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But when we come to the theory set forth by Swedenborg in his
WORSHIP AND LOVE OF God, a very
different view opens before our eyes. This theory presents us with one law of
creation by the Love and Wisdom of God-Man; a law universal in its application;
true in greatests as in leasts, in the creation of a worm as in the creation of
man; a law whose operations are in evidence in our present sustentation. It
presents creation as a whole, gradually ascending from the lowest forms of life
to man, and implanting in the lower forms the conatus and effort to assist in
the creation of the higher; a law, in fine, that is the unfolding of that
universal truth revealed in the Scriptures, that God formed man from the dust of
the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
Swedenborg's doctrine of the creation of organic forms is set
forth ex profess in his work the WORSHIP AND LOVE OF
God, where he lays down in detail
the special application of the law to the creation of man.
Man, in common with animals, he says, was created by means of
the vegetable kingdom. The noblest tree of creation brought forth an ovum; this
ovum was impregnated by seed formed by life clothing itself with the
quintessential and most perfect spheres of the world; and thus man was formed
from the dust of the ground and became a living soul.
Such in briefest outline is the doctrine of Swedenborg; a
doctrine which, so far as I know, is unique in the philosophical world. The
biologist may smile at this doctrine as pure speculative theory. Yet he deceives
himself both in this and in the implied estimate of the theories that have been
put forward in support of evolution. These latter are indeed speculative;
thought out, not as conclusions of a universal principle of truth, but as means
to explain the difficulties of the evolution doctrine. Few perhaps realize how
much of mere theorizing there is in the learned world on the question of the
beginning and growth of organic life; and it was with a view to emphasizing this
fact, that I have so frequently pointed out the theoretical nature of the
arguments adduced to support that doctrine of evolution which is commonly
thought to be so firmly established on the basis of proof.
Swedenborg's theory, on the other hand, far from being light
or amusing, if seriously examined, will be found, I think, to be the only
doctrine of the creation of organic forms, that is, at once, in agreement with
the facts of experience, satisfactory to the rational mind, and in harmony with
the acknowledgment of the Divine Love and Wisdom of God-Man.
But, in all fairness, the theory should not be viewed as an
isolated doctrine. It must be seen as what it really is, namely, the
culmination, the embodiment, the fruition of Swedenborg's whole system of
philosophy. Indeed, it is so closely knit with this philosophy that if we deny
the one, we necessarily invalidate the other.
The WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD is manifestly the gathering up
into a single universal conclusion, of all the principles that had been
formulated by a Christian and philosophic mind, on the basis of inductions drawn
from a rich abundance of experimental observations.
(The WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD was the last of
Swedenborg's philosophical works; of all his previous writings on the fruition
chemistry, cosmology, physiology and psychology. It embodies and crystallizes
the whole product of that period of his life during which he was prepared by the
Lord by means of natural philosophy to become the medium of Divine revelation.
With this in mind, and recognizing the harmony between his philosophy and the
doctrine revealed to the New Church, we may see the significance of the fact
that when he compared this work with Scripture, he found entire agreement; and
also of the fact that he was told by spirits that his WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD
was a "divine book.")
In the WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD he applies these principles to
the creation of man, and then, advancing further, to the creation of a truly
rational and spiritual mind in man which shall be a "city of God," the end and
crown of creation.
The universal principle which runs through all Swedenborg's
philosophy, the principle from which his teaching respecting the creation of man
is a necessary consequence, is that creation proceeds from firsts to lasts, and
that the work of formation commences in lasts. To New Churchmen it is
unnecessary to say that this is the doctrine of creation given in the Writings.
It is not so well known, however, that it is the principle of the philosophical
works.
(The fact of Swedenborg's recognition of this
principle, seems to furnish us with the reason for the sequence of his great
philosophical works. First comes the PRINCIPIA where he treats of the formation
of atmospheres whereby Divine Life may inflow. Then come his works on
mineralogy, or the kingdom of matter. Following this he takes a sudden stride,
in his physiological and psychological works, and advances to the study of the
soul in its influx and operation in man. In these works he indicates that he
will treat also of the vegetable kingdom, but, if this was his intention, it was
not carried out. It is as though if we understood - the kingdom of the
atmospheres, and the nature of matter, and at the same time comprehended the
operation of life, or the soul, in the human body, the rest,—the operation of
life in the other planes of matter—would be clearly deducible.)
