science. It is indeed a question of deep importance, whether elementary treatises for junior forms can convey the outlines of heavenly wisdom, as the elements of mathematics are taught by Euclid, or of physics, by Arnott? If this can be done, it will be fair to infer that the most perfect knowledge of correspondence may be taught in the same manner, since it is a pervading characteristic of true science that it rests upon principles which form the first steps of knowledge in that kind, and that the most beautiful complications which delight the proficient are folded on them. The difference between the tyro and the adept is a difference of degree, not of kind. Newton measured the universe by the same kind of science, which measures, in learned sportiveness, the ball upon a distant weathercock. The fall of an apple to the ground revealed the power which draws the earth for ever towards the sun, and still illustrates its laws. If then we once begin with correspondences upon a purely scientific basis, the universe alone can limit us. Heaven may refuse her aid, but we shall not need it; hell may be moved at our coming, but we know our power. We shall go on independent of heaven, and superior to hell. Righteousness and sin have no place in the catalogue of scientific powers. Sciences are independent of motives, and neither exhibit their stores to the pure in heart, nor hide them from the most corrupt. They have nothing to do with persons. A pound weight is a pound weight to the bad man as well as to the good; and either of them will solve an adfected quadratic by the general formula We are Are we, then, insensible to the brilliancy which might illustrate research, if science could unfold all nature? By no means. only too sensitive. The attraction is almost too great. We recoil with fear, but we tremble with expectation. Let us look at what lies before us as calmly as we can. A friend invites us. To the lover of knowledge the effort to systematize and arrange the interior truths of the Word promises a new field of intellectual delight; and, if to the love of knowledge be added a poetic temperament, there seems no bound to the glorious prospect, no horizon where wisdom sets, and the darkness of materiality hides the deep things of God. Calmness is gone already. Already the longing imagination strains after those recondite truths and holy beauties, which are the very soul of natural things. The world is changed already by the changed quality of our gaze. Intelligence smites it, and all dust seems conscious. Dead indeed, but not so dead. Life stirs within it. We think we almost see the secret principle which swells each form, and pours its spirit in the charms of numerous fragrance. Ye mountains and all hills, whence Echo with her unseen lips returns the voice of praise, what mean your sounds, your wildly implicated words, your musing grots where thought entranced in shade forgets all time, your giant limbs shaking with every blast ten thousand oaks, your broad bare bosoms, and your towering peaks? Science invokes you, and commands your oozing rocks to drop untasted wisdom. All rivers obey her, and their lapsing mirrors shew your nether secrets, won from the pillars of the earth. She lays her hand upon the winds, and bids them tell whence they come and whither they go. Ocean hears her voice, and all his surges are interpreted. The Word is open in her hand; Nature stands before her; and the God of both proclaims the day when there is nothing hid that shall not be revealed. If this were a picture of reality the whole world would soon be absorbed in a delirium, in which divine things would be sensualized. Glory and beauty and delight would hold the rightful place of goodness and truth; and the pomp of gaudy imagination, fixed in real forms, would supersede those solid charities which bless the heart they dwell in, and create a moral paradise around them. First would be the stupor of wonder, next the madness of extasy, then the lassitude of satiety, weariness of ourselves, disgust at the name of duty, social emptiness, and the universe a glittering shew. But it may be said this notion contradicts the facts that men once spiritually gave names to every living thing, and read intelligently in all creation the varied dictates of Divine Wisdom. To me there does not appear any contradiction. Spiritual and celestial men will use Divine Wisdom worthily: natural and sensual men will use it unworthily. We are not spiritual or celestial men. Their perceptions of correspondences were illuminated and guided by open vision, which at the same time revealed the surpassing glories of heaven, and the surpassing simplicity of angels. They saw glory and beauty, but not as glory and beauty. They saw in them the glory of God and the beauty of holiness; and it was this glory and this beauty which af fected them. But this glory and this beauty cannot affect the unregenerate; they would, therefore, rest in the visible and sensualize every thing they saw. "Where there is no vision the people perish." When open vision failed through sin, the divine science of correspondences degenerated into magic. Can correspondences be studied as a science? that is, can a spi ritual science be converted into a natural science? I apprehend not. Natural science is addressed to the natural mind, and is a methodical arrangement of natural objects or ideas; spiritual science is addressed to the spiritual mind, and is a methodical arrangement of spiritual objects or ideas. The science of correspondences exhibits the relations and harmonies of the spiritual with the natural, both in nature and in man. To comprehend these relations requires the powers of both minds; but the powers of the spiritual mind cannot be acquired scientifically. The very access to them by this way is barred by the defects of language. We may indeed learn the language of the spiritual man in part, while we remain natural; but our learning will be a poor vocabulary of foreign words, or of known words used in an unknown sense. The spiritual man has " a name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." We may imitate the sounds of his speech; but we can know nothing of its sense. Our utmost attainment will be the grave emptiness of the parrot. His words are ours; but they clothe no human intelligence. There is, evidently, no similarity between the science of correspondences, which is learned by regeneration, and the natural sciences, which are learned by memory and reason. This divine science exhibits natural objects and natural objects in conjunction with spiritual ideas, and this in a way sui generis. Natural objects represent and natural expressions signify, spiritual things, each answering to the other as type and ante-type; but the ante-type cannot be known from the type except by an interpreting medium. The spiritual cannot be known from the natural by the natural. Natural things are known by natural reason; spiritual things are spiritually discerned by the new rational principle through regeneration. The junction of these two knowledges in