SWEDENBORG TRANSACTIONS· SOCIETY (Inc.) NumberTwo

Swedenborg's Search for the

Soul

Address given by

HAROLD GARDINER, M.S., F.R.C.S., at Swedenborg Birthday Celebradon,

London, January 29th, 1936

SWEDENBORG'S SEARCH for the

SOUL

Address given by

HAROLD GARDINER, M.S., F.R.CS.,

at Swedenborg Birthday Celebration,

London, January 29th, 1936

SWEDENBORG SOCIETY (INcoRPORATED)

SWEDENBORG HOUSE

HART STREET, LONDON, W.C. 1

193 6

Swedenborg's Search for the

Soul.

WE are here this evening to commemorate the birth of Emanuel Swedenborg, one of the great geniuses of aU ages. The record of

his genius is contained not only in his writings, but in the devotion to Truth and Duty which he upheld through a long and blameless life. The old definition of genius as the infinite capacity for taking pains is particularly applicable to him, and nowhere is it more apparent than in the works which form the subject of my paper this evening. These were written before rus spiritual illumination and with the avowed intent to discover the soul, its habitation and its relation to the human body. With this end in view he devoted himself to an exhaustive study of anatomy, physiology and psychology, and the works on The Animal King­dom, The Economy of the Animal Kingdom, Organs of Generation, The Brain, and Rational Psychologywere the result.

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To appreciate the significance of these it is neces­sary to bear in mind their relation to the works that preceded and followed them.

The early part of Swedenborg's life was devoted largely to purely scientific pursuits, and during this period he wrote extensively on a very wide range of scientific subjects. 1 need not enumerate them, but they included most, if not aB, of the subjects of science known in his clay. These cuiminated in the Principia, which was an attempt to explore the ultimate Reality and mode of origin of the universe. 1 must say something about this work, as it has a very important bearing on the subject of my paper.

In the Principia, Swedenborg, by a process of inteBectual induction, develops a system of cosmology which traces the origin of matter back to a primaI most pure force which is the first determinant of the Infinite, and from this he evoives a series of stages the last of which is the formation of solid matter. Each of these stages is quite definite, is formed by a modi­fication of the preceding one, and corresponds to and is maintained by it. As these stages are successively formed they become relativeIy less and less active until

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final1y the last stage, beyond which no further activity can be withdrawn, is reached and dead matter is created. So that we have a number of stages of decreas­ing powers of activity between the primaI force-the first determinant of the Infinite-and the dead material universe. These stages are the various auras of the universe. They form the medium for the transmission of light-higher auras for the transmission of gravitation and magnetism and even higher ones whose activities are not clearly understood, but about which 1 will make further reference at a later stage.

It was, then, after this monumental work that he embarked on his search for the soul. The writings which 1 have enumerated and which have given us the result of his investigations are general1y described as part of his scientific works, but 1 would suggest that they he not so regarded, but rather as belonging essen­tial1y to the philosophical. 1 want to stress this point very strongly because the soul lies far above and interior to the truths of natural science, and Sweden­borg realized this even before his period of spiritual inspiration. That being so, his mind had to rise above the purely scientific plane in order to have any hope of

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success in the quest. And so it must be with the minds of those who read these books. For this reason you will find that not only do they culminate in a profound philosophical thesis on the nature of the soul and its relation to the body, but the atmosphere of a high philosophical inspiration pervades the whole of their writing. 1 feel therefore constrained to suggest that these works be not regarded as scientific in the ordinary sense of the word. They are essentially philosophical. It is true that they are based on the most extensive scientific knowledge available at the time they were written, but there is a superadded philosophical argument which is their very essence. This argument is one paraIlel with that contained in his Principia. The one is a philosophical system applicable to the dead material universe, and the other its correlated system applicable to the living universe in man, his soul, and his body.

It is quite clear that Swedenborg's mind at this time was working entirely with this philosophical end in view, and aIl the scientific facts he investigated he regarded only as a means to confirm that end.

He was already seeing, perhaps dimly compared 8

with its later development, that the ultimate explana­tion of the infinite forms of nature, both living and dead, is to be found in the correspondence between these forms and the use they serve. This philosophical conception was after his illumination shown to be based on the U niversal Doctrine of Uses, but even at the earlier period his mind had formed this conception and it shows itself throughout these philosophical works.

