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34 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.,
specting the latter : he represents to himself, in conformity with the world in
which" we live, another and entirely spiritual world, in which, as in this, he ad-
mits of degrees of perfection, an increase without end in the faculties of the in-
habitants, a similarity and agreement of tastes and occupations, of conveniences
and inconveniences, of pleasures and of pains. Strongly impressed with these
ideas, he endeavored, in examining the Holy Scriptures, to combine them with
his philosopical principles. Nevertheless, in describing spiritual things he has
not been able to avoid the ideas inseparable from material existence. He tells
us, however, that the whole is to be understood in a spiritual manner. This is
a judicious caution : but is there not reason to apprehend, that when we trust
too much to the imagination, we are in danger of falling into error ? I am led
to believe that Bishop Swedberg, otherwise a highly respectable and learned
man, was a little inclined this way. Several of his works seem to indicate it
:
at least, we may conjecture from them that he had a tendency to behold, in
certain events, a species of prophetic indications. It is true that, in an ecclesi-
astic, the defect of believing too much is preferable to that of believing too little.
But it seems to indicate, that the case might be the same with his learned son ;
who had, so to speak, inherited from his father that spirit of curiosity, with
which he entered on the investigation of the objects which strike the senses,
and of those which are beyond their sphere, and are even beyond the limits pre-
scribed to the human understanding.
T have probably dwelt too long on Swedenborg’s theological works : these are
not matters to be discussed in an Academy of Sciences. Suffice it then to say,
that his merit and excellent qualities shine with brilliancy, even where we are
endeavoring to discover in him the weakness inseparable from human nature.
I do not come here to defend errors or unintelligible principles : but I will ven-1
ture to assert—and I reckon, gentlemen, on meeting your approbation in the as–
sertion—that where others would have discovered a deficiency of intelligence
and a confusion of ideas, Swedenborg has displayed an astonishing assemblage
of knowledge; which he has arranged, according to his system, in such order,
material body in itself has no sensation, but is only the instrument by which the spirit,
that is, the man himself, has communication with the material world. In the spiritual
world the spiritual body sees, hears, feels, &c., in short, is in the perfect enjoyment of
all the senses in a far more exquisite degree than in the material body. These spiritu-
al organs can, when it pleases the Lord, be opened before death, and man then can
come into communication with spirits and angels and see the objects of the spiritual
Avorld, all of which, as being from the sun of the spiritual world’, are not material, but
substantial. Thus, the spiritual sight of the prophets and apostles was opened when
they saw, in vision, the things they describe, as Zechariah, Ezekiel, Daniel, &c., and
especially John in the Apocalypse ; all the objects they saw were not material but spir-
itual, for there B.re spiritual substances as well as material’; but spiritual objects are not,
like material objects, subject to mechanical and chemical laws, nor to the conditions of
time and space, but they are subject to pure spiritual laws, and precisely correspond to
the states of the spiritual inhabitants, and thus represent the state of their affections and
thoughts, of their real life, whether good or evil. What, therefore, Swedenborg de-
scribes ZiS facts concerning the spiritual world and the states of departed spirits must not
be considered, according to M. Sandel’s supposition, as conclusions drawn from visible,
or material things respecting invisible or spiritual things, but as realities perceived in
spiritual light by his spiritual senses, and communicated to the world to promote the
wisdom, happiness, and salvation of mankind. The things, which Swedenborg de-
scribes as facts and realities, which he heard and saw in the spiritual world, will bo
seen attested and proved by the examination and testimony of the celebrated German
philosopher, Kant, and others equally worthy of credit, which will be adduced farther
on.-^Tafd.
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