In this mountain range (Kölen), rise a great number of rivers and streams, which flow in a south-easterly direction to the Gulf of Bothnia. The immense quantity of fresh water that is thus carried into the gulf makes its water scarcely more salt than that of a lake (0·25 to 0·40 per cent. of salt). Between the upper courses of the rivers the watersheds consist of mountain ridges, which gradually diminish in height. The intermediate valleys are for the most part filled with the water of the rivers, and thus form a number of lakes at a considerable elevation above the sea-level. Issuing from these lakes, the rivers form great cataracts, and afterwards flow through the level plain that forms the coast-region of the Gulf of Bothnia for a distance of many miles from the shore.

The boundary between Sweden and Finland is formed by (1) Muonio Elf, and afterwards by (2) Torneå Elf, into which it flows; Torneå Elf rises in Torneå Träsk, at an elevation of 1132 feet above the sea. Then come, in order along the coast, the following rivers:—(3) Kalix Elf, which in its upper course forms the lakes of Paitas Jaur and Kalas Järvi; (4) Stora Luleå Elf (242 miles), which forms Stora Luleå Jaur (1214 feet) and receives on the right (5) Lilla Luleå Elf, which forms the lakes of Saggat Träsk and Skalka Jaur (984 feet); (6) Piteå Elf, with the lake of Tjäggelvas; (7 ) Skellefteå Elf, forming a number of great lakes, such as Hornafvan (1391 feet), Uddjaur (1375 feet), Storafvan (1371 feet); (8) Umeå Elf (261 miles), with a great number of lakes, of which the largest is Stor-Uman, receives on the left a tributary of almost equal size, viz., (9) Vindel Elf; (10) Ångerman Elf (211 miles), which receives the water of a whole system of streams and lakes, the largest of the latter being Stroms Vattudal, in the south of Lapland; (11) Indals Elf, which receives the Ammerå, with its tributaries and the numerous emissary lakes, as Hotagen (1017 feet), Kallsjön and Storsjön (“Storsa Lake” on the map) (958 feet, area 173 sq. miles). Close to the railway from Trondhjem to Östersund, between

Kallsjön and Storsjön, rises the peak of Åreskutan (4652 feet), which is ascended every year by a great number of tourists, and in the vicinity many sanatoria are situated. Farther south flow three large rivers: — (12) Ljungan (193 miles), with Holmsjön (656 feet); (13) Ljusnan (249 miles); and (14) Dal Elf (286 miles), which passes through Särnasjön (1450 feet) and Siljan (541 feet, 110 sq. miles), and receives on the right (15) West Dal Elf. The last-named four rivers rise in a mountainous region with many high summits, which are the eastern outposts of the high range of Dovrefjeld, which traverses Norway from west to east, between the parallels of 67° and 63° N. lat. Among these summits, situated on the frontier or in Sweden, are to be observed the Syltoppar (5865 feet), Son Fjell (4190 feet), Helags Fjell (5900 feet), and Städjan (3860 feet) on the north shore of Särnasjön.

In Norway, not far from the sources of Dal Elf, lies the lake of Fämundsjö, which gives rise to (16) Klar Elf, which flows southwards to Lake Vener, the largest lake in Sweden (144 feet, area 2150 square miles). The outlet of Vener is (17) Göta Elf, which falls into the Cattegat, near Gothenburg. The watershed between Dal Elf and Klar Elf is a wooded range of hills without high peaks, sloping to the south-east. The south-eastern part of Svealand comprises the water systems of the large lakes of Hjelmar (75 feet, area 185 square miles) and Mälar (area 449 square miles). Lake Mälar discharges into the Baltic at Stockholm by two outlets—(18) Norrström and Söderström. They are, however, almost to be regarded as channels or sounds, rather than as streams, the difference of level between Lake Mälar and the Baltic being so small that occasionally, when the water is low in Mälar and high in the Baltic, the current sets from the latter into the former. Lake Mälar may thus be considered a fjord of the Baltic. Still its waters are kept fresh by the great number of small streams that discharge into it, the most important of these being (19) Fyris Elf, which passes Upsala.

The boundary between Svealand and Götaland consists of wooded heights. Between Lake Vetter and the northern shore of Bråviken Bay stretches the forest of Kolmorden, and between the northern extremity of Lake Vetter and Lake Vener lies that of Tiveden. Lake Vetter (290 feet, area 733 square miles) discharges itself into Bråviken by (20) Motala Ström, the falls of which are utilized for the mills in the town of Norrköping, near the mouth of the river.

