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Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings

This list of Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings was originally compiled by W. C. Henderson in 1960 but has since been updated.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #696

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696. The fifth experience. 1

I once prayed the Lord to be allowed to talk with the disciples of Aristotle, and at the same time with the disciples of Descartes and those of Leibnitz, in order to learn what opinions they held on the interplay between the soul and the body. My prayer was answered by the appearance of nine men, three Aristotelians, three Cartesians and three Leibnitzians. They stood round me, the admirers of Aristotle on the left, the followers of Descartes on the right, and the supporters of Leibnitz behind me. A long way off, and separated by gaps, were to be seen three men apparently wearing laurel-wreaths; and the perception flowing in from heaven made me aware that these were the actual champions or founders of the schools. Another man stood behind Leibnitz holding on to the sleeve of his robe; I was told that he was Wolff 2 .

[2] The nine men on seeing one another began with polite greetings and conversation. But soon afterwards a spirit rose up from the underworld carrying a torch in his right hand, which he shook in their faces. This made them three by three to become enemies and they glowered at one another; for they were gripped by a desire to quarrel and dispute.

The Aristotelians, who were also Schoolmen 3 , began by saying: 'Anyone can see that objects flow into the soul by means of the senses, like anyone entering a room through the door, and that what the soul thinks depends upon the inflow. When a lover sees a pretty girl or his bride, does not his eye sparkle and transmit love for her to the soul? When the miser sees bags full of money, is not every one of his senses inflamed with longing from them, and as a result he transmits this to the soul, exciting a desire to possess them? When some haughty person hears himself being praised by another, does he not prick up his ears, and they transmit the compliments to the soul? The bodily senses are like fore-courts offering the only way in to the soul. These and countless similar examples must lead one to conclude that the inflow is from nature, in other words, physical.'

[3] On hearing this the Cartesians clapped their fingers to their brows, and now took them away to say: 'Dear, dear, you are speaking from appearances. Are you not aware that it is not the eye which loves a girl or a bride, but the soul? Likewise, the bodily sense does not desire the money in the bag of itself, but under the control of the soul. Likewise, neither do the ears in any other sense scoop up the compliments paid by toadies. Surely it is perception which produces sensation? And perception is a function of the soul, not of an organ. Tell us, if you can, what it is other than thought which makes the tongue and the lips speak? What is it but the will that makes the hands work? Thought and will are functions of the soul. So what is it but the soul which makes the eye see, the ears hear, and the remaining sense-organs feel, pay attention and notice? These and countless other examples allow everyone, whose wisdom goes beyond bodily sense-impressions, to conclude that there is no inflow from the body into the soul, but from the soul into the body. We call this incidental inflow, or spiritual inflow.'

[4] On hearing this three men, who had been standing behind the previously mentioned groups of three and were supporters of Leibnitz, raised their voices and said: 'We have listened to the arguments on either side and compared them, and we have noticed that on many points one party prevails and on many others another. So, if we may, we should like to settle the dispute.'

When they were asked how, they said: 'There is no inflow from the soul into the body nor from the body into the soul, but both activities take place concordantly and instantaneously. This has been elegantly named by a famous writer, who called it pre-established harmony.'

[5] On the conclusion of this debate, the spirit carrying the torch appeared again, but now holding it in his left hand. He shook it towards the backs of their heads, so causing the ideas of all of them to become confused, and they cried out: 'Our soul does not know, neither does our body, which side to take. So let us draw lots to settle the dispute, and we will support the view represented by the first lot drawn.'

So they took three slips of paper and wrote on one 'Physical Inflow', on the second 'Spiritual Inflow' and on the third 'Pre-established Harmony'. They put the three slips into a hat held upside down and selected someone to draw one. He put his hand in and grasped with his hand the one on which was written 'Spiritual Inflow'. When they saw this and read it out, they all said, some however with a clear and fluent voice, some with a dull and withdrawn voice, 'Let us support this, since it came out first.' Then an angel suddenly appeared standing by, who said: 'Do not believe that the paper favouring Spiritual Inflow came out by chance; it was contrived. For your ideas are so confused that you cannot see its truth, but the truth of itself presented itself to his hand, so that you would support it.'

