so also will our human affections. The ruling passion, whatever it be,
not only lasts till death, but continues after death. Woe therefore to
those whose whole aspirations are after things that are earthly, for
they cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven! This truth is neither the less
true, nor the less important, because it is found in the pages of a
madman. Marriage also is not dissolved by death:—when one of the wedded
couple dies, the spirit of the deceased cohabits with the spirit of the
living spouse, till that also be released; they then meet again, and
reunite with a tenderer and more perfect union. On no subject does
Swedenborg dilate with more pleasure than upon this. The sphere of
conjugal love, he tells us, is that which flows from the Creator into
all things; from the Creator it is received by the female, and
transferred through her to the male. It makes man more and more man; it
is a progressive union of minds, for ever rejuvenescent, continuing to
old age and to eternity; it is the foundation and germ of all spiritual
and all celestial love; it is in Heaven, and it is Heaven, yea even the
inmost Heaven, the Heaven of Heavens. It dwells in the supreme region of
the Mind, in the conclave of the Will, amidst the perceptions of Wisdom,
in the marriage chamber of the Understanding. Its origin is from the
divine nuptials of Goodness and Truth, consequently from the Lord
himself. After this it is ridiculous enough to see him trace the
progress of this sphere or essence of love into the soul of man, thence
into the mind, thence into the interior affections, from whence it finds
its way through the breast into the genital region.
Do not, however, suppose that there are any births in Heaven. All
spirits both in Heaven and Hell were born on earth; from which, it
seems, a puzzling argument against the system itself might be brought:
_Ex nihilo nihil fit_—Of nothing nothing is made; where then was the
Grand Man before all the parts of which he is composed were in
existence?—Heaven is supplied with children by those who die in infancy;
happy are they, for they are given to virgins whose maternal feelings
find in them an object, and under their tuition they grow up in the
gardens of Paradise. They advance to the full bloom of youth, not beyond
it; the old, who arrive in Heaven with all the marks of age, grow
younger till they also arrive at the same perfection: to grow old in
Heaven is to increase in beauty.
There are many mansions in Heaven, and infinite degrees of happiness,
yet is there no envy nor discontent; every one is happy to the utmost
measure of his capacity; the joys of a higher state would be no joys to
him: his cup is full. But the longer he has been in Heaven, the happier
he becomes, his capacity of enjoyment increasing as he is progressive in
virtue and goodness, that is, in divine love.
As all Heaven is one Grand Man, or Divinity, so is all Hell one Grand
Devil, and the wicked are literally to become members of Satan. The road
from one to the other is through the _Maximus Homo's_ Port Esquiline; it
opens immediately into the mouth of Hell, and the two-and-thirty white
millers who sit in the gateway, receive all they have to grind through
that channel.[13] Hell fire is no torment to the damned: it imparts no
other sensation to them than an irascible heat; for in truth the fire of
Hell is nothing more than their evil passions, which appear to good
spirits in flame and smoke. This is the only light they have, proceeding
from themselves, and resembling that which is given out by red-hot
coals. The Hell of Swedenborg is what earth would be if all virtue were
destroyed, if the salt of the earth were taken away, and its corruptions
left to putrefy. There are cities inhabited only by the profligate,
where they are abandoned to their own vices, and to the inevitable
miseries which those vices produce. They have even their places of
public amusement; he saw the dragons holding their abominable diversions
in an amphitheatre. Deserts, fields laid waste, and houses and towns in
ruins which have been destroyed by fire, fill up the picture.
Of all the heretics who have sprung from the spawn of Luther, Swedenborg
is the only one who admits a purgatory.—You will not expect a rational
one;—in this intermediate world, as the good are purified from their
imperfections, so are the wicked divested of what little goodness they
may possess, and thus the one are fitted for Heaven, and the other for
Hell. The state of maturity for Heaven is known by the appearance of the
regenerate, which is not altogether consistent with our earthly ideas of
beauty, for the cuticle appears like a fine lace-work of bright blue.
Here the wicked follow their accustomed vices, till, after they have
been repeatedly warned in vain, their cities are shaken with
earthquakes, the foundations yawn under them, they sink into the gulf,
and there grope their way into their respective Hells.
