The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-23 00:00:00

from' a sect, and being a layman, he had not even
that scanty measure of theological learning whiCh
a SWedish pastor may "be supposed to possess.
Never since the world began was there a man
less fitted to guide the consciences of others. He
carried the Protestant principle of private judg-
ment to its utmo4t extent, and affirmed his own
fancies and visions as divine revelations. While
he protested against Papal infallibility, he main-
tained Swedenborgian. He alone was appointed
by heaven to explain the inner sense of Scripture,
and he tossed about the moral commandments of
the New Law as wildly as its articles of faith.
Thus: he taught both by example and precept that
chastity is not necessary, and certainly not to be
expected in all cases. His praise of marriage rose
no higher than thid, that it is better than un-
married contracts. He was never married himself,
but there were two persons at least who at different
times stood in the place of a wife to him. Mr.
White does_ not hold with this part of his reli-
gious system, if system it can be called. lie ob-
jects to it very properly as involving thedegradation
of womau, but Catholics repudiate it on higher
arounds.

As there are still many persons who, like Mr.
White and M. Matter, in spite of SWedenborg's
absurdities, try to invest him with the attributes
of a Christian philosopher, it may be worth while
to show to what extent his ignorance and fatuity
sometimes reached. He pretended, or fancied,
that he saw and conversed with Louis XIV. in
the other world, "about 8 o'clock p.m., December
13th, 1759. His Majesty appeared descending by
ladders (of the Jacob build, no doubt), and seemed
,to himself to be again at Versailles." He •was
silent ifof halMilour—rather a long pause even
for Louis Quatorze —and then, condescending to
give utterance to his regal sentiments, declared
" that he had spoken with the King of France
(Louis XV), his grandson, concerning the Bull
Unigenitus, advising him to desist from his former
design, and not to accept it, because it was detri-
mental to the French nation." Now Louis XV. was
not the grand-son of Louis XIV., but his great
grandson. This is blunder the first. The Bull Uni-
genitus, which condemned the doctrines of Janse-
nius, was promulgated in Louis XlV.'s own reign.
It was issued by Clement XI. in 1713 ; Louis
XIV. died in 1715. It was published by the Holy
Father at the request of the French bishops.
Benedict XIII. confirmed it in Council in 1725, and
issued another Bull called Pretiosus to explain the
former document. Cardinal de Noailles, Arch
bishop of Paris, gave currency to the Unigenitus in
France (1725), The five propositions of Janse-
nius had been formally condemned by Innocent X.
in 1653, and Alexander VII. renewed the condem-
nation in 1665. To this last act the French eccle-
siastics one and all adhered, and Louis XIV.
allowed no one, under heavy penalties, to resist the
adhesion. Thus the Bull, which, according to
Swedenborg, Louis XV. was " advised" by his
(great) grandfather " not to accept " in France,
had been accepted there in fact ,during forty-six
years, and in principle during a much longer pe-
riod. This is Swedenborg's blunder the second in
one vision only, Mr. White may well say "he
seems to be in a maze here." He was in a maze
everywhere and at all times. History fares no
better than theology in his hands, and his bio-
grapher allows that " he dealt with such matters
as an amateur ; his theological reading was practi-
cally nil." Mr. White accepts his mission with
some reserve. He believes, indeed, that Sweden-
borg " entered into acquaintance with angels,
spirits, and devils, and that the Lord within vivi-
fied his new experience into wisdom," yet he, "by
no means accepts all Swedenborg has to relate
concerning the spiritual world as true." He has
" no confidence whatever that any spirit he testi-
fies he saw was the real person." "He disliked
David and he disliked Paul." "I do not," he
says, " accuse him of any conscious humbug in
these stories (about Elizabeth of Russia, Louis
XIV., and our own George II.) ; I only adduce
them to prove that he was liable to see what he
wished to see."

We cannot congratulate Mr. White on having
added much to the stock of useful literature by
the present volumes. That there are several dra-
matic and interesting passages in Swedenborg's
career, we do not deny, nor that two or three of
the phenomena which his history presents are
curious, and deserve to be examined ; but we
think it clear that lie led those Protestants who
were deluded enough to follow him further away
from the truth than they were before, and that his
pretensions to be regarded as a prophet and a seer
are worthy of no more serious answer than such
as may be found in a copy of satirical verses. It
is a pity that Canning and Frere did not take
Swedenborg in hand, and do by him as they did by
Darwin in their " Loves of the Triangles." It is
but fair to say that Mr. White's composition is that
of a man of cultivated mind, and that the passages
which he places by the side of his extracts from
Swedenborg are, in general, very apposite.