Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1921-11-25
COMMUNICATION
WORLD OF SPIRIT AND
MATTER BOUND TOGETHER

DISCUSSION
Ever since William Jennings Bryan
spoke in Mead Chapel denouncing the
theory of evolution and pleading for q
simple belief in God, there has beer
awakened considerable interest in the
theory, both pro and con.
Among many interesting discussions
on the subject that have recently de-
veloped, is an article which will I'M
doubtedly be of interest to many read
ers relative to certain aspects of the
question, and which is printed here
with, The article is prepared by John
R. Swanton, and was secured for the
Register through the courtesy of Mrs
E. NJ Saunders. The communication
is as follows:
Swedenborg and Evolution
Orthodox Christianity" assumed a
world of spirit and a world of matter
totally unrelated to each other and it
drew the line between them in such
a way as to divide man from the ami
mails. Modern science insists that it
finds no such gulf, and that anatomic-
ally, physiologically, and to very
large extent psychologically, man is an
animal, inseparable from that part OF
creation which Christianity had rele-
gated to the world of matter Hence
science is called "materia!istic,' and
"atheistic" by the church, and the
church is called Impractical" and wis
ionary" by science
Years before this warfare between
science and religion" broke out Eman-
uel Swedenborg saw the difficulties
and met the issue Hs perceived clear
" that all parts of the greater world
are interrelated, constituting in fact a
universe and that the world Of spirit
and the world of matter are organically
bound together This does not mean
that he debased spirit to the level Of
matter or attempted to elevate matter
to the realm Of spirit. While to him
they were plementaries yet they
were eternally differentiated by what
he called a discrete degree, and he
found these discrete degrees through
out nature, between the ether and the
air between the mineral and the vege-
table, between the vegetable and the
animal, between the animal and the
human, between the human and the
Divine Far from regulating cor
nection between man and the animals
he perceived tia, man, a, The supreme
animal, must have all OF the powers
and potencics, all Of the degrees Of
the kingdoms below, gathered into
himself. Man differs from the lower
creatures not in what he lacks OF theirs
but III what he adds Of his own.
While not stating specifically thai
one Of these degrees has come out Of
another, Swedenborg makes The equiv
allen. declaration that The higher are
based successfully upon the lower. The
various orders OF organisms are intro
duced As the rocks have revealed them
to us and as science arranges them
Swedenborg differs i'll treating them as
50 many expressions Of Divine plan
whose end is seen from the beginning
not evolving by virtue Of a potency in
matter. but ascending, as it were, upon
lreliseS already LEI down for them from
The plane of Deity God, spirit, and
matter are not mutually incompre-
hcn,lDle as "or hoioX Christianity
would nave IL, believe, nor COMPOUNDED
with one anothc- as in panthesm, nor
detective and illusory on one side or
the other AS III matetialisn, subjective
idealiSm and much Of the IN c "
thought.
To one who accepts Swedenborg 5
view the main facts upon which the
doctrine Of evolution is based present
no difficulties, nor ought they to the
thoughtful Christian OF any sO-called
"eVangelCal' denomination II God
can be incarnated into the human, as
they profess to believe. why should not
man have been iucarnated into the ami
NAL And il the human could be incar
mated into the dust Of the earth" as
represented i'll the literal story OF the
Book Of Genesis, why might he not
have been incarnated into an organism
raised to very much higher level
than that dust:
On the other hand, Darwinians un-
doubtedly err fundamentally in assum-
ing that all change may be brought
about through the automatic selection
of accidental variations" when every
SUDDEN. OF na,ure should know that all
experience is opposed to the idea Of
accident in nature, and IN postulating a
Struggle for existence which derives
its very name from d sell consciousness
far above anything that can possibly
exist in the animal world All that
natural selection means or can be
made to mean is that there must be a
certain agreement between all organ
SIN and its environment The former
does indeed change with reference to.
the latter, but this does not prove that
the change is performed by the latter
still less that The latter is the creator
Of the former Proof is entirely lack
ing that shale may be leased or coerced
into Shakespeare by heating and cool
ing. by the action Of wind or water, or
bv any known chemical or solar force.
As the Lamarckians insist, it is evident
that organic life\is not merely driven
or led by external forces, and that al /
lowlnce must also be made for forces
internal to it.
Darwinians fail as decisively IN At
to explain those major facts
upon which the doctrine Of evolution
is based as Mr. Bryan and his support +