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TESTIMONY OF J. D. MORELL, OF ENGLAND 223
" Assuredly Swedenborg never passed through scepticism, if by that word be desig.
nated the absurdities of Pyrrho, or Hume ; but if by ’wholesome scepticism’ be meant the
habit of requiring reasons for every thing, the habit of examining all beliefs under the
searching light of truth, then Swedenborg had more scepticism than all the philosophers
and metaphysicians put together. Furthermore, if doubting the wisdom and competenc®
of the aforesaid philosophers and metaphysicians be scepticism, then had he a most whole
some—not tinge—but satui’ation of it. But there were three things which he never
doubted, of which the metaphysicians must always doubt, viz., Revelation, Nature, and
Humanity, or God, Man, and the Universe. Such was his amazing ’ credulity.’
7. " With respect to Mr. Morell’s closing verdict on Swedenborg, we have no right to
quarrel with it, especially as it is not given as a deduction of reason, but as a matter of
feeling. It is simply the manifestation of that metaphysical spirit whose very essence
consists in judging of all things at a distance, through the colored medium of old precon-
ceptions. Mr. More 11 implies that it is for ever necessarily a ’
marring enthusiasm’
whensoever any man ’
dares to claim the title and the honors of a divine and apostolic
messenger ;’
in other words, there have been no divine and apostolic messengers in the
world I We might feel tempted to ask, What, then, becomes of Revelation ? Mr. Morell
seems also well satisfied, that it is impossible there should be ’
a special revelation, to
usher in the purified church, and the latter day glory.’ Is he, then, a prophet, or has an
a priori Revelation of a new kind been vouchsafed to himself?
8. " Our greatest fault with Mr. Morell is, that he has derived his account of Sweden-
borg’s philosophy from his early, and not from his theological works. There could not be
a heavier mistake than this. To judge of a palace from its scaffolding, of a tree by its
leaves, or of a man by his professions and not his actions, is not more misleading than to
judge of Swedenborg by his preparatory labors, and to take no pains to procure acquaint-
ance with his realized ends. In the sincerest respect for Mr. Morell’s head and heart, in
afi’ectionate admiration of these masterly labors of his own, we conjure him to dismiss the
chimera that he care judge of the theology of the New Church without previously studying
it, or that his view of Swedeuborg’s claims can be worth consideration, until he comes
charged with a knowledge of the detailed support of these claims gathered from a humble
perusal of the theological writings of Swedenborg.
"This account, then, of Swedenborg which he has given, excellent though it be in
many parts, is still susceptible of great correction, and as it now stands, is one of the
poorest things in the book. We say this, to warn the reader that what we have quoted
is no specimen of the rich and manifold excellence of this ’
Historical and Critical Review
of Philosophy.’
" In the foregoing remarks we have, it is true, confined ourselves almost entirely to
finding fault, in order that our strictures, wherever Mr. Morell can conscientiously, after
reconsideration, admit their justice, may furnish him with the means of inserting, in his
third edition, a still more accurate and worthy account of the illustrious and ill-used Swe-
denborg. And we freely confess that we have felt extremely anxious that one so gifted as
the author of these volumes—one so honest and well-intentioned, and clear sighted—should
not, with the common herd of vulgar and unprincipled writers
—
***** Mike
The base Judean, throw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe.’
We have also felt a great motive to insinuate to him the fruitlessness of all the old methods
ofjudging to the prejudice of one who comes before every sufficiently instructed mind
with new claims to study and regard ; and above all, the fruitlessness, in this unusual in-
quiry, of those metaphysical methods, with their sensationalism, idealism, mysticism,
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