Posthumous tracts

발행: 1847년

분량: 175페이지

출처: archive.org

분류: 미분류

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nature of things there is no substance Without a form, and nosorm Without an idea os fluxion; henue the character of the Substance determines that of tho sortii, and the substantiat formcoincides With the form os action. This is the reason Why the peculiar form of the substanco may bo inferred Dom the sormos the action, and vice versa. No musole can do Other Sethan aut agree ly to iis sortii, that is to say, according to the connexion, Siluation and position, and quality, of iis motive fibres, of iis belly, os iis tendon, and of iis membranes. Butthe form of the action cannot be persect, or ansWerable to themiud's idea, utiless the fibres of one muscle are capille of beingcommand ed, and With them certain os the fibres of some othermuScle, and so Os severat; Which When callen sortii into motion produce a compound action, that represenis a neW form Of

Τhe very formation of the animal body manifestly iudicates What formes of action are capsile of being produced. Τheorganic body is created for no other end, than to live in acting, and aut in living, conformabb to the operations of the miud. Τhe lungs exist to respire, to draW in tho elements of the atmO-

Their mindi Wis sorm of expression is, it must be admitted, sOmeWhataWkWard, and yet, after long experience in translating these Wores of SWedenborg, we have never been able Wholly to give it up, or to find an adequale substitute. The truthis, that the philosophy of this author is the only complete reconciliation whicli theworid has seen, of the foui With the body, and of matter With spirit. Νow the bodyis not independent of the foui, but on the contrary is the bo of the 80ul, nor is the foui independent of the form of the body, but is, by that form, the foui of thebo . Τhis mutuatity and interdependenoe are constantly expressed and implied by the author in these litile mords, ita bo , their bo , &c., &c., Where We should beinclined simply to say, the bo , and so fortii. Ιf the neW phrase Ahould have theeffect os continuatly reminding the roader of the oneness of things spiritues With things naturat, and of the presence of ali things in each, it Will be well Worth While tosacrifice someWhat of idiomatic propriety to so important a use.- Tr.

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Sphere, and to accommodate themselves to ali actions. Tholicari exisis to put the blood in circulation. The arms, the stet, the fingers, the Scapulae, kc., are meant to en te us to beactive inhabitants of the emth. The Other members likeWise. From ad and each it is olear, that substances are formed in thesrst instance, and ad for the uso that the minu foresees and intends. The foui regards actions as ends, or as Ieading toends, and arranges Substances as instrumental causes, that such

actions may come sorti, at iis bidding. Thus in potui os actions, the body is a genuine image of the operations of the mind.

actions. We are both spiritual, and corporeal or materialoreatures. The Spirit respectS ends alone, and in so doing, effecis follow of their οὐ accord; nature being so constitutedas to servo the intelligent being as an instrumentia cause.

Naturo is tho handmaid of the spiritual essetice Or intelligetice; for the loWer form is submissive to the higher, and in laci produced by it, to comply With iis bidding. Such is the relationos tho hody to the soles. Wheu the spiritual dominates, the

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CII APTER XXVI.

This constitutes prudeuce. Some perSOns there are Whoenteriain a very smali number Os end 8 at Once, and Seige u pontho middio as is they Were the ultimate ends. There are OthersWhO regard no end in universat nature as ultimate, but alinatural ends as means to an ultimate end beyOnd nature; and these persons are more perfectly rationes than the former, and their actions are likeWise more rational. The comprehensionor simultaneous regard of a number of ends that terminate in

nature, is the predicate of intelligence; but the comprehensionos spiritual ends, or of the euds of ends, is the predicate os Wisdom. The 1irst of these faculties is human; the latior is divine, and must be oWned to be the gist of God; sor of our-selves We are intelligent indeed, but not Wise.

Action can no more be predicated of God, than motion, of the soles. God is above ali action, although Without Him thorois no action. There is no action Without change of statu, and no stato Without form; but in God there is notther forni, nor state, stili tess change. Ali these predicates are sar bolom tho Divine Essence. We cannot concei Ve of action Or change os stato in tho foui Without the idea of a fluxion of paris, and without an idea os motion, and yet the foui is devoid of paris, and devoid of motion. HOW then cin We conceive and express

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them. The minu has many ideas, both successive and simultaneous, and many ideas are proposed to the Wili; yet noue are determinon into action but those that are the means to SOme pre-

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destre natural ends, Whicli constitute the lusis of the animus,so the destres entertainen of onds by the mind cannot fati to beimpure. Τhat spiritual principie Whicli is involved in the under- standing is scarcely knom to be present OtherWise than as amatter of mere contemplation, and is so enuelopen in materialideas, that the destre os it is almost never the object that determines the Will. Such mixture existing in one and the samemiud, it is no Wonder that our Will or acts cannot possibly betermed pure. We even experience this in the state of Ourbodies. Our very Will and Voluntary pOWers, our deSireS and

According to the series of our rationes iniud and the mentaloperations, We in the first instance perceive the images of the senses :' We then turn them Over On ali fides, and revolvethem, that is to say, think; and then froni the stores of the memOry We tine Out a number of ideas associaled by similari ty; afterWards we combine these scattered elements of thought, and reduce them to a particular forin, Whicli constitutes judgment: we then conclude that the ideas of the miud centred in thojudgment, are to be determined into act, or to be represented by actions. Τhis is What We terin, a conclusion; und to this

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conclusion a certain sorce is communicated to enablo it to issuo in action. This conclusion is a Will. The Will therelare involvos in a concentraled form nil the elementes that there Wero in thothought and judgment, and in addition a force constantly actingto ensure determination to actiOD.

Any action Which does not come Doni the Will, or Whicli contains no volition, is nos a rationes, but in animal or naturalaction; theresore Will is perpetuatly present in rationes actiomas essori is perpetuatly present in motion. When Will CeaseS, Rcti On ceases also; and the character of the Will determines thecharacter of the action; and the fame rem lis are applicabieto the mutuat relation of essori and motion. And hunce it is that action is never looked at physicalty according to the form, but according to the wili, that is to say, according to the ideas of the thought, and according to the intention Or end. The action of tWo individuals may bo persectly similar, and yet notsimilar, is the Will does not similarly correspond to it in both cases. Τherelare What essori is relativoly to motion, that Will is relatively to action.

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action, a8 essori, in manis i motion.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

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Apari hom the destre os an endri there is no Wili; for there must be force in Will besore Will can properly exist; this famelarce, or this destre, rules also in thought and jungment them-selves : theres Ore those Who are destitute of ali destre me de- void of Will also. The destres of the mind are directed to anend, but those of the animus are lusis, and those of the hodyare plensures; the destres of the foui, Whicli are pure loVes, preside over est the rest. Thus the heat and fire, nay, the liseos our actions both internes and externat, consistes os meredestres, Without Which We should have no life in Our actions, and no actiori in Our lives.

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