Footnotes:

1. This section is repeated from Interaction of the Soul and Body 19.

2. Christian Wolff (Arcana Coelestia 1679-1754), a follower of Leibnitz.

3. The Medieval scholars who taught logic.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Conjugial Love #416

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416. Afterwards, seeing me close by, the two angels said with respect to me to the spirits standing around, "We know that this man has written about God and nature. Let us hear what he has to say."

So they came over and asked me to read to them what I had written about God and nature; and I read therefore the following: 1

People who believe that the Divine operates in every single thing of nature, can, from the many things which they see in nature, confirm themselves on the side of the Divine, just as well as and even more than those who confirm themselves on the side of nature. For people who confirm themselves on the side of the Divine pay heed to the marvels which they see in the propagations of both plants and animals.

In the propagations of plants, they note how a tiny seed cast into the ground produces a root, by means of the root a stem, and then in succession branches, leaves, flowers and fruits, culminating in new seeds - altogether as though the seed knew the order of progression or the process by which to renew itself. What rational person can suppose that the sun, which is nothing but fire, has this knowledge? Or that it can impart to its heat and its light the power to produce such effects, and in those effects can create marvels and intend a useful result?

Any person having an elevated rational faculty, on seeing and considering these wonders, cannot but think that they issue from one who possesses infinite wisdom, thus from God.

People who acknowledge the Divine also see and think this; but people who do not acknowledge the Divine do not see and think it, because they do not want to. Therefore they allow their rational faculty to descend into their sensual self, which draws all its ideas from the light in which the bodily senses are, and which defends the fallacies of these, saying, "Do you not see the sun accomplishing these effects by its heat and its light? What is something that you do not see? Is it anything?"

[2] People who confirm themselves on the side of the Divine pay heed to the marvels which they see in the propagations of animals - to mention here only those in eggs, as that in them lies the embryo in its seed or inception, with everything it requires to the time it hatches, and with everything that develops after it hatches until it becomes a bird or flying thing in the form of its parent. Also that if one gives attention to the form, it is such that, if one thinks deeply, one cannot help but come into a state of amazement - seeing, for example, that in the smallest of these creatures as in the largest, indeed in the invisible as in the visible (i.e., in tiny insects as in large birds or animals), there are sensory organs which serve for sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch; also motor organs, which are muscles, for they fly and walk; as well as viscera surrounding hearts and lungs, which are actuated by brains. That even lowly insects possess such component parts is known from their anatomy as described by certain investigators, most notably by Swammerdam 2 in his Biblia Naturae 3 .

[3] People who attribute all things to nature see these wonders, indeed, but they think only that they exist, and say that nature produces them. They say this because they have turned their mind away from thinking about the Divine; and when people who have turned away from thinking about the Divine see wonders in nature, they are unable to think rationally, still less spiritually, but think instead in sensual and material terms. They then think within the confines of nature from the standpoint of nature and not above it, in the way that those do who are in hell. They differ from animals only in their having the power of rationality, that is, in their being able to understand and so think otherwise if they will.

[4] People who have turned away from thinking about the Divine when they see wonders in nature, and as a result become sense-oriented, do not consider that the sight of the eye is so crude that it sees a number of tiny insects as a single, indistinct mass, and yet that each of them is organically formed to be capable of sensation and movement, thus that they have been endowed with fibers and vessels, including little hearts, air passages, viscera and brains; that these have been woven together out of the finest elements in nature; and that these structures correspond to some activity of life, by which even the least of these are individually actuated.

Since the sight of the eye is so crude that a number of such creatures, each with countless components in it, looks to it like a small, indistinct mass, and yet people who are sense-oriented think and judge in accordance with that sight, it is apparent how obtuse their minds have become, and thus in what darkness they are in respect to spiritual matters.

Footnotes:

1. From Divine Love and Wisdom, nos. 351-357, 350.

2. Jan Swammerdam, 1637-1680, Dutch anatomist and entomologist.

3. Published posthumously under Dutch and Latin titles, Bybel der Natuure; of, Historie der insecten.../Biblia Naturae; sive Historia Insectorum... (A Book of Nature; or, History of Insects...), with text in Latin and Dutch in parallel columns, Leyden, 1737 (vol. 1), 1738 (vol. 2).

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

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