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PAGE FOURTEEN THE VISIONS OF SWEDEN BORG. By H. Addington Bruce. In mid April of the memorable year 1745, two rnefn, hastening through a busy London thoroughfare, paused for a moment to follow with their eyes a third, whom they had greeted, but who had passed without so much as a glance in their direc tion. The face of one betrayed cha grin; but the other smiled amusedly. “You mind, dear fellow,’* said he; “that is only Swedenborg’s way, as you will discover when you know him better. His feet are on the earth; but for the moment his mind is in the clouds, pondering some solution to the wonderful problems he has set himself, marvelous man that he is." “Yet," objected the other, “ho seems such a thorough man of the world, so finely dressed, so courtly as a rule in speech and manner." “He is a man of the world, a true cosmopolitan," was the quick re sponse. “I warrant few are so wide ly and so favorably known. He is as much at home in London, Paris, Ber lin, Dresden, Amsterdam, or Copen hagen as in his native city of Stock holm. Kings and queens, grand dames and gallant wits, statesmen and sol diers, scientists and philosophers, find pleasure in his society. He can meet all on their own ground, and to all he has something fresh and interest ing to say. But he is nevertheless, and above everything else, a dream er." “A dreamer?" “Aye. They tell me that he will not rest content until he has found the seat of the soul in man. Up through mathematics, mechanics, min eralogy, astronomy, chemistry, even physiology, has he gone, mastering every science in turn, until he is now perhaps the most learned man in Europe. But his learning satisfies him not a whit, since the soul still eludes him —and 'eludes him, mark you, despite month upon month of toil in the dissecting room. If the study of anatomy fails him, I know not where he will next turn. For my part, I fancy he need not look beyond the stomach. The wonder is that his own stomach has not riven him the clue ere this; for, metaphy sician though he be, he enjoys the good things of earth." The Riddle of the Universe. He was, as the gossip had put in, in the clouds, intent on the riddles his learning had rendered only the more complex, riddles having to do with the nature of the universe and with man’s place in the universe. Nor did he rouse himself from his meditations until the door of the inn had closed behind him and he found himself in its common room. Then he became the Emanuel Swedenborg of benig nity, geniality, and courtesy, the Swe denborg whom all men loved. . “I am going to my room," said he to the inn-keeper, in charming, broken English, “and I want to be served there. I find I am very hun gry; so see that you spare not." Well may he feel, or seem, self satisfied. His whole career has been a steady progress, bis record that of one who has attempted many things and failed in few. Before he was twenty-one his learning had gained for him a doctorate in philosophy. Then, enthusiastic, open minded, ami open eyed, he had hurried abroad, to WATSON’S WEEKLY; JEFFERSONIAN. pursue in England, Holland, France, Germany, his chosen studies of mathematics, mechanics, and astron omy. Returning to Sweden to as sume the duties of assesor of mines, he speedily proved that he was no mere theorizer, his inventive genius enabling the warlike Charles 111. to transport overland galleys and sloops for the siege of Erederikshald, sea passage being barred by hostile fleets. Ennobled for this feat, he plunged with ardor into the complicated prob lems of statecraft, problems rendered the more difficult by the economic distress in which Charles's wars had involved his kingdom. Here again he attained distinction. But always the problems of science and philosophy claimed his chief de votion. From the study of stars and minerals he passed to the contempla tion of other marvels of nature as re vealed in man himself, And now be hold him turned chemist, anatomist, physiologist, and psychologist, and re peating in these fields of research his former triumphs. Still, indomitable man, he refused to stop. He would press on, far beyond the confines of what his generation held to be the knowable. “The end of the senses," to quote his own words, “is that God may be seen." He would peer into the innermost recesses of man’s be ing, to discern the soul of man, may hap to discern God himself. His Humanity Bulked Large. But, if he was scientist and meta physician, he was also human, and that pleasant April afternoon the hu manity in him bulked large when he finally turned from the window and took his seat at the bountifully heap ed table. He was, as he had told the innkeeper, very hungry, and he ate with a zest that abundantly confirmed his statement. How pleasant the odors from this dish or that —how agreeable the flavor of everything! Surely he had never enjoyed meal more, and surely he w r as no longer “in the clouds"; but was instead recall ing lively reminiscences of his doings in one and another of the gay capi tals of Europe! There would be not a little to bring a twinkle of de light to his beaming eyes, not a little to soften his scholastic lips into a gentle smile. And so, in solitary state, he ate and drank, with nothing to warn him of the impending and momentous change that was to shape anew his career and his viewpoint. Conceive his astonishment, there fore, when his dinner still unfinished, he felt a strange languor creeping over him, and a mysterious obscurity dimming his eyes. Conceive, further, his horror at sight of the floor about him covered with frogs and toads and snakes and creeping things. And picture, finally, his amazement when, the darkness that enveloped him sud denly clearing, he beheld a man sit ting in the far corner of the room and eying -him, as it seemed; reproach fully, even disdainfully. In vain he essayed to rise, to lift his hand, to speak. Invisible bonds held him in his chair, an unseen pow er kept him mute. For an instant he fancied that he must be dream ing; but the noises from outdoors and the sight of the table and food be fore him brought conviction that he was in full possession of his senses. Now his visitor spoke, and spoke only four w’ords, which astonished no less than alarmed him. “Eat not so much." Only this —than utter si- lence. Again the