The Soul or Rational Psychology, Emanuel Swedenborg
The Soul or Rational Psychology
Emanuel Swedenborg
Category: Religion
Genres: Philosophy,Psychology,Non-fiction
Level 713:28 h
Emanuel Swedenborg (/ˈswiːdənbɔːrɡ/) born Emanuel Swedberg; 8 February [O.S. 29 January] 1688 – 29 March 1772) was a Swedish pluralistic-Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher and mystic.

The Soul, or Rational Psychology

Emanuel Swedenborg

Translated by Frank Sewall

Part First.
The Senses.

Chapter I. - The Simple Fibre, that it is Celestial in its Nature.

(1.) The successive formation of the blood vessels from the simple fibre,

The simplest fibre is the form of forms, or that which forms the other fibres succeeding in order.

The simplest fibre by its circumflexion forms a certain perpetually spiral surface or membrane which is itself the second, the medullary or nervous fibre of the body, and is simply a little channel constructed from the simplest fibre, but together with the fluid which permeates it, constituting a fibre.

This fibre, therefore, because it descends from the prior, or is the prior fibre thus convoluted, and therefore nothing else than the simple fibre itself, flows by a spiral or perpetually circular flux.

This fibre, when it falls into the provinces of the body, again forms a kind of little gland not unlike the cortical, from which proceeds the bodily fibre, and this forms the little tunic which infolds the arterial vessels.

The fibre further descends into the greater arteries, and there also forms glands which again send out fibres from themselves, and from these is produced the muscular tunic.

Thus the nervous, glandular, tendonous, and muscular tunics, with the membranous, constitute the arteries and veins, all and each being formed of fibres.

Thus the blood vessel is produced from the simple fibre by continuous derivations.

The arterial vessel can accordingly be called the third fibre, the medullary fibre the second, and the simple fibre the first.

In this respect, also, the first fibre may be called the first vessel, then the second vessel, and finally the vessel properly so-called, or the blood vessel.

So with the fluids themselves that flow through them; the first vital essence is the supereminent blood, or that of the supreme degree; that which is of the second fibres is the middle or the purer blood; and that which is of the arteries is the blood properly so-called, or the red blood.

Therefore is the simple fibre the proper animal essence, the form of forms.

(2.) There is nothing else continuous in the whole body; or its whole form is the simple fibre alone.

All that is continuous in the body or essentially determined, that is, formed, is the simple fibre.

For there is nothing in the medullary fibre but the simple fibre.

There is nothing in the blood vessel but the medullary fibre.

There is nothing in the whole body which is not woven together of vessels and fibres.

Even what does not so appear, — as the tendons, cartilages and bones, — yet this also experience shows to have been woven from the vessels and fibres originally.

Thus there is nothing in the entire body but simple fibre, which is its whole form.

Nor does there enter into it anything continuous or coherent except the simple fibre, the only continuous substantial.

Arguing further, if the simple fibre is an animate product from its first essence, it follows that there is nothing in the entire animal form going to form it but this essence itself.

The fluids of various kinds which are in the medullary fibres and in the blood vessels, as the serous fluids, do not constitute the form, since the forms consist of fibres; but these fluids flow within the fibres and vessels.

(3.) If that essence is the soul, it follows that this alone is what constitutes the form.

(4.) The Simple Fibre is of a celestial nature. What the Body is.

Now, inasmuch as every part or individual of the first substance is of a celestial form and corresponds to the substance of heaven or to the first and most universal aura, it follows that there is nothing in the simple fibre which is not a celestial form, and this alone is ruled by spiritual forms.

This form, because it is above other forms, cannot be touched at all by them, still less can it be hurt; it is most secure from all injury. How can a compound act upon the simples of which it is compounded? It is most remote from them, nor are they dependent upon it.

(5.) This fibre therefore is not terrestrial, as Aristotle teaches, but of a celestial nature, essence and form.

(6.) Hence it is immortal, nor can it perish, because it cannot be touched.

(7.) What is terrestrial and corporeal is not the fibre, but rather that part of the red blood and of the middle blood in the globule which serve there for an instrumental cause, in order that the first essence of the blood may descend in series by successive derivation and be in the midst of the outmost world; in a word, that it may constitute the bloods, in which, nevertheless, that celestial form reigns.

