Introductory remarks by the transaltor

It will be the aim of the following remarks to give a general view of the doctrines of the “Animal Kingdom, » and of their relation to the past, present, and future state of science; and in so doing, to address those chiefly who are acquainted with the theological writings of Swedenborg, as forming the class by whom, at present, the work is most likely to be read, and to whom it may be the most useful and satisfactory.

The evolution of the natural sciences amounts to the creation of a new sphere in the human mind; and since this development has not taken place under the auspices of theology, but either in direct or tacit opposition to the prevailing church; since it proceeds from without, and proposes knowledge and intelligence as ends distinct from spiritual life; therefore it constitutes a sphere which is not in unison with the current doctrines of religion, but from the beginning has menaced their subversion; and which, unless reduced to order, is opposed, however true its materials in themselves may be, to the under standing of all genuine truth. It was a perception of this character in science, and also of the fact that the universal human mind was becoming immersed in scientifics, that impelled Swedenborg to enter the field of nature, for the purpose of demonstrating in it an order corresponding to the order of heaven, and thereby of making it a medium to spiritual and sacred truths. This was his paramount end in the construction of the “ Animal Kingdom .”

The system therein propounded rests upon the foundation of experience; namely, of such experience as the learned world had accumulated at Swedenborg’s time; not indeed upon the particular experience strictly and proximately belonging to any one science; for such experience would be inadequate, in the present imperfect state of our insight, to suggest the universal truths that each science involves; but upon the general experience of all ages in all the sciences. This, it is to be presumed, was Swedenborg’s meaning, when he likened himself to one of the racers of olden time, who before he could merit the crown, was commanded to run seven times round the goal; and again, when he declared that we must be instructed by all things of one thing, if we are to know that one thing thoroughly. As his theory is not derived from particular experience, so it cannot finally be either confirmed or denied by any isolated fact or facts. For it is a conclusion from the order and tenor of facts universally; in a word, from an integral survey of nature. Unless this be borne in mind, the very largeness of the field from which his inductions are drawn, and the very strictness of mind which caused him to test them through all the sciences, will only make them seem the more like baseless hypotheses. In this case the analytic process may easily be mistaken for the synthetic, and Swedenborg may be charged with committing the error which he begins his work by denouncing in others.

Swedenborg announced the starting-point of his method in the first lines of his first chapter; namely, that “the use or effect which produces the end must be the first point of analytic enquiry.” First comes the question of fact or result; next, the reasoning upon it. Unless we reason from uses, what chart have we in the exploration of structures ? To illustrate this, let it be supposed that a complicated tissue – for instance, the skin – presents us with three undoubted effects, say of absorption and excretion; from these effects we infer the existence of a threefold organism to produce them; for effects imply causes, and functions, forces, motions, accidents, &c., are predicates and unvarying signs of substances. Having proceeded so far, we have then to distribute the effects to their proper organic causes in the tissue; and thus effects furnish the rule for the first analysis of a structure. In many instances indeed it will be impossible to trace effects to visible organic causes, in which case the mental sight must take up the operation, and continue and complete it, and this, by the assistance of the several instruments and appliances which are now to be mentioned. It is impossible to understand either the Word or the works of God without doctrines, which in both cases require to be formed by “one who is enlightened“. * The doctrines made use of by Swedenborg in the “Animal Kingdom“, are the Doctrines of Forms, of Order and Degrees, of Series and Society, of Influx, of Correspondence and Representation, and of Modification. These doctrines themselves are truths arrived at by analysis, proceeding on the basis of general experience; in short, they are so many formulas resulting from the evolution of the sciences. They are perpetually illustrated and elucidated throughout the “Animal Kingdom“, but never stated by Swedenborg in the form of pure science, perhaps because it would have been contrary to the analytic method to have so stated them, before the reader had been carried up through the legitimate stages, beginning from experience, or the lowest sphere. Each effect is put through all these doctrines, in order that it may disclose the causes that enter it in succession, that it may refer itself to its roots and be raised to its powers, and be seen in connexion, contiguity, continuity, and analogy with all other things in the same universe.† They may be compared to so many special  organs, which analyse things apparently homogeneous into a number of distinct constituent principles, and distribute each for use as the whole requires. To deny any of these doctrines, or to give them up in the presence of facts that do not range upon them at first sight, is to nullify the human mind as the interpreter of nature.