enveloping dark ness—frogs, toads, snakes, faded in its depths—and with returning light Swedenborg was once more alone in the room. Small wonder that the remaining hours of the day were spent in fruit less cogitation of this weird and dis agreeable experience which far trans cended metaphysician’s normal ken. Nor is it surprising to find him naive ly admitting that “this unexpected event hastened my return home. ’ ’ Imagination can easily round out the picture—the rising in terror, the overturning of the chair, the seizing of cocked hat and gold-headed cane, the few explanatory words to the as tonished innkeeper, the hurried de parture, and the progress, perchance at a more rapid gait than usual, to the sleeping quarters in another sec tion of the town. Arrived there, safe in the refuge of his commodious bed room, sage argument would follow in the effort to attain persuasion that the terrifying vision had been bm “the effect of accidental causes." Be sure, though, that our philosopher, dreading a return of the specter if he permitted food to pass his lips, would go hungry to bed that night That night—more visions. To the wakeful, restless, perturbed Sweden borg, the same figure appeared, this time without snakes or frogs or toads, and not in darkness, but in the midst of a great white light that filled the bed chamber with a wonderful radi ance. Then a voice spoke: “I am God the Lord, the Creator and Redeemer of the world. I have chosen thee to lay before men the spiritual sense of the Moly Word. I will teach thee what thou art to write. ’ ’ An Astounded Investigator. Slowly the light faded, the figure disappeared. And now the astounded philosopher, his amazement growing with each passing moment, found him self transported, as it seemed, to an other world—the world of the dead. Men and women of his acquaintance greeted him as they had been wont to do when on earth, pressed about him, eagerly questioned him. Their faces still wore the familiar expressions of kindliness, anxiety, sincerity, ill will, the case might be. In every way they appeared to be still numbered among the living. They were clad in the clothes they had been accustomed to wear, they ate and drank, they lived in houses and towns. The philosophers among them continued to dispute, the clergy to admonish, the authors to write. But, his perception enlarging, Swe denborg presently discovered that this was in reality only an interme diate state of existence; that beyond it at the one end was heaven and at the other hell, to one or the other of which the dead ultimately gravitated according to their desires and con duct. For, as he was to learn later, the spiritual world was a world of law and order fully as much as was the natural world. Men were free to do as they chose; but they must bear the consequences. If they were evil minded, it would be their wish to con sort with those of like mind,-and in time they must pass to the abode of the wicked; if pure minded, they would seek out kindred spirits, and, when finally purged of the dross of earth, be translated to the realm of bliss. To heaven, then, voyaged Swe denborg, on a journey of discovery; and to hell likewise. What he saw he has set down in m£ny bulky vol umes, .than which philosopher has written none more strange. With the return of daylight it might seem that he would be prompt to dismiss all memory of these pecu liar experiences as fantasies of sleep. But he was satisfied that he had not slept; that on the contrary he had been preternaturally conscious throughout the long, eventful night. In solemn retrospect he retraced his past career. He remembered that for some years he had had symbolic dreams and symbolic hallucinations— as of a golden key, a tongue of flame, and voices—which had at the time baffled his understanding, but which he now interpreted as premonitory warnings that God had set him apart for a great mission. He remembered, too, that when still a child his mind had been engrossed by thoughts of God, and that in talking with his parents he had uttered words which caused them to declare that the an gels spoke through his mouth. Re membering all these things, he could no longer doubt thaJt divinity had actually visited him in his humble London bparding house, and he made up his mind that he must bestir kin - self to carry out the divine command of expounding to his fellow men the hidden meaning of Holy Writ. Forthwith, being still fired with the true scientist’s passion for original research, he set himself to the task of learning Hebrew. He was, it will be remembered, approaching sixty, an age when the acquisition of a new language is exceedingly difficult and rare. Yet such progress did he make that within a very few months he was writing notes in explanation of the book of Genesis. And thus he continued not for months, but years, patiently traversing the entire Bible, and at the same •ime carefully committing to paper everything ‘ 4 seen and heard" in the spiritual world; for his London excursion beyond the borderland which separates the here from the hereafter had been only the first of similar journeys taken not merely by night, but in broad day light. To use his own phraseology “ The Lord opened daily, very often, my bodily eyes; so that in the middle of the day I could see into the other world, and in a state of perfect wake fulness converse with angels and spirits. ’ ’ His increasing absorption—absent mindedness, his friends, would call it—his habit of falling into trances, and his claim to interworld commu nication, could not fail to excite the surprise of all who had known him as scientist and philosopher. But these vagaries, as people deemed them, met the greater toleration be cause of the evident fact that they did not dim his intellectual powers and did not interfere with his acti vities in behalf of the public good. True, in 1747, he resigned his office of assessor of mines in order to have more leisure to prosecute his adven tures into the unknown; but as a member of the Swedish Diet he con tinued to play a prominent part in the affairs of the kingdom, giving long and profound study to the criti cal problems of administration, eco nomics, and finance with which the nation’s leaders were confronted dur ing the third quarter of the century. So that —bearing in mind the further fact that he was no blatant advocate