Wait but a little while for me

And soon the closing tomb

Will hide this dust, and I with thee
Will share a happier home:

Wait but awhile the word is given,

Half of my heart already riven,

Flies from this earth, and seeks for heaven:
I come, my love! I come!

THE PAST YEAR.

ANOTHER year of life is past:
How swift those periods flee:
Another year!-perhaps the last
That is assign'd to me.

That year, how spent?-with stern demand,
Awakening Conscience cries:

Too soon, alas! its record's scann'd,
And thus stern Truth replies :

"In the misuse of blessings given,
In mercies misapplied:
Abusing earth-offending heaven,
In folly and in pride."

If, haply, 'midst those guilty hours,
A few seem less disgrac'd;
They stand like solitary flowers
Chance-sown upon the waste.

Another year of life is past!
It was a friend ill-used;
That proffer'd friendship to the last,
Still to the last refused.

It was a friend that sought in vain,
Throughout its fleeting span,
By ceaseless kindness to obtain
The love of harden'd man :—
A friend, methinks, whose dying look
Love, Grief, and Pity bore:-
Whose only, whisper'd, kind rebuke,
Was-"Go, and sin no more.”

J. G. P.

S. W.

THOUGHTS ON THE NEW YEAR.

How shall we praise the holy name?
Or how the gracious love proclaim
Of that great God, who, good and wise,
Gave to our wants their due supplies,

Through the past year:

With countenance austere and sad,
Our very looks in sorrow clad ;

Our words, our thoughts all gloomy-dark,
Emitting scarce a single spark

Of heav'nly fire?

Are these the ways we should proclaim
The tender love, the gracious name
Of Him who gave creation birth;
Who rules o'er all the spacious earth,

And heaven above?

No! we must nobler off'rings bring

To Jesus Christ, our God and King;
A spirit broken, lowly, meek,

A contrite heart, that doth bespeak

Its inward love.

Love to our God, must ever flow
Through all our actions here below;
Pervade our ev'ry thought and sense,
Shed o'er our souls its influence,

And peace profound:
Love tow'rds our neighbour we must feel,
And for his good, an ardent zeal ;

In charity with all men live,
Spreading the blessings we receive,

To all around.

We must the Holy Word obey,
And cautious run the narrow way;
Avoid the broad, the dang'rous road,
Which leadeth not to that abode

Where God is near:

Thus shall we all our future days,
To Him, give glory, honour, praise,
Who with eternal ends in view,
Hath brought us erring creatures_to
Another Year.

TERTIAS.

THE

NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE,

AND

Theological Inspector.

FEBRUARY, 1828.

To the Editors of the New Jerusalem Magazine. GENTLEMEN,

THE following Extracts from the Arcana Cœlestia were prepared for insertion in the New Jerusalem Magazine before the letter from your correspondent L. C. appeared in your last number. They will serve to answer some part of his enquiries concerning the precise meaning of certain terms, "which," he says, "many novitiate readers are at a loss to comprehend." Several of those terms, it will be found, are nothing more than so many ways of translating the same original word in Swedenborg, and these experiments have been made in consequence, as it should seem, of the translators not being themselves certain of the precise meaning of the Author. It might be supposed from this that Swedenborg had not been sufficiently explicit, but had left his readers to guess at his meaning. This however is far from being the case, for he abounds in definitions of these singular terms, and in some instances-one of which I have inserted in the following extracts—he informs his readers how they are to be translated. To show that directions the most explicit may be overlooked, I will refer your correspondent to the first extract, in which Swedenborg declares that by the word naturale which he marks by putting in italics, he means the natural mind, and yet no where throughout the Arcana Cœlestia, nor, so far as I have observed, in any other work, is it translated the natural mind, but uniformly the natural principle. Now the natural No. 2.-1828.