The central part of Götaland consists of an extensive tableland or plateau, of which the highest part, at an elevation of 1237 feet, lies somewhat to the south of Vetter. On the north this plateau descends rather abruptly towards the fertile plains of Ostergötland (drained by Motala Ström) and Skaraborg län, between Vetter and Vener. Near the south-eastern shore of Vetter, a little to the north of Jönköping, lies Mount Omberg (863 feet), and near the southern shore of Vener, close by Lidköping, lies Kinnekulle (915 feet), both hills remarkable for their beauty. The great plateau descends less abruptly towards east, south, and west. A great number of lesser streams flow down its slopes. The principal are—(21) Emmån, which falls into Calmar Sound; (22) Lyckebyån, (23) Mörrumsån, and (24) Helgaån, which flow in a southerly direction; and (25) Lagan, (26) Nissan, (27) Ätran, and (28) Viskan, which fall into the Cattegat. On this great plateau and its slopes lie also many lakes. In the northern part, east of Vetter, lies Sommen (479 feet), and farther north Boren, Roxen, and Glan. Between Vetter and Vener lies Unden (384 feet). On the summit of the plateau lies Ekelsjö (1132 feet), and on its southern slope Helgasjö (535 feet), Bolmen (466 feet), Mückeln (446 feet), and Åsnen.

The southmost part of Sweden, Skåne, consists for the most part of a low fertile country. Only in the northern part, Christianstad län, occur two low stretches of hills, called Linderödsåsen and Söderåsen.

Waterfalls.— The largest waterfalls are—(1) Njuom-melsaska (Harsprånget), in Stora Luleå Elf, with a breadth of 60-70 feet, consisting of two cataracte of 103 feet at the upper end and a fall of 150 feet more in the course of 1 1 / 3 miles,—the largest waterfall in Europe; (2) Adna-Muorki-Kortje (“the great fall of the lake”), on the same river as the former, higher up, between the two lakes Jäntajaur and Kaskajaur, has a fall of 130 feet, of which 100 feet are one perpendicular cataract; (3) Tännforsen, 12 miles west of Åreskutan in Jemtland, between Tännsjön and Noren, has a breadth of 160 and a perpendicular fall of 84 feet; (4) Trollhättan, in Göta Elf, consists of three successive falls having a total height of 100 feet.

It will be seen that, with the exception of the northwest part along the Norwegian frontier, Sweden is not a mountainous country. On the other hand, fertile plains are not frequent. The most extensive are the north-west shore of the Gulf of Bothnia, where, however, the severe climate precludes any successful agriculture, the water districts of Lake Mälar and Lake Hjelmar, the rich agricultural district of Ostergötland between Vetter and the Baltic, Vestergötland, or the whole country between the two great lakes as far as Gothenburg, and, as has been just mentioned, the southmost part, or Skåne, which comprises Christianstad and Malmöhus län. The greatest part of the country consists of low hills of granite or gneiss, clothed with forests of pine and fir. The valleys are generally in great part filled with water, and the shores of their lakes or wide rivers are covered with forests of deciduous trees, chiefly birch, or consist of arable soil. With the exception of Finland there is no country so full of lakes as Sweden. Nearly one-twelfth of the whole surface of the country, or about 13,900 square miles, is covered with water.

Coast.— The coast of Sweden is not broken by so many or so deep fjords as that of Norway. The most considerable indentation is the above-mentioned Bråviken Bay. On the other hand, the Swedish coast is, perhaps in a still greater degree than the Norwegian, fringed by innumerable little islets. Except on the coast round Skåne, in the south, the mainland does not come into direct contact with the sea, girdled as it is by a belt of islands, holms, and skerries, more or less thickly set, which forms the so-called “skärgård” fence of skerries or outer coast. Between this wall of islets and the mainland, therefore, extends a connected series of sounds of the greatest importance for coastal navigation, since they admit of the employment of vessels of less size and strength. This skärgård forms, besides, a most valuable natural defence; for, while some sounds are deep, navigation in the vicinity of the coasts is, as a rule, practically impossible without the help of pilots.

The broadest part of this skärgård is that off Stockholm, which stretches many miles out into the Baltic. It consists of a few large and well-peopled islands, surrounded by many hundreds of islets, for the most part uninhabited. The outer islands are bare grey rocks of gneiss, but the inner ones are mostly covered with fir and birch trees. The entrance to Stockholm through this archipelago is of its kind one of the most curious and picturesque in the world. The largest of these islands are Ljusterö, Vermdö, Ingarö, Vindö, Runmarö, Ornö, and Utö (with rich iron mines). As mentioned above, Lake Mälar is to be con sidered as a fjord of the Baltic. The skärgård also extends into Mälar, which is filled with islands. The most remarkable is Björkö, where the old town of Birka was situated. The archaeological researches on this spot have been of the greatest importance for our knowledge of life in Sweden in the times of the vikings. The part of the skärgård next in breadth is that off Carlskrona, where the islands of Sturkö, Tjurkö, Aspö, and Hasslö are situated.

