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30 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
This Royal Academy, on its first establishment, could not fail to associate
among its members a man, who already held so distinguished a rank among
the members of other learned societies.
I have hitherto only spoken of one part of the works of Swedenborg : and as
those which follow are of a quite different nature, it becomes necessary that we
should yet dwell a little longer on these first. They are so many incontestible
proofs of a universal erudition, which attached itself in preference to objects
which require deep reflection and profound knowledge. None can reproach
him with having wished to shine in borrowed plumes, passing ofi as his own
the labors of others, dressed out in a new form and decorated with some new
turns of expression. It must be acknowledged, on the contrary, that without
ever taking up the ideas of others, he always followed his own, and often makes
remarks and applications which are not to be found in any preceding author.
Nor was he at all times of the same class as the generality of universal
geniuses, who, for the most part, are content with merely skimming over the
surfaces of things. He applied the whole force of his mind to penetrate into the
most hidden things, to connect together the scattered links of the great chain of
universal being, and to trace up everything, in an order agreeable to its nature,
to the great First Cause. Neither did he proceed in the manner of certain Natu-
ral Philosophers and Mathematicians, who, dazzled by the light which they have
been in search of and have found, would, were it possible, eclipse and extin-
guish, 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, continually found new
occasions for rising in love and adoration towards the Author of Nature.
But let us suppose ourselves engaged in examining a grand machme, 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 endeavor 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 philoso-
phers’ stone, if, after all their labors, 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 ar-
dent 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 comparison of his
last works with his first, though they treat of very different subjects.
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.
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