It was for this reason that he set himself to learn aIl that the science of anatomy had to teach, hoping that by studying the minute forms and relations of the parts of the body he would be able to penetrate into the uses that underlay them, and so by degrees to the soul, which he regarded as the very life and originator of those uses. These books are, however, full of warnings that mere dissection, however assiduous and detailed, cannot reveal the underlying truth and that it is necessary, after learning aIl that the scalpel can teach, to employ the more deeply penetrating methods of intellectual reasoning and philosophical reflection.

1t was only when he had thus exerted all his powers that he wrote the works we are considering. They are therefore built in a mould fashioned out of scientific

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truths in a form determined by his philosophical con­ceptions. So we have a method firstly of deduction from the facts of science, followed by an analysis and interpretation by philosophical induction.

We find as a result of this that if the ordinary scientific interpretation of the observed facts were not consistent with his philosophical conceptions he provided a new interpretation. These are, in many cases, very revolu­tionary and stated with a boldness that only a genius confident of his intellectual acumen could compass.

He did not attempt to confirm these interpretations by experiment. They appeared dear to him in the facts viewed from the standpoint of his philosophy and though since his time a great deal of experimental work has proved the truth of a large number of these ideas, there is a still larger number which to-day are not proved and sorne which remain in direct contra­diction to accepted scientific thought. So much, how­ever, has been proved to be correct that he would be a bold man who would maintain that in years to come the remainder will not also be shown to be true.

This, then, is the reason why these works should not be regarded as scientific but rather as philosophical

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-the results he obtained were subject to no scientific proof, but were the ofi'spring of profound philosophie thought, and to him the clear light of philosophy was more illuminating than the conflicting arguments of Science. If these works are so regarded there is a clear progress of mental development shown in aIl his writings, from the early and purely scientific, through the philosophical or rational phase introduced by the Principia, to the spiritual which followed the opening of his spiritual mind-a progress corresponding exactly with that expounded by him in his later inspired writings on spiritual development and regeneration.

Now let us examine more closely the way in which Swedenborg set out to search for the soul, what he found on bis journey, and the goal he reached. The philosophy of the nature of the soul and its relation to the body involves a study of the highest work of the Creator, and a lifetime spent on it would not be sufficient to compass it; aIl 1 can hope to do is to put before you sorne of the fundamental principles underlying it.

Swedenborg, then, starts with the premise that the soul is the purest essence of man, made of so pure a

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substance as to be capable of receiving life direct from the Creator, analogous in the living creation to that primaI force mentioned in the Principia as being the first determinant of the Infinite. N ow just as Sweden­borg conceived of matter being formed in descending stages as described in the Principia, and as each of these stages is, as it were, a covering for the preceding one and is activated by it, so did Swedenborg regard the soul as lying above or interior to the material body and as using the body as a covering and an instrument.

The soul lies above the conscious mind and therefore cannot be examined directly, as the mind cannot rise above itself. It is, of course~ for this reason that the human mind cannot form any complete con­ception of the Infinite. Swedenborg therefore sets out to explore the soul by a process of removing its coverings-the outermost being the material body. He then discovers that aH parts of the body are fashioned especiaHy for the use they have to perform-the eye for the reception of light, the ear for that of sound, the arteries and blood aH adaptedin the most minute detail for their respective uses.

He then argues that, as it is inconceivable that such IZ

a perfect thing, perfect in its parts and in their har­mony with themselves, could be produced by mere chance, it is the use or end itself that is the cause by which each organ is formed, so that it shaH be most perfectly adapted not only in its general form but in its most minute structure to the use it has to perform.

