make to him—an announcement that is calculated to gladden his heart, by severing it from all base and debasing ties; an announcement that, in the language of Scripture, separates the waters from the waters, and this until the dry land appears, the land of promise, of security, and peace; an announcement that, whilst it makes known the foes of his own household, puts him in the way of their sure expulsion, so that the friends which delight in bringing good tidings, may enter and communicate of their own joyful entertainment. To right-minded Christians, then, would we and do we address ourselves at all times, in the hope that they preponderate in the great mass of society. We would approach them in no arrogant or presumptuous spirit; but to impart a friendly caution that they be not following "cunningly devised fables," and the "traditions of men," rather than the pure precepts of the Scriptures of truth; for Christendom is a divided people, and "sour grapes have set the children's teeth on edge." The vineyard hath no fences, its grapes are not ripened, for the air lacketh warmth, and the kindly and gently falling dew ceaseth from the ground. I allude, of course, to the spiritual, moral, and political state of Christendom. In the latter respect, it is, indeed, divided, and become a very Babel of confounded doctrine; in the two former respects, a coldness prevails, which renders it indifferent to the causes and sources of its outward condition; each section is content with its own pursuit for proselytes, and to circumscribe its charities within its own narrow sphere. Severally, they cannot be inquiring whether they are offering a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple," or "receiving a prophet in the name of a prophet," for were this the question, a more kindly spirit would be exercised, and a Christian's love would be manifested more prominently than his faith. But the great body of Christianity being intent on the letter of Scripture, the living waters cease to circulate through it, and particular forms and ceremonies usurp the place of kindly motives and generous promptings which should give a name and quality to the faith professed. It is for the New Dispensation to exhibit the right relation between the form and the spirit of religion, between the "letter that killeth, and the spirit that giveth life;" and it is for us, who receive this dispensation in its freshness and fulness, to cherish the spirit from which it emanated; and, not seeking our own so much as another's good, continue honestly, boldly, and manfully to announce the fact, that the City of God, the Holy Jerusalem, is descending from God out of heaven, and that its gates are open for the admission of all nations into it. What was a prophecy to be fulfilled, is now and ever will be fulfilling; what was a promise and a hope, is now a ON DISEASES AS HAVING THEIR SEAT IN THE FIBRES. 303 reality and an experience; what of truth that was seen but as through a glass, darkly, is now clear and brilliant as the noontide light; what of the charity or brotherly love that tarried till the glowing sun of righteousness arose over the beuighted mind, is now doctrinally set forth as the main-spring of human action: love to God and love to the neighbour are clearly demonstrated to be the alone sources of the happiness which outlives time. What of faith, that insists on imputed merit as the condition of salvation, is now proved to be spurious and delusive,—a hindrance to the indispensable work of regeneration, and an impossibility, because of its identifying the infinite. with the finite. What, again, of the good works, which have a merit assigned to them, is repudiated because no merit can attach where a gratification and a delight are their concomitants; and further, the merit is not with the good action, but with the prompting good, which is adulterated only by the selfish aims, and vitiated only by the worldly views that may be mixed up with the action. It is for the individual to satisfy himself on this head, and to be sure that his works spring from a right source. It is for us, my dear friends, to certify ourselves that we are indeed acting in conformity with the golden rule, "to do unto others as we would have them do unto us," in recommending, nay, in urging them to examine, with an honest and truth-loving spirit, the heavenly doctrines of the "New Jerusalem." ON DISEASES AS HAVING THEIR SEAT IN THE FIBRES. (From Swedenborg's Economy of the Animal Kingdom, not hitherto translated.*) CHAPTER I. That all Diseases in the Animal Body are Diseases of the Fibres. 370. THERE are diseases both of the solid and of the fluid parts of the body. The solid parts are bones, cartilages, tendons, skins, and mem *This very interesting part of the "Economy of the Animal Kingdom" was printed in 1847, from the Latin autograph of Swedenborg, under the editorial care of J. J. G. Wilkinson, Esq., the able translator of the "Animal Kingdom." This part, which is of great interest to the physiologist, and in general to the intelligent reader, treats of the Fibre, or of the fibrous or inmost substance of the body; of the Arachnoid Tunic, or of the inmost covering of the brain; and of the diseases of the Fibres, (de Morbis Fibrarum,) which, for the sake of a more correct apprehension on the part of the general reader, we have rendered as above. The Swedenborg Association, at whose expense this work has been printed in Latin, deserves every acknowledgement and every encouragement on the part of every true man of science, for publishing so much sound philosophy on the subjects in question. We translate here a portion of the article on Diseases, as most likely to interest the general reader. branes,-yea, the blood-vessels themselves, and also the fibres regarded as to their tunics. The fluid parts are humors of various kinds, as the gastric juice, the saliva, the pancreatic juice, the biles, the chyle, the lymph of the thoracic duct, the milk, the semen, and in general the red blood, with its serum; the purer blood, or nervous fluid; and the purest blood, or the first essence of the blood. But whether the substance be a solid or a fluid, or soft, [or hard,] it nevertheless belongs to the fibre; for there is nothing in the universal body but the simple fibre.* From the fibre are derived the compound substances, or the medullary and the nervous fibre; and from this is derived the blood-vessel, which is the fibre of the third order. † And besides the fibres and the vessels, there is nothing substantial which enters into the form itself and excites and determines it. Moreover, the fibre is not called a fibre, nor is it a fibre without its fluid or its blood; for the continent and the thing contained act as one cause. From this it follows, that the diseases of the fibres, in an extended sense, comprise all diseases in general and particular, or the pathology both of the body and of the animus, (animi.) CHAPTER II. That the Diseases of the Body, the Passions of the Animus, and the Changes of the state of the Rational Mind (Mens) belong to the Fibres in general. 