the head of the independent thinker, who gives more credit to scientific researches than to the exegetical dicta of the reverend savans of Oxford, Princeton, and Andover. We are rejoiced, however, that many liberal and cultivated minds have given up the hypothesis, as untenable, and look on it as fairly open to the graceful satire of Lyell. That prince of geologists compares the advocates of the Mosiac account to a party of philosophers with a religious belief that the world was but a hundred years old, poring over the antiquities of Egypt, and framing fanciful explanations for the appearance of her mausoleums, her obelisks, and her pyramids.

The rival system is the scientific creed of many men who have rejected Divine Revelation, and peered forth with unassisted eye into the dark night of nature's mysteries. It lays great stress on the accumulation and arrangement of facts, and recommends extreme caution in the deduction of inferences. It maintains that inherent properties of matter have developed the original chaotic mass into the infinite forms of beauty and sublimity, which we see around us. this materialism, the "Vestiges of Creation" may be considered a pretty fair exponent. The arguments of that book are based on the following suppositions-viz: the progressive development of matter; the spontaneous evolution of germs; and the occasional transmutation of species. But observation and experiment with their Briarian arms are ready to pull down this fairy palace of imagination. Forms of high organization are found in the lowest strata, and many links of the pretended chain are deficient. The limit to which species may be modified by circumstances is marked, and no transmutation has ever been authenticated. Spontaneous evolution is nothing but creation at the proper time, in the proper place, and under the proper conditions. Propagation by germs, however, is the general law of organization, and the deviations must be very rare and very peculiar. The "Vestiges of Creation," is little indebted to science, and still less to logic for its popularity.

The system of Swedenborg proposes no compromise line between the contending theories. It pronounces an unqualified disapprobation of both; of the first as inconsistent with reason, contradictory to fact, and productive of erroneous impressions of the nature of God, and the significance of his works; of the second as eminently atheistic, subversive of all truth, and destructive to all religion. The Swedish interpreter of nature has propounded a philosophy of organization, based upon spiritual principles, which the Christian and Materialist must respect. It points with one hand to the Bible, and with the other, to natural science, for between the word and the works of God, there can be no contradiction.

According to this authority the spiritual and natural worlds are co-existent and mutually dependent. The forces employed in their creation and constant maintenance are identical; namely, the Divine Love, and the Divine Wisdom; but the material operated upon is different. In one case, a spiritual sun, spiritual earths, atmospheres, forms of infinite variety, and the human spirit are produced; in the other, a material sun, earth, atmosphere, mineral, vegetable, and ani

mal forms, and finally the human body. The two are connected with each other, and with their Creator, by the vivifying principle which emanates from Him alone, and is termed influx. The forms produced become fixed and permanent, by taking on an envelope or precise mould of inert matter, when they become visible to the natural eye. The material universe is, therefore, an ultimate or basis which upholds all things, so that the earth may be appropriately called the footstool of God. Every natural form corresponds to or represents a spiritual form. To give a faint illustration, a pleasant emotion occurs in the spiritual body, a smile follows it in the natural body, as its material correspondent. The smile had a spiritual meaning, so has a stone, a flower, a bird, a cloud, yea, every object of nature, its spiritual meaning. We frequently perceive or recognize the signification of the smile; were our understandings sufficiently enlightened to catch the spiritual meanings of all things, the universe would be to us an open book, revealing the very thoughts of the Deity. Such a book is the Bible, and its spiritual meaning has been unfolded by Swedenborg.

The creation of man, a being capable of reciprocating the Divine Love, was the end or aim of the Divine Being, and to this end all the elements of nature, spiritual and material, are directed. All the forms of the universe have relation to the human form, which is an image of the Divine Form. In the progress of the great work we observe a uniform sequence of events, and a determinate relation of parts. No form or object can appear or be created until all forms subsidiary to its well-being have also appeared. To think otherwise, would be as absurd as to fancy that the roof of a building might be erected before the foundation was laid. But still another element enters into

the constitution of nature, that of use. Every thread in the web of being has its definite place, and is necessary for the perfection of the structure. Every form was created with a direct reference to its relation to other forms. These beautiful doctrines of Order and Use, are deduced from the nature of the Divine Mind. In an act of memory we reproduce, before the mental eye, that which was within the mind and constituted a part of it. In an analogous manner the spiritual world being an outbirth or projection from the Divine Mind, must necessarily correspond to what is in the Divine Mind. Of this mind we are taught that Love is the impelling, and Wisdom the directing or determining power, that Order is its method, and Use is its aim. The four words Influx, Correspondence, Order, and Use, are the keys to Swedenborg's philosophy of nature.

