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EULOGIUM OF SANDEL. 13
nature, to the great First Cause. Neither did he proceed
in the manner of certain Natural Philosophers and
Mathematicians, who, dazzled by the light which they
have been in search of and have found, would, were it
possible, eclipse and extinguish, to the eyes of the world,
the Only True and Great Light. He, in the course of
his meditations on the universe and on creation, con
tinually found new occasions for rising in love and
adoration towards the Author of Nature.
But let us suppose ourselves engaged in examining a
grand machine, in the construction of which we had no
concern : we see nothing of it but its results ; yet from
its effects, with which even we are but imperfectly
acquainted, we wish to judge of the whole. It will
hence naturally happen, that every one will adopt such
principles of explanation as appear to him most certain,
and will endeavour thence to advance, step by step. It
is thus that have proceeded our most distinguished
scholars in theoretical philosophy. Happy are they,
who, in their investigations of the most sublime subjects,
have been the least unintelligible ! If, with the most
profound knowledge, and with the greatest strength of
intellect, they have not been able to avoid illusions and
to attain the end proposed, they at least have struck out
new paths for the exercise of our intellectual faculties ;
one idea leads to another ; and thus they have opened
the way to discoveries of greater certainty. Even the
searchers for the philosophers’ stone, if, after all their
labours, they have not succeeded in making gold, have at
least enriched chemistry with many valuable discoveries.
I think I shall not be mistaken if I assert, that
Swedenborg, from the time when he first began to think
for himself, was animated by a secret fire, an ardent
desire to attain to the discovery of the most abstract
things ; and that he thenceforward thought that he had
obtained a glimpse of the means of arriving at his end.
I think I am justified in this supposition, on a com
parison of his last works with his first, though they
treat of very different subjects.
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