never seen him ruffled in his temper, nor heard him express an unkind sentiment of any. Of course, like other men, he was not without his trials, but on those occasions he would, in the language of the Psalmist, be "dumb with silence, and open not his mouth." There was a natural quietude in his character which exhibited the appearance of reserve; this had the effect of limiting his conversation to a narrow compass, of restricting the number of his friends, and confining the extent of his sociability to a small circle. And yet it was easy to see, that in the very centre of his retiring disposition there was a warmth and generosity which beautifully harmonised with his Christian faith. Though he was no great talker, he would talk so sensibly in the little that he said upon any topic, that those who knew him at once saw that he perceived respecting the subject much more than he expressed. He had a taste for scientific investigations. Geography, astronomy, and mechanics, afforded him peculiar pleasure. But the affairs of the church were always interesting to him, and his acquaintance with her doctrines was more intimate and extensive than many would suppose. The writings of the church were among his daily reading, and I feel assured that his love for spiritual truth was solid and sincere. He was a punctual attender on public worship, and was scarcely ever absent from the holy supper in these respects he was an example of constancy and devotion. He married late in life, and has left behind him no children, but an afflicted widow, to whom his attentions were anxious and affectionate. In matters of business he was punctual and exact; in matters of friendship he was affable and courteous; and, as a member of the church, he was esteemed for his uses and his work. His connection with the society has also been distinguished by considerable liberality; towards some extra enjoyment at the social meetings he was alway a ready contributor. He kindly presented the organ, and when a crisis occurred in the engagement of the minister, he at once prevented a contemplated separation by a generous subscription of an extra fifty pounds a-year, and he has concluded his career by bequeathing the handsome sum of two thousand pounds, the proceeds of which are to be employed in sustaining the future ministers of the church. Such is a brief sketch of the character of the much respected friend whom it has pleased the Divine Providence to remove into the eternal world, after the enjoyment of an unusually long residence on earth. His illness was comparatively short, and he passed quietly and peacefully away, leaving behind him a loving and pleasing remembrance to all who knew him. R. INSTITUTIONS OF THE CHURCH. LONDON. p.m. Swedenborg Society, Swedenborg House, Bloomsbury-street.-First Thursday 7-0 Missionary and Tract Society, ditto.-First Friday 6-30 College, Devonshire-street, Islington.-Second Thursday 8-0 6-30 MANCHESTER. 6-30 Missionary Society ditto ditto 7-0 Tract Society, Schoolroom, Peter-street.-Third Friday. Members of Conference are invited, when in London, to attend the National Missionary, and when in Manchester, to attend the Missionary and the Tract Societies. TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS. Communications to be sent for the Essay department, to the Editor, the Rev. W. BRUCE, 43, Kensington Gardens Square, London, W.; for the Miscellaneous department, to the Rev. R. STORRY, Heywood Hall, Heywood. Those intended for insertion in the forthcoming number must be received not later than the 15th.; except brief notices of recent meetings, &c., which may appear if not later than the 18th. Some communications for the Miscellaneous department are received, for which we are unable to find space. CAVE AND SEVER, Printers by Steam Power, Hunt's Bank, Manchester. Let us now compare the results of the Sciences of Language and of Religion with those of the Science of Correspondence as applied to the early chapters of Genesis. First of all, we have an announcement of the Dispensation-the spiritual and moral cosmos or order of things which God is about to introduce:"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The expression heaven and earth is universally allowed to have been. afterwards applied by the prophets to signify the internal and the external of the Jewish and Christian dispensations. As to the word BARA (created), we are told that, judging from analogy with other languages, it contains no trace of the popular meaning usually assigned to it, of a creation out of nothing; but signifies rather the simple conception of fashioning or arranging, that is to say, reduction into form and order. Accordingly the first step in the description of the process by which the human mind is reduced to form and order, is the description of the state from which that process began the state of religious unconsciousness. All is dark and void, till light descends from above and enables the mind to make distinctions. But what light? "To find out how the words of the Old Testament were understood by those to whom they were originally addressed, is a task attempted by very few interpreters of the Bible. The great majority of readers transfer without hesitation the ideas which they connect with words as * Essays on the Science of Religion, Vol. I., p. 135. + Ibid., Vol. I., p. 136. used in the nineteenth century, to the mind of Moses or his contemporaries; forgetting altogether the distance which divides their language and their thoughts from the thoughts and language of the wandering tribes of Israel." If this be the case with regard to the language of the tribes of Israel, how much more with regard to a language still more remote ! Now, if the expression heaven and earth designates a moral and spiritual cosmos, it is obvious that the whole six days' creation, as pertaining to it, must partake of the same character; consequently the light spoken of, is not that which is presented to the outward sense, but that which is presented to the religious consciousness. For, although every object of sense was presented by the sense to the intellect, yet it was to the intellect of that age; that is to say, to the intellect regarded as ethical, or as exercised upon the nature and relations of good and evil; for intellectual abstractions, and natural sciences, and political relations, as yet had no existence, much less any words to express them. And, though the course of modern education is from words to things, yet in the age to which we are referring, it was from things to wordsthings as apprehended first by the senses and then by the ethical intellect; the consequence of which was, that all things were