Swedenborg says, man carries with him from the natural into the spiritual world, and which becomes the cutaneous covering of his spiritual body (A. D. L. & W. 257). This intermediate must also hold both worlds in connection.

From all, then, that has been advanced it is reasonable to conclude that the natural world is for the purposes of the spiritual world; that it is fully adapted to meet all the progressions and uses of that world, without its destruction for the creation of another; that the perfection of the spiritual world will bring perfection to the natural; and that hence what the "Preacher " says is true, "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever" (Eccles. i. 4). THOS. MACKERETH.

LIFE.

As a substantial entity life is God-the Self-existent and Eternal. As such it is incomprehensible and unapproachable; we therefore can predicate nothing of it beyond that it is, and that it is the absolute cause of all things. But as a proceeding life is not substantial, it is therefore not to be conceived of in the ordinary acceptation of a proceeding, but as a force causing activity. In the ordinary sense a proceeding implies something to proceed, an actual going forth from one thing or place to another, but that is not the sense in which we are to think of proceeding life. It is to be thought of, first, as a force, and, secondly, as an activity. Activity implies the existence of something besides life-something which can be actuated, and thereby manifest the existence and presence of life. That something is, first, a medium, and, secondly, a substantial form. Life as force is the source of all activity, and therefore the cause of every effect.

Life gives all consciousness, still as a proceeding, or as it flows from God, it is not conscious at all. Consciousness in all cases is the property of an organized form or subject, and the more perfect the form the more perfect the consciousness. But proceeding life is not a subject, nor is it organized, it therefore does not possess consciousness. Of abstract life no idea can be formed; there is no such thing; therefore it cannot be thought of: to think of an abstraction would be to think of nothing, which is not possible. The first idea that can be formed of life is the most imperfect; it is that of a force as it exists in a medium proceeding as a tendency or energy to produce, which, when communicated to a fitly formed subject, produces activity and consciousness, which activity and consciousness constitute the subject's existence, as will be shown below. As previously stated, life is not simply activity, but a force which produces activity. When predicated of a subject, life may with more propriety be said to be its existence than its life; in that case it is not mere life, but the

result of life; it is the subject living. Life as a manifest existence implies the existence of a subject in which it exists, and which it actuates; and that which is then manifested is not naked life, but only the subject's mode of existing. As there is no abstract activity there can be no activity until there is something to act, it being the property either of a medium or of a subject; previously to this life exists only as a force. Although all manifestation of life takes place only in substantial existing forms, yet from their existence the rational faculty infers that between the existing subject and the origin of the life by which the subject lives there must be a medium by which the life is conveyed, and by which it is communicated. There is no manifestation of life in the medium, nevertheless the argument is conclusive; for life not being an inherent property of any creature, it must be communicated, which communication implies a medium.

We speak of life being communicated to subjects which are organized for its reception; still the existence of such subjects implies a prior existence of life, this being the formative principle by which the subjects themselves were produced; it first forms the subject, and then by a continuation of its operation vivifies it and causes it to live. As a force, life may exist without action, but in no case can action exist without force, the former being the result of the latter when vented or liberated. Force and proceeding action are sufficient to sustain the universe, more would be too much, less would be insufficient. Life, as it comes to man, is a living force, whose origin is God; it enters him by the supreme part of his constitution, and is continued thence to his lowest, terminating in the extremities of the body. This is the life by which man lives; and we must carefully distinguish between the life which a man lives and the life by which he lives,— this latter being the cause of his existence, but the life which he lives is his existence, that is, his voluntary existence.

Man's will and understanding, considered even as powers, are not in themselves active, and therefore cannot of themselves do anything; yet, being powers, they have a function to perform, which is to direct life, which is active, to certain ends, and invest it with certain modes. One thing is certain, viz., if life be the absolute cause of all action, and it is action that does everything, nothing else can do anything. The will can determine respecting the production of effects, but cannot produce any, only life can produce them. It is indeed marvellous, that although the will can of itself do nothing, yet at its behests life flows into the body and produces the effects intended; thus ultimating the will's determinations. But how, in compliance with the fiat of the will, life is directed through the nervous system into bodily action, man does not know. Absolutely man can do nothing, but relatively he can do much; he can direct life and dispose of it at will; yet he knows not how it is done; he wills and the action follows, but between willing and acting he takes no voluntary part. Life operates in the nerves and muscles to ultimate the will's determination in the body's action, but man does not convey it, nor is he aware how

it is conveyed; he wills to raise his arm, and it rises, he knows not how; the arm rises at the will's behests, and just so the foot moves in walking, or the tongue in talking,-man has only to will, and the effect follows. There is nothing more wonderful, or with which man is less acquainted, than that with which he appears to be the most familiar; he knows not how that is done which he thinks he is continually doing.

Life, under the direction of the will and understanding, arranges into ideas the mental forms which are deposited in the memory; hence the will and understanding are not their primary but only their secondary and conscious causes; for life being the only living force, it must be the primary cause of every effect. The will and understanding, through which life flows, and in which it assumes a mode and a quality, however exalted, cannot be more than mediate causes, they existing in the brain between life in its beginnings in man, and its terminations in the body. Thus, absolutely, man of himself does nothing, but only appears to do something. It is with man in his production of effects as it is with his existence; he appears to be the sole agent in the production of effects, and he appears to exist of himself as an independent being, yet he neither produces effects of himself, nor does he exist of himself, he possessing no life in himself as the cause of his existence; still under the appearance that it is so, he acts and speaks, and the appearance that he acts and speaks of himself is as perfect as that he lives of himself. Although man has not an absolute but only a relative existence, nevertheless it is to him as a reality, and that is sufficient; more would be too much, it would make him a God. Man could not have more than a relative existence unless he were self-existent and consequently independent. Apparent self-existence is the very ground on which human existence is based; it is the condition on which is grounded man's capabilities of willing and thinking, acting and speaking, as of himself.