The truth of this philosophy of· use he tests by a minute exploration of the whole body and,when this is completed, of the whole mind of man. As you will understand, this is a task requiring aH the knowledge and wisdom of which the human mind is capable, and it would be the height of presumption to daim to grasp such a subject in its entirety, for although man is a finite human being and his body is material in substance, the study of its structure and its relation to man himself, i.e., his mind and soul, is unending. As Swedenborg says, the human body has relations with the whole universe. 1t contains within it substances and forms and forces which are related to the mineraI, vegetable and animal kingdoms, to the living and the non-living, to aH the auras of the universe. In fact it is the macrocosm in microcosm. How then can the attempt be made to understand such a subject? It

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cannot be done by ordinary chemical and physical investigations. They can carry us no further than the boundaries of the physical world. Such investigations have been going on for centuries and the result is not to simplify the understanding of the body, far less of the mind, but rather to reveal more and more their infinitely complex structure and activities. The micro­scope instead .of simplifying the problem merely had the effect of extending the field of research a hundred­fold. Modern physical and chemical science has done the same. This leads in passing to the suggestive thought that though each of us is a unit and, regarded as such, is as far removed from the Infinite as possible, this unit when examined is found to expand, to consist in the first place of a multitude of organs, these of a still larger multitude of cells and each of these to be influenced by its surrounding atmospheres of the world; and the whole body contains within it powers of reaction so subtle that even a passing tremor of fear in the mind sets up immediate changes in the material body; every emotion and indeed thought of the mind has its definite effect. Is there any limit to these of which the mind is capable? and does not this

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unit-each individual human being-thus approach to contact with the Infinite, expanding to apparently unlimited actions and reactions as it is more interiorly examined, in fact possessing the potentiality of per­fecting itself to eternity by expanding its consciousness into doser and doser rapport with the Infinite? The only hope of arriving at even an approximate under­standing of such a subject is to adopt the method that Swedenborg did, namely, that of determining the general principles governing it. He propounded three philosophical principles for this end, namely, the principles of Degrees, Influx and Correspondences. It is by these that he correlates the working of the mind with that of the body.

The conceptions prevalent in his day, and which have persisted to a large extent since, involved the attribution of thoughts and desires as inherent pro­perties of the material partides of which the body is composed. Swedenborg attributed none of this power to matter but regarded the material parts of the body as completely dead and becoming alive only when they were subject to the influx of life. Life and matter are on distinct planes and the one cannot be converted

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into the other though they both react on each other. So with the soul which is the inmost recipient of life in man. He regarded it as being of the most primaI elementary and pure substance for the direct reception of life from the Creator, but in order that it could become fixed and stabilized it had to clothe itself and descend into its material covering. It is, he holds, of such a pure form that direct contact with dead matter . was impossible, and it had to interpose between itself and matter coverings of a more refined nature which would modify not only the effect of the soul on its final material covering, but also modify the influence of matter upon it. These intermediate coverings are the different planes of the mind.

And so, just as the first substance of the material universe, as explained in his Principia, passes through stages of modification until solid matter is reached, so does the primaI living substance of the soul pass through a descending series of mental planes until it reaches the material plane which it then vivifies. Swedenborg describes three steps by which this descent is made. First of all that from the soul to the highest conscious part of the mind, which he

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caUs the intelleetory or purely rational part of the mind; then from this to the animus or lower part more nearly akin to the animal mind, and thence to purely physical sensations.

AU these are distinct degrees, i.e., the soul cannot become the rational mind nor can this become the lower more animal mind or animus-nor can this become bodily sensation, but each reacts on the other and depends on the others for its existence.

Thus there are the pure1y physical sensations by which the body transmits to the lowest part of the mind the stimuli it receives from the outer world. This lower mind or animus has no power of discrimination or judgment, and mere1y converts these sensations into mental images. This spate of sensations by which it is flooded is therefore controlled by the higher rational mind and reduced by it to order, sorne sensations being rejected and others used to assist in the formation of intellectual ideas and affections, the whole being subject to and animated by the sou!. There is there­fore, a constant descent of spiritual and living force from the soul through the mind to the body and a constant reverse process of ascent from the impulses

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of the material world through the mind to the soul. In order that this ebb and flow can be carried out in a complete and orderly manner it is necessary that the communications between the different degrees should be kept free and untrammeHed and, in fact, that aH parts of each degree must correspond in every detail with those of the others. N ow the form of any part is affected by its use-and Swedenborg main­tained that if any part were used in a base or perverted way its inmost form would be gradually distorted so that it might ultimately become well nigh impossible for it to revert to its orderly use. That the form of the eye is adapted to its visual use needs no emphasis­nor indeed does the adaptation of the gross form of any part of the body to its use-but Swedenborg made the bold assumption that the minute structure of every part of the body, and not only its gross form, also corresponds exactly with its own particular use and confirmed this as far as was possible by the descrip­tions of the minute structure of the body which were known in his day. But he did not stop there. His conception carried him still further into realms which cannot be penetrated by any microscope, being, as

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they are, above the kingdom surveyed by the eye. He predicates of the cell a constant motion of its parts-presumably molecular and atomic-and even beyond this a subatomic motion or flux. This con­ception again corresponds very closely with those in the Principia-eonceptions which are strongly sup­ported by modern investigations in the realm of mathematics.

