Myths and Marvels of Astronomy
that his statements could ever be tested by the results of scientific
research. The objects to which his spiritual communications related were
conveniently remote. I do not say this as desiring for one moment to
suggest that he purposely selected those objects, and not others which
might be more readily examined. He certainly believed in the reality of
the communications he described. But possibly there is some law in
things visionary, corresponding to the law of mental operation with
regard to scientific theories; and as the mind theorises freely about a
subject little understood, but cautiously where many facts have been
ascertained, so probably exact knowledge of a subject prevents the
operation of those illusions which are regarded as supernatural
communications. It is in a dim light only that the active imagination
pictures objects which do not really exist; in the clear light of day
they can no longer be imagined. So it is with mental processes.
Probably there is no subject more suitable in this sense for the
visionary than that of life in other worlds. It has always had an
attraction for imaginative minds, simply because it is enwrapped in so
profound a mystery; and there has been little to restrain the fancy,
because so little is certainly known of the physical condition of other
worlds. Recently, indeed, a somewhat sudden and severe check has been
placed on the liveliness of imagination which had enabled men formerly
to picture to themselves the inhabitants of other orbs in space.
Spectroscopic analysis and exact telescopic scrutiny will not permit
some speculations to be entertained which formerly met with favour. Yet
even now there has been but a slight change of scene and time. If men
can no longer imagine inhabitants of one planet because it is too hot,
or of another because it is too cold, of one body because it is too
deeply immersed in vaporous masses, or of another because it has neither
atmosphere nor water, we have only to speculate about the unseen worlds
which circle round those other suns, the stars; or, instead of changing
the region of space where we imagine worlds, we can look backward to the
time when planets now cold and dead were warm with life, or forward to
the distant future when planets now glowing with fiery heat shall have
cooled down to a habitable condition.
Swedenborg's imaginative mind seems to have fully felt the charm of this
interesting subject. It was, indeed, because of the charm which he found
in it, that he was readily persuaded into the belief that knowledge had
been supernaturally communicated to him respecting it. 'Because I had a
desire,' he says, 'to know if there are other earths, and to learn their
nature and the character of their inhabitants, it was granted me by the
Lord to converse and have intercourse with spirits and angels who had
come from other earths, with some for a day, with some for a week, and
with some for months. From them I have received information respecting
the earths from and near which they are, the modes of life, customs and
worship of their inhabitants, besides various other particulars of
interest, all which, having come to my knowledge in this way, I can
describe as things which I have seen and heard.'
It is interesting (psychologically) to notice how the reasoning which
had convinced Swedenborg of the existence of other inhabited worlds is
attributed by him to the spirits. 'It is well known in the other life,'
he says, 'that there are many earths with men upon them; for there (that
is, in the spiritual life) every one who, from a love of truth and
consequent use, desires it, is allowed to converse with the spirits of
other earths, so as to be assured that there is a plurality of worlds,
and be informed that the human race is not confined to one earth only,
but extends to numberless earths.... I have occasionally conversed on
this subject with the spirits of our earth, and the result of our
conversation was that a man of enlarged understanding may conclude from
various considerations that there are many earths with human inhabitants
upon them. For it is an inference of reason that masses so great as the
planets are, some of which exceed this earth in magnitude, are not empty
bodies, created only to be carried in their motion round the sun, and to
shine with their scanty light for the benefit of one earth only; but
that they must have a nobler use. He who believes, as every one ought to
believe, that the Deity created the universe for no other end than the
existence of the human race, and of heaven from it (for the human race
is the seminary of heaven), must also believe that wherever there is an
earth there are human inhabitants. That the planets which are visible to
us, being within the boundary of our solar system, are earths, may
appear from various considerations. They are bodies of earthy matter,
because they reflect the sun's light, and when seen through the
telescope appear, not as stars shining with a flaming lustre, but as
earths, variegated with obscure spots. Like our earth, they are carried
round the sun by a progressive motion, through the path of the Zodiac,
whence they have years and seasons of the year, which are spring,
summer, autumn, and winter; and they rotate upon their axes, which makes
days, and times of the day, as morning, midday, evening, and night. Some
of them also have satellites, which perform their revolutions about
their globes, as the moon does about ours. The planet Saturn, as being
farthest from the sun, has besides an immense luminous ring, which
supplies that earth with much, though reflected, light. How is it
possible for anyone acquainted with these facts, and who thinks from
reason, to assert that such bodies are uninhabited?'