The doctrine itself is universally true—true in its
application to the creation of the universe by God-Man and equally true in its
application to the formation of the least thing by man. Whatever we
do,—form—create, is first present in the mind as an end, a purpose. And in this
end or purpose is present as in a living image, the whole of the deed or effect.
This is involved in the "visualizing" of a thing desired, before we proceed to
its accomplishment. The next step is the influx of the will, the end, into the
body and its muscles, inspiring these with the ability to secure the materials
whereby the deed visualized may become actual; finally comes the actuality
itself, which is brought about by the will seizing hold of the materials thus
gathered, and fashioning from them an image or realization of its end or
purpose. Thus the will or love proceeds from firsts to lasts, and in lasts
commences the work of formation.
The same thing is true in the creation of an infant. First is
the soul; the soul derives from the mother's blood, as from its own kingdom and
possession, all the materials necessary for the formation of its body. And when
this body, this material ultimate, is fully formed and born into the world, then
the soul, flowing therein, proceeds to build up its more perfect work, the human
mind with its will and understanding.
So likewise in the creation of the universe. God first
created atmospheres as the mediums of forces, that is, of life proceeding from
Himself. By these atmospheres becoming more and more dense (Here is not the
place to speak of the means by which the atmospheres were created and be came
more and more dense. The matter is specially dealt with in Swedenborg's
PRINCIPIA and in the DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM.) inert and dead matter was at last
created, as the materia, the mother, as it were, of all created forms.
The necessity for the creation of dead matter lies in the
essence of Divine Love which is to give to others outside Itself. This gift can
be bestowed only by the previous creation of particles which in themselves are
dead, inert, lifeless. For from such parts, compound forms can be farmed, which,
as new and compound forms, can receive life, and can feel that life as a new
life and as their own. It is, in fact, only on the basis of dead matter that any
formation can take place; and the thing then formed derives its quality, and
consequently its form, not from the matter, but from the form. Thus a wooden
table is not wood, but a table. But with living created forms they not only
derive their quality from their form, but they have in greater or less degree a
sensation of that quality, that is, of the life which has formed them from inert
matter. Plants, animals, man, are all formed ultimately from inert matter. But
this matter is wonderfully compounded and formed, and in the compound form,
living from the Divine Former, there is the presence of, as it were, a new life.
Something dead in itself has been compounded and fashioned, and the new compound
form is animated; a life, as it were, of another is begun. Life is thus given to
others by Him, Who alone lives. Plants have an obscure sensation of this life,
animals have a clearer sensation, and man enjoys not only full sensation, but
also perception, as though the life were his own.
Following the guidance of this universal law of creation, we
may see that after the existence of matter—the universal mater or mother of all
created forms—came the creation of organic forms; and that these were created by
the will of God-Man, acting upon basic matter by means of the atmospheres which
are, as it were, the fingers of God, and within which is contained the Life of
God, proceeding from Him. First comes the action of the air with its moisture,
playing upon matter, and producing the first colloidal substance, the primitive
protoplasm presenting the first and simplest compounded substance capable of
being animated by life from God-Man; the first ovarian substance, as it were,
which is to be impregnated that the primitive forms of organic life may thus be
created.
The impregnation itself must be effected by the life of God
proceeding by means of atmospheres; for it cannot be effected by matter. Matter
can do no more than furnish the clothing for life. It can no more make life than
can the food that enters our mouth, make mind.
But atmosphere alone, or force alone, cannot produce form. It
must be clothed with substances drawn from the earth; and thus be present on the
earth in a form adapted to act upon the matters of the earth.
The case is the same in the animal body. The food that is
taken into the mouth must be acted upon by the soul in order that it may be
assimilated and formed into the flesh and blood of the body. But the soul cannot
act upon this food directly. It must first clothe itself with the finest
substances of the body, and it is by means of these that it operates, to act
upon the elements of the food, as seed in its ovum, that the human body may be
born as the offspring of the union. So in creation. For the creation of organic
forms of life there is necessary not only an ovarian plasma that shall form the
body, but also a created seed inclosing life; that life may thus act upon the
plasma to form therein and there from an image of itself.
And here let me pause for a moment to note a vital principle
laid down by Swedenborg in his law of creation; a principle hitherto unknown,
but which requires but to be stated in order to be seen. The principle is that
matter is not wholly dead, in the sense that it has no use, except to be acted
upon; it is not absolutely passive—indeed, an absolute passive is an
impossibility in the nature of things. From its very origin, from the latent
qualities which are within it by virtue of its constitution from living
atmospheres or forces, matter has the desire, as it were, to clothe forms or
uses. Something of this truth was indeed seen by Aristotle when he wrote that
"Matter desires form, as the female the male."
