“Romanic.—Thus Deus, (Latin,) Dios, (Spanish,) Dio, (Italian,) Dieu, Greek deos and Alos-di is here the syllable common to all. So also in divus, and the like form divine,' &c. 66 66 6 And in Sanscrit God is Divas, (and Dêvas,) which is derived from the verb 'div,' to lighten, to spread light, bright, to be luminous, clear, &c. When I read in Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell' that the consonants are the only important elements of syllables and words in languages generally, while the vowels have but a secondary value, I had, first, some difficulty to be convinced of this fact. I said to myself,— 6 That may be very exact and true in all the Semitic tongues, such as Hebrew, Chaldaic, Syriac, Samaritan, Ethiopic, and Arabic, and likewise in the Sclavonian group of the Indo-European stock of languages; but this assertion becomes wholly inapplicable to the Polynesian group of the Malaio-oceanic stock of languages, such as the tongues of Tahiti, the Sandwich Islands, the Marquises, New-Zealand, &c. &c. For there, said I to myself, the vowels are everything, and the consonants of not the least importance, for the greater part of words are exclusively formed of vowels, and consonants are seldom to be met with.' In all respects we see, that there just the contrary takes place to that which we observe in the other languages alluded to. And indeed, the vowels are here (in the Polynesian tongues) the fixed and steady element, while the consonants are continually undergoing the most various changes. And to this objection against Swdenborg's statement referring to human language generally, I added another, namely:- Are vowels not the self-sounding substance, and are consonants not mute and a mere accessory aid for uttering the syllables and words of languages? And are, consequently, not the vowels the very element of human language, although Swedenborg tell us the contrary?' But I soon after became aware that my two objections were a mere illusion, and that Swedenborg was quite right! Indeed, after some reflections, I found that the above-mentioned phenomenon in the Polynesian tongues proves nothing against Swedenborg: All those languages being far from their Normal condition, present in all points a great degeneracy and a total reversal of their real nature,-which, as it can still be demonstrated, they have offered in their primitive state. And as to the greater importance of vowels in languages generally, as the self-sounding substance, I felt myself soon obliged to recognize that vowels and consonants are to each other as material is to form ; and, according to Swedenborg, it is precisely the 'form' which, in all respects, has a claim to priority, and to be the essential condition of all existence. Nowhere we meet with a substance without any form; but 66 the disciple of the New Jerusalem knows that there are forms without any stuff or material! Thus I became wholly convinced of Swedenborg's statements relatively to languages, and their qualities and nature. The doctrine of the three degrees finds its illustration in all branches of human knowledge. I have examined those three degrees with the greatest delight, in embryogeny and phytography. Under whatever point of view I may consider this doctrine of universal trinity, I find in it a very profound metaphysical conception. Those three degrees pervade all our philosophical insight into the external and interior nature of things. Many things, indeed, are to be done by those who feel a particular vocation to employ human reasoning and science for illustrating and confirming the doctrines of the New Church. As to myself, it is impossible to me to do something in that direction which would be worth the while, for I have not any speciality at my disposal. By a sort of natural curiosity I have, en amateur,' looked a good deal into scientific and literary departments, but without the intention of settling down in any one of them. My present purpose is to arrive at Goodness and Truth by the most direct means and by the shortest way. For being already thirty-three years of age, there is not a moment to be lost for entering into the right path unto salvation; and in the reading of Swedenborg's works the most appropriate means are given for arriving at that end. But as many other persons may be easily brought to the New Church doctrines, when they can see that they find in science and learning their whole confirmation, it seems very desirable that special men might rise amongst the members of the New Church, whose only purpose and occupation would be to spread through the whole world what has been made known by the Lord, to Swedenborg, and for each to employ his scientific or literary speciality for explaining and elucidating it. For although the number of the learned is very great at the present day, none of them have employed their knowledge to this purpose; most of them do not even know the least of what Swedenborg's writings contain, and as all first-rate men of the present day are pushing their inquiries into another and wholly different direction, their labour and discoveries are entirely lost for the prosperity of true religion; but the field of useful activity for the benefit and increase of the New Church is immense ! "I beg you will excuse my imperfect mode of expressing myself in English.-I am, &c. "R. 262 LIFE; ITS NATURE, VARIETIES, AND PHENOMENA. (Concluded from page 216.) THE organic, or physiological expression of life,-that which vitalizes plants and animals, and the material body of man, is so called from the circumstance of its phenomena being played forth through the medium of special organs. It is what different authors have denominated vital force, vital principle, vis vita, spirit of animation, nisus formativus, materia vita diffusa, &c. &c., these being but a few of the paraphrases in which language, struggling to confer a descriptive name, has been compelled to hide its inability. This is the expression of life which, as the instrument of all man's temporal enjoyments, has in every age allured his intensest interest. Its facts and mysteries have commended themselves to his intellect as the peerage of science and philosophy, the alpha and the omega of all natural knowledge. If, says Aristotle, the knowledge of things becoming and honourable be deservedly held in high estimation; and if there be any species of knowledge more exquisite than another, either upon account of its accuracy, or of the objects to which it relates being more excellent or more wonderful; we should not hesitate to pronounce the history of the animating principle as justly entitled to hold the first rank. With all enthusiasm and assiduity accordingly, have chemistry, anatomy, and physiology toiled to translate it, but toiled in vain, because trusting to the light of an exclusively secular philosophy. Esteemed by some the cause of organization; by others its consequence; imagined at different periods to be heat, light, oxygen, electricity, and galvanism, still the exulting Eureka has not been uttered, either in the laboratory, the dissecting-room, or the schools of the savans. The enigma has continued to baffle all the propounders of solutions,-the heart of nature's mystery has not been plucked out, even by the most vigorous of the wisest of her sons.'