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'flthe Jnidlectual
AND
NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE.
No. 254.]
'
FEBRUARY 1, 1875.
[Vol. XXII.
LIKE AND UNLIKE.
There are many things in this world that appear to he alike, and
some that are even supposed to be identical, which are yet very differ
ent from, and some of them even opposite to, each other. Charity and
benevolence are often confounded, but are by no means the same.
Although not in their nature antagonistic, they are not unfrequently
opposite in their results. Charity aims at the real and even the ever
lasting good of its objects, benevolence only consults their apparent
good, and not only leaves the eternal out of consideration, but often so
acts as to make the temporal hostile to it. Parental love and fondness
are not unfrequently mistaken for each other, or rather fondness is
sometimes mistaken for love. Yet they are far from being the same.
Love, like charity, constantly aims at the real good of the objects of
its affection and regard, and so treats them as to secure, as far as it can,
their true and lasting welfare. Fondness seeks its satisfaction in the
gratification of its own and of its objects’ feelings and desires, and
often sacrifices their true interests by ministering to their appetites and
passions.
Zeal and anger are not always distinguished, yet they are not only
different but opposite in their origin, in their nature, and in their
tendency. Zeal is the warmth of love, anger is the fire of hatred.
“ Externally zeal appears like anger, but inwardly they are different.
The differences are these. The zeal of a good love is like a heavenly
flame, which in no case bursts forth upon another, but only defends
itself against a wicked person. But the zeal of an evil love is like an
�54
Like and Unlike.
infernal flame, which of itself bursts forth and rushes on, and desires
to consume another. The zeal of a good love burns away, and is
allayed when the assailant ceases to assault; but the zeal of an evil
love continues, and is not extinguished. This is because the internal
of him who is in the love of goodness is in itself mild, soft, friendly and
benevolent; wherefore when his external, with a view of defending
itself, is fierce, harsh, and haughty, and thereby acts with rigour, still
it is tempered by the good in which he is internally. It is otherwise
with the evil. With them the internal is unfriendly, without pity,
harsh, breathing hatred and revenge, and feeding itself with their
delights ; and although it is reconciled, still these evils lie concealed as
fire in the wood under the embers; and these fires burst forth after
death, if not in this world.” (C. L. 365.) There are two lessons we
may learn from this outward similarity between the two essentially
different feelings of zeal and anger. We must not regard all warmth of
feeling which we meet with in debate, when a speaker is vindicating
his own opinions, or refuting or even declaiming against those of others,
as of necessity so much as allied to anger. Nor must we suppose that
a still more fiery denunciation of wrong and vindication of right has
any necessary relationship with wrath. There is a generous indigna
tion, which is sometimes called righteous anger; but such indignation
or anger is only zeal. It has in it no hatred except against evil. It
desires the welfare even of those who do the evil against which it is
directed. The angels, we are told, have indignation, but their indigna
tion “ is not of anger but of zeal, in which there is nothing of evil,
and which is as far removed from hatred or revenge, or from the spirit
of returning evil for evil, as heaven is from hell, for it originates in
good.” (A. C. 3839.) Another lesson we learn from the outward
similarity between zeal and anger has respect to God.
He is a zealous
God. And His Divine zeal, although it is the fire of infinite love, to a
certain class of His creatures has the appearance, and from that ap
pearance has in Scripture assumed the name, of anger and even of
wrath and vengeance. “ The zeal of the Lord, which in itself is love
and pity, appears to the evil as anger; for when the Lord out of love
and mercy protects His own in heaven, the wicked are indignant and
angry against the good, and rush into the sphere where Divine good
and Divine truth are, and attempt to destroy those who are there, and
■ in this case the Divine truth of the Divine good operates upon them,
and makes them feel such torments as exist in hell; hence they attri
bute to the Divine Being wrath and anger, whereas in Him there is
nothing at all of anger or of evil, but pure clemency and mercy.
Wrath and anger are attributed to the Lord, but they belong to those
who are in evil, or are angry against the Divine.” (A. C. 8875.) How
needful, then, the Lord’s exhortation—“ Judge not according to the
appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”
�55
SKETCH OF THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY
BASED ON SCRIPTURE AND REASON.
BY THE LATE REV. W. WOODMAN.
Chap. V.—The Relation of the Soul and Body—continued.
We now come to the final question, which, though last, is not least
in importance : “ What is the use of the material body in relation to
the soul?” or, “What is the ground, in the divine economy, of the
necessity of man being born into the natural world 1 ” That such a
necessity exists must be inferred from the fact: for Divine Wisdom
does nothing in vain. No provision which exists is superfluous.
Hence there must be an adequate reason for the phenomenon.
In the preceding chapter it was explained that, without an inert or
reactive basis, creation itself would have been impossible, and that the
creative energies would have dissipated themselves without result. It
was also shown by reference to those phenomena of the other world, of
which the Scriptures supply intimations, that the substances of that
world have an inherent activity which results in continual change,
many of the scenes described in the prophets and the Apocalypse being
like the shifting scenes of a drama. That objects and scenery of a
permanent character exist there is unquestionable, but, as will be
shown in a future part of this work, their continuance is due to their
connection with states derived from the fixedness of this world. Such
Would be the character of the human soul, had it not been provided,
in order to its preserving a permanent identity, that the spirit should
be allied to the inert substances of the world of nature, thence to
derive a kind of limbus—a selvidge, or fringe-work of fixedness, which
forms a substratum or fulcrum to the spiritual activities, and serves,
like the cutaneous integument of the body, to hold all its parts in their
connection.
The rudiment of this is laid at conception, and becomes actual at birth,
so soon as the material organization has been animated from the outer
world, by the inhalation of the external atmosphere. Life thus brought
down to the extreme verge of our nature—in other words, the influx of
life from which the embryo lived thus uniting itself with the afflux of
life from without—-the connection of the soul with the body, which
previously had been potential, now becomes actual.
Still, the base thus formed in the child, though real, is rudimentary,
and receives its full development in after life, the body then serving as
�56
Sketch of the Science of Psychology.
a plane into which the mental activities are determined, and where, by
being embodied in corresponding acts, they become fixed in actual life.
This explains why in the Scriptures so great an emphasis is placed on
works, and why we are to be judged according to the deeds done in th®
body. It is for this reason that the Lord insists on the doing of His
precepts as the foundation on which alone our spiritual house can
stand.
The importance of this subject affords a sufficient apology for
adducing a few of the more prominent instances in which this doctrine
is enforced, such as the following : “ Blessed are the dead which die in
the Lord from henceforth'; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest
from their labours, and their works do follow them ” (Rev. xiv. 13).
l( Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right
to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city ”
(Rev. xxii. 14). “ Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall
enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he who doeth the will of My
Father which is in heaven” (Matt. vii. 21). “ He that hath My com
mandments, and doeth them, he it is that loveth Me” (John xiv. 21).
“ Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit: so shall ye
be My disciples ” (John xv. 5). “ Say ye to the righteous, It shall
be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings ” (Isa. iii.
10). And these are but a small fraction of the texts which bear on
the point.
The ground of these strong injunctions is obviously because love
together with faith, unless embodied in act, evaporate in mere senti
mentality. “ If,” as the Apostle James truly observes, “ a brother or
sister be naked, or destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto
them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye
give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth
it profit?” (chap. ii. 15, 16.) It is as profitless to him who contents
himself with the sentiment as to the object of it; it is equally desti
tute of fruit in the one case as in the other. In the act all purposes of
the will, with all the mental powers, both intellectual and affectional,
are concentrated. They are simultaneously present, and require a
consistency in the deed, whilst they leave their indelible impress on
the spirit.
It is not however to be inferred that there is any efficacy in mere
deeds. Actions, however pious or beneficent in their outward form,
when not the result of genuine religious principle, are destitute of
spiritual vitality. They are either formal or hypocritical—either like
�Sketch of the Science of Psychology.
57
a lk»dy without a soul, or a whited sepulchre, the receptacle of dead
Bien’s hones and all uncleanness. A mere act, considered abstractedly
from motive, is simply mechanical. It is qualified by the motive out of
which it springs; and the same act performed by different persons
may differ in all its essential characteristics, and indeed does so in
the degree in which the respective purposes and ends contemplated in
the performance of it respectively vary. In the mutual relation there
fore which the one bears to the other the inward motive impresses on
the deed its peculiar character, whilst this solidifies and renders
permanent the principles of thought and affection whence it springs.
It is also a fact, of which every one on reflection may convince him
self, that the principles of the mind, by derivation, become principles
of the body also. This is illustrated in the impress of the mental
characteristics on the countenance. I do not allude to those transitory
changes which are produced by the passing emotions; principles per
manently established within the soul imprint a lasting image of them
selves on the expression of the face.1
That there are instances where the secret workings of the soul are
sedulously concealed from observation is fully conceded; but this is
the result of long education of the features to conceal the real senti
ments of the mind, and simulate others which it does not feel.
It is an abnormal condition, and may be regarded as an exception,
which rather serves to prove the rule than furnish an argument against
it. Moreover, viewed in its essential character, the image of hypocrisy
will be found stamped on every one of its forms, although not so easily
detected by the external senses.2
The impress of the mental principles derived into the bodily
organization is not however confined to the face, although this is, par
1 The author witnessed a remarkable instance of this in comparing the portrait
of a gentleman taken at one period with the original some years afterwards, dur
ing which time a change had taken place in his religious sentiments. The like
ness was evidently an excellent one. Every feature was a perfect reproduction,
as far as to the general contour of the living face then preseent, but the expression
of the two was vastly different. That of the former, though not harsh, was cold
and rigid ; that of the latter beamed with benevolence and sympathy. A change
such as this could only be due to a correspondent change in the arrangement of
the interior fibres which underlie the surface, and which, as explained in the text,
primarily receive the impressions of the mental activities.
2 The author, and doubtless many who read these pages, has found how often
the impression spontaneously produced on first seeing an individual proves to be
the correct one. Even deceit, notwithstanding the consummate art resorted to for
the purpose of concealing the true sentiments, will thus frequently crop out.
/
�58
Sketch of the Science of Psychology.
excellence, the index of the mind. The manual dexterity acquired hy
practice in the more delicate operations of art or mechanics, rests on
the same ground. The soul not only thus educates its material
organism from the minutest fibres of which it is composed to its more
concrete organs, but a lasting impression is left upon them, a disposing
of the minute parts, whereby the operations are capable of almost
spontaneous reproduction ; many of the manual processes requiring no
ordinary skill being carried on without the effort of reflection. The
body has thus a species of automatic action, whence use becomes a
second nature. The retentive faculty of the organism of the im
pressions its activities may have received is most strikingly illustrated
by the circumstance, that what has been acquired in early youth, when
both mind and body are most plastic, is nevertheless so indelibly
fixed as never during life to be obliterated, but are capable of repro
duction at any subsequent period so long as our frame retains its
normal powers.