When we prepare materials for a definite purpose—say to build
a house—the end for which we gather them is present in every stage of their
collection. So in the Divine creation of matter. But the presence of this Divine
end is actual in matter, in that matter is nothing but the final compression of
atmospheres which in their turn are the successive media for the proceeding of
Life from God, for the proceeding of End, of Use. Hence within all matter there
is the latent potency and tendency to clothe the uses intended by God-Man; a
potency which is, as it were, the use of matter. It is from this latent quality
that all matter, from its internal activity, gives off a sphere, and this sphere
is, as it were, its thanksgiving to God, its offering of itself for His service
in the building of His kingdom.
The spheres thus given off by matter, are the finer materia
which can be seized hold of by the active atmospheres; and with which they can
clothe themselves and thus form little centers for the ultimate embodiment and
exercise of their activities, their uses, upon the earth. It is thus that
primitive seeds were formed; to be implanted in the primitive colloidal
substances framed from the salts and oils and water of mother earth.
The same principle is true in every stage of the up building
of creation. The new matters that are produced by the organic forms of life have
also this innate tendency; and the organic forms themselves, give off
spheres—the active substances of interior nature—that can serve for the
formation of seeds for the production of higher forms of life.
The first seeds of creation were produced in this way by the
last of the atmospheres in which the Life of God-Man is immediately present.
(According to Swedenborg this is the ether of the world.) For the creation of
seed is according to the universal law of creation, and must begin with the
lowest forms of seed, before the higher can come into existence. It is by the
impregnation of primitive plasma by seed thus created, that the primitive forms
of vegetable and insect life were produced upon the earth; or, what is the same
thing, they were created by life operating upon matter, duly prepared and
latently eager to clothe, operating upon matter by means of spheres, also duly
prepared, as an intermediary. This is, indeed, the law of propagation now
active. For in the animal kingdom the ovum and the seed are both formed
ultimately from the matters of the earth; but the one is formed into an ovum to
receive and clothe life; the other is formed into seed to serve as a medium for
the transmission of life; and the life will manifest itself according to the
form and substance of this, its first clothing.
By means of the primitive creations of the lowest organic
forms something new is produced or born into the world—new matter, and also new
spheres of substances, or new activities. This is manifest enough. Flesh and
blood with their odors, which are nothing more than our perception of the living
activities continually proceeding from them, can be produced from the gross
matters of the earth, only by means of the animal kingdom. The soil or humus,
without which none of the higher forms of vegetable life can exist, is produced
originally from the remains of organic life. The bodies of organic forms of life
were thus offered for the service of the Creator, that they might furnish a new
and richer material and ground for the clothing of higher living forms of use.
It can also be demonstrated experimentally that new and
distinctive activities are born into the world by means of organic creations.
For cases are known where a substance formed by the vegetable kingdom is exactly
the same, according to every known chemical test, as a substance of the same
name which is found in the inorganic kingdom. And yet, when examined by the
spectroscope, the two substances are found to be interiorly different. In the
one the ray of light is turned in one direction; in the other it has a contrary
twist. And this difference in interior structure and organization means a
difference in activity, a difference in use.
By the creation of the lowest organic forms of life, there
come into existence new materias, new spheres of substances, new forms of uses.
From the new materia can be formed by the activity of life acting through living
atmospheres, new plasmas, new ovarian receptacles; and from the new active
spheres can be formed new seeds, or new and more perfect media for the
inbreathing of life. Thus creation ascends step by step, in one continuous order
and according to one law, from the lowest forms of life to the highest; and at
each step the lower exists for service to the higher, offering itself, as it
were, in gratitude to the Creator for the furtherance of His Divine work.
The one law is true in every stage of creation in its ascent
from lasts to firsts, from matter to the kingdom of heavenly souls. Every new
creation is but a step in the ascending series; and every preceding form lays
down its life, as it were, for the sake of the higher forms that follow.