The Cattegat skärgård, which extends from the fjord of Svinesund at the southern extremity of the Norwegian frontier as far as Halmstad, has a different aspect from that of the Baltic. In the Cattegat all the islands, as well as the rocks of the mainland, are almost bare of vegetation. Trees are quite absent in most places, and generally the grey rocks are not even covered with grass or moss. They look as if they were polished by the sea. Between these bare rocks there is, however, in many places even on the larger islands arable soil of great fertility. In the northern part of the skärgård near Strömstad lie the larger islands of Sandö, Ödö, Tjernö, Rösö, &c. Farther seawards lie the Koster Islands and the Väder Islands with their lighthouses. A little more to the south, in the vicinity of Lysekil, are three narrow fjords—Âbyfjord, Gullmarfjord, and Koljefjord. Off the first-named lies Malmö, remarkable for its quarry, where the fine granite of which the island consists is wrought. Next come, in succession, Kornö, Skaftö, Flatö, Hermanö, and Lyrö, the last two situated off the two largest islands on this coast, Oroust and Tjörn. All the islands now enumerated are surrounded by innumerable islets and rocks. South of Tjörn there are no considerable islands except Marstrand (with a small town and much-frequented sea-bathing quarters), Koö, and Klöfverö, all situated immediately to the south of Tjörn. On the coast of Halland we find only Särö, off the fjord of Kungsbacka, and the Väderö of Halland, off Torekow, between Laholm Bay and Skelder Bay, the only islands on the whole coast that are covered with a rich vegetation of trees. On the extreme point of the cape, between the latter fjord and the Sound, lies the isolated Mount Kullen with its lighthouse. In the Sound off Landskrona lies the islet of liven, where Tycho Brahe had his observatory, Uranienborg, in the end of the 16th century (1576-1597).

In the Baltic lie the two great islands of Gotland and Öland, of which the former is itself a county and a bishopric. These islands are quite different from the Swedish mainland. They are formed of Silurian limestone. On the western coast of Gotland the limestone rocks descend precipitously into the sea, and the island forms a comparatively smooth plateau, which slopes gradually to the east. The limestone soil is very fertile, and trees and plants thrive on it that do not otherwise grow in the climate of Sweden, such as walnuts, ivy, &c. The case is the same in Öland. This island somewhat resembles a house-top. A sterile limestone plain (Alvaren) stretches the whole length of the island from north to south, and from this the country slopes both towards Calmar Sound on the west and towards the Baltic on the east. The slopes, especially the western, are very fertile.

Sea-Bed.— The seas that surround Sweden are remarkably shallow. Round the south part of Norway runs a depression in the sea-bed, called the Norwegian Channel (see Norwegian Sea). It stretches along the west and south coasts of Norway southward and eastward almost to Christiania Fjord and the Cattegat. The deepest part of this channel, upwards of 400 fathoms, extends through the Skagerack between Arendal in Norway and the Scaw. In the Cattegat the depth diminishes abruptly, and between Gothenburg and the Scaw the greatest depth is between 33 and 55 fathoms. The greatest part of the southern half of the Cattegat has a depth of less than 30 fathoms. The depth of the Sound generally is even less than 12 fathoms. The whole southern part of the Baltic between Sweden and Germany is very shallow. West of Bornholm the depth nowhere reaches 30 fathoms. East of Bornholm the sea is somewhat deeper, and a small area of a depth of 50 to 60 fathoms is found a little east of that island. The whole of that part of the Baltic which lies between Sweden and Russia is divided into two separate basins by a submarine bank. From the southern extremity of Gotland (Hoburg) there extends a nearly uninterrupted bank to the south-west as far as the Prussian coast. The depth on this bank nowhere reaches 30 fathoms. The shallowest parts are Hoburg Bank south of Gotland, Mittel Bank south-east of Gland, and Stolpe Bank off the Prussian coast. Between Fårö off the north coast of Gotland and the Gottska Sandö there extends a similar bank, which continues with a somewhat greater depth of about 30 fathoms as far north as Stockholm. The deepest part of the Baltic between these banks is situated in the north part between Landsort and the Gottska Sandö, the maximum depth being about 160 fathoms. Ålands Haf, the channel between the Swedish coast and the Aland Islands, is tolerably deep (100 to 160 fathoms).

The Gulf of Bothnia is divided into two basins by the channel of Qvarken; the southern is the deeper (about 50 fathoms), and the depth increases towards the northwest, where, over a small area off the island of Ulfö near the Swedish coast, it reaches 160 fathoms. The channel of Qvarken is very shallow (8 to 16 fathoms). The basin on the north side is also shallow. Only over a small area off Bjurö Cape does the depth exceed 160 fathoms.

Climate.— Sweden is situated between two countries of very different climatological conditions. On the west there is the maritime climate of the Norwegian coast, and on the east the continental climate of Russia. It may be said that Sweden alternates between the two. Cold winters alternate with mild ones, and warm and dry summers with cool and rainy ones. But different parts of Sweden have also in this respect a greatly differing climate, of which we readily see the reason if we only recollect the character and the general features of the configuration of the country. Lapland and the western part of the country along the Norwegian frontier have a pronounced continental climate, and so has the high plateau to the south of Lake Vetter. On the other hand, the climate is more maritime the more we approach the coasts of the Baltic, and on the coast of the Cattegat and in Skåne the maritime climate distinctly predominates.