If this is the case with operations which lie relatively on the surface,
much more with the principles that stir the profounder depths of our
being. Manual dexterity, and even intellectual aptitude, may exist
independently of moral or spiritual character ; but that which springs
from the fountain of the life’s love, acting from a far deeper ground,
will exercise a proportionately more powerful influence; the inmost
motives, whatever their character, will inevitably transform the
whole organism inhabited by it into a perfect image of themselves,
and form a substratum, so to speak, on which the others rest.
It is then for this reason that the soul in its first stage is allied with
a material vesture; and that the natural universe has been created to
supply the elements necessary to form this external covering, and to
furnish a plane whereon these ultimate activities may be developed to
their utmost extent.
In the soul and body, then, are collated all the arcana of created
existence, and communication established with both worlds, so that
each may contribute its wealth to the human subject. The spiritual
supplies the active energies of his being, the material, the reactive base,
by means of which these become fixed and permanent. The lowest
being thus brought into the closest relationship with the highest, the
conditions are supplied for realizing the action of that law whereby
all true operation proceeds from first principles by ultimates into
intermediates. At birth there are only the two extremes, the soul and
a mere corporeity. The former, operating through the latter, rears the
�Shelch of the Science of Psychology.
59
mental superstructure lying between. The first plane rests on the
bodily senses; through these, by instruction, science is formed, and
the moral sentiments superadded; and if man becomes the subject of
& new birth, the centre of a new series is formed, a spiritual super
structure crowns the edifice. The soul is thus like a many-storied
house, rising from the lowest natural plane till it reaches the verge of
the spiritual, which, when formed and developed, brings it into com
munion and conjunction with the Supreme. In all these stages the
operation of the same law may be discovered. The principles and.
purposes formed within the mind acquire a mental consistency and
permanence only as they are determined to act. And whilst this im
parts a fixity to them, it also provides a solid mental basis for the
development and perfection of the religious life within.1
1 Three objections may possibly arise in some minds. It may appear that the
arguments employed in this chapter favour the conclusion that the existence of the
body is indispensable to the full exercise of the mental functions, and that at its
dissolution the soul is deprived of an essential element necessary to such exercise.
In the second place, it may seem as though those who died in infancy must lack
the full development of the natural base, and consequently remain imperfect.
The third difficulty which may probably suggest itself relates to the existence of
angels created such. On the first two points I must request the reader to suspend
his judgment till a future portion of this work, when they will more properly come
Under the full consideration they demand. As regards the third, I must beg
permission to remark that much misapprehension prevails on the subject. There
certainly is no direct intimation in the Scriptures of any existences being so
Created, and the doctrine rests entirely on inference, and this from passages con
fessedly obscure. The direct testimony of Holy Writ is fatal to the hypothesis.
A detailed account of the order of creation is given in the Book of Genesis from
th® “beginning :”—“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Th® process continued, in an ascending series, till it culminated in man, with
which, and the subordinating of all inferior beings to his dominion and control,
God, we are told, “ ended all His work which He had made.” It is unnecessary to
observe that not the slightest reference occurs to the creation of angels. As to
fallen angels the declaration that ‘ ‘ God saw everything that He had made, and,
behold, it was very good,” precludes the idea of such being then in existence.
Moreover, it is not possible rationally to conceive of a being higher than an
image and likeness of God save God Himself. There can be no relation closer
than that of an image and likeness to the original of which it is the copy save
identity, which it would be a misnomer to call relationship, and, in the case
under consideration, would involve the idea of a transfusion of the Deity—an idea
revolting to every Christian sentiment. In addition to this, where angels are
mentioned as having appeared to the patriarchs, and there is no record of such
an event prior to the time of Abraham, they are called “men.” The three who
visited Abraham, and the two who sojourned with Lot, are so called (Gen. xviii.
2 i xix. 10). So also the angel of the Lord that appeared to Manoah and his wife
(Judges xiii.). The angels that appeared at the Lord’s sepulchre, likewise, are so
�6o
EMERSON.
i.
The time was when our American consins were so completely our
imitators that it was only in the matter of Slaveholding and Con
stitution we could say they were distinct with a difference. Cooper
wrote novels after Scott; Washington Irving followed Goldsmith;
Bryant imitated the best things in Wordsworth and Byron; Prescott
walked upon the shadow of Robertson. In arts, science, and agricul
ture, it was the same : we made the Americans their tools, and
composed their manuals;—they were content to use them after our
fashion.
But this state of things had to cease. Territorial annexation
excited a spirit of innovation generally. Then first arose Emerson
with his Transcendentalism; a clock remarkable for its inexactitude
and its whirr in striking followed ; the Poughkeepsie Seer next dawned
upon the indefinable side of the Western horizon; finally, Walt Whit
man made his appearance. The clock has been replaced by a more
reliable chronometer; the Harmonial Philosopher has been overshot
by innumerable experts, mediumistic, thaumaturgic and clairvoyant;
Whitman’s song has been left to die away uncared for beneath the
overwhelming chorus of healthier and less inartistic singers; but
Emerson still remains unaffected by the Zeit-Geist.
In joyous
styled (Mark xvi. 5 ; Luke xxiv. 4 ; compare also John xx. 12), whilst the angel
attendant on John, whose glory was so transcendent that John would have fallen
before him in worship, declared that he was his fellow servant, of the apostles, and
of his brethren the prophets, and of them that kept the sayings of that book
(Rev. xxii. 9). As to the devil ever having been an angel of light, it is directly
contradicted by the declaration of our Lord, that “he was a murderer from the
beginning. ” From the direct testimony of Scripture, and from every rational con
sideration, the conclusion that both angels and internals are from the human
race appears inevitable. The portion of the Second Epistle of Peter, and of that
of Jude, where they speak of the angels who left their first estate, are often
quoted. But, surrounded as they admittedly are with the greatest obscurity, and
their meaning being a matter of conjecture, to urge them in opposition to the
clearly expressed statements on the other side, would be an inversion of all
legitimate reasoning. Similar remarks are applicable to the other texts usually
believed to favour the popular doctrine, as the poetical reference in Job to the
morning stars, and the sons of Gfod singing together at the laying of the corner
stone of the earth, the falling of Lucifer in Isaiah, etc. ; so far as their sense can be
intelligibly gathered, they are entirely irrelevant to the matter in point. On
this subject, however, the reader is referred to Noble’s Appeal.
�Emerson.
6i
severity, dreamy smartness, sagacious mother-wit, and subtle thought,
ha has steadily held his own amongst our Transatlantic brethren
during over forty years of literary activity, and still remains the most
American of Americans;—an incessant protestor against social stag
nation, servility, covetousness, heartlessness, and that conventional
superficiality which—in the domain of thought—brings us everywhere
face to face with mere s^m-dilettantes “peeping into microscopes
and turning rhymes, as a boy whistles to keep his courage up
“men who grind and grind in the mill of a truism, and nothing comes
■out but what was put in.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born at Boston in the year 1803,
and in early manhood—after graduating at Harvard—was ordained
an Unitarian minister.
An objection to the Sacramental Rite sub
sequently arose in his mind, and gradually widened into difficulties
ending only with the resignation of his pastorate. He then betook
himself to farming at Concord, near the spot where the first soldier
fell at the beginning of the War of Independence. There he has
spent most of his time since—his winter lecturing in Boston excepted.
Erom 1836 until now public attention has been attracted to him at
intervals either by a new course of lectures or by a new book.
“Nature,” “Essays and Orations,” “Representative Men,” “Poems,”
“The Conduct of Life,” “Society and Solitude,” “English Traits,”—
such are his principal literary works. He has also written largely in
the North American Review. Of his works not literary, it may be
briefly stated that Moncure Conway credits him with having so
Completely unsettled the minds of numbers of American thinkers some
years ago, that the Brook Farm Community, and certain other forms
of Harmonism, sprang out of the agitation j1 while J. R. Lowell—
speaking of the late War of Emancipation—says that “to Emerson
more than to all other causes together, did the young martyrs of our
civil war owe the sustaining strength of thoughtful heroism that is so
touching in every record of their lives.”2 What have been the prin
cipal causes of this success ? Is this success overrated ?
When Emerson—speaking of Goethe’s extraordinary knowledge of
human nature—said that this man seemed to see through every pore
of his skin, he used a remark equally applicable to himself. In this
lies the chief secret of his popularity. Another reason of his success
fe, that finding his countrymen were sinking their individuality before
1 In introduction to Passages from Nath. Hawthorne’s Note-Books, p. ii.
2 Vide My Study Windows, p. 280.
�Ó2
Emerson.
the demands of business, creedism and fashion, he had the courage
and tact to shame them into the admission of the fact. He showed
them they were the slaves of an idea that could but degrade. There
was a smooth mediocrity, a squalid contentment, that unmanned men.
How mean—he would say—to go blazing a gaudy butterfly in fashion
able or political saloons, the fool of society, the fool of notoriety, a
topic for newspapers, a piece of the street, and forfeiting the real
prerogative of the russet coat, the privacy and the true warm heart of
the citizen!
11 The babe by its mother lies bathed in joy ;
Glides its hours uncounted, the sun is its toy—
Shines the peace of all being, without cloud, in its eyes,
And the sum of the world in soft miniature lies,
But man crouches and blushes ; absconds and conceals ;
He creepeth and peepeth, he palters and steals.
Infirm, melancholy, jealous, glancing around,
An oaf, an accomplice, he poisons the ground.”
«
The world is his who can see through its pretension, he would say;—
why be timid and apologetic and no longer upright? Why dwarf
thyself beneath some great decorum, some fetish of a government,
some ephemeral trade, or war, or man ?
Addressing the leaders of thought, he showed them how com
pletely they had failed to meet the reasonable expectations of man
kind.
“Men looked when all feudal straps and bandages were
snapped asunder, that nature-—too long the mother of dwarfs—
should reimburse itself by a brood of Titans, who should laugh and
leap in the continent, and run up the mountains of the West with
the errand of genius and love : instead of this you are at best but
timid, imitative, tame —in painting, sculpture, poetry, fiction,
eloquence, there is grace without grandeur, and even that is not new,
but derivative. The great man makes the great thing. They are the
kings of the world who give the colour of the present thought to all
nature and all art, and persuade men by the cheerful serenity of
their carrying the matter, that this thing which they do is the apple
which the ages have desired to pluck, now at last ripe, and inviting
nations to the harvest.”