regarded in their relation to good and evil, thus in their relation to God. Hence it was that every object of sense had then in the mind an inner soul, and that inner soul was no other than the intuition or sense of the Divine in all outward objects, which we are told that the primeval race must have possessed. Hitherto this subject has been regarded as belonging only to the domain of mysticism; but recent discoveries relating to the origin of language have made it almost a subject of scientific investigation. If, when man originally saw the light of the sun, he had no intuition of a divine light, but merely aimed to express by articulate sounds the light conveyed to the bodily eye, he never could have elevated his mind above the level of the senses. So also with regard to all other objects of the natural world as apprehended by the outward senses. Thought itself, in that age, would have been impossible, and man an impossible creation. It was in the relation of earth to heaven, and of heaven to earth, and of both to God, that the rational faculty found its first germ and its development; and the laws of Correspondence are no other than the laws of this very relation. The objects of sense were thus to man at that time in the place of words; with this difference between the two, that words are conventional, the inventions of men; * Bunsen's God in History, Vol. 1., p. 203. objects of sense are the creations of God, and their true meaning as much of Divine origin as the very objects themselves. This being the case, creation was then contemplated rather from the inward intuition, than from the outward sense. All things were seen to be created by the Word, and to be the language of the Word. There was no need of intellectual abstraction, in order to arrive at the idea of moral or spiritual qualities. The consciousness of the good was derived not from abstraction but from influx: itself guided the intellect, not the intellect it; hence the intuition from inward Divine light, by which all things were seen in God, and God in all things. This intuition or perception varied in households, families, and tribes. So that it might be said that intuitions or perceptions were divided into so many corresponding genera and species; and households and families, &c., were kept distinct from each other in order that the genera and species might not be confounded. Thus the order of families, &c., in those days had reference to the order of perceptions, as afterwards symbolized in the Twelve Tribes of Israel. These perceptions, however, had reference to Jehovah as the infinite, invisible esse, existing or manifested in the humanity of the church in heaven, which was to them at that time the one Divine Human, or the Divine Adam. Of course when an influx of this kind from heaven should cease, this perception or intuition would cease also. Such was the culmination of the mental faculties in the time of the golden age. Whatsoever they apprehended by any sense was to them a medium of thinking concerning the things of the Lord and His kingdom; and hence the delight which they derived from things worldly and terrestrial. Nay, further, when they thus contemplated the inferior and ultimate things of nature, the objects of contemplation appeared to them as alive, or as if they were living; for the life from which they descended was itself in the internal sight and perception of the mind; and the objects presented before the eye were as images of that life; which images, although inanimate, were nevertheless thus animated in their sight. Thus it was that a soul was given to the objects of sense. All objects were sacramental: the sign lived from the thing signified; and natural science apart from spiritual perception was a thing unknown, nay, in that state, a thing impossible. As in that age the outward sign was some object of sense, so in subsequent ages, in proportion as intuition or perception gradually ceased and the thing signified became lost, *Arcana Cœlestia, art. 483, 414, 185. + Ibid., art. 4687. objects of sense gradually ceased to be the signs, and words were as gradually introduced. Hence it is that the inner life or soul was transferred from objects to words. Thus we speak now of the "lively" or "living oracles of God;" and our Lord himself says "The words which I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life;" but the soul or life of the dead letter is no other than what in the primeval age was the soul or life of the dead object; for as to the inner soul, the heavenly thought or affection signified, all objects regarded as external, whether of the animal or vegetable creation, were relatively dead. Besides the celestial perceptions enjoyed in the waking state, the most ancient people were instructed by dreams and revelations, and this even from infancy; by which they were initiated into things good and true. And whereas these good and truths were inseminated into the affections or voluntary part of the mind, they had from one general truth a perception of things innumerable, without the necessity of further instruction; so that from one general truth or principle they could intuitively perceive innumerable consequences. It will naturally be asked, if there were no words at that time to constitute a spoken language, how was it that communication from one mind to the other was then effected? The answer is, communication by spoken words is a communication by vibrations of the air or atmosphere; but there is a series of auras above the atmosphere, and it was by the modifications of one of these more nearly connected with the processes of thought, that thoughts themselves were then communicated; nor is it more wonderful that affections and thoughts should be communicated by a higher atmosphere more nearly allied to thought, than by a lower. Suffice it to say, that at that day the whole inward life flamed forth in the face; so that the very faces exchanged thoughts and sympathies, without the intervention of sounds. This mode of communication of mind is what Baron Bunsen attributes to a state of clairvoyance, which, he says, is a faculty latent even at this day in every mind, and is intimately connected with the modifications of the magnetic aura. What, however, shall we say of writing? Was there, in this primitive age, no more writing than speaking? The answer is, there was at that time a written language. Thoughts in that day were themselves the spiritual words expressive of affections; thus they were the language of the affections and intuitions: consequently, any language expressing the thoughts must have been a language of the *Arcana Calestia, art. 895, 1409. + Heaven and Hell, art. 260. |