(8.) That from which the bodily blood exists is only corporeal, nor does it contribute anything to form except that it runs through these fibres and adapts them so that they may enter into forms.

(9.) This part or this corporeal is mortal and relapses to earth when the globules of blood are dissolved; but not so the fibre, which of itself passes away, while the body remains under the form of a corpse.

(10.) Paradox concerning the Simple Fibre.

(11.) Concerning the Universal Circulation of the Fluid of the Body, or the Circle of Life. Concerning the Perpetual Solution and Composition of the Blood.

(12.) Concerning Diseases of the Fibres.

(13.) Concerning the Derivation of the Diseases of the Animus into the Diseases of the Body, and vice versa.

(14.) Concerning the Arachnoid Tunic.

Chapter II. - The Senses.

(15.) The external organs of the senses, as the ear and the eye, are instruments of the modifications of the air and of the ether, and these modifications are the principal causes to which as to mediate organs the sensations exactly correspond.

As to the ear, this is the instrument which receives the modulations of the air; for it receives and applies to itself every form and mode of the forces flowing to it. The same is true of the eye in relation to the ether. The ear in this respect differs from a musical or acoustic instrument in that it not only receives but also sends out and further extends the sounds. So does also the eye differ from optical instruments. The eye is, indeed, like a camera obscura, which reproduces most exactly the images transmitted from the object opposed, without changing them into other forms and other colors. But in the eye these modifications do not simply pass over to the retina; the operations of the eye excite the essential determinations to acting likewise even to the least retina, from which through the optic nerve the same sight is propagated to the common sensory. Thus the sensations correspond exactly to the modifications of the organs. Likewise in taste and smell; for the external form of the parts, which is generally either round or prickly, affects the papillae of the tongue or nostrils; the organ is affected by these touches, which are innumerable, and thence a similar sense results.

(16.) The sensory fibres leading to the common sensory are exactly accommodated to the form of the modifications flowing in and affecting them; thus the sensations flow by a natural spontaneity from the circumfluent world through the fibres in the animated world even to the Soul.

In the inquiry as to what is the form of the modifications of the air and of the ether we are led to conclude from experience that there can be no other modification of form than that of the form of the parts. For the volume is composed of the parts, and if the parts are change-able a like condition ought to result in the whole volumen of what is set in motion as in the single parts, which are so many symbols of the common motion. The form of the modifications of the ether is spiral or perpetually circular, and that of the modifications of the air is simply circular; for such are the external forms of the parts, as may be demonstrated by numberless proofs. If it be asked, then, what is the form of the fluxions of the fibres, it has been proved in the treatise on the Fibres that the form of the fluxions of each compound fibre is spiral, and that the form of the fluxions of many fibres taken together is circular; thus the one form exactly corresponds to the modifications of the ether and the other to the modifications of the air. But the form of the higher ether is vortical, and this corresponds to the substantial form of the spiral glandule. Thus when modifications of the auras flow into the miniature world, or the animal system, they continue their flow in a similar nature, nor are their essential determinations changed.

(17.) The sensations are carried from the external organs to the internal organs as if from a heavy to a lighter atmosphere, or from a lower to a higher region.

Light bodies are raised from the centre toward the the surface and emerge, but those which are heavy fall to the centre and seek the bottom. So do sensations strive from the outermost to the innermost or from the lowest to the highest, while actions fall from the innermost to the outermost or from the highest to the lowest. Thus sensations may be compared to the lighter and actions to the heavier bodies.

The cortical brain holds the inmost and the highest, for to climb thither is upward, but thence toward the surface of the body is downward. That the cortex of the brain also occupies the highest region of the body may appear from the fibres themselves and their nature; the most fluid and the softest fibres are near to the cortex or to their first source; those more remote from the cortex are harder and more stationary, and as if being more compressed, when rising to a softer fibre they rise to the purer region and vice versa; which also is the reason why the nerves or the sensory fibres are soft, and the motor fibres are somewhat harder; and that the softness increases according to the ascent.

(18.) The sensations do not arrive at any special glandules or glandular congeries in the brain but at the universal cortex, so that there is not a single cortical glandule in the entire brain which does not become a participant of each sense and of its least movement, degree and difference.

