perature which is suited to the angels of the highest heaven, and afterwards to all other degrees of human beings, even to man in the natural world. As life exists in its direct course through the accommodating media, it is denominated its nature, and not modification; this latter having relation to states which it assumes in living subjects as media. Quality is also predicated of the modification which life assumes in living subjects, and not of life as it is in unorganised media. Before the existence of evil there was every degree of substance which existed afterwards, but that condition did not exist which we call quality. Then there were simply the three degrees of the spiritual world, together with the accessory covering which is of the substance of the natural world, with their different degrees of perfection. These were celestial, spiritual, and natural, with the substance of this world and the increments and decrements of it, but no modification, therefore no quality. Activity in these degrees was then called nature, and its particular appellation was according to the degree of substance in which it operated. In the celestial, it was called celestial nature; in the spiritual, spiritual; and in the natural, the nature of the natural. All things were then good, but that was in relation to their origin, and their orderly existence, and not as an antithesis to an opposite, which is evil.

Substance and life are more or less perfect according to their nearness to their source, their perfection diminishing with their remoteness. But when we say they are more or less perfect, we do not mean that they are more or less pure; for purity and perfection originate in two very different causes. The perfection of substance, and consequently the perfection of life by which it is actuated, is according to its approximation to its origin, and it diminishes by degrees as it recedes from it; but purity or impurity is predicated of substance and life according to their direct or indirect proceeding from their origin. Before indirect proceeding was affected by perversion, the term purity was useless, each degree being equally pure, and differing from other degrees only in perfection, which depended upon its proximity to, or remoteness from, the Divine source; and such as was its perfection by its nearness to, or remoteness from, its origin, was its nature, this being more or less perfect according to its relation with its origin.

The accommodation of life to finite human creatures was effected by media which were spiritual atmospheres; but in these it did not become more or less pure, but it was more or less perfect according to the superior or inferior nature of the media. These atmospheres, by which life was accommodated to the reception of man, were, at the same time, the media by which it was conveyed to him, in which it received no

quality, but was simply tempered by having its ardency diminished; just as the heat and light of the natural sun receive no quality from the pure atmospheres, but are only tempered, and by their temperament accommodated to the earth, and the existence of animals and vegetables.

Purity and impurity are predicated of life as it exists in subjects which have the capability of turning its course, and thus of perverting it. So long as life retained its direct course, whether it was in living subjects or not, the term quality had no application to it; but when its course became turned or perverted, then it acquired quality, and the term purity or impurity became applicable to it. Hence the word quality is a relative term, and it applies to life in relation to its direct or perverted course, therefore to the subjects of that life who have the power to pervert it; consequently if perversion had not taken place, the word impurity would have had no application, and the term purity would have been entirely useless.

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The qualities of things are produced and perfected by their differences in relation to what is more or less opposite. Who cannot see, for instance, that truth receiveth its quality from the existence of what is false, in like manner as goodness doth from the existence of what is evil?" T.C.R. 763.

The cause of the origin of quality or purity of life is also the cause of quality or purity in the subject of life, for the latter is pure or impure according to the direct or indirect course of the life by which it is actuated or vivified; and everything is denominated according to its reception of life, and the way in which it is actuated by it, the subject and its life being identical, as will be shewn in another article. If it be actuated by perverted life, whether such perversion existed previously, or whether it be the result of its own action, it partakes of the quality of that life, and is designated in agreement with it.

But here a question arises, viz.-Does the life pervert the subject, or does the subject pervert the life? And an answer to this question appears to be attended with considerable difficulty. For on the one hand, inasmuch as the origin of life is perfection itself, and as whatsoever proceeds from such an origin must not only partake of the nature of its source, but be totally incapable either of perverting itself or any. thing into which it flows, or which it influences, it is clear that life alone cannot be the cause of perversion, and consequently of impurity. And on the other hand, as every subject is simply a created form, consisting of finite substance, having no life itself, but living by life which it momentarily receives from the source of life, and in itself, and of itself, having no capability of acting, nor consequently of influencing, the life, or changing its quality by turning it out of its course, it equally follows

that the subject alone cannot be the cause of perversion. Here, then, we have the only two things by which perversion could be effected, viz., life and the subject, and yet neither of them by itself was, or could be, the cause of perversion; notwithstanding, however, perversion exists, and must have had its origin in some cause, inasmuch as it could not cause itself, because, previous to its production, it was a nonentity—it had no existence; and now it does exist it is only a condition of life, or of the subject in which life exists; for by the origin of perversion there was no production of anything, but only the production of a different state of the previously existing thing; consequently the question comes again with full force, Whence was perversion? If the form be merely passive, action by which perversion is effected cannot originate in it, and life flowing directly from the origin of all perfection cannot pervert any subject into which it flows. Where, then, is the possibility of perversion, and whence its origin?