It is probable that Swedenborg had tbis general conception of the relationship of the soul to the mind and the body when he started his investigations. In any event, the profound study of the minute structure of the body contained in these works is inspired by the determination to raise it above the plane of dead materialism and fill it with a truly living philosophy. 1t was in fact an effort to interpret the nature of the human mind and body in terms of ultimate Reality.

1 can find no record of any actual dissection or experimental work done by himself. It is, however, clear that he did sorne experimental work but gave it up on account of the danger of his results biassing his mind, for he says in his prologue to The Economy of the Animal Kingdom:

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1 have found when intently occupied in exploring the secrets of the human body that as soon as 1 discovered anything that had not been observed before, 1 began (seduced probably by self..;,love) to grow blind to the most acute lucu­brations and researches of others, and to originate a whole series of inductive arguments from my particular discovery alone; and consequentIy to be incapacitated to view and comprehend, as accurately as the subject required, the idea of universals in individuals and of individuaIs in universals. 1 therefore laid aside my instruments and, restraining my desire for making observations, determined rather to re1y on the researches of others than to trust to my own.

He therefore studied aIl the works on the subject available at his time and then used his powers of induction to interpret them. That his assiduity in acquiring this knowledge of facts was of the very highest order is shown by the number of references he makes to writers old and contemporary. The bibliography contains the names of over one hundred

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writers, some philosophical, some religious, and some (at least half) anatomical.

1 should mention here a very great difficulty that accompanies the effort to read and understand fully these works of Swedenborg, namely, the nomencla­ture. It is, of course, that of the eighteenth century and is very difficult to translate into modern scientific terms so that it is almost impossible for a reader with little anatomical knowledge to appreciate the signi­ficance of the arguments; and the advantage of a modern knowledge of anatomy is not so great as it might be owing to this difficulty with the nomen­clature. Many of Swedenborg's statements for this reason appear at first to be contradicted by proved modern experiment, but a number of these discrep­ancies disappear after closer study. This search for the soul in the realm of the body appears strange to us to-day, but in Swedenborg's time and before it philosophers had devoted their greatest efforts to discover this mystery, and there were very few organs of the body to which the old philosophers had not at one time or another attributed the residence of the sou!. Swedenborg was not satisfied with any of these

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and reviewed in series aIl the systems of the body, deducing the functions of each in turn. This Ied him to the conclusion that in the first place aIl parts of the body are interdependent and serve, each in its own way, uses that are of benefit to aIl the others. He came to the conclusion that no part of the body was useless. Sorne of these uses were relatively lowly and others of the highest and most vital importance. In the latter category he placed the circulatory, nervous, and respiratory systems.

He regarded the blood as what he calls ' the corporeal soul,' from which aU the body immediately derives its life and nourishment. This conception, familiar to us, was not new in his day: but he went further and deduced that not only did the quality of the blood affect all parts of the body but that it was in its turn affected by them. He recognized that organs such as the spleen and other glands without obvious secretions profoundIy affected the composition of the blood and this is, as far as we know, the first suggestion of the modern science of Endocrinology i.e., of internaI secretions. He also deduced selective action of the celIs of an the organs of the body so that they extracted

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from the blood only those special contents necessary to them individually-e.g., to the mucous membranes of the intestines, to the kidneys and in fact to aIl tissues he ascribed this power. In spite of the phase of purely mechanistic hypotheses of the last century modern physiology has developed a theory of cellular and chemical attraction of which Swedenborg's de­ductions are c1early the germ. 1 could enumerate a large number of similar results confirmed by modern experiment, e.g., that the pituitary gland has a function of the very highest importance, that the brain has a respiratory motion and that aIl the tissues of the body are affected by the movements of the lungs.