Young America won inspiration from his words, and lent itself
willingly to his teaching. His method was a sort of galvanic one,
and produced a like result. Little new was introduced into the
system,—the individual was led to feel himself. Stay at home in
thy own soul, Emerson would say,—are not Greece, Palestine, Italy,
�Emerson.
63
and ttte islands there in as far as the genius and active principle of
each and all is concerned? In silence, in steadiness, in severe
abstraction, hold by thyself. Add observation to observation. Be
patient of neglect, patient of reproach, and bide the fitting time 5
thou shalt see truly at last. The day is always his who works in it
with, serenity and great aims. As the world was plastic fluid in the
hands of God, so it is ever to so much of His attributes as we bring to
it: to ignorance it is flint.
Place not thy faith upon externals. The
sources of nature are in thy own mind if the sentiment of duty he
there. All thy strength, courage, hope, comes from within. Man is
spirit, and not a mere fleshly appetency. “ Every spirit builds itself
,a house; and beyond its house a world; and beyond its world a
heaven. What we are that only can we see. All that Adam had,
all that Caesar could, you have, 0 countrymen, and can do. Adam
called his house heaven and earth; Caesar called his house Rome ;
you perhaps call yours a cobbler’s trade, a hundred acres of ploughed
land, or a scholar’s garret. Yet line for line and point for point,
your dominion is as great as theirs, though without their fine names.
Build therefore your own world ! ” But build wisely. Trust your
intuitions rather than custom, conventionality and the rule of the
mart. They pass ; God is ; so is your personality and yours. Trust
God with this and knowledge is yours; for “ the heart which aban
dons itself to the Supreme Mind finds itself related to all its works,
and will travel a royal road to particular knowledges and powers. In
ascending to this primary and aboriginal sentiment we have come from
our remote station on the circumference instantaneously to the centre
of the world, where—as in the closet of God—-we see causes and
anticipate the universe which is but a slow effect.”
This was news for Young America, already made conscious that
“the ways of trade were grown selfish to the borders of theft, and
supple to the borders of fraud.” Not without a need came the
warning voice—
“What boots thy zeal,
0 glowing friend,
That would indignant rend
The northland from the south ?
Wherefore ! to what good end ?
Boston Bay and Bunker Hill
Would serve things still!
Things are of the snake.
The horseman serves the horse,
�64
Emerson.
' The neatherd serves the neat,
The merchant serves the purse,
The eater serves his meat.
’Tis the day of the chattel,
Web to weave and corn to grind ;
Things are in the saddle
And ride mankind.”
By Essays on Friendship, Prudence, Worship, Love, and other
subjects, Emerson sought to spiritualize man’s thoughts once more.
What a discovery these Essays must have proved to some only
half-enslaved traditionalist! There is that on “ Love,” for instance :
to learn that the “ foolish passion,” as one eminent divine called Love,
did really not only establish marriage, unite man to his race and
pledge him to domestic and civic relations, but did also carry him
with new sympathy into nature, did enhance the power of the senses,
did open the imagination, add to his character heroic and sacred attri
butes, and finally did secure to the true mind a personal conviction
that the purification of the intellect and heart from year to year is
the real marriage, foreseen and prepared from the first, and wholly
above their consciousness ! To think that all mankind love a lover ;
that love is a celestial rapture falling out of heaven to inheaven
humanity,—the remembrance of its visions outlasting all other
remembrances and remaining a wreath of flowers on the oldest brows!
“No man ever forgot the visitations of that power to his heart and
brain which created all things new; which was the dawn in him
of music, poetry and art; which made the face of nature radiant
with purple light, the morning and night varied enchantments; when
a single tone of one voice could make the heart bound, and the
most trivial circumstance associated with one form is put in the amber
of memory; when he became all eye when one was present, and all
memory when one was gone; when no place was too solitary and
none too silent for him who has richer company and sweeter conver
sation in his new thoughts than any old friends, though best and
purest, can give him;—for the figures, the motions, the words of
the beloved object are not like other images, written in water, but as
Plutarch says ‘ enamelled in fire.’ ”
And then the satisfaction some young Caleb would experience in
being told what he had previously learnt but could not shape into
words j—namely, that beauty is the flowering of virtue and that we
cannot approach it. “ Its nature is like opaline doves’-neck lustres,
hovering and evanescent. Herein it resembles the most excellent
�Emerson.
65
things, which all have this rainbow • character, defying all attempts
at appropriation and usethat like the statue it is then beautiful
when it begins to be incomprehensible,—when it is passing out of
criticism,—that it is not you, but your radiance one loves!
One will search far to find a more exquisite and manly piece of
thought than where Emerson in this Essay tells how, by conversa
tion with that which is in itself excellent, magnanimous, lovely and
just, the lover comes to a warmer love of these nobilities and a
Quicker apprehension of them. “ Then he passes from loving them
in one to loving them in all, and so is the one beautiful soul only the
door through which he enters to the society of all true and pure souls.
In the particular society of his mate he attains a clearer sight of
any spot, any taint, which her beauty has contracted from this
World, and is able to point it out, and this with mutual joy that
they are now able, without offence, to indicate blemishes and
hindrances in each other, and give to each all help and comfort in
curing the same. And, beholding in many souls the traits of the
divine beauty, and separating in each soul that which is divine
from the taint which it has contracted in the world, the lover ascends
to the highest beauty, to the love and knowledge of the Divinity, by
Steps in this ladder of created souls.” No wonder, if, after realisinosuch perceptions as these, Emerson persistently declaimed against that
“ subterranean prudence” which only too generally presides at
marriages “ with words that take hold of the upper world, whilst one
eye is prowling in the cellar, so that its gravest discourse has a
Savour of hams and powdering tubs.” Such thoughts as these are of
no mere ephemeral character.
But it is by his Transcendentalism, or Idealistic Philosophy, that
the character of this man’s mind is best discerned. Setting out
with the conviction that we must so far trust the perfection of the
creation as to believe that whatever curiosity the .'order of things
has awakened in our mind the order of things can satisfy, Emerson
shows that, philosophically considered, the universe is composed of
Nature and the Soul,—Nature being the Not-Me. Sensual objects
Conform to the premonitions of Reason and reflect the conscience;
thus every natural process is a version of a moral sentence. Nature
consequently exists for Uses ;—for Commodity, or the advantages of
sense ; Beauty, or eesthetical satisfactions ; Language, or the expres
sion of thought; and Discipline, or the education of the Understanding
and Reason. A proper appreciation of these excellences would
�66
Emerson.
lead us to see all things as continually hastening back to Unity. Our
globe as seen by God is a transparent law, not a mass of facts. We
may not implicitly believe our senses.
Nature conspires with spirit
to emancipate us.
The materialist respects sensible masses j the
idealist has another measure,—the Rank which things themselves take
in his consciousness. Mind is the only reality; of this men and all
other natures are better or worse reflectors. Matter does not exist :
Nature is an appendix of the Soul. Not that the sensuous fact is
denied, but that this is looked upon as a sequel or completion of a
spiritual fact. This manner of looking at things transfers every
object in nature from an independent and anomalous position
without into the consciousness.
All that you call the world__he
told his disciples—is the shadow of that substance which you are__
the perpetual creation of the powers of thought. The mould is
invisible, but the world betrays the shape of the mould. Seen in the
light of thought, the world always is phenomenal; and virtue
subordinates it to the mind. Idealism sees the world in God.
“If a man is at heart just, then in so far he is God ; the safety
of God, the immortality of God, the majesty of God, do enter
into that man with justice,” from which words one understands how
possible it is that a man should raise his hat to—himself, <£ Transcen
dentalism,” says Emerson 11 is the Saturnalia or excess of faith.”
Such Idealism, we further learn, beholds the whole circle of persons
and things, of actions and events, of country and religion, not as
painfully accumulated, atom after atom, act after act, in an aged
creeping Past; hut as one vast picture which God paints on the
instant eternity, for the contemplation of the soul.
“ The great Pan
of old, who was clothed in a leopard skin to signify the beautiful
variety of things, and the firmament his coat of stars,—was but a
representative of thee, 0 rich and various man ! thou palace of sight
and sound, carrying in thy senses the morning and the night and the
unfathomable galaxy; in thy brain the geometry of the City of God ;
in thy heart the bower of love and the realms of right and wrong.”
From these facts Emerson would lead us to see that the universal
essence—which is not wisdom, or love, or beauty, 'or power, but all
in one and each entirely—is that for which all things exist, and that
by which they are.
Spirit creates.
Behind nature, throughout
nature, spirit is present. One and not compound; it does not act
upon us from without, that is, in space and time, but spiritually, or
through ourselves. In other words, the Supreme Being does not build
�Emerson.
67
tip nature around us, but puts it forth through us, as the life of
the tree puts forth new branches and leaves through the pores of the
oli As a plant upon the earth, so a man rests upon the bosom of
God; he is nourished by unfailing fountains, and draws at his need
inexhaustible power.
In all this Emerson refuses to recognize the doctrine of Discrete
Degrees, and, as a consequence, he is committed—like Professor
Tyndall—to that confusion of thought which accepts life in its activity
in nature, as Life Itself in God.
He interprets its law of action
there, as if this life in such action were the Primal Law-Maker.
He takes the stream, of influences for the source and calls it God.
K The world, ” he says, “ proceeds from the same spirit as the body of
man. It is a remoter and inferior incarnation of God,—a projection
of God into the unconscious.” The Transcendentalist thus has no
difficulty in believing in one kind of miracle,—the perpetual
Openness of the human mind to new influx of light and power.
He has his Millenarianism too.
“ As far as you conform your life
to the pure idea in your mind,” says Emerson, “ that will unfold its
great proportions. A correspondent revolution in things will attend
the influx of the spirit. So fast will disagreeable appearances, swine,
spiders, snakes, pests, madhouses, prisons, enemies, vanish ; they are
temporary, and shall be no more seen. The sordor and filths of nature
tike sun shall dry up and the wind exhale. As, when the summer
comes from the south, the snow-banks melt and the face of the earth
becomes green before it, so shall the advancing spirit create its
ornaments along its path, and carry with it the beauty it visits and
the song which enchants it. It shall draw beautiful faces, warm
hearts, wise discourse and heroic acts around its way, until evil is
no more seen. The kingdom of man over nature, which cometh not
with observation—a dominion such as now is beyond his dream of
God—he shall enter without more wonder than the blind man feels
who is gradually restored to perfect sight.”
