place in heaven, is meant the spiritual marriage, or union of goodness and truth in the mind; in other
words, regeneration: this must be accomplished in this life,
or not at all. When the spiritual sense of the Word is understood, this interpretation becomes manifest as the only
true and rational mode of understanding the text; and all
the rest of Scripture goes to confirm it.
Moreover it is true that there is no marriage in heaven in
the exact sense of the word. Partners are born into this
world, and by life in it are disciplined for each other.
Separate, they are but parts of one whole; and in each
there is a continual longing for unition. Seen by the eye
of Omniscience, they are ever married; they are one, however divided they may be by space or circumstances. Their
meeting in heaven and recognition of each other is only the
external completion of what had before in essentials been
effected. And in this sense it may be said that there are no
marriages in heaven; for all are married, in reality, before
they reach heaven.
Marriages on earth, Swedenborg teaches, are at this day
entered upon so generally from merely worldly and sensual
motives, and with so little regard for similarity of mind,
that, save in few cases, they are not maintained and perpetuated in the other life. Married partners commonly meet
after death; but as their internal differences of mind are
manifested, they separate; for no married partners can be
received into heaven, except such as have been interiorly
united, or are capable of being so united into one; which is
understood by the Lord's words: "They are no longer two,
but one flesh." Such as are thus separated-possibly both
1T                     I




194             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
very good people-meet, in due time, congenial partners,
whose souls incline to union with their own, so that they no
longer wish to be two lives, but one.
The meeting of young partners in heaven is thus charmingly described:- "The divine providence of the Lord
extends to everything, even to the minutest particulars
concerning marriages, because all the delights of heaven
spring from the delights of conjugial love, as sweet waters
from the fountain head. On this account it is provided that.
conjugial pairs be born, and these pairs are continually
educated to their several marriages under the Lord's auspices, neither the boy nor the girl knowing anything of the
matter; and after a stated time, when both of them become
marriageable, they meet in some place as by chance, anid see
each other, and in this case they instantly know, as by a
kind of instinct, that they are pairs; and by a kind of inward
dictate, think within themselves-the youth that she is mine,
and the virgin that he is mine; and when this thought has
existed some time in the mind of each, they accost each
other from a deliberate purpose, and betroth themselves.
It is said as by chance, by instinct, and by dictate, and the
meaning is by Divine Providence: since, while the Divine
Providence is unknown, it has such an appearance; for the
Lord opens internal similitudes, that they may see each
other."
We are now led by Swedenborg, and introduced to a
knowledge of the nature of conjugial love, and shown in what
consists its essential blessedness. He shows that this love
originates in the marriage of goodness and truth. Every
one who has experienced anything of regeneration, knows
that there is no bliss so intense, no joy so extatic, as that
arising from well-doing, and snbmission to the will of the
Lord. When right is done because it is right, when truth
in the understanding is carried into action, then good is




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                195
inseminated in the will by the Lord, and conjoining itself to
truth in the understanding, the -soul overflows with the
sweetest peace, and the most interior delight. The conjunction of goodness and truth is the heavenly marriage, to
which the Lord compares the kingdom of heaven; and He
says that it is not here, nor there, but within us. Under the
symbols of marriage and love, the regeneration of the soul
is continually described in the Word; and the meeting
of Jacob and Rachel at the well, when "Jacob kissed
Rachel," and for very joy, "lifted up his voice and wept,"
beautifully typifies the meeting of goodness and truth, and
the gladhess resulting from their approaching union.
It was said that in man the understanding predominates,
and in woman the will. In the mind of each, then, it is
evident, there never can be a perfect marriage, seeing that
individual minds are in themselves imperfect, the balance
of the-will and intellect being in no case equal. The mental
perfection or wholeness of man then necessitates marriage.
Truth loves good, and good loves truth; and so the will and
the understanding ever long for conjunction. It is plain,
then, that in man there must always be an unsatisfied desire,
if he remain by himself; and so, also, to even a greater
degree, with the woman. This insatiable desire for conjunction of soul, can not well appear in its strength in this life
for many reasons; nor can it receive here its full satisfaction,
as it will in eternity.
True conjugial love can exist only between two; and in
polygamists and adulterers it is utterly destroyed. Again,
it can only exist with the regenerate, with those who love
the Lord and their neighbor, and delight in keeping the
divine commandments. In proportion as married partners
so live, they become more and more closely and interiorly
conjoined; and their minds flowing into one, their peace,
joy, and bliss are ineffably increased. With the wicked




196              LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
there is no conjugial love. Their life, being internally evil,
conceals the deepest hatred; and the apparent affection
which they may display in the world, arises either from
sensual love, or worldly expediency. Be it well noted by
all, that marriage can yield real happiness only to the
religious-to those who love God and honor His laws.
It is impossible for us to give, even by way of catalogue,
a view of the details into which the treatise on Conjugial
Love enters. It is so richly studded with great principles,
that no condensation is possible. It is thus with all of
Swedenborg's books; so that an exhaustive review is impossible. He never treats his readers to long moralizings that
can be condensed into one paragraph; but all his writings
are crowded with thought, so that one is prompted not to
condensation, but to expansion. This excuse, which we have
had to present on previous occasions, must form our apology
for the following extracts, selected as illustrations of some
of the leading truths in this treatise.
The Delights of Conjugial Love.-" As conjugial love is the
foundation love of all good loves, and as it is inscribed on all
the parts and principles of man, even to the most particular,
it follows that its delights exceed the delights of all other
loves, and also that it gives delight to the other loves, according to its presence and conjunction with them; for it
expands the inmost principles of the mind, and at the same
time the inmost principles of the body, as the most delightful current of its fountain flows through and opens them.
The reason why all delights, from first to last, are collated
into this love, is on account of the superior excellence of its
use, which is the propagation of the human race, and thence
of the angelic heaven; and as this use was the chief end of
creation, it follows that all the beatitudes, satisfactions, delights, pleasantnesses, and pleasures, which the Lord the




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                 197
Creator could possibly confer upon man, are collated into
this love."-n. 68.
Love truly Conjugial is essential Chastity.-"The reasons
are, 1. Because it is from the Lord, and corresponds to the
marriage of the Lord and the church. 2. Because it
descends from the marriage of good and truth. 3. Because
it is spiritual, in proportion as the church exists with man.
4. Because it is the foundation love, and head of all celestial
and spiritual loves. 5. Because it is the orderly seminary
of the human race, and thereby of the angelic heaven.
6. Because on this account it also exists with the angels
of heaven, and gives birth with them to spiritual offspring,
which are love and wisdom. 7. And because its uses are
thus more excellent than the other uses of creation. From
these considerations, it follows that love truly conjugial,
viewed from its origin and its essence, is pure and holy, so
that it may be called purity and holiness, consequently,
essential chastity."-n. 143.
Conjugial Love in Ancient Times.-" I have been informed
by the angels, that those who lived in the most ancient
times, live at this day in the heavens, in separate houses,
families, and nations, as they lived on earth, and that scarce
any one of a house is wanting; and that the reason is, because
they were principled in love truly conjugial; and that hence
their children inherited inclinations to the conjugial principles of good and truth, and were easily initiated into it
more and more interiorly by education received from their
parents, and afterwards as from themselves, when they
became capable of judging for themselves, were introduced
into it by the Lord."-n. 205.
Marriage elevates Humanity to its Highest Form. —"The
m6st perfect and noble human form results from the con-'
junction of two forms, by marriage, so as to become one
form; thus from two fleshes becoming one flesh according to
17 -




19g            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
creation. In such a case the man's mind is elevated into
superior light, and the wife's into superior heat." —n. 201.
The Children of Good Parents.-" Children born of parents who are principled in love truly conjugial, derive from
their parents the conjugial principle of good and truth, by
virtue whereof they have an inclination and faculty, if sons,
to perceive the things appertaining to wisdom, and if daughters, to love those things which wisdom teaches. Hence a
superior suitableness and facility to grow wise, is inherited
by those who are born from such a marriage, and also to
imbibe the things relating to the church and heaven." —n.
202-4.
The capacity of women to perform the duties of men, and
men those of women, is thus spoken of.
"The wife can not enter into the duties proper to the
man, nor on the other hand the man into the duties proper
to the wife, because they differ like wisdom and the love
thereof, or like understanding and the will thereof. In the
duties proper to the man, the primary agent is the understanding, thought, and wisdom; whereas in the duties proper
to the wife, the primary agent is will, affection, and love;
and the wife from the latter principles performs her duties,
and the man from the former performs his; wherefore their
duties, from the nature of them, are diverse, but still conjunctive in a successive series. It is believed by many that
women can perform the duties of men, if they were initiated
therein like boys, at an early age. They may indeed be
initiated into the exercise of such duties, but not into the
judgment, on which the rectitude interiorly depends; wherefore those women who have been initiated into the duties
of men, are bound, in matters of judgment, to consult men,
and then, if they are left to their own disposal, they select
from the counsels of men what favors their own particular
love. It is also supposed by some, that women are equally




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               199
capable with men of elevating the intellectual vision, and
into the same sphere of life, and of viewing things in the
same altitude; and they have been led into this opinion by
the writings of certain learned authoresses; but these writings, when examined in the spiritual world, in the presence
of the authoresses, were found to be the productions, not
of judgment and wisdom, but of ingenuity and wit; and
what proceeds from these two latter principles, on account
of the elegance and neatness of style in which it is written,
has the appearance of sublimity and erudition; yet only in
the eyes of those who call all ingenuity by the name
of wisdom. In like manner, men can not enter into the
duties of women, and perform them aright, because they are
not in the affections of women, which are altogether distinct
from the affections of men. As the affections and perceptions
of the male and female sex are thus distinct by creation,
and consequently by nature, therefore, among the statutes
given to the sons of Israel, this was also ordained:'A
woman shall not put on the garment of a man, neither shall
a man put on the garment of a woman; because this is an
abomination.' Deut. xxii. 5. The reason is, because all in
the spiritual world are clothed according to their affections;
and the affections of the woman and the man can not be
united, except as subsisting between two, and in no case as
subsisting in one."-n. 175.
The latter portion of the treatise on Conjugial Love is
devoted to the melancholy subject of the disorders of the
married life, to coldnesses and quarrels, separations and divorces; and finally to adulteries, fornications, and all the
abuses of the sexual relations. Of this it would be out of
place to speak here, except to remark, that it follows, as a
consequence of the fact that conjugial love makes man's
highest bliss and purest heaven, that its violations and
abuses must needs lead to the bitterest misery and deepest




200             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
hell. This portion of the treatise has subjected Swedenborg
to some gross calumny, which, if sincere, could only have
arisen from a very superficial acquaintance with the principles of its author. And yet it is hardly possible for a man
to write on such subjects, without provoking the censure of
the sickly virtuous and the hypocritically pure. Religious
people too generally treat the dire sexual evils which infest
and corrupt society with silence and aversion; passing them
by as the priest and the Levite did the wounded traveler.
When the spirit of Jesus more fully actuates the.church,
and the love of the neighbor prompts to heal the world's
evils by all efficient means, then, we have no doubt, Swedenborg on Scortatory Love will be taken into council.
We have used the term "conjugial," after Swedenborg,
who generally uses the Latin adjective conjugialis, in preference to conjugalis, perhaps because softer in sound.
Interspersed between the various chapters of the treatise,
are memorable relations of scenes which the author beheld
in the spiritual world, and conversations which he had with
spirits and angels on the subject of conjugial love. Many
of these possess the most fascinating interest, and convey
at the same time the most profound and beautiful truths.
One interview which he had with two angels of the third
heaven is so beautiful that we present it at length.
"One morning I was looking upwards into heaven, and I
saw over me three expanses, one above another. I wondered
at first what all this meant; and presently there was heard
from heaven a voice as of a trumpet, saying,'We have perceived, and now see, that thou art meditating concerning
conjugial love. We are aware that no one on earth at
present knows what true conjugial love is in its origin and
essence. Yet it is of importance that it should be known.
With us in the heavens, especially in the third heaven, our
heavenly delights are principally derived from conjugial




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                201
love; wherefore in consequence of leave granted us, we will
send down to thee a conjugial pair for thy inspection and
observation:' and lo! instantly there appeared a chariot descending from the third or highest heaven; in which there
was seen one angel; but as it approached there were seen
therein two. The chariot, at a distance, glittered before my
eyes like a diamond, and to it were harnessed young horses
white as snow; and those who sat in the chariot held in their
hands two turtle doves. * * * When they came nearer,
lo! it was a husband and his wife; and they said,'We are
a conjugial pair; we have lived blessed in heaven from the
first age of the world, which is called by you the golden age,
and during that time in the same perpetual flower of youth
in which thou seest us at this day. I viewed each attentively, because I perceived that they represented conjugial
love in its life and its adorning; in its life in their faces, and
in its adorning in their raiment. *  *  *  The husband
appeared of a middle age between manhood and youth;
from his eyes darted forth sparkling light derived from the
wisdom of love; by virtue of which light his face was radiant from its inmost ground; and in consequence of such radiance, the skin had a kind of refulgence in the outermost
surface, whereby his whole face was one resplendent comeliness. He was dressed in an upper robe which reached down
to his feet, and underneath it was a vesture of hyacinthine
blue, girded about with a golden girdle, upon which were
three precious stones, two sapphires on the sides, and a carbuncle in the middle; his stockings were of bright shining
linen, with threads of silver interwoven; and his shoes were
of velvet: such was the representative form of conjugial love
with the husband. But with the wife it was this; her face
was seen by me, and it was not seen; it was seen as essential
beauty, and it was not seen because this beauty was inexpressible; for in her face there was a splendor of flaming
Is




202            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
light, such as the angels of the third heaven enjoy, and- this
light made my sight dim; so that I was lost in astonishment:
she, observing this, addressed me, saying,'What dost thou
see?' I replied,'I see nothing but conjugial love and the
form thereof; but I see, and I do not see.' Hereupon she
turned herself obliquely from her husband; and then I was
enabled to view her attentively. Her eyes were bright and
sparkling from the light of her own heaven, which light, as
was said, is of a flaming quality, which it derives from the
love of wisdom; for in that heaven wives love their husbands
from their wisdom and in their wisdom: and husbands love
their wives from that love of wisdom and in it, as directed
towards themselves; and thus they are united. This was
the origin of her beauty; which was such that it would be
impossible for any painter to imitate and exhibit it in its
form, for he has no colors bright and vivid enough to express
its lustre; nor is it in the power of his art to depict such
beauty. Her hair was adjusted in becoming order so as to
correspond with her beauty; and in it were inserted diadems
of flowers: she had a necklace of carbuncles, from which
hung a rosary of chrysolites; and she had bracelets of
pearl: her upper robe was scarlet, and underneath it was a
stomacher of purple, fastened in front with clasps of rubies.
But what surprised me was, that the colors varied according
to her aspect in regard to her husband, and also according
thereto were sometimes more glittering, and sometimes less;
in mutual aspect more, and in oblique aspect less. When I
had made these observations, they again discoursed with me;
and when the husband spoke, he spoke at the same time as
from his wife; and when the wife spoke, she spoke at the
same time as from her husband;  such was the union of their
minds from whence speech flows; and on this occasion I also
heard the sound or tone of voice of conjugial love; inwardly
it was simultaneous, and it likewise proceeded from the de*




FATANTTEL SWEDENBORG.            203
lights of a state of innocence and peace. At length they
said,' We are recalled; we must depart:' and instantly they
appeared again conveyed in a chariot as before. The way
by which they were conveyed was a paved way through
flowering shrubberies, from the beds of which rose olive and
orange trees laden with fruit. When they approached their
own heaven they were met by several virgins, who welcomed
and introduced them."