Hypocrites who still preserved an exterior of piety were permitted to
remain in the intermediate world, and make to themselves fixed
habitations. This constitutes one of the wildest and absurdest parts of
all this strange mythology; for Swedenborg teaches that these residents,
by the abuse of correspondences and help of phantasies, built Heavens
for themselves, which became at last so many and so extensive, that they
intercepted the spiritual light and heat, that is, divine love, in their
way from Heaven to Earth. At length this eclipse became total; there was
no faith in the Christian church, because there was no charity, and the
Last Judgment was then executed; which consisted in destroying these
imaginary Heavens, like the tower of Babel, stripping the hypocrites of
their cloak, and casting them into Hell. This consummation took place in
the year of our Lord 1757; and there is no other Last Judgment to come,
except what every individual will experience for himself singly, after
death.
Nothing now remains but to apply the science of correspondences to this
scheme of the _Maximus Homo_ and the Grand Satan. Spirits act upon men
in those parts which correspond to their own anatomical situation: thus
impulses and affections of good come from the agency of good angels
operating by influx on their corresponding region, whether head or foot,
heart, pancreas, or spleen; they, for instance, who inhabit the brain
watch over us when we sleep. On the contrary, diseases are the work of
the devils; hypocritical devils occasion belly-ache; and spirits who are
ripening for Hell, and take delight in putridity, get into our insides
and manufacture for us indigestion, hypochondriasis, and dyspepsy; so
that in all cases exorcism must be more applicable than medicine.
One word more:—they who have loved infants with most tenderness are in
the province of the neck of the uterus and of the ovaries. By some
unaccountable oversight the inference has been overlooked. There is
therefore a Grand Woman also! It is not good for man to be alone, not
even for the Grand Man. I have found a wife for him! The discovery, for
it is a discovery, is at least equal in importance to any in the eight
quarto volumes of the Arcana Cœlestia, and entitles me to be ranked with
Swedenborg himself; if, indeed, as I modestly beg leave to hint, the
honour of having perfected his discoveries and finished his system, be
not fairly my due.[14]
[10] The author seems to have looked for no other account of Swedenborg
than what his ignorant believers could furnish. At the age of twenty he
published a collection of Latin poems under the title of _Ludus
Heliconius, sive Carmina Miscellanea quæ variis in locis cecinit, &c._
Charles XII. valued him for his scientific knowledge, and profited by
it. He took him with him to the siege of Frederickshall; the roads were
impassable for artillery, and Swedenborg made a canal, cutting through
mountains and raising valleys, by which his battering pieces were
conveyed. He was a great favourite with Charles, and deservedly so; for
it is said that no person, except Linnæus, ever did so much in so short
a time. In all the North of Europe he was held in the highest
estimation, till, in the year 1743, he abandoned science to print his
waking dreams, and become the founder of a new church.
Swedenborg died at London in 1772, and after lying in state was buried
at the Swedish church near Radcliffe Highway.—TR.
[11]
What if Earth
Be but the shadow of Heaven, and things therein
Each to other like, more than on Earth is thought?
MILTON.—TR.
[12] And to receive the superfluous and impure uncleannesses which are
cast out from the whole work.—TR.
[13]
Das portas para dentro logo entrando,
De grande fábrica hum moinho tinha,
O qual moendo estava, e preparando
Tudo o que havia de ir para a cozinha;
Moido, e brando dentro assi mandando
O mantimento, que de fóra vinha,
Com esta proporçaõ conveniente
Se repartia, e hia a toda a gente.
Neste moinho junto os dous porteiros,
Estando juntamente em seu officio,
Duros e rijos trinta e dous moleiros,
De grande força, e util exercicio;
Daqui tirados fóra outros primeiros
Foram por grão fraqueza, e vicio;
E os que agora moiam com destreza
Todos branco vestiam por limpeza.
Tinha cada hum delles sua morada
Em dous lanços de penedo, que havia;
Entre elles huma Dona exprimentada,
Esperta andava, e prompta, noite e dia:
E della era approvada ou reprovada
A farinha de quanto se moia,
Provando se era saborosa, e alva,
Porque era ella gentil mestra de salva.
_Da Creaçaõ e Composiçaõ do Homen._
_Immediately upon entering the gates there was a mill of great fabric,
which was grinding and preparing all that was to go to the kitchen;
sending on, thus ground and softened, the provisions which came from
without, to be distributed in convenient proportions to all the people.