Erom thoughts like these numbers of young men won a sort of
rehabilitation for their intellect. They were without an ideal;
Emerson showed them one,—his own : a manhood scholarly, poetical,
individualistic, meditative, spontaneous. True, he was not always
understood, nor perhaps understandable : but this with youth is a
small matter if there be a truth-like shimmering splendour there. It
is said that certain of the auditory on one occasion were so stunned
with a flow of pretty incomprehensibilities from Emerson, that a
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Life Immediate and Mediate.
friend suggested that they should stand on their heads the remainder
of the lecture, and see if that course would lead to a better understand
ing of this new Franklin declaiming in Orphic phrase. Young
America listened, read, and believed it believed.
But Old America and the America of Middle Age ? These have not
remained with Emerson, for Emerson failed to satisfy their heart
wants ! That volume which begins with the command of the Eternal
Father, Let there be Light / and which closes with the proclamation
of an Everlasting Gospel and the revelation of an unending New
ITeaven and Earth, “ and there shall be no night there,” for “ the Lamb
is the Light thereof”—that volume was to Transcendentalism a sealed
book, for Emerson and his followers scorned to look to the Lord
Jesus, the only breaker of those seals. As the individual ripens away
from early manhood, and his experience of the depth of his inherent
corruptions becomes more vivid and intense, it is not Idealism will
assure him of a Divine Father who is “ a very present help in time
of trouble yet it is towards Him faith then looks for hearthold.
LIFE IMMEDIATE AND MEDIATE.
There is one only source of life, that is God. He is the sole vivifying,
animating, and sustaining cause of everything that lives. God in
Himself is substantial life, He being self-essent and self-existent.
Life from God, however, which is the life and support of every finite
existence, is not substantial, it is an active force. Were it substantial
it would be God from God, or God from Himself, which is an obvious
absurdity. If the proceeding life from God were substantial, then,
inasmuch as it exists only in what is finite, the Infinite would be
literally in the finite, which is an impossibility.
Of the Infinite
finite beings cannot by any means form an idea : after stretching the
thought to its utmost possible limit, nothing but what is finite is com
prehended, and all that can be said in respect to the Infinite is, that it
is not there, what is perceived is only finite, and therefore is no part
of the Infinite. The Infinite having no finite limit, it is not an object
of finite thought, it is consequently incomprehensible ; all we can know
respecting it is from revelation ; and it is there declared, that we may
believe and adore it as the origin of life, and the producer of all that
is good. It must ever be remembered that influx is a descent of life
from the spiritual to the natural world, or rather from God, through
the spiritual world to man; and also that there is no influx of sub
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69
stance. This is of the utmost importance, and must never be forgotten.
Substance does not flow from God, nor from one plane to another ; all
the degrees of the created universe are retained in their places, and in
their relative positions, never being removed, nor any part of them,
which would not be the case if influx were substantial. By that
retention of the various degrees of substance, both spiritual and natural
order is preserved throughout the whole, and all confusion is thereby
prevented.
Pure heat and light from the spiritual sun is what is meant by im
mediate life. Immediate life pervades all things, and it is the operation
of the immediate life in the disposal and arrangement of things which
is called the Divine Providence. It is the cause of all order, and pre
serves it both in the spiritual and in the natural worlds ; and it is pre
sent in all things as their indispensable sustainer. ' It is consequently
by immediate life that the distinction between the heavens is main
tained, by which the angels are formed into societies, or by which
classifications are effected—which is one of the greatest blessings of
Providence, and without which heaven would not be a place of
happiness. It is also by immediate life that representatives exist in
one heaven from another, and by which they correspond to each. It
is also the cause of days and nights and the seasons in this world.
Immediate life is also the cause of all the involuntary motions in man
in both soul and body ; by it the heart propels the blood, the lungs
respire, and all the other viscera perform their functions. It is like
wise by immediate life that diseases are removed, and the body is
restored to health, and by which man is strengthened and refreshed
during sleep. Immediate life is the very life of mediate life ; therefore
where there is mediate life there is also immediate, mediate life being
the immediate clothed, and without which clothing the influx of life
would be altogether imperceptible. Indeed, what is done by mediate
life is but little in comparison with what is done by immediate life.
(A. C. 7004.)
Immediate life is life unaffected by human or angelic mediums. It
is not only life as it proceeds from the spiritual sun, in which state it
is too intense to be received even by the highest angels ; but it is also
that life as it is mercifully accommodated to angelic reception by
divinely appointed accommodated mediums ; by these its intensity is
diminished and its ardency tempered. These mediums are spiritual
atmospheres. But these do not render it mediate ; it is still immediate
life notwithstanding its having passed through and been tempered by
these media.
Life as it flows from the spiritual sun is absolute, having no
specific form, no moral or human quality ; it is also undefinable and
F
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Life Immediate and Mediate.
indeterminate. It creates a form, vivifies it, and assumes a nature
therein; it also receives a quality in such forms as possess voluntary
power, and as mankind, and the life is thereby rendered mediate.
Life as a proceeding from God being absolute and undefined, no idea
of it can be formed but as heat and light proceeding from the sun,
which can scarcely be called an idea, inasmuch as heat and light apart
from substantial existences arc never made manifest.
When considering the different kinds of life, we are not to confound
the life which man lives with the life
which he lives. The life by
which man lives is immediate; but the life which he lives, whilst it
implies both immediate and mediate, is itself neither, but voluntary life.
It is a remarkable fact, that the life of man, or of any other living
thing, can be seen only in the existence of that thing; for this obvious
reason, it is neither more nor less than the thing itself living. The
life of man is the life which he lives, and not the vivifying force by
which he is animated; this latter is the same in all things. Man’s
voluntary life is that particular mode which life assumes, or which is
given to it by his free determination, which is in all cases peculiar to
the man himself; hence there are as many lives, or modes of life, as
there are men. When we think of the life of man, we are necessitated
to associate therewith the idea of the man himself. For example—
when we think of him speaking, his speaking is not anything apart
from himself as a subject; the same with regard to the act of walking,
for whether he be talking or walking there is nothing but himself as a
substantial form, both these being actions of the man, they are only
the man acting; and whether acting or not, he is nothing more than
himself as substantial form. It is the same with any particular organ
or limb as it is with the aggregate; the foot when walking, or the
hand when manipulating, is simply a foot or a hand; walking being
the foot acting, and manipulating being the hand acting, and nothing'
more; action adding nothing to either, but, as said, the action of any
thing is only the thing acting. It is likewise the same with the
sentient organs of the body and their sensations; each sensation
being nothing more than the organ’s own consciousness of some varia
tion which has been produced in itself. For instance, sight is not
anything apart from the eye, but it is simply the eye seeing, and
whether seeing or not seeing, it is neither more nor less than an eye.
This affirmation will, no doubt, be a paradox to those who have been
accustomed to think of the life of man as something which flows into
him, and also to those who believe that influx is substantial. But the
life which flows into man is not substantial, nor is it his life; his life
does not enter into him at all, but comes out of him only; it originates
in his will, and proceeds thence to the extremities of his body, where
�Life Immediate and Mediate.
71
it terminates in action. This life is simply the exercise of man’s in
ternal aij^l external capabilities, or those of his mind and body, and it
must be obvious that such exercise is only those capabilities in action ;
and what are capabilities in action more than the capabilities them
selves ? A capability is the power which is peculiar to an organ, and
which is inherent therein; it is grounded in its form, and is made to
exist by the presence and action of immediate life. There are in man
two kinds of organs, and although each possesses its own peculiar
capability, yet the process of life in each is different, yea, opposite,
from the other; one being from without to within, and the other
from within to without; the former is sensitive, the latter motive
the former commences in the organs of sensation, and terminates in
the memory; the latter commences in the will, and terminates in the
actions of the body. The former is involuntary, the latter is voluntary.
This latter process is what is meant by wm’s K/e; it is so because it
is from man’s will, commencing with his determinations, and is con
tinued through his nerves and muscles into external action. For what
is done by this process he is responsible. Now, the will and its
capability to determine are a one; we may think of the will existing
as a substantial form without the capability, but we cannot think of
the capability of determining existing apart from the will; because it
is only the will’s power to determine. When the will’s capability of
acting is brought into action, it is by the will’s own effort, and the de
termination is nothing more than the will determining its own power
to the production of some effort. As it is with any one organ so it is
with their aggregate, or with the whole man; therefore, as the action
of an organ is only the organ acting, so the action of a man is only the
man acting, and as the man is substantial so is his action; not action
alone, there being no such thing, but action in the sense of its being
a subject acting. This view of the life of man, or of man living, will
account for certain remarks made by Swedenborg, which, without this
understanding of action or living, must appear extraordinary and
anomalous, and which have proved to some of the students of his
writings most perplexing, viz., that affections, perceptions, and
thoughts, “are actually and really the subjects themselves which undergo
changes according to the influences which affect them ” (D. L. W. 42).
Notwithstanding all this, the influx of life is not substantial, but
it is the result of a proceeding living force from the source of life.
Some have actually concluded that the influx of life is substantial,
and, as a consequence, have arrived at the notion, that the life of each
individual is a spark struck off from the Divinity; that each one
possesses in himself literally what is divine; and that God has no
personality, but is infinitesimally divided amongst all His creatures, and
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Life Immediate and Mediate.
therefore that He is universally diffused. These, however, are mere
hallucinations, altogether apart from the truth; and the more they
are indulged in, the further will they lead the mind from an under
standing of the true nature of life.
Mediate life is life together with the mode it has assumed in living
subjects in the spiritual world; it proceeds from those subjects, and
is continued to others who are recipients, and by which they are
affected. It is not influx by reason of its flowing to man ; as it flows
to him it is only afflux, and it becomes influx only when it flows
him. The influx of which we are now treating is that which takes
place with man. Besides this there is a general influx which flows
from a superior to an inferior heaven, and from the spiritual into the
natural world, into homogeneous substances, and arranges them into
an agreement with itself, producing such things and states as corre
spond, and which are called correspondences.
Life becomes mediate only by virtue of flowing through conscious
living beings who possess quality, good or evil. Those mediums are
good and evil spirits in the spiritual world. In consequence of life
passing through such mediums, it is brought under the denomination
of “mediate life.” Hence mediate life always possesses a quality,
being good or evil in agreement with the quality of the spirits through
which it has passed. Life is therefore properly called mediate only
when it is in such a condition. But still the flow of mediate life to
man is not, strictly speaking, influx ■ that alone being influx which
flows into him. Mediate life when it flows to man is only afflux.
When man is first made conscious of its presence, it is only objective,
and can be inspected, approved, or disapproved, at discretion, accord
ing to the free determination of his will, and it is only when it is
approved and accepted that it becomes influx. Although this distinc
tion between afflux and influx is not commonly pointed out, it must
be evident to every thinking mind that such a distinction exists.