204            LIFE AND WRITINGS ou
CHAIt LR XMA;i
Attacked Iby Dr. fEkebom-Visits France-Letter to Hartley, antd
HIartley's Opinion of Swedenborg.
IN the spring of 1769, Swedenborg published at Amsterdam, A Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church,
"in which work," he says, writing to Dr. Beyer, "are fully
shown the errors of the existing doctrines of justification by
faith alone, and of the imputation of the righteousness or
merits of Jesus Christ." He sent the little book to all the
clergy throughout Holland, and to the most eminent in
Germany; but, on second thought, sent only one copy to
Sweden, to Dr. Beyer, requesting him to keep it to himself,
for true divinity in Sweden was in a wintry state.
Swedenborg's long preservation from attack and controversy, at this time came to an end. On the 22d of March,
1769, Dr. Ekebom, Dean of the Theological faculty of Gottenburg, laid before the Consistory there a series of objections
against Swedenborg's theological writings, laden with untruth,
and full of personal invective. The Dean branded his doctrine "as in the highest degree heretical, and, on points the
most tender to every Christian, Socinian." He stated, further, that he "did not know Assessor Swedenborg's religious
system, and should take no pains to come at the knowledge
of it." As for Swedenborg's chief works, he "did not possess
them, and had neither read nor seen them." Swedenborg's
written reply, transmitted from Holland, was mild and
effectual. He cited his writings themselves, and proved




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               205
that, according to Scripture, the Apostolic Creed, and whatever was not self-contradictory in the orthodoxy of the
churches, his doctrine was anything but heretical. But the
self-acknowledged ignorance and prejudice of the Dean were'not to be removed by anything he might say. "Was not
this," to quote Swedenborg's own words, "to be blind in the
forehead, and to have eyes behind, and even those covered
with a film? To see and decide upon writings in such a
fashion, can any secular or ecclesiastical judge regard as
otherwise than criminal?"
About the end of May, or the beginning of June, Swedenborg left Amsterdam for Paris, "with a design which," in
writing to Dr. Beyer, he says, "must not be made public
beforehand." We hardly understand the remark, except
that he anticipated some difficulty with regard to the object
of his journey,-the publication of another little work,
entitled, "The Intercourse Between the Soul and the Body,"
in the French capital.
On his arrival in Paris, Swedenborg submitted his tract
to M. Chevreuil, Censor Royal, who, having read it, informed
him that a tacit permission to publish would be granted, on
condition, as was customary in the case of doubtful books,
that the title should say, "printed at London," or "at
Amsterdam." This, Swedenborg's nice sense of truth and
honor could not submit to, and he abandoned his intention
of publishing it in Paris. His enemies in Gottenburg then
circulated a report that he had been ordered to quit Paris,
which he, in a letter to Dr. Beyer, pronounced a direct
falsehood, and appealed for the truth of the case to the
Swedish Ambassador to France.
"Rumor also," writes Wilkinson, "has been busy with
Swedenborg upon this journey. The French'Universal
Biography' connects him with an artist,-Elie,-who, it is
alleged, supplied him with money, and furthered his pre18




206            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
sumed designs. Indeed, he has been accused of a league
with the illumines, and with a certain politico-theological
freemasonry, centuries old, but always invisible, which was
to overturn society, and foster revolutions all over the world.
We can only say that our researches have not elicited these
particulars, and that every authentic document shows that
Swedenborg stood always upon his own basis, accepted
money from no one, and was just what he appeared-a
theological missionary, and nothing more."
The short visit to Paris was terminated by his departure
for London, where, unfettered by censors, he published his
little book-" The Intercourse Between the Soul and the
Body."
One of Swedenborg's warmest and most intelligent English friends, was the Rev. Thomas Hartley, A. M., rector
of Winwick, Northamptonshire,-himself an author, and
assistant translator of the first English edition of "Heaven
and Hell." At this time he wrote to Swedenborg, fearing
that he might be in want of money, and offering to supply
his needs; also requesting an account of his past life and
connections, as a means of refuting calumnies. In his reply,
Swedenborg satisfied him on these points. He says to Mr.
Hartley: "I take pleasure in the friendship you express for
me in your letter, and return you sincere thanks for the same:
but as to the praises you bestow upon' me, I only receive
them as tokens of your love of the truths contained in my
writings, and so refer them to the Lord and Saviour, from
whom is all truth, because he is the Truth. John xiv. 6.
"I live on terms of familiarity and friendship with all the
bishops of my country, who are ten in number; as also with
the sixteen senators, and the rest of the nobility; for they
know that I am in fellowship with angels. The King and
Queen also, and the three princes, their sons, show me much
favor. I was once invited by the King and Queen to dine




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               207
at their table,-an honor which is, in general, granted only
to the nobility of the highest rank; and likewise, since, withthe hereditary Prince. They all wished for my return
home,-so far am I from being in any danger of persecution
in my own country, as you seem to apprehend, and so kindly
wish to provide against; and should anything of the kind
befall me elsewhere, it can not hurt me. But I regard all
that I have mentioned as matters of little moment; for,
what far exceeds them, I have been called to a holy office
by the Lord himself, who most graciously mhanifested himself in person to me, his servant, in the year 1743; when he
opened my sight to the view of the spiritual world, and
granted me the privilege of conversing with spirits and
angels, which I enjoy to this day. I am a Fellow, by
invitation, of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm:
but I have never sought admission into any other Literary
Society, as I belong to an angelic society, wherein things
relating to heaven and the soul are the only subjects of discourse and entertainment; whereas the things which occupy
the attention of our Literary Societies are such as relate to
the world and the body. Ag for the world's wealth, I have
what is sufficient, and more I neither seek nor wish for.
Your letter has drawn the mention of these things from me,
with the view, as you suggest, that any ill-grounded prejudices may be removed. Farewell! and from my heart I
wish you all felicity in this world and in the next; which I
make no doubt of your attaining, if you look and pray to
our Lord.-E. Swedenborg." Dated, London, 1769.
Mr. Hartley, in 1781, when far advanced in years, thus
gives his opinion of Swedenborg:"The great Swedenborg was a man of uncommon humility.
He was of a catholic spirit, and loved all good men of e xery
cnurch, making at the same time all carndid allowance for
the innocence of involuntary error. However self-denying




208             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
in his own person, as to gratifications and indulgences, even
within the bounds of moderation, yet nothing severe, nothing
of the precisian, appeared in him; but on the contrary, an
inward serenity and complacency of mind were manifest in
the sweetness of his looks and outward demeanor. It may
reasonably be supposed that I have weighed the character
of our illustrious author in the scale of my best judgment,
from the personal knowledge I had of him, from the best
information I could procure respecting him, and from a
diligent perusal of his writings; and according thereto, I
have found him to be the sound divine, the good man, the
deep philosopher, the universal scholar, and the polite gentleman; and I further believe, that he had a high degree
of illumination from the spirit of God, was commissioned by
Him as an extraordinary messenger to the world, and had
communication with angels and the spiritual world far
beyond any since the time of the Apostles. As such, I offer
his character to the world, solemnly declaring, that, to the
best of my knowledge, I am not herein led by any partiality
or private views whatever, being now dead to every worldly
interest, and accounting myself as unworthy of any higher
character than that of a penitent sinner."
Two others of Swedenborg's English friends were Dr.
Messiter and Dr. Hampe, who had been preceptor to George
I. From a letter of Dr. Messiter's, we extract the following
remarks on Swedenborg's character:"I have had the honor of being frequently admitted to
Swedenborg's company, when in London, and to converse
with him on various points of learning, and I will venture
to affirm that there are no parts of mathematical, philosophical, or medical knowledge, nay, I believe I might justly
say, of human literature, to which he is in the least a
stranger; yet so totally insensible is he of his own merit,
that I am confident he does not know that he has any; and




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.              209
as he himself somewhere says of the angels, he always turns
his head away on the slightest encomium."
Swedenborg's stay in England at this time does not seem
to have been longer than sufficed for the transaction of his
business; for in September, 1769, he sailed for Stockholm,
arriving there at the beginning of October. But we must
now suspend the narrative of his life to offer a few remarks
on his little works,-"A Brief Exposition of the Doctrine
of the New Church," and "The Intercourse Between the
Soul and the Body."
18 *




210            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
CHAPTER XXIV.
"Brief -Exposition of the Doctrines of the New Church," and "'The
Intercourse between the Soul and the Body."
"THE Brief Exposition of the Doctrines of the New
Church" is an exposition effected by means of comparisons
between the doctrines of the New Church and those of Catholics and Protestestants. The work is avowedly only a
sketch, and the precursor of a larger book —"The True
Christian Religion"-a work of some years, which will
shortly demand our attention. The Catholic doctrinals are
taken from the records of the Council of Trent; and the
Protestant from the Formula Concordike, composed by persons attached to the Augsburg Confession. The disagreements between the tenets of the Old and New Churches are
considered under twenty-five Articles, the heads of which we
will condense and present to the reader.
The Churches which, by the Reformation, separated themselves from the Roman Catholic Church, differ in various
points of doctrine; but they all agree in the Articles concerning a Trinity of Persons in the Godhead, original sin
from Adam, imputation of the merit of Christ, and justification by faith alone. The Roman Catholics, before the Reformation, held and taught exactly the same things as the
Reformed did after it, in respect to these points; only with
this difference, that they conjoined faith with charity or good
works.
The leading Reformers, Luther, Melancthon, and Calvin,




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               211
retained all the tenets concerning a Trinity of Persons in
the Godhead, original sin, imputation of the merits of
Christ, and justification by faith, just as they were, and had
been, among the Roman Catholics; but they separated charity or good works from that faith, and declared at the same
time that they were not of a saving efficacy, with a view to
be totally severed from the Roman Catholics as to the very
essentials of the Church, which are faith and charity. Nevertheless the leading Reformers adjoined good works, and even
conjoined them to their faith, but in man as a passive subject; whereas the Roman Catholics conjoin them in man as
an active subject; and notwithstanding this, there is actually
a conformity between the one and the other as to faith, works,
and merit.
The whole system of theology in the Christian World, at
this day, is founded on an idea of three Gods, arising from
the doctrine of a Trinity of Persons, and when this doctrine
is rejected, then all the tenets of the aforesaid theology fall
to pieces. The truth of this must be apparent to every
one. The Doctrine of a Trinity of Persons in the Divine
Being, is the key-stone of Roman Catholic and Protestant
theology. If this Doctrine be false, the whole structure totters to its fall.
When the faith in three Gods is rejected, then it is possible to receive the true and saving faith, which is a faith in
One God, united with good works.
This faith is in God the Saviour Jesus Christ, and in its
simple form is as follows: 1. That there is One God, in whom
is a Divine Trinity, and that He is the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. That saving faith is to believe in Him. 3. That evils
ought to be shunned, because they are of the devil and from
the devil. 4. That good works ought to be done, because
they are of God and from God. 5. That they ought to be




212            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
done by man as of himself, but with a belief that they are
from the Lord, operating in him and by him.
The faith of the present day has separated religion from
the Church, since religion consists in the acknowledgment
of One God, and in the worship of Him from faith grounded
in charity; but the faith of the present Church cannot be
conjoined with charity, and produce any fruits which are
good works, because imputation supplies everything, remits
guilt, justifies, sanctifies, regenerates; imparts the life of
heaven, and thus salvation; and all this freely, without any
works of man. In this case, what is charity, which ought
to be united with faith, but' something vain and superfluous, and a mere addition and supplement to imputation,
and justification, to which, nevertheless, it adds no weight or
value?
From' this faith results a worship of the mouth and not
of the life. Now the Lord accepts the worship of the
mouth in proportion as it proceeds from the worship of the
life.
The doctrine of the present Church is interwoven with
many paradoxes, which are to be embraced by faith. Therefore its tenets gain admission into the memory only, and not
at all into the understanding, which is superior to the
memory, but merely into confirmations below it. Thus the
tenets of the present Church cannot be learned or retained
without great difficulty, nor can they be preached or taught
without using great care and caution to conceal their nakedness, because sound reason neither discerns nor perceives
them.
The doctrine of the faith of the present Church ascribes
to God human passions and infirmities; as, that He beheld
man from anger, that He required to be reconciled, that IHe
is reconciled through the love He bore towards the Son, and
by His intercession; and that He required to be appeased




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               213
by the sight of His Son's sufferings, and thus to be brought
back to mercy; and that He imputes the righteousness of
His Son to an unrighteous man who supplicates it from
faith alone; and that thus from an enemy He makes him a
friend, and from a child of wrath a child of grace:-all
which dogmas are the opposite of the truth, and repulsive to
every wise man.
The faith of the present Church has produced monstrous
births; for instance, instantaneous salvation by an immediate act of mercy;. predestination; the notion that God has
no respect unto the actions of men, but unto faith alone;
that there is no connection between charity and faith; that
man in conversion is like a stock; with many more heresies
of the same kind; likewise concerning the sacraments of
Baptism and the Holy Supper, as to the advantages reasonably to be expected from them, when considered according
to the doctrine of justification by faith alone; as also with
regard to the person of Christ: and that heresies, from the
first ages to the present day, have sprung up from no other
source than from the doctrine founded on the idea of three
Divine Persons or Gods.
The last state of the present church, when it is at an end,
is meant by the consummation of the age, and the coming
of the Lord at that period. Matt. xxiv. 3.
The infestation from falses, and thence the consummation
of every truth, or the desolation which at this day prevails
in the Christian Churches, is meant by the great affliction,
such as was not from the beginning of the world, nor ever
shall be: Matt. xxiv. 21: and that there would be neither
love nor faith, nor the knowledge of good and truth, in the
last time of the Christian- Church, is understood by these
words in the same chapter of Matthew: "After the affliction
of those days, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall




214            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and
the powers of the heavens shall be shaken," verse 29.
They who are in the present justifying faith, are meant
by the he-goats in Daniel and Matthew; and they who have
confirmed themselves therein, are meant in the Apocalypse
by the dragon and his two beasts, and by the locusts; and
this same faith, when confirmed, is there meant by the great
city which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where the
two witnesses were slain; as also by the pit of the abyss,
whence the locusts issued.
Unless a New Church be established by the Lord, no one
can be saved. This is meant by these words: "Unless those
days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved."
Matt. xxiv. 22. The reason why no flesh could be saved,
unless those days should be shortened, is, because the faith
of the present Church is founded on the idea of three Gods,
and with this idea no one can enter heaven. Not that all
who are believers in the doctrine of a tripersonal God are
lost; but that, unless a New Church were provided by the
Lord, and spiritual truth revealed, man, wanting truth,
could never become regenerate, could never enter heaven,
and thus the end of his creation would be defeated. In
spite, however, of false doctrine, men are saved by the laying
hold, as it were, of the truths leading to a good life, which
exist in the most corrupt faiths, and goodness always contains an internal acknowledgment and love of truth, although
false doctrine may fill the memory. Yet it is true, nevertheless, that false doctrine perverts, discourages, and in the
end destroys all inclinations to live well. For this reason,
then, the First Christian Church has come to its end, or has
been consummated; and the Lord is raising up a New
Church, endowed with truth capable of leading the world in
the way of life, and to heaven.
The opening and rejection of the tenets of the faith of the




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                215
present Church, and the revelation and reception of the
tenets of the faith of the New Church, is meant by these
words in the Apocalypse: —"He that sat upon the throne
said, Behold I make all things new; and He said unto me,
Write; for these words are true and faithful." xxi. 5. The
New Church about to be established by the Lord, is the
New Jerusalem, treated of in chapters xxi. and xxii., which
is there called the Bride and the Wife of the Lamb.
Such, briefly expressed, are the heads or leading ideas
of the little work, "A Brief Exposition of the Doctrines
of the New Church," a treatise which, as Wilkinson truly
remarks, "is unequaled among Swedenborg's works for its
destructive logic."
"The Intercourse Between the Soul and the Body," is a
small treatise designed to illustrate a subject which has
puzzled many minds from time immemorial. Various have
been the theories of philosophers on this subject; but few
could satisfy the intelligent mind, or explain the varied
phenomena of being. Swedenborg, in many of his previous
works, had, with greater or less fullness, explained the nature
of the soul's union with the body, and this treatise is, to some
extent, but a repetition of what he had elsewhere written,cleared, however, from extraneous matter.
His view of the subject is simple and intelligible, as is all
truth. The soul of man is a spiritual substance, of the same
form as his body; transfusing all the body's tissues, and
wearing the body as a garment, even as the body wears its
clothes. The body lives from the soul. In itself, the body
is dead and without sensation, as is evident when the man
leaves it at death; it then returns to its inorganic elements.
As the body is diseased or injured, the soul is more or less
deprived of its power of action in the natural world, but the
soul itself is uninjured. We see an illustration of this in
the use of spectacles. Man's external organ of sight is




216            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
defective, and he cannot see objects distinctly. Glasses are
put before his eyes, and he sees as well as ever. Now it is
certain the glasses in themselves do not restore his sight.
They merely complete the defective organ, and the eye
of the spiritual man uses them as a means to look forth into
the material world. Observation and meditation will supply
a multitude of confirmations of this doctrine of the spiritual
body animating and transfusing the material.
At death the spiritual body lays down the material, and
makes its appearance in its higher sphere. Whether it is
beautiful or deformed, depends upon the man's conduct on
earth. If the soul has loved goodness and truth, it is a
beautiful human form, and increases in grace and loveliness
to eternity in heaven; if, on the other hand, it has lived in
evil and hated truth, it is deformed and hideous, and finds
its place in hell, the abode of all that is ugly and abominable.
But from this it is not to be concluded that the soul has
life in itself. Like the body, it also is dead, and is only a
form receptive of life from the One Only Infinite Life, in
whom the whole universe lives, moves, and has its being,the Lord. The material body is proximately sustained by
the light and heat of the material sun. The spiritual body
of man is sustained by the light and heat of the spiritual
Sun, which is the circumambient sphere of the Divine Love
and Wisdom. From this spiritual Sun, our natural sun
exists, even as our material bodies live from our spiritual
bodies. But all alike exist and subsist from the Lord
alone.
Such, in a few words, is the leading idea of this little treatise. For the details, the charming confirmation and the
able and simple refutation of the doctrines of Leibnitz and
other philosophers, who have treated on the same subject, we
can only refer to the book itself. We append the concluding




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                217
paragraph of the treatise, as a delightful specimen of spiritual analogy:"I was once asked, how I, who was previously a philosopher, became a theologian; and I answered,'In the same
manner that fishermen became the disciples and apostles of
the Lord: and that I also from my youth had been a spiritual fisherman.' On this, he asked,'What is a spiritual fisherman?' I replied,-'A fisherman, in the spiritual sense of
the Word, signifies a man who investigates and teaches natural truths, and afterwards spiritual truths in a rational
manner.' On his inquiring,'How is this demonstrated?' I
said,'From these passages of the Word:'And the waters
shall fail from the sea, and the rivers shall be wasted and
dried up. The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that
cast a hook into the brook shall lament.' Isaiah xix. 5, 8.
And in another place it is said, respecting the sea, whose
waters were healed,'The fishers shall stand upon it, from
Engedi even unto Eneglaim; they shall be present to spread
forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the
fish of the great sea, exceeding many.' Ezekiel xlvii. 10.
And in another place,'Behold I will send for many fishers,
saith Jehovah, and they shall fish them.' Jeremiah xvi. 16.
Hence it is evident why the Lord chose fishermen for his
disciples, and said,'Follow me, and I will make you fishers
of men;' Matthew iv. 18, 19; Mark i. 16, 17; and why
he said to Peter after he had caught a multitude of fishes,'Henceforth thou shalt catch men.' Luke v. 9, 10. I afterwards demonstrated the origin of this signification of
fishermen from the Apocalypse Revealed; namely, that
since water signifies natural truths, as does also a river, a
fish signifies those who are in possession of natural truths;
and thence fishermen, those who investigate and teach truth.
On hearing this, my interrogator said,'Now I can understand why the Lord called and chose fishermen to be his
19    K-                X




218              LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
disciples; and therefore I do not wonder that he has also
chosen you, since, as you have observed, you were from early
youth a fisherman in a spiritual sense, that is, an investigator of natural truths; and the reason that you are now become an investigator of spiritual truths, is because they are
founded in the former.' To this he added, being a man of
reason, that'the Lord alone knows who is the proper person
to apprehend and teach the truths of His New Church,
whether one of the primates, or one of their domestic servants. Besides,' he continued,'what Christian theologian
does not study philosophy in the schools, before he is inaugurated a theologian.' At length he said,'Since you are
become a theologian, explain what is your theology.' I answered,' These are its two principles, God is one, and there is
a conjunction of charity and faith.' To which he replied,'Who denies these principles?' I rejoined,'The theology
of the present day, when interiorly examined.'"




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               219
CHAPTER XXV..Persecution.-Letter to the Academy of Sciences. —Leaves Stockholm
for the last time.
ON Swedenborg's arrival in Stockholm, he found that the
long peace he had enjoyed from external interference and
persecution was at an end. The first manifestation of hostility took place in the seizure of some copies of his treatise
on Conjugial Love, at Norkjoping, which he had sent from
England, intending to present them to his countrymen. The
ground of their seizure was, a law prohibiting the introduction of any works into Sweden at variance with the Lutheran faith. The seizure having taken place in the diocese of
his nephew Filenius, he naturally turned to him for explanation and redress. Filenius thereon embraced and kissed
his uncle, and assured him that he would fulfill all his desires,
and procure the restoration of his books. But his actions
were the reverse of his words; for he was, in fact, the
prompter of the seizure, and secretly did all he could to insure their confiscation. By and by Swedenborg discovered
the hypocrisy, and remonstrated with Filenius; whereupon
he dropped the mask, and insisted on the books undergoing
clerical revision before they coil clie surrendered. Swedenborg urged that as his treatise was not theological, but chiefly
moral, its revisal by the clergy was absurd, and that such
censorship would pave the way for a dark age in Sweden.
But Filenius was unmoved; and Swedenborg, now fully
convinced of his double dealing, likened him, as he well




220            LIFE AND WRITINGS' OF
might, to Judas Iscariot, and said that "he who spoke lies,
lied also in his life." Having brought some copies of his
treatise on Conjugial Love with him to Sweden, he presented
them to many of the Senators, the Bishops, and the royal
family. He had no fear of the result of free and open
criticism. But worse things lay in store. Dean Ekebom,
of Gottenburg, was indignant that Doctors Beyer and Rosen
should have embraced Swedenborg's views, and the clerical
deputies from that town were instructed to complain of Swedenborg and his disciples to the Diet. They found in bishop
Filenius, then President of the House of Clergy, a willing
instrument to further their designs. They plotted to have
Swedenborg put upon his trial, presuming that when questioned he would openly assert his divine commission and
powers of spiritual intercourse, and then they would pronounce him insane, and have him committed to a mad-house.
Count Hopken revealed to Swedenborg this cunning device
of his enemies, and advised him to fly the kingdom. At
this news, Swedenborg was much afflicted; and going into
his garden, he fell-on his knees, and prayed to the Lord to
direct him what to do. After this prayer, he received the
consolatory answer that no evil should touch him. And so it
turned out. His inoffensive bearing, his rank and connections, all tended to intimidate his adversaries, and prevent
the execution of their designed outrage. Had he been a
farmer's or a tradesman's son, instead of being a bishop's,
his fate might have been very different.
Bishop Filenius, however, succeeded in gaining the appointment of a committee of the House of Clergy on the
Swedenborgian case. Its deliberations were kept secret.
Nothing came of it that was unfavorable to Swedenborg.
They disregarded the charges of Filenius, and spoke "very
handsomely and reasonably of Swedenborg."
Filenius gained one point, however, in the presentation of




'EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.              221
a memorial to the king, requesting the attention of the
Chancellor of Justice to the troubles at Gottenburg. To
this request the king yielded; and the members of the Consistory of Gottenburg were commanded to send in an unequivocal representation of the light in which they regarded
Swedenborg's principles. On January 2d, 1770, Dr. Beyer,
as one of the members of the Consistory, rose, and gave his
bold and honest testimony in favor of Swedenborg and his
writitings. He said: "Convinced by experience, I must in
the first place observe, that no man is competent to give a
just and suitable judgment on those writings, who has not
read them; or who has read them superficially, or with a determination in his heart to reject them, after having perused,
without examination, some detached parts only; neither is
he competent, who rejects them as soon as he finds anything
that militates against those doctrines which he has long
cherished and acknowledged as true, and of which perhaps
he is but too blindly enamored; nor is he competent, who
is an ardent, yet undiscriminating biblical scholar, who, in
explaining the meaning of the Scriptures, confines his ideas
to the literal expression or signification only: and, lastly,
neither is he competent, who has altogether devoted himself
to sensual indulgences, and the love of the world." He
then entered into the details of New Church doctrine, and
concluded in these words: "In obedience, therefore, to your
Majesty's most gracious command, that I should deliver a
full and positive declaration respecting the writings of Swedenborg, I do acknowledge it to be my duty to declare, in
all humble confidence, that as fai as I have proceeded in the
study of them, and agreeably to the gift granted to me for
investigation and judgment, I have found in them nothing
but what closely coincides with the words of the Lord
himself, and that they shine with a light truly divine."  These
19 af




222            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
were noble and brave words to speak in the midst of enemies.
The debate on his doctrines dragged its slow length along.
His enemies, full of spite, were yet full of fear, and seemed
to dread the result of an open attack upon Swedenborg.
Still the petty persecution continued, until, at last, May 10th,
1770, Swedenborg took,up his pen and addressed himself
directly to the king. In this letter, he complains that he
had met with usage the like of which had been offered to
none since the establishment of Christianity in Sweden, and
much less since there had existed liberty of conscience. He
recapitulated his grievances. He said that he had been
attacked, calumniated, and menaced, without the opportunity
of defending himself; though truth itself had answered for
him. He reminded his Majesty of their former interview.
With great simplicity, he says: "I have already informed
your Majesty, and beseech you to call it to mind, that the
Lord our Saviour manifested himself to me in a sensible
personal appearance; that he has commanded me to write
what has been already written, and what I have still to
write; that He was afterwards graciously pleased to endow
me with the privilege of conversing with angels and spirits,
and of being in fellowship with them. I have already declared this more than once to your Majesty in the presence
of all the royal family, when they were graciously pleased'
to invite me to their table, with five senators, and several
other persons; this was the only subject discoursed of during
the repast. Of this I also spoke afterwards to several other
senators; and more openly to their Excellencies Count de
Tessin, Count Bonde, and Count Hopken, who are still
alive, and were satisfied with the truth' of it. I have declared the same in England, Holland, Germany, Denmark,
and at Paris, to kings, princes, and other particular persons,
as well as to those in this kingdom. If the common report




EMAN UEL SWEDENBORG.              223
is to be believed, the Chancellor has declared that what I
have been reciting are untruths, although the very trutL
To say that they cannot believe and give credit to such
things, therein will I excuse them; for it is not in my power
to place others in the same state in which God has placed
me, so as to be able to convince tham, by their own eyes and
ears of the truth of those deeds and things I publicly have
made known. I have no ability to capacitate them to converse with angels and spirits, neither to work miracles to
dispose or force their understandings to comprehend what I
say. When my writings are read with attention and cool
reflection, (in which many things are to be met with, heretofore unknown,) it is easy enough to conclude, that I could
not come to'such a knowledge but by a real vision, and by
conversing with those who are in the spiritual world. This
knowledge is given to me from our Saviour, not for any
private merit of mine, but for the great concern of all
Christians' salvation and happiness; and as such, how can
any one venture to assert that it is false? That these things
may appear such as many have had no conception of, and
which, of consequence, they can not easily credit, has nothing
remarkable in it, for scarcely anything is known respecting
them."  He concluded by throwing himself upon the king's
protection, and requesting him to command for himself the
opinion of the clergy on the case; also the production of
various documents that had been produced at Gottenburg
and elsewhere; in order that he, and those maligned together
with him, might be heard in their defence, this being their
right and privilege. He protested, that the only advice he
had given to Doctors Beyer and Rosen, was to address
themselves to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as a means
to heavenly good and blessedness; for He only has all power
in heaven and on earth. Matthew xxviii. 18. Were this
doctrine of the Supreme Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ




