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14 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
He contemplated the great edifice of the universe in
general. He afterwards examined such of its parts as
come within the limits of our knowledge. He saw that
the whole is arranged in a uniform order and governed
by certain laws. He took particular notice, in this
immense machine, of everything that can be explained
on mathematical principles. He doubted not that the
Supreme Creator had arranged the whole, even to the
most imperceptible parts, in the most entire harmony
and the most complete mutual agreement: and this
agreement, as a mathematical philosopher, he endea
voured to develop, by drawing conclusions from the
smallest parts to the greatest, from that which is visible
before our eyes to that which is scarcely discoverable even
by the aid of optical glasses. He thus formed to himself
a system founded upon a certain species of mechanism,
and supported by reasoning,-a system, the arrangement
of which is so solid, and the composition so serious, that
it claims and merits all the attention of the learned : as
for others, they may do better not to meddle with it.
According to this system, he explains all that the most
certain facts and the soundest reasoning can offer to our
meditations. If we dare not adopt the whole, there are
at least many excellent things in it which we may apply
to our use. But he went further : he wished to combine
this system with religion ; and to this object he almost
entirely devoted himself from the time of the publication
of his Opera Philosophica et Mineralia.
He passed the greater part of his latter years in
foreign countries, to which, after the year 1736 , he made
eight different journeys ; either to England, or Holland,
or France, or Italy. He commenced with the latter
countries : his travels in which lasted till 1740. His
principal object in these journeys was the printing of his
new works.
I cannot help admiring the great fertility of his pen ;
for besides the numerous productions, and especially the
great work, of which we have spoken already, he was
the author of the following :
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