tions against such repeal, we regard as a most irregular and unprecedented suggestion; grounded on an overweaning importance attached by the committee to their own functions. The history of the measures is briefly this. It is well known that a resolution to abolish drawback was brought forward in Dec. 1819, by a western member, with the concurrence, as was generally understood, of the zealous partizans of the manufacturing interest. This resolution was laid on the table, and was received with a burst of disapprobation by the commercial part of the community. The Missouri question came on, and all other business was laid aside. That question was decided, the committee of manufactures reported their bills, one of them contained sections providing for drawback, and these bills were lost. Now it might as well be argued that the loss of these bills ought to prevent the remonstrances of the merchant against their principles, as that the silent death of the resolution against drawbacks should prevent remonstrances against that. Of what consequence is it to the merchant, by what individual member of a great and active interest, the measures, which he regards as fatal, are proposed? Of what avail is it to him that a report of a committee, vested with no deciding power, which report may be moulded to any form in the hands of the house, that this report provides for drawback; while a motion to abolish it, proceeding from the same general quarter, is still on the table of the house? Or if it be granted that the renunciation, on the part of the committee, of any design against the drawback, furnish encouragement to hope for its security, does this amount to so strong an assurance, as to make it not only superfluous but indecent to petition against the principle of a resolution, brought forward in pursuance of the same general policy, and capable at any moment of being called up and enacted?

Willard.

ART. V.—The Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem as revealed from Heaven. From the Latin of Emanuel Swedenborg. 2d American edition. Hilliard & Metcalf, 1820, pp. 99.

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, whose name and writings have lately attracted more attention, in this vicinity, than heretofore, was born at Upsal, in Sweden, on the 29th of January, 1688. No memorabilia have yet transpired respecting his infancy; but he was early distinguished for his knowledge in mathematics, astronomy, and physical science; and for numerous writings on those subjects. He was always, as far as we can learn, respected and beloved for the excellence of his character; and previous to his spiritual visions, he had become known, in other countries beside his own, by his travels through a great part of Europe.

It was about the year 1740, that he is said to have relinquished temporal for spiritual concerns; and in 1745 he received the first commands and favours from heaven, with which he afterwards maintained an every-day familiarity. The following is the account which he gives of his first call from Deity. It is in a letter to Mr. Robsam, in the preface to the treatise of Heaven and Hell.

I dined very late at my lodgings at London, and ate with great appetite, till, at the close of my repast, I perceived a kind of mist about my eyes, and the floor of my chamber was covered with hideous reptiles. They soon disappeared, the darkness was dissipated, and I saw clearly in the midst of a brilliant light, a man seated in the corner of the chamber, who said to me in a terrible voice: eat not so much. At those words my sight became obscured; afterwards it became clear by degrees, and I found myself alone. The night following, the same man, radiant with light, appeared to me and said, "I am God, the Lord, creator and redeemer; I have chosen you to unfold to men the internal and spiritual sense of the sacred writings, and will dictate to you what you are to write." At that time I was not terrified; and the light, although very brilliant, made no unpleasant impression upon my eyes. The Lord was clothed in purple, and the vision lasted a quarter of an hour. That same night the eyes of my internal man were opened, and fitted to see things in heaven, in the world of spirits, and in hell, in which places I found many persons of my acquaintance, some of them long since, and others lately deceased.'

It is not peculiar to any individual to mistake for supernatural, that which may be accounted for according to known relations of cause and effect. With the vulgar, nothing is more common; and the love of the marvellous among them is such, as to encourage the most strange and crude relations of their experiences, which wiser men sometimes believe, or turn to account. Visions among the Romish saints were frequently pretended to be experienced; and no doubt men of no less philosophical minds than Swedenborg's have had their share of visions, which if narrated would be equally as credible as those of our author. In the case before us, it would seem that Swedenborg gave too ready admission to impressions, which to those who are unprepared for the recital of them, must appear exceedingly ludicrous; ludicrous not in themselves so much, as for the gravity with which they are related. To us they appear to be the effect, though somewhat extraordinary, of excessive indulgence of appetite, after an unusual interval of fasting, and while, perhaps, neither the body nor the mind were sufficiently composed. Certain nervous symptoms, not unlike those described by Swedenborg. sometimes occur in cases of dyspepsia, or sudden indigestion. Many such are enumerated by medical writers; namely, giddiness, noise in the ears, occasional dimness of sight, a sense of objects floating before the eyes, restlessness, unrefreshing sleep during the night, temporary absence of mind, impaired memory, &c.