Near the two porters in this mill, and equally employed in their
business, were two-and-thirty sturdy millers, of great strength and
useful exercise. Others, who had held this place before them, had been
turned out for their weakness; and these, who now ground skilfully, were
all clothed in white for cleanliness. Each of these had his dwelling in
two pieces of wall, and between them was an experienced dame, who was
awake and ready night and day; all the corn which was ground was
approved or rejected by her, she trying if it was white and savoury, for
she was a gentle housekeeper.—Author's note._
The reader need not be apprised that the situation of these Millers is
in the Mouth gate of the town of Mansoul, according to Bunyan's
allegory.—TR.
[14] Their Creed and Pater-noster may be added as curiosities.
I believe that Jehovah God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, is one in
Essence and in Person, in whom is a Divine Trinity, consisting of
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and that the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
is that God.
I believe that Jehovah God himself came down from Heaven as Divine
Truth, which is the Word, and took upon him Human Nature, for the
purpose of removing Hell from Man, of restoring the Heavens to Order,
and of preparing the way for a New Church upon Earth: and that herein
consists the true Nature of Redemption, which was effected solely by the
Omnipotence of the Lord's DIVINE HUMANITY.
I believe in the Sanctity of the Word, and that it containeth a
threefold Sense, namely, Celestial, Spiritual, and Natural, which are
united by Correspondences; and that in each sense it is Divine Truth,
accommodated respectively to the Angels of the Three Heavens, and also
to Men on Earth.
I believe that evil Actions ought not to be done, because they are of
the Devil, and from the Devil.
I believe that good actions ought to be done, because they are of God,
and from God; and that they should be done by Man, as of himself;
nevertheless under this Acknowledgment and Belief, that they are from
the Lord, operating in him and by him.
I believe, that immediately on the Death of the material Body (which
will never be reassumed,) Man rises again as to his spiritual or
substantial Body, wherein he existeth in a perfect Human Form; and thus
that Death is only a Continuation of Life.
I believe that the Last Judgment is accomplished in the Spiritual World,
and that the former Heaven and the former Earth, or the Old Church, are
passed away, and that all Things are become New.
I believe that now is the Second Advent of the Lord, which is a coming,
not in person, but in the Power and Glory of the spiritual Sense of his
holy Word, which is Himself. And I believe that the Holy City, New
Jerusalem, is now descending from God out of Heaven, prepared as a Bride
adorned for her Husband.
Their Pater-noster is of more curious complexion.
Father of us, who in the Heavens; let be sanctified the Name of Thee.
Let come the Kingdom of Thee. Let be done the Will of Thee, as in
Heaven, and upon the Earth. The Bread of us the daily give to us this
Day. And remit to us the Debts of us, as and we remit to the Debtors of
us. And not bring us into Temptation, but keep us from the Evil. Because
of Thee is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory into the Ages. Amen.
This, they say, is perhaps too literal to be used in public worship _as
yet_. It will, however, serve to give the English reader an idea of the
idiom of that language which the Lord made use of, when he was pleased
to teach us how to pray. And it may also, by the arrangement of the
words themselves, in some measure point out the order of influx from the
Fountain of all Life; for the first word in this divine prayer, viz.
_Father_, is the Universal that flows into and fills all the succeeding
parts, just as the soul flows into, and fills every part of the human
body derived from it.
LETTER LXIII.
_Jews in England._
I went yesterday evening to the Synagogue. Never did I see a place of
worship in which there was so little appearance of devotion. The women
were in a gallery by themselves, the men sate below, keeping their hats
on, as they would have done in the street. During the service they took
from behind their altar, if that word may be thus applied without
profanation, certain silver—utensils they cannot be called, as they
appeared to be of no possible use,—silver ornaments rather, hung with
small rattle bells, and these they jingled as they carried them round
the room, then replaced them in the receptacle. This was the only
ceremony. It is impossible to describe the strange and uncouth tone in
which the priest sung out a portion of the Pentateuch from a long roll.
The language was so intolerably harsh, and the manner in which it was
chaunted so abominably discordant, that they suited each other to a
miracle; and the larynx of the Rabbi seemed to have been made expressly
to give both their full effect.