The Doctrine of Forms

The Doctrine of Forms teaches that “the forms of all things, like their essences and substances, ascend in order and by degrees from the lowest to the highest. The lowest form is the angular, or as it is also called, the terrestrial and corporeal. The second and next higher form is the circular, which is also called the perpetual-angular, because the circumference of the circle involves neither angle nor rectilinear plane, being a perpetual angle and a perpetual plane; this form is at once the parent and the measure of angular forms. The form above this is the spiral, which is the parent and measure of circular forms, as the circular, of angular forms. Its radii or diameters are not rectilinear, nor do they converge to a fixed centre like those of the circle; but they are variously circular, and have a spherical surface for a centre; wherefore the spiral is also called the perpetual circular. This form never exists or subsists without poles, an axis, foci, a greatest circle, and lesser circles, its diameters; and as it again assumes a perpetuity which is wanting in the circular form, namely, in respect of diameters and centres, so it breathes a natural spontaneousness in its motion. There are other still higher forms, as the perpetual-spiral, properly the vortical; the perpetual-vortical, properly the celestial; * and a highest, the perpetual-celestial, which is spiritual, and in which there is nothing but what is everlasting and infinite. » There is then a scale of forms, where of the higher are relatively more universal, more perfect, and more potent than the lower. The lower again involve the higher and the highest, and are generated by them: so that where there is an angular body, there is a circular form and force intimately present as its ground; where there is a circle, it is the limit of an interior spiral; and so forth. For nature operates from the very principles of geometry and mechanics, and converts them all to actuality and use. The purer substances in creation gyrate through the higher forms; the less pure circulate through the lower, or are fixed in the lowest. All the essentials of the angular form are opposed to each other, whence the origin of gravitating and inert matter, intrinsically unfitted for motion. But the other forms, according to their eminence, are more and more accom modated to motion and variation.

The Doctrine of Degrees

The Doctrine of degrees teaches the distinct progressions through which nature passes when one thing is subordinated to, and coördinated with another. There are three discriminated degrees in all things, both natural and spiritual,  corresponding to end, cause, and effect. In the human body there is a sphere of ends, a sphere of causes, and a sphere of effects. The body itself, comprehending the viscera of the abdomen and chest, and the external sensoria of the head, is the sphere of effects; the brain, and the whole of its appendages, are the sphere of causes; the cortical substances of the brain are the sphere of ends or principles. These spheres are subordinated to each other in just series from the highest to the lowest. The highest degree or sphere is active, the lowest is passive and reactive. The above degrees, in their order, indicate the progression from universals and singulars to generals or compounds. But every organ again involves the same triplicity of spheres; it consists of least parts, which are congregated into larger, and these into largest. All perfections ascend and descend according to degrees, and all attributes, functions, forces, modes, in a word, all accidents, follow their substances, and are similarly discriminated. Each degree is enveloped with its common covering, and communicates with those below it thereby. There is no continuous progression from a lower degree to a higher, but the unity of the lower is the compound of the higher, and in transcending that unity, we leap out of one series into another, in which all the predicates of force, form , perfection, &c., are changed and exalted. The Doctrine of Degrees enables us to obtain a distinct idea of the general principles of creation, and to observe the unity of plan that reigns throughout any given organic subject; and by shewing that all things are distinct representations of end, cause, and effect, it empowers the mind to refer variety to unity, as the effect to the cause, and the cause to the end, and to recognize the whole constitution of each series as homogeneous with its principles.

The Series

Series is the form under which the coördination and subordination of things, according to order and degrees, ultimately present themselves. The whole body is a series, which may be looked at either generally, from above to below, as comprising the head, the chest, and the abdomen; or universally, from within to without, as divisible into the three spheres already alluded to. All the organs of each region are a series; each organ in itself is a series, and every part in each organ likewise. In short, everything is a series and in a series. There are both successive and simultaneous series, but the latter always arise from the former. Essences, attributes, accidents, and qualities, follow their substances in their series. Every series has its own first substance, which is more or less universal according as the series is more or less general. This first substance is its simple, unity, or least form, governing in the entire series, and by its gradual composition forming the whole. Each series has its limits, and ranges only from its minimum to its maximum. Whatever transcends those limits at either end, becomes part of another series. The compounds of all series represent their simples, and shew their form, nature, and mode of action. The Doctrine of Series and Society teaches that contiguity and continuity of structure, are indicative of relationship of function, and that what goes on in one part of a series, goes on also, with a determinable variety, in all the other parts: wherefore each organ is to be judged of, and analysed, by all the others that are above and around it. In this manner, the whole series is the means of shewing the function of each part of itself, and indeed of analysing that function into a series similar to that of the whole; for the least in every series must represent an idea of its universe. Under the operation of this law, the point becomes a world analogous to the great world, but infinitely more perfect, potent, and universal.