Apparent self-existence is the first consciousness of human existence : it is prior to the existence of willing and thinking, and, as just stated, it is the ground on which those powers are based, or, perhaps, rather, the cause on which they depend; it is the point at which human existence commences, and it is the condition which renders it possible. Although man is not an independent being, yet that he should appear so is indispensable to his existence; for from that appearance he wills, thinks, acts, and speaks, thus wholly exists. Man is not conscious that he is only a recipient of life; nor is he conscious that he is vivified by anything which is out of and superior to himself: for such knowledge he is indebted to revelation. The very beginning of everything that man does is his beginning to will and to think, which he does under the appearance that he possesses in himself, as an inherent property, the power to do so. And that appearance is as real to him as if he were self-existent, he willing and thinking, acting and speaking, as freely as if he were altogether an independent being. We do not see that that appearance could be more perfect, or that man could

In comparison

be more free, if he were really an independent being. with the absolute, no man has a real, but only a relative, existence; no being has a real and absolute existence but He who has life in Himself, who is the Self-existent. But although man has not an absolute existence, yet he has a relative existence; and in respect to his capabilities and apparent inherent possession of life, that existence is as real as any being's short of the Self-existent can be. It is as real to him as if it were absolute, he not having the slightest consciousness of his dependence upon the supreme source of life.

Proceeding life is conveyed from its infinite source to the ultimate of creation through mediums. Those mediums are of two kinds, one of which is of Divine appointment, by which life is accommodated to the reception of living creatures in every region of the created universe. These mediums were produced immediately from the Creator, and were prior to the other; the other were produced from the same source, but mediately through the ultimate. By the former, life is tempered and accommodated to the reception of beings in every degree of existence : these are spiritual atmospheres. These mediums modify the life, but do not change its nature; it is more or less perfect according to the superiority or inferiority of the mediums in which it exists, but its essential nature remains unchanged. Proceeding life, as it exists in those spiritual mediums, is by Swedenborg called "the Divine in the heavens." Life is not rendered mediate by passing those spiritual accommodating mediums, it is still called immediate; and before man was created, and previously to his occupying the spiritual regions of the universe, this was the only kind of life which flowed from God into the world, producing, as on a reacting plane, vegetables and animals. There was then no mediate life. Mediate life commenced after man became an inhabitant of the spiritual world. Then, occupying the intermediate regions between the source of life and the ultimate of creation, they became mediums through which life flowed to man in the world, and what came through them was mediate life. Life flowing through men in the spiritual world as mediums, and they containing quality, it assumed their qualities, and conveyed it to man in the natural world. This was the origin of mediate life. And as those mediums were both good and bad, mediate life possessed and still possesses those qualities. Hence there are two qualities of mediate life—good and evil.

Proceeding life assumes modes in the Divinely-appointed accommodating mediums, and receives a denomination according to them. As it exists in the highest heaven it is called celestial; as it exists in the middle it is called spiritual; and in the lowest it is called natural, that is, the natural of the spiritual; it is also called natural in the men, and in the things which live and grow in this world. This being the case, it will follow that, notwithstanding its frequently being said that there is an influx of what is spiritual into all things of the natural world, there is not anything spiritual in this world, neither life nor substance. Life is called spiritual because it is from the

spiritual world; nevertheless it is not really from that world, but from the Lord through that world; and we might with as little impropriety call it Divine because it is from a Divine origin.

and

It is by virtue of proceeding life from God that man possesses capabilities both of mind and body; and it is by reason of that life that the involuntary motions in man exist. By virtue of it the mind can will and think, love and believe; the heart propel the blood, and the lungs respire, etc. ; yet, as said previously, proceeding life cannot will and think, love and believe. It does not possess those properties, and therefore cannot communicate them. Those properties or capabilities exist only in beings who are created as subjects of them, and without which no such properties could have existed. Forms, being produced as the subjects of volition and rationality, and being vivified by life from God, are rendered conscious of the possession of those powers, and afterwards of what is acquired by them. Hence both influx of life and subjects are essential to the existence of human powers. If there were no such subjects, however copious the flow of life might be, there would be neither volition nor rationality. All human powers are inherent in human subjects. Proceeding life can neither will nor think, love nor perceive, but a subject formed with the powers of willing and thinking, and vivified by life, can do all that. There are some who would divest man of all his powers, attribute the effects which proceed from him to the life by which he is animated, stating at the same time that he is dead, and therefore can do nothing. But man is not dead; there never was a man who was not alive, and who did not possess the consciousness of individuality, and of powers more or less perfect. The effects, also, which proceed from man are wholly attributable to him, and not to the life by which he lives; else what are we to say of the production of evil? It is the same power which produces man's evil that produces his good, viz his power of willing. Nothing proceeds from man but what originates in his will, and which is caused by the will, it is consequently attributable to it. Of course, man could do nothing without life. There is no man without life,- -never was—never will be: therefore to speak of a dead man, or of a man without life, is to speak of a nonentity. Every man lives by the reception of life, still the effects which proceed from him are not attributable to the life, but to himself; all effects being attributable to the subjects in which they originate and whence they proceed, and not to the life by which they live. If effects were attributable to the life by which organized subjects live, the life would be responsible, and the origin and existence of evil could be justly attributable to no other cause. It is well for us at times to pause and reflect, and ask ourselves the questions, Whence are we? What is the source of our life? What was the design in our being? What are we doing? Where are we going? It is impossible for the serious mind to meditate upon our constitutions, powers, and natures, without being deeply impressed with a sense of the amazing wisdom, power, and skill of the Creator. That a being should be raised into existence consisting of created substance,