371. The ultimate fibres are the blood-vessels; the mediate fibres are the mediate and the medullary; the first fibres are the simple, which are the principles of the rest. The red blood is in the ultimate fibres or vessels; the purer blood is in the mediate fibres; and the purest is in the first or simple fibres. There are consequently diseases of the blood-vessels, or of the red blood; there are diseases of the mediate fibres, or of the purer blood; and there are diseases of the simple fibres, or of the purest blood. 372. The diseases of the red blood are properly diseases, [as commonly understood] because they belong to the body. They arise, for the most part, from the red blood itself, and from its vitiated and malignant states; it is from this source that the other humours become vitiated, and thus the glands, muscles, viscera, the vessels themselves, and lastly the nerves [become diseased]. There are many genera of bodily diseases, and innumerable species, concerning which we shall here treat. * Chap. xxiv. on the Fibre. Remedies are applied to these diseases from pharmacy; thus from the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, and also from moderation in eating, or by dieting, and likewise from exercise and rest, from sleep, from the temperature [or change] of the air, and from tranquillity of the animus, and also from other means which have been found useful in purifying, correcting, and renovating the blood. 373. Diseases of the purer blood, or of the nervous juice, are not diseases of the body, but properly of the animus, and are called maladies, (agritudines,) passions, and also affections of the mind. For the nervous fluid, or that which circulates through the medullary and nervous fibres, is the same as the animal spirit, which not only reigns in the nerves of the body, but also in the medullary substance of the cerebrum, and of the cerebellum, and of the medulla oblongata and spinal marrow, and which also permeates the mediate cortical glands, which, taken together, constitute the common sensory. Thus, from the vitiated state of the animal spirits arise maladies, which do not immediately affect the body, but the animus of the body. These affections are anger, fury, envy, a species of ludicrous pride, melancholy, inconstancy of the affections, impatience, cowardice, timidity, a too great ardour, and a too great apathy of the desires, infirmity of the imagination, defect, and, at length, privation of memory, and various other affections which belong to the brain, and which are [often] ascribed to the heart. They operate, nevertheless, by influx into the body, as the purer blood does into the red blood, and as the fibres into the bloodvessels, and thus cause diseases. For these maladies remedies are also prepared from pharmacy, which purify and restore the blood, and also from company and agreeable society, and likewise from moral philosophy. But it must be well ascertained whether these maladies arise from a vitiated state of the red blood, or from any disease of the body, or from some peculiar causes, or from a perverse state of the intellectual mind. 374. Diseases of the purest blood are not the maladies of the animus, but they are properly of the intellectual mind, the function of which is to perceive, to think, to judge, and to will; which faculties do not belong to the animus, but to a sphere which is above the animus in man, otherwise than in brute animals. Hence they are not properly diseases, such as are those of the body, nor maladies and passions, such as are those of the animus, but rather affections of the intellectual mind, (mens,) and the perversions of its state, as the various kinds of the love of self, vain ambitions, misanthropy, hatreds, desires which tend to greater depravity, whence malice and insanity arise, of which N. S. NO. 152.-VOL. XIII. 2 Q there are many species; imbecility, and also too great a fire [or excitement] in thinking, judging, and the phantasies which hence arise; also stupidity, and several other kinds of morbid mental phenomena, which arise from embracing false principles respecting the connexion and order of causes and ends, and also from yielding to the impulses of the animus and its unbridled cupidities, and especially from banishing the conscience, whence arise the veriest evils, vices, perversions, &c., which devastate and destroy the entire republic of the mind. For the purest blood, or the first essence of the blood, which determines the simple fibre, is not the animal spirit, but the external form of the soul, (anima.) By this essence and its fibre, the cortical substance, in which our rational mind dwells, is excited; for this is its substantial form, or the first organic form of the soul (anima) woven from the simple fibres. There are as many of these cerebellula, or little brains, as there are of these substances, and also as many seats of sensation, or little sensories. It consequently follows, that according to the internal state of this substance, the state of our rational mind is changed, the perversion of which is the cause of hallucinations, and of various kinds of insanity. For these morbid states medicine is prepared from the same remedies as those which heal and restore the animal spirit, and the maladies of the animus. Further remedies are,-that the rational mind suffer itself to be instructed by teachers of a more sound judgment; thus from natural and revealed theology, but especially by governing the impetuous desires of its animus, and by thus maintaining its own rights and liberties. 375. But we must well distinguish and judge between the diseases of the body and those of the animus, and also those of the rational mind, (mens) For it often happens that there is an influx of one into the other, so as to give rise to the appearance that they always exist together. The diseases of the body are all those which arise from causes which act within the blood-vessels, and which are out of or beyond the nervous and medullary fibres, but which, nevertheless, act into those fibres, and which are, consequently, out of the cortical glands, which, however, act into those glands; and are also beyond the organic forms excited by those fibres, but yet act into them. The maladies (ægritudines) of the animus are all those which arise from causes which act on the nervous or medullary fibres, or within those fibres, and which are without or beyond the simple fibres, but which act into them; they are, consequently, within the cortical glands, although they act into them. For according to the description of the |