The following table gives the mean annual temperatures (Fahr.) at twenty-eight meteorological stations in Sweden, together with the means for January and July:— [table]

From these figures it appears that, as mentioned above, the climate is most continental in the northern aud interior parts of the country, especially at the two stations of Lapland, Stensele and Jockmock, while it is more maritime on the coasts. For this reason the isotherms for January on the Scandinavian peninsula are linguiform. The warm sea off Norway causes the peculiarity that the western parts of Lapland, although situated at the greatest elevation above the sea, have not so cold winters as the interior parts round the great lakes. Still farther to the east the temperature increases again towards the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia.

Thus, for example, the isotherm of 10° F. enters Lapland from the north-east at about 68° N. lat., runs towards the soutli-west over the great lakes as far as about 64½°, south of Lake Stor-Uman, makes there an abrupt bend towards the east, and runs in a north-easterly direction to Haparanda at the northern extremity of the Gulf of Bothnia. The isotherm of 23° F. runs from the great lake of Mjösen in Norway, north of Christiania, to the southern shore of Lake Siljan, or almost straight east, curves there to the north-east, and reaches the shore of the Gulf of Bothnia a little north of the mouth of Ljusnan. Finally, the isotherm of 30° runs from Gothenburg towards the south-east to the lake of Åsnen, curves towards the north-east, aud passes Calmar and the northern parts of the islands Öland and Gotland. On the summit of the plateau south of Vetter the mean temperature is of course lower than both north and south of the plateau. In July the temperature is almost constant all over the country. With the exception of the interior of Lapland the mean temperature varies generally between 59° and 62°. The warmest point is Linköping on the plain of Ostergötland, between Lake Vetter and the Baltic. The most temperate and most agreeable climate of the whole country is that of the Cattegat coast round Halmstad.

A good indication of the climate, especially that of the winter, is the time during which the freshwater lakes remain frozen. We have seen that nearly one-twelfth of the whole surface of

Sweden is covered with water, and in

Finland the number of the lakes is still greater. In both countries the times of freezing and breaking up of a great many lakes have been observed for many years.

From these data we can calculate the length of the ice periods. I f these periods are entered on a diagram, we can draw out the lines of equal ice periods, or the equi-

glacial lines. The accompanying map shows these lines for Sweden and Fin land. From it we see that the glacial period in the south ern part of the country is 90 days, while in the north ern part of Lapland it has a duration of...

Charles XII. Queen Ulrica elevated him and his family to the rank of nobility, by which his name was changed from Svedberg to Swedenborg. The next years were devoted to the duties and studies connected with his office, which involved the visitation of the Swedish, Saxon, Bohemian, and Austrian mines. In 1724 he was offered the chair of mathematics in the university of Upsala, which he declined. Gradually his inquiring and philosophical mind led him to wider studies than those of his profession. As early as 1721 he was seeking to lay the foundation of a scientific explanation of the universe, when he published his Prodromus Principiorum Kerum Naturalium and had already written his Principia in its first form. Thirteen years later, in 1734, appeared in three volumes Opera Philosophica et Mineralia, the first volume of which (his Principia) contained his view of the first principles of the universe, a curious mechanical and geometrical theory of the origin of things. The same year followed Prodromus Philosophiae ratiocinantis de Infinito et Causa Finali Creationis, which treats of the relation of the finite to the infinite and of the soul to the body, seeking to establish a nexus in each case as a means of overcoming the difficulty of their relation. From this time he applied himself to the problem of discovering the nature of soul and spirit by means of anatomical studies. He travelled in Germany, France, and Italy in quest of the most eminent teachers and the best books dealing with the human frame, and published, as the results of his inquiries, among other works, his Oeconomia Regni Animalis (London, 1740-41) and Regnum Animale (The Hague, 1744-45, London, 1745). But a profound change was coming over him, which was to make of the scientific inquirer the supernaturalist prophet. Neither by geometrical, nor physical, nor metaphysical principles had he succeeded in reaching and grasping the infinite and the spiritual, or in elucidating their relation to man and man’s organism, though he had caught glimpses of facts and methods which he thought only required confirmation and development. Late in life he wrote to Oetinger that “he was introduced by the Lord first into the natural sciences, and thus prepared, and, indeed, from the year 1710 to 1744, when heaven was opened to him.” This latter great event is described by him as “the opening of his spiritual sight,” “the manifestation of the Lord to him in person,” “his introduction into the spiritual world.” Before his illumination he had been instructed by dreams, and enjoyed •extraordinary visions, and heard mysterious conversations. According to his own account, the Lord filled him with His spirit to teach the doctrines of the New Church by the word from Himself; He commissioned him to do this work, opened the sight of his spirit, and so let him into the spiritual world, permitting him to see the heavens and the hells, and to converse with angels and spirits for years; but he never received anything relating to the doctrines of the church from any angel but from the Lord alone while he was reading the word (True Christian Religion, No. 779). He elsewhere speaks of his office as principally an opening of the spiritual sense of the word. His friend Robsahm reports, from Swedenborg’s own account to him, the circumstances of the first extraordinary revelation of the Lord, when He appeared to him and said, “I am God the Lord, the Creator and Redeemer of the world. I have chosen thee to unfold the spiritual sense of the Holy Scripture. I will Myself dictate to thee what thou shalt write.” From that time he gave up all worldly learning, and laboured solely to expound spiritual things. But it was some time before he became quite at home in the spiritual world. In the year 1747 he resigned his post of assessor of the college of mines that he might devote himself to his higher vocation, requesting only to be allowed to receive as a pension the half of his salary. He took up afresh his study of Hebrew, and began his voluminous works on the interpretation of the Scriptures. The principal of these is the Arcana Coelestia in eight quarto volumes, which he printed in London between 1749 and 1756, professing to have derived the whole of it by direct illumination from the Almighty Himself, and not from any spirit or angel. His later work De Caelo et de Inferno (London, 1758) consists of extracts and portions of the Arcana. His MS. work Apocalypsis Explicata, expounding the doctrines of the New Church, was prepared in 1757-59. In 1763 appeared his Sapientia Angelica de Divino Amore et de Divina Sapientia, containing the most philosophical brief account of the principles of the New Church. The long list of his subsequent writings will be found in the works mentioned below. His life from 1747 was spent alternately in Sweden, Holland, and London, in the composition of his works and their publication, till his death, which took place in London, March 29, 1772.