We have some illustration of this growth of perfection in the
ascending series of creation, in the modern institutions now established in our
midst. Take, for instance, the growth of art and science. In primitive times man
was under the necessity of preparing rough tools for the production of forms
which would embody the conceptions of his mind. And as these forms were produced
and their uses realized, new planes were formed in the mind, new spheres of
thought, as it were, with which the soul could more fully clothe itself, and
thus give to the man new conceptions, new ideals. For the ultimation or
realization of these, the primitive tools would be used for the fashioning of
finer tools, and more delicate mechanisms. And thus would be formed a new
creation; a creation that acknowledges the soul as its father, and ultimate
matter with its increasing perfection as its universal mother, whereby the
ideals implanted by the soul in the human mind can be born into the world, in
ever increasing perfection, as the wonderful creations of art and science. What
else is this process but the descent of the spiritual—the descent of life from
God—into the world of matter; to there clothe itself according as the clothing
is prepared? What else but the operation through human minds of that universal
law whereby God-Man created the world—a law which is impressed on the order of
the world in its every progression? The law of creation is one in greatests and
in leasts.
It is according to this law that God-Man created matter, and
that He clothed the End or Use of His Divine Love with matter, in order that He
might thus create a world of growing perfection, wherein might be formed human
beings to whom He could give of His Love. Man can do no more than fashion the
matters of the world to be dead images or representations of his living ideals.
But God-Man is Life itself, and all that proceeds from Him and is created by Him
lives. But, as with the uses created by man, it lives solely for the fulfillment
in greater perfection of the crowning work, an angelic heaven from the human
race." For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (that is,
the Divine Life Proceeding as atmosphere) that whosoever believeth in Him (that
is, receives of this life) may have life everlasting."
Following the thread of this law of creation, we may see that
the first and simple organic forms of life served for the creation of new and
more perfect materia, and new and more subtle spheres; and that thus, on the one
hand, new ovarian plasma could be produced, and on the other, new seeds for its
impregnation. And so, in series after series, the vegetable kingdom and the
lowest forms of insects and water-animals came into existence.
The vegetable kingdom is not a form of affection; that is to
say, the soul and life, or the use, of the individuals of this kingdom is not an
expression of affection. Plants, unlike mammalian animals, are not living,
breathing forms of affections; but they are forms of service or use for the
sustenance of affections. This is manifest; for plants exist for the production
of uses whereby affections may be stimulated and gratified. Hence we have the
teaching of the Writings that the soul of vegetables is Use; or that each member
of the vegetable kingdom is a form of some use proceeding from God-Man.
Applying this principle to the process of creation, it
follows that as the vegetable kingdom is perfecting, it produces forms or uses
that can serve for the creation of the animal kingdom, even as the vegetable
kingdom now produces from matter forms or uses for the continual sustenance of
the animal kingdom. Or, to speak more concretely, the vegetable kingdom produces
the ovarian plasma that can serve as the womb and nursing mother of animals; and
gives off active spheres that can be seized hold of by a more active and
interior atmosphere, for the creation of seeds which shall be living forms of
affections. Thus the animal kingdom comes into existence—drawing its body from
the vegetable kingdom, but its soul and life from seed newly created.
That there is a gradation of spiritual forces, or life, as
modified by atmospheres; that is to say, that Life from God, flowing through and
tempered by one atmosphere, will produce lower forms of life, such as the forms
of uses of the vegetable kingdom; while the same life, flowing through a higher
and more active atmosphere, will produce higher forms of life, such as the forms
of affections which constitute the animal kingdom, may be illustrated by the
heat and light that proceed from the sun. In themselves heat and light are
uncreatable. They are simply forms of activity. But activity proceeding from
God-Man is variously modified according to the atmospheres whereby it flows;
and by the same law it is variously presented, and variously effects its work on
the plane of matter. In itself, however, it is the one and uncreate Active.
Now, this activity or heat and light operating by the air
produces merely external effects. The same activity, or heat and light operating
by a higher medium, produces those interior activities in organic forms, which
enable the forms to maintain their state and order of life—as, for instance, in
the sap of vegetables and the blood of animals. But there is a still higher
medium for the operation of heat and light upon substances formed from the
earth; a medium whereby they produce in those substances the warmth of affection
and the light of perception.
Granting, then, these three planes for the exercise of
activity from God-Man as the Sun of Life, it follows as a rational consequence
that in the process of creation these three planes become successively
incorporated for operation on the earth; the first in the form of external
operations on matter; and the two latter as organic forms which are created in
the degree that the materia for their formation is provided.
Here we have the ascending principle of creation. First,
matter; then the operation upon matter by the lowest living atmosphere
proceeding from God-Man; and thus the creation of seeds of the lowest vegetable
forms; and so on to the more perfect. Then from the vegetable kingdom, by means
of the activities of a higher atmosphere, comes the creation of the animal
kingdom, the kingdom of affections, the kingdom where the forces of life are set
forth to view as living forms of affection.