In former times the toleration of the Jews gave occasion to the same
disturbances here as in the rest of Europe. They cheated the people, and
the people in return took advantage of every tumult to plunder them. The
famous King John, who offered to turn Mohammedan if the Miramamolin
would assist him against his rebellious subjects, extorted a large sum
from a Jew of Bristol by a new and ingenious kind of torture: he
condemned him to have a tooth drawn every day till he consented to lend
the money; and the Jew parted with six grinders before he submitted.
After the schism, as the Heretics began first to persecute the
Catholics, and then one another, the misbelievers were forgotten.
Cromwell even favoured them; in one respect he differed from all his
contemporary fanatics, for he willingly allowed to other sects the
toleration which he claimed for his own. Under his protection Manasses
Ben Israel printed three editions of the Bible in Hebrew. This Rabbi is
generally supposed to have been a Spaniard, but the Portugueze claim
him, and I think we shall not be disposed to contend with them for the
honour,—especially as most persons would decide in their favour, without
examination.
During the last reign an attempt was made to naturalize them, in a body;
and the measure would have been effected had it not been for the
indignant outcry of the people, who very properly regarded it as an act
of defiance, or at least of opposition, to the express language of
prophecy. But this feeling has abated, and were the attempt to be
renewed it would meet with little opposition. In Catholic countries our
pictures and crucifixes perpetually set before the Christian's eyes the
sufferings of his Redeemer, and there is no possibility of his
forgetting the history of his religion. Even the most trifling ceremony
is of use. At one of the public schools here, the boys on Easter Sunday
rush out of the chapel after prayers, singing
He is risen, he is risen,
All the Jews must go to prison.
This custom is certainly very old, though I cannot learn that it was
ever usual to imprison this wretched people upon this festival. Some of
these boys cut the straps of a Jew's box one day, and all his
gingerbread-nuts fell into the street. Complaint was made to the master;
and when he questioned the culprits what they could say in their
defence, one of them stepped forward and said, "Why, sir, did not they
crucify our Lord!" Without admitting the plea in excuse, it may be
remarked that if the boy had not remembered his Easter rhymes, he would
have been as indifferent to the crime of the Jews as the rest of his
countrymen.
Some years ago one of the best living dramatists wrote a comedy for the
purpose of representing the Jewish character in a favourable light. The
play was very successful, and the Jews were so well pleased that they
presented the author with a handsome gratuity[15]. A farce was brought
forward at another time called the Jew Boy; and the fraternity knowing
that it was impossible to represent this class favourably, assembled in
great numbers, and actually damned the piece. This single fact is
sufficient to prove that the liberty which they enjoy is unbounded. It
is not merely the open exercise of their religion which is permitted
them, they are even suffered to write and publish against Christianity.
If the permission of blasphemy were no sin, there would be little evil
in this licence, so little are they able to make proselytes. The only
apostate whom they have made within the memory of man is the very person
who occasioned the insurrection against the Catholics in 1780, and who
afterwards lost his senses, renounced his faith, and, though of noble
family, died in a public prison, a lamentable instance of divine
vengeance.
In Rome these misbelievers are obliged to hear a sermon once a-week;
here a sermon attracts them as a novelty. One of the Methodist
itinerants, some few years ago, fancying that, like St Vicente Ferrer,
he had a special gift for converting this stiff-necked generation,
undertook to confute their errors, and invited them to attend his
preaching. The place appointed was the great Methodist Chapel in
Tottenham Court Road; and they assembled in such crowds as to fill the
chapel and the court in which it is built. One of the windows was taken
out, and the orator taking his stand in the opening, addressed the
congregation both within and without at the same time. There can be no
reason to suppose that they came with hearts more accessible to
conviction than usual; but, had it been the case, the method which this
fanatic took was little likely to be successful; for he began by telling
them that he was not yet twenty years old, that he had no human learning
whatever, and that for all he was about to say to them he trusted to the
immediate impulse of the Lord. The rest of his discourse was in
character with the beginning, and the Jews returned, the greater number
ridiculing his folly, the more thoughtful remembering their own law
against him who presumes to speak in the name of the Lord, what the Lord
hath not commanded him to speak. Yet from the readiness with which they
assembled to hear him, it does not appear impossible, that if some true
Christian, inspired with the zeal of our St Vicente, were to collect
them together, their curiosity might be made use of to the triumph of
the faith and the salvation of souls.