He was a man who won the respect, confidence, and love of all who came into contact with him. Though people might disbelieve in his visions, they feared to ridicule them in his presence. His manner of life was simple in the extreme; his diet consisted chiefly of bread and milk and large quantities of coffee. He paid no attention to the distinction of day and night, and sometimes lay for days together in a trance, while his servants were often disturbed at night by hearing what he called his conflicts with evil spirits. But his intercourse with spirits was often perfectly calm, in broad daylight, and with all his faculties awake. Three extraordinary instances are produced by his friends and followers in proof of his seership and admission into the unseen world. But there exists no account at first hand of the exact facts, and Swedenborg’s own reference to one of these instances admits of another explanation than the supernatural one. The philosopher Kant was struck by them in 1763, but in 1765, after further inquiries, con cluded that two of them had “uo other foundation than common report (gemeine Sage).” See Kehrbach’s edition of Kant’s Träume eines Geistersehers (Leipsic, 1880).

Swedenborg’s theosophic system is most briefly and comprehensively presented in his Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. Tho point of view from which God must be regarded is that of His being the Divine Man. His esse is infinite love; His manifestation, form, or body is infinite wisdom. Divine love is the self-subsisting life of the universe. From God emanates a divine sphere, which appears in the spiritual world as a sun, and from this spiritual sun again proceeds the sun of the natural world. The spiritual sun is the source of love and intelligence, or life, and the natural sun the source of nature, or the receptacles of life; the first is alive, the second dead. The two worlds of nature and spirit are perfectly distinct, but they are intimately related by analogous substances, laws, and forces. Each has its atmospheres, waters, and earths, but in the one they are natural and in the other spiritual. In God there are three infinite and uncreated "degrees” of being, and in man and all things corresponding three degrees, finite and created. They are love, wisdom, use; or end, cause, and effect. The final ends of all things are in the Divine Mind, the causes of all things in the spiritual world, and their effects in the natural world. By a love of each degree man comes into conjunction with them and the worlds of nature, spirit, and God. The end of creation is that man may have this conjunction and become the image of his Creator and creation. In man are two receptacles for God,—the will for divine love and the understanding for divine wisdom, —that love aud wisdom flowing into both so that they become human. Before the fall this influx was free and unhindered, and the conjunction of man with God and the creation complete, but from that time the connexion was interrupted and God had to interpose by successive dispensations. At last the power and influence of the spirits of darkness, with whom man associates himself by his sin, became so great that the existence of the human race was threatened, and Jehovah was necessitated to descend into nature to restore the connexion between Himself and man. He could not come in His unveiled Divinity, for the “hells” would have then perished, whom he did not seek to destroy but only to subjugate. Another purpose of Jehovah’s incarnation was the manifestation of His divine love more fully than ever before. Swedenborg wholly rejects the orthodox doctrine of atonement; and the unity of God, as opposed to his idea of the trinity of the church, is an essential feature of his teaching. Another distinctive feature is that Jehovah did not go back to heaven without leaving behind Him a visible representative of Himself in the word of the Scripture. This word is an eternal incarnation, with its threefold sense—natural, spiritual, celestial. And Swedenborg is the divinely commissioned expounder of this threefold sense of the word, and so the founder of the New Church, the paraclete of the last dispensation. That he might perceive and understand the spiritual and the celestial senses of the word he enjoyed immediate revelation from the Lord, was admitted into the angelic world, and had committed to him the key of “correspondences” with which to unlock the divine treasures of wisdom. Swedenborg claimed also to have learnt by his admission into the spiritual world the true states of men in the next life, the scenery and occupations of heaven and hell, the time doctrine of Providence, the origin of evil, the sanctity and perpetuity of marriage, and to have been a witness of the “last judgment,” or the second coming of the Lord, which took place in the year 1757. It was then that the New Church, or the New Jerusalem, was inaugurated, and Swedenborg claimed to be the divinely appointed prophet and teacher of its doctrines, and maintained that his revelations excel all that preceded them.