These, and a great many others, are aIl recognized now and they are an astonishing proof of the greatness of Swedenborg's powers of reason and induction. 1 want to make it quite c1ear, however, that in many of these cases Swedenborg did not expIain in detail what the functions of these parts of the body were. He saw that they had a function and described it in general terms but he could go no further owing to the back­wardness of scientific experiment in his day. It is

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therefore only right to point out that we are not justified in claiming for him that he discovered, for example, the functions of the spleen or of the pituitary gland; we are, however, justified in claiming that he perceived that they had functions of a very high arder and that they performed them by alterations in the composition of the blood. In view of the state of knowledge at his time so much is proof, if any were needed, of the power of his intellect. Such then are sorne of the results he obtained on his way through the maze in search of the soul. The nearest he got ta the seat of the soul was the cortex of the brain where he discovered that the intellectual and highest faculties of the mind resided. It would take tao long to describe his journey to this point, but he came to the final conclusion that the soul could not be regarded as residing in any particular part of the body but per­meated the whole. He describes the way it does this, by presupposing a perfectly pure spirituous fluid, primarilyassociated with the cortex of the brain but permeating aH the tissues of the body. This fluid is not to be regarded as a material liquid but rather as a force. He says of it :

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A certain most pure fluid glances through the subtlest fibres, remote even from the acutest sense; it reigns universally in the whole and in every part of its own limited universe or body and continues, irrigates, nourishes, actuates, modifies, forms and renovates everything therein. This fluid is in the third degree above the blood, which it enters as the first, supreme and most perfect substance and force of its body, and as the sole and proper animal force and as the determining principle of an things. Wherefore if the soul of the body is to be the subject of inquiry we must first examine this fluid. But as the fluid lies so deeply in nature no thought can enter it .except by the doctrine of series and degrees joined to experience.

Such a fluid cannot of course be discovered by any chemical or other purely scientific means. Swedenborg, however, deduces that it arises from the simplest substance of the created universe, which, being .the simplest and purest, is most actively receptive of life. This spirituous fluid is the primaI

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substance 1 mentioned earlier in my paper. 1t is dead in itself but is receptive of life and by modifications enters into the formation of aU the degrees of the mind and the substances of the body by a process of condensation or hardening, as it were, becoming less and less actively alive as it descends through these degrees until it has fashioned the material body.

It is the medium by which life is concentrated and determined in the human form in the womb where it utilizes the material substances provided by the mother and performs the miracle of a baby. This fluid or force fiUed with life from the Creator contains within it aU the powers necessary for this crowning marvel of creation, and so it is that within each baby born lies the soul, mind and body with aIl the potentialities of development into the highest form which the mind can concelve.

This conception of the formation of a human being by descent from the hig1?-est to the lowest by degrees in correspondence with each other is exactly paraUel, as 1 stated before, with that of the formation of dead matter through the auras of the world as described in the Principia and the stages in each correspond to each

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other. This is a conception that is nowhere met with to my knowledge other than in Swedenborg's philo­sophy. That the theories of the Principia have proved to be entirely consistent with modernscientific thought encourages us to expect that there is a similar truth underlying his theory of the soul and its relation to the body, especially when, finding as we do the beauty of its conception and analogies, we can hardly fail to be impressed by its appeal to the highest ideas of which our minds are capable; and 1 would add that the depth of wisdom to which the mind can reach in these works is limited only by the power of the mind that seeks to plumb them. Swedenborg himself says just before he embarks on his final discussion on the soul :

It now remains for us to exalt the mind or the rational hearing and sight. But the only way to accomplish this is by the philosophy we have pointed out. This philosophy, however, must be deduced from a perpetuaI intuition of causes in causes and effects; a work truly re­quiring an immense exercise of the rational faculty and a profound abstraction from those

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things that affect the lower faculties. Indeed 1 do not recommend when it is commenced that anything should be finally committed to it until it is in fact matured.

But though our rational faculties be not raised to this height of perfection we can understand the essentials of his philosophy.

The soul which is inscrutable to the natural mind form~ the body, first c10thing itself in the spirituous fluid derived from the purest forces of the created universe. From this are derived in succession the highest rational faculty, or " intellectory," as Sweden­borg calls it; next the lower mind or animus c10sely connected with the physical desires and sensations of the body, and finally the body itself. Each of these stages corresponds to the different auras of the universe as described in the Principia and to them they react.

