Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

THIRD AND CHEAPER EDITION. Pp. 227, foolscap 8vo, cloth, price is. 6d. THE EVENING AND THE MORNING.

The "Standard" says:-

"It is not often that one meets with a book of this kind, so entirely free from religious cant, bigotry, and bitterness, and yet so full of wise and reverent thought and of earnest belief."

The "School Board Chronicle" says:"We are of opinion that within the last half-century a larger number of intellectual sceptics have been brought back within the pale of Christianity by the doctrines of the founder of the New Jerusalem than by all other forms of Christian faith together."

The "Literary World" says:"We are prepared to admit that it is decidedly interesting, and that in many points it is conclusive and irrefutable. In one great respect we must express a hearty appreciation of the character of this book. It exhibits with much force and clearness the essential relation which exists between a right state of feeling and a reverent belief in God and His Word. . . . We may bespeak for this book an earnest attention, and promise that it will afford both pleasure and profit to those who will read it."

The "Tatler" says:

"We have rarely read any treatise, however learned, that was more effective in dealing with the shallow scepticism of the day. . . . We can conceive that it would become a powerful agent for the dissipation of doubt in the mind of any person who should thoroughly grasp its impregnable positions."

The "Morning Advertiser" says:"Unlike most books of theological controversy, this is not dull; and, though it may be objected that the writer has both sides of the controversy in his own hands, no one will say that he uses his opportunities unfairly."

The "Westminster Gazette" says:"The tale before us is written with an excellent purpose. It is the story of a young man who is led gradually from unbelief to Christianity; and though the subject is in itself trite enough, it is not treated in a commonplace manner."

LONDON: JAMES SPEIRS, 36 Bloomsbury Street.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1880.

Pp. 113, crown 8vo, sewed, 6d.

PAPERS

READ BEFORE THE

Price Three Halfpence.

HAMSTEAD HILL SCHOOL,

HANDSWORTH, BIRMINGHAM. Conducted by T. C. LOWE, B.A. Country air, commodious premises, beauti

SWEDENBORG READING SOCIETY, ful situation, extensive grounds, cricket-field,

SESSION 1879-80.

CONTENTS.

Temptations. By Arthur Faraday. The Brain and its Connection with the Soul and the Body. By R. L. Tafel, A.M., Ph.D.Equilibrium. By James Speirs.-The Relation of the Divine Providence to Earthquakes,

[ocr errors]

etc. etc.

Since 1871, 130 of Mr. Lowe's Pupils have passed University and other Public Examinations.

Prospectuses on application.

Cyclones, and other Abnormal Natural Phe. TO LET.—An excellent Dwelling

nomena, and to Calamitous Accidents. By J.
A. Parker.-Sheol and Hades: their Significa-
tion in the Word and their Translations in the
Writings. By C. Griffiths.-The Order of
Regeneration. By J. H. Spalding.-The
Three Atmospheres. By J. B. Keene.-
Spheres. By Alfred Horton.

LONDON: JAMES SPEIRS, 36 Bloomsbury Street.

Ready with the November Magazines.
THE NEW CHURCH MANUAL AND

A

YEAR-BOOK, 1881.

SUCCESSOR to the New Church

Almanac and Year-book, contains historical and other notices of Emanuel Swedenborg and all our Institutions, Directory of Ministers and Leaders, all Conference Officers, Trustees, Members of Council and Examining Boards, Secretaries of Committees and of Institutions, etc., an extended list of Isolated Receivers, a priced list of New Church Literature for the year, besides doctrinal extracts.

Price One Penny; Ninepence per Dozen. For special advertisements of a local character apply to the Rev. W. C. Barlow, M.A., 2A Roslyn Avenue, Denmark Street, London, S.E.

SECOND EDITION, JUST PUBLISHED.
With Portrait and Vignettes, Price 75. 6d.
MEMOIRS

OF THE

LIFE AND WORK

OF

DR. PHILIP PEARSALL CARPENTER,

EDITED BY HIS BROTHER, RUSSELL LANT CARPENTER, B.A. "This is a remarkable and most interesting book. It details in a graphic, lively, and truthful manner, largely from his own letters, the career of a genuine servant of God, whose aim was ever to embody his tender affection for the Lord in loving ministration to men."-Morning Light.

"Few more beautiful types of Christian fervour and devotedness appear among men."-British Quarterly.

