confounding of future critics and sceptics in relation to the mental condition of Emanuel Swedenborg AFTER the opening of his spiritual sight, and that the probable completion, certainly the publication of his scientific works, Regnum Animale and Economia Regni Animalis, subsequent to that event had a providential purpose in connection therewith. Nor is there anything unreasonable in the supposition that Swedenborg had himself realised, towards the end of his natural life, that his sanity had been, was, or might be, doubted alike by scientific men and theologians.

Possibly I may over-estimate the importance of these points, but being so impressed, I should have been false to my own convictions had I not protested against what I consider to be a plain contradiction to the statement of Swedenborg himself in his final work.

I now enter my protest against the note appended to the copy of the letter to the Rev. T. Hartley, and inserted after the preface by that clergyman to the "Heaven and Hell," as published by the Swedenborg Society. "J. B." may ask why I have not done this before, seeing that it has appeared in every edition for twenty-three or more years-certainly in that of 1851 and subsequent editions. My reply is that until I read "J. B.'s" paper of January last I had not sufficiently reflected on the unwarrantable and mischievous character of that note.

Surely I need not go into details to enlighten "J. B.," when he says he cannot pretend to guess what is meant by the observation, "If Mr. Noble subsequently adopted the date 1745, what becomes of the argument in his Appeal?" Let me explain. According to the note quoted (see note, page 261, Noble's Appeal, editions 1855 and 1863) Mr. Noble practically argued, as I and others have had to do, and possibly even "J. B." himself, in reply to a statement, suggestion, or argument, that Swedenborg was insane (unhappily a very common idea) after his spiritual sight was opened;-that inasmuch as this took place in 1743, and prior to the publication of his Regnum Animale, etc., in 1744, he must, if insane at all, have been so when these works were given to the world; citing their scientific accuracy, closeness of argument, and felicity of illustration, as a reply to a foolish and wicked imputation. Now, neither Mr. Noble or any other person could quote these works in any such connection if the opening of Swedenborg's spiritual sight did not take place until 1745. If Mr. Noble had quoted 1745 instead of 1743, what would his opponent have said? Simply that Swedenborg might have been quite sane in 1744, when those scientific works were published, and the very reverse in 1745.

What Mr. Noble's after conviction may have been has nothing to do with the argument. He used the date 1743 to answer an opponent. If 1745 be the correct date, I repeat my question, "What becomes of Mr. Noble's argument?" Does "J. B." see the "bearing"

now?

I hold, then, that "J. B." and those who agree with him are

S

depriving themselves and all advocates of Swedenborg's claims of a very powerful argument in replying to those who regard Swedenborg as a man of extraordinary powers and attainments in his day, but who subsequently became insane on spiritual and religious subjects, which we all know is a very common notion amongst persons who care to think about Swedenborg at all. In short, common sense at once dictates, that such an argument as that used by Mr. Noble must be abandoned if the date 1745 is substituted for that of 1743.

Thus the inquiring non-receiver of Swedenborg's teaching is met at the very threshold with the difficulty which has presented itself to so many minds, and often repelled further examination, "Was Swedenborg sane or insane after the professed opening of his spiritual sight!" The answer based on 1743 is complete. It is an argument which every fair inquirer would accept at once, as experience has shown.

"J. B." need not suppose that I am at all alarmed for the TRuth; but I do feel that this dislocation of dates is a very serious question, and that opponents of the truth are being supplied with arguments which they will not fail to make use of.

Will those who are convinced, as "J. B." appears to be, that 1745 is the proper date, kindly reflect that they may at any time be placed in a similar dilemma to that in which Mr. Noble found himself, and as others have done since? The date 1743 was, and is, “a tower of strength." Out of such a dilemma I must leave them to find their way, but they certainly cannot quote 1745.

"J. B." need not tell me that there is abundance of proof of Swedenborg's perfect sanity. I am quite aware of that, provided people can be got to examine the evidence, but here is a fact standing in the forefront, and of so distinct a character as to be of immense value at the outset; a fact which tells its own tale, and practically lays the foundation for that systematic inquiry into Swedenborg's claims which all are agreed is so necessary to an intelligent conclusion. Possibly "J. B." and those who accept 1745 instead of 1743, as the true date of the opening of Swedenborg's spiritual sight, may conceive that the era of controversy relative to E. S.'s claims is past. If so, they have little or no conception of the difficulty which arises in other spheres of thought outside their own, scientific, literary, artistic, political, and theological, when the question of Swedenborg's works and his mission is raised.

For myself, I believe that the greatest controversy has yet to come, and in forms which will astonish the self-complacent, albeit perfectly sincere receivers of the time. I am therefore the more thankful that I have been permitted to enter my protest against this shifting of dates, and to maintain :

1. That the Lord Himself appeared to Swedenborg in the year 1743, as he himself stated in the letter to the Rev. T. Hartley in 1769.

