Posthumous Tracts

An excerpt from the beginning of:

Part I.
The way to a knowledge of the Soul.

Several years have now elapsed since I first conceived the design of working out the problems of rational psychology, or what amounts to the same thing, of investigating the essence and faculties of the human soul and internal senses; but hitherto the extreme difficulty of the subject, coupled with the vast amount of preliminary knowledge which is requisite, have warned me against treading prematurely in this direction; for much must previously be reduced to a clear statement and a distinct order. Certain it is, that those who are but superficially informed in the elements of the sciences, or even well acquainted with one or two separate branches of knowledge, and who notwithstanding are rash enough to enter upon this field, in consequence of their ignorance of many and in some cases of the leading means, will but exert an unprofitable subtlety for the most part on empty questions, and only discuss ingenious trifles; and according to their natural endowments, and the manner in which these are cultivated and enlightened, or as it often happens, obscured by the few sciences which such persons possess, they will involve grave truths in thorny discussions, which can have no effect upon the brains, but to occasion differences and quarrels, which no judge is competent to settle, from the trivial nature of the matter upon which the acumen and subtlety are expended. The present subject, however, is too important to be so treated: it is no arena for foils, but for naked weapons. To complete the single science of the soul, all the sciences are required that the world has ever eliminated or developed. If any shall undertake the task with less than all, it must be with the certainty of discovering in the end that he is destitute of the instruments, and unequal to the toils, of so vast a work. The points which he requires, but of which unhappily he is ignorant, he must perforce obtain from himself or coin from his own mind, that is to say, he must use the imagination to supply the place of real knowledge; and how prone to error the imagination is if left to its own guidance, without the continual advice of experience, and the precepts of a true philosophy, is perfectly well known to even the least instructed. Let the reader only make the attempt for a short distance, and he will soon find himself retreating with his standards, and obliged to bring up fresh forces, before he can profitably return to the field where the peculiar battle must be won.

If we wish to deserve success in the study, it will in the first place be necessary to spare no pains, but to exert the mind to the utmost, in clearing and winning those particulars which closely surround and are subordinate to the subject in hand. The anatomy of the body, the anatomy of animal bodies in general, and especially of the cerebrum, cerebellum, medulla oblongata and spinal marrow, and also of the nerves, must open the avenues which lead to it. Without a thorough command of these portals, it is in vain to hope to penetrate the recesses of nature's temple. It is impossible to divine what nature is in the invisible sphere, excepting from what she is in the visible; or what she is in causes, excepting from what she is in those effects which ultimately strike some one of the senses. Just so it is impossible to know the nature of the inner action of the mind, without examining the face of the mind, that is to say, without investigating the brains and marrows of the mind. And even then it will still be impossible to guess how the soul unfolds her powers, without having studied the relations and connexions of all the viscera of the body,* as well as the organs of the external senses, which contribute in their degree to enable those of the internal senses to undergo that development which will open them to the soul.

* Swedenborg does not regard the brain as a part of the body, but by the viscera of the body he means those of the chest and abdomen.—(Tr.)