Swedenborg Emanuel THE INTERCOURSE of THE SOUL and THE BODY 1769 London the Swedenborg Society 1947

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THE INTERCOURSE OF

THE SOUL AND THE BODY

FROM THE LATIN OF

EMANUELSWEDENBORG

THE SWEDENBORG SOCIETY

(INSTITUTED 1810)

20-21 BLOOMSBURY WAY, LONDON, W.e.1

1947



NOTE

THEpresent version of the

DE CoMMERClO

ANIMlE ET CORPORIS, originally published inLondon, in 1769, is based upon the editionissued by the Swedenborg Society in 1844,revised in 1897 and again in 1924.

The small numerals on the outer marginsindicate the subdivisions of the longer para-

graphs made by the Rev. J. F. Potts, B.A.,and introduced by him into his Concord-ance to the Theological Writings of EmanuelSwedenborg.



CONTENTS

No.I. There are two worlds: the spiritual world,

inhabited by spirits and angels, and thenatural world, inhabited by men 3

n. The spiritual world first existed and con-tinually subsists from its own sun; andthe natural world from it s own sun 4

Ill . The sun of the spiritual world is pure lovefrom Jehovah God, who is in the midst

of it5IV. From that sun proceed heat and light;

the heat proceeding from it is in itsessence love, and the light from it is init s essence wisdom 6

V. Both that heat and that light flow into

man: the heat into his will, where itproduces the good of love; and the light

into his understanding, where it pro-duces the truth of wisdom 7

VI. Those two, heat and light, or love andwisdom, flow conjointly from God into

the soul of man; and through this into

his mind, it s affections and thoughts ;and from these into the senses, speechand actions of the body 8

VII. The sun of the natural world is pure fire;and the world of nature first existed andcontinually subsists by means of this

sun 9



CONTENTS

No.VIII. Therefore everything which proceeds from

this sun, regarded in itself, is dead 1 0

IX. That which is spiritual clothes itself with

that which is natural, as a man clotheshimself with a garment . II

X. Spiritual things, thus clothed in a man,

enable him to live as a rational andmoral man, thus as a spiritually natural

man 12

XI. The reception of that influx is accordingto the state of love and wisdom with

man 13

XII. The understanding in a man can be raisedinto the light, that is, into the wisdomin which are the angels of heaven,according to the cultivation of hisreason; and his will can be raised in likemanner into the heat of heaven, thatis, into love, according to the deeds

of his life; but the love of the will isnot raised, except so far as the man

wills and does those things which the

wisdom of the understanding teaches . 14

XIII. I t is altogether otherwise with beasts 15

XIV. There are three degrees in the spiritual

world, and three degrees in the natural

world, hitherto unknown, according towhich all influx takes place 16

XV. Eilds are in the first degree, causes in the

second, and effects in the third . 17

XVI. Hence it is evident what is the nature ofspiritual influx from its origin to it seffects 18



THE INTERCOURSE OF

THE SOUL AND THE BODY

C0THERE are three opinions and traditions,which are hypotheses, concerning the Intercourse of the Soul and the Body, or the opera

tion of the one upon the other, and of the onetogether with the other: the first is calledPhysical Influx, the second Spiritual Influx,and the third Pre-established Harmony.

The FIRST, which is called PHYSICAL INFLUX,

arises from the appearances of the senses, and

the fallacies thence derived. For it appears as

if the objects of sight, which affect the eyes,flow into the thought and produce it ; in likemanner speech, which affects the ears, appearsto flow into the mind, and to produce ideasthere; and it is similar with respect to thesmell, taste, and touch. Since the organs ofthese senses first receive the impressions that

flow into them from the world, and the mindappears to think, and also to will, according asthese organs are affected, therefore, the ancientphilosophers and schoolmen believed that

influx was derived from them into the soul,and hence adopted the hypothesis of Physicalor Natural Influx.

The SECOND hypothesis, which is called 2SPIRITUAL, and by some, OCCASIONAL INFLUX,

I



THE INTERCOURSE OF [r

originates in order and its laws. For the soulis a spiritual substance, and therefore purer,prior, and interior; but the body is material,

and therefore grosser, posterior, and exterior ;and it is according to order that the purershould flow into the grosser, the prior into the

posterior, and the interior into the exterior,thus what is spiritual into what is material,and not the contrary. Consequently, it is

according to order for the thinking mind toflow into the sight according to the state in-duced on the eyes by the objects before them,which state that mind also d;sposes at itspleasure; and likewise for the perceptive mindto flow into the hearing, according to the state

induced upon the ears by speech.3 The THIRD hypothesis, which is called PRE-

ESTABLISHED HARMONY, arises from the appear-ances and fallacies of the reasoning faculty;

since the mind, in the very act of operating,acts together with and at the same time as the

body. Still, every operation is first successiveand afterwards simultaneous, and successive

operation is Influx, and simultaneous opera-tion is Harmony; as, for instance, when themind thinks and afterwards speaks, or when it

wills and afterwards acts: wherefore it is afallacy of the reasoning faculty to establishthat which is simultaneous, and to excludethat which is successive.

No fourth opinion concerning the Inter-course of the Soul and the Body can be framed

2



2J THE SOUL AND THE BODY

in addition to these three; for either the soulmust operate upon the body, or the body uponthe soul, or both uninterruptedly at the sametime.(3) Since Spiritual Influx, as we have said,

originates in order and its laws, it has beenacknowledged and received by the wise in thelearned world in preference to the other twoopinions. Everything which originates in order

is truth, and truth, in virtue of its own inherentlight, manifests itself even in the shade of thereasoning faculty in which hypotheses reside.As, however, there are three things which involve this hypothesis in shade-':"'ignorancea5"towhat the soul is, ignorance as to whaf isspiritual, and ignorance respecting the nature

of Influx-these three things must nrstbeexp l C l . i . ~ e a before t l : 1 ~ . r ' ! t i ( m a l faculty . < ? a ~ ~ e e thetruth iJself. For hypothetical truth is not

truth itself, but a conjecture of the truth. I t islike a picture on a wall seen at night by thelight of the stars, to which the mind assigns aform varying according to its fancy; but

which appears different after daybreak, whenthe light of the sun shines upon it, and not onlyreveals and presents to view its generalfeatures, but also each of its parts. So, fromthe shade of truth in which this hypothesisresides, is produced the open truth, when it isknown what and of what nature is that which

is spiritual respectively to that which isnatural; as also what and of what nature is

3



THE INTERCOURSE OF [2

the human soul, and what the nature of the

influx into it, and through it into the perceptiveand thinking mind, and from this into the body.

2 lWt these subjects can be explained by no,one, unless i f has been granted him-by the

\ Lord to be consociated with angels in the

\spiritual world a.illL& the same time with menin the_na,tural world; and because this hasbeen granted to me, I have been enabled todescIibe what and of what nature they both

are. This has been done in the work on CON-

JUGIAL LOVE: concerning what is SPIRITUAL,

in the memorable relation, nos. 326-329; concerning the HUMAN SOUL, no. 315; and concerning INFLUX, n0. 380, and still more fully at

nos. 415-422.* Who does not know, or may

not know, that the good of love and the truthof faith flow in from God into man, and that

~ h e y flow into his soul, and are felt in his mind;

ana that they flow forth from his thought intohis speech, and from his will into his actions?

3 That Spiritual Influx is thence, and also its

origin and derivation, shall be shewn in the

following order :I. There are two worlds: the spiritual world,inhabited by spirits and angels, and the naturalworld, inhabited by men.n. The spiritual world first existed and con-

tinually subsists from its own sun " and the

natural world from its own sun.

• The same articles may be found in the TRUE CHRISTIAN

RELIGION, no. 280 ; no. 697; no. 35; no. 77 ; and no. 12.

4



2] THE SOUL AND THE BODY

Ill. The sun of the spiritual world is pure lovefrom]ehovah God, who is in the midst of it.

IV. From that sun proceed heat and light; theheat proceeding from it is in its essence love, andthe light from it is in its essence wisdom.

V. Both that heat and that light flow into man:

the heat into his will, where it produces the goodof love; and the light into his understanding,where it produces the truth of wisdom.

VI.Those two, heat and light, or love andwisdom, flow conJ'ointly from God into the soul of

man; and through this into his mind, its affec-tions and thoughts " and from these into thesenses, speech, and actions of the body.

VII. The sun of the natural world is pure fire;

and the world of nature first existed and con-

tinually subsists by means of this sun.VIII. Therefore everything which proceedsfrom this sun, regarded in itself, is dead.

