breath descends into the natural, is invariably effected through a divine fay angel from the glorified divine human body of our Lord (Ar. of Ch. iii. 39); how seven-eighths of the distance in the organic space thereof has been worn away in the last seventy years (iii. 122); how "the fire breath which proceeds through men who possess this new respiration, contains within itself a subtle principle which kills the bodies of those who resist, after a certain period has arrived" (iii. 273); how the secret of maternity should be explained by the open breathing woman as soon as the young intellect demands the solu tion of the birth question (iii. 472); how the food prepared by one of these open breathing women undergoes a celestial transformation (iii. 470); how the husband, attaining the new natural soul, may be instrumental in letting down a new natural soul into his wife's frame (iii. 595)—but enough! And yet it is for speaking against this fleshly teaching that Mr. Berridge calls me to account! In reply I ask what are the tendencies of the above principles? What becomes of the simple, holy, heart-teaching of our Redeemer "ye must be born again" as exemplified in the lives of all truly Christian men during these last eighteen centuries? Nay, while I deny that such a physical change can be proved as the above teachings would have us to infer is the privilege of the whole Salem-on-Erie Brotherhood, I can point to facts condemnatory of the whole system. I can prove that deluded men, through an overweening confidence in such Cagliostrianism, have suffered irreparable injury in intellect, in health and in social position. I have known minds rendered incapable of accurate thought through it (as, indeed, Harris said should be the case, iii. 100). Under the impression that through internal respiration a monition would in due time be given directing to proper books and studies, I have seen opportunities for professional culture irretrievably lost, and status also. Under the delusion that the pain felt in the body was caused by the renewing of the natural soul and nerve spirit, I have seen the legitimate remedies for disease too long neglected, at the cost of further suffering. Under the infatuation of the same thought I have seen the bond of marital co-fellowship made powerless in the presence of an adulterous influence "sensed" from within, while such an imaginary renewal of the natural soul was going on. But what indeed shall we say of the Medium's own example in this respect :-writing love ditties from the "Lily Queen, immortal bride," when a first wife is also in another world, a second one here, and a female amanuensis his most frequent attendant? For a leader of thought it has not an orderly look. It reeks of the odoriferous narcotics of the Eastern harem rather than of the fragrant breath of the Saxon homestead. It is the emasculated, lock-shorn Samson, with his 1 It is all very well to sing with Milton how "Oft converse with heavenly habitants Begins to cast a beam on the outward shape And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence; but Dr. J. J. G. Wilkinson, after " many medical visits" to Mr. Harris in 1860 (thus about seven years after the Lily-Queen intimacy began), described his chest, etc. in such a way as to show that the peculiar physical organization of the man was one which evidently had proceeded his regeneration, and, as with everybody else, was independent of it (See Robinson's "Remembrancer," p. 364). Now another ten years have passed over, and the silence of his disciples shows, despite the philosophy of corporeal rehabilitation, that Time's decaying fingers are doing their inexorable work. He is not of the Hesper-men Who "when their work below is ended, pass To Heaven unchanged, like light thro' clearest glass” (Harris, L. M. Land, p. 75.) fevered head in Delilah's lap, when, stalwart and cheerful, he ought to have been out in the field of God's work, the sinewy arm bared for labour, and his natural curls playing in the strengthening breezes of heaven. (12.) Faust. Here Mr. Berridge writes: "Harris does not deny or assert that Goethe published a part ii. of Faust." Mr. Berridge ought not to have penned this without having first turned to Mr. Harris's book. It is there distinctly written, "The great German poem of Faust terminates after the death of Margaret, victim to the wiles of the demon Mephistopheles" (Song of Satan, lxviii). Now in the original text of the complete "Faust," this point is at page 184, where part i. ends; while the poem really terminates only at the end of page 459. It is thus clear from Mr. Harris's own words, that he knew nothing of this second portion extending over 275 additional pages! But the Goethe-Demon laboured under the same ignorance as Mr. Harris and furnished the latter with a continuation! ANOTHER, however, is also implicated in the same mistake, and Mr. Harris thus blasphemously writes: "At the same time I was conscious that the Divine Lord in His mercy was inversing the words spoken by the demon, as they were projected into the organs of my consciousness. In this manner the diabolical perversions of Divine Truth spoken by this Magician of the hells were turned against him into celestial verities" (Harris, S. of Satan, lxviii). This blasphemy is deepened in some of these "celestial verities" thus affirmed to have been produced in their present form by "the Divine Lord"; here are two : "Christ was like Moses, like Mahomet too About the unities. He read a part Of Nature's veil. I read its living heart.' "God's a myth. We all are Gods you know. Faith's idle folly." (Harris, Song of Satan, lxx.) Gentle reader, is not this "striking" ?