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194 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
he published a treatise oa algebra—that he discovered a new method of finding the lon-
gitude ; and that, in consequence of his mathematical attainments, he was invited to
take the chair as Professor of Mathematics at the Unirersity of Upsal. Had the Profes-
sor also studied Swedenborg’s works on the Animal Kingdom and its Economy,
in which his philosophical principles are carried out in a most striking manner, we are
certain that the author would have risen still higher in his estimation as a profound and
original thinker. We w^ill adduce one more extract from the Professor’s pamphlet
:
*’
It now remains that we give an impartial judgment on his character and his
mental disposition, and on his moral physiognomy, in so far as it shines forth
from the series in which his labors as an author were produced ; and here we can-
not but award to him the most favorable testimony. Throughout the entire
career of his learned researches and activity, we everywhere discover the pious
and religious man, who, in all his sayings and doings, w-as intent upon good.
In his inmost soul, he was entirely opposed to all those systems of materialism
and naturalism which so wantonly prevailed in his time ; and he built his own
system on the foundation of an eternal Esse, and on its creating activities [from
which, as from the only Origin and Cause all things are created and preserved].
And, throughout the entire course of his labors, he seizes every opportunity of
pointing to this first great rational Cause of all things, and, at the same time, he
endeavors to show the absurdity of all opposite opinions. Nor did the sensual-
ism of those of his contemporaries which confines itself to the mere surface of
things, nor did the more refined pantheistic abstraction of others, although pen-
etrating more deeply below the surface, find any place in his system and works.
On the contrary, his philosophy, as to all its principal and leading points, is
founded on the eternal principles revealed in Holy Writ. Throughout his works
everything appears simple and uniform, especially as to the tone in which he
writes, in which there is no effort at display in the imaginative powers, nothing
overwrought, nothing fantastic, nothing that can, in the remotest degree, be con-
strued into a morbid bias of a prevailing mental activity, nothing indicating a
fixed idea,* or manifesting any peculiarity of a commencing mental derange-
ment. Everything he undertakes is developed in a calm and measured manner,
like the resolution and demonstration of a mathematical problem, and every-
where the operations of a mind composed and well ordered shine forth, with
conviction as to the certainty of the results of its activity. In the cultivation of
science, sincerity and simplicity of heart are necessary requirements to the at-
tainment of durable success. We never observe that Swedenborg was subject
to that pride by the influence of which so many great spirits have fallen ; he al-
ways remained the same subdued and modest mind ; and never, either by suc-
cess, or by any consideration, lost his mental equilibrium."
We iTiight adduce several other extracts of similar import, but what has been stated
is sufficient to show the writer’s regard for Swedenborg as a man of the purest and no-
blest intentions, of most unimpeachable conduct, and as a profound and original think-
er in natural philosphy. No testimony can be more important, both as to impartiality,
and as to the position the Professor occupies as a judge of mental productions. The
sentences in the above extracts marked with italics, are so marked in the German from
which we have translated.
* This ’^ fixed idea" denotes an all-absorbing idea which so possesses the mind as to
Cdixise monomania.—Ed.
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