increasing perfection may be hoped for, with the advancement of vital faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. He has revealed to us the existence of a divine science, of which He is "the truth," and to which He is "the way." Let us strive to explore it through Him. But the ardent student of our writings will complain, with some appearance of justice, that we reject too coolly his sincere and zealous offer to assist us in simplifying the peculiar glory of our church, the internal sense of the Word. I reply that no coolness is meant. Zeal for an apparently achievable good must have our cordial approval; but the real evil contained in the apparent good now proposed is too great to be trifled with. Is it not a modern form of that sin which has been the destruction of former churches? Is not the endeavor to reduce correspondences to a natural science, a repetition of the effort to investigate the internal things of the church by natural reason? Numerous passages from the writings at once suggest themselves as witnesses against the attempt. All that can be done is to make an enlarged dictionary of correspondences. This will be a book of mere words to the natural man, but an excellent help to the regenerating man. In proportion as purified affections refine the thoughts and fill them with nice perceptions of concording truth, the reader will give spirit and life to the dead arrangement of the dictionary; but no power of earthly expression can convey spiritual discriminations to those who are not spiritual; and, no orderly adjustment of the names of natural and spiritual correlatives can supersede in the least degree the divine order of adjust ment which bases perception on life. The quality of the life is the quality of the perception. Arrangement of spiritual things according to their order pre-supposes perception of their existence, and their differences; and it is evident that only those who are in superior illustration from the Lord can be the subjects of such perception. Have we one man in the Church so highly blessed? We are sure we have many who have occasional glimpses of "wondrous things out of the law;" but I doubt if we have one who possesses any large measure of perception. Such men are yet to come. But if we waive this, and grant that we have many, the great obstacle remains in the general state of man and the nature of human language. Swedenborg declares that the things which he heard in heaven could not be conveyed in earthly language. Neither can the heavenly things which are the objects of perception. When clothed in language, the celestial, the spiritual, and the natural are scarcely distinguished, and indeed, in many cases, are the same. The same words, therefore, will call up, in different minds, ideas as widely different as the celestial, the spiritual, and the natural. The state of the hearer will determine the sense to him; and, though we spake with the tongues of angels, nothing beyond this could be conveyed. How merciful is this providential arrangement! Urged on by the glowing impulse of intellectual acquisition, we forget that our pursuit of correspondences as a science involves the great peril of profanation; but the watchful care of the Lord has prevented the calamity. He has "placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turns every way to keep the way of the tree of life." IOTA. WORKS LONDON PRINTING SOCIETY. RECENTLY COMPLETED AND IN PROGRESS.-The IVth. Vol. of the "Apocalypse Explained," has been finished; and, of the Vth. Vol. of the same, about three parts are done, The XIth. Vol. of the "Arcana Colestia" is completed, and a copy was laid on the Committee table last Thursday evening, together with a sheet of Vol. XII. All these are carefully revised reprints of the translations of the late Rev. John Clowes. The "Conjugial Love," also carefully revised, has been begun; and a sheet was laid on the table. The latter work is printed with entirely new type; and the whole present specimens of typography and paper, which, with the very reduced prices, cannot but prove highly pleasing to the Society, and beneficial to the New Church. LABORS OF DR. TAFEL.-Dr. Tafel has forwarded to the Committee his Latin (most faithfully revised) reprint in 8vo., from the 4to. original, of the "Arcana Coelestia,” Vol.VIII.(viz. fifty copies of the fine paper, and twenty of the second quality): which has been, at length, safely received. His IXth. Vol, in similar sets, is on the way, and is daily expected. His Xth. Vol. is nearly completed. On the 1st of April, Dr. Tafel received from the Swedish Clergy man, who has copied it from the original MS. of Swedenborg, the Commentary on the Book of Leviticus; of which the Committee agreed to take 250 copies, or he could not have undertaken to print it. On the 5th of April, that work was in the press! and he hopes, ere long, to have it finished. It does not appear to be of large size. The committee felt it a duty to act up to the spirit of the "Marshal Bequest:" and, in exceeding its letter, they look to the support of the Church at large as well as to that of the members of the Society. Some of the friends in Lancashire have agreed to take several copies; and doubtless many, N. S. NO. V.-VOL. I. throughout Great Britain, will do likewise. It is a peculiarity of this work, that the Lord is termed in it "Deus. Messias." Dr. Tafel has received a specimen of the "Deuteronomy: but, of that, more will be heard from him, by and by. He has also sent some copies of "the Image of Swedenborg," and some of the 2nd vol. of the "Documents concerning the life of Sweden. borg"(German); and he hopes (with the Xth. Vol. of 4. C.) to send some copies of the "Itinerarium" of Swedenborg. This admirable man,whose singlehanded and single hearted labors in the cause of "the truth,"furnish a bright example for our imitation, it becomes the duty of every New-Church man to support, to his utmost power, especially by purchasing the Latin and Germ n works which he, thus, is indefatigably employed in editing. The very limited means by which he accomplishes these undertakings, his unceasing industry,and his fidelity, prove him a sincere servant of our Lord,-that the love of God is really in him,-and entitle him to our respect, esteem, and affection. L. S. COXE. GRANT OF BOOKS TO A FOREIGN MISSIONARY.- Dear Sir, I feel it a duty towards the New Church generally, and to those of its members who are subscribers to the London Printing Society, in particular, that they should be put in possession of the interesting facts connected with the late donation of books made by the committee to "a Missionary;" therefore I delay not to comply with your wish. The Eastern Coast of Central America Company, (of which Dr. Spurgin is now one of the directors,) in the years 1836 and 7, sent out a budy of emigrants to Vera-Paz, in Central America. They were not, however, accompanied by a spiritual teacher. A failure eventually ensued in that attempt to establish a colony, which may be, and in fact is, attributed to causes of a merely tempo Η Η |