good temper, or ill temper, mild temper, or harsh temper. To be temperate' is not to remain in any one season or state, but to give everything its proper meed of attention, in deference not only to the rules of health, but to the instructions of the Preacher, when he tells us that * there is a time for everything,' and that God hath made everything beautiful (or good) in its season.' The intemperate' man, whether in things of body or mind, is he who bestowing his love exclusively on the spring or the summer, the morning or the evening, refuses to enjoy more than a single season; and thereby neutralizes both the pleasures he selects, and the kind offices of the remainder of the year. Who so much enjoys the calm, sweet friendship of the summer, as he who has fought with the asperities of winter? Temperature,' in its primitive sense, denotes that agreeable condition of the atmosphere which results from the due admixture of heat and cold.

As with the four seasons, and with the months, so with day and night. No two days are exactly alike. Somewhere, in the look either of the sky or of the earth, there is sure to have been a change. Even the nights differ in kind.

The life of religion experiences the same vicissitudes. Consisting of six principal evening-mornings, its minuter history records nevertheless, an infinity of little ones; just as the three score and ten years of the animal life are made up of some five and twenty thousand miniatures of years. Involuntarily and strangely to us, there are perpetual oscillations between love and indifference towards what is right. Without knowing how or why, we find every now and then, that we have travelled into the strange country' of the prodigal son.* Scripture accordingly, is replenished with allusions to day and night, morning and evening, in these, their particular senses, using night and evening to denote the sorrow and despondency of the soul; morning and day to express faith, hope and joy. The context always indicates whether the words refer to the stages of the spiritual development in general, or simply to its often-repeated conditions. In the Psalms these figures are especially abundant. Thus, in Ps. 119, 62, At midnight I will rise to give thanks to thee, because of thy righteous judgments.' Here is shewn how under the deepest sense of sin and disobedience, a sincere and contrite heart will yet remember and be grateful for God's mercy. To the same purport is Ps. 63, 6, 'When I meditate on thee in the night watches, because thou hast been my help, in the shadow of thy

"Moral epochs have their course, as well as the seasons. We can no more hold them fast than we can hold sun, moon and stars. Our faults perpetually return upon us, and herein lies the subtlest difficulty of self-knowledge.”—GÖETHE, Dichtung und Wahrheit.)

wings will I rejoice.' Out of the cold and darkness of such night, as out of winter, burst light and beauty. No state of despondency or mourning is so deep that in due time it does not give way to hope and rejoicing. Our youth is renewed like the eagle's.' (103, 5.) When his sorrow passes into peace, David exclaims accordingly, 'I will sing of thy mercy in the morning.' (59, 16.) And that though weeping may endure for a night, joy cometh in the morning.' And to shew again that whatever may be our state, the mind should always be directed towards God, he says of the righteous man,' that in his law doth he meditate both day and night. All these passages acquire their highest interest and significance from our realising them within ourselves. It was for this end they were designed. Beautiful and practical as they are in the letter, and affecting as the recorded utterances of an individual, they truly become God's word to us only in proportion that we feel that we repeat them for ourselves, and not so much with our lips, as in the inmost recesses of our being. The history of the ravens bringing food to Elijah while in the wilderness, both in the morning' and in the evening,' has the same personal relation to us, and is to be interpreted after the same manner. Whenever, like the prophet, we are dwelling

by the brook Cherith,'* God's benevolent remembrance lets no period pass over without giving appropriate supplies of nourishment. All that he asks is faith in him, and then he will cheer the darkest night.

6

'Day' is used not only in the senses above specified, but also as a metonymy for time, periods, and seasons in general, and thence as a metaphor for states and conditions of all possible kinds, whether good or evil. Time,'' period,' and 'season,' are similarly used as metonyms for day.' We speak, for instance, of days of rejoicing, a day of trouble, times of success, seasons of hope, the days of one's youth. Behold, I will add unto thy days, fifteen years.' (Is. xxxviii. 5.) It is important to note this meaning of the word, because of its frequent use in Scripture to denote states in general, whatever their quality. Thus, Give us this day our daily bread,' is in its higher sense, a prayer for the spiritual assistance best suited to the condition of our soul at the moment of preferring the request.

Again, morning is pre-eminently the time of beauty. Hence the innumerable similes of beautiful as the morning,' and 'fair as the morning.' With its added attributes of innocence and purity, it thus becomes the emblem of female youthfulness. In Festus,' accordingly,

* "To dwell by the brook Cherith' signifies to be in the endurance of temptations. Though the truths of the Word, signified by the brook, are then in obscurity to man's mind, he is nevertheless supported by them."

we have the maiden morn,' and the virgin morn.' A 'virgin' is literally, one in her spring,' both as to time and to mcral state. And

as the latter is the higher signification of this beautiful word, the Bible applies it to both sexes. These are they which are virgins, which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.' (Rev. xiv. 4.)

Finally may be noticed the ancient and most pleasing and universal fancy that heaven is a land of perpetual spring and sunshine. 'There everlasting Spring abides,

And never with 'ring flowers.'

In conformity with this belief, the pictures sought to be drawn of the future state of the blest have in every age used spring and daylight for their unvarying landscape. But it may be questioned if this be right. Milton perhaps is nearer the truth when he makes Raphael tell Adam that in heaven, as on earth, there are changes of times and seasons, morning and evening;

'For we have also our evening and our morn.'
The face of brightest heaven had changed
To grateful twilight, (for night comes not there
In darker veil) and roseate dews disposed
All but the unsleeping eyes of God to rest.