LONDON: C. KEGAN PAUL & Co., Paternoster Sq.
Sold by JAMES SPEIRS, 36 Bloomsbury Street.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

HE Committee of the above Society beg leave to inform the Church at large that their BAZAAR will be held on the 27th, 28th, 29th, and 30th days of October 1880, in the Co-OPERATIVE HALL, BOLTON STREET, RAMSBOTTOM; and that WILLIAM AGNEW, ESQ., M. P., has kindly undertaken to perform the ceremony of opening it at ELEVEN O'CLOCK, on WEDNESDAY, the 27th DAY OF OCTOBER. The presence and support of all friends who can conveniently attend on the opening day are respectfully and urgently solicited, and those who are prevented by engagements, or by considerations of time and distance from attending at any time, will please send their contributions, whether in money or goods, to Rev. S. PILKINGTON, Oak Bank, Ramsbottom.

The Committee fervently hope that this their

LAST APPEAL FOR HELP for their Bazaar may meet with a general and generous response, and beg to take this opportunity of acknowledging with thanks the novel present of one who describes himself as a "Lover of the Church," and a "Basketmaker."

N.B.-The smallest present to the Bazaar will be thankfully accepted.

[graphic][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][subsumed][merged small]

FOURTH EDITION.

Now ready, foolscap 8vo, cloth limp, Is.
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.

An Outline of his Life and Writings.
BY THE REV. JOHN HYDE.

"One of the most compact books on the subject with which we are acquainted."-Morning Light.

"A clear and forcible presentation of New Church teaching in a short compass. We think no work could be produced more suitable to place in the hands of one who, either from want of time or want of interest, would not read a large volume."-Intellectual Repository.

LONDON: JAMES SPEIRS, 36 Bloomsbury Street.

Price 6d.

IS THERE A PERSONAL DEVIL?

A LECTURE BY THE
REV. JOHN PRESLAND.

LONDON: JAMES SPEIRS, 36 Bloomsbury Street.

SWEDENBORG.

The Four Primary Doctrines of the New Church, signified by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation. With Preface, Account of the Author, and Index. 2s. 6d. The Doctrine of the Lord is a Scriptural deduction of the Divinity of Christ, of the personality of the Divine nature, and of the fact and meaning of the Incarnation. The Godhead of our Saviour is made to rest upon the whole breadth of Scripture authority, and that there is a Trinity (not of persons but) of person in the Godhead and that Christ is the person in whom the trinal fulness dwells.

The Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture explains that the Word we now possess is written in four styles. The first is by pure Correspondences thrown into an historical series; of this character are the first eleven. chapters of Genesis. The second is the historical, consisting of true historical facts, but containing a spiritual sense. The third is the prophetical. The fourth is that of the psalms, between the prophetical style and ommon speech. It is the Divine sense within the letter hat constitutes the holiness of the Bible.

In the Doctrine of Faith Swedenborg teaches that Faith is an inward acknowledgment of the truth, which comes to those who lead good lives from good motives. "If ye will do the works ye shall know of the doctrine.'

The Doctrine of Life commences with the proposition "That all Religion has relation to Life, and that the Life of Religion is to do Good." The shunning of Evils is the first necessity; the doing of Good is afterwards possible. No one, however, can do good which is really such, from self, but all goodness is from God. Angelic Wisdom concerning the

Divine Providence. With Index. 3s. In all the operations of the Divine Providence, human freedom is respected. The Lord forces no man to do good, or to believe what is true. It is of the Divine Providence that whatsoever a man hears, sees, thinks, speaks, and does, should appear altogether as his own. It is a law of the Divine Providence, that man should not be forced by external means to think and will, and so to believe and do the things which belong to religion. Miracles, signs, visions, conversations with the dead, threats and punishments, are totally ineffective to produce that state of love and spiritual life which makes true happiness and heaven, because they force and destroy that rationality and liberty which constitute the inmost life of humanity, and by the exercise of which man can alone be delivered from evil. The Divine Providence is equally with the wicked and the good. A complete List of Swedenborg's Works on application JAMES SPEIRS, SWEDENBORG SOCIETY, 36 Bloomsbury Street.

ESTABLISHED 1851.

BIRKBECK

BANK.

Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane. Current accounts opened according to the usual practice of other Bankers, and Interest allowed on the minimum monthly balances when not drawn below £25. No commission charged for keeping Accounts. The Bank also receives money on Deposit at Three per cent. Interest, repayable on demand."

The Bank undertakes for its Customers, free of charge, the custody of Deeds, Writings, and other Securities and Valuables; the collection of Bills of Exchange, Dividends, and Coupons; and the purchase and sale of Stocks and Shares.

Letters of Credit and Circular Notes issued.
A Pamphlet, with full particulars, on application.
FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager.

[blocks in formation]

Cocoa nut.

Extract from Dr. Epps's Lecture on Diet at the Hunterian School of Medicine, March 20, 1837:"We have now to notice a nut which, besides farinaceous substance, contains a bland oil. This is the The oil in this nut has one advantage, which is, that it is less liable than any other oil to rancidity. This, therefore, is a great advantage, and must render it a valuable article of diet, more particularly if, by mechanical or other means, the farinaceous substance can be so incorporated with the only that the one will prevent the other from separating.

"Various contrivances have been adopted with this object in view; but the individual who has been most successful in effecting this union is Mr. Dunn of Pentonville.

"This ingenious individual, after roasting the cocoa nuts and separating the shells, subjects them to a powerful rotatory pressure, by which all the nut is liquified by means of the oil and by the application of heat, and this liquid nut, if we inay so speak, soon assumes a solid state.

"This, with the addition of sugar, which combines with the oil and the other parts of the nut, constitutes his Cocoa Paste-a pleasant article of diet.

"This Paste, if prepared with additional farinaceous and saccharine matter, forms a very nutritious article, called Chocolate Powder (Prepared Cocoa).

"And a third substance has, by the skill of Mr. Dunn, been made, which he calls his Soluble Chocolate, which I have no hesitation in asserting is a most valuable article of diet. One great advantage connected with it is, that it can be made with such ease; requiring only the addition of boiling water to the Chocolate sliced into the cup.

"This is particularly useful to the sick and the convalescent from long disease; they often want nutriment at very early hours; they wake hungry and thirsty; nothing can be more easily obtained, and, at the same time, more beneficially prescribed, than this Soluble Chocolate.

"In conclusion, I have to recommend it as both Food and Drink."

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

In 1-lb., -lb., and 1-lb. Packets,

5-lb., 10-lb., and 20-lb. Tins. Half Chests (50 lbs.) and Chests (95 lbs.).

Carriage paid on 20 lbs. to

any Railway Station in
England.

AGENTS WANTED.

By the Rev. A. CLISSOLD, M.A. Crown Svo, sewed, price 6d. Swedenborg's Writings and Catholic Teaching;

Or, A Voice from the New Church Porch.

Just published, post 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. The Consummation of the Age: Being a Prophecy now fulfilled and interpreted in the Writings of EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. With a Preface.

LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.

A cheaper Edition just issued in a new and prettier style of binding, price 28.

OUR CHILDREN IN HEAVEN.

BY W. H. HOLCOMBE, M.D. LONDON: JAMES SPEIRS, 36 Bloomsbury Street.

"SILENT MISSIONARY" SERIES.

Price One Shilling each.

SECOND EDITION. THOROUGHLY REVISED.
Pp. viii and 148, foolscap 8vo, cloth, gilt
edges.
MANUAL OF THE DOCTRINES

OF THE NEW CHURCH,

With an Appendix containing a brief outline of Swedenborg's Theological Works, compiled from the Theological Writings of EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.

By EDMUND SWIFT, JUN. The New Jerusalem Magazine says:"This little book seems to meet a want which has long been felt by many persons in the New Church for they are often asked if there is not some condensed statement of these doctrines, from which an intelligent and earnest seeker after the truth could acquire, in a comparatively short time, some connected knowledge of the character of the teachings of the New Church.

The book before us seems to meet such a case exactly. We have examined the compilation' with some care, and feel quite confident we are justified: saying the author has touched more or less briefly, be sure, but still quite comprehensively we think, nearly every important topic."

[blocks in formation]

2. THE SPIRITUAL WORLD AND OU
CHILDREN THERE.
By the Rev.
Chauncey Giles.

3. THE BRIGHTON LECTURES. By the

Rev. Dr. Bayley. 34th Thousand.

