Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Sidor ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
192 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
perceptions of intellect ; and in this manner objective truth is unconsciously falsi-
iied by the subjective, self-derived productions of the mind. The case of Swe-
denborg, however, is not so easily settled as this two-fold mode of explanation
supposes. Swedenborg was not a man to be carried away by an unbridled imagina-
tion, still less did he ever manifest, during his whole life, the slightest symptom of mental
aberration. His natural disposition was tranquil, equal, thoughtfid, meditative ; as
is the case with most of his Swedish countrymen, the powers of his understand-
ing were preponderating, and he had carefully nourished and cultivated them,
devoted, during the greatest part of his life, to unremitted studies. It is there-
fore not to be supposed, that he in this gross manner, with wakeful eyes, de-
ceived himself, and that what in one moment he himself thought, in another re-
garded as chimerical. On the other hand, he was in life and disposition so blameless,
that no man dare ever intimate any suspicion of concerted deception ; and posterity
have no right to call into question the unsuspected testimony of those who lived
in the same age as Swedenborg, and who knew him well; if this mode of
judgment be permitted, all historical evidence, even the holiest and most venera-
ble, might be reduced to nothing. * * * If it be permitted to say of a man, to
whose veracity, intelligence, science, irreproachable conduct, presence of mind, and fidel-
ity to truth, his contemporaries bear testimony—if it be permitted for posterity to say
that such a man had either imprudently deceived himself and the world, or had
knowingly dealt in mere falshood and lies, there is an end to the verification ot
historical events. * * * The appearance of Swedenborg as a seer of spirits, who,
Uke the northern light of his own country, darting its luminous rays high up
into the atmosphere cleared by the winter’s cold, has mysteriously shone forth
from the clearness of the most sober understanding, with a higher light—this ap-
pearance must be more profoundly considered, and explained on principles more
general than have hitherto been adopted," &c.
In relation to Swedenborg’s Principia, &c. the Professor says :
—
«• Swedenborg in this work lays down the results of his scientific researches
during the course of his previous life —results which he afterwards, in his Essay
concerning the Infinite, only extended, and which he carried over from the pro-
vince of the natural into the province of the spiritual."
We must here observe, that Professor Gorres commits the same mistake which has
been sometimes committed by others, who have written too rashly concerning Sweden-
borg, before they had properly understood his position as a writer on spiritual subjects,
and before they had properly studied his writings. "What Swedenborg wrote on theolo-
gical and spiritual subjects ivas not the outgrotvtJi, of his science and philosophy; he did
not carry the latter over into the former. But what he wrote from 17^15 to 1771, was th©
result of an especial spiritual illumination, and not the deductions of natural philoso-
phy. The Professor continvies :
—
" Indefatigable in meditating over the wonderful phenomena in the created
world ; constantly occupied in exploring those laws, in which the manifold
variety of these phenomena is comprised, Swedenborg endeavored to penetrate
the deepest depths of natural philosophy. He was guided in his researches by
a mind clear, acutely analytic, endowed with skill, and well disciplined by mathematics ami
logic. He endeavored to raise the mind to that height from which the first created
germ, acted upon by the creative spirit and power, might be contemplated, and
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