224            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
taken away, he averred that he would rather live in Tartary
than in Christendom.
Had the Consistory declared this doctrine heretical, it
must have led to many strange issues. But the Consistory
came to no decision, and their report on Swedenborg's writings was never written. A short time before Swedenborg
left Stockholm for the last time, the king said to him: "The
Consistory has been silent on my letters and your works;"
and, putting his hand on Swedenborg's shoulder, he added,
"We may conclude that they have found nothing reprehensible in them, and that you have written in conformity to
the truth."
Throughout all this affair, Swedenborg remained perfectly
calm; and, though a very old man, worked on as industriously as ever. It might seem, from what has been said,
that the controversy had terminated entirely in his favor.
But it was not so, as he, in the following year, 1771, found
out; for then it appeared that his adversaries had succeeded
in obtaining a strict prohibition against the importation
of his writings into Sweden. It was his intention to send in
a formal complaint to the States General, appealing against
this prohibition; but it does not appear whether he fulfilled
his intention, or not.
Finally, he addressed a letter to the Universities of Upsal,
Lund, and Abo, asserting that each of the estates of the
kingdom ought to have its own Consistory, and ought not to
acknowledge the exclusive authority of that of Gottenburg.
He declared that religious matters belong to others as well
as the priests. Thus ends our account of this affair. It
may be said to be the only thing approaching to persecution
that Swedenborg endured; and considering the many heterodox opinions that he broached, we can not but think that he
had, on the whole, but little to complain of. Many who
have followed him in the propagation of the new theology,




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               225
have not gone so far, yet have fared worse. The gentleness
and simple prudence which, during so many years, shielded
him from interference, we can not too highly admire. But,
above all, we must be struck with the remarkable providence
of the Lord, shown in his protection: the Divine promise
was truly kept, that he should not be harmed.
His old associates of the Royal Academy of Sciences at
Stockholm, received, at this time, his last communication.
He wrote them a letter explaining some of the correspondences of Scripture, and their origin. In it, he says: "The
science of correspondences was esteemed, by the ancients,
the science of sciences, and constituted their wisdom; it
would surely be of importance for some one of your society
to devote his attention to it. Should it be desired, I am
willing to unfold the meaning of the Egyptian hieroglyphics,
which are nothing else but corrrespondences; these being
discovered and proved from the Word, in the Apocalypse
Revealed; and to publish their explications, is a work which
no other person could accomplish." We have no record as
to how the Academy received this proposal. A copy of this
letter was sent to Mr. Hartley, and Swedenborg desired that
he and his friends would think over the subject. The letter
is now published as an appendix to his treatise on the White
Horse.
Swedenborg now prepared to leave Stockholm for another
journey. Writing under date of July 23d, 1770, to Dr.
Beyer, he says: "As I am going, in a few days, to Amsterdam, I shall take my leave of you in this letter, hoping that
our Saviour will support you in good health, preserve you
from further violence, and bless your thoughts."
Robsahm  tells us that, on the day that Swedenborg
departed, he called on him, and "I then asked him," says
he, "if we should meet again. He answered me in a tender
and touching manner:'I do not know whether I shall




226            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
return; but I am assured I shall not die before I have
finished the publication of the book entitled the True Christian Religion; and for which only I am now about to depart.
But should we not see one another again in this lower world,
we shall meet in the presence of the Lord our Heavenly
Father, if so be that we observe to do his commandments.'
He then took a cheerful leave, and started on his last
journey, with the apparent vigor of a man of thirty years
of age, although he was then eighty-two. He took ship for
Amsterdam, leaving his native land, never again, in the
body, to return."




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                227
CHAPTER XXVI.
Swedenborg in intercourse with General aTuxen and Paulus ab Indagine-H-is reply to Dr. Ernesti-Letter to the Landgrave of Hesse
Darmstadt.
ON the voyage to Amsterdam, the ship that carried Swedenborg being detained, by adverse winds, off Elsinore,
General Tuxen, hearing that Swedenborg was in the offing,
determined to improve the opportunity; and, taking a boat,
went off to see him. Introduced by the captain into the
cabin, he found Swedenborg seated in an undress, —his elbows on the table, and his hands supporting his face, which
was turned towards the door, —his eyes open and much elevated. The General at once addressed him. At this, he
recovered himself, (for he had been in a state of vision,)
rose with some confusion, advanced a few steps in visible
uncertainty, and then bade him welcome, asking whence he
came. Tuxen replied that he had come with an invitation
from his wife and himself, to request him to favor them with
his company at their house; to which he immediately consented, and dressed himself alertly. The General's wife, who
was indisposed, received him in the house, and requested his
excuse if in any respect she should fall short of her wishes
to entertain him: adding that for thirty years she had been
afflicted with a painful disease. Swedenborg politely kissed
her hand, and answered, "Let us not speak of this; only
acquiesce in the will of God, and it will pass away, and you
will return to the same health and beauty as when you wei e




228            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
fifteen years old." The lady made some reply, to which he
rejoined, "Yes, in a few weeks." From which they concluded
him to mean that diseases which have their foundation in the
mind, and are supported by infirmities of the body, do not
disappear immediately after death.
"Being then together," says Tuxen, "in company with
my wife, my now deceased daughter, and three or four young
ladies, my relations, he entertained them very politely, and
with much attention, on indifferent subjects, on favourite
doges and cats that were in the room, which caressed him,
and jumped on his knee, showing their little tricks. During these trifling discourses,-mixed with singular questions,
all of which he obligingly answered, whether they concerned
this or the other.world,-I took occasion to say that I was
sorry I had no better company to amuse him than a sickly
wife and her young girls: he replied,'And is not this very
good company? I was always very partial to ladies' society.' After some little pause, he cast his eyes on a harpsichord, and asked whether we were lovers of music, and who
played upon it. I told him we were all lovers of it, and
that my wife in her youth had practiced, as she had a fine
voice, perhaps better than any in Denmark, as several persons of distinction, who had heard the best singers in France,
England, and Italy, had assured her; and that my daughter
also played with pretty good taste. On this Swedenborg.
desired her to play. She then performed a difficult and celebrated sonata, to which he beat the measure with his foot
on the sofa on which he sat; and when finished, he said,'Bravo! very fine.' She then played another by Rutini;
and when she had played a few minutes, he said,'This is by
an Italian, but the first was not.' This finished, he said,'Bravo! you play very well. Do you not also sing?' She
answered,'I sing, but have not a very good voice, though
fond of singing, and would sing if my mother would accom



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               229
pany me.' He requested my wife to join, to which she
assented, and they sang a few Italian duettos, and some
French airs, each in her respective taste, to which he beat
time, and afterwards paid many compliments to my wife, on
account of her taste and fine voice, which she had preserved
notwithstanding so long an illness. I took the liberty of
saying to him, that since in his writings he always declared
that at all times there were good and evil spirits of the other
world present with man; might I then be bold to ask,
whether now, while my wife and daughter were singing, there
had been any from the other world present with us? To
this he answered,'Yes, certainly;' and on my inquiring who
they were, and whether I had known them, he said it was
the Danish royal family, and he mentioned Christian VI.,
Sophia Magdalena, and Frederick V., who, through his eyes,
had seen and heard it. I do not positively recollect whether
he also mentioned the late beloved Queen Louisa among
them. After this he retired."
During this visit to General Tuxen, in the course of other
conversation, Tuxen produced an autobiographical letter
which Swedenborg had written to Hartley, and which began,
"I was born in the year 1689." Swedenborg told him that
he was not born in that year, as mentioned, but in the preceding. Tuxen asked him if this was an error of the press.
He said "No;" and added, "you may remember in reading
my writings to have seen it stated in many parts, that every
cipher or number has in the spiritual sense a certain correspondence or signification. Now," said he, "when I put the
true year in that letter, an angel present told me to write
the year 1689, as much more suitable to myself than the
other;'and you observe,' added the angel,'that with us
time and space are nothing.'"
We give these anecdotes as Tuxen relates them. Every
one, however, will know from his private experience how
20




230             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
little absolute dependence is to be placed upon narrations
of conversations, or actions, by even the most truthful. Sir
WValter Raleigh, while writing his History of the WVorld,
was led to think of the errors into which he might be led,
by observing that an affray beneath his prison wall was
variously described by several eye-witnesses. If the occurrences of the present are so liable to misstatement, what sort
of faith can we place in the history of the past? Wilkinson,
commenting on this anecdote of the date of Swedenborg's
birth, remarks, in his usual keen style: "We have here a
reason for that modification of events according to a context,
of which the Gospel histories, so often discrepant from each
other, furnish numerous instances. Manifestly it is the plan
of the context which regards the events from its own point
of view, and paints the narrative in its own colors. It is
what all historians do in a lesser way, bending the history
to ideas, or shaping it with an artistic force. Taking a
certain larger block of time as a period of birth, it is hieroglyphically truthful to play down upon any date contained
in the block, according to the subject and signification.
There are many kinds of truth besides black and white;
and generally, figurative truths require latitude of phrase.
At the same time it must be confessed that one would like
to know when the writing is pure history, and when it is a
base of history, made use of for symbolical purposes, and
touched, in part, by spirit. Literal people are apt to be
offended otherwise, and we sympathize with them."
Swedenborg arrived in Amsterdam some time in September, 1770, and straightway set about printing his manuscript
of the "True Christian Religion." From two letters of a
gentleman, named D. Paulus ab Indagine, who seems to
have been on familiar terms with Swedenborg, we select the
following passages, illustrative of this period of his life. He
writes:-" You asked me what this venerable old man,




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                  231
Swedenborg, is now doing. This I can tell you; he eats
and drinks very moderately, but keeps his chamber rather
long, and thirteen hours appear to be not too much for
him.*  When I informed him that his work'On the Earths
in the Universe' had been translated and published, he was
much delighted, and his eyes, which are always smiling,
became still. more brilliant.  He is now indefatigably at
work; yea, I must say that he labors in a most astonishing
and superhuman manner at his new work. Only think!
for every printed sheet, 4to, he has to procure four sheets
of manuscript; he now prints two sheets every week, and
corrects them himself, and consequently he has to write
eight sheets every week; and what appears to me utterly
inconceivable, he has not a single line beforehand in store.t
His work is to consist, as he himself states, of about eighty
sheets in print. The title of this work is the following:-'True Christian Religion, Containing the Universal Theology
of the New Church, Predicted by the Lord in Daniel viii.
13, 14, and in the Apocalypse, xxi. 1, 2; By Emanuel
Swedenborg, Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.' I could
not, in my open manner, conceal my astonishment that he
should put himself upon the title page as the servant of the
Lord Jesus Christ. But he replied:'I have asked, and
have not only received permission, but have been ordered to
do so.' It is astonishing with what confidence the old gentleman speaks of the spiritual world, of the angels, and of God
himself. If I were only to give you the substance of our
last conversation, it would fill ihany pages.  He spoke
i-It is not to be supposed that this time was wasted in sleep. In his
meditations and spiritual intercourse, he, no doubt, loved the seclusion
of his quiet chamber.
t This is quite a mistake. His work he had in contemplation for some
years  It is probable the revisal, alterations, and additions in the MS.
and in the proofs, led Paulus into this misconception.




232           LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
of naturalists, those who ascribe all things to nature, whom
he had seen shortly after death, and amongst them were
even many theologians, or such, at least, as had made
theology their profession in this life. He told me things
which made me shudder, but which, however, I pass by, in
order not to be over-hasty in my judgment respecting him.
I will willingly admit that I know not what to make of him;
he is a problem that I can not solve. I sincerely wish that
upright men, whom God has placed as watchmen upon the
walls of Zion, had some time since occupied themselves with
this man.
"I can not forbear to tell you something new about
Swedenborg. Last Thursday I paid him a visit, and found
him, as usual, writing. He told me that he had been in
conversation that same morning, for three hours, with the
deceased king of Sweden. He had seen him already on
Wednesday; but as he observed that he was deeply engaged
in conversation with the queen, who is still living, he would
not disturb him. I allowed him to continue, but at length
asked him how it was possible for a person who is still in the
land of the living, to be met with in the world of spirits.
He replied, that it was not the queen herself, but her
spiritus familiaris, or her familiar spirit. I asked him what
that might be; for I had neither heard from him anything
respecting appearances of that kind, nor had I read anything
about them. He then informed me that every man has
either his good or bad spirit, who is not only constantly with
him, but sometimes a little removed from him, and appears
in the world of spirits. But of this, the man still living
knows nothing; the spirit, however, knows everything. This
familiar spirit has everything in accordance with his companion on earth; he has, in the world of spirits, the same
figure, the same countenance, and the same tone of voice,
and wears also similar garments; in a word, this familiar




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               233
spirit of the queen, said Swedenborg, appeared exactly as he
had so often seen the queen herself at Stockholm, and had
heard her speak. In order to allay my astonishment, he
added that Dr. Ernesti, of Leipsic, had appeared to him, in
a similar manner, in the world of spirits, and that he had
held a long disputation with him. What will the learned
professor say, when he comes to hear of it? Probably he
will say that the old man is in his second childhood; he will
only laugh at it, and who can be surprised? I have often
wondered at myself, how I could refrain from laughing,
when I was hearing such extraordinary things from him.
And what is more, I have often heard him relate the same
things in a numerous company of ladies and gentlemen,
when I well knew there were mockers amongst them; but,
to my great astonishment, not a single person thought
of laughing. Whilst he is speaking, it is as though every
person who hears him were charmed, and compelled to
believe him. He is by no means reserved and recluse, but
open-hearted and accessible to all. Whoever invites him as
his guest, may expect to see him. A certain young gentleman invited him last week to be his guest, and, although he
was not acquainted with him, he appeared at his table,
where he met Jewish and Portuguese gentlemen, with whom
he freely conversed, without distinction. Whoever is curious
to see him, has no difficulty; it is only necessary to go to
his house, and he allows anybody to approach him. It.can
easily be conceived, however, that the numerous visits, to
which he is liable, deprive him of much time."
About this time, Dr. Ernesti attacked Swedenborg in his
Bibliotheca Theologica, and, in reply, Swedenborg published
a single leaf, which, in its decisive sharpness, is truly effective. It is as follows:"I have read what Dr. Ernesti has written about me. It
consists of mere personalities. I do not. in it observe a grain
20 "*