He gives the reason also why it should be so ;

Paradise Lost, Book v.*

There can be no doubt that that grand unity of design which links together every law and item of the visible universe, extends also to the heavenly world; making it a sublime prototype in spiritual scenery and phenomena, of what here below is witnessed in material shape. Time reigns in the world of matter; state in the world of spirit, each answering to the other. When, therefore, we enter into the eternal country, the golden city of the Great King, though we shall have parted from the sweet presence of months and seasons as we now know them, it will be to find that they were only the weak, shadowy representatives of spiritual states, infinitely more glorious and inspiring. The times and seasons which here owe their being to the sun of nature, will there be spiritually reproduced by the Sun of Righteousness, who is its life and light save that what here is winter will be disarmed of all its cold and bitterness; and what is night, of all its dismalness and terrors. It is in true nights, when the skies put forth their radiant splendours, that even in this present life we see most of God. t

* See also the opening lines of Book vi., and many other places. They who are interested in knowing what a noble and consistent philosophy can teach respecting the times and seasons of futurity, should consult that extraordinary gift to the world, the "Heaven and Hell" of Emanuel Swedenborg. See especially Nos. 152-169.

LEO.

70

IDEA OF THE EXISTENCE OF A FIRST CAUSE.

THE paper by Mr. Robinson, in our number for December, places this subject, as we consider, in its proper light, and satisfactorily, so far as Swedenborg's statements are concerned, settles the question. But Mr. Robinson's argument has also the suffrages of a true mental philosophy for its support. It would, therefore, be unnecessary to enter further upon this discussion, had we not received other papers from our correspondent, Mr. Beswick, who, without refuting Mr. R.'s argument, so clearly demonstrated from Swedenborg, raises, nevertheless, objections against it. To re-open the discussion after the rejoinder of Mr. Robinson, which previous to insertion was read and adopted by the Reviewer, Mr. Woodman, would be to open the doors to unprofitable controversy. We will, however, for the purpose of dissipating certain fallacies and obscurities of the objector, make, as far as our space will admit, some remarks on the point at issue.

"What (says Mr. B.) is the question in dispute? The question is not, Does the idea come from God? For we all agree upon this point, that it does come from God; but the questiou is,-How does it come from God? Does it come by an interior, and not by an exterior revelation? We hold the formor opinion. This is the only point in dispute; and we hope that this, and only this, will be discussed."

This is a clear statement of the point in dispute. Mr. B. holds the former opinion, which is, that the idea of a first cause, or of God, comes from an interior revelation; whereas Mr. R. maintains that the idea comes both from an interior and an exterior revelation, or that both combined are necessary to give the idea. The former opinion is based chiefly upon this declaration of Swedenborg :-

"There is an influx universal from God into the souls of men, [teaching] that there is a God, and that he is one."- T. C. R. 8.*

From this assertion it is inferred that the idea of one God, without any revealed knowledge presented from without, can be acquired. Now this influx is, as Swedenborg says, into the inmost or supreme part of man, which he calls the anima, or inmost soul. But man, as the author often says, is not conscious of any thing in this inmost part of his nature; thus he is not conscious even of the influx itself, nor of

* The term teaching, within brackets, is not in the original, and ought not to be in the translation, as it is apt to lead to the misconception, that the idea is taught to that lower part of the mind in which our ideas and perceptions come to our consciousness. This influx brings with it the impression, or tendency to acknowledge a God, and that he is one, but it does not teach it; the teaching must come by knowledges from without.

any thing which the influx operates in that supreme region. But before he can become conscious of any thing, this influx must descend into the inferior parts of his mind, called the mens and the animus. And this influx, when it descends into the lower regions of the mind, must have vessels to receive it; these vessels are knowledges which the mind receives from without by means of the senses, especially of hearing and seeing. Now without these vessels, or these scientifics and knowledges, it is impossible for the mind to have any idea whatever. Hence the author says:

A man cannot even think without an idea derived from such things within his experience as can be known and perceived by his senses."-A. C. 9300.

"Without scientifics, [that is, ideas derived through the senses] man, as man, is not capable of forming a single idea of thought."-A. C. 1435.

Again :

"Man, without an idea grounded in worldly things, is incapable of thinking at all.”— A.C. 2520.

Very numerous extracts, in harmony with the above, might be adduced. The conclusion then is, that all the materials of our ideas, even concerning God and divine things, come from without, but they are vivified and elaborated by influx from within. And this is a universal law of our mental condition. It was the same with the most ancient or Adamic church, who, although they had not the written Word, had nevertheless knowledges from the Lord revealed to them through spirits and angels, similar to the inhabitants of Jupiter and of other planets, who are also in a celestial state, and who "hand down the revealed doctrines of faith from parents to children."-A.C. 8541, 8627. The most ancient church had a full and clear perception because their knowledges were true, and because their natural principle was not perverted. Not only do all ideas arise from scientifics and knowledges derived from without, but perceptions also; that is, a perception, like an idea, arises from influx into man's soul operating upon scientifics received from without, so that without knowledges man would have no conscious perception of anything. Hence Swedenborg says,

"A perception of what is spiritual, and consequently reception, is not granted to man except in his natural principle."-T.C.R. 339.

Hence Swedenborg again says,

"That without a revelation, [that is, an external revelation, either as in the most ancient church through spirits and angels, or as now, through the inspired Word] man could have no knowledge of God, or of a life after death."-T.C.R. 274.

"And that in the earlier ages of the world a revelation was publishsd."-T.C.R. 11. The supposition that a man may have "an idea of a thing without having a knowledge of it," is fallacious indeed. It is impossible to