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THE GOOD, THE TRUE, AND THE BEAUTIFUL. 217
they would be far more easily and more generally read.* His works entitled,
" Angelic Wisdom, concerning the Divine Love and Wisdom" and •’
the Delights of
Wisdom, concerning Conjugial Love," possess considerable merit. But the most
beautiful, as to style, which he ever wrote, is the " Worship and J^ove of God,"
which is a kind of middle thing between a philosophic treatise and a romance,
on the origin of the earth, on the golden age of nature, and of man, on paradise,
on the birth, youth, education, and love of Adam and Eve. This of all Sweden-
denborg’s works, is that in which the Beautiful is most conspicuous. It is not
only written in a brilliant and harmonious latinity, but with so much poetic life
and inspiration, that if divided amongst a dozen poets, it would be sufficient to
fix every one of them on the heaven of poesy as stars of the first magnitude.!
This, at least, is certain, that the more we consider his writings in relation to
Philosophy and Esthetics, the more we must admit, that amongst much dross,
there is a considerable quantity of pure solid gold.t The holy and exalted state
of mind in which he comprehended and contemplated the structure and order of
the universe, and the pure and lofty, yet simple and intelligible manner in which
he has treated his subjects and presented his views, are perfectly worthy of a
divinely inspired seer. His visions, or rather, his Memorabilia, as he called them,
are often very beautiful ; but how they are to be explained is difficult to say ;§
this, however, is known, that he himself was perfectly convinced of their ob-
jective reaUty, and that they were facts and phenomena seen by his spiritual
eyes in the spiritual world. His followers consider them from the same point
of view, and believe what Swedenborg says, that they are spiritual realities
written to instruct us concerning the state of men after death. In proportion as
we learn properly to understand the writings of Swedenborg, we shall find them
full of scientific worth, rich in materials of the beautiful for poetry, and highly
honorable to his native country. ._ ,
. . ,..- ;:: 1:;.
* Those who are delighted with spiritual and heavenly things, and with the eternal in-
terests of their souls, are sorry that he has not written more.
t Mr. Wilkinson, speaking of this work in his recent "Popular Sketch of Swedenborg’s
Philosophical works" observes ;—" Whatever of admiration we have felt for Swedenborg’s
former efforts, only increases as we enter the interior of this august natural temple. A
new wealth of principles, a radiant, even power such as peace alone can communicate, a
discourse of order persuasively convincing, an affecting and substantial beauty more deep
than poetry, a luxuriance of ornament instinct with the life of the subject; intellect, ima-
gination, fancy, unitedly awake in a lovely vision of primeval times; wisdom, too, making
all things human :
—such is an imperfect enumeration of the qualities which enter into
this ripe fruit of the native genius of Swedenborg. Whether in fulness or loftiness, I
know of nothing similar to it—of nothing second to it—in mere human literature."
—
B.
\. From this it plainly appears that the author of this paper is no receiver of the Theologi-
cal writings of E. S., otherwise he would not speak o\ dross; we must consequently con-
sider his judgment of E. S. as a writer on natural things, as so much the more impartial.
§ We have here another instaiJce of the extreme difficulty with which the natural rnird
can admit the possibility of spiritual existences, separate from what is material; so great is
the appearance to the merely natural mind, that nothing exists, as an absolute reality, but
that which can be seen, heard, and felt, that any belief in anything not obvious to the
senses is treated as chimerical. The only way properly to understand the MerKorabilia is
to read them as " things heard and seen" in the spiritual world ; every memorable relation
contains an important lesson of wisdom concerning man’s state in the spiritual world which
could not possibly be communicated so effectually in any other manner.
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