i. e. something of love and wisdom from the Lord, who is Love itself and Wisdom itself, must enter into and fill every single thing in the natural world, as its soul, essence, and forming power; just as the spirit of man, for example, enters into and fills with its own life every organ, membrane, gland, fibre, &c. of the human body. Thus all nature is seen to be but an effect, of which God, who is spirit and the only Life, is the cause. Hence every single thing in nature-beast, bird, fish, insect, air, water, trees, stones and every natural phenomenon that we witness around us, is only an effect, of which some spiritual principle proceeding from the Lord as its centre and source, is the internal and producing cause. Nature, therefore, in one complex, is the clothing of the Divine-the outer garment of God; as the body of man is the clothing, or material garment of his soul. Consequently every single object and phenomenon in nature is the outward garment of some particular portion of the Divine, or of some order and degree of goodness and truth; for in the Lord there are all orders and degrees of love and wisdom, or of goodness and truth. This, we think, must appear perfectly rational and incontrovertibly true to every man who is not an atheist, and thus in the denial of any spiritual principle as the creative power and real cause of all effects in nature.

That some spiritual principle, therefore, enters into each and every single object in nature, and stands related to it as the cause to its effect, is a perfectly rational conclusion, and one that is legitimately drawn from premises which must be admitted by all who acknowledge the existence of a Divine Being. Now this relation between certain spiritual principles which proceed from the Lord, and the effects or forms which these principles produce, is what, in New Church phraseology, is termed Correspondence; and the knowledge of this relation between ultimate effects and the spiritual principles which enter into them as their cause, or between the forms of things and their essence, is called the Science of Correspondences.

"That all things in nature," says Swedenborg, "both

in general and in particular, correspond to things spiritual, and in like manner, all and every thing in the human body, is shown in the treatise concerning Heaven and Hell, n. 87-105. But what is meant by correspondence, has to this day remained unknown, notwithstanding it was a subject most familiar to the men of the most ancient times, who esteemed it the chief of sciences, and cultivated it so universally, that all their books and tracts were written by correspondences. The book of Job, which was a book of the ancient church, is full of correspondences. The hieroglyphics of the Egyptians, and the fabulous stories of antiquity, were founded on the same science. All the ancient churches were churches representative of spiritual things; and their ceremonies, and also their statutes, which were rules for the institution of their worship, consisted of mere correspondences; in like manner, every thing in the Israelitish church, their burnt-offerings and sacrifices, with all the particulars belonging to each, were correspondences: so also was the tabernacle, with all things contained in it and likewise their festivals, as the feast of the unleavened bread, the feast of tabernacles, the feast of the first-fruits; also, the priesthood of Aaron and the Levites, and their garments of holiness; and beside the things above mentioned, all their statutes and judgments, relating to worship and life, were correspondences. Now, forasmuch as divine things, fix their existence in outward nature in correspondences, therefore the Word was written by mere correspondences; and for the same reason the Lord, in consequence of speaking from Divinity, spoke by correspondences; for whatever proceeds from Divinity, when it comes into outward nature, manifests itself in such outward things as correspond with what is divine; which outward things become then the repositories of divine things, otherwise called celestial and spiritual, which lie concealed within them."-(D. S. S. n. 20.)

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The reason why this relation, of which we have spoken above, is called correspondence, is, because the peculiar organization, shape, color, and all the sensible qualities which belong to any object in nature, corre

