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SWEDENBORG'S PRINCIPIA.

His Theory of the Starry Heavens, both visible and invisible, wonderfully confirmed by the two Herschels, Rosse, Mädler, Humboldt, Lagrange, Bessel, Michell, and others.

TO THE EDITOR.

SIR,-In your Periodical for June of the past year, I had the pleasure of calling the attention of its readers to Swedenborg's theoretical discovery of the law of magnetic intensity, and its confirmation by the celebrated Humboldt. In continuing my report of the theoretical discoveries contained in this wonderful work, I have to enumerate others of a higher order, having reference to the structure of the whole visible heavens, and the cosmical distribution and harmonious arrangement of such starry mansions, volving and revolving in countless spheres, in the wide-spread infinitude of the natural universe. The exposition of these discoveries I will arrange under three heads :—

1. The precise situation of our Sun with its Planetary system in the starry universe to which it belongs.

2. The progressive advancement along the Milky Way from West to East, of our Sun with its system, and all the starry host of the visible heavens.

3. The general character of the immensity of creation beyond or outside the boundaries of the visible firmament of the starry heavens.

CASE I.

The Sun's position among the stars.

"That great and enthusiastic, although cautious observer, Sir W. Herschel, was the first," says Humboldt, "to sound the depths of heaven, in order to determine the limits and form of the starry stratum which we inhabit."-Cosmos, vol. i., page 71.

It was first surmised by the ancient philosopher Democritus, that the faintly white zone belting the heavens under the name of the milky way, might be only a dense collection of stars too remote to be distinguished. This, the first conjecture on record of its starry nature, has been verified by the instruments of modern astronomers, and some speculations of a most remarkable kind have been formed in connexion with it. Only to the history of these speculations shall we refer. Kepler revived the idea of Democritus; he conceived that the milky way was a vast ring of stars spanning the concave surface of the heavens, in the centre of which our solar system is situated. All the stars of the

visible heaven were viewed as items of one great whole, forming an immense globular universe, but more thickly scattered in the Milky Way. Creation was, therefore, considered as a vast globular universe, bounded by the visible heavens. Within this we were inclosed, the interior surface being our visible heavens, over the ethereal concavity of which are strewed the glimmering lights of other worlds. Such were the physical structure and boundaries of creation, and the cosmical location of our sun and its planetary system in the very centre of this globular universe, according to the unanimous teaching of the philosophers of all ages-of Pythagoras, Aristotle, Hipparchus, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, and Flamstead, even to the time of Michell and Herschel.

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From the quotation placed at the head of these remarks, it will be seen that the elder Herschel was the first to determine the limits and form' of the sidereal heavens, visible to the naked eye. Assisted with unprecedented telescopic powers, he was able to collect evidence by actual sight, from which he deduced a theory of its form, structure, and limits; besides enabling him to point out the precise spot, within the visible universe, where the sun, with its planetary system, is placed.

Against the unanimous testimony of the scientific world, we shall place the theoretical Principia and geometrical deductions of Swedenborg; and when our exposition shall have been completed, we doubt not the reader will be equally certain with ourselves as to the main facts, that Swedenborg was not only the first to form a conception of the cosmical structure and arrangement of the sidereal heavens-' to determine its limits and form,' but also the first to point out the precise spot-the actual locality and situation of our solar system amongst the stars of the visible universe.

So truly is this the real state of the case, that, without the slightest exaggeration, he may be represented as affirming," I have formed a comparison of the magnetic sphere with the sidereal heavens, (chap. i. part 3.) and have gauged geometrically the stratum of the milky path; I have examined its parts and discovered its construction, and have found, by a geometrical calculus, the exact spot in that galaxy where the sun's system is placed." As if, placing his finger on that spot, he had exclaimed—“ It is there! At the point where the main trunk of the milky stream has a considerable incurvation or divergence into branches, there the sun's system is placed. Seek, and you will find it."

Five years subsequently Herschel is born (1738). In the year 1789 he directs his monster telescope to the sides and surfaces of the galaxy, and without knowing of Swedenborg's announcement of the sun's posi

tion therein, conjectures the identical spot, seeks for evidence of its truth by a species of star gauging, and a few efforts reward his labours with the most abundant confirmation of the reality of his conjecture. Certainly, never did a more bold assertion receive a more striking confirmation!

To whom should the honourable wreath be awarded-to the man who, by a series of careful observations on the elliptical and excentric form of the planetary orbits, and by a careful deduction, arrived at by geometrical reasoning, from the facts thereby established, indicated the exact situation in the heavens where our solar system is placed; consequently, before human eye had looked upon it, or mind conjectured it, had confidently predicted the exact location amongst the stars, where, fifty years subsequently, the eye of Herschel sought and found it? Or, shall it be awarded to the man who first made the literal but less meritorious discovery?

How like the recent case of Leverrier, and his discovery of the planet Neptune! Was Leverrier, who saw it mentally, or Dr. Galle, who saw it telescopically, the real discoverer of this boundary planet? The whole civilized world have, without the slightest demur, decided in favour of the person who revealed its situation (for the planet's existence was long suspected), who saw it by intellectual vision, before bodily eyes could even suspect where to look for it. There is the same essential difference between Leverrier's discovery of Neptune and Herschel's discovery of Uranus, as there is between Swedenborg's discovery of the situation of our sun among the stars of the milky way, and Herschel's discovery of the same. In both Swedenborg and Leverrier's case, the discovery is intellectual, and shews forth the triumphs and superiority of reason over mere sensation.

This superiority consists not in the mere discovery, but in their opening out a new method of analysis for the future researches of the human mind. For it is clear, now that both have been so wonderfully confirmed, that their methods and formulas have shown us the possibility of measuring distances and discovering planets, and, with the utmost precision, point out the exact situation and kind of revolution of our own and neighbouring solar systems; and to do this in such a manner, and in relation to particulars, as we can never hope, with our instruments merely, to either appreciate or detect.

By a new method-which is of itself alone a mark of true genius— Swedenborg was able to command the invisible forces whirling the planetary and starry systems through their mysterious courses; to penetrate unseen and unmeasured spaces; to watch the play of their mighty

evolutions, and to predict, with unerring certainty, the structure of the material heavens, and the situation therein of our solar system.

Hitherto astronomers have used the following method :-
:-

"Various methods," says Herschel, "may be taken to come to a knowledge of the sun's place in the sidereal stratum, one of which I have already begun to put in practice. I call it gauging the heavens, or star-gauge. It consists in repeatedly taking the number of stars in the fields of view, very near each other; and by adding their sums, and cutting off one decimal on the right, a mean of the contents of the heavens, in all the parts which are thus gauged, are obtained."-Herschel's Memoir, Phil. Trans., vol. 75.

Which method of obtaining the sun's place among the stars, is evidently little removed in character from mere guessing. But, with Swedenborg, this problem assumes a geometrical character, and receives a corresponding solution. The following is his new and beautiful formula :

“ From a given number of planetary orbits, the eccentricity and mean distance of each from their centre or sun, the skilful geometrician may infer the relative situation of neighbouring star systems; also the inflections and divergencies of solar systems from the milky way, according to their situation therein; and from this again (as data), he may discover in the system of each star, what will be the circular or elliptical character of the planetary orbits around each star, at different distances therefrom; with various other particulars."-See Principia, vol. ii. page 238; also 237, 234, 235.

From this statement, what could be more obvious than the absence of all conjecture? He informs us distinctly, that from certain given data, which he expressly names as the given orbits of the planets, the inference is geometrically drawn as to the situation of our system, or any system, in relation to neighbouring star-systems. In page 237 he applies the formula, and assigns to our sun and its planetary system the identical position among the stars of the milky way, which, fifty years subsequently, the eye of Herschel sought out and found. Is not this a great

fact?

That he has assigned the true and exact position of our solar system amongst the stars, let the reader judge for himself. To present the comparison, which constitutes the proof of our assertion, in the most striking manner, we will select only the particular words in which the fact is given. They are as follows :—

Swedenborg." Near the axis where there is a considerable inflection.”—Principia, vol. ii., pape 237.

Sir J. Herschel." Near the point where it subdivides into two principal laminæ.”— Astron. n. 586.

Sir W. Herschel.- "Not far from the place where some smaller stratum branches out."- Phil. Trans., vol. 75.

There is no mistaking the exact spot here indicated by each. All affirm the situation of our system to be at one end of the milky axis or stream, and near the point of divergence into two main branches. says Humboldt, Cosmos, vol. i., p. 72 :—

"We are near this division."

So

Indeed, so exactly has Swedenborg described this position of the sun's system, that his declaration contains this positive statement:

So

66 Our solar vortex is not in the axis, but is near the axis" or main stream. the two Herschels, Rosse, Madler, and other astronomers. as the "Vestiges" has given it ::

say

Or

"Our sun is believed to be placed in the southern portion of the ring (milky zone) near its inner edge.”—p. 2.

Or as Dick, in his Sidereal Heavens, states it :

:

"Its situation in this nebula is reckoned to be not in the centre of its thickness, but rather towards one of its sides, near the point where it diverges into two branches." p. 197.

Or as Sir J. Herschel remarks, after visiting the southern hemisphere, Phil. Trans. 1833, p. ii., p. 479, fig. 25:

"Our system is placed excentrically, so as to be much nearer to the parts about the Cross, than to that diametrically opposed to it."

Humboldt's statement of the situation is almost word for word with Sir J. Herschel; see Cosmos, vol. i., p. 141.

* For a full exposition of this diagram, see Sir W. Herschel, Phil. Trans., 1817, p. ii., p. 328; also Phil. Trans., 1785, p. i. p. 257; likewise Sir J. Herschel, Phil. Trans., 1833, p. ii., p. 476, fig. 25; also Astron., n. 586, 624; Dick's Sidereal Heavens, fig. 38, p. 199, and fig. 39, p. 203; Nicholl's Architecture of the Heavens. In the diagram, S represents the situation of our sun in the galaxy. The milky ring is supposed to be placed edgeways to the eye; and S must be regarded as being situated half way between the centre and circumference of the ring, on that side where it splits into two parts or branches. The reader must therefore suppose himself as being able to look through the surface of the diagram, and to behold the sun, represented by S, as being situated beneath the point of divergence.