Direct influx takes place from the higher degree to . the lower, giving it its form and maintaining its life so that the body depends for its form and life ultimately on the soul passing down through the degrees of the mind, though Swedenborg is at pains to make it c1ear

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that, in his own words, " the soul does not live from itself but from Him who is self-living, that is from the God of the universe without whom nothing whatever in nature could live, much less be wise." But as there is a direct influx of life from the soul through the mind into the body, so is there a reverse reaction from the material universe through the brain to the lower animus or mind by means of sensations of an kinds. The animus itself has no power of selection or judgment of these, this being the function of the higher rational mind which has to discriminate between them and select those it needs for its own ends. Those that are not harmonious with it are rejected. The others it adapts into ideas and thoughts which in turn reach the soul.

In order, therefore, that life from the soul shan animate an parts of the mind and body in its fullness and that these shan reach as near perfection as may be, the flow must be unimpeded, i.e., perfect harmony must exist between the parts of the body and the parts of the mind, and between these and the soul, and so with the Creator. Now according to Swedenborg's Doctrine of Forms, the form of the channel by which this influx is maintained is dependent entirely on two

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things, namely, the type of influence that is allowed ta enter and remain in the body and mind from outside, and the use ta which such influence is put.

In childhood the soul is living but has not yet entered fully into the mind and body; these lower parts are gradually opened ta allow the soul ta enter in its fullness. The animus of the child has first ta be opened from without by education, sa that it may learn ta receive and distinguish physical sensations, and later the rational faculty has ta be opened, but this, as is weIl known, can only be done after the animus is fully active. It is then that the soul is able ta reach down from above and establish complete harmony and union with the body. In arder that this, which is another way of describing regeneration, can take place it is c1early necessary that the influx from below be kept in correspondence with that from above. It is the part of the rational mind sa ta control and mould the animus that those impulses only are allowed ta remain in it which are in accord with eternal verities. It is only these which the soul can use. That this has the highest practical bearing on education and conduct in all stages of life is c1ear.

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You will remember that the soul, rational mind and animus are c10thed in substances derived from the first determinant of the Creator in the universe and that those of the animus are more c1ose1y re1ated to matter than those of the soul or rational mind. Accord­ing to Swedenborg's Doctrine of Forms these substances are moulded according to the nature of the impulses allowed to affect them and, as time goes on, this mould­ing becomes more and more rigid. This accounts for the recognized plasticity of the child's mind and the deve10pment of good and bad habits as life goes on ; it aIso accounts for the increasing difficulty, as age advances, of changing habits and with this are inc1uded habits or attitudes of mind.

It is only by raising the plane of consciousness to the leve1 of the rational mind and allowing this to be influenced by and to act from impulses from the soul and not from below, that complete harmony between soul, mind and body can result. Swedenborg says :

The mind is placed in the veriest centre and concourse between the superior acting and the inferior reacting forces; the soul acting upon it from above and the spirit of life acting upon the

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soul; and the animus upon it from below and the body upon the animus; showing that the mind holds the fulcrum of the balance and weighs things on both sides with even scales. Below are the cupidities of the animus, the blandishments of the senses, the pleasures of the body and the infinitely various amusements of human societies ; forming so many allurements and impediments to prevent the mind from employing itself rightly in the intuition of ends and the election of the greater good, and from acting free1y from a ground of choice. Besides these things there is a vast variety of loves emanating from every man's se1fhood; also cares, domestic, economic and public, which come to us with the force of necessities and which are real impediments to the mind; for to seek our bread with anxious solicitude and to with­draw the mind from the body are in a manner two opposites; the one is to will to live within the world, while the other is to will to live without it.