234            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
of reason against anything in my writings. As it is against
the laws of honesty to assail any one with such poisoned
weapons, I think it beneath me to bandy words with that
illustrious man. I will not cast back calumnies by calumnies. To do this, I should be even with the dogs, which bark
and bite, or with the lowest drabs, which throw street mud in
each other's faces in their brawls. Read, if you will, what
I have written in my books, and afterwards conclude, but
from reason, respecting my revelation."
The Landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt now wrote to Swedenborg, requesting information on several subjects. Swedenborg having doubt as to the genuineness of the epistle,
did not at first reply to it, until his misgivings were set aside
by M. Venator, the minister of that prince. In his reply to
the Landgrave, he says: "The Lord our Saviour had foretold that He would come again into the world, and that he
would establish there a New Church. But as He cannot
come again into the world in person, it was necessary that
He should do it by means of a man, who should not only
receive the doctrine of this New Church in his understanding, but also publish it by printing; and as the Lord had
prepared me for this office from my infancy, He has manifested Himself in person before me, His servant, and sent me
to fill it."
The Landgrave again wrote to Swedenborg, inquiring
about the "miracle" of his intercourse with the Queen of
Sweden's brother, and Swedenborg answered that the story
was true, but "not a miracle."  He also wrote to M. Venator, "that such matters ought, by no means, to be considered
miracles: they are only testimonies that I have been introduced by the Lord into the spiritual world, and that I have
been in association with angels and spirits, in order that the
Church, which until now had remained in ignorance concerning that world, may know that heaven and hell exist iu




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               235
reality, and that man lives after death, a man, as before;
and that thus there may be no more doubt as to his immortality. Deign, I pray you, to satisfy his Highness, that these
are not miracles, but only testimonies that I converse with
angels and spirits. You may see in the'True Christian Religion' that there are no more miracles at this time; and the
reason why. It is, that they who do not believe because they
see no miracles, might easily, by them, be led into fanaticism."
Writing of miracles, Swedenborg remarks in another
place, "Instead of miracles, there has taken place, at the
present day, an open manifestation of the Lord himself, an
intromission into the spiritual world, and with it, illumination by immediate light from the Lord in whatever relates
to the interior things of the Church, but principally an
opening of the spiritual sense of the Word, in which the
Lord is present in his own Divine light. These revelations
are not miracles, because every man, as to his spirit, is in
the spiritual world, without separation from his body in the
natural world. As to myself, indeed, my presence in the
spiritual world is attended with a certain separation, but only
as to the intellectual part of my mind, not as to the will
part. This manifestation of the Lord, and intromission
into the spiritual world, is more excellent than all miracles;
but it has not been granted to any one since the creation
of the world, as it has been to me. The men of the golden
age, indeed, conversed with angels; but it was not granted
to them to be in any other light than what was natural.
To me, however, it has been granted to be in both spiritual
and natural light at the same time; and hereby I have
been privileged to see the wonderful things of heaven, to be
in company with angels, just as I am with men, and at the
same time to pursue truths in the light of truth, and thus to
perceive and be gifted with them, consequently to be led by
the Lord."




236           LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
CHAPTER XXVII.
The True Christian Beligion.
IN the early part of 1771, Swedenborg published his
"True Christian Religion, or, Universal Theology of the
New Church;" and in August of the same year took ship,
and left Amsterdam for London. Let us now turn to the
consideration of his last great work,-a summary of the
doctrines he was commissioned to teach.
"The True Christian Religion, containing the Universal
Theology of the New Church," the last work published by
Swedenborg, may be looked upon as the summary of his
spiritual thought, his theological labors, his heavenly message
to mankind. In its ninth English edition, it forms a large
octavo volume of 815 pages, and is a complete body of divinity. It is divided into fifteen chapters, a Supplement
treating of the states of Luther, Calvin, and Melancthon,
the Dutch, English, Germans, Papists, Romish saints, Mahommedans, and the Africans, in the spiritual world; and
seventy-seven memorable relations of scenes and representations witnessed in that world, interspersed between the
various chapters; altogether forming a volume unique in
literature, ancient or modern. At the risk of an occasional repetition of what has before been said, let us take a
rapid survey of the contents of this massive and marvellous
work.
Chapter I. treats of God the Creator, His Unity, the Divine Esse which is Jehovah, His Infinity or His Immensity




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               237
and Eternity, the Essence of God which is His Divine Love
and Wisdom, His Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence, and of the creation of the universe. On these
sublime subjects, themes on which, for ages, the weary reason
of man has exerted itself with the poorest results, Swedenborg, with a mathematical exactness, sets forth the true
doctrine; and with a simplicity of logic which at every step
calls the Word of God, and the reason and common sense
of man, to witness; leading the reader to wonder why truths
so simple, so soul-satisfying, should have been hidden from
human eyes so long. Whilst elucidating subjects commonly
supposed to transcend human ideas, and yet which humanity
is ever restless to discover,-reverence is in nowise deprived
of its exercise. It is a great mistake, yet a common one, to
associate mystery with true reverence; to talk of "ignorance" as " the mother of devotion." Let any one ask himself whether the reverence of Sir Isaac Newton for that God
whose operations in the universe he was favored to discover,
was inferior to that of an ignorant devotee, or an illiterate
peasant. No. A knowledge of God and His attributes is
no destroyer of faith, reverence, or devotion, but the reverse.
Our knowledge of Him, however extended, is but the enlargement of a circle, which, as it is enlarged, expands our
conception of the infinity beyond. Hence it is that whilst
this chapter on God the Creator, goes into details which are
the death of mysticism, the truths which it opens to the mind
lead to an intelligent and reverential love, to which ignorance
can never attain.
Chapter II. is devoted to the consideration of the Lord
the Redeemer. It tells how Jehovah God descended and
assumed humanity, that He might redeem and save mankind; and how the humanity was united to the Divinity,
and thus God was made man, and man God, in one Person;
that Redemption consisted in bringing the hells into subjec



238            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
tion, and the heavens into order, and in thus preparing the
way for a new spiritual Church; and how, without such Redemption, neither could men have been saved, nor could the
angels have remained in a state of integrity. Thus Redemption was a work purely divine, and could not have been
effected but by God Incarnate. The passion of the cross
was in itself alone not Redemption, but was the last temptation the Lord endured in His Humanity; and it was the
means of the glorification of that humanity. Hence it is a
fundamental error of the Church to believe the passion of
the cross to be Redemption itself; and this error, together
with that relating to three Divine Persons from eternity,
has perverted the whole.system of Christian theology.
Chapter III. sets forth the doctrine of the Holy Spirit
and the Divine Operation. The Holy Spirit is the Divine
Truth, and also the Divine Virtue and Operation, proceeding from the One God, in whom there is the Divine Trinity,
thus from the Lord God the Saviour, Jesus Christ. The
Divine Virtue and Operation in and on humanity, signified by the Holy Spirit, consists, in general, in reformation
and regeneration; and, in proportion as these are effected,
in renovation, vivification, sanctification, and justification;
and in proportion as these are effected, in purification from
evils, remission of sins, and finally salvation. The Holy
Spirit being the efflux of Jehovah through the glorified
humanity, did not exist until after the incarnation. Hence
it is nowhere said in the Old Testament, that the prophets
spoke from the Holy Spirit, but from Jehovah God. We
have a beautiful and irresistible confirmation of this truth
in these words, "for the Holy Spirit was not yet, because
that Jesus was not yet glorified." John vii. 39.
In this chapter he also speaks of the Trinity. There is a
Divine Trinity, consisting of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit;
and these three are the three Essentials of One God,-which




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               239
make a One, like soul, body, and operation in man. To
conceive of a Trinity of Divine persons from eternity, is to
think of three Gods; and no amount of word-playing and
creed-making can prevent the mind from falling into Tritheism, as long as a Trinity of persons and not of essentials is
spoken and thought of. A Trinity of persons was unknown
in the Apostolic Church. The doctrine was first broached
by the Council of Nice, and'thence received into the Roman
Catholic Church, and thus propagated among the Reformed
Churches. The Nicene and Athanasian doctrines concerning a Trinity, have, together, given rise to a faith which has
entirely perverted the Christian Church; and hence has come
that "abomination of desolation, and that affliction, such as
was not in all the world, neither shall be," which the Lord
has foretold in Daniel, the Evangelists, and the Revelation.
For when the Church ceases to know its God, the central
point of all faith and doctrine, all subsidiary points must
necessarily become involved in darkness. And thus it is
that the Athanasian creed has given rise to so many absurd
notions about God, and hence, also, to an innumerable
brood of heresies and phantasies on every point of doctrine
and life; so much so, that had not the Lord effected a Last
Judgment in 1757, and established a New Heaven and a
New Church, no flesh could have been saved. The "healing
of the nations," the new life, light and heat, that have
coursed through humanity during the past century, attest
the working of Omnipotence for the salvation and restoration of what is most valuable and precious in man.
Chapter IV. is an exposition of the nature of the Sacred
Scripture, or the Word of the Lord, proving it to be the
Divine Truth itself. The spiritual sense of the Word, and
the means by which it is unfolded, together with the law
of its composition, are explained at' length, and with great
perspicuity. It is shown that the spiritual sense is in all




240            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
and every part of the Word, that hence it is divinely
inspired, and is holy in every syllable. Nevertheless the
literal sense is not to be disregarded. It is the basis, the
continent, and the firmament of the spiritual sense; in it the
Divine Truth is in its fullness, its sanctity, and its power;
from it the doctrine of the Church is to be drawn and
confirmed; and by it conjunction with the Lord and consociation with the angels is effected. The Word is in all
the heavens, and the wisdom of the angels is thence derived.
The Church exists from the Word, and the quality of the
Church with man is according to his understanding of the
Word. The marriage of Goodness and Truth, and of the
Lord and the Church, is in every part of the Word. Men
may collect and imbibe heretical opinions from the letter
of the Word; but it is hurtful to confirm such opinions.
Many things in the Word are appearances of truth, in which
genuine truths lie concealed; and many fallacies arise from
the taking of these appearances of truth for genuine or
absolute truth. The literal sense of the Word is a guard to
the genuine truths contained in it, and in the Word is
represented by cherubs. To the wicked, it is a mercy that
spiritual truth is thus hidden; for if known and not obeyed,
it is profaned, and profanation involves the deepest suffering
and distress. The Lord, during his abode in the world,
fulfilled all things contained in the Word, and was thus
made the Word, that is, the Divine Truth, even in ultimates.
Previous to the Word which the world now possesses, there
was a Word which is lost, but is preserved in heaven among
the angels who lived as men in those times, and is also
extant among certain nations in Great Tartary, who, however, have probably no true idea of the treasure they possess.
By means of the Word, light is communicated to those who
are out of the pale of the Church, and are not in possession
of the Word. This is effected outwardly by the communica



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               241
tions of commerce, with those nations who have the Word;
and internally and insensibly by that community of soul
which makes humanity appear before the Lord as one man.
There is no thought conceived, no deed done, but which
radiates from soul to soul, and produces effects of which the
doer is not conscious. Thus it is that the Church-composed
of the men who read, love, and obey the Word-benefits the
world, and conjoins it with heaven and the Lord. Without
the Word, no one would have any knowledge of God,
of heaven and hell, or of a life after death, and much less
of the Lord. The multiplicity of points involved in these
statements, receive, in this chapter on the Sacred Scripture,
most copious illustrations, both from the Word itself, and
from the common experience of mankind. In reading this
chapter, every candid person will feel that, strange and
novel as many of the statements are, he is not dealing with
a mere theorizer; and that facts and even Revelation itself
must be done away, ere the doctrine of the Sacred Scripture
here revealed can be overthrown or proved erroneous.
Chapter V. explains the Decalogue, or the Ten Commandments, as to their external and internal sense. The Decalogue, in the Israelitishl Church, was the very essence of
holiness, and from it the ark and the tabernacle derived
their sanctity. In the Ten Commandments are contained
all things which relate to love to God, and love towards our
neighbor. In its literal sense, the Decalogue contains gen.
eral precepts of doctrine and life, but in its spiritual and
celestial sense it contains all precepts universally. Swedenborg then takes up each commandment singly, and gives an
exposition of its literal, spiritual, and celestial application;
and when he has done this, we perceive that these Ten
Commandments, which every school-boy repeats and feels
he understands, nevertheless contain all precepts, and are
Ouch as may afford guidance to the wisest angel, and that
21                     L




242            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
man can never outgrow them. Taking, for instance, the
Seventh Commandment, (the eighth, according to the comlmon numbering,) "Thou shalt not steal," he explains it in
the natural sense, after the common acceptation. In the
spiritual sense, he shows that to steal means to deprive
others of the truths which they embrace in faith, in teaching
doctrines known to be false, or teaching for the sake of gain;
and in destroying in others, either by word or deed, those
truths which lead to salvation. In the celestial sense, to
steal is to take away divine power from the Lord, to be
vain, to be proud, to arrogate to ourselves the merit and
righteousness which are the divine gifts. All who do such
things, notwithstanding their seeming adoration of God, do
not trust in Him, but in themselves; and likewise do not
believe in God, but in themselves; they steal from God;
they are spiritual thieves; and every one who knows his
own heart, must know how often he must refer to this
commandment, in order to govern his life, and restrain his
thoughts, before he can know perfect obedience, and be in
truth a. child of God. As with this commandment, so with
all. We need to think of them every day, and to use them
in all our states. If we purpose to lead a true and happy
life, we must cherish them as constant companions.
Chapter VI. treats of Faith. Faith, it is said, is first in
regard to time, and charity is first in regard to end; that is,
the use of faith is to lead to charity. A saving faith is a
faith in the Lord God the Saviour Jesus Christ, because He
is the visible God in whom is the invisible. Faith, in general, consists in a belief that the Lord will save all who live
a good life and believe aright; and a man receives this faith
in consequence of approaching the Lord, learning truths
from the Word, and living a life in conformity with them.
Faith without charity is not faith, and charity without faith
is not charity; and neither faith nor charity has any life in