Published for the MISSIONARY AND TRACT SOCIETY OF THE NEW CHURCH by JAMES SPEIRS, 36 Bloomsbury Street, London.

W

THE THREE ATMOSPHERES.*

THAT do we understand by an atmosphere? Literally it is an air-sphere, or that surrounding, ever-fluctuating ocean of gases in which we live and breathe. It envelops the earth on all sides to a depth that is variously estimated, but which can scarcely be less than about fifty miles. It is not often that we think of its vast importance and its virtual universality in natural creation. Its action on our lungs stimulates the circulation of the blood and fits it for its uses in the human economy, and thus maintains us in life. It is, as it were, the natural spirit of the man. To breathe it is to inspire-to live. To cease to breathe it is to expire-to die. Its weight, which is enormous though unfelt, is equal to about fifteen pounds on every square inch of our bodies, and is reciprocated by a reaction on the part of every portion, solid or fluid, of our bodies that would burst us into fragments if its outer pressure were removed. It thus holds together all things by an equal force, strong, persistent, and unceasing, leaving yet such perfect freedom of action as to be practically unfelt, so that it is scarcely recognised as material by the ignorant and uninstructed. Its name in the various languages of the world has been given to the supernatural part of man, and spirit, ghost, etc., are thus originated.

It

The atmosphere supplies life to all creation. Animals and plants breathe it; the former drawing oxygen to vivify their blood, the latter carbon to supply their solid structure. It lifts the waters of the ocean, carrying them away as clouds, and then, depositing them as snow or rain, refreshes the face of the earth or supplies the glaciers that grind and change the mountain forms, and the rivers that bear the water back to its original reservoir. It is the medium of sound, and delights our sense of hearing by the melodies and harmonies of music, song, and speech. modifies, refracts, and variegates the light of the sun and moderates its intensity, and it bears its heat suitably to wherever it is wanted. It carries the clouds with their lightnings and thunders. It blesses us with soft and gentle breezes; or overwhelms us with destruction in the cyclone and tornado. It makes the sea laugh in ripples and bears the commerce of the world over its surface in peace; or lashes it into destructive fury and sinks the proudest navies beneath its terrific waves. In thousands of ways known, and myriads unknown, it works out the behests of the Divine Creator on the earth.

But this atmosphere is not the only one, nor is it the most potent. It is, however, the ultimate or lowest one in which the powers and activities of the others have their development in the plane of effects. Modern science has of late perceived that there must be at least another one to account for the phenomena of the solar ray as perceived in the world. Students of nature have seen that the air, so refined and spiritual to the ignorant, is far too gross in its substance to enable it to be the medium by which the emanations from the sun traverse the space between it and this world and produce all the varied phenomena of light, colour, heat, and chemical activity around us. They have, therefore, assumed the existence of what they call a luminiferous ether, the vibrations of which are the cause of the sensations of light and heat. This, so far, with them is only an assumption. They are more inclined as a rule to believe in nothing they cannot handle, and weigh, or measure. But the wonderful forces evident around us; so distinct, yet so inter

* A paper read before the meeting of the Swedenborg Reading Society, held at 36 Bloomsbury Street, London, on April 15, 1880.

changeable; so diverse, yet so alike in their essence; so permanent, yet so ephemeral; so gentle, yet so immensely powerful, are seen to be inexplicable by any theory which does not include some atmosphere of more interior qualities and far higher activities and

powers.

This deduction of science, working à posteriori with dark and uncertain evidence, was proved by Swedenborg clearly, over a century ago, by à priori arguments founded on more interior perceptions of truth and deeper spiritual enlightenment.

As yet there is but little known to the most daring investigator of natural science beyond an assumption of the fact in a theoretical form. The deeper philosophy of the New Church, however, gives a certainty to the fact otherwise unattainable. But though it does this as a guide to the student who takes its truths as a foundation to work upon, the information is so general in its character, so wide in its extent, as not to fetter him in that domain of study which is peculiarly man's own in this sphere of effects, or to do more than encourage him to a careful and reverent investigation of the great Creator's love and mercy, wisdom and power, as manifested in

nature.

So long as man uses only his natural powers of perception and reasoning on the things of nature he may arrive at very accurate knowledge of the relations of natural things to one another and establish elaborate systems of science on his experiments and theories. But unless he have the higher and more interior guide of Revelation, all he can arrive at is a knowledge of certain mutual relations of natural causes and natural effects without ever reaching to the sphere of spiritual. causes of real causes-and to the great First Cause of all, the Lord Himself.