Swcdenborgianism.— Swedenborgianism, as professed by Swedenborg’s followers, is based on the belief of Swedenborg’s claims to have witnessed the last judgment, or the second advent of the Lord, with the inauguration of the New Church through the new system of doctrine promulgated by him and derived from the Scriptures, into the true sense of which he was the first to be introduced. The doctrines of the New Church are those of the internal sense of the word as revealed to Swedenborg, who received them iuto his understanding and published them through the press and not as a preacher. They are briefly—(1) that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only God, that in Him there is the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the Father being His infinite divine nature or soul, the Son His glorified human nature or divine body, and the Holy Spirit the life proceeding from His divine humanity for the salvation of man; (2) that the Father in His eternal humanity descended as the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth, assuming fallen human nature, that in it he might conquer hell and deliver mankind from its influence; (3) that the Sacred Scriptures are the true word of God, accommodated to the understanding of angels and men, and constituting the perpetual medium between heaven and the church, the law of correspondence having been revealed by the Lord to Swedenborg as the key for their interpretation; (4) that man is not saved by faith alone but by a life according to the word, the summary of which is the decalogue; (5) that heaven is made up of those who keep God’s commandments and love Him and His kingdom, and hell of those who love themselves and the world; (6) that the spiritual world—heaven and hell—holds the same relation to the natural world and its inhabitants as the soul to the body, being in and around the natural world and its life, and that after the death of the body the spirit continues to live in the spiritual world it had previously though unconsciously inhabited. Swedenborgians now constitute a widely spread and considerable society, with a regularly constituted ecclesiastical organization and a zealous missionary activity. Soon after Swedenborg’s death students of his works in England and Sweden began to translate them from the Latin and to spread his views. First in time and activity amongst these early Swedenborgians was the Rev. John Clowes, rector of St John’s, Manchester, who translated the whole of several treatises. The first public meeting of Swedenborgians, from which dates the foundation of the society, was held in London December 5, 1783, and was attended by five persons. The separation of the society from the "old church” as a religious body, with its distinct creed, worship, and ecclesiastical organization, took place May 7, 1787, and its first place of worship was in Great Eastcheap, London. The first general conference of the New Church was held April 17, 1789, in this chapel, when a series of resolutions concerning the creed, the sacraments, and ecclesiastical order of the society were adopted. At the same time churches began to be formed in various towns in England and in America. Towards the end of the century Swedenborg’s doctrines obtained a considerable degree of acceptance on the Continent, separate societies having arisen here and there. Meantime the Manchester Printing Society, under Mr Clowes, printed and distributed Swedenborg’s works in large numbers. In 1810 a London Printing Society was formed, which has been very active in the same way to the present time. In 1817 a convention of tho American New Church was held in Philadelphia, which gave proof of the growth of the body in the United States. The same year the tenth general conference of the English section of the church was attended by twenty-seven delegates and ministers of various societies, and in 1821 there were upwards of fifty-two of these in Great Britain. At the general conference in 1885 it was reported that there were sixty-five societies or churches in Great Britain connected with the conference, having 5700 registered members, the net increase of the year being 119. The names of thirty-two ordained ministers appear in the report; the investments of the society amount to £60,453; and there are a dozen educational and missionary institutions in connexion with it. Some of the New Church day schools are amongst the largest and most efficient in the kingdom. From the same report it appears that the New Church has societies or institutions in most British colonies as well as in the principal countries of Europe. The report of the General Convention of the New Jerusalem in the United States, 1885, gives the names of 116 societies in America, with nearly the same number of ordinary ministers. In Italy, Sweden, and Prussia there is a Swedenborg mission sustained by help from England and America. In South Germany there exist congregations of the New Church, and the librarian of the university of Tübingen, Dr Immanuel Tafel, was exceedingly active until his death (1863) in the publication and translation of Swedenborg’s works, and in the vindication of the doctrines of the New Church. In Austria, Norway, and Switzerland also there are congregations. But, in addition to full converts to Swedenborgianism, a considerable number of prominent theologians and other thinkers have been attracted by Swedenborg’s works and parts of his system. While the extravagant anthropomorphism, the mechanical materialism, the theological narrowness, the wild allegorizing, the entire absence of historical knowledge, and the astounding prophetic claims of the man and his system,—in a word, the Gnosticism of Swedenborg and his followers,—must be offensive to philosophical minds, they can discover in his writings and the drift of his thought fine ethical views, profound glances of insight into the depths of the universe,—God, nature, man, and his destiny. The names of Oetinger, Herder, Goerres, Coleridge, Emerson, J. D. Morell may be given as proof of this. Such thinkers were attracted by one or more of the dominant and pervading principles or tendencies of his extraordinary mind. For he felt, if he did not adequately expound, the harmony of the universe, the fundamental unity of being and thought, of knowledge and will, of the divine and the human; and his wild system of allegory, with his equally wild communications with the unseen world, failed to conceal a deep moral and intellectual revolt against the most irrational forms of traditional orthodoxy, while his deep spiritual nature spurned the shallow intellectualism of the rationalists of the 18th century.

