The Economy of the Animal Kingdom, Considered Anatomically, Physically, and Philosophically

By Emanuel Swedenborg, late Member of the House of Nobles in the Royal Diet of Sweden; Assessor of the Royal Metallic College of Sweden; Fellow of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Upsala, and of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Stockholm; Corresponding Member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg.

Translated from the Latin by the Rev. Augustus Clissold, M.A.

Paucis natus est. Qui populum aetatis sucae: multa annorum millia, multa populorum supervenient: ad illa respice, etiamsi omnibus tecum viventibus silentium ... [aliqua causa] indixerit: venient, qui sine offensa, sine gratia judicent. (SENECA, Epist. 79.)

Contents of First Volume (Part I.)

Introduction 1

Chapter I. The Composition and Genuine Essence of the Blood. 29

Chapter II. The Arteries and Veins, their Tunics, and the Circulation of the Blood. 116

Chapter III. On the Formation of the Chick in the Egg, and on the Arteries, Veins, and Rudiments of the Heart. 241

Chapter IV. On the Circulation of the Blood in the Foetus; and on the Foramen Ovale and Ductus Arteriosus belonging to the Heart in Embryos and Infants. 316

Chapter V. The Heart of the Turtle. 372

Chapter VI. The peculiar Arteries and Veins of the Heart, and the Coronary Vessels. 387

Chapter VII. The Motion of the Adult Heart. 460

Contents Of Volume Two (Part II.)

Chapter I. On the Motion of the Brain; showing that its Animation is coincident with the Respiration of the Lungs. 653

Chapter II. The Cortical Substance of the Brain specifically. 721

Chapter III. The Human Soul. 860

Index of Authors, List of Unverified Citations, Bibliographical Notices of Authors 1020

Appendix

860.(208) CHAPTER III. THE HUMAN SOUL.

In Part I., I endeavored, by way of introduction to a knowledge of the soul, to expound a doctrine which I have called the Doctrine of Series and Degrees. This I did, inasmuch as for a long time I had been led to consider, and with many to doubt, whether the Human Soul was accessible to any reach of mind, that is to many, whether it was capable of being thoroughly investigated; for certain it is that the soul is far removed from the external senses, and lies in the depths of knowledge; being the highest and last in order of those things that successively reveal themselves to our inquiries. On a slight consideration of the subject, I could not but think with mankind in general, that all our knowledge of it was to be attempted either by a bare reasoning philosophy, or more immediately by the anatomy of the human body. But upon making the attempt, I found myself as far from my object as ever for no sooner did I seem to have mastered the subject, than I found it again eluding my grasp, though it never absolutely disappeared from my view. Thus my hopes were not destroyed, but deferred; and I frequently reproached myself with stupidity in being ignorant of that which was yet everywhere most really present to me; since by reason of the soul it: that we hear, see, feel, perceive, remember, imagine, think, desire, will; or that we are, move, and live. The soul it is because of which, by which, and out of which, the visible corporeal kingdom principally exists; to the soul it is that we are to ascribe whatever excites our admiration and astonishment in the anatomy of the body; the body being constructed according to the image of the soul's nature, or according to the form of its operations. Thus did I seem to see, and yet not to see, the very object, with the desire of knowing which I was never at rest. But at length I awoke as from a deep sleep, when I discovered, that nothing is farther removed from the human understanding than what at the same time is really present to it; and that nothing is more present to it than what is universal, prior, and superior; since this enters into every particular, and into everything posterior and inferior. What is more omnipresent then the Deity, in him we live, and are, and move, and yet what is more remote from the sphere of the understanding? In vain does the mind stretch its powers to attain to any degree of knowledge of the essentials and attributes of this Supreme and Omnipotent Being, beyond what it has pleased Him to reveal in proportion to each man's individual exertions. (Part II., n. 904.)