and governed by one code of laws. With regard to Germany, it is divided into a greater number of governments than any of the neighbouring kingdoms: these governments are all subject to the general authority of the imperial court, but still each prince enjoys despotic power in his particular dominions; for the empire is divided into greater and lesser dukedoms, and each duke is like an absolute monarch in his own territories: and the religion of Germany is also divided, some dukedoms professing the doctrines of the Evangelical Protestants, so called, (or Lutherans,) some the doctrines of the Reformed, (or Calvinists,) and some the doctrines of the Romish Church. Such being the diversity of government, and also of religion, it is more difficult to discribe the Germans, as to their minds (animus), inclinations, and lives, from their appearance in the spiritual world, than any other nation or people: and yet, as all people of the same language are in some sort swayed by a common genius, this may, by a collation of ideas, in some degree be discovered and described.

814. As the Germans, in each particular dukedom, live under a despotic government, they do not enjoy the liberty of speaking and writing like the Dutch and English; and where the liberty of speaking and writing is restrained, the liberty of thinking, that is, of taking an enlarged view of things, is laid under restraint at the same time: for this case is like that of the bason of a fountain, whose sides are so high, that the water within is elevated even to the summit of the salient stream, so that the stream no longer forms a jet;

* It is to be remembered, that this was written prior to the dissolution of the Germanic Body, and the relinquishment of the title of emperor of Germany by the head of the house of Austria. In the form of their government too, many favourable changes, which have their origin in the descent of the divine light, have recently been made, so as to render several of the above observations applicable rather to what the Germans have been, than to what they are or will be.

thought, according to this comparison, is like the salient stream, and speech proceeding thence is like the bason; in a word, influx always adapts itself to efflux, and so does the understanding, from the superior region of the mind, adapt itself to the measure of liberty allowed for uttering and giving vent to the thoughts. Hence it is that this noble nation pays but little attention to matters of judgment, but much to studies that only exercise the memory, which is the reason that they particularly cultivate literary history, and in their writings rest much on the sentiments of learned and eminent men of their own nation, whose decisions they quote in abundance, and adopt such as they prefer for their own: this their state is represented in the spiritual world by a person carrying books under his arms, who, in case his sentiments on any subject are opposed, says that he will give an answer immediately; and then opens one of his books, and begins to read.

815. This their state produces many consequences, and this among the number, that they keep the spiritual subjects of the church inscribed on their memories, and seldom elevate them into the superior region of the understanding, but only admit them into the inferior region, and thence reason upon them, in which practice they differ entirely from free nations; for these, in regard to the spiritual subjects of the church, which are comprehended under the name of theology, are like eagles, which raise themselves up to any height in the atmosphere, whereas nations that are not free are like swans in a river. Free nations also are like the larger kind of stags, with high branching horns, that range with full license through the plains, the groves, and the forests; whereas nations that are not free are like deer inclosed in parks, which are kept for the use of the prince. Again, free people are like flying horses, by the ancients called Pegasi, which fly not only over seas, but over Parnassian hills, and the seats of the Muses beneath;

whereas people that are free are like high-bred horses, adorned with costly trappings in the stables of kings. Such too are the differences of judgment, in the mystic points of theology, between a free people and those who are not free. The German clergy, in the course of their education, write down the prescripts delivered by their public masters in the universities, and these they keep as tokens of their erudition, and when they enter on the priestly office, or are appointed lecturers in the public schools, they generally make the above-mentioned prescripts the ground of all their discourses, whether delivered from the chair or the pulpit. Such of their priests as do not teach the orthodox doctrines, usually preach about the Holy Ghost, and his wonderful operations and holy excitements on the heart but they who ground their doctrines in the modern orthodoxy of faith, appear to the angels as if they wore a wreath of beech leaves about their temples; but they who preach from the Word the doctrine of charity and good works, appear to the angels as if adorned with wreaths formed of the odoriferous leaves of the laurel. The Evangelical Protestants, [or Lutherans], in their disputes with the Reformed, [or the Calvinists], about truths, appear as if they tore their clothes; the reason is, because clothes signify truths.

816. I have inquired in what part of the spiritual world the people of Hamburg are to be found, and have been informed that they appear no where collected into one society, and still less into any particular state, but that they are dispersed and intermixed with the Germans in various quarters; and on examining into the reason of this circumstance it was found to arise from the state of their minds, which are continually looking abroad, and as it were travelling out of their own city, and very little within it: for according to the state of man's mind in the natural world, such also is its state in the spiritual world, for the mind of man is his spirit,

or the posthumous man that lives after his departure out of the material body.

OF THE PAPISTS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.

817. The papists in the spiritual world appear round about and beneath the Protestants, and are divided from them by intervals of ground, which they are forbidden to pass; and yet the monks by clandestine arts obtain for themselves a communication, and also depute emissaries through paths known only to themselves, for the purpose of making converts; but they are discovered, and as certainly punished, and are then either sent back to their own people, or are cast down.

818. Since the last judgment, which took place in the spi ritual world in the year 1757, the state of all the inhabitants, and consequently of the Papists, is so changed, that they are no longer permitted to collect into companies as before, but ways or paths are appointed for every kind of love, whether good or evil, which all immediately enter on their leaving the natural world, and so depart to the societies corresponding to their loves; thus the wicked are conveyed to societies which are in hell, and the good to societies which are in heaven: by this means it is provided, that none can form artificial heavens for themselves, as was done before. Such societies in the world of spirits, which is in the midst

* More may be seen on this subject, concerning the formatiɔn of artificial heavens, in our author's tract on the LAST JUDGMENT. Suffice it here to observe, that such heavens are there described to be formed by those spirits, who have an external semblance of goodness and religion without possessing the interual reality. When such spirits come into another world, they create to themselves an imaginary or artificial heaven, from the ideas of sanctity which they have received externally, and such heaven, for wise and secret purposes, is permitted by the Lord to continue for a time; but when a general judgment takes place in the spiritual world, then those external heavens pass away, agreeably to what is said in the Revelation, chap. xx. 11, xxi. 1,

between heaven and hell, are manifold, being equal in number to the different genera and species of the affections of the love of good and evil; and in the mean time, before they are either elevated into heaven or cast down into hell, they are in spiritual conjunction with men in the natural world, by reason that men also in the natural world are in the midst between heaven and hell.

819. The Papists have a kind of council-chamber in the southern quarter towards the east, in which their prelates assemble, and consult on various matters relating to their religion, particularly how the vulgar may be kept in blind obedience, and how their own dominion may be extended: no one however is admitted into this council-house, who during his life on earth had enjoyed the papacy, by reason that somewhat like divine authority rests in their minds, in consequence of having arrogated to themselves the Lord's power in the world: neither is any cardinal permitted to enter into that council-house, on account of the preeminence which he had formerly enjoyed; the cardinals however collect themselves together in a large conclave under the council-house, and after continuing there some days they are removed, but I was not permitted to know whither. There is also another assembly in the southern quarter towards the west, and there their employment is to introduce the credulous vulgar into heaven: they form an arrangement around themselves of divers societies, which live in the enjoyment of various external delights; in some there are dances, in some concerts of music, in some processions, in some theatres and scenic exhibitions; in some there are spirits who by phantasies have the art of inducing various forms of magnificence; in some they do nothing but jest and play the buffoon; in some they discourse with each other in a friendly way, in one place on religious subjects, in another on political, and in a third wantonly and indecently into some one of these societies they introduce the credulous, according

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