Now in the doctrines of the New Church it is seen that a knowledge of spiritual causes is essential to a clear perception of natural causes. That relation of one to the other which we call correspondence is the root of all science. Swedenborg therefore calls it the science of sciences, and we will first briefly glance at his teachings relative to the spiritual atmospheres as a prelude to the three natural atmospheres, of which they are the sources and prototypes, and which derive all their vitality, power, and use, as well as their activity as natural causes, through them.

In the "Divine Love and Wisdom" we learn that the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom appear in the spiritual world as a sun, the heat and light of which are spiritual, being the spheres of Love and Wisdom from the Lord, from and by which all things are created and sustained. The spiritual and natural worlds are totally distinct, neither of them deriving anything from the other; and they communicate only by correspondence. The sun of the natural world corresponds to the sun of the spiritual world in its emanations, its uses, and its effects. Its light is only natural, and is darkness in the spiritual world, and its heat is death. These are, however, vivified by the influx of the heat and light of heaven, so that the natural sun, which is pure fire, becomes the natural source of all created existences and of all natural forces. whole natural universe so far as it proceeds from the natural sun is dead. It appears to be alive, because life from the spiritual sun accompanies, surrounds, and actuates all things to produce forms of uses and of life. The lowest substances of nature being thus dead, and not capable of change according to the states of our affections and thoughts, are therefore fixed and immutable. Thus as creation closes in these and terminates, their fixed and immutable nature produces spaces and times, which,

The

like themselves, are dead, and only appear to live so far as they are filled with the spiritual states to which they correspond. By means, therefore, of the living sun the Lord created the dead sun in order that by its means the fixed natural universe may be created as a permanent basis on which the spiritual worlds might rest, as all mankind must live natural lives before they can be spiritual and live for ever in heaven. Thus the end of creation exists in its ultimates, it being that all things may return to the Creator, and that there may be conjunction (167).

The suns of both worlds produce their effects by means of atmospheres, of which in each case there are three (D. L. W. 302), which in their ultimates close in the substances and matters that are in the earths. I have not yet been able to trace any distinct explanation of their special differences and uses sufficient to base more than a probable theory of their character and action on. I must, therefore, only trust myself very slightly and timidly to glance at what I ́take to be the kind of degrees in which the three natural atmospheres exist and act, and their relation to the spiritual atmospheres from which they are derived.

We have already spoken of the atmosphere with which we are all sensibly acquainted, namely, the air envelope immediately surrounding the earth. This is limited to some fifty miles, more or less, above the earth's surface, and appears to be the medium by which we see and hear, and therefore of the transmission of solar light to the eye.

Scientific experiment has shown that while the vibrations of air giving to our ears the impression of sound are limited to a rapidity of some hundreds or thousands per second, the vibrations of light are counted by millions, and are beyond the capability of so dense a medium as air to receive and convey; indeed, a far less velocity of motion in the particles of air would destroy the eye altogether. Men of science have therefore been driven to assume an atmosphere, of totally different characteristics to the air, which they have called ether; as Swedenborg did long before. This ether then occupies This ether then occupies all intermediate space in the universe, besides infilling the atmosphere of air and all material substances. Science assumes that it has a peculiar susceptibility to luminous vibrations, transmitting them somewhat after the manner, to use a coarse image, of a jelly, in which a tremulous motion passes through the mass, but with no alteration of the relative positions of the moving particles, and thus allowing an undulation to pass with immense rapidity without any progression of the separate atoms. has, however, not ventured beyond this luminiferous ether, and contents itself to trace to its aid all the effects of the solar ray as a mode of motion.

