Roman literature, and to shew their application to the common concerns of human life.* His next step was to study the interiors of nature; and to ascertain the principles, causes, and modes of her activities-her powers and forms;-since nature cannot be properly and philosophically contemplated unless these things are understood, no more than the order and regularity of the motions of the heavenly bodies can be properly considered unless the mathematical Principia of the universe are comprehended. Newton has demonstrated these mathematical Principia, and Swedenborg has attempted to demonstrate the physical Principia of the universe. What Newton has attempted to shew, by the terms gravitation, attraction, repulsion, &c., without knowing what those terms really involve, Swedenborg has attempted to demonstrate that element in nature, which is the cause of the phenomena denoted by gravitation, &c. These two kinds of Principia are necessary to form a perfect system; but the one may be contemplated apart from the other. In order that it may be still further seen what is meant by the Principia, we would illustrate the subject by physiology. The body has its natural Principia as well as the universe, and it has also its mathematical Principia; but they are of a far more exalted kind in the microcosm than in the macrocosm, because more nearly connected with the seat of life. The Principia of the body are the vital action, and the inmost organic forms called unities; together with the modes of their operation, which are, properly, their functions and uses. Every organic form has a motion which is more or less spiral and circular, in perfect correspondence with the form itself. This motion of the form is the result of vital action, which, again, is the result of the influx by correspondence of the spirit into the body. This influx is powerful in proportion to the activity of the love which is the life of the spirit, and which, by influx and correspondence, is the life of the body also. This vital action actuates, as its primary element in the body, the animal spirit which dwells in the cortical substances of the brain, as its primary residence, although it is universal in the fibrous system throughout the body. Now these, if we mistake not, are some of the Principia of the animal kingdom; and to understand them properly, is to have an enlightened view of the interior principles of physiology, a knowledge of which is of eminent use to all the sciences concerning the body;-the conditions of its health, the origin of its diseases, and the means of their removal, are more clearly seen, and more accurately applied, when these principles are understood. But, as

* See this work reviewed in the Intellectual Repository for 1842, pp. 60, 147. + See "Animal Kingdom," Index, p. 650.

N. S. NO. 64.-VOL. VI.

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our object is here to shew to our readers what is meant by Principia, this may probably be still more clearly illustrated by the principia relating to the soul of man, These are, first,-the vital action from God, who alone is Life; secondly,-the spiritual organic forms of will and understanding, and their degrees, of which the nature of the soul, as to substance, consists; and, thirdly,-the modes of their operation: thus, the whole is actuated and affected by love, and the mode of operation is affection. If this affection is in agreement with the vital action from God, it is a good affection, and its result, when properly directed by truth, is a good work or use; but if the affection be not in harmony with the vital action from God, it is evil, and the result, when reduced to an ultimate effect, is an evil work. In like manner the understanding is affected by truth, and the mode of its operation is the act of understanding, [intelligendi,] which, if it react in agreement with the vital action from God, is received and manifested as truth, and vice versâ. Now, what is here abstractedly expressed is strictly in agreement with the more familiar terms, in theology, of charity, faith, and good works; for charity is the result of being rightly affected with the vital action of love from God, and faith is the effect of being properly influenced by truth from Him, and good works are the fruits hence resulting. If, therefore, we knew but little or nothing of these Principia respecting the soul, we should be in gross ignorance as to its real nature, its relation to God, its form, and its mode of operation; and, consequently, we should be in great obscurity as to the way and means by which we can attain to wisdom and salvation. Now, as there are Principia in relation to the body and the soul, or to man's internal world, so there are Principia in relation to the external world; and the great object of the work before us is to develope and demonstrate those Principia.

Swedenborg says "that there are two foundations of truth; one from the Word, which is for the universal heaven, thus for those who are in the light of heaven, and another for those who are in natural light. These foundations, however, agree with one another, because all things of heaven have their foundation in the laws of order in nature, both in the world and in man, which foundation remains constantly fixed, as the body, and the things which are of the body and its senses, are respectively to the things which are of the will and the understanding." Here the author plainly teaches us how desirable it is to have a foundation of truth, based upon the laws of order in nature. One of these foundations is indispensable to our admission into heaven after death; and there can be no doubt that the other is most desirable, and that it will add strength

* Diary, 5709.

and stability to the former if properly laid. This, we think, is a strong inducement to cultivate philosophy both natural and mental, in connection with theology; and we are certain that as the New Church advances, there will be a temple of wisdom, both natural and spiritual, erected, such as the earth has never yet witnessed. The house which Solomon built in the forest of Lebanon, in which "there were windows in three rows, and light was against light in three ranks," is a representative of that state of mind in which all things of science, philosophy, aud theology are beautifully arranged according to heavenly order, when light and harmony prevail in every part.