Literature.— A rich collection of materials for a life of Swedenborg is Documents concerning the Life and Character of Swedenborg, Collected, Translated, and Annotated, by Dr. R. L. Tafel, in 3 vols., Swedenborg Society, 1875-77. Of English lives the principal are— Emanuel Swedenborg, a Biography, by J. J. G. Wilkinson, London, 1849; Swedenborg, a Biography and an Exposition, by E. Paxton Hood, London, 1854; Swedenborg, his Life and Writings, by william white, 1856, rewritten in 1867 and in 1868; Emanuel Swedenborg, the Spiritual Columbus, a Sketch, by U. S. E., 2d ed., London, 1877. A useful handbook of Swedenborg's theology, consisting of extracts in English from his numerous works, is the Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, by the Rev. Samuel Warren, London, 1885. Brief summaries of his system and writings are given in all the above biographies and in Edmund Swift’s Manual of the Doctrines of the New Church, London, 1885. Important critiques from independent points of view are “Emanuel Swedenborg,” in the Prospective Review, May 1850; “The Mystic,” in Emerson’s Representative Men, 1850; Kant’s Träume eines Geistersehers, 1766 (the best edition by Kehrbach, Leipsic, 1880); Herder’s “Emanuel Swedenborg,” in his Adrastea (Werke zur Phil, und Gesch., vol. xii. pp. 110-125); Goerres’s Emanuel Swedenborg, seine Visionen und sein Verhältniss zur Kirche, 1827; Dorner’s Gesch. d. Prot. Theol., Munich, 1867, pp. 662-67. For the history of Swedenborgianism, see Rise and Progress of the New Jerusalem Church in England, America, and other Parts, by Robert Hindmarsh, edited by E. Madeley, London, 1861. The chief apologetic work is Noble’s Appeal, 10th ed. 1881, London. See also National Review, April 1858.

The first and principal distinguishing doctrine contained in the writings of Baron Swedenborg, and maintained by his followers, relates to the person and character of Jesus Christ, and to the redemption wrought by him. On this subject it is insisted that Jesus Christ is Jehovah, manifested in the flesh; and that he came into the world to glorify his human nature, by making it one with the divine. It is therefore insisted farther that the humanity of Jesus Christ is itself divine, by virtue of its indissoluble union with the indwelling Father, agreeably to the testimony of St. Paul, that, “in Jesus Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,” Col. ii, 9; and that thus, as to his humanity, he is the Mediator between God and man, since there is now no other medium of God’s access to man, or of man’s access to God, but this divine humanity, which was assumed for this purpose. Thus it is taught, that in the person of Jesus Christ dwells the whole Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the Father constituting the soul of the above humanity, while the humanity itself is the Son, and the divine virtue or operation proceeding from it is the Holy Spirit; forming altogether one God, just as the soul, the body, and operation of man, form one man. On the subject of the redemption wrought by this incarnate God, it is lastly taught that it consisted not in the vicarious sacrifice of Christ, but in the real subjugation of the powers of darkness and their removal from man, by continual combats and victories over them, during his abode in the world; and in the consequent descent to man of divine power and life, which was brought near to him in the thus glorified humanity of this victorious God. They who receive this testimony concerning Jesus Christ therefore acknowledge no other God but him; and believe that in approaching his divine humanity, they approach, at the same time, and have communication with, all the fulness of the Godhead, seeing and worshipping the invisible in the visible, agreeably to the tenor of those words of Jesus Christ: “He that believeth on me believeth not on me, but on him that sent me; and he that seeth me, seeth him that sent me,” John xii, 44, 45.

A second doctrine taught by the same author relates to the sacred Scripture, or word of God, which is maintained to be divinely inspired throughout, and, consequently, to be the repository of the whole will and wisdom of the most high God. It is, however, insisted, that this will and wisdom are not in all places discoverable from the letter or history of the sacred pages, but lie deeply concealed under the letter. For it is taught by Baron Swedenborg, that the sense of the letter of the holy word is the basis, the continent, and the firmament, of its spiritual and celestial senses, being written according to the doctrine of correspondencies between things spiritual and things natural, and thus designed by the Most High as the vehicle of communication of the eternal spiritual truths of his kingdom to the minds of men. It is farther endeavoured to be shown that Jesus Christ spake continually according to this same doctrine, veiling divine and spiritual truths under natural images, especially in his parables, and thus communicating to man the most important mysteries relative to himself and his kingdom, under the most beautiful and edifying figures taken from the natural things of this world. Thus, according to Baron Swedenborg, even the historical parts both of the Old and New Testament contain vast stores of important and spiritual wisdom under the outward letter; and this consideration, as he farther asserts, justifies the pages of divine revelation, even in those parts which to a common observer appear trifling, nugatory, and contradictory. It is lastly maintained, on this subject, that the sacred Scripture, or word of God, is the only medium of communication and conjunction between God and man, and is likewise the only source of all genuine truth and knowledge respecting God, his kingdom, and operation, and the only sure guide for man’s understanding, in whatever relates to his spiritual or eternal concerns.