This the anatomy of the brain declares with sufficient distinctness, for each nerve and each fibre when it is immerged in the medullary lake of the brain, so merges itself with all the neighbouring ones that all differences well nigh disappear. For one fold is continually connected with another, a certain subtile membrane intervening between every fibre and every vessel and the one next to it, which membrane joins and binds fibre to fibre and artery to artery. Those intervening threads in their being drawn out from the fibre we call the emulous vessels of the fibre. In these are inserted the most delicate threads drawn from the pia mater. Thus it may clearly be seen that in the brain, in the cerebellum and in either medulla there is nothing whatever that is discontinuous or disjoined; and the sensation, which is a most subtle kind of trembling of a certain atmosphere, is not able to press solely upon a single fibre, or any particular fibres, as far as to their origins, but is compelled also to pursue its journey through all that is continuous from the fibre; and this is true as well of the trembling and vibrations of harder bodies. The same appears from the special investigation of each sensory fibre; for the optic nerve diffusing itself in the beds of the optic nerves cannot help pouring itself upon the entire circuit of the brain, since the fibres drawn forth from this circuit and concentrated on a firmer base unite upon the beds of the optic nerves; and if the sensations follow the flux of these they cannot but terminate in the common surface of the brain. The olfactory nerves from the continued pituitary membrane so immerse themselves in the oval centre or medullar globe of the brain that they have their origins from all, for the mamillary processes being inflated expand the whole medulla of the brain. The acoustic or auditory nerves emerging from the annular protuberance associate themselves with all the fibres which are sent out from the brain and from the cerebellum. And so in other instances; wherefore the ratio of the sensations is the same as that of the modifications: for these having begun in the least centre diffuse themselves about into the entire periphery. From these considerations it follows that there is no part of the cortex which does not become participant and conscious of the inflowing sensation.

(19) The most distinct sensation exists in the cortex of the brain, especially the sensation of sights, perception and understanding.

Where the cortical substances are most delicate and most expanded, there the sensations should be the more perfect and distinct; for that the cerebrum feels, perceives and understands, but not the cerebellum, is because the cortical glandules like so many little sensories are in a state of perceiving modes distinctly. In either protuberence, or vertex of the brain, that is, in its supreme lobe, this cortex is distinctly divided; for an infinite number of fissures and furrows separate the congeries, by which means the cortex may be expanded and drawn in any direction; so that when the distinction is the more perfect, there is also the more perfect sensation. This is the reason, too, why all the convolutions and bendings of the cortex concentrate themselves in this, or tend hither by a continuous flux and union. This is observed as well in outward as in inward intuitions; we even direct our contemplations toward this prow of the brain. Also when this is injured the faculty of clearly seeing and perceiving is changed according to the degree of injury, as appears from various diseases of the head. Thus sensation belongs, indeed, to every cortical glandule, but it is more perfect in one part of the brain than in another; for in one it is more particular and single according to the divisions of the brain, while in another part it is more general, and hence the sensation is more indistinct and obscure, as in the lowest layers of the brain and in the cerebellum.

(20.) No cortical glandule in the whole brain is absolutely like another, hence neither are the little sensories similar to each other, which are so many cortical glandules: but a certain variety intervenes, which nevertheless is so harmonious that not the least difference occurs in the mode of any sensation but what is perceived more perfectly in one glandule than in another.

That there occur infinite mutations of state, both essential and accidental, of the cortical glandules, which are so many internal sensories, has been sufficiently demonstrated in the treatise concerning those glandules. For there are larger and smaller glandules, harder and softer, consisting of more or of less fibres; there are those whose state is more constricted or more expanded, some associate with more some with less; but to enumerate every difference would be too prolix. The cortical glandules in the brain are of one kind, those of the cerebellum are of another, and those of still another in the medulla oblongata and the medulla spinalis; also they are of different species in the brain itself, in its vertex, in its borders, on the outside near to the pia mater, and on the inside around the ventricles. All the cortical glandules, the beginnings of the fibres, the little sensories and motors, are internal. Now in order that the brain may be free to receive all sensations and feel every difference, it is necessary that there should be order among its sensories. This order must be wholly harmonious; even if one glandule receives a purer, another a grosser mode, nevertheless we must communicate the sign of its sensation to the others as a part to the whole. This is called the harmonious variety, which is so proper to nature that it deserves to be called the nature of nature. Such a variety exists in the particular fibres, in the particular muscles, in the single parts of the atmosphere. For similarly are the lowest atmospheres more compressed than the higher, in such a way, nevertheless, that between all there is a certain harmonious variety. Thus the particulars contribute each its own part to the common and public estate.

