The economy of the animal kingdom, considered anatomically, physically, and philosophically

발행: 1846년

분량: 540페이지

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tWeen mythology and poetry, the former being the expressionos trullis by correspondentiat hieroglyphics, While poetry is the art of pleusing the minu by sultabie combinations os ima-

gery or evenis.' Need We Say hoW pregnant anu concentraledis the One in comparison With the other, hoW solded into soliddepili, hoW instrumental for thought; or hoW bold iis positions, hoW Unexpected iis groupings, hoW 1 reo it is to mould and alter the visibie creation, and the ultimate lavs of nature. For imagination is comparatively lame, britile, coWardly and Scepticat; but right reason is the organ of the miraculous. Iis plastic

edly appear that they involve a neW poWer, to Whieli We nrobound to give tho best titie We knOW, namely, reaSON; and whicli justisios Whatover We have said of the comparative persections of that facultu. However in ali Works of imagination there is some minglingos rationes elements, Whicli are Osten mistahen sor peculiarities Os imagination, Whereas they are due to a higher poWer coVertly Working Within it. Dut Dei ther in this sensu, in Whicli imaginative and rational producis are jointly included in the Osten-

ject in the Christian worid. But on this head me dare not enlarge in the present

' We are here judging mythology and poetry Dom their professed centreS Or intentions ; but Without pretending that traditional mythology is pure stom corruptingimaginatioris, or that poetry is not osten glorised by genuine trullis.

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never malles truth an Open question, to conciliate art, beauty, Or any predicate Or plensure of the animal mirid. We do not deny that important instructions are sometim CS

Would reject it at ouce, is it Were pure, and came in iis OWnname, and clai med iis divine right to judge and divido. Thismight be proved by numerous instances DOm the poets. In deed SO many trullis have come through pOotry, that With some per- sons it is rogarded as a superior method of knowledge; thoughso sar as it is coincident Willi imagination, it is but casual deficiency of reason in iis OWn sphere that can cause poetry to Surpass it in iis intuitions. Nor do We deny that SKedenhorg Was a man of poWersulimagination. For as the destres of the animal mind nr0 the appotnted excitants of bodily liso, so iis conceptions are the intelligerice Of the fame, and furnish rensori With a part os iis materiais. And SKeiletiborg's sauialty in this respect must have been considerable . For his memory Was richly stored With experienee, Which yet by no means OverWhelmed him; a proos that he posse8Sed an athletic servant in that faculty Whicli is the activity of the memory.V But still Wo insist, that though his

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inducod upon the subjeci; meanti ess of imagination being imagination stili. O ly lf the planet Were an ianvarie d Saharacould such descriptions bu other than imaginative. Nature, Onthe ollior haud, in the real Worid, is liberal and lovely, adornedas beseems the destined bride os humane philosophy. Thus sileis ricli in collaterat illustrations, bocause every Series contains numerous elements that are suggestive of Other series, and

Whicli servo sor liniis With other series; est things being involvod in ali things, ns Anaxagoras Wisely intimated. Nature is also clothed in ornament; and nil things O1 good use tenil to ornament ; so that beauty is a portion of her Works; and it comes

out ever and anon, like a b right soWor Doui a Sober stem, When me least eXpect it: Whenoe also Surprige and Wonder, RS incite-ments to man, are distinet intentions in nature. ΜOreovernature is a Worid os analogies; for every faci and substance is adistinet proportional betWeen certain others, Whicli it combinos in n rationes equation; so that nature resolves the discords of

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Ρerhaps the reflexion is not uunecessary, While dWelling onthis hypotheticui maniter of delivering kn0Wledge, that so longas tho Order of scientis o books is not agrestabie to Some natural relations of the things professed to be represented, even positive science'' is not sala Dorn the Withering touch of scepticism. And 8peaking honestly, the present classiscation os facts in theempirical sciences is so victous and imaginary, and procoeds Somuel, upon sirst appearances, and from JOW analogies, that iis permanetice is neither to be expected nor destred. In the practical sciences,-in the construction Os Steam erigines, the nrt os

origineoring, civit and military, kc. ke. ke.,-there is muchreason and DO imagination, lar ali their delatis aro squared sith Wortis but as for the others, the day has Scarcely begunto dassu When they too shali be not an opinion, but a Worksor the conception os a natural classification os facts is Wanting; an arran gement radicat ly the Same With that os Words in a dictionary, being thought enough for objects Whicli folioW n peculiar Order in nature, and whose form and explanation depondson their precise place in the universe. ιThus it is not mere experienee, but iis truthsul combination,