2. That whilst this constituted the commencement of his great mission, when, to use his own words in this letter, he was " called to a

holy office by the Lord Himself," he was afterwards admitted to, or called from state to state during subsequent years, and that to ignore the date 1743 in favour of 1745 is to take an unwarrantable liberty with the facts, not sanctioned, but absolutely contradicted, by Swedenborg himself in his last and most comprehensive work, "The True Christian Religion" (1771), and confirmed by the next preceding large work, "Conjugial Love" (1768). G. W.

West Brompton.

P.S.-A few words inore, in conclusion, on a by no means unimportant though simply incidental point. "J. B." rejects my suggestion, that probably Swedenborg saw a copy of the English translation of "Heaven and Hell," during his final residence in London, on the ground that he led a recluse life, etc. Swedenborg was no recluse from his friends, as the interesting if not very reliable gossip of Cuno shows. In fact Swedenborg was eminently social with those in whom he had confidence. That he took a deep interest in the publication of his works in English may be fairly inferred, if it is not proved, and Hartley is not likely to have allowed Swedenborg to be in London from August or September 1771 to March 1772 without sending him a copy of the translation of "Heaven and Hell," if that had not been already done.

[This discussion is now closed.-Ed.]

Reviews.

THE ANGELS. By a BIBLE STUDENT, Author of "Our Eternal Homes," &c. Speirs, London.

1874.

THOSE Who have read "Our Eternal Homes" are prepared to welcome this kindred work by the same writer. It will not disappoint their expectations; it may indeed be averred that it will more than satisfy them. In the treatment of the subject it is ample and clear; in the expression of the views it is forcible and elegant. It goes over the whole ground of immortality and the states and conditions of spiritual existence. Not the gates ajar, but the portals wide open, meet the earnest and eager inquirer, and invite him, not only to look in, but to enter, and see the beauties, and breathe the air, and participate in the joys of paradise-so far as one still bound to earth can realize the outer as well as inner life of heaven. For one of the grand truths now brought out in its fulness in the new revelation, so to call it, is the reality of the other world and all that belongs to it. Spirit, in all its forms, is a substantiality. It is not, as is too generally supposed, all impalpable essence, and cloud, and shadow. Nearer to the Divine than this material world, the spiritual is nearer to the All-perfect both in substance and in form. In a higher and more pregnant sense than the poet dreamed of, earth is but the shadow of heaven, the curtain that not entirely conceals but veils its glory. Our best guesses are there open revelations, our brightest imaginings are there embodiments, our intensest desires are there realizations. Here it is faith and hope, there it is sight and enjoyment. These may seem to be but changes of mental condition and experience. But they are so simply because the reality is there and the appearance is here. Those states

on earth are the shadows of the things themselves in heaven; and but for the realities existing there the appearances could have no existence here. Faith is therefore the substance (Graois) of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. A work which brings these truths more clearly and visibly before us is highly deserving of our encouragement, and on this ground we cordially recommend "The Angels" to the attention of our readers, both for their own use and for the benefit of others.

The

We give an extract from the chapter on What the Angels do. dialogue is not peculiar to this part, but runs through the whole book, and has no doubt been chosen by the author for the purpose of stating different views on the subject, and of making an easy transition from one topic to another, and with the view perhaps as well of making the treatment more graphic.

"Ordinary notions about heaven sorely need to be revolutionized,' rejoined Dokeos. Were it a vast church, 'If heaven were a temple, there must still be diversities of use. there must needs be a variety of officials. Were it a feast, difference of place and of service would still be inevitable. Heaven is a perfect state of human society; and its perfection consists in the diversity of the reception by its inhabitants of life, love, and intelligence from the Lord; and in the variety of uses which the angels are thus fitted to perform. Life in heaven is full and complete. Fulness of life, however, must mean ample scope for the exercise of all orderly and God-given faculties; subjects provided for the exercise of all intellectual powers; objects supplied for every orderly affection; and active uses subserving the general good, in the performance of which each angel may find his fulness of active and conscious joy.'

"But this is to say that heaven is only a more beautiful, orderly, and perfect earth! I remarked. It is also saying that there is a definite ratio of proportion between our earthly life and our life hereafter.'

"The love

"And if the earth-life is, in any true sense, a preparation for our heaven-life, must there not exist such a proportion between the two?' replied Dokeos. of the Lord possible to a man on earth is surely a preparation for his fuller love of the Lord in heaven. The joys which such a love inspires must surely be a preparation, as well as a foretaste, of the joys to be inspired by this love in heaven. Delight in charity, in beneficence, in ministration and service, are all such foretastes of heavenly delights. The sweet and pure pleasures derived from the contemplation of the beautiful, from new perceptions of truth, from new achievements of art, from new discoveries in science, are surely holy and heavenly; they are the fore-gleams and fore-glimpses on earth of what awaits the soul in fulness in the heavens of God. So the wisdom of earth is kindred in kind though inferior in degree to that which prevails in heaven. So the music of earth is linked to the music of heaven by the bonds of an indissoluble affinity. There is no science which has not a heavenward as well as an earthward side. Nothing was ever wrought out into fixed subsistence on earth which did not first exist in the spiritual world that is in man, a conception of his mind, an object of perception and apprehension, though not yet embodied and ultimated as an object of sense.