(21.) The sensation diffused the whole brain are to be conceived of as winding themselves around in a spiral mixer, or according to the form of motion of a circuit and of the vertical substances; and the purer sensation reduce vertically through the vertical glandule; hence according to the most substantial from itself of the sensory organ.

The convolutions of the cortical glandules in the brain flow into the form of the most perfect spiral; and because the sensations touch every point, every fibre, and every cortex of the brain, hence we must conceive of a similar circumvolution and whirling motion of the sensations; for then an easy fluxion and propagation of these proceeds from a part into a whole. In the same manner the modification takes place in each individuad cortical gland, whose form is perpetually spiral or vortical. For every active force impressed upon an organic substance flows and is determined most exactly according to the form of the latter. To flow otherwise would be contrary to the stream and current of its nature, or contrary to the rotation of its axis. Also the sensation circumgyrates by a similar form when it follows along its fibre, therefore also when it emerges from it. So are the forms of a fluxion and that of its atmosphere or of its modifications similar. So do the macrocosm and the microcosm mutually correspond, and impress the same modes upon each other. Such a whirling motion openly appears in the external organs also, when the mind is inebriated or the brain affected with a like disease or delirium. From these statements it may appear with what winding about and circumgyrations the inmost sensation or the understanding is carried on; the form of whose fluxion is celestial; and so on.

(22.) We may perceive by ourselves and naturally the harmony and the disharmony of sensations.

That the soul naturally apprehends and is conscious of every thing harmonious or inharmonious which occurs to any sense, appears from the phenomena of each sense. Harmony of touch in the outmost skin tickles and excites laughter: harmony of taste and smell flatters and gratifies the organs in such wise that it creates a pleasure, sweetness and appetite. Harmony of hearing so pleases the ear that one smiles at what is heard said: so with harmony of sight, whence is beauty, comeliness and delights. But disharmonies produce the contrary effect, for these sadden the soul and the mind, and induce a certain horror, even hurt, and thence aversions. Even in the imagination and the thought a similar concord of truths, which arc so many harmonies, is likewise produced by nature herself without science to direct, and without art as a mistress. Thence it comes that those whose minds are more healthy, and who arc imbued with some knowledge, apprehend natural truths at once, and lend them their approval; but that the same truths are opposed is the result of a vicious state of their mind. That the soul perceives the harmony or disharmony of images and ideas at the first glance appears plainly enough in the brute animals; for birds know of themselves how to ingeniously construct their nests, to choose the food most proper for themselves, and to avoid what is harmful. The spider weaves its web with the most perfect geometry, not to speak of other instances which are effects of a natural perception of harmonies. Even the organs themselves are not only soothed by harmonies and pleasant things, but are also restored by them; while on the contrary they are injured by those which are inharmonious. The reason is that the soul is pure intelligence, and is the order and truth of its own microcosm. Hence the cognition of order and of truth is a faculty born with us, and one that is rarely learned. Neither can the senses otherwise exist, for in order that there be a sense there must be the harmonious mixed with the inharmonious; from the difference of these and their connections and their situation arises sensation. In the same way, from commingled truths, fallacies, and falsehoods arise ratiocination, thoughts, discourse, controversy, opinions. Without these there would be very little speech, and neither schools nor sciences; and the shelves of the libraries would remain empty.

(23.) In the same inmost sensory organ the end of the sensations and the beginning of the actions meet.

The cortical glandule is the last boundary where sensations terminate, and the first prison-house whence the actions break forth; for the fibres, both sensory and motory, begin and end in these glandules.

Sensations penetrate from the outmost to the inmost; but actions run from the inmost to the outmost. Thus the cortical gland is as well a little internal sensory as a motory organ, and both active and passive, as are all the more perfect organic substances. To suffer as well as to act is the perfection of natural bodies, whence comes elasticity, and the forces and powers thence resulting. The superior forms receive every assailing force, and return a similar. If a comparison be instituted with the sensories here described, sensation itself is the passion to which a similar action corresponds. The object of the action may be to determine what is felt into ad, or to represent through the aft the idea perceived; for action is the actual representation of the idea of the mind. This is the reason why the perceived idea so quickly breaks forth into act, as in speech. It would be otherwise if both action and passion did not meet in one and the same organ.