Principia, V Vol. II., p. 370.' Bacon, Advanoement Of Learning, ' Prelim. , VOl. i. , P. XViit.: U The circumstance that one thing follows, uti lds, develops, conSequently Opens another, originates Dom Order atone. A rambling investigation, conducted without Order, Or What amounts to the Same thing, without the contemplation Oscauses in a connected chari, may lead to the precipitate formation Of surmises and conjectures respecting truths ; Whicli, hoWever, are mutuatly bound to each other in concatenated series, and Only in that series allow themselves to be properly surVeyed. The thing whicli tines iis form Dom a random procedure, Or loose and desulto investigation of this kind, constantly retains a similar, that is, conjectural character, in iis successive developmenis, since it induces the Same form upon the whole series of things that come aster it. For Whatever idea is assumed to stari With, determines a corresponding principie Of the thing, and this principie, a corresponding interpretation of the things floWing fortit theresrom, Or a corresponding intuition of the mindin those objects ; there re, a correSponding concluSion. Hence come hypotheses, whicli are closely analogous to the utinatural marks and excrescerices contracted by the body of the embryo in consequence of the disordered impressioris of the pregnant mollier. ' Swedet org Animal Kingdom, ' Vol. II., 9p. 369, 370.

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Whicli constitutos philosophy and the Sciences . Upon any sortions os experietice, imagination is generalty the earli est facultyto Work, arranging the facts in a convenient but nih1t1 a1y man-ner, Whicli, hoWever, is justis ted on the ground of pressent utility, because ali linoWledge Ahort of theory must be tentative olimaginative. Other arrangementS are SubSequently made asOccasion SerVes, and higher poWers of imagination ure brought into play, to frame hypothetical classifications, the best of Whicli approach in character to the order of reason. Rationat ordor comes at last, and in proportion as this is the case, imaginationceRSOS, or is no longer active toWardes the objecis comprisud in the rationes SerieS. But is SWoden borg is not to bo classed among imaginative writers, quite as litile does he belong to the categoi y of puteintellectualisis. Indeed the present Wortis can scarcely be calloda System; for the speculative reason Whicli is in reali ty biit an abstraci imagination) is not their generating poWer. The fabricwhich SWedenborg reared has no completeness beyond iis utility. So far as this, it is an expedient and convenient homo; but it does nos Leep us for a moment Dom ulterior edification. Necessary truths are those of religion and morali ty, and any others Whicli sustain or correspond to them. The plu-losphy of science is deducibio With greator validity om this ground than Dom speculative reason ; Since physies are but morais and intellect mechaniged in nature. As ali experieuce is relative to man, So are the Sciences and philosophy, and humanufes are their determinanis. There is no nature apari Domman, not for the reasons the idealisis give, but be auso the Author os nature is a Man. It is not merely the world of phe- nomena that is relative to man, Whieli in One sense the sceptiesare aWare O ) but the WOrid os causes-Os noumena is moreospecialty so relateil; and the World of principies or endS, more so stili; yet not primarily in the way of sense, but the relationis of use first, of sense asterWard s. Henoesortii this grandiruth resis on an a posteriori basis : it is the deepest law of nature; us iis cause or special embodiment, man, is her Sublimest Organigation. It constitutes the uni ty of SKedeliborg sWorks, and is the living Spring of their absoluteness. It is

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nature'S exclamation Os assent to the orowning doctrino of the New Chureli, that Ho Who is the Creator of the worid is also the Redeemer os mani in d; or that oue personat God, and noother, even Christ Jesus, has uti poWer in heaven and Uponoarth: whicli is in desed the sole doctrine that can restore ei ther

It is thon futile to asseri that philosophy is not connected With theology; since the contrary is demonstrat ed by SKeden burg as fairly as any laW of matter is demonstrated by Newton.