And now we are prepared to properly consider Swedenborg's
doctrine of the creation of the first man; for as to his body man is animal.
According to Swedenborg, and in full harmony with all his philosophical
principles, the animal kingdom, or at any rate, the kingdom of mammals, was
created by the direct agency of the vegetable kingdom. Animals originated not as
full-fledged forms, but as seeds, created when the suitable materia for their
creation was at hand, and nurtured in a suitable ovarian substance. The materia
for the animal seed was furnished by the spheres of the vegetable kingdom; for
these spheres, delicate and vibrant and active in the conatus to clothe higher
forms of use, could be seized hold of by the higher atmospheres with their
activity for the creation of forms of affection; and from the conjunction of
spheres and atmospheres, of substances and force, results animal seed—living
ultra-microscope forms of affections of various kinds, according to the nature
of the spheres offered for the clothing of life.
Nor should this mode of creation of seed seem surprising. The
spiritual forces of the higher atmosphere are incumbent on the earth; that
atmosphere is vibrant with life, which from the love of God-Man is in the
perpetual effort to form itself, to create, that it may enter upon the earth, to
there perform its part in the supreme work. Furnish only the suitable ultimate
for the operation of this life, provide only the suitable materia, and creation
must result, first in the interior sphere of nature, in the form of seed, and
then, by seed, in her outer courts.
The case is similar here with the Divine Will, which is the
Life of the universe, as it is with human will. Grant that a man from will is in
the effort to do a certain work—for instance, to express himself in music—then
that will, being in the perpetual effort to create, requires but the presence of
means for its actual ultimation. Furnish the soul of music with an instrument
and the result is certain; and the more perfect the instrument, the more
completely will it clothe and manifest the music of the soul.
Indeed, the creation of seed in animal bodies at the present
time is effected in precisely this way. The creative soul is present in both
male and female; but it is only in the male that suitable materia, prepared by
the secret laboratories of nature from the dust of the ground, is offered for
the service and clothing of the soul as seed; and it is only in the female that
the dust of the ground can be formed into an ovum to receive and cherish this
seed. It is the soul that forms both seed and ovum. Man cannot create living
seed. He can merely prepare the clothing, or rather can take some part in this
preparation. And the soul, receiving from God-Man the conatus to create, to
perpetuate itself to infinity, seizes this materia and thus establishes new
beginnings of life.
The law of creation is one and eternal. The law that operates
now is the law that operated in the beginning of creation; and the life that
forms human seed now was in the same effort to form human seed then. The materia
only was at first lacking; even as it is lacking in the male before maturity,
when no seed is formed, though the soul is fully present and in the effort to
produce new forms of life.
But in primitive creation there were no animal forms by which
the fruits of the vegetable kingdom could be absorbed, digested, purified and
finally prepared in secret laboratories for the service of animal life.
Therefore, according to Swedenborg's doctrine, this use of furnishing the
materia for animal seed was performed by the vegetable kingdom direct by means
of spheres. And as the individuals of this kingdom were more perfect and their
spheres richer and more complex forms of use, so could they serve for higher
forms of animal life.
The ovarian substance, the plasma, the womb, for the
reception of the vital animal forces thus clothed for birth upon the earth,
could not be formed from the mineral kingdom direct, nor could they rest on the
bosom of that kingdom. For the nourishment of animal seed there is required
protection from the air, and the favoring influence of the inner heats of
nature; and these can be supplied only in the secret labyrinths of organic
nature. We see some illustration of this in the fact that while the seeds of
insects and fish can be cherished in eggs exposed to the influences of air and
water, the seeds of mammals require a resting place wholly removed from the
world, and hidden in the inner courts of nature, that the more complex and
delicate work of nature may be undisturbed.
Thus we are led to the philosophic reason of Swedenborg's
position that the primitive ova for the reception of the seed of mammalian forms
of life were built of a more perfect plasma which could be formed only by and in
the bosom of the vegetable kingdom itself, as its fruit, its offering to the
work of God-Man. The ova thus formed were impregnated with the seed created by
incumbent life, and thus were animals born.
Thus also was born not only animals, but primitive man, the
most perfect of the animals. But for the most perfect work the most perfect
means were required. There must first be the perfecting of the vegetable
kingdom; the perfecting also of the animal kingdom; that from the quintessence
of the spheres thus produced may be provided materia of such perfection that it
could be laid hold of and fashioned, not by the Life of God flowing through the
atmospheres of nature, but by that Life proceeding directly from Himself as the
Sun of Life.