IX. That which is spiritual clothes itself withthat which is natural, as a man clothes himselfwith a garment.

X. Spiritual things thus clothed in a man

enable him to live as a rational and moral man,thus as a spiritually natural man.XI. The reception of that i n f l ~ t x is according

to the state of love and wisdom with man.XII. The understanding in man can be raised

into the light, that is, into the wisdom, in whichare the angels of heaven, according to the cultiva-

tion of his reason,' and his will can be raised,in like manner, into heat, that is, into love,

5



INTERCOURSE OF SOUL AND BODY [2

according to the deeds of his life,. but the love of

the will is not raised, except so far as the man

wills and does those things which the wisdom of

the understanding teaches.XIII. I t is altogether otherwise with beasts.XIV. There are three degrees in the spiritual

world, and three degrees in the naiUial world,according to which all influx takes pla.ce.

XV. Ends are in the first degree, causes in the

second, and effectsin

the third.XVI. Hence is evident the nature of spiritualinflux from its origin to its effects.

Each of these propositions shall now bebriefly illustrated.

6



I.

THERE ARE TWO WORLDS: THE SPIRITUAL

WORLD, INHABITED BY SPIRITS AND ANGELS,

AND THE NATURAL WORLD, iNHABITED BY

MEN.

Q)THAT there is a spiritual world inhabited

by spirits and angels, distinct from the naturalworld inhabited by men, has hitherto beendeeply hidden, even in the Christian world;because no angel has descended and taught it

by word of mouth, nor any man ascended andseen it. Lest, therefore, from ignorance of that

world, and the uncertain faith respectingheaven and hell thence resulting, man should( be so far infatuated as to become an atheisticl materialist, it has pleased the Lord to open the

sight of my spirit, and to raise it into heavenland let it down into hell, and to exhibit to my

view the nature of both.I t

has thus been made evident to me that 2there are two worlds, distinct from each other;

one, in which all things are spiritual, whence it

is called the spiritual world; and the other, inwhich all fIlings are nat"mal, whence it is calledthe natural world: and also, that spirits and

angels liveiiltheir own world, and men in

theirs; and further, that every man passes bydeath from his world into the other, and lives

7




in it to eternity. In order that Influx, whichis the subject of this little work, may be unfolded from its beginning, it is necessary that

some information respecting both these worldsshould be premised; for the spiritual worldflows into the natural world, ana actuates it inall jfS-parts, both with menand beasts,-andalso constitutes the vegetative principle intrees and herbs.

8



11.

THE SPIRITUAL WORLD FIRST EXISTED AND

CONTINUALLY SUBSISTS FROM ITS OWN SUN;

AND THE NATURAL WORLD FROM ITS OWN

SUN.

(1)THAT there is one sun of the spiritualworld and another of the natural world, isbecause those worlds are altogether distinctfrom each other, and a world derives its originfrom a sun. For a world in which all thingsare spiritual, cannot originate from a sun, allthe products of which are natural; since thus

there would be physical influx, which, how-ever, is contrary to order. That the worldcame into existence from the sun, and not thesun from the world, is evident from the conse-quence of the fact that the world, as to allthings belonging to it, in general and in par-ticular, subsists by means of the sun; and

subsistence proves existence, wherefore it issaid that subsistence is perpetual existence:whence it is evident, that if the sun were re-moved its world would fall into chaos, and

this chaos into nothing.That in the spiritual world there is a sun 2

different from that in the natural world, I am

able to testify, for I have seen i t: in appear-ance it is fiery, like our sun, of nearly the same

9




magnitude, and at a distance from the angelsas our sun is from men. I t does not rise or set,

however, but stands immovable in a middlealtitude between the zenith and the horizon;whence the angels enjoy perpetual light and

perpetual spring.3 A man given to reasoning, who knows

nothing concerning the sun of the spiritualworld, easily becomes insane in his idea of the

creation of the universe. When he deeplyconsiders it, lie perceives no otherwise than

that it is from nature; and because the originof nature is the sun, that it is from its sun as acreator. Moreover, no one can have a percep-tion of spiritual influx, unless he also knows itsorigin: for all influx proceeds from a sun;

spiritual influx from its sun, and natural influxfrom its sun. The internal sight of a man,which is the sight of his mind, receives in11Ux

from the spiritual sun; but the external sight,which is that of the body, receives influx fromthe natural sun; and in operation they unite,just as the soul does with the body.

4 Hence it is evident into what blindness, dark-ness, and stupidity those may fall who knownothing of the spiritual world and its -sun :into blindness, because the mind, dependingsolely upon the sight of the eye, becomes in itsreasonings like a bat, which flies by night in awandering course, and sometimes against linen

clothes which may be hanging up; into dark-ness, because the sight of the mind, when the

10




sight of the eye is flowing into it from within,is deprived of all spiritual light [lumenJ, and

becomes like that of an owl; into stupidity,because the man still thinks, but from natural

things concerning spiritual, and not contrari-wise; consequently, idiotically, foolishly, andinsanely.

II



Ill.THE SUN OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD IS PURE

LOVE FROM JEHOVAH GOD, WHO IS IN THE

MIDST OF IT.

Q":JSPIRITUAL things cannot proceed from any

other source than from love, nor love fromany other source than from Jehovah God, whois love itself: wherefore the sun of the spiritualworld, from which, as from their fountain, allspiritual things stream forth, is pure love pro-ceeding from Jehovah God, who is in the midst

of it. That sun itself is not God, but is fromGod: it

isthe

nearest spherearound Him

fromHimself. By means of this sun the universe wascreated by Jehovah God; by which are meant

all worlds considered as one whole, which are asmany as the stars in the expanse of our heaven.

2 Creation was effected by means of that sun,which is pure love, thus by Jehovah God; be-

cause love is the very Being (esse) of life, andwisdom is the Manifestation (existere) of lifefrom thence, and all things were created fromlove by means of wisdom. This is understoodby these words in John: "The Word was withGod, and God was the Word. All things weremade by Him and without Him was not anything

made that was made: and the world was made byH ~ ' m " (i. I , 3, 10). The Word there is the

12



5J INTERCOURSE OF SOUL AND BODY

Divine Truth, thus likewise the DivineWisdom; wherefore, also, the Word is therecalled (ver. 9) the light which enlightens everyman, in like manner as does the DivineWisdom by means of the Divine Truth.

Those who deduce the origin of worlds from 3any other source than from the Divine Love by

means of the Divine Wisdom, are deluded likethose mentally afflicted, who see spectres asmen, phantoms as luminous objects, and

imaginary beings as real figures. For thecreated universe is a coherent work, from loveby means of wisdom: this you will see, if youare able to view the connection of things inorder, from first principles to ultimates.

As God is one, so also the spiritual sun is 4one; for extension of space is not predicable ofspiritual things, which are its derivations: and

essence and existence, which are without space,are everywhere in spaces without space; thusthe Divine Love is everywhere from the begin-ning of the universe to all its boundaries. That

the Divine fills all things, and by such infilling

preserves them in the state in which they werecreated, the rational faculty sees remotely:and it sees it more nearly, in proportion as ithas a knowledge of the nature of love as it is in

itself ; of its conjunction with wisdom that

ends may be perceived, of its influx intowisdom that causes may be exhibited, and of

its operation by means of wisdom that effectsmay be produced.

13



IV.

FROM THAT SUN PROCEED HEAT AND LIGHT;

THE HEAT PROCEEDING FROM IT IS IN ITS

ESSENCE LOVE, AND THE LIGHT FROM IT IS IN

ITS ESSENCE WISDOM.

<1) IT is well known that in the Word, and

thence in the common language of preachers,the Divine Love is expressed by fire; as whenprayer is offered that heavenly fire may fill the

heart, and kindle holy desires to worship God:

the reason is, because fire corresponds to love,and thence signifies it. Hence it is, that]ehovah God appeared before Moses as a firein the bush, and in like manner before the

children of Israel on Mount Sinai; and that it

was commanded for fire to be perpetually keptupon the altar, and for the lights of the candle-stick in the tabernacle to be lighted everyevening: these commands were given because

fire signified love.2 That such fire has heat proceeding from it,appears plainly from the effects of love: thusa man is set on fire, grows warm, and becomesinflamed, as his love is exalted into zeal, orinto the glow of anger. The heat of the blood,or the vital heat of men, and of animals in

general, proceeds solely from love, whichconstitutes their life. Neither is infernal fire

14




anything else than love opposite to heavenlylove. Thence it is, as was stated above, that the

Divine Love appears to the angels in their

world, as the sun, fiery, like our sun; and that

the angels enjoy heat according to their recep-tion of love from Jehovah God by means ofthat sun. 3

I t follows from this, that the light there is inits essence wisdom; for love and wisdom, like

Being (esse) and Manifestation (existere), are in-divisible, since love is manifested by means ofwisdom and according to it. This is as it is inour world: at the time of spring heat unitesitself with light, and causes germination, and atlength fruit. Moreover, everyone knows that

spiritual heat is love and spiritual light is

wisdom; for a man grows warm as he loves,and his understanding is in light as he becomesWIse.

r have often seen that spiritual light. I t 4immensely exceeds natural light in brightnessand splendour, for it is as brightness and

splendour in their very essence: it appears like

resplendent and dazzling snow, such as thegarments of the Lord appeared when He wastransfigured (Mark ix. 3 ; Luke ix. 29). Aslight is wisdom, therefore the Lord calls Him-

self the light which enlightens every man

(John i. 9); and says in other places that He

is light itself (John iii. 19; viii. 12; xii. 35.

