by Editor
In our August number we showed that matter derives its origin from spiritual substance, and this again is produced by the Divine from itself. Thus, matter and all things composed of matter are the lowest round of the ladder of causation. Spirit or spiritual substance is the middle round, and Divine Substance is the Highest or First.The Divine is Substance Itself, the origin of all other things. It is Itself Eternal and Infinite, Uncreate, that which Is, Was, and W i l l Be, which is expressed in the Hebrew name Jehovah, which is derived from the verb to be.
by Harvey Farrington
The influx of Life from the Iord is unceasing and continuous ; perfectly and infinitely one, as it descends through an unbroken chain from its eternal source, even to the most gross and inert subject of the mineral kingdom, i t is modified and adapted to its numerous and varied recipients. Yet, varied though they are, the life they receive impresses upon each, more or less perfectly, the image of its creator. Thus, from mineral to plant, from plant to animal, all seem to emulate the Human Form which is the most perfect, the crowning work of all. As if endowed with formative intelligence, the hard, unyielding substances of the earth crystallize into forms resembling plants. Ascending higher, we again see a wonderful analogy between the forms of vegetable and animal life ; from the humblest alga to the statliest tree, from the amoeba to the most highly developed animal, all are imbued with the endeavor to emulate the human form — the complex and epitome of all that the universe possesses. The ancients rightly termed the body a microcosm, for there is not a principle or a form in the whole range of Nature, but whatfinds some representative counterpart therein. A just comprehension of the one, therefore, aids and furthers the conception of a true understanding of the other. Hence arises the importance, nay, the necessity, of some knowledge of anatomy and physiology. How few there are, who can boast of anything more than a vague smattering of these subjects, how few who have learned even sufficient to insure bodily comfort and safety. They have not been taught the necessity of such knowledge.
by Harvey Farrington
The writer takes high ground in regard to the reliability and authority of Swedenborg's science and philosophy. He says:" The position, then, which I take, is this: Swedenborg's system—or rather let us say the system of science, philosophy, and theology which the Lord has revealed to the world through Swedenborg—must be taken as awhole, and his scientific and philosophical works form the ultimate of the higher spiritual. Inthe light of order, and of successive and simultaneous degrees, there is no other view. Reject the scientific and philosophical works as not forming a part of this revealed Divine Truth and the very foundations of the whole system are thrown down— for his system forms the nexus between the Word and Nature, and if the scientific and philosophical part of the system be rejected as not inspired, then the system has no ultimate — a reductio ad absurdum. For it has been shown that nothing exists without its ultimate, and the ultimate is the complex continent of all . "