Man is indeed an animal, with the tastes and desires of
animals; he is the most perfect of animals, for he can acquire the gifts of all
animals. But he is more than an animal. He is a being not only of the natural
world, but also of the spiritual. For he can lift up his thought above the
sphere of this world, above its objects and their delights; and can contemplate
and love spiritual things. Hence, different from all animals, his head is erect
and his gaze is naturally fixed, not to the earth, as is the case with animals,
whose head is prone and whose eyes are directed to the object of their
affections, but to heaven.
The seed of man, like the seed of animals, needs also for its
creation materia drawn from the earth. Life which is the soul of man cannot
create human seed without means; otherwise no earth would be necessary, and the
fable of the theologians that angels were created such would be true—a fable
without rhyme or reason and wholly unconnected with any philosophical principle
or rational thought. And what can this materia be but that which it now is—the
quintessence of the offerings of the world, the perfection of its spheres, a
perfection not approached until all previous forms of life had been created to
give directly and indirectly their share in the production of this crowning work
of natural creation. Even as seed is now formed, not from the gross substances
of earth, but from those finest substances, which exist in the form of spheres,
and which are taken in continually by the pores of the skin.
Thus, then, man is born of seed immediately created, and
implanted in an ovum provided as the choicest fruit, the crowning work of the
vegetable kingdom, and necessarily of the noblest member of that kingdom; some
noble tree in the primitive paradise. And here let me remark, lest I be
misunderstood, that when I speak of the separate creation of seed, I do not mean
separateness in a physical sense; that is, I do not mean that seed was prepared
in one place and was afterwards carried over to the ovum. The preparation of
seed in wonderfully compounded and enswathed forms is rendered necessary by
virtue of the fact that it must be conveyed by a long road from its first
laboratory to the ultimate ovum. But in first creation this conveyance would not
be necessary. The ovum exists, is ripe, is ready and waiting for its welcome
guest. Life from God-Man operative, ever in the will to clothe itself that it
may give of itself to others—this Life will operate so soon as the
quintessential materia, through which alone it can operate, is at hand. This
materia being composed of the finest things of nature, that can penetrate
everywhere; and operating by means of it, can thus act directly upon the ova
formed from the dust of the ground, to breathe into them the breath of life.
This is, indeed, actually the process of impregnation at this day. Eliminate the
clothing of the seed and its unclothing, and attend only to the operation that
takes place in the primitives of the ovum; is it not clear that this operation
consists in the action of life upon the nucleolus of the ovum merely by the
intermediary of the finest substances of nature.
In this way then, was the creation of man effected, as taught
by Swedenborg's philosophy. He was created by the same law by which all organic
forms were and are now created, and, essentially, in the same way in which
animals are now created or born. And after creation, while still in his
infantile age, the first man had at hand the breast of his nursing mother, the
fruits, as it were, the milk, of his parent, which he appetized by instinct, and
by instinct knew how to procure.
For Swedenborg's philosophy approaches the philosophy of
evolution in one respect, in that it teaches that the first men were born almost
like animals. Consequently, he adds, like animals, they were born with all the
connate instincts and knowledges necessary for their care and sustenance. This
position is a necessary consequence of the whole line of reasoning respecting
the creation of man. The first men were indeed complete men in respect to their
possession of a human soul with human faculties infinite in their possibilities.
But otherwise they were less perfect than the generations that followed. The
materia first provided for the creation of human seed materia derived from the
vegetable kingdom—was less perfect than the materia subsequently provided by the
human kingdom itself. It was less perfect, because it was the simple form of
use; a form in which had not been developed any of those human qualities, those
intellectual and voluntary traits, which the possession of a human soul makes
possible, and the cultivation and existence of which distinguishes the life of
man from that of animals. Hence the first men created, were almost animals,
except that they had the potentialities of men. The seed from which they were
created, being devoid of any self-derived quality such as men acquire for
themselves by the exercise of their freedom, served as the absolutely obedient
medium for the operations of the soul; and hence the body that was created, with
all its appetites, was created into the order of its life. The man desired
nothing, sought nothing, but what was desired by the soul in its unhindered
influx into this virgin body, as yet devoid of self-cultivated qualities, and
lacking all inheritance of them.