36, 46); that is, that He is the Divine Truthitself, which is the Word, thus wisdom itself.

15




5 I t is believed that natural light [lumen],which also is rational. proceeds from the lightof our world: but it proceeds from the light ofthe sun of the spiritual world; for the sight ofthe mind flows into the sight of the eye, thus

also the light of the spiritual world into thelight of the natural world, but not contrari-wise: were it otherwise, there would bephysical and not spiritual influx.

16



v.BOTH THAT HEAT AND 'THAT LIGHT FLOW INTO

MAN: TH E HEAT INTO HIS WILL, WHERE IT

PRODUCES THE GOOD OF LOVE; AND THE

LIGHT INTO HIS UNDERSTANDING, WHERE IT

PRODUCES TH E TRUTH OF WISDOM.

7)IT is well known that all things univers-ally have relation to good and truth, and that

there is not a single thing in existence in whichthere is not something related to those two.On this account there are two receptacles oflife in man: one, which is the receptacle ofgood, called the will; and another, which is

the receptacle of truth, called the understand-ing; and, as good is of love and truth is ofwisdom, the will is the receptacle of love, andthe understanding the receptacle of wisdom.Good is of love, because what a man loves that

he wills, and when he brings it into act he callsit good; and truth is of wisdom, because all

wisdom is from truths; indeed, the good whicha wise man thinks, is truth, which becomesgood when he wills and does it.

He who does not rightly distinguish between 2these two receptacles of life, which are the willand the understanding, and does not form forhimself a clear notion respecting them, strives

in vain to comprehend the nature of spiritualinflux. For there is influx into the will, and

1 ]




there is influx into the understanding. Into

the will of man there is an influx of the good oflove, and into his understanding there is an

influx of the truth of wisdom; each proceedingfrom ]ehovah God, immediately through thesun in the midst of which He is, and mediatelythrough the angelic heaven. These two recep-tacles, the will and the understanding, are asdistinct as heat and light; for, as was saidabove, the will receives the heat of heaven,which in its essence is love, and the under-standing receives the light of heaven, which inits essence is wisdom.

3 There is an influx from the human mind intothe speech, and there is an influx into the

actions; the influx into speech is from the will

through the understanding, but the influx intothe actions is from the understanding throughthe will. Those who are only acquainted with theinflux into the understanding, and not at the

same time with that into the will, and whoreason and conclude therefrom, are like one-eyed persons, who only see the objects on one

side of them, and not at the same time those onthe other; and like maimed persons, who dotheir work awkwardly with one hand only; and

like lame persons, who walk by hopping on onefoot, with the assistance of a staff. From thesefew observations it is plain that ~ p i r i t u a l he2-tflows into the will of ~ n and produces the good

of love, and that s p " i . ! : . ~ t u ~ J ) i g h t flows into h!sunderstanding, and produces the tru th ofwisdom.

18



VI.

THOSE TWO, HEAT AND LIGHT, OR LOVE AND

WISDOM, FLOW CONJOINTLY FROM GOD INTO

THE SOUL OF MAN; AND THROUGH THIS INTO

HIS MIND, ITS AFFECTIONS AND THOUGHTS;

AND FROM THESE INTO THE SENSES, SPEECH

AND ACTIONS OF TH E BODY.

@T H E spiritual influx hitherto treated of by

men of cultivated abilities, is that from the soulinto the body, but no one has treated of influxinto the soul, and through this into the body;

although it is known that all the good of loveand all the truth of faith flow from God intoman, and nothing of them from man; and

those things which flow from God flow firstinto his soul, and through his soul into therational mind, and through this into thosethings which constitute the body. I f anyone

investigates spiritual influx in any other

manner, he is like one who stops up the courseof a fountain and still seeks there perennialstreams; or like one who deduces the origin ofa tree from the root and not from the seed; orlike one who examines derivations apart fromtheir source.

For the soul is not life in itself, but is a 2

recipientof

life from God, whois

life in Him-self; and all influx is of life, thus from God.

19




This is meant by the statement: "JehovahGod breathed into man's nostrils the breath of

lives, and man was made a living soul" (Gen.

ii. 7.) To breathe into the nostrils the breathof lives, signifies, to implant the perception ofgood and truth. The Lord also says of Himself, "As the Father hath life in Himself, so hathHe also given to the Son to have life in Himself"

(John v. 26): life in Himself is God; and thelife of the soul is life flowing in from God.

3 Now inasmuch as all influx is of life, and lifeoperates by means of its receptacles, and theinmost or first of the receptacles in man is hissoul, therefore, in order that influx may berightly apprehended, it is necessary to beginfrom God, and not from an intermediatestation. Were we to begin from an intermediate station, our doctrine of influx wouldbe like a chariot without wheels, or like a shipwithout sails. This being the case, therefore,in the preceding articles we have treated of thesun of the spiritual world, in the midst of whichis ]ehovah God (no. 5); and of the influxthence of love and wisdom, thus of life (nos.

6,7)·4 That life flows from God into man through\ the soul, and through this into his mind,-"thatis, into its affections and thoughts, and fromthese into the senses, speech, and actions of thebody, is because these _are the things "p.e.r.1?-ining to life in successive order. For the minois

subordinate to the soul, and the body is

20




subordinate to the mind. The mind, also, hastwo lives, the one of the will and the other ofthe understanding. The life of its will is t h g2.0d o!}ove, the derivations of which are calledaffections; and the life of the understandingthere is the truth of wisdom, the derivations ofwhich are called thoughtS: by means of thelatter and the former the mind lives. The lifeof the body, on the other hand, are the senses,speech, and actions: that these are derivedfrom the soul through the mind follows fromthe order in which they stand, and from thisthey manifest themselves to a wise man with-out examination.

The human soul, being a superior spiritual 5substance, receives influx immediately fromq.Q.d; but the human mind, being an inferiorspiritual substance, receives influx from Godmediately through the spiritual world; and

the body, being composed of the substances ofnature which are called matter, receives influxfrom God mediately t h r ~ u g h the natural world.

That the good of love and the truth of( ~ i ~ Q ! 1 ; l flow' from God into the soul of aman\ conjointly, that is, united into one, but that

they are divided by the man in their progress,and are conjoined only with those who sufferthemselves to be led by God, will be seen in thefollowing articles.

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VII.

THE SUN OF THE NATURAL WORLD IS PURE

FIRE; AND THE WORLD OF NATURE FIRST

EXISTED AND CONTINUALLY SUBSISTS BY

MEANS OF THIS SUN.

(9)THAT nature and its world-by which we

mean the atmospheres and the earths whichare called planets, among which is the terra-queous globe on which we dwell, together withall the productions, in general and in particular,which annually adorn its surface-subsist solelyfrom the sun, which constitutes their centre,and which, by the rays of its light and the

modifications of its heat, is everywhere present,every one knows for certain, from his own ex-perience, from the testimony of the senses, and

from the writings which treat of the way inwhich the world has been peopled. As, there-fore, perpetual subsistence is from this source,reason may also conclude with certainty that

existence is likewise from the same; for per-petually to subsist is perpetually to exist as athing first existed. Hence it follows, that thenatural world was created by Jehovah God by

means of this sun as a secondary cause.That there are spiritual things and natural

things, entirely distinct from each other, and

that the origin and support of spiritual things

22

2




are from a sun which is pure love, in the midst

of which is Jehovah God, the Creator and

Upholder of the universe, has been demon-

strated before; but that the origin andsupport of natural things are a sun which ispure fire, and that the latter is derived fromthe former, and both from God, follows ofitself, as what is posterior follows from what isprior, and what is prior from THE FIRST.