Remembering that this reasoning was urged by the spirits, and that
during twelve years Swedenborg's interiors had been opened in such sort
that he could converse with spirits from other worlds, it is surprising
that he should have heard nothing about Uranus or Neptune, to say
nothing of the zone of asteroids, or again, of planets as yet unknown
which may exist outside the path of Neptune. He definitely commits
himself, it will be observed, to the statement that Saturn is the planet
farthest from the sun. And elsewhere, in stating where in these
spiritual communications the 'idea' of each planet was conceived to be
situated, he leaves no room whatever for Uranus and Neptune, and makes
no mention of other bodies in the solar system than those known in his
day. This cannot have been because the spirits from then unknown planets
did not feel themselves called upon to communicate with the spirit of
one who knew nothing of their home, for he received visitors from worlds
in the starry heavens far beyond human ken. It would almost seem, though
to the faithful Swedenborgian the thought will doubtless appear very
wicked, that the system of Swedenborg gave no place to Uranus and
Neptune, simply because he knew nothing about those planets. Otherwise,
what a noble opportunity there would have been for establishing the
truth of Swedenborgian doctrines by revealing to the world the existence
of planets hitherto unknown. Before the reader pronounces this a task
beneath the dignity of the spirits and angels who taught Swedenborg it
will be well for him to examine the news which they actually imparted.
I may as well premise, however, that it does not seem to me worth while
to enter here at any length into Swedenborg's descriptions of the
inhabitants of other worlds, because what he has to say on this subject
is entirely imaginative. There is a real interest for us in his ideas
respecting the condition of the planets, because those ideas were based
(though unconsciously) upon the science of his day, in which he was no
mean proficient. And even where his mysticism went beyond what his
scientific attainments suggested, a psychological interest attaches to
the workings of his imagination. It is as curious a problem to trace his
ideas to their origin as it sometimes is to account for the various
phases of a fantastic dream, such a dream, for instance, as that which
Armadale, the doctor, and Midwinter, in 'Armadale,' endeavour to connect
with preceding events. But Swedenborg's visions of the behaviour and
appearance of the inhabitants of other earths have little interest,
because it is hopeless to attempt to account for even their leading
features. For instance, what can we make of such a passage as the
following, relating to the spirits who came from Mercury?--'Some of them
are desirous to appear, not like the spirits of other earths as men, but
as crystalline globes. Their desire to appear so, although they do not,
arises from the circumstance that the knowledges of things immaterial
are in the other life represented by crystals.'
Yet some even of these more fanciful visions significantly indicate the
nature of Swedenborg's philosophy. One can recognise his disciples and
his opponents among the inhabitants of various favoured and unhappy
worlds, and one perceives how the wiser and more dignified of his
spiritual visitors are made to advocate his own views, and to deride
those of his adversaries. Some of the teachings thus circuitously
advanced are excellent.
For instance, Swedenborg's description of the inhabitants of Mercury and
their love of abstract knowledge contains an instructive lesson. 'The
spirits of Mercury imagine,' he says, 'that they know so much, that it
is almost impossible to know more. But it has been told them by the
spirits of our earth, that they do not know many things, but few, and
that the things which they know not are comparatively infinite, and in
relation to those they do know are as the waters of the largest ocean to
those of the smallest fountain; and further, that the first advance to
wisdom is to know, acknowledge, and perceive that what we do know,
compared with what we do not know, is so little as hardly to amount to
anything.'[27] So far we may suppose that Swedenborg presents his own
ideas, seeing that he is describing what has been told the Mercurial
spirits by the spirits of our earth, of whom (during these spiritual
conversations) he was one. But he proceeds to describe how angels were
allowed to converse with the Mercurial spirits in order to convince them
of their error. 'I saw another angel,' says he, after describing one
such conversation, 'conversing with them; he appeared at some altitude
to the right; he was from our earth, and he enumerated very many things
of which they were ignorant.... As they had been proud on account of
their knowledges, on hearing this they began to humble themselves. Their
humiliation was represented by the sinking of the company which they
formed, for that company then appeared as a volume or roll, ... as if
hollowed in the middle and raised at the sides.... They were told what
that signified, that is, what they thought in their humiliation, and
that those who appeared elevated at the sides were not as yet in any
humiliation. Then I saw that the volume was separated, and that those
who were not in humiliation were remanded back towards their earth, the
rest remaining.'
Little being known to Swedenborg, as indeed little is known to the
astronomers of our own time, about Mercury, we find little in the
visions relating to that planet which possesses any scientific interest.
He asked the inhabitants who were brought to him in visions about the
sun of the system, and they replied that it looks larger from Mercury
than as seen from other worlds. This of course was no news to
Swedenborg. They explained further, that the inhabitants enjoy a
moderate temperature, without extremes of heat or cold. 'It was given to
me,' proceeds Swedenborg, 'to tell them that it was so provided by the