* And in disappointment must all endeavours terminate, as regards the essence of life; though theology, as we have seen, gives us a glimpse of its rationale, which science has utterly failed to do, even by its own confession. The development of forms,' says Dr. Pritchard, in concluding an elaborate essay on the subject, according to their generic, specific, and individual diversities, not less in the vegetable than in the animal world, can only be accounted for by Life, its Origin, Gradations, Forms, and Issues,' by the Rev. George Bush, page 1. - ascribing it to the universal energy of the Creator.' Viewing it by the united light of theosophy and science, we may see that organic life, like inorganic, comes primarily of the play of Divine Wisdom and Divine Goodness, the infinite, creative duality from which all things proceed :-proximately, of physical Action and Re-action, which is the finited expression of that play; derived from it as words are from thoughts, or the deeds of friendship from its sentiment. Plants and animals therefore have no life of their own; no independent vitality. Life, indeed, is in no case created, and bestowed as a gift upon the forms which it animates. Genuine philosophy knows of no life in the universe but what is momentarily sustained by connection with its source, with Him who alone hath life in Himself.' Would you have its picture, look at the flowing streams and rivers, whose shining waters move only as they are renewed from eternal springs and fountains welling up where no eye can reach. This, however, is not the popular notion of life, which sees an image of it rather in the reservoir of water, filled in the first place from the spring, but afterwards cut off, and holding an independent existence. Few men are willing to regard themselves as dependent on the perpetual and momentary influx of the Divine. Not that they deny the general proposition that life is from God, and in the hands of God. Every one will allow that he derived his life originally from the Almighty, and that the Almighty takes it from him when he pleases. But it is wounding to self-love, and to the pride of human nature, to think of ourselves as so wholly and minutely dependent as we are, moment by moment, day and night; the senses all the while insinuating the reverse. There is, moreover, in the minds of most men, a strong aversion to recognise physical effects as resulting from spiritual causes. Against everything, indeed, which involves a spiritual element; which lifts us above the region of the senses; there is a certain deep-seated repugnance, such as mere argument is perhaps incapable of overcoming; and which can only give way, it would seem, under the influence of higher moral feelings. Truly to understand anything of creation, we must be faithful to creation, and that is to be faithful to God. Nature becomes intelligible in the degree that it is perceived to be momentarily sustained by the Divine, and that is more clearly perceived in the degree that we ourselves become more truly human, Having no life of their own, neither do plants and animals act from themselves, though such also is the appearance to the senses, the illusions of which are to the mass of mankind, the universe and all its truths. They act reflectively; not as principals. Whatever they perform is but a putting forth to view what God has previously communicated. The prime, fundamental action and re-action in plants and animals, is that which takes place between the great dynamic substance or substances known as heat, light, and electricity, and the food upon which the organism subsists. The former are what authors call the Vital Stimuli,' the operation of these three great physical agencies, either singly or in combination, having long been recognized as necessary to enable an organized structure to manifest vital phenomena. What may be the relationship of these agencies to one another, it is unnecessary here to inquire; whether light, for instance, be simply a modification of heat; or a quality of the physical forces in general, capable of being displayed by any one of them, when sufficiently intensified. At present we have merely to recognize their existence. Every one knows that if the supply of natural, wholesome aliment be reduced below a certain level, there is, alike in plants and in animals, proportionate emaciation and loss of vigour; and that if totally deprived of food, they speedily starve to death. Debarred from the due action of heat, electricity, &c., though the supply of food may be adequate, plants no less than animals, suffer as severely as in the former case. All the actions and re-actions which transpire in the body, comprehending all the organic functions, as respiration, the circulation of the blood, digestion, assimilation, are ultimately referable to this great binary institution. Equally is it needed to the very genesis of the organism, whether we take the child in the womb of its mother, or its counterpart, the embryo seed in the pistil of the flower. Of the harmonious, con jugal coöperation of these two things, comes accordingly, the expression of all organic life; which is thus born, like everything else in the universe, of a father and a mother. On the one hand, stimulus is contributed, on the other, material. But, as with generation, the material is passive, the stimulus inoperative, till each is married to the other, for each is the other's complement. Though so closely connected with heat, electricity, &c., life however, in its organic expression, is in no way a modification of them. This is important to be observed, because it has been from want of a just discrimination between the two facts, that life has been supposed to be heat, electricity, &c. Indeed, in some of the very latest and most accredited writings on physiology, it is still taught that vital force' is merely a metamorphosed condition of these things. "That Light and Heat," says Carpenter, "become transformed into Vital Force, is shewn by the same kind of evidence *To this list will perhaps have to be added odyle, the extraordinary agent to which attention is invited by Reichenbach. See his Researches on Mag netism, Electricity,' &c., translated by Dr. Gregory. 1850. |