To any rational man, we need assign no other cause for the first symptoms of alienation of mind, in the author, whose works we have partially examined; it being the part of true philosophy not to seek beyond a sufficient and well ascer tained cause, for any physical or intellectual phenomenon. How far the intervention of medical skill might have weaned him from the society of immortals in other regions. we cannot now determine; but it is evident, as it may well be supposed, that finding the flesh no obstacle to soaring into the celestial spheres, and descending to the infernal abodes, he soon became so conversant with their inhabitants, that he has told as much, and probably as much truth about them, as the heathen poets did of their Elysium and their Tartarus. He is not the only one who has written dialogues of the dead; but he is the first man in christendom, we believe, who so far imposed on himself and on others, as to create a belief,

among so many, that he was a new prophet, the author of a new dispensation, and the founder of a new church. On what such claims are grounded, it seems proper now to inquire, since we find disciples among us zealous enough to publish and inculcate the writings of their supposed prophet. Miracles are thought to be of little value, and are treated somewhat contemptuously, by the disciples of Swedenborg. His own opinions on this subject are sufficiently manifested in the following passage from his Arcana Coelestia.

With respect to prodigies and signs, it is to be observed, that they were performed amongs such persons as were in external worship, and were not desirous of knowing any thing about internal worship; for they who were in such worship, were to be compelled by external means; hence it was, that miracles were performed among the Israelitish and Jewish people, who were merely in external worship, and in none that was internal. It was also necessary for them to be in external worship, when they would not be in that which is internal, in order that they might represent holy things in externals, and thus that communication might be given with heaven, as by something of a church; for correspondences, representatives, and significatives conjoin the natural world to the spiritual. Hence now it was, that so many miracles were performed among that nation. But with those who are in internal worship, that is, in charity and faith, miracles are not performed, being to such persons hurtful; for miracles force or compel to believe, and whatsoever is of compulsion doth not remain, but is dissipated. The internal things of worship, which are faith and charity, ought to be implanted in freedom, for then they are appropriated; and the things which are appropriated remain. But the things which are implanted by compulsion abide without the internal man in the external; for nothing enters into the internal man except by intellectual ideas, which are reasons, the ground which receives them there being the rational principle enlightened hence it is that no miracles are performed at this day.* That they are also of a hurtful nature, may appear from the following consideration; they compel to believe, and fix in the external man an idea that a thing is so or so; if the internal man afterwards, denies what the miracles have confirmed, then there commences an opposition and collision between the internal and external man, and at length, when the ideas produced from miracles are dissipated, the conjunction of falsehood and truth takes place, which is prophanation. Hence it is evident how dangerous and hurtful miracles would be at this day in the church, wherein the internals of worship are disclosed..

[*' Voila, pourquoi votre fille est muette.']

These things are also signified by the Lord's words to Thomas: "because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed; blessed are they who see not and believe;" consequently they also are blessed, who believe, not by miracles. But miracles are not hurtful to those, who are in external worship, without internal, for with such there cannot be any opposition between the internal and external man, thus no collision, and consequently no prophanation.'

We have here quoted from Hindmarsh, a most earnest and laborious disciple of Swedenborg; and though there is sufficient obscurity in the passage, it is probably a much more intelligible translation from the original, than we, the uninitiated, could make. What the great prophet of the New Jerusalem church shadowed forth, the disciple whom we have just cited has pursued with zeal; and it is amusing, if it were not more painful, to witness such overweaning ardour and fanaticism of the genuine pupil of a visionary master, as we find in the following, among other passages in Hindmarsh's letters to Priestley:

As former dispensations required the aid and assistance of miracles, in order to induce mankind to acknowledge them, this argues at least, that they did not carry with them that clear and rational evidence of their truth, which was of itself sufficient to gain credit among men for wherever the truth of a thing cannot be established by any other means than by miracles, it plainly implies that it is involved in obscurity, doubt, and uncertainty. Such was the case with all former dispensations, which only shadowed forth and represented the last and most magnificent of all, the New Jerusalem. This last and greatest of dispensations requires no miracles, because the truths it displays are of themselves clear, rational, and satisfactory. It is too dignified to stoop down to the earth for any thing that resembles a miracle; for by so doing, its heaven born glory would be tarnished, and a cloud would overspread the sky, so as to interrupt the beams of celestial light, proceeding from him who is the sun of righteousness'

Such and similar to this is the reasoning of Swedenborgians concerning miracles. We do not say in reply, that miracles are necessary to a new dispensation of divine truth, because this is begging the question at issue. But we cannot avoid saying, that the reasons assigned by Swedenborg and his followers, why they would be not only useless, but unsuitable, in evidence of the truth of the doctrines of the New Jerusalem church are, as far as they are intelligible,