That the sun of nature and Its worlds is pure 3

fire, all its effects demonstrate: as the concen-tration of its rays into a focus by the art ofoptics, from which proceeds violently burningfire and also flame; the nature of its heat,

which is similar to heat from elementary fire;

the graduation of that heat according to itsangle of incidence, whence proceed the varieties

of climate, and also the four seasons of the

year; besides many other facts, from whichthe rational faculty, by means of the senses ofthe body, may confirm the truth that the sun

of the natural world is mere fire, and also that

it is fire in its utmost purity.

Those who know nothing concerning the 4origin of spiritual things from their own sun,but are only acquainted with the origin ofnatural things from theirs, can scarcely avoidconfounding spiritual and natural things to-gether, and concluding, through the fallacies9f the senses and of the rational faculty derivedfrom them, that spiritual things are --riO-fIling

but pure natural things, and that from the

23




activity of these latter, excited by heat and

( light, arise wisdom and love. These persons,since they see nothing else with their eyes, and

smell nothing else with their nostrils, andbreathe nothing else with their chest, than

nature, ascribe to it all things rational also;

and thus they imbibe naturalism as a spongesucks up water. Such persons may be com-pared to charioteers who yoke the team ofhorses behind the carriage, and not before it.

5 The case is otherwise with those who distin-, guish between things spiritual and natural,

and deduce the latter from the former. Thesealso perceive the influx of the soul into thebody; they perceive that it is spiritual, and

' that natural things, which are those of thebody, serve the soul for vehicles and mediums,

). by which to produce its effects in the natural

world. I f you conclude otherwise you may belikened to a crayfish, which assists its progressin walking with its tail, and draws its eyesbackward at every step; and your rationalsight may be compared to the sight of the eyesof Argus in the back of his head, when those inhis forehead were asleep. Such persons alsobelieve themselves to be Arguses in reasoning ;for they say, "Who does not see that theorigin of the universe is from nature? and

what then is God but the inmost extension ofnature? " and make similar irrational oQsetTIl-ti.9_ns;

of which they boast morethan

wisemen do of their rational sentiments.

24



VIII.

THEREFORE EVERYTHING WHICH PROCEEDSFROM THIS SUN, REGARDED IN ITSELF, IS DEAD.

'IQ:) WHO does not see from the rationalfa2U"lty belonging to his understanding, if thisbe a little elevated above the things of the

bodily senses, that love, regarded in itself, isalive, and that the appearance of its fire is life;

and, on the contrary, that elementary fire, regarded in itself, is respectively dead; consequently, that the sun of the spiritual world,being pure love, is alive, and that the sun ofthe natural world, being pure fire, is dead;

and that the case is the same with all theproducts which proceed and exist from them?

There are two things which produce all the 2effects in the universe, LIFE and NATURE; and

they produce them according to order, whenlife, from within, actuates n<!"ture. The case isoth.erwise, when nature, from within, causeslife to act; which occurs with those who placenature, which in itself is dead, above andrwithin life, and thence wholly devote themselves to the pleasures of the senses and the

\ lusts of the flesh, esteeming the spiritual things,I of the soul, and the truly rational things of the

mind, as nothing. T h e s ~ persons, . . 9 J l _ a ~ t of this inversion, are those who are called THE---.. -- -_. ~ . ' .

25




DEAD: such are all atheistic materialists in theworld, and all the satans in hell.

3 They are also called the d ~ ~ d in the Word; as

in David: "They joined themselves also untoBaal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead"

(Psalm cvi. 28). "The enemy persecutes my

soul; he makes me to sit in darkness, as the dead

of the world" (Psalm cxliii. 3). "To hear the

groaning of the prisoner, and to set at liberty the

sons of death" (Psalm cii. 20). And in Reve

-lation: " I know thy works, that thou hast aname that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful,and strengthen the things which remain, that are

ready to die" (iii. I, 2).4 They are called the dead, because spiritual

death is condemnation; and condemnation isthe lot of those who believe life to be from

nature, and thus believe the light of nature tobe the light of life, and thereby conceal, suffocate, and extinguish every idea of GoO:-oJheaven, and of eternal life. In consequence of sodoing, such persons are like owls, which see lightin darkness, and darkness in light, that is, theysee falsities as truths, and evils as goods; and, as

the delights of evil are the delights of theirhearts,they are not unlike those birds and beasts whichdevour dead bodies as choice delicacies, and

scent the stenches arising from graves as balsamic odours. They also see no influx bu t such as isphysical or natural; if, notwithstanding, theyaffirm influx to be spiritual, it is not from any

idea of it, but from the mouth of their instructor.26



IX.

THAT WHICH IS SPIRITUAL CLOTHES ITSELF WITH

THAT WHICH IS NATURAL. AS A MAN CLOTHES

HIMSELF WITH A GARMENT.

@'J IT is well known that both an active and

a passive are necessary to every operation. and

that nothing can be produced from an active

alone. and nothing from a passive alone. I t issimilar with what is spiritual and what isnatural: what is spiritual, as a living force.being active. and what is natural. as a deadforce. being passive. Hence it follows that

whatever existed in this solar world from thebeginning. and whatever comes into existencefrom moment to moment since. exists fromwhat is spiritual by means of what is natural;

and this not only in regard to the subjects ofthe animal kingdom. but also to those of thevegetable kingdom:

Another similar fact is also known, namely. 2tha t in every effect which is produced there areboth a principal and an instrumental cause,and that these two. when anything is done.appear as one. although they are distinctlytwo; wherefore it is one of the laws of wisdom,that the principal cause and the instrumental

cause make together one cause:so

also dowhat is spiritual and what is natural. The

27

THE INTERCOURSE OF [rr



reason that in producing effects these twoappear as one, is because the spiritual is withinthe natural, as a fibre is within a muscle and

blood within the arteries, or as thought is ,in-wardly in speech and affection in the tones ofthe voice; and it causes itself to be felt by

means of the natural. From these considera-tions-though thus far only indistinctly, asthrough a lattice-it appears that what isspiritual clothes itself with what is natural, as

a man clothes himself with a garment.3 The organic body with which the soul clothes

itself, is here compared with a garment, becauseit invests the soul; and the soul also with-draws itself from it, and casts it off as oldclothing, when it departs by death from thenatural into its own spiritual world. Moreover,

the body grows old like a garment, but not thesoul; because this is a spiritual substance,which has nothing in common with the changesof nature, which advance from their beginningsto their ends, and are terminated at stated

times.4 Those who do not consider the body as a

vesture or covering of the soul, which in itselfis dead, and only adapted to receive the livingforces flowing into it through the soul fromGod, cannot avoid concluding from fallaciesthat the soul lives of itself, and the body ofitself, and that there is, between their respec-tive lives, a PRE-ESTABLISHED HARMONY. Theylikewise infer either that the life of the soul

28

n ] TH E SOUL AND THE BODY



flows into the life of the body, or the life of thebody into the life of the soul, whence they con-ceive INFLUX to be either SPIRITUAL or

NATURAL: when, nevertheless, it is a truth

attested by every object in creation, that what

is posterior does not act from itself, but fromsomething prior, from which it proceeded;thus that neither does this act from itself, but

from something still prior; and thus that

nothing acts except from a First, which doesact from itself, thus from God. Besides, thereis only one life, and this is not capable of beingcreated, but is eminently capable of flowinginto forms organically adapted to its recep-tion: all things in the created universe, ingeneral and in particular, are such forms.

I tis

believed by many that the soulis

life, 5( and thus that a man, since he lives from his" soul, lives from his own life, thus of himself,l consequently not by an influx of life from God.( But such persons cannot avoid tying a sort of\ Gordian knot of fallacies, in which they en-' tangle all the judgments of their mind, till

'nothing but insanity in regard to spiritualthings is the result; or they construct a maze,from which the mind can never, by any clue ofreason, retrace its way and extricate itself.They also actually let themselves down, as it

were, into caverns underground, where they

dwell in eternal darkness.

For from such a belief proceed innumerable 6fallacies, each of which is horrible: as that

29

INTERCOURSE OF SOUL AND BODY [ I I



God has transfused and transcribed Himselfinto men, whence every man is a sort of deitythat lives of himself, and thus that he does good

and is wise from himself; likewise, that hepossesses faith and charity in himself, a n ~ ~ _ u s

( derives them from himself, and not from God;

besides other monstrous sentiments, such asprevail with those in hell, who, when they werein the world, believed nature to live, or toproduce }ife by its own a c t j _ ~ i t y . When these

look towards heaven, its light appears to themas mere thick darkness.