-Methinks it displays a morbid irreverence only equalled by that stupendous impudence which led the same writer to say of another of his books 66 Something it hath for every mental state, (Harris, Lyric of the Golden Age, 6.) (13.) Here little need be said. It is now evident that as long as a man consents to remain the mere Medium of angels or spirits, he is like to be a dupe to himself, and a blind guide to others. Swedenborg rose above all this before he wrote a single doctrine as such: not a single line of doctrine as such was ever afterwards written by him from a point so low as even the highest angelical. By remaining a spirit-subject, Harris (as we have seen) cannot but adulterate the truths of science, theology and life: by refusing such bondage Swedenborg was enabled to stand a freeman in the verifying light of the divine influx while intent upon the holy Word. Harris was positive against spirit-infusion only when preaching, and singularly enough, his sermons are almost undefiled of his general mediumistic extravagances. Nor does it avail at this point that Mr. Berridge should seek to silence me by quoting "Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God." We have seen on Mr. Harris's own evidence, that Joseph Balsamo did this very thing! A knowledge of the history of the period when St. John wrote the passage in question would have shown Mr. Berridge that St. John did not contemplate trans-sepulchral spirits in this text, but rather a class of men whose minds had been poisoned by a doctrine of devils (for there were Joseph Balsamos in those days also) and who were gradually undermining the faith of the simple-minded Christian believers that Christ had come in the flesh. (14.) Conclusion. Here Mr. Berridge writes as if Harrisism would fain rest in amity with the receivers of the New Church faith. Enough has been seen to show that this is impossible. There can be no pact of amity between Truth and Error. Mr. Harris knows this, and it would be difficult to find an opponent from the trinitarian side who has dealt out so much uncharitable insinuation as he has towards those Mr. Berridge alludes to. He has talked of "the sexless plant of conventional Swedenborgianism" and affirmed it to be "the development of the religious idea which minds of frigid temperament have evolved from their own internal states" he says "the readers of Swedenborg attempt to construct a new church by preserving old states," and tells how "cold minds, unimpregnated through conjugial union with a noble wifely essence, have given birth both in America and England to the ecclesiastical unions that fondly arrogate the title New Jerusalem; or if others of a warmer genius have been involved in such creations, they haye been led captive through persuasive arts, and a mistaken sense of the importance of external organisations and ceremonies" (A. of Ch. iii. 425-427). Mr. Berridge speaks of Arcades ambos, but arcades omnes were the true phrase if the above statements held good. But we are told of "one who was saved from infidelity solely by means of Harris's writings." Have none been driven into infidelity by them? Years ago, Harris led me to close my Swedenborg and my Harris too; as the Editor of the Recipient can testify from a letter of the time and in that Recipient I just notice a letter from some one else in the same predicament; mark his reasoning: "If he [Swedenborg] mistook appearances for realities, how can we be sure that his successor has not done so? May they not both have penetrated, or rather have been intromitted, only into the outer circles of the spiritual plane, and not into the sublimer glories of the third Heavens?" This was after reading Mr. Harris's statement that Swedenborg, in describing certain things of the spiritual world, had "mistaken appearances for realities" (Robinson's Recipient, i. 217, and the A. of Ch. i. 510). Similar consequences must follow in numerous other cases; as where Harris says he saw his father in the spiritual world thirty years after death and little change had so far taken place (a passage in direct opposition to Swedenborg's declaration that twenty years at most are now sufficient before the final transition): so again with the Last Judgment which Swedenborg says took place in 1757; "why I was in another Last Judgment myself in 1857," says the imitative medium Mr. Harris! What, exactly 100 years after? 2 Mr. Berridge is now answered, I trust satisfactorily. I need only remark 1 Mr. White in his Life of Swedenborg (ii. 7) has a fling at our author because in another book he says thirty years (H. and H. 426). But that other book, on Mr. White's own admission, is "a dish of cream from the Arcana Celestia,' which latter was published before 1757. True; and therefore although the H. and H. was not printed until the year following, many of its chapters must have been copied out just previously or pending the Last Judgment, prior to which time vastation could not have been effected so speedily. 2 In first paper I omitted to state that the statistics of Salem-on-Erie were from the Recipient for July 1869; since which time no data have appeared in the Harrisite organ. further that, in restricting myself to the questions raised by him, I have pointed out only a moiety of the inconsistencies that may be found in the writings through Mr. Harris. To have shown up the drafts upon Fourier and his party would have been foreign to the points mooted. For the present then I quit our Medium with the frank admission that to me he is the most interesting and suggestive writer of his school, but-like all spiritualists-is unsafe. Despite the threats of "Fire-Breath" assassination, his writings must pass the ordeal of criticism like those of other people; and it does not speak well for their author's confidence in the power of truth that he should deem it necessary to fence round his productions with invective and anathemas; or that a Brotherhood of the New Life should be held under an obligation to abandon that grandest privilege progress has