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                 243
it but from the Lord. Although a man has power given
him to procure for himself faith and charity, and the life of
faith and charity, yet nothing of faith, charity, or the life
of either, is from mah, but from the Lord alone. Charity
and faith are together in good works; for charity consists in
willing what is good, and good works consist in doing what
is good, from and under the influence of a good will; and
both charity and faith are merely mental and perishable
things, unless they are determined to works, and co-exist in
them. whenever there is opportunity. The wicked have no
faith, because wickedness is of hell, and faith is of heaven,
and all the truth of faith is derived from heaven. Faith
cannot dwell with evil, for evil is like fire,-infernal fire
being the love of evil, which consumes faith like stubble,
and reduces it and all that belongs to it to ashes. Evil
dwells in darkness, and faith in light; and evil by means of
the falsehood which it loves, extinguishes faith, as darkness
does light. And because the world is at this day full of
evil, (notwithstanding the morality of life, and the rationality with which faith is spoken and written about,) of true
faith there is almost none, because of goodness there is almost none.
Chapter VII. discourses of love towards our neighbor, and
good works. It is introduced by the statement that there
are three universal loves, the love of heaven, the love of the
world, and the love of self. These three loves, when they
are in right subordination, make a man perfect; but when
they are not in right subordination, they pervert and invert
him. The love of self and of the world are not in themselves evil. When the love of heaven, that is, the love of
God, of goodness and truth, is supreme in the mind, and the
world is loved as a means to do good, and self is cared for
that uses to the neighbor may be performed,-then the love
of self and of the world are orderly and justifiable. But




,244            LIFE AN\D WRITINGS OF
when the love of God and heaven is dethroned, and the love
of self or of the world rules, and a man is religious and just
only so far as religion and justice conduce to self-interest
and thus God and justice and all things holy are put to vile
uses, then the soul of man is inverted,-is a form of hell;
and in the light of heaven appears bestial, ugly, and deformed.
Every individual man is the neighbor whom we ought to
love, but according to the quality of his goodness or his life.
Man considered collectively, that is, as a lesser or larger society, and considered under the idea of compound societies,
that is, as our country,-is the neighbor that ought to be
loved. The Church is our neighbor, to be loved in a still
higher degree, and the Lord's kingdom is our neighbor to be
loved in the highest degree. To love the neighbor is not to
love his person, but the good which is in him. Charity itself consists in acting justly and faithfully in whatever office,
business, and employment a person is engaged, and with
whomsoever he has any connection. Eleemosynary acts of
charity consist in giving to the poor, and relieving the indigent, but with prudence. There are public, domestic, and
private duties of charity. Public duties of charity are,
more especially, the payment of imposts and taxes. These
are paid with different feelings by those who are spiritual
and by those who are natural: those who are spiritual pay
them out of good will, because they are collected for the
preservation and protection of their country and the church,
and as a provision for the proper officers and governors, who
must receive their salaries out of the public treasury; therefore those who consider their country and the church as their
neighbor, pay such debts cheerfully and with a willing mind,
and consider it a wicked act either to withhold them or to
use any deceit in the payment; whereas those who do not
esteem their country and the church as their neighbor, pay




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                245
such debts with. a reluctant and unwilling mind, and, as
often as they have an opportunity, withhold them, or use
some fraud in the payment; for they regard only their own
house and their own flesh as their neighbor. The domestic
duties of charity are of several kinds, as those of a husband
to his wife, and of a wife to her husband; of parents to
their children, and of children to their parents; likewise of
a master and mistress to their servants, and of servants to
their master and mistress. There are so many duties relating
to the education of children, and the government of families, that it would require a volume to enumerate them. As
to what particularly regards the duties of parents to their
children, there is an intrinsic difference in this respect with
those who are under the influence of charity, and with those
who are not, although externally the duties may appear
similar. With those who are under the influence of charity,
parental affection is joined with love toward their neighbor
and love to God, and such parents love their children according to their morals, virtues, pursuits, and qualifications
for the service of the public; but with those who are not
under the influence of charity, there is no conjunction of
charity with parental affection; the consequence is, that such
parents frequently love wicked, immoral, and crafty children, more than those who are good, moral, and prudent;
and thus prefer such as are unserviceable to the public, before such as are serviceable. Private duties of charity are
also of several kinds, such as paying wages to workmen,
returning borrowed money, observing agreements, keeping
pledges, and other transactions of a like nature, some of
which are duties grounded in statute law, some in civil law,
and some in moral law. These duties, also, are discharged
from different motives by those who are under the influence
of charity, and by those who are not; by the former they
are discharged faithfully and justly, for the law of charity
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346            LIFE AND' WRITINGS OF
requires that a man should so act in all bis dealings, with
whomsoever he may have any connection; but these duties
are discharged in a totally different manner by those who
are not influenced by charity. Then there are convivial recreations of charity, which consist of dinners and suppers
and social intercourse. Every one knows that dinner and
supper parties are in general use, and are given to promote
various ends; by many on account of friendship, relationship, mirth, gain, recompense, and for party purposes of
corruption; among the great they are given on account of
their dignity; and in the palaces of kings, for the display
of splendor and magnificence. But dinners and suppers of
charity are given only by those who are influenced by mutual love grounded in a similarity of faith. Among Christians in the Primitive Church, dinners and suppers had this
end alone in view, and were called feasts, being instituted
that they might meet together in cordial joy and friendly
union. At table, the guests conversed together on various
subjects, domestic and civil, but particularly on such as concerned the Church; and as these feasts were feasts of charity, their conversation on every subject was influenced by
charity, with all its joys and delights. The spiritual sphere
which prevailed on such occasions, was a sphere of love to
the Lord and toward the neighbor, which exhilarated every
mind, softened the tone of every expression, and communicated to all the senses a festivity from the heart; for from
every man there emanates a spiritual sphere, derived from
the affection of his love and corresponding thought, which
inwardly affects those in his company, particularly at the
time of convivial recreations.
The first part of charity consists in putting away evils,
and the second in doing actions that are useful to our
neighbor. It is believed by many, at the present day, that
charity consists only in doing good, and that while a mar is




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                247
doing good, he does no evil; consequently, that the first part
of charity is to do good, and the second not to do evil: but
the case is altogether the reverse, it being the first part
of charity to put away evil, and.the second to do good.
FQr it is a universal law in the spiritual world, and thence
too in the natural world, that so far as a person wills no
evil, he wills what is good; consequently, so far as he turns
himself away from hell, whence all evil ascends, he turns
himself toward heaven, whence all good descends; and,
therefore, so far as any one rejects the devil, he is accepted
by the Lord. In performing the exercises of charity, a man
does not ascribe merit to works, so long as he believes that
all good is from the Lord. Moral life, if it is at the same
time spiritual life, is charity. The friendship of love, contracted with a person without regard to his spiritual quality,
is detrimental after death. The friendship of love, among
the wicked, is intestine hatred toward each other. There is
spurious charity, hypocritical charity, and dead charity.
There can be no such thing as genuine charity, which is
living, unless it make one with faith, and unless both in
conjunction look to the Lord. Spurious charity is such as
is the charity of those who hold to faith alone for salvation,
and who say charity is of no account in leading to heaven.
Such charity as these may have is spurious, because not
spiritual, and merely performed from selfish and worldly
motives. Hypocritical charity is predicable of those who,
in public or private worship, bow themselves almost to the
ground before God, pour forth long prayers with great
devotion, put on a sanctified appearance, kiss crucifixes and
bones of the dead, and kneel at sepulchers, and there mutter
words expressive of holy veneration toward God, and yet,
in their hearts nourish self-worship, and seek to be adored
like so many deities. Dead charity is predicable of those
whose faith is dead, since the quality of charity depends on




2'248          LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
the quality of faith. Faith is dead in all who are without
works, and in those who believe not in God, but in living
and dead men, and worship idols as if they were holy in
themselves, after the practice of the old Gentiles.
Chapter VIII. is devoted to the vexed question of FreeDetermination, or Free-Will. The doctrines of the Church,
as commonly held, are first stated, and then the New Church
doctrine on the question is explained under the following
heads:-The two trees in the garden of Eden, one of life,
and the other of the knowledge of good and evil, signify the
free-will which man enjoys in respect to spiritual things.
Man is not life, but a recipient of life from God. Man,
during his abode in the world, is held in the midst between
heaven and hell, and thus in a spiritual equilibrium, which
constitutes free will.
From the permission of evil, which every man experiences
in his internal man, it is evident that man has free-will in
spiritual things. Without free-will in spiritual things, the
Word would not be of any use, consequently the Church
would be a nonenity. Without free-will in spiritual things,
man would have nothing which would enable him to conjoin
himself by reciprocation with the Lord; and consequently
there would be no imputation, but mere predestination,
which is detestable. Without free-will in spiritual things,
God would be chargeable as the cause of evil. Every
spiritual principle of the Church that is admitted and
received in freedom, remains, but not otherwise.  The
human will and understanding enjoy this free-will; but the
commission of evil, both in the spiritual and natural worlds,
is restrained by laws, or else society in both would perish.
If men were destitute of free-will in spiritual things, it would
be possible for all men throughout the whole world, in a
single day, to be induced to believe in the Lord; but this
would be in vain, because nothing remains with man which




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               249
is not freely received. Miracles are not performed at the
present day because they deprive man of free-will.
Chapter IX. treats of Repentance. It is shown, in the
first place, that repentance is the first constituent of the
Church in man, and that in proportion as a man practices
it, his sins are removed; and as they are removed, they are
forgiven or remitted. Contrition, in the sense of a mere
lip-confession of being a sinner, and of being involved in the
guilt of Adam, without self-examination, is not repentance.
Every man is born with a propensity to evils of all kinds,
and unless he remove them, in part, by repentance, he
remains in them; and whoever remains in them can not be
saved. The knowledge of sin, and the discovery of some
particular sin in one's self, is the beginning of repentance.
Actual repentance consists in a man's examining himself,
knowing and acknowledging his sins, supplicating the Lord,
and beginning a new life. True repentance consists in a
man's examining not only the actions of his life, but also
the intentions of his will. Those also do the work of repentarice, who, though they do not examine themselves, abstain
from evils because they are sins; and this kind of repentance
is done by those who perform works of charity from a
religious motive. In repentance, confession ought to be
made before the Lord God the Saviour, and at the same
time supplication for help, and power to resist evils. Actual
repentance is an easy duty to those who occasionally practice
it, but it meets with violent opposition from those who never
practiced it. He that never did the work of repentance,
and never looked into, and examined, himself, comes at last
not to know the nature either of damnatory evil or saving
good.
Chapter X. describes the nature of Reformation and
Regeneration. Unless a man be born again, and, as it
were, created anew, he can not enter into the kingdom
TX




250             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
of God. This new birth, or creation, is effected by the Lord
alone, through the medium of charity and faith, during
man's cooperation. Since all are redeemed, all have a
capacity to be regenerated, every one according to his state.
The several stages of man's regeneration answer to his
natural conception, gestation in the womb, birth, and education. The first act of the new birth, which is an act of the
understanding, is called reformation; and the second, which
is an act of the will, and thence of the understanding, is
called regeneration. The internal man is first to be reformed,
and by it the external, and thus the man is regenerated.
When this takes place, there arises a combat between the
internal and external man, and then whichever conquers
has dominion over the other. The regenerate man has a
new will and understanding. A regenerate man is in communion with the angels of heaven, and an unregenerate
man is in communion with the spirits of hell. In proportion
as a man is regenerated, his sins are removed; and this
removal is what is meant by remission of sins. Regeneration
can not be effected without free-will in spiritual things.
Regeneration is not attainable without truths by which faith
is formed, and with which charity conjoins itself.
Chapter XI. is devoted to a description of what imputation
is, and what it is not. It is shown that imputation, and the
faith of the present church, which alone is said to justify,
are a one. The imputation which belongs to the faith of the
present time is two fold, the one part relating to the merit
of Christ, and the other to salvation as its consequence.
The faith which is imputative of the merit and righteousness
of Christ the Redeemer, first took its rise from the decrees
of the Council of Nice, concerning three divine persons from
eternity; and, from that time to the present, has been
received by the whole Christian world. Faith imputative
of the merit of Christ, was not known in the Apostolic




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               251
Church, which preceded the Council of Nice, and is neither
declared nor signified in any part of the Word. An imputation of the merits and righteousness of Christ is impossible.
There is such a thing as imputation, but then it is an
imputation of good and evil, and at the same time of faith.
The faith and imputation of the New Church can not be
together with the faith and imputation of the former Church;
and, in case they were together, such a collision and conflict
would ensue, that every principle of' the Church in man
would perish. The Lord imputes good to every man, and
hell imputes evil to every man. Faith, with whatever
principle it conjoins itself, passes sentence accordingly; if a
true faith conjoins itself with goodness, the sentence is for
eternal life, but if faith conjoins itself with evil, the sentence
is for eternal death. Thought is imputed to no one, but will.
Chapter XII. is a luminous exposition. of the uses of Baptism. Without a knowledge of the spiritual sense of the
Word, it is shown no one can know what the two sacraments,
Baptism  and the Holy Supper, involve and effect. The
washing which is called baptism, signifies spiritual washing,
which is a purification from evils and falses, and thus
regeneration. As circumcision of the heart was represented
*by circumcision of the foreskin, baptism was instituted in
lieu of it, to the end that an internal Church might succeed
the external, in which all and everything was a figure of the
internal Church. The first use of baptism is introduction
into the Christian Church, and at the same time insertion
among Christians in the spiritual world. The second use
of baptism is, that the Christian may know and acknowledge
the Lord Jesus Christ the Redeemer and Saviour, and may
follow Him. The third and final use of baptism is, that
man may be regenerated. By the baptism of John, a way
was prepared that Jehovah the Lord might come down into
the world, and accomplish the work of redemption.