Science

Swedenborg nevertheless speaks of a third, which he has named the aura. We have thus the sequence from the more crass to the less crass and to the purer, of air, ether, aura. Of this last we have no hint given as to its use and office by Swedenborg, and it is therefore with much hesitation that I venture to suggest an idea that has struck me while thinking on the subject occasionally since I was weak enough, under much pressure of engagements, to undertake it at Mr. Speirs' request. The existence of the ether may substantially be taken as proved experimentally to exist, though it is only known by its effects, never having been isolated and weighed or measured by the coarse delicacies of scientific apparatus. It is known that the solar ray, as heat, light, and actinism, uses it as the medium by which it becomes evident to the senses or active in creative energy. We can find the relative value of heat or light in force, or

vice versa, and by ingenious tests trace their changes. Indeed, scientists have assumed that as material substances in all their chemical actions are changed, dispersed, compounded, and decompounded, but never lost, so these forces, as light, heat, electricity, magnetism, motion, etc., have a fixed mutual relation and value, and that their changes are effected without loss. From this idea has proceeded the theory of waste in the sun in giving out its ray, thus requiring sustenance from the reconversion of the velocity of material motion into heat and light by the falling on the sun's surface of erratic cometic meteors. Now in all this there is nothing that attempts to account for that wonderful maintaining power of gravitation itself. Gravitation will draw a body to the earth with a velocity that when suddenly stopped will be converted into heat; but heat, or light, or velocity, or electricity, or magnetism do not produce gravitation. Magnetism does produce attraction, and we have other attractions of affinity and cohesion, but these are not like gravity in their action. They act only at short distances, and with a force varying in a different ratio from gravity.

Gravity is constant in its action. Day and night, summer and winter, light and heat, vary with the state of the atmosphere or the relative position of the earth and sun; but were the steady pull of the sun on the planets to vary by the least amount all would rush to destruction or take up new and ever-varying orbits. From this great and uniformly steady and powerful constant force of gravity I imagine we may trace that central and original force of nature from which all others actively and reciprocally act and react, exist and subsist; the force corresponding to that of which our Lord spoke when He said, " And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me;" the force of that inmost esse of love from which, as from the pure fire of which the sun is composed, emanate heat and light, spiritual and natural. The medium by which this great originating and binding force acts I take to be the aura or inmost atmosphere, permeating and maintaining everything in the perfect unity of creation.

We learn from a scientific work of Swedenborg's that the undulation of the ether can be produced by the vibration of the air, and thus that when the air vibrates by sound the sense of hearing is produced by the undulations of the ether prolonging it within the ear into the nerves and brain. He distinguishes between an undulation and a vibration in any medium by a comparison of the waves in water when disturbed by a stone, and vibrations throughout its mass from a sounding body. Vibration of the ether, then, is the mode of exciting the sense of sight by undulations of the aura, while the vibrations of the aura are the gravitating force originated from the sun and reciprocated by all matter in the mass or in the fragment, and unaltered by any change of form or combination, chemical or mechanical. Thus hydrogen and oxygen are identically the same in weight, whether combined as water or separate as gases. There is no other force so complete, so universal, so persistent, and so unchangeable as gravitation, and its character and effects are such as to indicate that it operates through a totally different medium and in a different and more interior manner than any of the other natural forces of which, by means of the ether acted on by the more interior aura, it is the sole natural source and origin.

I cannot but think that future discoveries will tend to elucidate this idea, and that the great doctrine of Correspondences will, at some future day, aid discoverers in natural science by its glorious heaven-born light, which is

to that of mere natural science as the sun at noonday to the glimmering gloom of a starlit night.

NOTE.

Since this paper was in print my attention has been called to extracts from the "Spiritual Diary" (Diarium Minus), where the first or purest ether is described as being the source of gravitation, the middle one the source of light and magnetism, and the air, which is the last, as the source of hearing.

There are in these extracts what at first sight appear to be differences, if not discrepances; but a careful comparison of them together shows, I think, that they harmonize with each other as well as with the teachings on the subject met with elsewhere in the works.

The first extract is from the "Spiritual Diary, Fourth Part or the Lesser" (p. vii, Appendix). It says: "There are three natural atmospheres which originate from the sun of the world, and there are three spiritual atmospheres which originate from the sun of heaven, which is the Lord. The three natural atmospheres which originate from the sun of the world are the pure ether, which is universal, from which is all gravitation; the middle ether makes a vortex round the planets, in which also is light, and the accompaniments from which are magnetism; and the last ether, which is the air. By these three atmospheres all corporeal and material things of the earth are contained [held together] which are appropriately suited to these degrees."

