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218 DOCUMENTS CONCErxNING SWEDENBORG.
XLVI.
TESTIMONY
OF
J. D. MORELL, OF ENGLAND,
TO THE RANK DUE TO SWEDENBORG AS A PHILOSOPHER.
{From " An Historical and Critical View of the Speculative Philosophy of Europe
in the Nineteenth Century.’* Vol. I. p. 315-323.)
This is a work of high character of which the second revised and enlarged edition has
jtist appeared from the English Press. In this edition the author aims to make amends
for the defective and erroneous estimate of Swedenborg contained in the first, and though
the concessions which we here read are far in advance of anything hitherto accorded to
Swedenborg by writers of this class, yet the notice is still marred by certain items of
statement and conclusion which seem to require correction. For this purpose we have
appended the remarks of the reviewer of the work in the Intellectual Repository for Au-
gust, 1847.
*’ But the most wide-spread school of religious mysticism, which arose during
the eighteenth century, was that of Emanuel Swedenborg. To give anything
approaching to an adequate view of the Swedenborgian philosophy, we feel to
be a matter of great difficulty, and, indeed, in a brief compass, almost impossi-
ble. The difficulty of the case arises partly from the amazing fertility of his
writings, partly from the frequent obscurity with which his thoughts are express-
ed, and partly from the differences of opinion upon many important points, which
exist amongst his followers. Although, according to his own testimony, he was
accustomed from a child to think much upon spiritual things, yet his earlier
manhood seemed to be altogether engrossed in scientific pursuits. The results
of these studies exist to the present day in the form of volumes and tracts,
which travel over almost the whole surface of natural history and science, and
in which, it is only justice to say are found, more or less obscurely, many of
the germs of recent and brilliant discoveries.
" It was in the ’ Prodromus,’ a brief treatise upon ’ The Infinite and the Soul,*
that the philosophical and theological thinking of Swedenborg began. I say
philosophical and theological, because it was his firm conviction from the first,
that revelation and philosophy were fundamentally identical, that all religion
Was to be made scientific, and all science to be made religious.
" The first question which suggests itself with reference to the Sweden-
borgian philosophy, is this. What is the method it proposes, by which truth is to
be attained ? Some philosophers had attempted to deduce all truth from a priori
principles ; others had attempted to ascend by an inductive process from the
particular to the general. What is the methodology that Swedenborg adopted ?
To answer this question accurately, we should premise, that he set out upon
no fixed metaphysical principles whatever ; he went to werk as a solitary and
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