For SWedent, org took facts representing integrat nature, and investigated them, and the Order nud mechanism of Structure, and the pervading use or function, Wns found to be such ns in every case to furnisti trullis relating to the morat Or sociat existetico os man. This Was the issue Of a scientific process DomWhicli imagination Was rigoroiasty excluded. What infereticu is possibio but that the inner paris of nature represent humanity ;such representation being the constitutive las of things 8 It was not SWedent, Org that made the ansWerableuess in the two coordinates; he merely discovered What existed ut ready .'

Swedenborg appears to have been himself astonished at this result. In treatingof the kidneys Animal Klagdom, ' Vol. I., p. 451), he has the following, Whicli exhibiis somewhat of the nai vete of one Who has come upon a truth uneXpectedly : 293. As the blood is continuatly mahing iis circle of life, that is to say, is in a constant revolution os birth and death ; as it dies in iis old age, and is regeneraled or bornanew ; and as the veins solicitOusty gather together the whole Of iis corporeat pari, and the lymphatics, of iis spirituous pari; and successively bring it bach, reseci it With ne chyle, and restore it to the pure and youthful blood ; and as the kidneys constantly purge it os impurities, and restore iis pure paris to the blood;-so like-Wise Μan, Who lives ut Once in body and spirit while he lives in the blood, must un- dergo the fame fortunes generassy, and in the progress of his regeneration must dat ly do the like. Such a perpetuat symbolicat representation is there os spirituallife in corporeat ide; as likeWise a perpetuat typical representation of the foui in thebody u). In this consisis the Rearchino of the heari and retris, Whicli is a thingpurely divine. u) In our Doctrine of Representations and Correspondenees, we shali treat Ofboth these symbolical and typical representations , and of the astonishing things Whichoccur, I Will not say in the living body only, but throughout nature, and whicli correspond so enti rely to supreme and spirituat things, that one would stoear that thephysical world was purely umbolicat of the viritual woridi insomuch that is mechoose to eXpress any natural truth in physical and definite vocat terms, and to convert these terms Only into the correSponding Spiritual termS, We shali by this means elicit a spiritual truth or theological dogma, in place of the physical truth or precepi ; ulthough no mortat would have predicted that anything of the kind could pos-

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lxxvii Bacon's hypothesis that final causos have no place in the doc

tWeen spirit and nature stood intuitively demonstrated thurein. Nolitior did tho doctrine of sinat causes turn out to be barreti,ns Bacon imaginen; for the End of creation being no longer ni, odiloss figment, but consisting of the nobtest organie creatures, it furnishod the most poWersui os analytic organs for arming themental sight, and enabling it to discover the more in the less, and the great in the smali: in stiori it nulli origod man to lookupon nature Dom definite principies, and thus to beeome thoimage aud vi cogerent of God in the scientisc sphere. Those Whohad a rule os impossibility Were again sileWn to be at fauit here, as indoed they have been Dom the begitin ing. They said that Science Was passioni ess and inflexit,le; that it had nothing to do illi philosophy or theology; that it observed Sequences, and made ausWerable formulas, Or had a method but not a solii; that it excludod ali but materint explanations and ideas. ButSWederiburg appealed to the fame facts as they, and with a different result. He found nature Warm Mith the fame spirit ashumanity, and that her sternest in s are plaStic When usorequiros : that helice illiberal logic is not meant to comprehendher. Also that nature is no other than philosophy and theologyombodi ed in mechanics: or more reverently Speahing, She is themechanism or means of Whicli truth and good are the cnd. Moreover that the series Os effecis involves a correspondingseriea Os causeS, and thiS, a corresponding Series of euds :' and

sibiy ariso by bare literat transposition; inasmuch as the One precepi, considered separalely froin the Other, appears to have absolutely no relation to it. I intendhereaster to communicate a number of eXamples of Such correspondences, together With a vocabulary containing the ternis of Spirituat things, as weli as of the physicalthings for Which they are to be substituted. Τhis symbolism pervades the livingbody ; and I have chosen simply to indicate it here, for the purpose of potnting out the spiritual meming Of searching the reins.' ' 260. In the animal kingdom, the series, chalti, progression and circle of cauSeS, involve a correSponding Series, chain, progression and circle of uses; fortite principie of the cause, Whicli is eminently a living principie in this Lingdom, regards nothing but perpetuat ends. The effecis whicli the cause produces Dom this principie, are the effectS of an end, consequently of a use. Hence there is a similar progression Os uSeS, as Os essects ; a similar progression of effecis as Os causes ; anda similar progression Os causes, as of ends ; the series Os ends being in the scul