C

mind being sufficiently precise, is easily understood, and the Author himself has given repeated definitions of it; but of the natural principle he has given no definition whatever, and it is moreover not to be understood at all, being in contradiction to his declaration, that the causes of causes or ends are Principles, and that the natural mind is an effect. Let it not be supposed that this is a trifling mistake; misconceptions of the author have sprung from it of the most extraordinary description, and views have been given out to the world as his, in defence of his system, which, could he read them, he would be at a loss to recognize, and perhaps to comprehend. But it is time that these points should undergo a thorough examination. Let the Committee of the London Printing Society apply itself to discover in Swedenborg the definitions of his own terms, and adopt in their editions the words which are expressive of his meaning. Large sums of money are expended by the Society, and editions are brought out, which, I regret to say, are hardly such as we have a right to expect. I say this in order to urge the Committee to a better course, and to impress upon the members which compose it, the necessity of patient study and careful examination of the Original, if they wish, in their translations, that Swedenborg should be really understood.

In my next I shall endeavour to satisfy your correspondent as to those remaining terms, the precise meaning of which others beside novitiate readers would be at a loss to comprehend, (for as they stand, they actually have no precise meaning,) by pointing out to him in what sense the corresponding Latin expressions are used by Swedenborg. This I shall do by extracts from the A. C. in which he first adopts these terms, and in which most of their definitions are to be found.

EXTRACTS

*

FROM A PROPOSED NEW AND IMPROVED TRANSLATION OF THE ARCANA CŒLESTIA, ILLUSTRATING SEVERAL IMPORTANT DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH.

Arcana Cœlestia, n. 5301. Here, and in other places where the word naturale is used, the natural mind is meant; for man has two minds, a rational and a natural mind, the former belonging to the internal man, and the latter to the external. It is this mind or this man, which is understood by the single expression, naturale.

A. C. n. 2991. That natural forms represent spiritual states, and that they correspond, may be discovered from this also, that

it is not at all possible for the natural mind (naturale) to exist except from a cause which is prior to itself, and this, its cause, it derives from the spiritual mind (spirituale); nor can there be a natural mind which derives its cause from any other source. Natural forms are effects, and these cannot appear as causes, still less as the Causes of Causes, or Principles, but receive their forms, each according to its use in its respective place. But nevertheless the forms of effects represent the states of their causes, and these again represent the states of their principles. Thus do all natural forms represent the spiritual states to which they correspond, and thus also do spiritual states represent those celestial states from which they exist.

A. C. n. 2992. It has been permitted me to know, as the result of much experience, that in the natural world and its three kingdoms, there is not a single object which does not represent some state or other in the spiritual world, or which has not some state there to which it corresponds.

A. C. n. 3998. When yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow are mentioned in the Word, in its supreme sense, Eternity is signified; yesterday from Eternity, to-day Eternity, and the morrow to Eternity. It has been frequently shewn that times, in the Word, as ages, years, months, weeks, days, and hours, signify states, but in the Lord there are no states, for there all is Eternal and Infinite.

A. C. n. 2553. "Because I said, surely there is no fear of God in this place"-that these words signify, thought derived from perception, that in their then present state they had no regard for spiritual Truth, results from the signification of the fear of God, which is a regard for Divine or Spiritual Truth, and from place signifying state. In reference to this state, the fact is that man cannot comprehend any doctrinal truth which is purely spiritual and celestial, that is, Divine, because it infinitely transcends his capacity, and in consequence of this, his faith also. All the thoughts of man find their termination in the natural objects which belong to his sensual faculties; and whatsoever is not drawn from these, and in agreement with them, is not comprehended, but is lost-as the sight would be, were it without a boundary-in a kind of ocean or universe. For this reason, if doctrinal truths were expounded in any other way to man, he would not receive one of them, nor hold them in the least respect. This may appear evident from every single expression contained in the Word. There purely divine subjects are for the above reason expounded naturally, and even sensually, as where it is said of Jehovah, that He has ears, that He has eyes, that he has