Chapter III. - The Intellect and Action.

(24.) Intellection, which is the ultimate of sensations, does not immediately turn itself into will, which is the primary of actions, but a certain thought and judgment intervenes; thus there are intermediate operations of the mind which conned the last of the one with the first of the other.

There is a certain progressive series or gyre as intellection passes over into will. Undoubtedly there intervenes the thought, which is the last involution of things perceived and understood, and the calling forth of like things from the recess of the memory. But the judging or judgment is the reduction of the things thought into a certain rational form, those things being cast out which have nothing to do with the matter in question; at length comes the conclusion and so the will. The intellection itself is the first part of the operations of the intellect, the thought is the second part, judging is the third, conclusion is the fourth. All of these taken together are designated by the one word "intellect." But this gyre is often accomplished with such presence of mind and velocity that it hardly appears that there are so many intermediate parts between the first rational perception and the beginnings of actions. It is sometimes run through in a single moment. That there is a similar series of operations in single substances gifted with perfect elasticity to which the above might be compared, I do not doubt; it may be that the elatery of nature, when it is subjected to a force or impetus, resolves and restores itself by similar intermediate operations to a similar act although it may seem to be instantaneous. But we cannot further enlarge upon the subject here.

(25.) There is such a connection of the rationed perception or the intellect with the will or the beginning of actions, that is, of the passion with the action in one mind, that as the one is so is also the other, or that a mind deprived of perception is also deprived of will.

The perception of the mind can be compared with passion, but the will with action, hence the perfect mind with the perfect elastic in nature. For it is a faculty of the elatery that its elastic force is greater as the body is more compressed; that the elatery is equal to the com- pressing force; that the force of an elastic body is determined by the actions of the compressing body; that the elatery liberated from the compressing force is restored at once to its former condition; that the body in which there is a perfect elastic force, however much it may be compressed, loses nothing of its own force but always restores it and puts forth as much as it has itself suffered, so that a similar force and impetus is diffused into what is immediately around, and thence into the nearest vicinity, and thence everywhere; that in the striking together of elastic bodies the centre of gravity, before the conflict and after it, is moved with the same rapidity, when moved at all, so that in the meeting of elastic bodies the state of the centre of gravity is preserved; besides many other things which might be compared with this organic substance and its rational operation, and might be explained by correspondences to the apprehension of the intelligent.

In the meanwhile, that the will is such as is the intellect or the perception appears from the phenomena or the affections of the mind, of the animus, or of the brain. For the will increases with perception itself in youths and in adults. When one perishes the other perishes, for they meet in the same organ. When the brain is injured. compressed with foreign matter, or disturbed in its order, not only does sensation become unsteady according to the degree of injury, but also action, as in loss of memory, in catalepsy, in lethargy, in sleep, and other conditions. The reason is, that nothing can be carried into the will which does not come from the perception; for the will is the conclusion of the thoughts, and to it belongs the power of acting in accordance with the ideas of the thoughts.

(26.) The first perception cannot be at once transferred into thought, still less into will, unless some force accede which incites and promotes; and that without this exciting and promoting force perception would at once be extinguished, and with the perception the thought, the two going hand in hand.

That the first perception is a bare interior sensation or mere passion follows quite as well from description as from reflection; for that the images of sight pass over through the eye and the fibres of its nerve to a common sensory or a certain interior sensation, is what is experienced whenever the eyes are opened. It is the same with sound and its modulations in the air, with taste in the tongue, and smelling in the nostrils, and touch in the body. But in order that this perception may become a sensation interior still, and that the rational sensation which is called intellection may pass over into thought and from this stage into will, — this cannot take place without some accessory and stimulating force. What these forces are which are here added. I will proceed to state.

(27.) The first force is the harmony itself and the pleasure and sweetness thence proceedings which is perceived in the external and internal sensory organs at the first impression of an object and which so affects the animus and mind, and vivifies the perception that this cannot help being continued even into the will.