Swedenborg in his Principia commences with the INFINITE, from which all things are derived, preserved, and sustained in the order of their nature. This is his great PRINCIPIUM, and the origin of all things. From this as its immediate derivation is the first Point, or the first Simple. The definition of the mathematical point, of which, as most of our readers are probably aware, neither length, breadth, thickness, nor solidity, &c. is predicated, is the definition which the author gives of his first Point. Mathematics, of which geometry is the base, is for the natural mind, the science of sciences, and we can easily imagine that the assumption of the geometrical point as the first or intermediate between the Infinite and the absolute Finite, will be highly pleasing to all mathematicians, who alone, in this respect, can properly appreciate the beauty of the order in which Swedenborg begins the development of the Principia. For with him the geometrical point is not a mere ens rationis, -a merely imaginary thing, but it is an actual principle; for, as in geometry it is the first principle, without which no geometry, and consequently no mathematics and no mechanism, can exist; so in the universe of Finites, both of Actives and Passives, no motion and no organization can exist without this point. This first Point is consequently indefinite, and we know that the indefinite is the intermediate between the Infinite and the Finite. This indefinite, in its aspect or its relation to the Infinite, partakes of what is Infinite, and in its aspect or relation to the Finite, it partakes of the Finite. This is universally the case with all intermediates. And here we cannot but remark, that Swedenborg somewhere defines the sun of the spiritual world as this first Point, or as this intermediate which is not infinite, but indefinite; between the absolute Infinite, or the Lord, and the absolute Finite.-(See D. L. W. 86, 93, 97, 152, 290.) Now, in this Point, there is, says E. S., an internal state tending to a spiral motion." This motion is the first correspondent to life itself, which is the Infinite, and the form of this motion is spiral (or screw-like), which, is the most perfect of geometrical and mechanical

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forms, since it is the perpetual circular. And here we may observe, that the doctrine of motion, which is spiral, axilary, and local, or from place to place, if nothing obstructs, and also of forms corresponding to these motions, constitutes an essential feature of the Principia. From this first principle the author derives, in succession, others more and more finite and composite, both Actives, Passives, and Elementaries, which latter are always the result of the two former, until at length he shews us that the first visible element is the magnetic, by which the sun as the greatest magnet attracts the planets, both primary and secondary, and keeps them in their proper position and relation to himself and to each other. There is something, if we may use the expression, enchanting in this philosophy, since it appears to be the correspondent natural plane to a higher spiritual philosophy, which teaches us, that love is the divinely attractive power which keeps us, so long as we are in heavenly order, in our proper relation to the Lord, as the infinitely magnetic source of attraction; and also in our proper relation to each other, as so many minor magnets, in the image and likeness of the Greatest. Nature, according to Swedenborg, is the same in the least as in the greatest. His doctrine of Unities, alluded to above, plainly demonstrates this. A single drop of water from the briny deep, is, as a unity, both as to form and predicates, an image of the entire ocean. And so great is the simplicity of the author's Principia, that he eventually demonstrates, that in “a single drop of water is latent the whole elementary world, both visible and invisible; ”—that is, all the principles from the first point, both the actives and the passives, and the first or most universal element, and the second or the magnetic element, and the third or the ether, and the fourth or the air, are all involved in a drop of water, and from which they may also be evolved by the mechanical action of fire.

We must, however, here stop for the present: we will only remark, that the study of these Principia is a fine intellectual exercise for all who desire to become acquainted with natural philosophy. The nature and properties of power by steam, which is almost omnipotent in the physical world at the present day, would be far better understood if these Principia of the elementary world were properly studied. It would be interesting to know how far Swedenborg, in his later years, especially after his spiritual illumination had commenced, considered these earlier productions of his pen, as a natural philosopher, in accordance with the superior views which he afterwards must have had, even concerning natural things. We are not aware that he has left any thing on record in his writings from 1745, in refutation of the deductions he came to in this work, although he alludes, in the small work on the "In

tercourse between the Soul and the Body" (20), to the fact of his having been a natural philosopher; but in his Spiritual Diary (222), dated October 27, 1747, there appears to be something in confirmation of the elementary Principia he had established. The fact is, that whatever is founded on the principles and laws of order in the natural world, as a genuine rational deduction, is necessarily in agreement with the higher and highest principles and laws of order in the spiritual world, since both kinds of Principia not only correspond to each other, but the natural serve the spiritual as a foundation.

On the Philosophy of a Divine Revelation, by Means of Inspired Writings, and of "God Manifest in the Flesh," in the Person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. By A. J. Le Cras.

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In our former number we inserted a brief notice of this work, which was intended to be placed in the small columns under the head of " New Publications." We then said that there is in this book " a luminous statement of many New Church doctrines and principles," and that the difference between genuine and apparent truths is clearly demonstrated." On further inspection and examination, however, we feel that we shall not have discharged our duty aright, unless we advert to one feature of importance in the work, which appears to us calculated to open the crooked path of error and misapprehension, rather than to conduct the reader in the way of truth.

There is one fact that most deeply impresses itself upon the attention of the readers of Swedenborg, which is, that no form of mental and metaphysical philosophy in his day was ever adopted by him as the medium of conveying truth. "Philosophy," says he, (meaning things metaphysical and logical, as cultivated in his time,) "draws down the understanding into the dust, and is only feculent froth." (A. C. 3348.)*

Idealism was evidently one of those forms of mental philosophy, which is involved by him in the condemnation he pronounces. He sometimes expressly states, and he everywhere assumes, that the objects and phenomena of the natural world, exist independently of the senses and sensations of the human mind; thus he expressly declares that "all material things are in themselves fixed, because they are permanent, however the states of men are changed." (A. E. 1218, D. L. W. 160, D. P. 46.) This, however, is not the case with objects and phenomena in the spiritual world, which

In reference to this entirely perverted state of human philosophy, see Spiritnal Diary, 609, 676, 2263.