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HIS LETTER TO THE ROYAL ACADEIVIY OF SCIENCES. 199
XL.
LETTER FROM SWEDENBORG
TO THE
ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
AT STOCKHOLM,
ON THE HIEROGLYPHICS OF EGYPT.
{From the Intellectual Repository for December, 1842.)
The following is an extract from a letter addressed by Swedenborg to the Rev. Mr.
Hartley, and called ’^
an Appendix to the Treatise on the White Horse," which has
been published by the London Printing Society, as an appendix to that small treatise.
" It is commonly known, that in ’Egypt, there were hieroglyphics, and that
they were inscribed on the columns and walls of the temples and other build-
ings ; it is acknowledged, however, that at this day, no one is able to determine
their signification. Those hieroglyphics were no other than the correspond-
ences between the spiritual and the natural, to which science, the Egyptians
more than any people of Asia, applied themselves, and according to which, the
very early nations of Greece formed their fables ; for this, and this only, was the
most ancient style of composition ; to which I can add the new information,
that every object seen by spirits and angels in the spiritual world, is a mere cor-
respondence; and the Holy Scripture, is on this account, written by correspond-
ences, that so it might be the medium of conjunction between the men of the
church and the angels of heaven. But as the Egyptians, and along with them
the people of the khigdoms of Asia, began to convert these correspondences
into idolatry, to which the children of Israel were prone, these latter were for-
bidden to make any use of them. This is evident, from the first commandment
of the decalogue, which says, ’ Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven
image, or any likeness {of any thing) that is in the heavens above, or that is in
the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth. Thou shall not bow
down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I, Jehovah thy God, am a jealous
God’ (Deut. chap. v. verses 8, 9). Besides this, there are in other parts, many
passages to the same purport. From that time, the science of correspondences
became extinct, and successively to such an extent, that at this day, it is scarcely
known that the science ever existed, and that it is an object of importance.
But the Lord being now about to establish a New Church, which will have its
foundation in the Word, and which church is meant by the New Jerusalem in the
Apocalypse, it has pleased Him.to reveal this science, and thus to disclose whatthe
Word is in its bosom or spiritual sense. This I have done in the works entitled
Arcana Cadestia, published in London, and Apocalypse Revealed, published at Am-
sterdam. As the science of correspondences was esteemed by the ancients,
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