... ... the head, to denote thought; and thought and emotion are, in their turn, words borrowed from sensible things, and now appropriated to spiritual nature. Most of the process by which this transformation is made, is hidden from us in the remote time when language was framed, but the same tendency may be daily observed in children. But this origin of all words that convey a spiritual import,-so conspicuous a fact in the history of language,―is our least debt to nature. It is not words only that are emblematic; it is things which are emblematic. Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact. Every appearance in nature corresponds to some state of the mind, and that state of the mind can only be described by presenting that natural appearance as its picture. An enraged man is a lion, a cunning man is a fox, a firm man is a rock, a learned man is a torch. A lamb is innocence, a snake is subtle spite. Light and darkness are our familiar expressions for knowledge and ignorance; and heat for love. . . . It is easily seen that there is nothing lucky or capricious in these analogies, but that they are constant and pervade nature. These are not the dreams of a few poets, here and there, but man is an analogist, and studies relations in all objects. . . . Because of this radical correspondence between visible things and human thoughts, savages, who have only what is necessary, converse in figures. As we go back in history, language becomes more picturesque, until its infancy, when it is all poetry; or all spiritual facts are represented by natural symbols. The same symbols are found to make the elements of all languages. It has, moreover, been observed, that the idioms of all languages approach each other in passages of the greatest eloquence and power, and as this is the first language, so it is the last. This immediate dependence of language upon nature, this conversion of an outward phenomena into a type of somewhat in human life,never loses its power to affect us."-Essay on Nature, p. 5. The author of Essays and Analogies perceived, with most reflecting minds, that “Analogy is as universal as the universe itself, and every analogy, like every man, is, or includes, the natural, moral, and spiritual kingdoms" (note, p. 133). "There is an analogy," writes an elegant author, "between external appearances of nature, as intelligible hieroglyphs, and particular affections [of the soul], strikingly exemplificative of that general harmony which subsists in all the universe. 'Material objects,' as Mr. Gilpin has justly remarked, 'being fixed in their appearances, strike every one in the same manner; whereas ideas, being different in most per sons upon the same subjects, will seldom serve by way of illustration.' -Buck's Harmonies of Nature, vol. ii., pp. 130, 131. For, as Dr. Young has pertinently observed in his Night Thoughts, "the analogy of Nature is Christianity itself in a veil or parable." Bishop Horne also recognized the same analogies in creation. He says: "The visible works of God are formed to lead us, under the direction of his Word, to a knowledge of those which are invisible; they give us ideas by analogy of 'a new creation,' and are ready to instruct us in the mysteries of faith and the duties of morality." -Pref. to Comm. on Psalms, pp. xxiv., xxv. In Swedenborg's Diary, a posthumous work printed by Dr. Tafel, of Tubingen, is the following interesting statement: "No one [scarcely] reflects upon those things which exist in visible nature as being the images of celestial and spiritual things; as that a plant or a tree arises from its seed, and grows, and by its root and bark extracts a sap, which is the life of the plant or tree, and which is hence distributed into all its interior or central parts in like manner as spiritual things should relate to celestial things. Moreover, all things, even the minutest in the plant and tree, respect the fruit as their end, that is, the renovation, and hence the perpetuity, of the life of the tree. The same is the case with all fruits, even with those which are enclosed in hard shells, within which are the nuclei or fruits. The shells and the various surfaces, one within another, by which the juice [or sap] is conveyed to the interior and inmost principles until the fruit is ripened, represent correspondent things in man when being regenerated, namely, the natural, scientific, rational, and intellectual things; which [latter] are spiritual, and which in this manner, as from a common plane, divided into infinitely various ways, can be conveyed and distributed into all things, even to the most particular, and into the inmost recesses. Hence arises in such things [viz., plants, trees, fruit, etc.] their perpetuities, which in the life of man corresponds to eternity. In like manner all things of the animal kingdom, even the most particular, are constituted; and consequently all parts of the human body, even to the minutest. "It is also surprising that all things made by man, such as works of art, statues, pictures, and innumerable other things, which on the outside appear beautiful, and are esteemed of great value, are nevertheless interiorly nothing but clay and mud, and devoid of beauty; it is only the external surface which the eye admires. Whereas those things which grow from seeds, begin from an interior principle, and increase and assume an external. Such things are not only beautiful to the sight, but the more interiorly they are examined, the more beautiful they appear. It is the same with the life of man; those things which begin from what is external, thus which proceed from the man himself, may be