That such is the case will be clear from the fact that evil influence
comes to the good as well as to the wicked, and that good influence
comes to the wicked as well as to the good; but still such influence
does not give to either a quality, which it would do if it flowed into
them; it simply flows to them, and is thereby a/flux, and if it sub
sequently flow’s into them, it is by their own approval and reception,
when, and not before, it is //¿flux. Respecting the difference between
afflux and influx Swedenborg is silent; still he makes use of phrases
which imply both. In A. C. he frequently uses the words “flow
in into,” which can mean only afflux and influx; by flowing in
he means flowing to, or afflux; and by flowing into, influx. He
also speaks of God flowing into man, and of His being received or
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73
ejected; His flowing into also in this case means afflux, and His being
received, influx. The Scriptures are in some parts very explicit on
the difference between afflux and influx, anc? without naming the
Words, clearly point out the two fluxes, and also the difference between
them ; as for instance—“ Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any
man hear My voice and open the door,” etc. (Rev. iii. 20). The stand
ing at the door and knocking is evidently afflux, and His going in,
when the door is opened, is influx. Afflux only gives man an
opportunity to accept or reject, but influx yields a blessing.
Mediate life as it comes to man may be more properly styled
influence than influx. It may be called influence for a most obvious
reason; thus, when it flows to man it operates upon the forms in his
memory, and excites them, and arranges them into an agreement with
the state of the spirit or spirits whence the influence came, and that
arrangement is perceived by man in himself as the presence of such
spirits, whatever may be their qualities.
When influence comes from spirits to man, so far is it from giving
him a quality, that it may be made the means of his receiving an
opposite quality; for by evil influence his own evils are excited and
made to appear, which might otherwise have remained quiescent and
latent; and, when seen, they may be opposed and subdued; and so
far as that is done, he is elevated out of them, and is at the same time
brought into an opposite state of goodness.
Inasmuch as life does not become mediate by reason of flowing
through spirits, but by reason of what is assumed in them, it has been
a question as to whether the idea of mediate life ought not to be con
fined to that which is derived from the medium; that is, its quality,
good or evil, for take away its quality, and all sense of mediate life is
gone, nor would man be conscious of its presence; yet life is the
active principle, without which there could be neither influx nor
afflux. This being so, it would appear, that the word mediate life
involves the idea of an active principle to operate and assume, and
also the state which is assumed; and although there is a clear distinc
tion between the two, yet neither alone, but both together, constitute
mediate life.
We may here, without digression, introduce a correlative idea.
Previously to the development of man’s interior degrees by regenera
tion, he has communication only with spirits in the world of spirits
(H. H. 600), but afterwards with angels. But, notwithstanding this,
he is not sensible of his communication with spirits in the world of
spirits, nor can he be unless his spiritual senses be opened; his
evidence of such communication is affectional and mental: this is so
because his consciousness is on one plane and they are on another, or
<
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Life Immediate and Mediate.
he is in the natural world whilst they are in the spiritual ; they are
consequently inhabitants of different worlds. This being the case,
were it not for influx existing between the two worlds, and between
spirits and men, they could not communicate at all. Spirits do not
communicate with man from their voluntary principles, nor are they,
when in their normal states, conscious of such communication any
more than man is conscious of his communication with them (H. H.
249, 292). Why, it may be asked, cannot spirits in their normal
states consciously communicate with man in this world ? It is because
the two worlds which they inhabit are so different from each other as
to have nothing in common ; those who are in one cannot see, hear,
taste, smell, or feel anything that is in the other. Of this, so far as
man in this world is concerned, we have continual evidence, and as it
is with the inhabitants of one world, so it is with those of the other.
The communication which exists between the two worlds cannot be
sensibly perceived, but must be effected by an internal way. The
only ordinary communication is effected by influx, and such communi
cation is not felt. That communication is effected by the spheres of
spirits, which flow from them spontaneously, therefore without their
power of direction. Those spheres act upon all who are near to them,
and they are the means of associating or dissociating the inhabitants
of that world ; with those who are like-minded they effect conjunction,
but with those who are dissimilar as to state, they cause disjunction
and separation ; they are also the cause of distances in that world.
Spheres originate and terminate on the same plane—they never leave
the plane on which they originate ; they extend, but neither ascend
nor descend : and inasmuch as spirits and men exist upon distinct and
altogether different planes, the spheres of spirits cannot be made
manifest to man in this world.
The spheres of spirits do not affect men as they affect the spirits who
are on the same plane; spirits are.affected as to their bodies as well as
to their minds, because there are spheres from both their minds and
their bodies, and being on the same plane, they are affected as to both ;
but it is not so with men. The spheres of spirits affect the degrees in
others which are similar to those in the spirits themselves in whom
they originate, and from whom they proceed. There is a sphere from
each degree, internal as well as external ; the sphere from the spirit’s body
affects the bodies of other spirits, and they are sensibly perceived ; the
sphere from their understandings affect the understandings of others,
and the sphere from their wills affect the wills of others—not the
will as a capability, or the power of determination, but the will as a
substantial subject, the subject of the power to determine. But men
existing in a discrete degree below that of the spirits, their spheres
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75
cannot affect them ; communication must therefore be effected in
another way. That way is as follows. Although man, whilst he is ii.
this world, is conscious only in the world, still he has in his constitu
tion degrees which are of the substances of the spiritual world, and
although whilst he is in this world he has no consciousness in them,
still they may be affected by what is on their plane, and are so affected
by the spirit’s spheres ; which affection is carried down by descendi-ng
life to man’s conscious degrees where it becomes inwardly manifested.
That descending life, together with its assumed state, is what is called
influx. The spheres of spirits which affect man’s spirit originate in
their vital parts—their wills and understandings, which contain
their qualities as to good or evil, and proceeding thence carry with
them these qualities ; and inasmuch as the sphere affects that degree
of man’s spirit which is on the same plane as that of the spirit whence
the sphere proceeded, it is manifested as an affection of the mind,
good or evil according to the quality of the spirit whence it emanated.
This is the ordinary communication which exists between spirits and
men in this world ; it therefore follows, that spirits are not conscious of
such communication, much less are they conscious of the particular
individuals with whom they are held in connection.
However,
whether they possess such consciousness or not, and whatever be their
qualities, their spheres proceed to and act upon man’s spirit ; nor can
they prevent it, neither can man avoid feeling the effects thereof, for
he feels them from the same necessity that the body feels whatever acts
upon- its skin. But, notwithstanding the mind being necessitated to
perceive the effects of spirits’ spheres, both good and evil, yet he is
not necessitated to yield to either, but receives or rejects them as a
matter of free choice. That to which he gives preference, and receives
into his will and thought, from afflux becomes influx, and he becomes
one with it in quality, and is conjoined with the spirits in which it
originated. Yet, we must observe that man’s quality is not from those
spheres, nor from the spirits whence they proceed, but it is from his
own free choice of good or evil. This is the way in which the first
human quality, whether good or evil, originated; it is the way in which
both angels and devils have acquired theirs, and in no other way could
human quality of any kind have been acquired. If man had originally
waited for evil influences from others, or from any extraneous source,
in order that he might procure for himself a quality, it is clear, that
he would never have procured one, because there then were no such
influences. Human quality originates only in man, each man origi
nating his own, just as the first evil was originated, whatever may be
the circumstances by which he is environed. We conclude that life
is a living force, and that it exists in two conditions ; firstly, as a pro-
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The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes.
ceeding of spiritual heat and light from the sun of heaven; that this
passes through spiritual atmospheres, as accommodating mediums, by
■which it is tempered and made receptive by the highest and most per
fect human beings, viz., the celestial angels. That proceeding, even
when accommodated by those divinely appointed mediums, is imme
diate life. .That same proceeding, by entering into angels and spirits,
and also devils, assumes their qualities, and thereby becomes mediate
life. The proceeding life does not become mediate life by passing
through the accommodating mediums, but by passing through living,
voluntary mediums, which contain angelic or infernal qualities, which
are spirits in the spiritual world ; it therefore comes to man as good
or evil influence. There is always this distinction between immediate
and mediate life, the former enters man without his consent or his
consciousness, and without his power of interference; but of the latter
he is conscious, and he can interfere with it, and does so interfere,
it not being able to enter into him without his consent and reception.
By immediate life man is endued with capabilities, and by mediate
life he is furnished with objects on which these capabilities can be
exercised, by which under the influence of his free-will he forms
in himself a state which, in the future life, becomes the ground of
his everlasting happiness or misery.
S. S.
THE MIRACLE OF MULTIPLYING THE LOAVES
AND FISHES.
Addressed
to the
Sick and Aged
Matt.
in a
Union Workhouse.
xv. 32-39.
Our attention was drawn on a previous occasion to our Lord’s cure of
the lame, the blind, the dumb and the maimed, of which the account is
given in the preceding verses. By such wonderful cures the Lord
Jesus Christ proved to those who were willing to be convinced that
He was God as wrell as man. But so condescending was He to our
fallen and unbelieving state, that though the miracle of performing
such cures was enough to convince any teachable spirit that the Lord
was God, He yet added another equally wonderful proof of the truth
of St. John’s declaration, that “without Him was not anything made
that was made,” by showing that He could multiply food also, so that
seven loaves and a few little fishes fed four thousand men, besides
women and children. When we think how few could get a meal off
the same quantity of food when distributed by human hands, we see
that it was only One who could create food that could have fed so great
a multitude. When we were talking about the cure of those who
were sick of various diseases, you may remember that I told you, that
one lesson which we had to learn from it was, that we were to go to
Jesus Christ for the cure not only of our bodily ailments, but of what
is far more to be dreaded, the sickness of our souls. And the miracle
of feeding so many has a lesson for us too. Jesus says, “ Man shall not
�Modem Science and Revelation.
77
live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God.” He says also, “ If any man thirst, let him come unto
Me and drink.” When we are sick we do not feel much appetite, but
a« our health returns our desire for food comes back; and so it is with
out souls. So long as we do not wish to live according to our Lord’s
commandments, we do not desire to be taught what we ought to do,
we have no appetite for the bread which cometh down from Heaven,
and will not drink of the “ Water of Life.” But when we have truly
come to Him, asking Him to take away our sins, and to give us a
“new heart and a right spirit,” then we desire to be all that He would
have us to be, and are constantly thinking, when any difficulty arises,
“I wonder what I ought to do?” Under the influence of such
thoughts we go to God in prayer, to ask Him to teach us, and we read
God’s Holy Word that we may learn His will. Then He sends His
Holy Spirit, to show us what our duty is, and so we are fed by Him.
