The Economy of The Animal Kingdom, part ii, chapter iii, section v, The Human Soul

259. […]

“ I confess however that while I am lingering on this threshold that conducts me almost beyond the bounds of nature, or while I am daring to speak of the unition of God with the souls of his creatures, I feel a certain holy trembling stealing over me, and warning me to pause; for the mind thinks it sees what it does not see, and sees where no intuition can penetrate; nor can it tell whether what it thinks enters in the a priori or a posteriori direction; if by the latter, life appears to be inherent; if by the former, it appears to be not inherent, or not essentially united to us. And what increases this awe is, a love of the truth, which that may hold in my mind the supreme place, is the end of all my endeavors, and which, whenever I deviate from it, converts itself into a represention of justice and condign punishment, or into that fear which an inferior being is wont to feel towards a superior; so that I would rather resign this subject into the hands of others more competent than myself. This alone I percieve most clearly, that the order of nature exists for the sake of ends, which flow through universal nature to return to the first end; and that the worshippers of nature are insane. “

                                                                                                                         SES – Sir Emanuel Swedenborg ( 1688 – 1772 )