The next branch of the system is practical, and relates to the life, or to that rule of conduct on the part of man which is truly acceptable to the Deity, and at the same time conducive to man’s eternal happiness and salvation, by conjoining him with his God. This rule is taught to be simply this: to shun all known evils as sins against God, and at the same time to love, to cherish, and to practise whatsoever is wise, virtuous, and holy, as being most agreeable to the will of God, and to the spirit of his precepts. On this subject it is strongly and repeatedly insisted that evil must of necessity remain with man, and prove his eternal destruction, unless it be removed by sincere repentance, leading him to note what is disorderly in his own mind and life; and, when he has discovered it, to fight resolutely against its influence, in dependence on the aid and grace of Jesus Christ. It is insisted farther, that this opposition to evil ought to be grounded on the consideration that all evil is against God, since, if evil be combated from any inferior motive, it is not radically removed, but only concealed, and on that account is even more dangerous and destructive than before. It is added, that when man has done the work of repentance, by shunning his hereditary evils as sins against God, he ought to set himself to the practice of what is wise and good by a faithful, diligent, and conscientious discharge of all the duties of his station; by which means his mind is preserved from a return of the power of disorder, and kept in the order of heaven, and the fulfilment of the great law of charity.

A fourth doctrine inculcated in the same writings, is the coöperation on the part of man with the divine grace or agency of Jesus Christ. On this subject it is insisted that man ought not indolently to hang down his hands, under the idle expectation that God will do every thing for him in the way of purification and regeneration, without any exertion of his own; but that he is bound by the above law of coöperation to exert himself, as if the whole progress of his purification and regeneration depended entirely on his own exertions; yet, in exerting himself, he is continually to recollect, and humbly to acknowledge, that all his power to do so is from above, agreeably to the declaration of Jesus Christ, “Without me ye can do nothing,” John xv, 5.

A fifth and last distinguishing doctrine taught in the theological writings of our author, relates to man’s connection with the other world, and its various inhabitants. On this subject, it is insisted, not only from his view of the sacred Scriptures, but also from the experience of the author himself, that every man is in continual association with angels and spirits, and that without such association he could not possibly think or exert any living faculty. It is insisted farther, that man, according to his life in the world, takes up his eternal abode, either with angels of light, or with the spirits of darkness; with the former, if he is wise to live according to the precepts of God’s holy word; or with the latter, if, through folly and transgression, he rejects the counsel and guidance of the Most High. Some other peculiar doctrines of minor importance might be enlarged on in this place if it was deemed necessary; such as the doctrine concerning the human soul, as being in a human form; concerning the marriage of the good and the true, as existing in the holy word, and in all things in nature. But it may be observed generally, that the fundamental error of the system is a denial of the divinity of Christ, while it appears to be acknowledged, and of the doctrine of the atonement. Many true things are said also of the figurative and typical character of the word of God; but the interpretation of it in this view runs into the wildest extravagance for want of principles; while the whole is clothed with mysticism on the one hand and gross and carnal conceptions of spiritual things on the other. There is, indeed, much in which this sect agrees with other Christians, and much, therefore, that is true in their strange system; but it is unconnected with other great and vital truths of the Gospel; and is joined also with great errors. It is a dreamy delusion, which defies all rational defence: it rests upon the assumed experience of a man of genius, it is true, but one who was not always in his wits. In London, and some of the other cities and great towns in England, places of public worship have been opened, for the express purpose of preaching the preceding doctrines. In all such places particular forms of prayer have been adopted, in agreement with the ideas of the worshippers, as grounded in the religious sentiments above stated, especially respecting the supreme object of adoration, who is acknowledged to be the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in his divine humanity. But in no place have any peculiar rites and ceremonies been introduced, the worshippers being content with retaining the celebration of the two sacraments of baptism and the holy supper, since no other rites are insisted on by the author whose testimony they receive. It is believed, by a large majority of them, that it was never his intention that any particular sect should be formed upon his doctrines, but that all who receive them, whether in the establishment, or in any other communion of Christians, should be at perfect liberty either to continue in their former communion, or to quit it, as their conscience dictates. England appears to be the country where the system has been most generally received. Baron Swedenborg had many eccentricities; but perhaps the most remarkable circumstance respecting him, was his asserting, that, during the uninterrupted period of twenty-seven years, he enjoyed open intercourse with the world of departed spirits, and during that time was instructed in the internal sense of the sacred Scriptures, hitherto undiscovered! This is a correspondence with the invisible world, to which few or no writers, before or since his time, ever pretended, if we except the Arabian prophet.