It may be only a few words, or a short verse, but it is enough to feed
the soul. It is like a grain of mustard seed, which springeth up into a
great tree, or ‘‘'like a little leaven, that leavens the whole lump.” For,
suppose we feel angry with any one who has done us harm and desire
to revenge ourselves, we open the Bible, and see, “ Forgive your
enemies,” “ do good to them that hate you.” “ Render not evil for
evil,” or “ railing for railing.” Then we begin to hesitate, and perhaps
another text comes to our help, “ For if ye forgive not men their
trespasses, neither shall your Father in Heaven forgive you your
trespasses.” What a dreadful thought that is ! If we are not forgiven
then we cannot go to Heaven, and if we do not go there, there is only
other place. Oh, awful thought! Shall we sacrifice the hope of
eternal happiness for the sake of saying a few angry words, or doing
an unkind thing, which will give neither us nor our fellow-creatures
any real pleasure ? Then perhaps we remember having heard at church,
or read for ourselves, “ Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain
mercy.” There is something in that word “Blessed” that seems so
attractive ! It is not only that we shall be forgiven, but we shall be
made happy into the bargain. Well, we think, it is only a little sacrifice
that I am required to make, and the gain is more than eternity can
tell, so I will pray to God to help me to forgive this time. Ah, now
we taste heavenly food, good affections flow into our hearts from the
Lord, and wTe not only feel the blessedness of “ the merciful,” but the
blessedness of “ the meek,” and of “ the poor in spirit; ” and so you see
how heavenly food is multiplied. Well may we pray, “ Lord, ever
more give us this Bread.”
M. S. B.
MODERN SCIENCE AND REVELATION.
The faculty of observation and the desire of knowing are the two im
portant principles which impart to the mind its progressive tendency.
Glancing back into the remote ages of the past, we can conceive
primaeval man calling these powers into exercise in recording his
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Modern Science and Revelation.
conceptions of the world and its phenomena. His notions of things
would be at first crude and wanting in accuracy. He would perceive
that the day was divided between light and darkness, and this he
would observe to be caused by the sun. Tracing that luminary from
its rising to its time of setting, and noting that the same phenomenon
was repeated from day to day, he would conclude that the sun moves
in an orbit around the earth. Also observing the position of the
fixed stars, he would infer from their apparent movement in the
direction of the sun that the whole sidereal heavens revolves around
the earth. Then following the bent of his inherent desire to know,
he would extend his investigation to the planets and their movements.
Successive observations of the phenomena of nature in her several de
partments would bring to his mind a considerable increment of facts.
The classification and arrangements of these facts under various heads
would form the first crude indications of the natural sciences. Suc
ceeding generations of thinkers, while making use of the records of
men who had gone before, and taking them as the basis of ex
tended observations, would, although perpetuating some of the errors
of previous observers, discern and correct many of their faults. Thus
the sciences are the recorded experiences of thinking minds in
dealing with nature. In their infancy the sciences are necessarily the
repositories of much that is erroneous and fallacious. The conceptions
of the Chaldeean astronomers cannot be compared with the discoveries
of a Herschel or a Newton. The anatomical deductions of Hippocrates
are extremely crude when placed side by side with the learned dis
quisitions of a Carpenter or a Huxley. Ideas which at one period
seemed to bear the impress of truth are shown to be more or less un
sound by thinkers of later times.
Subsequently to the investigations of Copernicus the world was
considered as a plane, and the stars were conceived to be fixed in the
revolving vault of the heavens. But that philosopher, about 1500 a.d.,
satisfied himself that the planets, including the earth, revolve around
the sun. In 1610 this hypothesis was confirmed by Galileo by the
aid of his newly invented telescope. This was the beginning of a new
era in the science of astronomy. But it was also the signal for the
commencement of a conflict between speculative minds and the digni
taries of the Romish Church. Galileo proved to a demonstration that
the earth revolves around the sun, and that the sun has no orbital
movement. Theologians, because of certain expressions in the Bible
implying the contrary, discredited this discovery, and maintained that
it had no foundation in fact. But the march of thought was irre
sistible, and the Church was powerless to arrest its onward progress.
Theologians could not then conceive, nor are they willing to accept the
conclusion to-day, that the Bible deals exclusively with man’s spiritual
nature, and does not lay down canons and laws of natural science. In
stead of receiving the Bible and the laws of nature as each pointing
upward to a Divine Author, instead of perceiving that there is no con
tradiction between the revealed Word and the truths of creation, because
each has a distinct mission to fulfil, they opposed the apparent truths of
�Modern Science and Revelation.
79
the Word to the rigid demonstrations of science. A similar conflict was
engendered in recent times when geology first threw light upon the
history of life upon the globe. That science made rapid strides. De
posited in the various strata which form the earth’s crust were dis
covered fossil remains of forms of life which have long since
become extinct. Numerous races of creatures it was seen had lived
and died. Low forms of life had been succeeded by higher and more
complicated organisms. Gigantic creatures had formed their homes on
the land and in the ocean, whose skeletons, preserved in the strata of
the earth’s crust, enable the geologist to read in the pages of the Stone
Book the history of periods long anterior to the existence of man;
while fossilized remains of vegetable life indicate that vast areas of
the earth’s surface were once covered by plants which attained to
enormous proportions, which, subsequently disappearing, formed our
coal-beds that lie far below the surface of the globe.
Thus investiga
tions and discoveries which geologists have made lead them to the
conclusion that the earth and its life-forms have arrived at their present
condition through countless ages. And the facts of astronomy also
prove that the vast cycles of time during which the universe has been in
existence surpass human powers of comprehension.
But how have these deductions been met by theologians ? Instead
of giving up the position of a literal interpretation of the early
chapters of Genesis as untenable, they have endeavoured to harmonize
the records of science with the higher truths of revelation by methods
that have excited derision and contempt. Before geology gained a
firm footing amongst thinking minds, it was generally believed that the
universe had existed only 6000 years, and that its creation had occupied
but six days. When it was rigidly shown that creation was an orderly
development embracing myriads of ages, some other mode of explain
ing the narrative in Genesis was looked for, and at length those who
professed to believe in a close literal conception of the word so far de
parted from their position as to call the days of creation not days, but
ages—unfortunately, however, the Sabbath is mentioned as the seventh
day, and therefore by that supposition the first Sabbath was not a period
of twenty-four hours, but an age. Again, a difficulty was found in the
Scripture narrative that light was created before the sun. It has been
suggested that the difficulty may be overcome by supposing a subtle
luminous vapour to have pervaded all space prior to the creation of the
greater luminary of heaven. Such an hypothesis is altogether un
tenable in the face of the fact that the sun is the sole source of light
to its planets.
But in thus endeavouring to reconcile the Bible
narrative with the facts of science, theologians have placed a con
struction upon the account in Genesis for which there is no justifica
tion ; for if it is to be taken literally, its letter ought not to be
departed from, nor must it be subjected to the gratuitous interpreta
tion of every capricious mind. The facts of science have suffered
nothing in this conflict of opinions; but the Bible, by the bigoted
zeal of its professed expositors, has been brought into contempt.
But the reasonable aspect of the question is one which should not
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Modern Science and Revelation.
"be rejected without consideration. The facts of science are discover
able by man’s powers of observation and reason. The book of nature
is intimately connected with his mortal part; as such he may read and
study it, and discover in its pages unmistakeable indications of the
Divine author. But the Bible relates to his immortal part, and he
may, if he will, discover in it those spiritual laws and truths which
can reach us by revelation alone. Nature is the effect of God’s creative
power, the Bible is the expression of His infinite wisdom. The laws
of nature and the revelations of the Word having the same Divine
source, there can be no contradiction between them. When therefore
theologians are met by facts which invalidate a literal interpretation
of a certain portion of the Word, they should be prepared to look for
the deeper and purer sense of its spirit. Dr. Whewell says, “ The
meaning which any generation puts upon the phases of Scripture
depends more than is at first sight supposed upon the philosophy of
the time. Hence, when men imagine that they are contending for
revelation they are in fact contending for their own interpretation of
revelation, unconsciously adapted to what they believe to be rationally
probable. And the new interpretation which the new philosophy
requires, and which appears to the older school to be a fatal violence
done to the authority of religion, is accepted by their successors without
the dangerous results which were apprehended. At the present day
we can hardly conceive how reasonable men should have imagined
that religious reflections on the stability of the earth, and the beauty
and use of the luminaries which revolve around it, would be interfered
with by its being seen that this rest and motion are apparent only.
Those who adhere tenaciously to the traditionary or arbitrary mode
of understanding Scriptural expressions of physical events are always
strongly condemned by succeeding generations, and are looked upon
with pity by the more serious and considerate, who know how weak
and vain is the attempt to get rid of the difficulty by merely
denouncing the new tenets as inconsistent with religious belief.”1
Truly so. The Bible is the word of the Highest; and not in its
letter, but in its spirit must we seek for evidences of its divinity and
its power. And in the first chapter of Genesis, beneath the un
scientific form of the letter, we trace the development of the spiritual
side of our nature from the commencement of the re-creative work of
regeneration until we attain the beauty and perfection of the heavenly
state. The Bible is the Word of God, and He has told us that His
words “are spirit and life.” Let us then receive His revelation in
this sense, and while we search for its spirit, grow strong by its life
giving power.
In the learned disquisition recently given to the world by a pro
found philosopher this sentence appears :—“ Abandoning all disguise,
the confession that I feel bound to make before you is, that I pro
long the vision backward across the boundary of the experimental
evidence, and discern in that matter, which we in our ignorance, and
notwithstanding our professed reverence for its Creator, have hitherto
1 Indications of the Creator, p. 52, 2d ed.
�Modern Science and Revelation.
81
covered with opprobrium, the promise and potency of every form and
quality of life.”1 Does this conception land us in materialism? We
think not. It is the statement of a belief which may be true or false.
It contains no direct denial of a Creator, and as an hypothesis is ex
ceedingly plausible. The transcendentalism of Kant annihilated matter
and established a universe of ideas in the place of creation. But if,
With Tyndall, we view matter as the repository of power, which gives
v the promise of every form and quality of life,” we have but “ to pro
long our vision backward ” beyond the region of matter to see in the
Divine the source of that power, by virtue of which matter is enabled
to give the “ promise of every form and quality of life.”
It is a generally received hypothesis that matter is formed of atoms.