compared to artificial works, whose external form is esteemed and admired, but whose internals are of no value. Whereas those things which proceed from God Messiah are formed from inmost principles, and may be compared to those things in nature which are beautiful from within. This is what is meant by what God Messiah says in Matthew concerning the lilies of the field, that 'Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these,' while lilies, however, are disregarded" (n. 251). These eternal laws of correspondence, overlaid, indeed, in successive ages, and among widely different nations, by endless varieties of metaphor, fable, analogy, mythic episodes, legends, and observances, may be said to constitute an "intelligible and truly human," if not divine, "element" of relationship among all peoples and tribes of the globe, and the existence of which is proved by manners, customs, and languages, that nothing else can possibly explain. It appears, from the oldest records, that this science was well known to, and highly appreciated by, the ancients. It was especially cultivated among the Eastern nations of Egypt, Assyria, Chaldea, Syria, Canaan, and Arabia, as the "chief of all the sciences," as the "living science," in comparison with which all other sciences were regarded as dead. The book of Job, one of the most ancient we possess, abounds with correspondences, but they have not that serial connection which distinguishes the fully inspired Word of God. Indeed, all ancient oriental literature affords indisputable evidence to the truth of this science. From it originates the sacred and profane symbols of antiquity. It pervaded every system of theology and morality. As mankind, however, degenerated from purity and intelligence, it was desecrated to vile and superstitious purposes. It finally sank into Grecian fable,-was associated with all that was monstrous, impious, and absurd, and was then for ages lost. From the successive profanation of this sacred science arose the later Egyptian hieroglyphics, the Hindoo, Celtic, Persian, Grecian, Roman, and Scandinavian mysteries and initiatory rites, their oracles and mythologies; Orpheus and the Indian Apollo; the Wadilions of Titan, and the giants invading heaven; the fables of the golden age and the garden of Hesperides; the story of Pandora and her box of evil; the translation of Astrea by the Romans, of Dhrura among the Hindus, of Buddha among the Ceylonese, and of Xaca among the Calmucks of Siberia; the incarnations of Vishnu in India, and the fables and allegories of so many nations respecting a universal flood. All these are traceable to the prolific source of corruption and confusion. Hence sprang up all idolatry,30 in which the 30" There is great reason to believe," says | might not be lost."—Introduction to Entomolthe author of Tracts for the Times, lxxxviii., ogy, vol. iv., p. 403. "that the Pagan mysteries took their rise from something more holy than them selves."-P. 9. Swedenborg, writing on the same subject in the True Christian Religion, truly says, "The idolatries of the gentiles of old took their rise from the science of correspondences, because all things that appear on the face of the earth have correspondence, consequently, not only trees and vegetables, but also beasts and birds of every kind, with fishes and all other things. The ancients, who were versed in the science of corre "Druidism is thought by many to be de-spondences, made themselves images which rived, though not without perversions and corruptions, from the Patriarchal religion." -Archeologia, vol. viii., p. 16. "It is singular," says Hutchinson, "that the Magi of Matt. ii. 1, is rendered by an Irish version, Draoithe, the Druids, or the true wise men. Magi in the east, Druid in the west."-Hist. Cumb., vol. ii., p. 193. corresponded with heavenly things; and were greatly delighted with them by reason of their signification, and because they could discern in them what related to heaven and the church; they therefore placed those images not only in their temples, but also in their houses, not with any intention to worship them, but to serve as means of recollecting the heavenly things signified by them. Succeeding ages, when the science of correspondences was obliterated, began to adore as holy, and at length to worship as deities, the images and resemblances set up by their forefathers, because they found them in and Clement of Alexandria, who was himself supposed to have been initiated into the Heathen mysteries, asserts, that "the truths taught in them had been stolen by philosophers from Moses and the Prophets."-Strom., V., p. 650. Coronation symbols and ceremonies have about their temples."-n. 205. the same origin. On this subject Kirby and Spence make the following admirable observations:-" In no country was [the origination of idolatry] more lamentably striking than in Egypt, whose gods were all selected from the animal and vegetable kingdoms. This species of idolatry doubtless resulted from their having been taught that things in nature were symbols of things above nature and of the attributes and glory of the Godhead. In process of time, while the corruption remained, the knowledge which had been thus abused, was lost or dimly seen. The Egyptian priesthood perhaps retained some remains of it; but by them it was made an esoteric doctrine, not to be communicated to the profane vulgar, who were suffered to regard the various objects of their superstitious veneration, not as symbols, but as possessed of an inherent divinity; and probably the mysteries of Isis in Egypt, and of Ceres at Eleusis, were instituted that this