But in succeeding generations, the materia given for the
formation of human seed became different in nature—either more perfect or more
imperfect. By life in the world men acquired for themselves individual
qualities, individual voluntary and intellectual characters. And these qualities
were impressed on the materia provided for the formation of seed in male human
beings; and became the gifts of heredity bestowed upon their offspring. So far
as the qualities thus acquired and transmitted, were heavenly and in accordance
with the order of human life, so far were the offspring born more perfect and
more fully able to live and develop a truly human life. Thus man, from being
born almost an animal, became more and more a man. If, however, the qualities
acquired and transmitted were evil qualities, qualities contrary to the order of
life, the effect on the seed and its offspring would be to make it, in that
degree, less perfect. The materia given for the soul's weaving would be in a
gyre and form opposed to the order of life; with imperfections, with tendencies
to diseases; and almost devoid of those instincts which, in animals, flow
spontaneously from the soul, since animals are in the unperverted order of their
life. For many thousands of generations, evil qualities have been hereditarily
transmitted to all offspring. Hence at this day no man is born into the order of
his life; and consequently none is born with that instinct, flowing from the
soul, whereby he could know his food, and thus provide for his sustenance,
spontaneously. The opposite is in fact the case. For men now are born more weak
and helpless than any animal; and without the care of others they would
inevitably perish. But it was not so in the beginning.
Let me now review and extend the application to our doctrine,
of the truth that the law of primitive creation is the law of creation and
sustentation at this day—a truth to which we have so frequently adverted.
How are men created and sustained today, both as to their
bodies, and as to their minds? It is by this same law. Human seed is formed or
created from materia received from the vegetable kingdom, and more particularly,
from the finest spheres of the world, elaborated and refined in the secret
laboratories of nature, and proffered to the soul for its weaving. Considered in
itself, the formation of seed is but a form of spontaneous generation. Life or
the soul is present seeking to create; the human body but offers the materia,
and creation is at once effected.
After man is born he is still sustained—that is, the materia
for the continual creation or sustentation of his body by the soul, is still
provided by nature, whom he spontaneously reveres as his nursing mother. And the
endearing term, far from being a mere allegory, is the statement of a scientific
and philosophic truth. For nature, the vegetable kingdom, is actually the mother
of man's body; the womb, as it were, into which are gathered all the riches of
the world, that the man may choose and take for the building of his body.
But the operation of the law of creation by the preparing of
the dust of the ground for the vivification of the breath of life, does not stop
here. By the same law, man's mind also is formed—the law that influx proceeds
from firsts to lasts; and that in lasts commences the work of up-building
successively more perfect forms or planes, that firsts may be more fully
manifested.
The new-born infant has, as yet, no mind, no will and
understanding, but only the potency to these. Before will and understanding can
be formed, the infant must receive from the world sensual images. These enter
his mind as a new materia, formed, as it were, from the dust of the ground. And
the soul, operating upon this materia, thus drawn from the world, breathes life
into it and thus creates ideas and imaginations. At first these are gross and
imperfect. But as, by the increase of sensual experience, they grow in
perfection, they, in their turn, form a new ground, as it were, wherein the soul
can operate for the formation of the more perfect fruits of this human paradise,
rational thoughts and affections; and these in their turn clothe themselves in
new creations—the rational and actions and speech of the body. Here we see the
same universal law of creation, the preparation of ultimates from the world, as
the wombs for higher births; the quickening of these ultimates; and the
formation from them of superior mediums for the ever-perfecting work of
creation.
We see this law operative also in the human race as a whole.
For men were created in ignorance, but by the accumulation of experience they
have acquired a ground in which could be implanted the germs of the arts and
sciences, of philosophy and religion.
So universal is the application of the law that to trace it
would demand that we enter not only into cosmology, but also into physiology,
psychology, theology. But here we must be content with the above brief survey.
It may be objected to Swedenborg's doctrine, that it is
merely a theory and brings no facts of experience for its support. But this is
not quite the case. For aside from the fact that with Swedenborg himself the
theory was the finition of multiplied inductions drawn from countless phenomenal
observations in the field of mineralogy, chemistry and physiology, it is also
supported by the circumstances based on common experience, to which we have
already alluded. It is a fact that we are formed in the womb of nature; that
nature is our mother who continually sustains our body, while our mind lives
above nature. It is a fact that the ground which serves as the soil for the
vegetable kingdom has been prepared only gradually and by the growth and decay
of countless myriads of plant forms, which, in their death, have furnished the
materia for the formation of higher forms of life. It is a fact that our mental
development proceeds along the lines indicated by this doctrine of creation. It
is a fact that men and animals live not only by gross food taken in by the
mouth, but also by the spheres with which the auras are filled, and which are
taken in through the pores of the skin; and it is a fact, not difficult to
demonstrate, that these spheres furnish the finest nourishment for the service
of the soul.