In order to see the origin and cause of perversion, we must not look for it in life alone, nor in the subject alone, but we must take them both together, because, as previously shewn, neither of them by itself could produce it. Perversion implies action, and therefore the subject by which it is effected must have the power to act; and not this only, but it must have the power to act as of itself. Such a subject is man. And man implies not only a form which is a recipient of life, but also the life by which it lives; for the very idea of man is that of an existing beinga living subject and not of an image, nor yet of a corpse. If we do not view man as a living subject, but as a form void of life, or take his life apart from the form, and reason concerning it, we shall arrive at the most inconsistent conclusions. We must take the whole man, both what is active and what is passive-life and subject—and view him as a whole, and then we shall see him as he is. But if we divide him, and view a part only, we cannot see the whole, neither can we arrive at any consistent conclusions concerning his abilities or the result of his actions; but as in our previous reasoning concerning the origin of perversion, instead of arriving at the true case, we arrive at the absurd conclusion that perversion could not originate at all, which is contrary to the experience of every individual. Thus we see the necessity of keeping man entire, consisting of form and life, both together constituting man, and not either apart. Swedenborg states-" It is a known thing in the learned world that the principal and the instrumental cause act together as one cause; man, inasmuch as he is a recipient of life, is an instrumental cause, but life from the Lord is the principal cause; this latter life is felt in the instrumental as its life, when yet it is not its." A. C. 6325.

Relatively speaking, all the life which man receives in his will is his own; the life of love to the neighbour, and even of love to God, which is the most exalted life, is his, and is said to be proper to him when in a state of order. See A. C. 6323.

Man is so formed that life operating in him should produce the consciousness of independent existence. It flows in without his consciousness of its influx, and it is presented and appears to him as if it were inherent. The influx of life not being perceived by man, it does not appear to originate at all, but to be inherent and self-existent. This appearance being grounded in man's constitution, it makes one with himself, and it can never be removed. Being the result of life operating in him as a form, so long as he receives life, or so long as he lives, he must be subject to that appearance; he can no more divest himself of it than he can remove himself from himself, or than he can go out of himself. Were it possible by any means that man could be deprived of that appearance, he would that moment cease to be a man. Concerning this merciful and wonderful provision of Divine wisdom, in order that man should live as of himself, or that he should have an apparent selfexistence, Swedenborg gives us the following information:-" Appropriation of the Lord's life is effected of His mercy and love towards the universal human race, in that He is willing to give Himself, and what is His, to every one, and that he actually gives so far as they receive; that is, so far as they are in the life of good and the life of truth, as likenesses and images of Himself; and whereas such a Divine tendency of desire proceeds continually from the Lord, therefore His life, as was said, is appropriated." A. C. 3742.

Perversion implying the existence of man, implies also that he was the agent by whom it was effected, and that this lamentable process had actually commenced when God pronounced the words, "It is not good that the man should be alone." That which was perverted was life from God, and, of course, man as its subject; and it was perverted when it was turned from the end and object for which it was given, which was, that man, to whom it was given, should allow himself to be led by love, and guided by truth; that he should live in agreement with the perceptions of wisdom with which he was endued; that he should look to the Lord as the only source of life, and love Him as the only object of worship; these were the only means by which man could become happy, which was the Divine end in his creation, and is also the merciful design in his preservation. When man would no longer allow himself to be led by life as it flowed from God, but instead of acknowledging that it was from Him, yielded to the appearance that it originated in himself, he

could then no longer look to Him as the only object of worship and adoration, but to himself as the only object whose interests he should promote, and whose appetites and desires he should gratify; and thus, in place of having God for his object, and truth for his guide, he substituted self as the only being he should serve, and fallacy as his only instructor. This was opposite to the end of Divine wisdom, and the effect must therefore be the reverse of that which was intended; for although it was the beneficent design of Almighty God that man should be happy, he became miserable. The end was changed, the means were perverted, the Divine object was frustrated, and man fell.

It is useless to ask the questions, Could not God have prevented the perversion of life, and the consequent fall of man; or could He not have created man so that he would not have fallen? Such questions are based on erroneous notions of God, and a wrong idea of the constitution and nature of man. Man is the being which he was created to be, and all our ideas of him are taken from him as he is, and we have no idea of any other man. Had man been formed different from what he is, in agreement with our imaginations, then he would not have been man, but some other creature which was not designed by Infinite wisdom, and which would not have answered the end of His designs. In order for man to be what he was designed, viz., an image and likeness of God, he must possess the faculties of volition and rationality,—he must be in a finite degree what God is infinitely. God is infinite love and wisdom, or he is infinitely free and wise, and man was created that he might become finite love and wisdom, or that he might become finitely free and wise; he has volition and reason, in which faculties is the appearance of willing and thinking, and of acting and speaking, as freely as though the power were self-derived, or as if the life were inherent; and the use or exercise of these noble faculties is man's existence. God could not create a subject in which there should be infinite life, for that would be a God, and there cannot be two Gods; but he could create a subject in which there should be the appearance of self-existence, and such a being Either God could not or would not create man so that he could not fall; to say that He would not, would be a scandalous libel on the Divine Majesty, which would be at least indicative of a grovelling ignorance concerning the Divine nature. It would be a poor return, indeed, for the sublime display of infinite love and wisdom in the most perfect work of creation, for man, because he would not remain perfect, to revile his Creator, and say that he was not made perfect, or that God could, but would not, create him without the possibility of falling. God's design was of infinite love, and that design was effected by infi

is man.