Volume 2

The economy of the animal kingdom, considered anatomically, physically, and philosophically / by Emanuel Swedenborg. Translated from the Latin by the Rev. Augustus Clissold. [Ed. by J.J.G. Wilkinson].

  • Swedenborg, Emanuel, 1688-1772.
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The economy of the animal kingdom, considered anatomically, physically, and philosophically / by Emanuel Swedenborg. Translated from the Latin by the Rev. Augustus Clissold. [Ed. by J.J.G. Wilkinson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    sentations and intuitions, by the same limits as the universe, II., 234, 238, 258. Habitation and place, parts, magnitude, force and form, may be predicated of the soul as a substance, provided the properties be abstracted that are generated in com¬ pounds, ibid. The soul is indefinitely finite, II., 238. It is within nature, and below the first substance of the world, ibid., 297. A soul may be defined as a natural subject, accommodated at once to the beginning of motion, and to the recep¬ tion of life, II., 240, 297. See God. Two distinct principles determine the spiritu¬ ous fluid or soul; the one, natural, enables it to exist and be moved in the world ; the other, spiritual, enables it to live and be wise, II., 249. Of these a third, which is properly the soul’s own, is formed ; viz., a principle of determining itself into acts, suitably to the ends of the universe, ibid. Thus it determines itself into acts of itself, and regards ends beyond itself, ibid. This latter principle regards the earth, where the determination takes place; hence the soul, thus emprincipled, must descend by as many degrees as distinguish the substances and forces of the world; and form a body adequate to each degree in succession, II., 250—253, 284. See Organ. As the spirituous fluid is the soul, it is seated so high above all the other faculties, that it is their order, truth, rule, science, law, II., 254. The soul naturally is as it acts, II., 255. Its office is to represent the universe; and this it does not only naturally, but intellectually, thereby representing the universe to itself, II., 257. Therefore it represents the causes and effects of nature, as ends, ibid. Its office also is, to be conscious of all things, and principally to determine, II., 258. The soul, as a substance, is kept within the limits of the body, ibid. It is distinct from, prior and superior to, and moi'e universal and perfect than, the intellectual mind, ibid. A notion of it can hardly be procured while we live in the body, II., 259. The first determination of the soul is the mind ; the second is the animus ; the third is the essential body, II., 266. Degrees of perfection are not to be predicated of the soul, but of the organisms, II., 267. It is the all in its whole, or the singular in its universal, ibid. It descends with light and virtue into the mind, II., 268, 272, 296, 297. It grasps the lowest things at the same time as the highest, II., 272. A single mode of the ear involves indefinite myriads of corresponding modes in the soul, ibid. The soul does not flow so much into the sensations and perceptions of its organs, as into the formation and motive forces of its body, II., 275. We must distinguish well between its operations within the fibres, and its ope¬ rations without them, ibid. See Fibre. From the very beginning of concep¬ tion, the soul is accommodated at once to the beginning of motion, and to the reception of life ; or to all its intuition and intelligence, and these it takes with it, from the first stamen and earliest infancy, to the most extreme old age : but not so the mind, ibid., 279—282. The observations applied to life rela¬ tively to the soul, may be applied to the soul relatively to the mind and to sensa¬ tions, II., 277, 278. See God. The soul is derived from the parent, but not from the mother, II., 278. It acts as a mind in singulars ; as an animus or sight in com¬ parative generals; and as hearing, touch and taste, in positive generals, II., 282. It is not the wisdom, but the science of the woidd, II., 284, 285. Were we bom in possession of the perfection and science of the soul, it is doubtful whether either natural birth or death could take place; and certainly there would be no thought, no speech, and no society, II., 285, 286. Unless ideas and laws were connate in the soul, there could be neither memory nor understanding; nor could any organic sub¬ ject participant of life, exist or subsist, II., 286, 287. The soul is a real essence and communicable substance, running without a break in the organic forms of the