yet given us—free thought-to become the spiritual janizaries of a new Mahomet. R. M'CULLY. ON THE WORD "SEVERAL," AS USED IN THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE WRITINGS. THE reader of the Writings in English must often be struck with amazement at the use of this word. For instance, he reads in T. C. R., 479 (Swedenborg Society's edition of 1863), that "the Christian Church is divided into several sects." He reads in sec. 483 that "in several of the parables it is insisted that those who do good are accepted, and those who do evil are rejected." In A. C. 70 (ed. of 1848), he reads that "it has been granted me (Swedenborg) to speak and converse with several persons with whom I had been acquainted during their life in the body." Now in all these instances, and in all others of a similar nature, the term used by Swedenborg is plures. This word is the comparative of multus, many, and one word several is therefore far too mild a translation of it. No doubt in some cases it might be translated by that word without any apparent violence, but not as a rule. In all the above cases, and in countless others, it should be translated many. Whenever, therefore, the reader is puzzled by meeting with the word several, let him bear in mind that it most likely ought to be many. This is, however, not invariably the case. Our translators are so fond of using this word, that they often do so without any equivalent at all in the original, inserting it apparently without any conceivable reason. This has been done so often that in a few minutes I discovered five cases in the T. C. R., namely, in Nos. 460, 483, 679, 731, 739. In No. 731, several occurs twice, however in one instance being put for aliqui, which is quite correct. Our translators have not quite invariably rendered plures by several. In T. C. R. 732 it is translated many as follows:-"I have already treated of the spiritual world in a particular work on Heaven and Hell, which work contains a description of many things relating to that world." Here to have used several would have made the passage too absurd; and it is thus evident to all, that Swedenborg means many when he uses plures. Now why cannot our translators exercise a similar discretion in other cases, and why does this blunder keep being repeated in so many successive editions of the Writings? Whilst on the subject of mistranslation, perhaps I may be permitted to mention another very frequent one which it is always rather painful to meet with. I refer to the rendering of altera vita by another life. Alter does not mean another, but the other. There is a different Latin term for another, viz., alius. Alter can only refer to two things, and indeed Swedenborg sometimes describes the second heaven as alterum cælum. Why should not this little nicety of our Latin originals be respected? There is only one other life. Our author marks this by using alter. Why cannot we also say, in our translations, "the other life?" P. NEW TRANSLATION OF SWEDENBORG'S WRITINGS. THE Committee of the Swedenborg Society have it in contemplation to issue a new and uniform English Version of Swedenborg's Writings. As a preliminary step, they desire to secure the services of a gentleman fully competent to undertake the responsible office of translator and editor. Members and friends of the Society are requested to make known the names of gentlemen who may seem to them, from personal knowledge, to possess the requisite qualifications for successfully executing a work of such magnitude and importance. Communications to be addressed to Mr. HENRY BUTTER, Hon. Sec., 249 Camden Road, N. HOW TO KEEP OUR YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE CHURCH. DEAR SIR,--It is generally confessed that the rising generation does not read the Writings of the Church, and therefore that belief in the doctrines is rapidly becoming rather traditional than intelligent. If this be true, and for my part I do not doubt it, we have before us a very grave defect, and it may well be doubted whether any duty is so imperative as that of finding a remedy for it. A short time ago a friend, sorely pressed by the difficulty of the task, wrote to ask me what could be done, and as the plan I suggested to him has been very cordially approved by both clergy and laity, so far as it has been made known, I venture to give you an outline of it. A junior member's society being formed, a system of study might be laid down and prosecuted with some certain good result, if the young people could be induced to work; for example: divide the late autumn, the winter, and the early spring into two or three sessions as may best suit the convenience of any particular society. We will suppose three sessions chosen. Then take for the first session the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, and the four leading doctrines. Let some discreet and intelligent member meet the class on Sunday afternoon, or such other part of that day as may best suit the habits of the people, and hear them read, each one a paragraph in turn. Reading to them is comparatively flat and ineffective. At the end of each paragraph the chairman should ask the reader what difficulty, or what beauty he sees in it, and being answered, should put the same question to the class generally. The lesson should, I think, not exceed one hour. If convenient, the class might meet the minister for an hour one evening in the week, and he, previously informed of the extent of the Sunday's lesson, might ask viva voce questions upon it to test the memory and readiness of the pupils, and then proceed with a further portion of the work in the same way as on the Sunday. Being now fairly launched in the study, the method pursued by the minister at the second lesson could be followed on the next Sunday by the lay chairman, that is, first viva voce questions on |