7 I once heard from heaven the voice of some\ one saying, That if a spark of life in man wereI his own, and not of God in him, there would be

no heaven nor anything that exists there;

whence also there would be no church on

earth, and consequently no life eternal.For further particulars relating to this sub

ject, the memorable relation in the work onCONJUGIAL LOVE, nos. 132-136,. may beconsulted.

• And in the TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, no. 48.

3°



x.SPIRITUAL THINGS, THUS CLOTHED IN A MAN,

ENABLE HIM TO LIVE AS A RATIONAL AND

MORAL MAN, THUS AS A SPIRITUALLY NATURAL

MAN.

@ THIS follows as a conclusion from the

prmciple established above, that the soulclothes itself with a body as a man clothes him-self with a garment. For the soul flows intothe human mind, and through this into thebody, bearing with it the life which it con-tinually receives from the Lord, and transfer-ring it thus mediately into the body; where,by means of the closest union, it causes thebody, as it were, to live. From this, and froma thousand testimonies of experience, it is evi-dent that what is spiritual, united to what ismaterial, as a living force with a dead force,causes a man to speak rationally and to act

morally.I t appears as if the tongue and lips speak 2

from a certain life in themselves, and as if thearms and hands act in a like manner; but it isthe thought, which in itself is spiritual, whichspeaks, and the will, which is likewise spiritual,which acts; and each by means of its ownorgans, which in themselves are material,because taken from the natural world. That

31




this is the case appears in the light of day, pro-vided this consideration be attended to:Remove thought from speech, is not the

mouth in a moment dumb? so, remove willfrom action, and do not the hands in a momentbecome still ?

3 The union of spiritual with natural things,and the consequent appearance of life inmaterial objects, may be compared to generouswine in a clean sponge, to the sweet must in a

grape, to the delicious juice in an apple, and tothe aromatic odour in cinnamon. The con-taining fibres of all these are material sub-stances, which of themselves have neither tastenor smell, but derive them from the fluids inand between them; wherefore, if you squeezeout those juices, they become dead filaments.

I t is the same with the organs of the body, iflife be taken away.

4 That a man is a rational being by virtue ofthe union of spiritual things with natural, isevident from the analytical processes of histhought; and that he is a moral being fromthe same cause, is evident from the excellences

of his conduct and the propriety of hisdemeanour. These he possesses by v i r t u ~ ~ f

I his faculty of being able to receive influx fr_<?m

the Lord through the angelic heaven, wherethere is the very abode of wisdom and love,thus of rationality and morality. Hence it

may be perceived, that the union in a man ofwhat is spiritual with what is natural, c ~ l ! ~ s

32




him to live as a spirLtually natural man. Thereason that he lives in a similar and yet dis-similar manner after death, is because his soul

is then clothed with a substantial body, just asin the natural world it was clothed with amaterial body.

I t is believed by many that the perceptions 5and thoughts of the mind, being spiritual, flowin naked, and not by means of organizedforms. Those thus dream, however, who have

not seen the interiors of the head, where theperceptions and thoughts are in their begin-nings, ami who are ignorant that the brains arethere, interwoven and composed of the greyand white matter, together with the glands,ventricles and divisions, and all surrounded by

the covering membranes; and who likewise do

not know that a man thinks and wills sanely orinsanely according to the sound or distortedcondition of all those organs; consequently,that he is rational and moral according to theorganic structure of his mind. For the rationalsight of a man, which is the understanding,without forms organized for the reception ofspiritual ligfit, would be an abstract notlllng,just as his natural sight would be without eyes;and so in other instances.

33



XI.

THE RECEPTION OF THAT INFLUX IS ACCORDING

TO THE STATE OF LOVE AND WISDOM WITH

MAN.

@ THAT a man is not life, but .a_n o r g ~ n recIpient of life from God, and that love In

union with wisdom is life; also, that God islove itself and wisdom itself, and thus lifeitself, has been demonstrated above. Hence itfollows, that so far as a man loves wisdom, or

so far as wisdom embosomed in love is withinhim, so far he is an image of God, that is, areceptacle of life from God; and on the con-

trary, that so far as he is in the opposite loveand thence in insanity, so far he does not

receive life from God but from hell, which lifeis called death.

j

2 Love itself and wisdom itself are not life, but

( are the Being (esse) of life. On the other hand,) the delights of love and the pleasures of\ wisdom, which are affections, constitute life;) for by their means the Being (esse) of life is

manifested. The influx of life from God carrieswith it those delights and pleasures; just asthe influx of light and heat in springtimeconveys delight and pleasure into humanminds, and also into birds and beasts of everykind, and even into vegetables, which then put

34

13) INTERCOURSE OF SOUL AND BODY



forth their buds and grow fruitful. For the

delights of love and the pleasures of wisdomexpand the mind and adapt it to reception.

just as joy and gladness expand the face. andadapt it to the influx of the cheerfulness of the

soul.The man who is affected with the love of 3

wisdom is like the garden in Eden. in-whichthere are two trees, the one of life, and the \other of the knowledge of good and evil. The

( t ~ of life is the reception of love and wisdom) from God, and the tree of the knowledgeofl good and evil is the reception of them from

self. The man who receives them in the latter

( fashion is insane. yet still believes himself to be

j wise like God; but he that receives them in) the former method is truly wise, and believes

, no one to be wise but God alone, and that aman is wise so far as he believes this, and stillmore so as he feels that he wills it. But moreon this subject may be seen in the memorablerelation inserted in the work on CONJUGIAL

LOVE, nos. 132-136.*I will here add an arcanum confirming these 4

facts from heaven. All the angels of heaventurn the front of the head towards the Lord asa sun, and all the angels of hell turn the back

of the head to Him. The latter receive influxinto the affections of their will, which in themselves are lusts, and make the understandingfavour them; but the former receive influx

* Or TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, no. 48,

3S

I




into the affections of their understanding, and

make the will favour them: these, therefore,are in wisdom, but the others in insanity. For

the human understanding dwells in the cere-brum, which is behind the forehead, and thewill in the cerebellum, which is in the back ofthe head.

5 Who does not know that a man who is insanethrough falsities, favours the lusts of his ownevil, and confirms them by reasons drawn from

the understanding; whereas a wise man seesfrom truths the character of the lusts of hisown will, and restrains them? A wise mandoes this, because he turns his face to God, thatis, he believes in God, and not in himself; but

an insane man does the other, because he turnshis face from God, that is, he believes in him-

self, and not in God. To believe in one's self isto believe that one loves and is wise from self,and not from God, and this is signified by eatingof the tree of the knowledge of good and evil;

but to believe in God, is to believe that oneloves and is wise from God and not from self,and this is to eat of the tree of life (Rev. ii. 7).

6 From these considerations it may be per-ceived, but as yet only as in the light of themoon by night, that the r e c ~ p t i o n of the i n ~ . ! : . . x of life from God is according to the state of love~ n ~ i s d o m with a man. This influx may befurlller illustrated by the influx of light and

heat into vegetables, which blossom and bear

fruit according to the structure of the fibres

36




which form them, thus according to reception.I t may also be illustrated by the influx of therays of light into precious stones, which modify

them into colours according to the arrangementof the parts composing them, thus also accord-ing to reception; and likewise by opticalglasses and by drops of rain, which exhibitrainbows according to the incidence, therefraction, and thus the reception of light. Itis similar with human minds in respect to

spiritual light, which proceeds from the Lordas a sun, and perpetually flows in, but isvariously received.

37



XII.

THE UNDERSTANDING IN A MAN CAN BE RAISED

INTO THE LIGHT, THAT IS , INTO THE WISDOM

IN WHICH ARE THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN,

ACCORDING TO TH E CULTIVATION OF HIS

REASON; AND HIS WILL CAN BE RAISED IN

LIKE MANNER INTO THE HEAT OF HEAVEN,

THAT IS , INTO LOVE, ACCORDING TO TH E

DEEDS OF HIS LIFE; BUT THE LOVE OF THE

WILL IS NOT RAISED, EXCEPT SO FAR AS THE

MAN WILLS AND DOES THOSE THINGS WHICH

THE WISDOM OF THE UNDERSTANDING

TEACHES.

@ By the human mind are to be under-stood its two faculties, which are called theunderstanding and the will. The understand-ing is the receptacle of the light of heaven,which in its essence is wisdom; and the will isthe receptacle of the heat of heaven, which inits essence is love, as was shewn above. These

two, wisdom and love, proceed from the Lordas a sun, and flow into heaven universally andindividually, whence the angels have wisdomand love; and they also flow into this worlduniversally and individually, whence men havewisdom and love.

2 Moreover, those two principles proceed in

union from the Lord, and likewise flow in union38

14] INTERCOURSE OF SOUL AND BODY



into the souls of angels and men; but they arenot received in union in their minds. The firstreceived there is the light which forms the

understanding, and by slow degrees, thelove which forms the will. This also is ofProvidence: for every man is to be createdanew, that is, reformed; and this is effectedby means of the understanding. For hemust imbibe from infancy the knowledgeof truth and good, which will teach him

to live well, that is, to will and act rightly:thus the will is formed by means of theunderstanding.

For the sake of this end, there is given to 3man the faculty of raising his understandingalmost into the light in which the angels ofheaven are; that he may see what he ought to

will and thence to do, in order to be prosperousin the world for a time, and blessed after deathto eternity. He becomes prosperous and

blessed, if he procures to himself wisdom, and

keeps his will in obedience thereto; but un-prosperous and unhappy, if he puts his under-standing under obedience to his will. Thereason is because the will inclines from birth

towards evils, even to those which are enor-mous; wherefore, unless it were restrained by

means of the understanding, a man would rushinto acts of wickedness, indeed, from his in-herent savage nature, he would destroy and

slaughter, for the sake of himself, all who donot favour and indulge him.

39




4 Besides, unless the understanding could beseparately perfected, and the will be means ofit, a man would not be a man but a beast. For

without that separation, and without theascent of the understanding above the will, hewould not be able to think, and from thoughtto speak, but only to express his affection by

sounds; neither would he be able to act fromreason, but only from instinct; still less wouldhe be able to know the things which are of God,

and by means of them to know God, and thusto be conjoined to Him, and to live to eternity.

(For a man thinks and wills as of himself; and

)this thinking and willing as of himself is thereciprocal element of conjunction: for therecan be no conjunction without reciprocity, just

; as there can be no conjunction of an active

with a passive without reaction. God aloneacts, and a man suffers himself to be aCtedupon; and he reacts to all appearance as fromhimself, though interiorly it is from God. --

5 From these considerations, rightly appre-hended, may be seen what is the nature of thelove of a man's will if it is raised by means of

the understanding, and what is its nature if itis not raised; consequently what is the natureof the man. But the nature of a man, if thelove of his will is not raised by means of theunderstanding, shall be illustrated by com-parisons. He is like an eagle fiying on high,which, as soon as it sees below the food whichis the object of its desire, such as chickens,

4°




young swans, or even young lambs, casts itselfdown in a moment and devours them. He isalso like an adulterer, who conceals a harlot in

a cellar below, and who by turns goes up to theuppermost apartments of the house, and converses wisely with those who dwell thereconcerning chastity, and alternately withdrawsfrom the company there and indulges himselfbelow with his harlot.

He is also like a thief on a tower, who pre- 6

tends to keep watch there, but who, as soon ashe sees any object of plunder below, hastensdown and seizes it. He may also be comparedto marsh-flies, which fly in a column over thehead of a horse whilst he is running, but whichfall down when the horse stops, and plungeinto their marsh. Such is the man whose will

or love is not raised by means of the understanding; for he then remains below, at thefoot, immersed in the unclean things of natureand the lusts of the senses. I t is altogetherotherwise with those who subdue the allurements of the lusts of the will by means of the

wisdom of the understanding. With them the

understanding afterwards enters into a marriage-covenant with the will, thus wisdom withlove, and they dwell together above with the

utmost delight.

41



XIII.

IT IS ALTOGETHER OTHERWISE WITH BEASTS.

@ THOSE who judge from"the mere appear-ance presented to the senses of the body,conclude that beasts have will and under-standing just in the same manner as men, and

hence that the only distinction consists in aman's being able to speak. and thus to utter

the things which he thinks and desires, whilebeasts can only express them by sounds.Beasts, however, have not will and under-standing, but only a resemblance of each,which the learned call an analogue.

2 A man is a man, because his understandingcan be raised above the desires of his will, and

thus, from above, can know and see them, and

also govern them; but a beast is a beast,because its desires impel it to do whatever it

does. A man is thus a man from the fact that

his will is under obedience to his understand-

ing; but a beast is a beast from the circum-stance that its understanding is under obedienceto its will. From these considerations this con-clusion follows: that a man's understanding isalive, and thence a true understanding, becauseit receives the light flowing in from heaven, and

takes possession of it and regards it as its own,and thinks from it analytically with all variety,

42

IS] I?'TERCOURSE OF SOUL AND BODY

altogether as if from itself; that a man's



will is alive, and is thence truly will, because it

receives the inflowing love of heaven, and acts

from it as if from itself; but that the contraryis the case with beasts.Wherefore those who think from the lusts of 3

the will, are compared to beasts, and likewise,in the spiritual world, appear at a distance asbeasts; they also act like beasts, with onlythis difference, that they are able to act other-

wise i f they will. Those, on the other hand,who restrain the lusts of their will by means ofthe understanding, and thence act rationallyand wisely, appear in the spiritual world asmen, and are angels of heaven.

In a word, the will and the understanding in 4beasts always work together; and because the

will in itself is blind, being a thing of heat andnot of light, it makes the understanding blindalso. Hence a beast does not know and

understand its own actions; yet it acts,notwithstanding, for it acts by an influxfrom the spiritual world, and such action isinstinct.

I t is supposed that a beast thinks from the 6understanding what to do; but it does not inthe least: it is induced to act solely from thenatural love which is in it from creation, withthe assistance of the senses of its body. Thereason that a man thinks and speaks issimply because his understanding is capable

of being separated from his will, and of beingD 43

THE INTERCOURSE OF [IS

raised even into the light of heaven; for



the understanding thinks, and the thoughtspeaks.

6 The reason why beasts act according to thelaws of order inscribed on their nature, and

some of them, differently from many men, in,as it were, a moral and rational manner, isbecause their understanding is in blindobedience to the desires of their will, and

thence they have not been able to pervert those

desires by depraved reasonings, as men do.I t

is to be observed, that by the will and understanding of beasts in the foregoing statementswe mean a certain resemblance and analogue ofthose faculties. The analogues are called by

the names of those faculties on account of theappearance.

7 The life of a beast may be compared with asleep-walker, who walks and acts by virtue ofthe will while the understanding sleeps; and

also with a blind man, who passes through thestreets with a dog leading him; as likewisewith an idiot, who from custom and the habitthence acquired, does his work according to

rules. I t may be similarly compared with aperson devoid of memory, and thence deprivedof understanding, who still knows or learnshow to clothe himself, to eat the food which heprefers, to love the sex, to walk the streetsfrom house to house, and to do such things assoothe the senses and indulge the flesh, by the

allurements and pleasures of which things he is44

IS] THE SOUL AND THE BODY



drawn along, though he does not think, andtherefore cannot speak.

From these considerations it is evident how 8

much those are mistaken who believe thatbeasts enjoy rationality, and that they are onlydistinguished from men by their outward form,and by their inability to express by speech the

rational things which they conceal within:

from which fallacies many even conclude that

if a man lives after death, a beast will live also;

and, conversely, that if a beast does not liveafter death, neither will a man; besides otherfancies arising from ignorance in regard to the

will and understanding, and also concerningdegrees, by means of which, as by a flight ofstairs, the mind of a man mounts up to heaven.

45



XIV.,..-----, ")

THERE ARE THREE DEGREES IN THE SPIRITUAL

WORLD, AND THREE DEGREES IN THE NATURAL

WORLD, HITHERTO UNKNOWN, ACCORDING TO

WHICH ALL INFLUX TAKES P L A C E " - ' ~ - - ' @> - i is - ' d i ~ ~ ~ ~ ; ~ i ' by the investigation of

causes from effects that there are two kinds ofdegrees; one in which things are prior and

posterior, and another in which they are

greater and less. The degrees which distin

guish things prior and posterior are to be calledDEGREES OF ALTITUDE, or DISCRETE DEGREES;

but the degrees by which things greater and

less are distinguished from each other are to be

called DEGREES OF LATITUDE, and also CON-

TINUOUS DEGREES.

