The New York herald., 1868-03-01
RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.
ISMS AND SrH,SMS.

10 THh EDlTOH OF THE uEHALu-
The Swedenborgians hold free love in abom-
ination. Lord Chesterfeld's " philosophy Of the
vulgar" when teaching that "every one
loves his like" was never intended TO
apply to religions. With a downcast modssty
very charming in q body SO evangelical, the dis
ciples of Swedenborg accept. however, the soft
impeachment Of free love when put spiritually.
The ground which they occupy between that sys-
tenn and matrimony is o reality capable OF estma-
tion in terms of acres, roods and perches by
four-pole chain of metaphysics. nice system
Of mensuration is, however, as necessary in that
case as In the case where St. Ernulphus, OF
blessed memory, undertakes to ascertain the
number Of angel-shouris without pads chignons,
or hoop skirts-who. can dance cotillion, with
out damage to their wings, on the point Of q
cambria needle.
"Bond" love, the Swedenborgians regard with
adherence. In this they do not stand alone.
Their inspiration does not recognize the gift OF
tongues. Their spirit-mates belong to another
heaven than that of angels coming down to break
fast with heads wrapped in halos Of curl papers and
legs in clouds Of rumpled stockings. They deny
that, "like that Of things, tho harmony of sound"
or of anything else "from discord springs" While
OH be an angel at morning;
But pray be a woman at nightl
the Swedenborgian holds his morn, noon and
night to be an uncorked essence which goes
plumpers lily, white and all slap-dash into sponta-
neous combinations very much after the fashion Of
chemical simples. Certain afflnities say the fol-
lowers Of Swedenborg draw the sexes together
an article of faith to which far we are ready to
make affidavit-and whether in what the Yankee
girl called "the tickle and scare" of first love- or
IN the more enlightened combination of the tenth
love, result, for at all events the time being, in
unity of very pleasant concords.
E5thethics and pathetics arrive at, we supp ose.
the same thing in the end. Chernbim and sera-
troop up and down them like urchins on the Egn
marbles save that they kick uncassically in baby
jumpers, and grin less like little Greeks than little
griffins at soothing syrups.
one respect from the Swedenborgan conveyance
of those privileges. Marriages are we suppose,
made in heaven The record, we know, is kept
hero below--an arrangement convenient to one Of
the parties when it becomes necessary, in any
failure Of the afnites, to obtain proof of the
heavenly fact by subpene. The preliminaries of
the esthetical fusion begin and end in heaven, and
are all the more difficult of proof on the ground
that they may have taken place in any of seven!
That the eyes OF angels only should be looking on
at the time would doubt, be very sanciifying il
the afnties were like those in ch mstry constant.
"A-lass and alack-a day ~ Is the wish of thous-
ands besides certain India-br chaplain, who
drew his. pay in rupees. As these affinties are
likely to eXpend their attractive force on any one
simple after a while, twere pity that fusion Of
such delicious spontaniety should be destined,
after all, to make the angels who smiled upon it
az bridesmaids, spoil their pretty eyes by looking
on it. in few monuth subsequently. through
tears!
"Free love" is regarded by the Swedenborgians
with the bitterness proper to a schism'from their
own body In answer to an Anglican bishop Lord
Byron said, "Othodoxy Is my doxy; heterodoxy is
your dOxy.D The sarcasm is true in reference to
the fierce jealousy Of the love with which man
regards his own doxy when she happens to be
church. The case, however, is very different
when, instead Of applying to creeds, the answer is
made to apply to warm, breathing, enabonpoint
creatures of flesh, radiant as rouge and blosd,
ardent as brandy peaches. Whether in cassock
or in breeches, a man, be he Swedenborgian ever
so canonical, Is in that case given shockingy to
heterodoxy to another mans doxy. Under the
possibility of mistake or of failure in the force Of
the affinities, the very orthodoxy OF Sweden
borganism implies in itself a Christian charity
sufficiently dnck.tile to cover new combinations
spiritually, OF conrse-with some Of the ripe and
ruddy doxies oyer the way. In the more material
mode OF thought characteristic Of this country it
is, therefore, not at oil to De wondered at
s%edenSorgia"s sS1e sns ap isoua .ss the naked
form that they have received from the evan.
gelizers who kneel down to worship the tough di-
whites Of free love.
Swedenborgiansm declares itself distinct from
spiritualism. The differences between the two
are very marked the mysteries of the one are,
for example. practised in the congregation OF
church; those of the other in the circle Of
"seance." And, mark you, differences not half
SO wde--we speak on the testimony Of all the sec.
taries-have before now sent, and with the bless
Ing of Heaven and clear conscience will again
send millions of our fellow men headlong to tho
devil.
The Swedenborgians disavow spirituasm with
an earnestuess that smacks of genuiDe religion.
Racy of the medieval it gives out thus the SAVIOR Of
true church: Christians, in all ages since those
very remote days in which they are said to have
loved one another, have left behind them an exam.
pie which teaches us to reject as false pretence
any "New Jerusalem" so new as to forget that its
proof its own divinity by declaring all
other Jerusalems, big and little, old and
new, dnathemd nodrGndthd. Swedenborgian-
ism, then, we have no hesitation in declar.
were long ago in Asia, one Of at all events, the
seven hundred which are to-day in Europe and
Americas seeing that. in protesting against Spritu-
alism, it presents in common with the whole Of
those seven hundred. that internal evidence which
Brinsey Sheridan describes in an impious antithe-
sis hating each other for the love of Cod"
Swedenborganism Is not identical with the
Spiritualism Of mahogany. The Honduras raps
are not the spirits with which its founder held
communion in his exquisite, though somewhat in
tangible. transcendentalism. Passed through the
alembc OF Bostonian materillism, through me-
diums who are seldom mere essences, through
circles Of Wall street brokers. New York politicians
and broken down sensualists Of hoth sexes, the
theories of the great Swedish visionary have taken
the form Of a precptate at once stupid and gross.
As o church holding more or less closely to the
Bible, Swedenborgiansm takes higher ground than
Spiritualism; and is, in all truth and fairness not
liable to have its inspiration put in question by
the fact that Its mysticism has been degraded, in
the hands Of the schismatcs into ugglcry or trick
whose Lindley Murrays are utterers of atrocous
grammar, whose Noah Websters are authorities
for infamous spelling, whose John Millions are per-
petrators of cuters' poetry, whose spirits gener-
ally have suffered terribly in culture and inte-
gence by dsembodiment, and whose heavens,
from the first to the seventh, are each neither
more nor less than paradise of scullions and
fools.
SPREADING THE TRUTHS OF THE GOSPEL.