On the assumption of the truth of this theory it has been said that
“ they are the manufactured articles which, formed by the skill
of the Highest, produce by subsequent interaction all the pheno
mena of the natural world.” Dalton first established the atomic
hypothesis in reference to chemical combinations. It is found that
in a given compound the elements combine in a certain definite
and invariable ratio. Take water as an example. It can be shown
by experiment that two volumes of hydrogen always combine with
one volume of oxygen. Assuming the existence of atoms, it is evident
that two atoms of the hydrogen element combine with one atom
of the oxygen element. That atoms by combining in various pro
portions form compounds differing from each other is plainly shown
in the well-known nitrogen series. Whatever we touch or see in the
three kingdoms of nature bears testimony to the fact that “ atoms by
their interaction produce all the phenomena of nature.” But now the
question arises : Do atoms contribute to these results by any inherent
power of their own, independently of the Creator? Every natural
phenomenon, we are told, rests on a cause, but atoms by their “ inter
action produce natural phenomena;” are atoms then the primary cause of
their own effects? Atoms, we say, form by their interaction the
endless variety of compounds and substances in nature under the rule
of certain laws, from which it should seem they have no power to
■deviate. And it may be urged that new variations from established
forms are continually being produced both in the animal, vegetable,
and mineral kingdoms. But evidently atoms produce these effects
in obedience to certain conditions, or else if by their own free choice,
why were not these results forthcoming earlier? When a plant
Strikes out into varieties it does so by the operation of agencies
external to itself—a change in the conditions of soil or climate, or
the forced impregnation of its ovaries by the pollen of another plant.
A seed is placed in the ground, it germinates, develops, and assumes
the exquisite symmetry and beauty of the lily. Atoms have here been
built up, and have by their interaction produced leaves and flowers.
But before this building operation could proceed, certain external
conditions were necessary. A force exterior to the special atoms which
formed the lily came into play. That force is heat. Heat produces
1 Professor Tyndall’s Address in Nature.
�Modern Science and Revelation.
motion, and motion causes interaction of atoms. Suppose the seed
hermetically sealed in a glass tube, and, in absence of the necessary
conditions of soil and moisture, and of the main condition heat, and
no life movement would be observed. Given then soil, moisture, and
light, still in the absence of heat a seed fails' to germinate. Again,
admitting for a moment that all life-forms originated in a monad,
throw back your gaze into the bygone ages, and note that protoplasmic
substance—that combination of atoms lying on the solitary shore of
the unpeopled world, where no sound arises but the surging of the
waves upon the bare and solid granite, and the sweep of the wind
across the desert of the world, yet lifeless as the tomb. This monad
develops into a symmetrical form—it moves—there is the first trace
of life—there is the first species—the progenitor of all future existences.
But why did not that monad remain motionless as the rock upon
which it lay? Undoubtedly its movement was produced by the
agency of heat and light, forces external to itself. Here heat was
evidently a necessary condition. Now the grand source of heat is the
sun ; if the heat of that body could be withheld—all other conditions
remaining the same—we are justified in supposing that all life would
cease, consequently that all “interaction of atoms” would be suspended.
But the sun is composed of atoms. And it is maintained that heat is
an effect of motion. If, as we have endeavoured to show, no inter
action of special atoms can take place but by the agency of forces
exterior to them, so cannot motion be maintained as a condition of
heat in the atoms of the sun apart from external power or force.
Here we reach the barrier which the physicist cannot pass. Are we
to hesitate here? We think not. We conceive that we must transfer
ourselves to a region of causes beyond the domain of experiment.
Here we are aware the philosopher will be unwilling to follow. Still
we cannot lose sight of the fact that the interaction of atoms—and the
whole universe is the result of that interaction—is an effect, the cause
of which cannot be sought in the atoms themselves. We therefore
affirm that this cause is the power of the Divine operating through the
medium of a world which we call spiritual. Truly the nature of this
world cannot be demonstrated by experiment, but the evidences of revela
tion are powerful upon the characteristics of this spiritual region. The
Bible is that revelation. The proof of its being a revealed book is found
in the soundness of the chain of spiritual meaning which runs through
its letter. This spiritual sense shows, to a demonstration that the
letter of the Word has been framed according to a law as rigid and
plausible as the law of multiple proportions or the “interaction of
atoms.” Where then science ends we maintain that revelation steps
in to fill up the void, to conduct us into the world of primary causes
and to usher us into the presence of the Creator.
Another question which has occupied the minds of scientific men in
recent times, is the origin and development of life upon the globe.
And in the pursuit of this subject some of the finest minds have been
engaged. Theologians conclude that the positions which have been
taken up by our great scientific thinkers upon this question, militate
�Modern Science and Revelation.
83
against the teaching of the Word and the immortality of the soul.
We have shown that the literal interpretation of the first chapter of
Genesis is an unwarrantable assumption. However, therefore, life may
have originated upon the world, or what was the nature of man’s
beginning, can in no way affect the Biblical account of the origin of life,
seeing that it is an allegory investing spiritual truth of the highest
character. Now life originated upon the world in some mode; if
there is life on the planets, and we believe there is, it must have
originated on them in a similar mode. There may have been a
“ primordial substance ” as the first life germ—we cannot say; and
wre may deduce the origin of life from many forms or one form, yet
still the “ question will be inevitably asked,” as a learned professor has
said, “ How came that form there ? ” Thus again we are carried past
the “interaction of atoms,” and either landed in impenetrable mystery
or placed at the feet of the Divine.
That there has been a successive development in animal and vege
table forms, from lower to higher, is clearly established by the facts of
geology. This development has mainly been the result of external
conditions. Whether, in the case of the animal kingdom, this develop
ment proceeded in an increasing ratio from lower to higher, until a form
fittingly organized to be the seat of reason and the soul was produced,
we perhaps shall never be able to ascertain. It seems plain almost to
demonstration that there is a discrete degree between man and animals.
There are certainly low types of the human race which seem to be
closely allied with the ape tribe. An ape, however, has never yet in
the memory .of man, by any species of progress, or by the most happy
combination of circumstances, assumed the form and capabilities of the
very lowest specimen of the human family. In the case of the human
race, civilization has caused a continuous upward movement. The vast
hordes of barbarians that at one period roamed through the forests of
Europe have been supplanted by races of a more refined type of mind.
The brain of the Papuan, we are told, is not nearly so large as the brain
of a European. Consequently the apparatus for recording his experi
ences, and hence for the development of his mind, is imperfect. Under
the refining influences of civilization that defect would undoubtedly
disappear from the race, and the Papuan would ultimately be
capable of achieving the same wonderful results as the European.
Man differs from an animal especially in the capability which he
possesses of developing his mind to an unlimited extent; no bonds
can be set to the knowledge which his mind is adapted to grasp
ahd retain. So far as we at present know, no process of develop
ment has yet brought about the same result in animals even of
the highest order. The doctrine of the “survival of the fittest”
is as true in the case of man as in that of animals. Many races
of men have disappeared, and beings of finer parts have survived.
But this “survival of the fittest” we cannot conceive to militate
against the doctrine of the soul’s immortality. The more perfect the
instrument, the more accurate the results.
Hence the higher the
development of the body, the more perfect the action of the soul, and
�«4
Modern Science and Revelation.
therefore the greater its achievements. But it is asked what is it that
survives when sensation ceases in the body? We can find but one
answer. And that is, that the soul, the seat of sensation, has quitted
its tenement. Still we apprehend that it ean be proved indirectly
that the soul continues to exist. Using an illustration which has
recently been cited. Suppose a telegraph clerk is surrounded by his
instruments, he can communicate with a hundred places, and thus prove
his existence. But a thunderstorm arises, his instruments are dis
arranged, he is still in his room, but he cannot inform any one that
survives. Supposing the wires of his instruments to correspond to
the organs of sensation in man, and suppose a break occurs—an
accident resulting in death—he can no longer directly communicate
the fact of his existence to those around him. He knows he exists
equally as the clerk. But the one is as incapable of proving the fact
as the other, when we restrict the one to his wires and the other to
his nerves. But the clerk can prove his existence in other ways, it
may be said. So also can the soul, if we seek for our proof beyond the
region of nerves and crude experiment.
There are powerful evidences of design in creation. And design argues
an intelligent cause. The flower has exquisite organs adapted for
reproducing its species, but the faculty of foreseeing ends and providing
for their attainment is not an attribute of atoms. The end is attained
by the interaction of atoms, but they have no power of deviating from
that end, and they submit to influences beyond them. The “ survival
of the fittest ” is a doctrine substantially true. But there is an end to
be gained by this “survival,” and that end seems to be the most com
plete happiness of the fittest. This seems so in man’s case. Civiliza
tion brings its blessings, and will bring them more abundantly as man,
in the development of his more sacred faculties, is fitted to receive
them. Divine blessings reach us through media; the more perfect
these media in all departments of nature the richer and more
abundant the blessings. We therefore conceive it no unimportant
feature in the design of creation that the “fittest” survive.
But if design points to intelligence, where may we look for the
origin of things ? All nature when devoutly studied points silently
upward to an infinitely wise God. This is the conclusion at which we
must inevitably arrive. Creation is an effect, it cannot be the cause
of its own effect. Creation is also finite and limited in time. It
must therefore have a cause neither finite nor limited in time. While
then we thus trace upward from the creature to the Creator, and stand
in the presence of Him whose “ ways are not our ways, and whose
thoughts are not our thoughts,” let us bow the head and reverently adore.
Reverting again to the “ survival of the fittest,” we remark that this
doctrine is as true in mental as in animal life. In some departments
of thought this goes on more rapidly than in others. Development in
scientific truth has been rapid, but growth in clearness and purity of
theological thought has been slow. Scarcely a step has been made in
a forward direction since the time of the Fathers. The Bible is
acknowledged to be in great part utterly incomprehensible. The
�Correspondence,
8$
march of thought continues, and still theologians are found far behind
Hence it arises that in many minds biblical truth fades and scientific
truth survives. But as the mind becomes fitted to receive spiritual
truth of a higher order than that previously accepted, it is supplied by
to orderly revelation. Modes of interpretation of the Word that once
found implicit and ready assent are no longer tenable. Old creeds fail
to satisfy reflecting and intelligent minds. But a clearer light is
breaking in upon the field of theological thought, and by this light
we perceive the Word to have unmistakeable indications of a divine
origin; we perceive that it is an inexhaustable fountain, adequate to
supply and enrich all minds with the life-giving streams of its
spirit. In the new theology there is a consistency and clearness
which former systems have wanted; while the spiritual world and
the soul are dealt with philosophically and rationally. In con
clusion, we believe that no danger to religion can arise from the
advance of scientific thought, but rather from attempted resistance to
that advance by theologians. As the human mind grows in strength
by the influence of civilization and education, it leaves the traditions
and errors of former generations, and searches by the light of reason
for purer truths. There is a deep longing amongst men for more light
upon the divine Word and the immortal life. Wherever this light
breaks forth let us fearlessly receive it. For be assured that as the
falling leaves of autumn are swept away by the gale, so will error in
our conceptions of nature and of God be borne by the coming ages
into the oblivion of the past, and truth alone will survive.
