external propagation.' To poets and to writers his presentation of the

marvellous is amazing; to Seers it is simply reality. To some
Christians his descriptions have seemed scandalous. Certain critics

have ridiculed the celestial substance of his temples, his golden
palaces, his splendid cities where angels disport themselves; they

laugh at his groves of miraculous trees, his gardens where the flowers
speak and the air is white, and the mystical stones, the sard,

carbuncle, chrysolite, chrysoprase, jacinth, chalcedony, beryl, the
Urim and Thummim, are endowed with motion, express celestial truths,

and reply by variations of light to questions put to them ('True
Christian Religion,' 219). Many noble souls will not admit his

spiritual worlds where colors are heard in delightful concert, where
language flames and flashes, where the Word is writ in pointedspiral

letters ('True Christian Religion,' 278). Even in the North some
writers have laughed at the gates of pearl, and the diamonds which

stud the floors and walls of his New Jerusalem, where the most
ordinary utensils are made of the rarest substances of the globe.

'But,' say his disciples, 'because such things are sparsely scattered
on this earth does it follow that they are not abundant in other

worlds? On earth they are terrestrial substances, whereas in heaven
they assume celestial forms and are in keeping with angels.' In this

connection Swedenborg has used the very words of Jesus Christ, who
said, 'If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall

ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?'
"Monsieur," continued the pastor, with an emphaticgesture, "I have

read the whole of Swedenborg's works; and I say it with pride, because
I have done it and yet retained my reason. In reading him men either

miss his meaning or become Seers like him. Though I have evaded both
extremes, I have often experienced unheard-of delights, deep emotions,

inward joys, which alone can reveal to us the plenitude of truth,--the
evidence of celestial Light. All things here below seem small indeed

when the soul is lost in the perusal of these Treatises. It is
impossible not to be amazed when we think that in the short space of

thirty years this man wrote and published, on the truths of the
Spiritual World, twenty-five quarto volumes, composed in Latin, of

which the shortest has five hundred pages, all of them printed in
small type. He left, they say, twenty others in London, bequeathed to

his nephew, Monsieur Silverichm, formerly almoner to the King of
Sweden. Certainly a man who, between the ages of twenty and sixty, had

already exhausted himself in publishing a series of encyclopaedical
works, must have received supernatural assistance in composing these

later stupendous treatises, at an age, too, when human vigor is on the
wane. You will find in these writings thousands of propositions, all

numbered, none of which have been refuted. Throughout we see method
and precision; the presence of the Spirit issuing and flowing down

from a single fact,--the existence of angels. His 'True Christian
Religion,' which sums up his whole doctrine and is vigorous with

light, was conceived and written at the age of eighty-three. In fact,
his amazing vigor and omniscience are not denied by any of his

critics, not even by his enemies.
"Nevertheless," said Monsieur Becker, slowly, "though I have drunk

deep in this torrent of divine light, God has not opened the eyes of
my inner being, and I judge these writings by the reason of an

unregenerated man. I have often felt that the INSPIRED Swedenborg must
have misunderstood the Angels. I have laughed over certain visions

which, according to his disciples, I ought to have believed with
veneration. I have failed to imagine the spiralwriting of the Angels

or their golden belts, on which the gold is of great or lesser
thickness. If, for example, this statement, 'Some angels are

solitary,' affected me powerfully for a time, I was, on reflection,
unable to reconcile this solitude with their marriages. I have not

understood why the Virgin Mary should continue to wear blue satin
garments in heaven. I have even dared to ask myself why those gigantic

demons, Enakim and Hephilim, came so frequently to fight the cherubim
on the apocalyptic plains of Armageddon; and I cannot explain to my

own mind how Satans can argue with Angels. Monsieur le Baron
Seraphitus assured me that those details concerned only the angels who

live on earth in human form. The visions of the prophet are often
blurred with grotesque figures. One of his spiritual tales, or

'Memorable relations,' as he called them, begins thus: 'I see the
spirits assembling, they have hats upon their heads.' In another of

these Memorabilia he receives from heaven a bit of paper, on which he
saw, he says, the hieroglyphics of the primitive peoples, which were

composed of curved lines traced from the finger-rings that are worn in
heaven. However, perhaps I am wrong; possibly the material absurdities

with which his works are strewn have spiritual significations.
Otherwise, how shall we account for the growing influence of his

religion? His church numbers to-day more than seven hundred thousand
believers,--as many in the United States of America as in England,

where there are seven thousand Swedenborgians in the city of
Manchester alone. Many men of high rank in knowledge and in social

position in Germany, in Prussia, and in the Northern kingdoms have
publicly adopted the beliefs of Swedenborg; which, I may remark, are

more comforting than those of all other Christian communions. I wish I
had the power to explain to you clearly in succinct language the

leading points of the doctrine on which Swedenborg founded his church;
but I fear such a summary, made from recollection, would be

necessarily defective. I shall, therefore, allow myself to speak only
of those 'Arcana' which concern the birth of Seraphita."

Here Monsieur Becker paused, as though composing his mind to gather up
his ideas. Presently he continued, as follows:--

"After establishing mathematically that man lives eternally in spheres
of either a lower or a higher grade, Swedenborg applies the term

'Spiritual Angels' to beings who in this world are prepared for
heaven, where they become angels. According to him, God has not

created angels; none exist who have not been men upon the earth. The
earth is the nursery-ground of heaven. The Angels are therefore not

Angels as such ('Angelic Wisdom,' 57), they are transformed through
their close conjunction with God; which conjunction God never refuses,

because the essence of God is not negative, but essentially active.
The spiritual angels pass through three natures of love, because man

is only regenerated through successive stages ('True Religion').
First, the LOVE OF SELF: the supreme expression of this love is human

genius, whose works are worshipped. Next, LOVE OF LIFE: this love
produces prophets,--great men whom the world accepts as guides and

proclaims to be divine. Lastly, LOVE OF HEAVEN, and this creates the
Spiritual Angel. These angels are, so to speak, the flowers of

humanity, which culminates in them and works for that culmination.
They must possess either the love of heaven or the wisdom of heaven,

but always Love before Wisdom.
"Thus the transformation of the natural man is into Love. To reach

this first degree, his previousexistences must have passed through
Hope and Charity, which prepare him for Faith and Prayer. The ideas

acquired by the exercise of these virtues are transmitted to each of
the human envelopes within which are hidden the metamorphoses of the

INNER BEING; for nothing is separate, each existence is necessary to
the other existences. Hope cannot advance without Charity, nor Faith

without Prayer; they are the four fronts of a solid square. 'One
virtue missing,' he said, 'and the Spiritual Angel is like a broken

pearl.' Each of these existences is therefore a circle in which
revolves the celestialriches of the inner being. The perfection of

the Spiritual Angels comes from this mysterious progression in which
nothing is lost of the high qualities that are successfully acquired

to attain each glorious incarnation; for at each transformation they
cast away unconsciously the flesh and its errors. When the man lives

in Love he has shed all evil passions: Hope, Charity, Faith, and
Prayer have, in the words of Isaiah, purged the dross of his inner

being, which can never more be polluted by earthly affections. Hence
the grand saying of Christ quoted by Saint Matthew, 'Lay up for

yourselves treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust doth
corrupt,' and those still grander words: 'If ye were of this world the

world would love you, but I have chosen you out of the world; be ye
therefore perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.'

"The second transformation of man is to Wisdom. Wisdom is the
understanding of celestial things to which the spirit is brought by

Love. The Spirit of Love has acquired strength, the result of all
vanquished terrestrial passions; it loves God blindly. But the Spirit