The English church has no zeal for souls. At the beginning of the last
century the daughter of a rich Jew, by name Jacob Mendes de Breta, was
at her own instance publicly baptized. The father ran into the church
like a madman, charged the officiating clergyman to desist, and, when he
perceived that this was in vain, cursed his child with the bitterest
imprecations, and prayed to his God that the church might fall in, and
crush all who were concerned in the ceremony. After this he utterly
disowned her:—the law had made no provision for such cases, and the
parish were obliged to support her; which, to their honour, they did in
a manner suitable to her former situation in life. At their petition,
however, a bill was enacted compelling the Jews to provide decently for
their converted children. This much was done upon the emergency of the
case, and nothing more. Not the slightest effort is made for their
conversion, nor the slightest impediment opposed to the public
celebration of ceremonies, which the Gospel has expressly abrogated. The
Jews have nothing to complain of, except that they pay tithes to the
clergy, and that they are liable to the trouble of parish offices—the
law even allowing them to be made churchwardens. Any person may be
excused from serving this office if he chooses to pay a fine amounting
to about ten pieces of eight: it is not long since a parish in London
nominated a Jew for the sake of getting this money; he, however, was
determined to disappoint them by taking the situation;—the profanation
was theirs, not his:—and accordingly the church affairs for the year
were actually managed by this son of the Synagogue.
It may well be supposed that when Bonaparte was in Syria his movements
were anxiously watched by the Jews. There was a great stir among them,
and it is probable that if he had invited them by proclamation, and
promised to give them Palestine, armies would have been raised to take
and keep possession of that Holy Land, to which they look, individually
and collectively, as their destined gathering place. Individually, I
say, because it is taught by many Rabbis, that the children of Israel,
wherever buried, can rise again at the coming of the Messiah, nowhere
except in the Promised Land; and they, therefore, who are interred in
any other part of the world, will have to make their way there through
the caverns of the earth; a long and painful journey, the difficulty and
fatigue of which are equivalent to purgatory. I know not whether this is
believed by the English Rabbis; but that the English Jews attach as
devout a reverence to the very soil of Jerusalem as we do to the Holy
Sepulchre itself, is certain. One of the wealthiest among them, in late
times, made a pilgrimage there; and brought back with him boxes full of
the earth to line his grave. Unhappy people! whose error is the more
inveterate because it is mingled with the noblest feelings, and whose
obstinate hope and heroic perseverance we must condemn while we admire.
No particular dress is enjoined them by law, nor indeed is any such mark
of distinction necessary: they are sufficiently distinguished by a cast
of complexion and features, which, with leave of our neighbours,[16] I
will call a Portugueze look.—Some of the lowest order let their beards
grow, and wear a sort of black tunic with a girdle; the chief ostensible
trade of this class is in old clothes, but they deal also in stolen
goods, and not unfrequently in coining. A race of Hebrew lads who infest
you in the streets with oranges and red slippers, or tempt school-boys
to dip in a bag for gingerbread nuts, are the great agents in uttering
base silver; when it is worn too bare to circulate any longer they buy
it up at a low price, whiten the brass again, and again send it abroad.
You meet Jew pedlars every where, travelling with boxes of haberdashery
at their backs, cuckoo clocks, sealing-wax, quills, weather-glasses,
green spectacles, clumsy figures in plaister of Paris, which you see
over the chimney of an alehouse parlour in the country, or miserable
prints of the king and queen, the four seasons, the cardinal virtues,
the last naval victory, the prodigal son, and such like subjects, even
the Nativity and the Crucifixion; but when they meet with a likely
chapman, they produce others of the most obscene and mischievous kind.
Any thing for money, in contempt of their own law us well as of the law
of the country:—the pork-butchers are commonly Jews. All these low
classes have a shibboleth of their own, as remarkable as their
physiognomy; and in some parts of the city they are so numerous, that
when I strayed into their precincts one day, and saw so many Hebrew
inscriptions in the shop windows, and so many long beards in the
streets, I began to fancy that I had discovered the ten tribes.