In this Swedenborg distinctly mentions "all gravitation" as being from the first ether (which he elsewhere calls "aura"); light and magnetism from the second or "middle ether;" while the last, which in this case he also calls an "ether," he says is "the air," meaning evidently the earth's atmosphere only. It may be observed here that he speaks of the first ether as "universal," while the second or middle one he says "makes a vortex round the planets," by which I understand that it specially surrounds the planets, and of which he seems to speak in another place (in the "Spiritual Diary," 222) as making "the magnetic forces which reign not only about the magnet in particular but also around the whole globe, producing there the situation of the entire terraqueous globe according to the poles of the world." This would appear to indicate that what is called the luminiferous ether in the modern scientific vocabulary is not, as is supposed, universal, i.e. filling all space, but only somewhat more so than the air which it surrounds and infills, as also it does all other natural and material substances on the earth. Of the three spiritual atmospheres he says they are those in which the angels of the three heavens are: "In the two higher are the angels of the celestial kingdom of the Lord. In the third and in the first natural are the angels of the Lord's spiritual kingdom. In the following two atmospheres, which are the middle ether and the last ether, which is air, are men as long as they are in the natural world." This at first sight raises the apparent difficulty that some of the angels of the spiritual kingdom are in one of the atmospheres that are from the sun of the natural world, and which, as he says elsewhere, are dead.

In the next paragraph, however, he tells us that, properly speaking, there are six atmospheres that originate from the sun of heaven. Three of these are above the sun of the world, and three under the sun of the world. These three latter perpetually follow the three natural atmospheres, and are the means by which man is able to think and feel while in the natural world; because, originating in the sun of heaven, they have life in them, the sun of heaven being pure love and pure

[ocr errors]

wisdom. From the natural atmospheres the things of nature and man's natural body subsist and are held together, and only change according to the laws of natural order; that is to say, they are fixed and immutable as a basis for creation, forming thus the times and spaces of nature, which in themselves are nothing except when infilled with things created and living. For evidently space could not exist or be conceived without earths and the things on them, nor time but by a regular succession of natural changes.

In the "Spiritual Diary" as translated by Smithson, at No. 222 we find the subject alluded to in a manner somewhat less clear and apparently with some difference, but, I think, only apparently. The heading of the paragraph says that "there are three solar atmospheres which operate upon the natural mind, not however upon the interior; but God Messiah is the Sun in the interior and inmost mind." This agrees, or seems to, with the above statement of the three spiritual atmospheres that are below the natural sun, by which men are able to think and feel. And yet the latter part of the sentence may be taken to imply that they are from the natural sun, which the allusion to the interior and inmost mind being operated by God Messiah alone as the sun seems to imply. It may, however, be read that the three atmospheres here meant include the three lower spiritual atmospheres by which men think and feel in the natural mind (or external). The next statement, however, raises a difficulty by speaking of "four natural spheres." The quotation is as follows:

This,

"There are four natural spheres which arise from the sun; the atmosphere which causes hearing is known. A purer atmosphere separate from the aerial is that which produces sight or causes things to be seen by the reflections of light from all objects: how far this atmosphere penetrates into the natural mind, and whether it presents material ideas, as they are called, or phantasies and imaginations, cannot yet be clearly stated, but it appears probable from various considerations. then, will be the first atmosphere which reigns in the natural mind. Another atmosphere, which is still purer ether, is that which produces the magnetic forces which reign not only about the magnet in particular, but also around the whole globe; but to what extent it is not necessary to describe. It produces there the situation of the entire terraqueous globe according to the poles of the world, and also many things which are known respecting the elevations and inclinations of the magnet. This sphere in the natural mind appears to produce reasonings, in which, however, a spiritual principle must needs be present that they may live, as in the sight and every other sense that they may perceive. The purest ethereal sphere is that presented about the ratiocinations of the same mind, hence that mind is called the natural, and its interior operations when perverse are called ratiocinations, but when according to order are called simply reason, and is a species of thought from spiritual influx. These spheres arise from the sun, and may be called solar, and are consequently natural. In the interior mind, however, there is nothing natural, but all is spiritual, and in the inmost mind is the celestial principle. These [spheres] are produced by God Messiah alone, and are living, and are to be called spiritual and celestial spheres."

In this there seems to be a setting aside of the aerial atmosphere out of the three spoken of as operating on the natural mind. It is passed by with the expression that it "is known." The " purer atmosphere separate from the aerial which produces sight" is called the "first atmosphere which reigns in the natural mind." The

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »