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5 .SWEDENBORG AS A NATURAL PHILOSOPHER. 339
(2) that the earth and the other planets have gradually
separated themselves from the sun, and, therefore, have
acquired a gradually lengthened orbit; (3) that the earth s
period of rotation has gradually increased; (4) that the
solar systems are arranged round the Milky Way, in the
central line of which they lie most closely; (5) that there
is an even greater system in which the milky ways are
arranged together (A. H. Stroh :
I.e., p. 40). In his
11
animal kingdom
"
modern physiologists are particularly
struck with his anticipations of recent conclusions as to
the anatomy and functions of the brain. In the first place,
they say, he had the courage to defend the coincidence of
the movement of the brain with that of the lungs in
respiration, on the ground of observations made by him
self and with reference to experiments made by others on
animals. He was also the first to make clear that the
cortex of the brain is the seat of the higher psychical
activity, the point of contact between soul and body.
Swedenborg also recognized that the grey substance of
the cortex of the brain is connected with the will and with
the voluntary motions which the will originates. He
further postulated the existence of different motor areas in
this part of the brain, and their connection with the
activity of different muscles (P. R. E.B
19, 182). It was
unfortunate for Swedenborg s reputation as a man of
science, in his own day, that the great change took place
in 1743 1745? which turned him from an inquirer into a
seer, from a philosopher and man of science into a
theosophist. The change was indeed an immense one,
and he seems to have quickly lost almost all interest in his
previously absorbing studies. The change was, however,
not wholly unnatural. He had worked up from inanimate
to animate nature, from mathematics and physics in its
different branches, from geology, chemistry, and astro
nomy to physiology, biology and psychology. He was
in his last book busy with the question of the relation of
soul and body, of the infinite and the finite, and with the
thought of God. "
I have gone through this anatomy (he
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