252           LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
Chapter XIII. is taken up with a like description of the
uses of the Holy Supper. It is shown that it is impossible
for any one, without an acquaintance with the correspondences of natural things with spiritual, to know the uses and
benefits of the Holy Supper. An acquaintance with correspondences serves to discover the signification of the Lord's
flesh and blood, and that the bread and wine signify the
same; namely, that the Lord's flesh and the bread signify
the divine good of His love, and likewise all the good
of charity, and that His blood and the wine signify the
divine truth of His wisdom, and likewise all the truth
of faith, and that to eat signifies to appropriate. By understanding this, it may clearly be comprehended, that the
Holy Supper contains, both universally and particularly, all
things of the Church, and all things of heaven. In the
Holy Supper the Lord is entirely present, with the whole
of His redemption. The Lord is present, and opens heaven
to those who approach the Holy Supper worthily; and He
is also present with those who approach it unworthily, but
does not open heaven to them; consequently, as baptism is
an introduction into the Church, so the Holy Supper is an
introduction into heaven. Those approach the Holy Supper
worthily, who are under the influence of faith toward the
Lord, and of charity toward their neighbor, thus, who are
regenerate. Those who approach the Holy Supper worthily,
are in the Lord, and He in them; consequently, conjunction
with the Lord is effected by the Holy Supper. The Holy
Supper is, to the worthy receivers, as a signing and sealing
that they are sons of God.
Chapter XIV., concluding the doctrinal portion of the
work, describes the consummation of the age, the coming
of the Lord, and the new heaven and the New Church.
The consummation of the age is the last time or end of the
Church. The present day is the last time of the Christian




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               253
Jhurch, which the Lord foretold and described in the
3fospels, and in the Revelation. This last time of the
Dhristian Church, is the very night in which the former
Dhurches have set. After this night, morning succeeds; and;he coming of the Lord is this morning. The coming of the
Lord is not a coming to destroy the visible heaven and the
habitable earth, and to create a new heaven and a new
3arth, according to the opinions which many, from not
understanding the spiritual sense of the Word, have hitherto
entertained. This, which is the second coming of the Lord,
is for the sake of separating the evil from the good, that
those who have believed and who do believe in Him, may
be saved; and that there may be formed of them a new
angelic heaven, and a New Church on earth; and without
this coining no flesh could be saved. This second coming
of the Lord is not a coming in person, but in the Word,
which is from Him, and is Himself. This second coming
of the Lord is effected by the instrumentality of a man,
before whom He has manifested Himself in person, and
whom He has filled with His spirit, to teach from Him the
doctrines of the New Church by means of the Word. This
is meant by the new heaven and the new earth, and the
New Jerusalem descending out of heaven, spoken of in the
Revelation. This New Church is the crown of all the
Churches which have existed, to this time, on the earth.
On all these subjects Swedenborg discourses at length, and
in a style which, for its combined simplicity and purity, we
believe, is unmatched in theological literature. Wilkinson
says truly of the volume, that, " viewed as a digest, it shows
a presence of mind, an administration of materials, and a
faculty of handling, of an extraordinary kind. There is old
age in it in the sense of ripeness. If the intellectualist
misses there somewhat of the range of discourse, it is compensated by a certain triteness of wisdom. As a polemic,




254            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
not only against the errors of the Churches, but against the
evil lives and self-excusings of Christians, the work is unrivaled.- The criticisms of doctrine, with which it abounds,
are masterly in the extreme; and were it compared: with
any similar body of theology, we feel no doubt that the
palm of coherency, vigor, and comprehensiveness, would
easily fall to Swedenborg, upon the verdict of judges of
whatever Church."
We have said nothing of the seventy-six memorable relations strewn through the pages of the "True Christian
Religion," because the limits to which we are confined forbid
anything approaching to an adequate description of them.
They are a great trouble to new readers of Swedenborg, and
many who love'and delight in the doctrinal teachings of the
work, pass over, unread, the memorable relations, and try
not to think of them. But this is only for a time. They
are only strange and incomprehensible because the principles upon which they are written are not apprehended. The
Indian king, who was told that in northern lands water
became solid, so that his elephants might walk on it, laughed,
and was an unbeliever. But, had the law or principle by
which water becomes ice, been made plain to him, his
laughter and his unbelief would have ceased. So it is with
those who are shocked with Swedenborg's relations of things
heard and seen in the spiritual world. Let but the great
law of correspondence be understood, and the most marvelous
of the relations straightway attain an interest and reality,
which none but those who have studied them under the
bright light of correspondences can understand, or easily
believe possible. A memorable relation, which was to the
writer of this, at one time, a thing to cause pity for the man
that wrote it, is now the pleasant and practical study of a
Sunday afternoon. He knows that his experience in this
respect is paralleled by that of most Newchurchmen.




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               255
Count Hopken, -in a letter to General Tuxen, says, "I
once represented, in rather a serious manner, to this venerable man, (Swedenborg), that I thought he would do better
not to mix his beautiful writings with so many memorable
relations of things heard and seen in the spiritual world,
concerning the states of men after death,-of which ignorance makes a jest and derision. But he answered me, that
this did not depend on him; that he was too old to sport
with spiritual things, and too much concerned for his eternal
happiness to give into foolish notions; assuring me, on his
hopes of salvation, that no imagination produced in him his
revelations, which were true, and derived from what he had
heard and seen."
" The True Christian Religion" was the last work Swedenborg published; it was a worthy conclusion of his grand
labors. Among his papers, at his decease, was found an incomplete "Coronis" or Appendix to the work. This has
been translated and published, and contains an elucidation
of several interesting points.




256            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Anecdotes and Traits of Character.
SWEDENBORG arrived in London, from Amsterdam, in
August, 1771, and took up his abode in lodgings he had before occupied in the house of Shearsmith, a peruke maker, at
26 Great Bath street, Cold Bath fields. From Shearsmith
we learn several interesting' items of intelligence regarding
Swedenborg's habits and mode of life.
The dress that he generally wore when he went out to
visit, was a suit of black velvet, (made after an old fashion,)
a pair of long ruffles, a curiously hilted sword, and a goldheaded cane. In his later years he became less and less
attentive to the concerns of the world. When walking
abroad, he seemed to be engaged in spiritual communion,
and took little notice of things and people in the streets.
When he went out in Stockholm, without the observation of
his domestics, some singularity in his dress would often betray his abstraction. Once when he dined with Robsahm's
father, he appeared with one shoe-buckle of plain silver, and
the other set with precious stones,-greatly to the amusement
of some ladies of the party. When he lodged with Bergstrom, he usually walked out after breakfast, dressed neatly
in velvet, and made a good appearance. In Sweden his
dress was simple, but neat and convenient: during winter,
he was clad in a garment of reindeer skins; and, in summer,
in a study gown: "both well worn, as became a philosopher," according to Robsahm. Mr. Servante was one of
the earliest and most affectionate receivers of New Church




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               257
doctrine. Before he received the truths of the New Church,
he was once passing along St. John's street, London,
when he met an old gentleman, of a dignified and most
venerable appearance, whose deeply thoughtful, yet mildly
expressive countenance, added to something very unusual in
his general air, attracted his attention very forcibly. He
turned round, therefore, to take another view of the stranger,
who also turned around and looked at him. This was Swedenborg; but it was not until some years afterward, on seeing his portrait, that he became aware that the dignified and
venerable old gentleman was the author of those works he
now so sincerely loved, and so earnestly studied.
In person, Swedenborg was about 5 feet 9 inches high,
rather thin, and of a brown complexion. His eyes were of
a brownish grey, nearly hazel, and rather small. He had
always a cheerful smile upon his countenance. When Collin visited him, he was thin and pale, but still retained traces
of beauty, and had something very pleasing in his physiognomy, and a dignity in his erect stature. Ab Indagine tells
us his eyes were always smiling; and Robsahm, that his
"countenance was always illuminated by the light of his
uncommon genius." His manners were those of a nobleman and gentleman of the last century. He was somewhat
reserved, but complaisant; accessible to all, and had something very loving and taking in his demeanor. Personally, he left good impressions behind him  wherever he
appeared.
He did not understand the English language sufficiently
well to hold a running conversation in it; and moreover he
had an impediment in his speech. He was well acquainted,
however, with the principal modern languages, and, of
course, was thoroughly familiar with Greek and Latin, and
had a sufficient knowledge of Hebrew. All authorities
agree that his speech, though not facile, was impressive.
22's




258            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
He spoke with deliberation, and when his voice was heard,
it was a signal for silence in others, while the slowness of his
delivery increased the curiosity of the listeners. He entered
into no disputes on matters of religion, but when obliged to
defend himself, he did it mildly and briefly; and if any one
insisted upon argument, and became warm against him, he
retired, with a recommendation to them to read his writings.
One day, when Mr. Cookworthy, a member of the Society of
Friends, was with Swedenborg in his lodging, a person
present objected to something he said, and argued the point
in his own way; but Swedenborg only replied, "I receive
information from the angels on such things." One day, when
dining with some Swedish clergy in London, a polemic tried
to controvert the doctrine concerning the Lord, and the nature of our duty to Him; when, according to Mr. Burkhardt,
"Swedenborg overthrew the tenets of his opponent, who appeared but a child to him in knowledge."
Swedenborg was practically a vegetarian. Shearsmith
said he sometimes ate a few eels, and his servant informs us
that he once had some pigeon pie; but his usual diet was
bread and butter, milk and coffee, almonds and raisins, vegetables, biscuits, cakes, and gingerbread. The gingerbread
he used to take out with him into the area of Cold Bath
square, (now covered with houses,) and distribute it among
the children as they played around him. He was a waterdrinker, but occasionally, when in company, drank one or
two glasses of wine, but never more. He took no supper.
Of coffee he was a great drinker, which he took very sweet,
and without milk. At his house in Stockholm, he had a fire
during winter almost constantly in his study, at which he
made his own coffee and drank it often, both during the day
and in the night.
From the commencement of his illumination, Swedenborg
was very particular as to his diet; and his Diary contains




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               259
many references to his food, and to the spiritual association
which various kinds of nutriment induced. In one place we
read under the heading of "the Stink of Intemperance,"
"One evening I took a great meal of milk and bread, more
than the spirits, considered good for me. On this occasion
they dwelt upon intemperance, and accused me of it." Indeed, on the first opening of his spiritual sight, in London,
in 1743, when being very hungry from much exercise, he ate
with great appetite, the spiritual stranger who appeared, saluted him with the -words, " Eat not so much."  In his treatise on Heaven and Hell, n. 299, he writes: "It has also
been granted me to know the origin of the anxiety, grief of
mind, and interior sadness, called melancholy, with which
man is afflicted.- There are certain spirits who are not yet in
conjunction with hell, being yet in their first state, who love
undigested and malignant substances, such as food when it
lies corrupting in the stomach. They consequently are present where such substances are to be found in man, because
these are delightful to them; and they there converse with
one another from their own evil affection. The affection
contained in their discourse thence enters the man by influx;
and if it is opposed to the man's affection, he experiences
melancholy, sadness, and anxiety; whereas if it agrees with
his affection, he becomes gay and cheerful. Hence was made
manifest to me the origin of the persuasion entertained by
some who do not know what conscience is, by reason that
they have none, when they attribute its pangs to a disordered
state of the stomach." Of the killing and eating the flesh
of animals, he writes thus in the Arcana Ccelestia, n. 1002.
"Eating the flesh of animals, considered in itself, is something profane; for the people of the most ancient time on
no account ate the flesh of any beast or fowl, but only grain,
especially bread made of wheat, also the fruits of trees,
pulse, milk, and what is produced from milk, as butter. To




260            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
kill animals and to eat their flesh, was to them unlawful, and
seemed as something bestial; and they were content with the
uses and services which they rendered, as appears also from
Genesis i. 29, 30. But in succeeding times, when man began to grow fierce as a beast, yea fiercer, then first they began
to kill animals, and to eat their flesh. And because man
was such, this was permitted, and at this day also is permitted; and so far as man does it from conscience, so far is
it lawful, for his conscience is formed of all those things
which he thinks to be true, and so thinks to be lawful:
wherefore also, at this day, no one is by any means condemned
for this, that he eats flesh."
Swedenborg took snuff, as was the custom in his day.
Some of his manuscripts yet bear traces of the dingy powder.
Shearsmith gives the same account of Swedenborg's habits
of sleep, as his gardener at Stockholm. He had no regard
for times and seasons, days or nights, only taking rest as he
felt disposed. This was naturally to be expected, considering the peculiarities of his seership. At first, Shearsmith
was greatly alarmed, by reason of his talking day and night.
Sometimes he would be writing, and then he would be, as it
were, holding a conversation with several persons. But as
Swedenborg spoke in a language Shearsmith did not understand, he could make nothing of it. Shearsmith was nevertheless well pleased with his lodger. His servant told Mr.
Peckitt, after Swedenborg's death, that " he was a good-natured man, and that he was a blessing to the house, for they
had harmony and good business whilst he was with them."
A short time before his death, he lay for some weeks in a
trance, without any sustenance.
Swedenborg's pension preserved him from all pecuniary
cares. Yet in his Diary we read: "I have now been for
thirty-three months in a state in which my mind is withdrawn
from bodily affairs, and hence can be present in the societies




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               261
of the spiritual and celestial. Yet whenever I am intent
upon worldly matters, or have cares and desires about
money, (such as caused me to write a letter to-day,) I lapse
into a bodily state; and the spirits, as they inform me, cannot speak with me, but say they are in a manner absent.
This shows me that spirits cannot speak with a man who
dwells upon worldly and bodily cares; for the things of his
body draw down his ideas, and drown them in the body.March 4, 1748." This experience is worthy of, record.
MIost of us, in our own way, know the truth of it, from heart
experience. Whatever his motives were, he would receive
back no proceeds from the sale of his theological works, but
dedicated the whole to religious subscriptions. To beggars
he seldom gave anything. In his writings, he in several
places protests against the sham charity which satisfies itself
by mere alms-giving. He tells us that habitual beggars lead
vicious and impious lives, and that to give them money is
rather to curse than to bless them. Swedenborg did not lend
money; for that, he said, is the way to lose it; besides, as he
remarks, he required it nearly all to pay the expenses of his
traveling and printing.
In his later years, Swedenborg had no library but his
Bible, in various editions, and his own manuscripts. What
need had he of the books of men, when he knew the
heavens,-and the glorified authors of earth, in states of
wisdom they never dreamed of here?
Swedenborg seldom went to church; for, as he said, he
"had no peace in the church, on account of spirits, who
contradicted what the preacher said, especially when he
spoke of Three Persons in the Godhead, which amounted in
reality to three Gods."
Swedenborg's long and arduous labors on earth were now
ended. Let us approach his death-bed with reverence, and
observe how a good man can die.