2 Degrees of altitude, or discrete degrees, are

like the generations and compositions of one

thing from another; as for example, of somenerve from it s fibres, and of any fibre from its

fibrils; or of some piece of wood, stone, or

metal from its parts, and of any part from its

particles. But degrees of latitude, or con-tinuous degrees, are like the increases and

decreases of the same degree of altitude with

respect to breadth, length, height and depth;

as of greater and less volumes of water, air, or

46


ether; and as of large and small masses of



wood, stone, or metal.All things in general and in particular in 3

both worlds, the spiritual and the natural, areby creation in degrees of this double kind.The whole animal kingdom in this world is inthose degrees, both in general and in particular;

so likewise are the whole vegetable kingdomand the whole mineral kingdom; and also theatmospheric expanse from the sun even to the

earth.There are, therefore, three atmospheres, dis- 4

cretely distinct according to the degrees of altitude, both in the spiritual and in the natural

world, because each world has a sun; but theatmospheres of the spiritual world, by virtue oftheir origin, are substantial, and the atmos

pheres of the natural world, by virtue of theirorigin, are material. Moreover, since the

atmospheres descend from their origins according to those degrees, and are the containants oflight and heat, and as it were the vehicles by

which they are conveyed, it follows that thereare three degrees of light and heat; and since

the light in the spiritual world is in its essencewisdom, and the heat there in its essence islove, as was shewn above in its proper article,

( i t follows also that there are three degrees of\ wisdom and three degrees of love, conse

quently three degrees of life; for they are graduated by those things through which they

. pass.

47


5 Hence it is that there are three angelic



heavens: a supreme, which is also called thethird heaven, inhabited by angels of the

supreme degree; a middle, which is also calledthe second heaven, inhabited by angels of themiddle degree; and a lowest, which is alsocalled the first heaven, inhabited by angels ofthe lowest degree. Those heavens are also dis-tinguished according to the degrees of wisdomand love: those who are in the lowest heaven

are in the love of knowing truths and goods;those in the middle heaven are in the love ofunderstanding them; and those in the supremeheaven are in the love of being wise, that is, ofliving according to those truths and goodswhich they know and understand.

6 As the angelic heavens are distinguished into

three degrees, so also is the human mind,because the human mind is an image of heaven,that is, it is heaven in its least form. Hence it

is that a man can become an angel of one ofthose three heavens; and he becomes suchaccording to his reception of wisdom and lovefrom the Lord: an angel of the lowest heaven

if he only receives the love of knowing truthsand goods; an angel of the middle heaven if hereceives the love of understanding them; and

an angel of the supreme heaven if he receivesthe love of being wise, that is, of living accord-ing to them. That the human mind is distin-guished into three regions, according to the

three heavens, may be seen in the memorable48


relation inserted in the work on CONJUGIAL



LOVE, no. 270. Hence it is evident that allspiritual influx to a man and into a man from

the Lord descends through these three degrees,and that it is received by the man according tothe degree of wisdom and love in which he is.

A knowledge 9f these. degrees is, at the 7present day, of the g r e a t e s t ~ ! ~ e : for many

persons, in consequence of not knowing them,remain in and cling to the lowest degree, in

which are the senses of their body; and fromtheir ignorance, which is a thick darkness ofthe understanding, they cannot be raised intospiritual light, which is above them. Hencenaturalism takes possession of them, as it werespontaneously, as soon as they attempt toenter on any inquiry and examination concern

ing the soul and the human mind and itsrationality; and still more if they extendtheir inquiries to heaven and the life afterdeath. Hence they become like personsstanding in the market-places with telescopesin their hands, looking at the sky and utteringvain predictions; and also like persons who

chatter and reason about every object they seeand everything they hear, without anythingrational from the understanding being contained in their remarks; but they are likebutchers, who believe themselves to be skilfulanatomists, because they have examined the

viscera of oxen and sheep outwardly, but not

inwardly.

49

8


The truth, however, is, that to think from



the influx of natural light [lumen] not en-lightened by the influx of spiritual light, is

merely to dream, and to speak from suchthought is to make vain assertions like fortune-tellers. But further particulars concerningdegrees may be seen in the work on the DIVINELOVE AND THE DIVINE WISDOM, nos. 173-281.

.50



xv.(-' -'"ENDS ARE IN THE FIRST DEGREE, CAUSES

IN THE SECOND, AND EFFECTS IN THE

THIRD.

QV WHO d o e ~ not see that the end is not the

cause, but that It produces the cause, and that

the cause is not the effect, but that it producesthe effect, consequently, that these are threedistinct things which follow one another inorder? The end with a. man is the love of hiswill; for what a man loves, this he proposes tohimself and intends: the cause with him is the

reason of his understanding; for by means ofreason the end seeks for middle or efficientcauses: and the effect is the operation of thebody, from and according to the end and thecause. Thus there are three things in a man

which follow one another in order, in the samemanner as the degrees of altitude follow oneanother. When these three are established, the

end is inwardly in the cause, and, by means ofthe cause, the end is in the effect: thus thesethree exist together in the effect. On tIllsaccount it is said-in the Worathat every oneshall be judged according to his works; forthe end, or the love of his will, and the cause,or the reason of his understanding, are simul

taneously present in the effects, which are the51


works of his body: thus in them is containedthe quality of the whole man.



2 Those who do not know these truths, and

thus distinguish the objects of reason, cannot

avoid terminating the ideas of their thoughteither in the atoms of Epicurus, the monads ofLeibnitz, or the simple substances of Wolff.Inevitably, therefore, they shut up ~ ~ _ ! m d e r -§J:.!lpding as with a bolt, so that it cannoteven

, t h i n k ~ f r o ~ . . ! ~ a s o n concerning spiritual i n ~ ~ x , I because it cannot think of any progreSSIOn;for, says the author concerning his simple substance, if it is divided it falls to nothing. Thus

I the understanding remains in its own first light) [lumen], which merely proceeds from the senses'10f the body, and does not advance a step

further. Hence it is not known but that thespiritual is the natural attenuated; that beastshave rationality as well as men; and that thesoul is a puff of wind, like that breathed forthfrom the chest when a person dies: besidesseveral ideas which are not of the light, but ofthick darkness.

3 As all things in the spiritual world, and all

things in-the naturalwor1d, proceed accordmgto these degrees, as was shewn in The precedingarticle, it is evident that intelligence properlyconsists in knowing and distinguishing--them,and seeing them in their order. By means ofthese -degrees, a l s o ~ every man is known as tohis quality, when his love is known; for, as

observed above, the end which is of the will,52

I7J THE SOUL AND THE BODY

the causes which are of the understanding, and



the effects which are of the body, follow fromhis love, as a tree from its seed, and as fruit

from a tree.There are three kinds of loves: the love of 4heaven, the love of the world, and the love ofself; the love of heaven is spiritual, the lovethe world material, and the love of self corporeal. When the love is ~ p i r i t ~ l a l , all the

) things which follow from it, as forms froin

theIr essence, derive a spiritual quality----:SO,(" also, if the principal love is the love of the

\ world or of wealth, and thus material, all the! things which follow from it, as derivativesfrom their first origin, derive a material quali.ty :so, again, if the principal love15 the-lOVe ·of self,or of eminence above all others, and thus cor

\ poreal, all the things which follow from it( d e . . r l ~ ~ . ~ ~ r p ~ [ ~ ~ l ~ t y ; because the man

who cherishes this love regards himself alone,and thus immerses the thoughts of his mind inthe body. Wherefore, as just remarked, hewho knows the reigning love of anyone, and isat thesametime· acquaiIitecf\vifu the pro

gression of ends to causes and of causes toeffects, which three things follow one anotherin order according tq the degrees of altitude,knows tlle whole man. In this way the angels of

) heaven know every one with whom they speak:they perceive his love from the sound of his voice;

. from his face they see an image of him; and from

: the gestures of his body his character.53



XVI.

HENCE IT IS EVIDENT WHAT IS THE NATURE

OF SPIRITUAL INFLUX FROM ITS ORIGIN TO

ITS EFFECTS.

(I8) SPIRITUAL influx has hitherto beend ~ ~ d from the soul into the body, but notfrom God into the soul and thus into the body.This has been done, because no one had anyknowledge concerning the spiritual world, andthe sun there from which all spiritual thingsstream forth as from their fountain: and thusno one had any knowledge concerning theinflux of spiritual things into natural.

2 Now, since it has been granted me to be inthe spiritual world and in the natural world at

the same time, and thus to see each world and') each sun, I am obliged by my conscience toI communicate these things. - For of WIlalUse

is knowledge unless it be communIcated?What is it, but like collecting and storing up

riches in a casket, and only looking at themoccasionally and counting them over, withoutany intention of ~ P R l y i ! l g _ them t ~ ~ e ? Spiritual avarice is nothing else.