Even this brief account of these works which l have put before you will, l hope, have given you sorne idea

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of the philosophy contained in them. It was an unpre­cedented feat that Swedenborg achieved, namely, to start at the very lowest rung of the material plane of the body and to analyse this with such acumen that not only did he uncover many secrets of the working of the body that have since been confirmed, but he filled the whole subject with a living philosophy of such a profound nature that it enabled him to rise to a conception of the mind and soul and their relations to the body which has not been approached in its completeness by any other writer. 1 would like to conc1ude with a few remarks on the practical value of this philosophy.

ln the first place it affords a reasonable account of the relation between mind and body both in health and disease and is free from the illogicalities of other systems of thought on this subject. Giving as it does an explanation of the relations of the mind to the auras of the world it affords a very possible explanation of the accepted mysteries of telepathy. But to the individual it emphasizes the necessity of keeping the body c1ean and healthy, and free from the effects of gross appetite and indulgence, so that it may not only send undisturbed

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impulses to the mind but may be its active and able servant. It emphasizes that the mind from infancy upwards should be encouraged to use these impulses for the highest ends and not for the sake of them­selves, and that children should be taught to exercise their rational minds so that the truth and beauty con­veyed by these impulses may be distinguished from the ugly and false. This involves the search by the rational mind for beauty in aH things and truth especially. Things of the mind and body must, if man is to rise above the lowest, be in correspondence with things of the soul, i.e., with the love and wisdom of the Creator. Falsity and ugliness, pessimism and fear, have no counterpart in Him, and Swedenborg has given us a means of understanding how it is possible and why it is necessary for a man so to order the actions of his body and the thoughts of his mind that he may attain this by developing the proper mental habits.

The whole question of habit and training is crys­tallized in this conception of Swedenborg's. If, as he says, the form of the channels along which impulses to and from the mind pass is changed by the nature of the impulses they convey, it is c1ear that unless they

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are kept in such a form as to correspond to the highest and purest, by exclusion of the baser impulses, obstruction to the influx from the soul must result.

A man's character is shown by this to depend on his habit of mind. His true character is shown in emergency and when he is off his guard, and his reaction which shows his character depends then on whether or no he has so moulded his mind and body as to allow the pure influence of the soul to dominate him.

It also enables us to understand what conditions are necessary for true happiness. Happiness can exist only where there is absence of discord or strain, and such a condition can only obtain when there is com­plete correspondence between the soul, the mind and the body, for complete correspondence means com­plete harmony and so happiness. Swedenborg's explanation of the relationship between 'the rational mind and the animus affords a full explanation of the difference between happiness and pleasure. Pleasure is essentially of the animus whereas happiness is only possible when the highest parts of the mind are conscious of comp]ete harmony and peace. It also enables us to understand the meaning of true beauty.

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Beauty is clearly only realized when its subject strikes a responding chord in the highest parts of our minds and it can only do this when the body, the lower sensory part of the mind and the higher are en rapport. Beauty in art is largely one of balance and proportion. l t appeals to us because our rational mind can see in it a just and perfect relationship between the form which is the result of the artist's work and the subject truth which is its inspiration. If the effect penetrates no deeper than the animus, it is mere prettiness or a passing fancy .We see how happiness and beauty go together. In those moments, aH too rare, when we are conscious of the deepest happiness we realize that our whole being is at peace, with no discordant note. At those times beauty is everywhere for us. We find it in the most unlike1y places. We see things clearly with what we know to he a true understanding. Are we not right in believing that at such times love and wisdom from the Creator are passing through oursouls and minds with exceptional power, because we have been enabled to open our minds for its reception and have for the time freed our minds from thoughts of self and material things. It is, we aH know, true that

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at those times no thought of self is present nor any of the world-in fact things of the world seem strangely trivial and unimportant. AlI parts of the mind must at these times be in harmony with spiritual life and in correspondence with it, nor must there be any concentration of the mind on material things as such, for cares about these dose the paths of influx. Such happiness cannot therefore be obtained by seeking for it. It eludes alI who seek it because in the very thought of seeking it something of self enters into the mind and defeats its own end.

This philosophy of influx through degrees by cor­respondence explains this experience and puts a new and fulIer meaning into the phrase " Mens sana in corpore sano." It lies in our power so to form our minds and bodies that they shalI correspond and react either to things of spiritual value or to those of the world. If we choose the latter, influx from above becomes more and more shut out, while our conscious minds no longer perceive either its truth or value. If we choose the former then not only do we· acquire a true inward cause of peace and happiness but we see also the true beauty of both worlds.

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It shows us why peace in our own minds can only be obtained by tuning them to respond always, as it were by habit, to things of spiritual value, and so, as by the power of spiritual influx we become more and more in tune with the Infinite, sa may we ultimately hope to attain to the peace that passeth aIl under­standing.

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