262             LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
CHAPTER XXIX.
Last Days on BEarth.
OCN' Christmas eve, 1771, a stroke of apoplexy deprived
Swedenborg of his speech, and lamed one side. He lay
afterwards in a lethargic state for more than three weeks,
taking no sustenance beyond a little tea without milk, and
cold water occasionally, and once a little currant jelly. At
the end of that time, he recovered his speech and health
~somewhat, and ate and drank as usual. Mr. Hartley and
Dr. 5Messiter at this time visited him, and asking him if he
was comforted with the society of angels, as before, he
answered that he was. They then asked him to declare
whether all that he had written was strictly true, or whether
any part or parts were to be excepted. "I have written,"
answered Swedenborg, with a degree of warmth, "nothing
but the truth, as you will have more and more confirmed to
you all the days of your life, provided you keep close to the
Lord, and faithfully serve Him alone, by shunning evils
of all kinds as sins against Him, and diligently searching
His Word, which, from beginning to end, bears incontestable
witness to the truth of the doctrines I have delivered to the
world."
At this time Swedenborg seemed to love privacy, and saw
but little company. His old friend, Springer, the Swedish
Consul in London, called upon him a week or two before
his decease. Springer asked him when he believed that the
New Jerusalem, or the New Church of the Lord, would be




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               263
manifested, and if this manifestation would take place in
the four quarters of the world. Swedenborg replied: "No
mortal can declare the time, no, not even the celestial
angels; it is known solely to the Lord. Read the Revelation, chapter xxi. 2, and Zechariah, chapter xiv. 9, and you
will find that it is not to be doubted that the New Jerusalem,
mentioned in the Apocalypse, which denotes a new and
purer state of the Christian Church, than has hitherto
existed, will manifest itself to all the earth."
About this time, says Springer, Swedenborg told him that
his spiritual sight was withdrawn, after he had been favored
with it for so long a course of years. This, of w&hich the
world knew nothing, and for which it cared nothing, it was
the greatest affliction to him to lose. He could not endure
the blindness, but cried out repeatedly, "O my God! hast
thou then forsaken thy servant at last?" He continued for
several days in this condition, but it was the last of his
trials: he recovered his precious sight, and was happy.
About this time he wrote a note, in Latin, to the Rev.
John Wesley, to the following effect:"GREAT BATH STREET, COLD BATH FIELDS, February, 1772.
"SIR,-I have been informed, in the world of spirits, that
you have a strong desire to converse with me. I shall be
happy to see you, if you will favor me with a visit.
"I am, sir, your humble servant,
"EMANUEL SWEDENBORG."
When the note was handed to AMr. Wesley, he was in
company with some of his preachers, arranging their preaching circuits for the year. Wesley read the note aloud, and
frankly confessed that he had been strongly actuated by a
desire to meet Swedenborg, but he had revealed his wish to
no one. He wrote for answer, that he was then occupied in
preparing for a six months' journey, but would wait upon




264            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
Swedenborg on his return to London. Swedenborg, in reply,
stated that the proposed visit would be too late, as he should
go into the world of spirits on the 29th day of the next
month, (March,) never more to return. Wesley did not
call, and they never met. Had he been wise, he would, in
spite of engagements, have embraced this opportunity of conversing with that wonderful man, after an invitation of such
a character. Had they met, Methodism might have been a
different thing from what it is. But let us believe that all
such seeming accidents are overruled for the best.
The authority for this anecdote is the Rev. Samuel Smith,
a Methodist preacher, who was present when Wesley received Swedenborg's letter. It excited his curiosity to know
something of the writings of so remarkable a man; and the
result was, a firm conviction of the rationality and truth of
the heavenly doctrine promulgated in them, and a zealous
activity in their diffusion, throughout the remainder of his
life.
Mr. Bergstrom, the landlord of the King's Arms tavern
in Wellclose square, at whose house Swedenborg had once
lodged, called to see him in his last days. Swedenborg told
him, that since it had pleased the Lord to take away the use
of his arm by palsy, his body was good for nothing but to
be put under ground. Mr. Bergstrom asked him whether
he would receive the Sacrament. Somebody present at the
time proposed sending for the Rev. Mr. Mathesius, a minister of the Swedish Church. Swedenborg at once declined
having that gentleman, for he had sent abroad a report that
Swedenborg was out of his senses. (Mathesius himself, in
later years, became deranged.) The Rev. Arvid Ferelius,
another Swedish clergyman, with whom Swedenborg was on
the best terms, and who had visited him frequently in his
illness, was then sent for. Ferelius observed to him, that
"as many persons thought he had endeavored only to make




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               265
himself a name, or acquire celebrity in the world, by the
publication of his new theological system, he should now be
ready, in order to show justice to the world, to recant either
the whole or a part of what he had written, since he had
Inow nothing more to expect from the world which he was so
soon to leave forever." Upon hearing these words, Swedenborg raised himself half upright in his bed, and placing
his sound hand upon his breast, said, with great zeal and
emphasis, "As true as you see me before you, so true is everything which I have written. I could say more, were I permitted. When you come into eternity, you will see all things
as I have stated and described them; and we shall have
much discourse about them with each other."  Ferelius then
asked him if he would take the Lord's Holy Supper. He
replied, "You mean well, but I, being a member of the
other world, do not need it. However, to show the connection and union between the church in heaven and the church
on earth, I will gladly take it." He then asked Ferelius if
he had read his views on the Sacrament. Before administering the Sacrament, Ferelius inquired whether he confessed
himself to be a sinner. "Certainly," said Swedenborg, "so
long as I carry about with me this sinful body." With deep
and affecting devotion, with folded hands, and with his head
uncovered, he confessed his own unworthiness, and received
the Holy Supper. He then presented Ferelius with a copy
of his Arcana Ccelestia, expressing his gratitude to him for
his kind attentions.
He knew that his end was near. He told the people of
the house on what day he should die, and Shearsmith's
servant remarked, "he was as pleased as I should have been,
if I was going to have a holiday, or going to some merrymaking."
His faculties were clear to the last. On Sunday, the 29th
day of March, 1772, hearing the clock strike, he asked hiE
23                     M




266            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
landlady and her maid, who were both sitting at his bed-side,
what o'clock it was; and upon being answered it was five
o'clock, he said, "It is well; I thank you; God bless you;"
and in a little moment after, he gently departed. He was
then 84 years, 8 weeks, and five days, old.
His body was taken to the undertaker's, where it lay in
state; and then was, on the 5th day of April, deposited in
three coffins, in the vault of the Swedish Church, in Prince's
square, Radcliffe Highway, with all the ceremonies of the
Lutheran faith,-the service being performed by the Rev.
Arvid Ferelius.
There the body still lies. No stone, or inscription marks
the spot. Swedenborg of all men, least requires monumental commemoration. Every year enshrines his memory in
increasing numbers of grateful hearts; —grateful to him, as
a medium, whereby the Infinite Wisdom and Goodness might
reach its end in blessing mankind by the advent of spiritual
truth, and leading them within the gates of the Holy City,
New Jerusalem.




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               267
CHAPTER XXX.
Progress of the New Church.
SWEDENBORG widely distributed his works during his
lifetime, presenting copies to libraries and to distinguished
and learned persons everywhere. With the Latin edition
of his "Arcana Ccelestia," he issued an English version of
volumes I. and II., in numbers, at a very cheap rate. None
of his other works were translated into English in his lifetime, with the exception of his little treatise "On the intercourse of the Soul and the Body."  This work was translated
by his attached friend, William Cookworthy. Six years
after Swedenborg's death, in 1778, "Heaven and Hell" was
published in English by James Phillips, the Quaker bookseller in George Yard, Lombard street, London. William
Cookworthy was the translator of this work also, and defrayed the cost of the whole edition. The Rev. Thomas
Hartley revised the translation, and wrote for it an excellent
preface, which to this day forms a useful introduction to the
work. Book after book was translated by other hands; and
the Rev. John Clowes, Rector of St. John's, Manchester,
having embraced the doctrines of the New Jerusalem, set
about the work of translation in earnest, and gave to the
world an excellent and accurate English version of the
"Arcana Ccelestia" in thirteen volumes. In 1810, the "Society for Printing and Publishing the Writings of the Hon.
Emanuel Swedenborg" was formed, and from that time to
this has perseveringly pursued its useful labors, sustained by




O68            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
the contribution of friends. In 1854 a gentleman munificently presented the Society with ~3000 to purchase an independent house of publication, and the result was its establishment in a handsome edifice in Bloomsbury street,
Oxford street, London. During the past year, the "Swedenborg Society" has reduced the price of its publications
one third; and now, quality of workmanship considered,
there are no cheaper books in England. It is desirable that
works filled with such heavenly thoughts, and capable
of so great use and service, should have no bar whatever to
a free and wide diffusion.
In the United States of America several editions of Swedenborg's works have been published, and their circulation
has been considerably greater than in England. In New
York has recently been established an "American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society," which, in the few
years of its existence, in the public spirit of its management,
and the excellence and beauty of its editions, promises to
rival and excel its English predecessor. But in such labors
of love it is a happiness to be surpassed.
In France, translations of various works of Swedenborg
have been executed from time to time. M. Le Boys Des
Guays, of St. Amand, Cher, has been, however, the chief
laborer in this field. Sustained by some kind friends, but,
most of all, by his own ardent perseverance, the Lord's gift,
he has executed a uniform translation of the whole of Swedenborg's published theological works. In France, the sale
of these works is as yet small, but the dawning of a better
lay is looked for with confiding faith.
In Germany, Dr. Tafel, librarian to the University of
rubingen, has been the principal worker in the translation
ind diffusion of Swedenborg's writings. More than this, he
ias reprinted many of his works in the original Latin, and
las been the means of the publication of Swedenborg's




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.                239
Adversaria and Diarium, from his MSS., thus securing
those invaluable records of spiritual experience from all
danger of loss. In Germany, as in France, the readers
of Swedenborg, as compared with those in England and
America, are yet few. In Sweden but little interest, as
yet, is taken in his writings. His countrymen seem proud
of him, principally on account of his fame abroad. From
all that is observed, we are inclined to conclude that Swedenborg can have a fair hearing only in nations where
thought and speech are alike free. In the "True Christian
Religion," speaking of the "noble English nation," he says:
"The English are in the center of all Christians, because
possessed of interior intellectual light, derived from the
liberty of speaking and writing; while nations, who do not
possess such liberty, have this light presented in a confused
manner, for it wants an outlet." He also compares free
nations, in relation to the Church and theology, to eagles
which raise themselves to any height; whilst nations not
free are like tame swans in a river. Free nations are also
like stags, which range with full license through the plains,
groves, and forests; whereas nations not free are like deer
enclosed in parks, kept for some prince's pleasure.
It will have been observed, in the course of our narrative,
that Swedenborg made no attempt to gather the receivers
of the doctrines he was sent to promulgate, into a separate
body or sect. When he was attacked by Dr. Ekebom, he
defended himself from. the Word, the Formula Concordioe,
and the Confessions of the Lutheran Church. When Doctors Beyer and Rosen were charged with heresy, he counseled
a like defense. His friends, the Rev. Thomas Hartley,
rector of Winwick, in Northamptonshire, and William
Cookworthy, a distinguished minister in the Society of
Friends, both remained in their old connections until the
time of their death, although perfectly confirmed in the
23 *




270            LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
doctrines of the New Church. Later, the Rev. John Clowes
spent a long life in the Church of England, ministering to a
large and affectionate congregation, while alike by tongue
and pen he spread abroad the pure faith of the New Jerusalem,-he, with some others, believing that the new doctrines
would quietly displace the old, and that no external separation was called for. Others, however, thought differently,
and on June 1st, 1788, in Great East Cheap, London,
was inaugurated an external organization, calling itself the
New Church. One after another, societies in England and
Scotland have been formed for the public worship of the
Lord Jesus Christ, until in the present year there exist some
sixty or seventy such associations. They are most numerous
in Lancashire. These societies are represented in an annual
conference, which attends to the general business of the
Church, and ordains ministers. It has, moreover, prepared
a liturgy and book of hymns, and from various grants
of money which have been made to it, supports schools in
many districts. The conference also possesses, as its organ,
a monthly magazine, called the "Intellectual Repository, or
New Jerusalem Magazine." The societies of which this
conference is composed, possess complete liberty, and manage
their own affairs without interference.
In America matters are much the same as in England.
There is a general convention, corresponding to the English
conference. It also has its organ in a monthly journal, the
"New Jerusalem Magazine," published in Boston. In addition, it has lately started a weekly newspaper, "The New
Jerusalem Messenger," published in New York. Professor
Bush, of New York, likewise edits a monthly magazine with
distinguished ability, entitled the "New Church Repository."
In America the New Church has made considerably greater
visible progress than in England, particularly in the state
of Massachusetts.




EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.               271
But it is ever to be remembered that the New Church is
a Dispensation and not a Sect; and is to be measured oy
the goodness and truth in the world, and not by the lipconfession of a creed. The Lord God Almighty, the Creator
of heaven and earth, took unto Himself an arm of flesh, in
assuming our humanity, and through it has come near to
men that He might redeem them from all their foes. Like
all Divine works, this has been gradual. The first Christian
Church was founded; but, as the centuries glided away, it
gradually lost its first purity and innocence, forgot the simplest teachings of its Founder, and fell into evil states, "such
as were not since the beginning of the world, no, nor ever
shall be." But the Lord "shortened those days; else, no
flesh had been saved," and He chose Swedenborg as His
servant to bear testimony to the world how such things were,
and how, in executing the Last Judgment, He cast down
the hells, and swept from the souls of men the myriads of
evil spirits which hung like a pall of death around them.
Writing in 1771, Swedenborg says: "The reduction of the
heavens and the hells to order is not yet accomplished, but
has continued in its process since the day of the Last Judgment until now, and still continues."-T. C. R., n. 123.
We are beginning to realize the effects of these great changes.
In the times in which we live, the nations feel the breath of
a new Spring upon their spirits, but faintly conceive the
Divine Source from which the inspiration comes. All speak
of the new spirit which animates men, and history is in vain
appealed to for its cause. History contains no parallel to
the things which now are, and the things which are to come.
The world has entered upon a new course. The Lord has
said: "Behold I make all things new."  And in the days
which are to come, the Divine will shall be done on earth as
in heaven; for the promise of the New Jerusalem is, "Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell




272            EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.
with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself
shall be with them, and be their God; and the nations of
them that are saved shall wall in the light of it; and there
shall be no night there... I Jesus have sent mine
angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am
the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and
morning star. The Spirit and the Bride'say, Come; and
let him that heareth say, Come; and let him that is athirst
come; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life
freely... Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Amen."
"There are five classes of those who read my writings.
The first reject them entirely, because they are in another
persuasion, or because they'are in no faith. The second
receive them as scientifics, or as objects of mere curiosity.
The third receive them intellectually, and are in some measure pleased with them, but whenever they require an application to regulate their lives, they remain where they were
before. The fourth receive them in a persuasive manner,
and are thereby led, in a certain degree, to amend their lives
and perform uses. The fifth receive them with delight, and
confirm them in their lives."-Swedenborg's Spiritual Diary
2955.
THE END.




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