3 But in order that it may be fully knownwhat spiritual influx is, and what is its nature,it is necessary to know what th1!:.t which_jsS ~ A L

is in its essence, and wnat that54

19] INTERCOURSE OF SOUL AND BODY

which is NATURAL; and also what the HUMAN

SOUL is: lest.' therefore, this short treatise



should be defective through ignorance of these

subjects, it will be useful to consult somememorable relations inserted in the work onCONJUGIAL LOVE: concerning what isSPIRITUAL, in the memorable relation there,nos. 326-329; concerning the HUMAN SOUL,

no. 315; and concerning the INFLUX OF

SPIRITUAL THINGS INTO NATURAL, at no. 380;

and more fully at nos. 415-422.*@ To these observations I will add thisMEMORABLE RELATION. After these pages werewritten, I prayed to the Lord that I might bepermitted to converse with some disciples ofARISTOTLE, and at the same time with somedisciples of DESCARTES, and with some disci

ples of LEIBNITZ; in order that I might learnthe opinions of their minds concerning theintercourse of the soul and the body. Aftermy

prayer was ended there came nine men-three

Aristotelians, three Cartesians, and three Leibnitzians-and stood around me; the admirersof Aristotle being on the left side, the followers

of Descartes on the right, and the favourers ofLeibnitz behind. At a considerable distance,and also at a distance from one another, I sawthree persons crowned, as it were, with laurel,whom I knew, by an infiowing perception, to

be those three great leaders or masters them

• The same articles are repeated in the TRUE CHRISTIAN

RELIGION, and will be found at nos. 280, 697. 35. 77 and 12.

55


selves. Behind Leibnitz stood a person holdingthe skirt of his garment, who, I was told, was



2

Wolff. Those nine men, when they beheld one

another, at first saluted one another withcourteous speech, and talked together.But presently there arose from below a spirit

with a torch in his right hand, which he shookbefore their faces; whereupon they becameenemies, three against three, and lookedfiercely at one another, for they were seized

with the lust of altercation and dispute. Thenthe Aristotelians, who were also schoolmen,began to speak, saying, "Who does not seethat object!? flow through the senses into thesoul, as a man enters through the doors into achamber, and that the soul thinks according tosuch influx? When a lover sees a beautiful

virgin, or his bride, does not his eye sparkle,and transmit the love of her into the soul?

When a miser sees bags of money, does he notburn towards them with every sense, and

thence cause this ardour to enter the soul, andexcite the desire of possessing them? When aproud man hears himself praised by another,

does he not prick up his ears, and do not thesetransmit those praises to the soul? Are notthe senses of the body like outer courts,through which alone entrance is obtained tothe soul? From these considerations and in-numerable others of a similar nature, who canconclude otherwise than that influx proceeds

from nature, or is physical? "56


While they were speaking thus, the followers 3of Descartes held their fingers on their fore-



heads; and now withdrawing them they re-plied, saying, "Ah, you speak from appearances.Do you not know that the eye does not love avirgin or bride from itself, but from the soul;

and likewise that the senses of the body do not

covet the bags of money from themselves, but

from the soul; and also that the ears do not

devour the praises of flatterers in any othermanner?

Isit not

perceptionthat

causessensation? And perception is of the soul, and

not of the bodily organ. Say, if you can, what

causes the tongue and lips to speak, but thethought; and what causes the hands to work,but the will? And thought and will are of thesoul, and not of the body. Thus, what causes

the eye to see, and the ears to hear, and theother organs to feel, but the soul? From theseconsiderations, and innumerable others of asimilar kind, every one, whose wisdom risesabove the things of the bodily senses, concludesthat there is no influx of the body into the soul,but of the soul into the body; which influx we

call Occasional, and also Spiritual Influx."When these had been heard, the three men 4who stood behind the former groups of three,and who were the favourers of Leibnitz, beganto speak, saying, "We have heard the argu-ments on both sides, and have compared them;

and we have perceived that in many particulars

the latter are stronger than the former, and57


that in many others the former are strongerthan the latter; wherefore, if you please, we



will adjust the dispute." On being asked," How?" they replied, "There is not any

influx of the soul into the body, nor of the bodyinto the soul; but there is a unanimous and

instantaneous operation of both together, towhich a celebrated author has assigned an

elegant name, by calling it Pre-establishedHarmony."

5 After this the spirit with a torch appearedagain. Now, however, the torch was in his lefthand, and he shook it behind their heads;

whence the ideas of them all became confused,~ n they cried out at once, " N e r t l l e f : . Q ~ r s o u l nor our body knows which side we should taKe:wherefore let us s e t t l e J . h - i ~ d i s p u t e by lot, and

wewill abideby

the lot which comes out first."So they took three pieces of paper, and wroteon one of them, PHYSICAL INFLUX, on another,SPIRITUAL INFLUX, and on the third, PRE

ESTABLISHED HARMONY; and they put themall into the crown of a hat. They then choseone of their number to draw; who, on putting

in his hand, took out that on which was writtenSPIRITUAL I N ~ X . Having seen and"read It,they all said-some with a clear and flowing,some with a faint and indrawn voice-" Let usabide by this, because it came out first."

6 But then an angel suddenly stood by and

said, " Do not imagine that the paper in favour

of Spiritual Influx came out first by chance, for58


it was of Providence. Because you are in confused ideas, you do not see its truth; but the



very truth presented itself to the hand of him

that drew the lots, that you might yield ityour assent."

(2Q) I was once asked, " How, from a RhilosOPher, I became a theologian"; aoo I

answered, "In the same manner that fishermen were made disCiples and apostlesoy'-fheLord: and that I also had from earfyyouth

been a spiritual fisherman." On this, my

questioner asked, "What is a spiritual fisherman?" I replied, "A fishElrman in the W,,9rd,

(, in its spiritual sense, signifies a man.--yvho in

. v ~ s t i g a t e s anq t e a c h . e ~ I 1 a ! . u r ~ l truths, andIafterwards spiritual truths, in cl. rationalmanner."

On his inquiring, "How is this demon- 2strated ? " I said, " From these passages of theWord: 'Then the waters shall fail from the sea,and the river shall be wasted and dried up.

Therefore the fishers shall mourn, and all theythat cast a hook into the sea shall be sad' (Isa.xix. 5, 8). In another place it is said: 'On theriver, the waters whereof were healed, stood fishersfrom Engedi; they were present at the spreadingforth of nets; their fish was according to itskinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding

many' (Ezek. xlvii. 10). And in another place:59


'Behold I will send for many fishers, saith]ehovah, and they shall fish the sons of Israel'



(Jer. xvi. 16). Hence it i ~ ~ v i d e ~ p L . t h e bord

c h o s ~ s h e r ~ n for

l l i ~ . 9 i s c i p ~ e s , andsaid, ' Follow K l . ! . . ! . ! ! : n d T w ~ 1 l make you ~ ~ o f men' (Matt.lv. 18, 19; Mark i. 16, 17): and

why He said to Peter, after he had caught themultitude of fishes, ' Henceforth thou shalt catchmen' (Luke v. 9, 10)."

3 I afterwards demonstrated the origin of this

( signification of fishermen from theApOCALYPSE

\ REVEALED: namely, that since water signifiesi natural truths (nos. 50, 932), as does also a" river (nos. 409, 932), a fish signifies those who

are in natural truths (no. 405); a n d ~ c e that fisgermen siKnifLthose who i l1vestigate~ n t e a ~ h J r o . t h s .

I4 On hearing this, my interrogator raised his\ voice and said, "Now I can understand whyI the Lord called and chose fishermen to be His

disciples; and therefore I do not wondertE.at\' li"ehas also chosen you, since, as youliave

\ observed, you were from early youth a fisher-ngn in a §Piritual sense, that is, an investigator

of natural truths: and the reason that you arenow become an investigator of spiritual truths

is because these are founded on the former."To this he added, b e i n ~ a man of reason, that

( "the LorLalone k n o w ~ v . : h ~ the proper( persQn to apprehend and te;!ch ~ h o s e thingstwhich belonz to His New Church; whether

one of the Primates, or one of their domestic60

610) THE SOUL AND THE BODY

servants." "Besides," he continued, "what

9lristian t h e o l ~ n does not s1l'dy ehiloswry



ID the s c f i 0 9 1 s . . J ~ J o r ~ h ~ g r a a u a t e s as a theo-

{( o ~ ?

From what other. source has heinte igence? " , i

"Anttigth he said, " Since you are become a 5theologian, explain what is your theology? "I answered, "These are its two principles,THERE IS ONE GOD, and THERE IS A CONJUNC-

TION OF CHARITY AND FAITH." To which he

replied, "Who denies these principles?"I

rejoined, "The theology of the present day,when interiorly examined."

61

Swedenborg Emanuel THE INTERCOURSE of THE SOUL and THE BODY 1769 London the Swedenborg Society 1947

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Transcript of Swedenborg Emanuel THE INTERCOURSE of THE SOUL and THE BODY 1769 London the Swedenborg Society 1947