esoteric doctrine, which was to be kept secret and sacred from the common people, "Not only the most intelligent among the Egyptians, but all those who were devoted to philosophy among the other barbarous nations, admired the symbolical mode of inspiration." "To the same purport Origen and the other ancient Christian Fathers."Clemens Alexandrinus, Strom., lib. v., cap. 8, p. 671. Cited by Mosheim in a Note; see Cudworth's Intel. Syst., vol. ii., p. 303. "Amongst the ancient Etruscans, everything in religion and politics was emblematical. They thought the earth only the representative or mirror of heaven. The year, the gods, everything, in fact, had a triple name: the civil or common, the sacerdotal and the mysterious or occult-a secret which none dare pronounce or utter. This custom is found in the triple name of Rome, of which Pliny speaks; the mysterious name of this mistress of the world was Amor [Love]; its sacerdotal name, Flora or Anthusa; and its civil name, Roma."-Keene's Bath Journal. "The term which answers to the word idolatry is not found in any ancient lan 51 corresponding forms in nature and representations in art were deified and worshipped instead of the attributes and perfections of God which guage. It is an expression of the Greeks, of the later ages, and was not brought into general use until the second century of our era. It verifies 'The adoration or worship of Images.' It is a term of reproach;-an expression of abuse or insult. No people have ever taken upon them the title of Idolaters.'"-L'Abbé Bazin's Philos. of Hist., trans. by Gandell, 8vo, p. 165. "The word idol, idolater, idolatry, is found neither in Homer, Hesiod, Herodotus, nor any author of the religion of the gentiles." Voltaire's Phil. Dict., art. Idol., vol. ii., p. 32. "As man was made an Image of the Deity, so were the material world and its parts made copies or rudiments of the immaterial or heavenly (Col. ii. 8). Whence also the tabernacle afterwards, which was made, as we are told, after the pattern of heavenly things (Heb. viii. 5), was called a worldly sanctuary (Heb. ix. 1), as were the services of it worldly rudiments (Col. ii. 20), because it was made after the heavenly pattern by the medium of the world, which had been originally made after the same. For as the Apostle, speaking of created things in general, plainly tells us (Rom. i. 20), 'The invisible things of God, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen [or are suitably perceived or discerned], being understood by the things that are made.' As the Psalmist also, speaking of 'The heavens declare the particulars, says, glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy-work.' (Ps. xix. 1.) That is, they show, or figure out, things that are not in themselves, but far above and beyond themselves, even in God, and in the heaven of holiness, and in his divine operations and works on his intellectual creatures, angels, and men. Accordingly, the world has been termed by some God explained. They should have said God adumbrated and typically represented; for such it is: and so to contemplate this glass of his creatures and works in this system, is to learn to know Himself, and his higher and more glorious operations. The light, spirit, vapors, rain, fruits, waters, bread, wine, etc., being not only for our bodily uses here, but also to raise our thoughts to another more excellent glory, spirit, water, meat, drink, etc., in heaven."- Holloway's Letter and Spirit, pp. 1, 2. "The first corruptions of mythology originated in the superaddition and admixture of sensual, physical, political, and imaginative allegories and fables."-See Grote's Hist. of Greece, vol. i., pp. 11, 12. Bishop Warburton is compelled by truth to acknowledge, in book ii., p. 172, that the "St. Austin himself cannot but own that "The mysteries had their common original from those of Isis and Osiris in Egypt." Everything therein was instituted by the Ancients for instruction and amendment of life. (The most celebrated were the Orphic, the Bacchic, the Eleusinian, the SamothraBishop Warburton's cian, the Cabiri, and the Mithraic.) "—Arrian Diss., lib. iii., cap. 21. Div. Leg., vol. i., book 1, pp. 172, 173, 196, 197. 'Servius, in commenting on the 'Mystica vannus Iacchi' of Virgil, observes that the sacred rites of Bacchus pertained to the purification of souls."-Taylor's Iamblichus, note, p. 136. "Eupolemus, Artaplanus, Melo, and Philo, all agree that the Babylonish traditions of the Egyptian priests of Heliopolis were, as to many things], derived from Abraham."Eusebius, i. 9, c. 17. "We say, therefore, that the Pagans in this, their theologizing of physiology, and deifying the things of nature and parts of the world, did accordingly call everything by the name of God, or God by the name of everything."-Cudworth's Intellect. Syst., vol. ii., p. 259. "Even Serranus can allow that Plato spake many things which he understood not, drawn out of the Phoenician or Syrian theology. These Plato frequently mentions, and calls them ineffable and unintelligible. For as the traditions were of Hebrew extraction, and such as referred to the Jewish mysteries and divine worship, it is no wonder they were unintelligible to the wisest heathen. Therefore Plato calls them myths, fables which in their philosophical notion signify some mysteries handed down from the ancients, the reasons whereof were hidden and unknown, notwithstanding the assistance of allegory or mythology. The learned Julius Scaliger affirms the same."Ellis's Knowledge of Div. Things from Revelation, not from Reason or Nature, pp. 98, 99. "Idolatry in all its ramifications is but the |