L T.
(tarrspimtaix
MAURITIUS.
(To the, Editor of the Intellectual Repository.}
Port Louis, Mauritius, "Elth, September 1874.
Reverend and Dear Sir,—At the last meeting of our Society (that of the
New Jerusalem Church here) one of our members brought under notice a
Review in the August number of the Repository. This review comments
upon three publications of our president, Mr. Edmond de Ghazal.
A short conversation arose on the subject, and the undersigned were de
puted to write to you respecting it.
We thank you sincerely for the friendly terms in which you allude to
Mr. de Chazal’s publications, and we feel much gratified that any efforts
here to spread the truth should be noticed in your periodical, but there are
two or three errors in the reviewer’s account of our Society that we feel
bound to bring under your notice, feeling assured that they are involuntary,
and result from the circumstance that we have not such frequent and full
communication with the Church in other lands as we ought to have.
The errors we allude to are the following : After speaking of the efforts
of our Society to procure a minister, and of the difficulties it experienced in
this attempt, the writer proceeds thus :—“ They succeeded at last in obtain
ing one, unknown however to the Church in this country and in America.
G
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Correspondence.
He had belonged successively to the Greek and Roman Catholic Church,
but he seems to have pursued an eccentric course. He did not remain long
with them ; and we have since found him in India, in America, and recently
in Australia.” This statement is incorrect. The person alluded to, that is
Mr. Bugnion, never was our minister, and never conducted a single one of
our services, as we did not consider him to be a thorough New Churchman,
though possibly he -wishes to be received as such. It is quite unnecessary
for us to enter at any length into his history, but a few words on the subject
are perhaps required. We understand that he came to Mauritius in 1858
in connection with the Independents. He did not however agree with them
for any length of time, and towards the end of 1859 a separation ensued,
into the merits of which it is needless for us to enter. After this, it is true,
that he and his family received hospitality from Mr. de Chazal, but he
never was treated in any way by that gentleman as a minister of the New
Church or of our Society, of which he was never a member, for Mr.
Bugnion’s religious ideas and the manner in which he proclaimed them
were on many points unacceptable to our president and to our Society.
Mr. Bugnion formed a congregation of his own, to which he preached for
some time, then left for Europe, returned here, made a short stay, and then
proceeded to India, where he remained for about four years. After this he
travelled in America and Europe, and came back to Mauritius towards the
end of 1871. Here he renewed his relations with his former congregation,
but he never had anything to do with our Society either as a minister or
member. Towards the end of last year he went to Australia, where he still
is. As to the supposed fact of his having belonged at one time to the
Roman Catholic Church, we never heard of it, and we do not think it is
correct. We think it quite unnecessary for us to enter into further details
as to Mr. Bugnion’s act. We may however mention one which has in
duced our president not only not to consider Mr. Bugnion as a New
Churchman, but also to decline any social intercourse with him ; we allude
to his unwarrantable assumption of the title of Bishop. The Rev. J.
Bayley, to whom Mr. de Chazal wrote at the time, can, we believe, give you
more precise information on this subject should you desire it.
Another error we wish to point out is one contained in these words :
« Since the Bishop left Mauritius the service we believe has been conducted
by Mr. de Chazal; and we hope that, in their peculiar circumstances, he
exercises all the functions of a minister.” The truth is, that ever since our
Society has been founded Mr. de Chazal has conducted our monthly
services, and when he is unavoidably absent Mr. Lesage or Mr. G. Mayer
replaces him, quite irrespective of Mr. Bugnion’s presence in or absence
from this island. We use the term “monthly,” because, owing to our being
scattered over different parts of the island, we cannot meet oftener. On
-other Sundays each head of a family leads the services for his own people.
We have thought it necessary to trouble you with these details, since we
do not wish to pass in the Church as a Society that has had for its minister
a person whose writings bear, as you say, “evident traces of Harrisism and
Spiritism.”
We cannot, Mr. Editor, conclude a letter addressed to the organ of the
New Church in England without expressing our satisfaction at the steady
progress of the New Church ideas which we find recorded in its pages, and
our admiration of the ability with which these views are therein pro
claimed. We are also glad to see from the reviews it contains that many
interesting and instructive New Church works are published from time to
time.—We beg to remain your faithful brothers in the New Church,
T. H. Ackroyd.
P. E. de Chazad, Secretary.
�Review.
87
[We have also received a long letter from Mr. Bugnion, vindicating him
self from some charges which some of his friends had informed him our
reviewer had made against him. The only “ charge ” made against him was,
that “ his liturgy bears evident traces of Harrisism and Spiritism.” As this
is a simple fact, which Mr. Bugnion does not deny, but only endeavours to
justify, his letter, which does not deserve insertion, needs no reply.]
Sancta Ccena : or, the Holy Supper, explained on the Principles
taught BY Emanuel Swedenborg. By the Rev. Augustus Clissold,
M.A. London : Longmans, Green & Co.
The need of clearer and more worthy views on the subject of the Holy
Supper than are held in Christendom at the present day is made very
evident by the author in his preface. According to one writer “ the ordi
nance (considered as a sacrifice) is an absolute mystery. It involves a
paradox or apparent contradiction ; a seeming incompatibility of terms ; in
short, a mystery, whatever the exact nature and limits of that mystery may
be supposed to be. It remains a divinely stated paradox, irreconcilable by
man ; a mystery utterly beyond his power to clear up, and such it must
ever be.” The Holy Supper being represented by the Passover, involves
the law that by death alone can death be undone. “How this should be, in
what sense one death can act upon another death, so as to do away with it,
or with any of its consequences, we are absolutely devoid of faculties for
comprehending.”
And thus the Feast of the Christian Passover, which was intended to feed
the souls of the faithful with the flesh and blood of a Living and Divine
Body, becomes at best a mysterious ceremonial.
In the work itself the author shows the true nature and use of the Sacra
ment. “ The two fundamental ideas in the Holy Supper are, first of all,
that of The Word, whether living or written ; and secondly, that which the
Word effects, namely, the conjunction of the church on earth with the
church in heaven.” He had first pointed out the Scripture doctrine re
specting the Word, that from the beginning, before He was made flesh,
our Lord was the Word, mediating between the Father and all creatures.
But there is a written Word as well as a Living Word, and the written Word
is also called the Word of God. As being the Word of God there is a sense
in it in which the Word of God written mediates between the Father and
all creatures. This being the case, the written Word of God is like the
Living Word of God, the medium of communication between the Father
and the Church. Not that there are two Mediators, but One only; inas
much as the written Word mediates between God and man, only in virtue
of the Living or Eternal Word being in it ; and as such the written Word
is itself the medium by which we have life from the Eternal Word.
As the Word is the medium of conjunction between God and man, and
the Holy Supper is also said to be such a medium, what is the nature of
the relation and connection between them ? By extracts from Swedenborg
enlarged and simplified by his own commentary, the author presents the
subject in great clearness and beauty. “ It is not by any figure of speech
that the Living Word and the written Word are both spoken of as one, and
are both called the Word of God ; but because the Word of God written is
�88
Review.
the same essentially as the Word of God spoken, and the Word of God
spoken is the same essentially with the Word made flesh, and speaking.
It is in consequence of this essential identity that the history of the Word
of God written corresponds to that of the Word made flesh.” The Word
as the Divine Wisdom descends from God through all the heavens to the
earth, and becomes accommodated to the apprehensions of angels and men.
In its inmost it is Divine, in its intermediate it is celestial and spiritual, in
its ultimate it is natural. But the Eternal Word also descended through
all the heavens, and finally assumed a natural humanity on earth, when He
became incarnate for the redemption and salvation of the human race.
“The inmost sense of the Word,” says Swedenborg, “treats solely of the
Lord, describing all the states of the glorification of His Humanity, that is,
of its union with the essential Divinity ; and likewise all the states of the
subjugation of the hells, and the reducing to order all things therein as well
as in the heavens. Thus in the inmost sense is described the Lord’s whole
life upon earth, and thereby the Lord is continually present with angels.
Therefore the Lord alone is in the inmost part of the Word, and the
divinity and sanctity of the Word is thence derived.” This blending of the
Eternal Word with the written Word is the ground of their both being
described in Scripture by the same language, and of their both being the
mediums of the conjunction of man with God, and of God with man.
The author shows not only that there is a correspondence between the
written and the Eternal Word, but that they both suffer and are glorified
together. The Lord assumed a material humanity as the Word assumed
itself with a literal sense. But the Lord is believed to be still clothed with
such a body. For a Christian writer observes, “How it can be that a real
substantial Presence of Christ is possible on our altars while yet He abides
in the natural substance of His flesh and blood at the right hand of His
Father ; or how bread and wine, remaining in their natural substances,
become associated with a new and Divine substance, is not given us to
know.” The Lord’s humanity being thus supposed to be merely natural,
and the written Word being supposed to be also merely literal, how can the
Holy Supper be understood as other than a lifeless ceremonial ? “ In order
to a right understanding of the sacrament of the Holy Supper, the first
thing requisite is a right understanding of the doctrine of the Incarnation,
or of the Word made flesh.” This doctrine the author presents in a very
lucid aspect, bringing out in bold relief the New Church view of the Lord’s
glorification, w’hich shows that the Lord’s humanity became Divine, without,
however, ceasing to be human, so that His flesh and blood are necessarily
Divine, and therefore living and lifegiving. When the subject is viewed
in its true light, it will be seen that the Lord is actually and intimately
present in His Holy Supper; and that, as the most sacred solemnity of
worship, it is the means of bringing the Lord and the worshipper into the
closest connection, and the medium of conjunction between them.
This very meagre outline of the book will, wre trust, induce the members
of the Church to read it for themselves ; for although evidently designed
for the clergy of the Church of England, it will afford much to instruct and
delight those who already know in part. The author is too well known,
and his labours are too highly appreciated, to require or even to admit of
any approbation or recommendation from us.
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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The Intellectual Repository and New Jerusalem Magazine. Vol. XXII, No. 254, February 1, 1875
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [London]
Collation: 88 p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Rev. W. Woodman - - an unsigned article on Ralph Waldo Emerson -- Modern science and revelation. Earlier Title: Intellectual Repository for the New Church, later Title: New Church Magazine.
Publisher
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[s.n.]
Date
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1904
Identifier
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G5300
Creator
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[Unknown]
Subject
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Periodicals
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The Intellectual Repository and New Jerusalem Magazine. Vol. XXII, No. 254, February 1, 1875), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
New Jerusalem Church