"Do you object that such ideas are too human, representing that world as bearing too close a resemblance to this? I answer: It cannot be too human, when we remember that the inhabitants of that world are men; that they have taken with them into that world all the mental and emotional characteristics, and all the idiosyncrasies and specialties of taste and genius which they possessed in the natural world. I object to all other representations of heaven that they are too un-human; and utterly irrational, because so contrary to everything which we have known and felt as real and individual men. We stand on solid ground only so long as we remember that angels are men; spiritual, exalted, holy, far more perfect than earth's wisest, purest, and mightiest, yet still MEN! We reason from an impregnable basis so long as we remember that the earth-life was intended to be a real preparation for life in heaven. Abolish the fixity and grossness of matter, the restrictions of space and time, the evil affections as well as the sins to which they give rise, the squalor and misery, the penury and filth, the painful drudgery and degrading toil of the earth-life; supply to executive ability a substance as plastic as the stuff that dreams are made of,' on which the wills of the angels can operate directly, and almost without manual exertion; exalt a million-fold the charities, amenities, and graces of existence; multiply endlessly the love and tenderness, the sweetness and blessedness, the judgment and skill, the insight and dexterity of the inhabitants; make their every purpose holy with the spirit of selfsacrifice, and every scene around them beautiful, because the corresponding out-growth of their affections and thoughts, and then you can form to yourself a faint and far-off ssion of what is meant by life in heaven!'"'

Miscellaneous.

GENERAL CONFERENCE.-As the fol- New Church Day-School, to be taught lowing Report presented to the last after ordinary school hours, either for General Conference contains business one hour or two half hours per week which will require the thoughtful atten- during the ordinary School term; adtion of the next, we insert it entire, that mission of scholars thereto to be free, it may be in the hands of all the members: and not to be exclusively confined to "Report of the Committee appointed scholars in actual attendance at the by Minutes 104 and 105 of the Sixty- Day-School. 2. The Teacher of this fifth Session of the General Conference, Class shall be appointed by the Day'to consider the whole subject of the School Committee, either a Day-School appropriation of the Funds left for the Teacher, the Minister of the Society, or education of poor children in the doc- other competent person, who shall trines of the New Church, and to con- receive the Conference Grant. 3. The sider what shall henceforth constitute Minutes of the organisation of the Class, the education of poor children in the and appointment of the Teacher, shall doctrines of the New Church.' To the be recorded in the Minute-Book, to be General Conference assembled at Hey- supplied by the Conference. 4. The wood, August 1873. Gentlemen- Teacher of the Class shall keep in the Your Committee report that they have Minute-Book a correct register of the given their best attention to the sub- attendances of the scholars. 5. The jeet committed to them. Copies of Class shall be taught systematically the extracts from the wills, whereby money Conference Catechism, Scripture Hishas been bequeathed to the Conference tory, the Doctrine of the Lord,' and Education Fund, have been supplied the 'Doctrine of Life.' 6. The Conto the members, together with copies ference shall appoint a Minister, or of the Minutes of Conference for 1855 other suitable person, not being the containing the report of a committee Teacher of the Class, to be the Inspector appointed to inquire into this subject. of each School, who shall once or twice Your Committee deem it necessary that in each year examine the scholars, and the whole system of administering the pass those who exhibit a reasonable Education Fund should be reconsidered, proficiency. 7. The Inspector shall and adapted to the alterations made by give to the Teacher at least one calendar Parliament in the Elementary Education month's notice of his intention to visit system of the country and the exigencies and examine the Class, specifying the of the Church, so as to induce all the date and hour. 8. The Inspector shall day-schools to co-operate in the religious record in the Minute-Book of the School instruction of children. Your Com- a report of his visit, the number of mittee therefore beg to submit the fol- scholars examined, and the number who lowing scheme for the consideration of have passed. 9. For every scholar who Conference, and recommend that, if has been thus passed by the Inspector, adopted, the resolutions should be the sum of 5s. shall be granted and printed as regulative resolutions in the paid by the Conference, provided that Appendix to the Minutes, and, subject the scholar so passed has made not less to the approval of the next Session, than thirty attendances of one hour, to become rules of Conference for the or 60 attendances of one half-hour each Education Fund. Your Committee at the class during the year. 10. The further recommend that a committee of Inspector shall receive from the Conferthree be appointed to draw up a scheme ence the sum of 6d. for every scholar of systematic Religious Instruction for examined; but if his expenses in visitthe guidance of the teachers of the ing and examining the School amount classes, to report to next Session. All to more than the number of sixpences which is respectfully submitted.-J. he receives for examination fees, the BAYLEY, Chairman; ELI WHITEHEAD, Conference shall pay the balance of his Secretary.

"The Proposed New Rules.-1. A Class or Classes shall be formed in each

account, for which he must present his bill. 11. On receipt of the MinuteBook containing all the above-named