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that body or actuality is as much the predicate of One series asof the Other. An d further, that materiai explanations andideas, When genuine, are readily convertibie into spiritual trullis: their convertibility being the test of their correciness and universat import. All this, We repeat, is so attained by SWeden-borg, that science and induction are proper terms by Whicli tocharacterige it; Where re hencelarili the connexion belWeen Science, philosophy and theology, is itsulf a scientific laut. But it mav be usesul to observe, that as the scientis e theology and philosophy of SWedent,org are internat doctrines, Sothey cannot compei assent With the gross force Which belongs to the lo ver paris of mathematius and physios. For in proportionas truth is in Ward, the less do iis ter uis admit of controversy, but perception, Or no perception, yea, or nay, is the conditionunder Whicli it comos. The least of Wanton scepticism is sufficient to annui that fine sense Whicli the object requires. Again, tho deeper the truth, the more it approaches the impregnablefortress of human liberty; the more there re is it influenced

by the quality of that liberty, and the more sostly does it

nature does not proceed One hair-breadth, that is, does not design the minutest 1ibre, or the smallest vesses, stili tess the entire fabric os an Organ, without stamΡ-ing upon it her series of ends, and respecting a use ; and, indeed, in the primaryuSe, respecting a mediate use ; in the mediate, an ulterior use; and never in anything does She respect an ultimate use, Without at the fame time respecting in it theprimary use. Τhis is What we mean by the circle of uses. V Animal Kingdom, '

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of the Divino Sun as the centro of tho spiritual Worid, of Divine LOVO RS the centre os creation, and of love or the will as thecentral poWer in the mind. became attestsed by a physical truth, and rested iapon the widest basis of natural probability or

sor it in his oWn sphere, but on the contrary, a falsity diametri- catly opposed to it. So again the Newtonian doctrine Os gravitation or attraction became tho ground sor a doctrine of spiritualattraction, in Whicli the omnipresence of tho Divine Love, as in the former casse iis centrali ty, Was manifested; or rather, in Whiel, iis disrusod was addod to iis concentraled centrality; and correspondingly the Same Uas exhibited Of love as a pervad ingessenee in man, and of man iis the subject of his oWn love orassections, and thereby gravitating to a rest, as the planet Aeetis iis orbit, Or as the stone salis to the earth, and there repoSes. Lastly, the Harueiati doctrine of the circulation of the blood, Was a pillar in the natural inred to Other spiritual trullis combining the former, and primarily regat ding the circulation OsendS, Or the Orderly procession os love in ali things; for allthings floW DOm au end, through eniis, to an end.' ' Andiu leed the cultivation Os humau' anatomy generalty WaS Obviou8ly preparatory to various Spiritual doctrines concerning the human forin, Whicli in iis deep aud extended significance em-braces so much of SWedent, org's philosophy. And is historicatly scienco Vas giveti as a basis sor hightruths to come, so also it Was S Wedent,org's scientific educationthat fitted him in an espectat mantior to be made their primary

quite distinct DOm comparative anatomy. The animal creation is but a series of hO- mologies of whicli the humati form is the archetype. Human trullis are indeed represented throughout it; but not immediately, or except through their correspondinglypes in man : Wherelare in man alone are they embodied. And he alone has the physical conditions os a morai and intelligent natural being, and the study of those perfections whereby, for instance, the human brain is exempted DOm the jurisdiction of the body, &c. &c. is the distinctive field of philosophicat human anatomy, Whichaims to find in man's body the proper colanterpart of the endo ments of his mind. So that the sciences of humati and comparative anatomy, in Proportion as the formeris successsul, must be as distinct as the destinies of man and animais ; there being a natural history of both, but a progressive or proper hiStory of man Only. See above,

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