spond to the quality of the spiritual principle which enters into it as its producing cause, as perfectly as the body of man corresponds to his soul. Every natural object was created for some particular use in this natural world; and all its sensible properties correspond to this natural use, as an effect to its cause; and this natural use corresponds in the same manner to the spiritual use of the object, or to the spiritual principle which is the cause of its natural use. Thus the sun, air, water, &c., have each of them from creation, certain peculiar sensible properties; and these properties are adapted to produce certain effects, which are the natural uses of these objects, and to which they therefore correspond as cause to effect. Illumination is one of the uses which results from the sun's peculiar properties; and hence this use is correspondent to the sun's peculiar form or constitution. Water performs no such use as this; therefore it does not correspond to it. And the natural uses of these objects correspond to certain spiritual uses, or to spiritual principles from which the natural use results as an effect from its cause. Thus the sun, as being the source of light and heat to the natural world, corresponds to the Lord, who is the source of all spiritual light and heat, or of wisdom and love to angels and men. Therefore the sun, when mentioned in the Word, signifies the Lord. The light, which proceeds from the sun, because it enables us to see natural objects, to travel about, and to perform various natural uses, corresponds to truth which proceeds from the Lord, and which enables us to discern spiritual things, i. e. to understand the quality of various affections and thoughts, to travel on our spiritual journey, and to perform various spiritual uses, or the great work of regeneration. Therefore truth is what is signified by light in its spiritual sense when mentioned in the Word. The heat which proceeds from the sun, because it supplies the earth with natural warmth, and is that principle which animates, vivifies and quickens all natural things, corresponds to love which proceeds from the Lord, which supplies the soul with spiritual warmth, gives vitality to the affections, and is the vivi

fying and quickening principle of all spiritual life. Therefore love is the spiritual signification of heat when mentioned in the Word. The atmosphere, because it is the means of tempering the rays of the sun and transmitting them to the earth, corresponds to that pure and elevated principle of the human mind which intends use, and which is therefore the medium of transmitting the celestial beams of goodness and truth from the spiritual Sun to the lower regions or the earth of our minds. For it is to be observed that the doctrines of the New Jerusalem Church teach, that no man is regenerated instantaneously; but on the contrary, that the heavenly principles of goodness and truth are brought down gradually and successively into the region of the natural mind, and just in the degree that we are willing to shun their opposites, and to perform uses from love to the Lord and for the good of the neighbor-i. e. from a genuine love of use. Thus the affection of use is our spiritual atmosphere, or the medium through which goods and truths-the rays of the spiritual Sun-find access to the lower region of our minds. Therefore the atmosphere in its spiritual sense, signifies the love of use, or use itself. Again: water, which, among various other uses, is employed for quenching thirst, and for cleansing things of their natural impurities, corresponds to truth as employed in quenching spiritual thirst, and cleansing the mind of its impure thoughts and affections. Therefore when water is spoken of in the Word in reference to these uses, it signifies, in the spiritual sense, the use of truth in satisfying the thirsty soul and washing away our spiritual impurities.

Now the use of the natural objects here mentioned proceeds from the use of the spiritual principles which they denote, as an effect from its cause. Therefore it is that these natural things are said to correspond to such spiritual principles.

These few examples may perhaps be sufficient to give us some general idea of the doctrine of correspondence— a doctrine which is not only rational and philosophical, but which it seems absolutely necessary to admit, unless we deny the existence of a Divine Being, and

consequently deny that there is any influx of spiritual and living principles from Him into the various forms which exist in nature. According to this doctrine all things around us are significant. All material things, and all natural phenomena, are symbols of certain spiritual principles and their operation in the mind of man. The whole of the volume of nature is, what bishop Warburton calls the prophetic writings, a speaking hieroglyphic. This natural world, being the world of effects, is but an out-birth from the Deity, in every single object and operation of which, is mirrored some principle of the Divine Mind, either in its pure or perverted form. Each thing therefore represents by correspondence some specific spiritual principle-something of thought and affection, or of the wisdom and love of God, which enters into it as its forming power, and constitutes its real essence.

And inasmuch as man was created an image and likeness of God, therefore everything in the natural world must also represent by correspondence some spiritual principle appertaing to the mind of man. To make this subject still plainer, it is as if particular affections and thoughts, or specific human principles, proceeding in the first instance from the Lord, were taken out of man, and each embodied in some natural form; which natural form is in all respects perfectly correspondent to the quality of the spiritual principle which enters into and fills it, and of which it is therefore a perfect type or representative image. For example, one principle taken out of the human mind, and, separate from all others being clothed with matter or embodied in a natural form, becomes a horse, another a sheep, another a lion, another a dove, &c. And thus throughout the vast range of nature, we have all the principles of the human mind individualized and embodied in form.

And here it should be remarked, that, as every pure and heavenly principle is capable of being perverted by man, and thus turned into something of an opposite nature-every good into its opposite evil and every truth into its opposite falsity-so there are in nature forms