Such is a bird's-eye view of a system which, for beauty of conception, symmetry of outline, and extent of application, is unrivalled among the speculations of ancient or modern philosophers. Declamation and eulogy, however, cannot kindle the spark of belief in the cold bosom of incredulity. The religious and psychological bearings of this subject we leave to others, it is our business to compare it with the recent teachings of natural science. We expect to show that the revelations of Swedenborg not only stand the test of scientific scrutiny, but open before the mind new avenues of discovery. In this manner we hope to direct more respectful attention to that

august philosopher, from around whose majestic form the mists of ignorance and prejudice are beginning to break away.

From the spiritual hypothesis the following natural or physical formulæ may be logically deduced, and we shall endeavor to show their plausibility by reference to established facts.

Proposition 1st. Heat and Light corresponding to Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, are the active forces of nature-Heat playing the motor and Light the formative part in the process of organization.

Proposition 2d. Individual development or organization always begins at the same point, proceeds through the same phases, and attains its maximum in the human form.

Proposition 3d. The connections and correlations of forms are established on the principle of Use, and every form appears or is created at the precise time and place when and where its function or use can be best fulfilled.

Proposition 1st. Heat and Light are so generally associated in the phenomena of nature that we are in danger of attributing to one what may really be the property of the other. Their distinctive features, however, are sufficiently marked to guide us in our present inquiry. We have no apprehension that the first clause of our proposition, which gives to Heat a motory power, will be challenged. Heat is positively necessary to organization, but the unrestrained tendency of Heat is evidently to indefinite expansion, which is of course totally subversive of all form. Some force is required to determine and limit the expansion and condensation of matter, so as to produce from it definite structures. Now, many interesting facts point to Light, as this formative agent. Crystals, under the partial influence of Light, can be made to assume the most curious forms, and beautiful appearances. If a ray of light be permitted to fall on a strong mineral solution, kept in a dark room, crystallization speedily commences at the luminous spot. The vegetable kingdom is the connecting link between the mineral and the animal. Plants, alone, have the power of appropriating the amorphous elements of inorganic matter, and transforming them into specific structures. This marvellous faculty is due to the agency of Light alone; to Light as contradistinguished from all other stimuli. This is one of the best established facts in vegetable physiology. Put a fresh leaf under water in the luminous portion of the solar spectrum; bubbles of oxygen gas are disengaged, and carbon is converted into vegetable tissue: interrupt the solar ray, and the wonderful process is immediately arrested. What is the effect of a complete and continued withdrawal of Light from a growing plant? Dr. Carpenter answers in strong language-" Bleaching of its green surface, loss of weight of the solid parts, dropsical distention of its tissues, a want of power to form its peculiar secretions, or even to generate new structures after the materials previously stored up have been exhausted, and finally its death and decomposition." It cannot reproduce its species, it cannot even preserve its own form. All these facts point to a failure of the organizing principle. Heat, electricity, moisture, nutriment, may all be abundant, but all in vain if Light be absent.