Such is a very brief illustration of the Doctrines of Order and Degrees, Series and Society, from which it will be evident how closely connected these doctrines are, and that they can hardly be stated without our seeming to repeat of one what has already been predicated of the others. Degrees appear to involve the distinct progressions of creation from above to below, or from within to without: order, to appertain to the law of succession observed in degrees, whereby rank and height are given to excellence, priority, universality, and perfection; series, to involve the complex of the whole and the parts when created and coexisting; and society, to be the law of contiguity and relationship existing between different series, and between the parts of any single series. Perhaps it would not be far wrong to state in generals, that order and degrees involve the creating and successive, series and society, the created and simultaneous. But as we have said before, Swedenborg never stated these doctrines as promised in the “Animal Kingdom”, but contented himself with using them as analytic instruments in the exploration of the body; and therefore the reader will learn them best in the way of example and illustration in the Work itself.

The Doctrine of Series and Degrees in conjunction with that of Correspondence and Representation

The Doctrine of Series and Degrees in conjunction with that of Correspondence and Representation, teaches that there is a universal analogy between all the spheres of creation, material, mental, and spiritual; and also between nature and all things in human society. The circulation of uses in the body perfectly represents the free intercourse of man with man, and the free interchange of commodities between nation and nation. The operations that go on in the body, analogically involve all the departments of human industry; nay, and infinitely more, both in subdivision, unity, and perfection. There is not an art or trade, whether high or low, so long as it be of good use, but the Creator himself has adopted and professed it in the human system. Nay, in the richness of his pervading love, the very prerogatives of the mind are representatively applicable to the body. End, cause, and effect, as existing in Himself, are represented in the latter as well as in the former. Liberty and rationality, the universal principles of humanity, are transplanted by analogy from the mind into the body. It presents an analogon of liberty, in that every organ, part, and particle, can successfully exercise an attraction for those fluids that are adapted to its life and uses ; of rationality, in that it acts as though it took cognizance of the adaptability, and operates upon the materials demanded and supplied, in such a manner as will best secure the well-being of itself and of the whole system.

This may account to the reader for the extremely figurative character of Swedenborg’s style, and shew that it proceeded from the reason and not from the imagination. It is because each thing is a centre to the life of all things, that each may freely use the exponent terms of all. Analogous uses in the body and the soul, furnish the point of contact between the two, and the possibility and the means of intercourse. Had Swedenborg confined himself to the dry straitness of what is now called science, he must have forfeited the end he had in view; for matter, as matter, has no communion with spirit, nor death with life. It was absolutely necessary that the body should be tinctured with life in all possible ways, when it was to be the medium of instruction respecting the soul.

Un premier exemple

The Doctrine of the skin

There is no part of Swedenborg’s system which is better worthy of attention than the doctrine of the skin. As the skin is the continent and ultimate of the whole system, so all the forms, forces and uses of the interior parts coexist within it. Moreover as it is the extreme of the body, and the contact of extremes, or circulation, is a perpetual law of nature, so from the skin a return is made to the other extreme, namely, to the cortical substances of the brain. Hence the first function of the skin is, “ to serve as a new source of fibres. » For the fibres of one extreme, to wit, the brain, also called by Swedenborg the fibres of the soul, could not of themselves complete the formation of the body, but could only supply its active grounds; and therefore these fibres proceed outwards to the skin, which is the most general sensorial expanse of the brain, and there generate the papillæ; and again emerging from the papillæ, and convoluted into a minute canal or pore, they take a new nature and name from their new beginning, and become the corporeal fibres, or the fibres of the body, which proceed from without inwards to the brain, and unite them selves to its cortical substances. These are the passives of which the nervous fibres are the actives; the veins or female forces of which the nervous fibres are the arteries or males; and “they suck in the purer elemental food from the air and ether, convey it to their terminations, and expend it upon the uses of life.”

Besides this, the skin has a series of other functions which there is not space to dwell upon at present. Inasmuch as it is the most general covering of the body, therefore it communicates by a wonderful continuity with all the particular coverings of the viscera and organs, and of their parts, and parts of parts. And as it communicates with all by continuity of structure, so it also communicates by continuity of function; the whole body being therefore one grand sensorium of the sense of touch. In short, the animal spirit is the most universal and singular essence of the body and all its parts; the skin, the most general and particular form corresponding to that essence.

Having thus bestowed a cursory glance upon some points of Swedenborg’s doctrine of the three spheres of the body, and their most general and particular continent, the skin, we shall now enlarge a little on certain subjects that have already been mentioned, in order to give them a more distinct place in the reader’s apprehension. […]