306 Biography of Swedenborg. 



His followers consider that the reality of his alleged visits to 

 heaven and hell, and the trnth of his opinions are shown by 

 the force of internal evidence. No one donbts Swedenborg's 

 veracity or honesty, and those whose minds impel them to 

 accept his system as a matter of faith, find no difficulty in 

 believing that he was favoured above other mortals with a 

 spiritual insight. Others, while admitting that his multi-* 

 tudinous writings contain many beautiful and true ideas, see 

 no reason for entirely separating his case from thousands of 

 others, in which cerebral disorder has existed, and given rise to 

 analogous hallucinations. We do not intend to discuss or 

 describe his theological views. They are tolerably well-known, 

 and his followers circulate them abundantly in tracts and pub- 

 lications easily obtained. One very fine thought occurs in his 

 delineation of the spirit worlds, which he conceives to be un- 

 trammelled by limitations of space. Nearness of mind and 

 heart, according to his philosophy, cause spirits to appear in 

 each others presence, and no physical journeying is necessary 

 to bring together those whom active love and sympathy unite. 

 Asa rule his statements concerning heaven and hell are nothing 

 more than ingenious applications of the notion that terrestrial 

 existence is the type of all existence. Joys and pains, temp- 

 tations, clothes, houses, etc., etc., are, according to his descrip- 

 tions, much the same in the spirit worlds as on earth, and it 

 is difficult to understand how any one can see in such deli- 

 neations proof of anything more than an ingenious constructive 

 faculty, acting more or less under the stimulus of cerebral 

 disease. 



Great stress has been laid by some on Swedenborg's 

 apparent knowledge of events not within the reach of 

 ordinary faculties to discover. For example, at Gutten- 

 burg he is reported to have described a fire then raging 

 at Stockholm, 300 miles distant, and after appearing to 

 watch the progress of the flames, he exclaimed, " Thank God, 

 the fire is extinguished the third door from my house ;" which 

 proved to be correct. A few other stories of an analogous 

 nature are handed down with evidence of authenticity more or 

 less complete. Such narratives are, no doubt, puzzling. They 

 belong to a very numerous class ; and in all ages visions, dreams, 

 and presentiments have occasionally proved true. To affirm 

 that such cases cannot possibly be more than chancb coin- 

 cidences would be to assume a knowledge we do not possess, 

 while to maintain that they are proofs of supernatural agency 

 is to invent an explanation not warranted by the evidence. 



Those who wish to know more of Swedenborg will do well to 

 consult Mr. White's volumes, which contain much curious mat- 

 ter, and furnish specimens of his writings on various subjects, 