The distinguished physiologist just quoted, remarks: "There is abundant proof that Light exercises an important influence on the processes of development in animals, no less than in plants." Among other striking illustrations, he instances the following: "Certain insects reared in the dark, grow up almost as colorless as plants which are made to vegetate under similar circumstances." Tropical birds when bred by artificial heat, in temperate climates, never acquire the splendor of plumage which they posess in their native regions. The appearance of animalculæ in infusions of decaying organic matter is much retarded by seclusion from Light. No marine species are found in the sea, beyond the depth of 1800 feet. We may possibly detect the reason, in the fact that the solar rays, in their passage through sea-water, are subject to a loss of one half for every seventeen feet. At the depth specified the fraction expressive of the relative quantity or intensity of light is entirely beyond the grasp of the imagination. An unusual tendency to deformity is to be found among persons brought up in cellars, and mines, or in dark and narrow streets. But the most striking experiment was made by Dr. Milne Edwards. He has shown that if tadpoles be furnished with every condition of normal development, but be entirely deprived of light, their growth continues, but their usual metamorphosis into frogs is arrested, and they remain permanently in the condition of large tadpoles. It appears to us, in consideration of these and similar facts, that the word formative is an appropriate epithet to characterize the agency of Light. We are aware that we are treading on theoretic ground. Objections are readily suggested, and experiments for the verification of an isolated point are difficult and uncertain. The fact that sunlight is injurious to the first stages of germination, cannot be arrayed against our theory. A certain degree of Heat, instead of promoting the development of the chick, coagulates the albumen of the egg. A specific amount of Light is, in all probability, requisite for each individual form. We speak of sensible Heat, and latent Heat, or Heat of which our senses and our instruments give us no intimation. Is it not probable that there is sensible Light and latent Light? The former is that degree of Light to which the organization of our eye is adapted. With a different organization, the intensest ray of the sun might appear to us as but a faint glimmer. So our faintest glimmer may produce in some animalculæ the effect of the sun's intensest ray on us. We readily conceive that Heat is still in an action between the atoms of frozen mercury. Analogy warrants the idea of the ubiquity of Light. A degree of Light which to us would be total darkness, may be eminently powerful in determining the arrangement of the molecules of matter. The vibrations of Light possess a certain dynamic principle, for when two of them clash under certain conditions, they produce darkness, just as two equal and opposite mechanical forces destroy each other's momentum. How this dynamic principle determines the shape, size, and position of parts, we shall probably never discover. The hands which weave the web of being are invisible: we cannot bear the veil from Divine Wisdom itself.

We cannot dismiss this topic without making an allusion to Chem

ical Action, Electricity, Magnetism, &c. Swedenborg speaks of no other creative forces but Heat and Light. He teaches us that affections, thoughts, and all modifications in spiritual bodies are excited by the influx of spiritual Heat and Light. On this ground, we are disposed to believe, that Chemical Action, Electricity, Magnetism, &c., are phenomena excited in natural bodies, by the influx of the natural Heat and Light. That these excited forces should react powerfully on other bodies, is in accordance with the analogies of the spiritual world. This uniform correspondence has led the materialist to attribute all mental manifestations to Chemical Action, Electricity, Magnetism, &c. More positive knowledge of the imponderables is still to be desired, and much might be expected from the prosecution of the subject in the spirit of New Church philosophy.

Proposition 2d. The primordial substance of the world was the matrix of all forms, the basis and material of organization. Into this substance the spiritual influx resident in natural Heat and Light flowed. Its first effect was probably to modify it into the elementary substances of Chemistry. These afterwards took definite arrangements, producing the grand substratum of nature, gases, liquids and solids; but whether before, or after the disjunction of our planet from its parent sun, it is fruitless to inquire, and unnecessary to know. Unity of material being conceded, unity of development, the purport of the proposition, must be pointed out. The great central fact of organization, is, that every form springs from a nucleus, the first change in which is a division into laminæ. It would not transcend the limits of legitimate analogy to call the nucleus of astronomic nebulæ the parent-cell of the planetary system. Its laminæ, indeed, are broken off, and form floating nucleoli or planets. In our earth, the laminæ remain adherent, and present us with geological strata, In the cleavage lines of crystals we again perceive adherent laminæ, but they have advanced a step farther, they take definite directions, and are productive of beautiful geometric figures. Again, in the lowest vegetable form, we have the constant nucleus or germ, but its simple laminæ are metamorphosed into organs possessed of scarcely a property but imbibition. The complexity of these organs increases as we ascend in the scale, until they perform distinct digestive and respiratory offices. In a higher class, another lamina is developed into a vascular apparatus. When we come to the animal kingdom, we find a third lamina the basis of the nervous system.

The animal ovum, or vesicle, therefore, surrounded by an amorphous nutritive material, with a tri-laminated wall, is a form which has already sketched out in its little history, phases of evolution, each one of which marked a persistent form, subordinate to itself in use, and inferior to itself in vital activity. This vesicle is the starting point of animal structure, and each lamina has its different and successive stages of development. Every form advances upwards on this scale of being, until it arrives at its distinct point, or degree, when the development is arrested, and the form becomes permanent. Man, standing at the summit of the scale, has passed through all these degrees of evolution, and it is accordingly in human embryogeny