Still these considerations, these facts, are few and meager
in the view of the scientific mind, which has accumulated countless facts of
observation in its testings of the theory of evolution. What such a mind demands
is little short of the actual demonstration of the process whereby man was
created. Yet it has been obliged to confess the impossibility of such
demonstration—at any rate up to now. And it has been forced to the formulation
of theories and hypotheses assuming the existence and operation of substances
beyond the power of any microscope, and of forces whose operations do not become
manifest except in the region of ultimate effects.
It may indeed be questioned whether the law of creation can
ever be directly demonstrated by phenomenal experience. Such experience must
indeed be accumulated, that from it may be gathered the laws of nature as seen
in her more external operations; and then with these as our guide, we shall be
enabled to infer as to her secret operations, whose actuality is hidden from us
in the sacred recesses of her temple. Here nature is invisible. We can see her
operations only in lower spheres when they come before the microscope and the
senses; and even then we can see but little. The key to the understanding of
these operations will not and cannot be forged from sensual experiment directly
or alone, but only indirectly by the formulation of principles based on
experience, and drawn forth by a truly rational mind.
Some may find it easy to accept the reasoning which led
Swedenborg to his conclusions as to the creation of man, but difficult to
visualize the actual creation as he describes it. But let such persons endeavor
to visualize any of the other modes of creation that have been put forward, and
he will meet with the same difficulty; but increased by a spontaneous feeling of
repugnance. It would seem, indeed, that the very nature of the subject is such
that the creation of man can never be visually grasped by the sensual man, but
must be seen by the reason and then confirmed by observation. Consider
rationally the hypotheses that have been advanced, and then contrast them with
the philosophy of Swedenborg. Will you not see that the latter is the only
doctrine that can stand the test of examination; the only doctrine that offers a
solution to the riddle of creation, that is at once in harmony with God's Word,
and in accordance with the principles of rational judgment.
But much remains to be done that we may more clearly see the
doctrine itself and its application. Much oil must be burned before we can fully
confirm this doctrine and present it in complete form. Consider how many
thousands of students have bent their efforts to testing the theories of
evolution; the myriads of observations and experiments; and yet with how meager
a result so far as the arriving at a rational explanation of the work of
creation. And then consider the fact that few know of Swedenborg's philosophic
principles, and fewer still accept them. What shall we say would be the result
if the same energy, the same skillful and exact observation, the same acute
thought, had been devoted to the investigation of these principles, that has
been devoted to the study of evolution; to the seeing of the operation of
God-Man in His creation, that has been given to the proving of a godless and
mere mechanical universe? In the present fewness of our numbers we must be
content to support the doctrine largely by rational considerations, supported by
such facts as can be gleaned from the investigations of others. But the time
will come when men skilled in observation and rational deductions will bend
their talents to the investigation of this doctrine in the light of modern
knowledge. Biologists will arise inspired to see the operations of God-Man in
the universe, to see the full application of those genuine principles which led
Swedenborg to the formulation of this concrete theory. Instead of striving to
build up and establish a purely chemico-physical theory of creation, they will
bend their efforts to see the presence and operation of Divine Love and Wisdom
in all the works of nature. And it easier to confirm the existence of God than
to deny it; for all nature is eloquent in His praise.
Contrast the two tasks! On the one hand, to reduce all things
to the plane of sensual demonstration and the judgment of sensual experience; on
the other, to assemble the riches of experience before the judgment seat of
enlightened reason! On the one hand, to see only the material world with its
natural forces; on the other, to trace the operations of the spiritual world in
the natural! On the one hand, to prove that the essential element in the
perfecting of the world was deadly and bitter conflict and the survival of the
fittest; on the other, to show that every lower form of creation was brought
into being for loving service to higher forms, and that to this service the
lower forms give their spheres and their very life as their song of praise to
God! On the one hand, to see in the marvelous harmony of nature, merely the
operations of chance, or of laws undirected by Love and Wisdom, disconnected
from beneficent end or purpose; on the other, to behold the world and the
universe as a theater representative of the Divine, a universe whose every least
part bears testimony to the Love and Wisdom, the Order and Providence of its
Creator, God-Man! |
