Swedenborg's Cosmology. Lillian G. Beekman
exists as a substance in God the Creator.24 There is thus a conatus in each thing of creation to return to its source. Therefore the primitive force in a simple is most perfectly adaptable and modi- fiable along all human building lines; for the In- finite is capable of varying it in infinite ways. 25
21 A. K. 260. note s.
22 Principia, part I. Chap. III. 19 part 2.
23 Divine Love X. 2.
24 T. C. R. 76.
25 Principia, part III. Chap. II. 4. parts 2. 3.
THE FINITING OF INFINITY.
Moreover in this perpetually reflexive, or circulo- vortical flow, all powers afterwards manifested in mechanics are actively infolded. 26
It is indeed this perpetually circling character, both of their interior conatus. and of their operation, in which resides the power which enables the primi- tives, which are the first finiting of Infinity, to com- posite themselves, to flow together into new com- pound entities, substantial, or finites;27 into sub- stantials or finites of definite form, size, power of permanent cohesion, and of derivative motion;28 and in fact into substantial of definite powers to produce a series of such substantial, or finites. or concrete corpuscles, of five descending grades or degrees. 29
THE PRIMITIVES OF THE SPIRITUAL SUN. This series of finites or substantial originating in the primitives, points, or simples of the Principia,30 are the same with the substantiates originating from the primitives of the Spiritual Sun.31 In the per- petually refiexing conatus of the points or simples of finition, all those things have their in-being, which
26 Principia, part I. Chap. III. 24. 26; Chap. IV. 18.
27 Principia, part I. Chap. III. 1-6.
28 Principia, part I. Chap. III. 11. 12. 14.
29 Principia, part I. Chap. IV. 2. 5. 16.
30 Part I. Chap. III. 2; Chap. IV. 2. 5. 16
31 D. P. 6. T. C. R. 33
SWEDENBORG'S COSMOLOGY.
exist throughout the series of finites or substan- tiates, successively compounding themselves, even to the most gross and ultimate, such as we see exist- ing in the world. 32
The importance of this conatus and potency of circular motion in the primitives or vortex points, is seen when we consider that the primitives and firsts of finition constitute what is called the Spiritual Sun, which is the prime substance, the first finiting of the Infinity of God, the primitives of which are given to be primordial seeds of creation.33 The intrinsic circulo-spiral motion of these primitives of the Spirit- ual Sun, therefore, acts as the instrumental means in compounding the series of derivative substantiates or finites; a series composed of five distinct grades of composite vortex-ring corpuscles, destined for distinct grades of use, both in the composition of the successive degrees of auras or atmospheres, and in the composition of distinct degrees of structure in recipient organic formis, reactive or reflexive to the Divine.
Thus by means of the perpetually reflexive mo- tion inhering in the primitives of the Spiritual Sun, that is, in the firsts or simples of uniting, a series
32 Principia, Part I. Chap. III. 13.
33 T. C. R. 27. 33.
THE FINITING OF INFINITY.
of substantials or finites is produced, or concreted, by which the substances and forces of the universe are successively finited "more and more."
Moreover, it is from this perpetually reflexive im- petus, in the primitives or simples of the Spiritual Sun, and derived from them into all their composites or substantiate,—embodying the generic impulse of love as a substance in God,—that the elementaries or active atmospheres derive their peculiar and char- acteristic habit and nature of motion which is al- ways circular. So that the very reaction of the auras to any action, or beginning, or centre of in- citing force, is always to run into a vortex or circ- ling gyre;34 nor do they ever move by other than circling lines. 35
It is from the same primitive substantial cause that animate forms are characterized by some kind of interior circulation;36 for the order and round of the bloods arises from this deep and living conatus in the leasts of the substances from which they are framed.
There is an emulation of a circulation even in the non-animate kingdom. Vegetables have it; the mole-
34 Principia, part I. 25. Chap. II ; chap. III. 26, 27.
35 Principia. part I. Chap. VI. 33, 37, 38, 39; part II.
Chap. I. I. 2; A. K. 288. note t. 260. note s.
36 D. Wis. X. 3.
SWEDENBORG'S COSMOLOGY.
cules of the mineral kingdom have it, and crystals themselves strive toward it internally.37 Moreover, in order that the molecules of the mineral kingdom may not exhale and emanate themselves out of ex- istence, by the ethers which flow through the mole- cular pores and channels, as bloods through vessels, there is a perpetual renewal of the form, and a per- petual giving forth of effluvial spheres, as its con- tribution to the finer uses of the world. That which has not some type of circulation does not exist, or swiftly ceases to exist, dissolves, dissipates. Thus the primitives of the Spiritual Sun by means of their circling motion give some stamp and feature of themselves upon every substantiate form, derived or moulded from them,—the image of the Divine Love going forth and returning to Itself.
THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NAT- URAL POINT. The firsts of primordial finiting, the simples and natural points of the Principia, stand- ing as intermediate between the Infinite and the finite,38 arc the same with the primitives and simples of the work On the Infinite.39 These primitives and simples are there called the nexus between the In- finite and the finite. The name they are known by
37 T. C. R. 499-
38 Principia, part I. Chap. II. 10. 12.
39 Chap. I. sec. IV. 2.
THE FINITING OF INFINITY.
in the Sacred Scriptures, is the Only Begotten, the Son from eternity.40 They are themselves infinite.41 They are the first creative essence mentioned in the Spiritual Diary, (n. 4847), Itself Divine or Infinite, and Man in conatus or beginning, (fieri), or Man reflexivelv. They are therefore the "Divine Es- sence." related to the Infinite Esse, as the Essence is related to the Esse, in the True Christian Re- ligion (nos. 18, 36). They are the Existere of God Man described in Divine Love and Wisdom (n, 14); in whom Esse and Existere arc one, yet one distinct- ly ; the Esse being the soul of God Man, the Ex- istere His Divine Body. Of the Divine Essence the Spiritual Sun consists: 42 and it is alive. 43
These simples, primitives, or points, are therefore not dead, but are living, life itself, Infinite. They are not the fortuitous points "of no predication and therefore not in themselves anything," nor the atoms of Epicurus, nor the monads of Leibnitz, nor the simple substances of Wolf; and so are not what is condemned in the True Christian Religion, n. 20, and Divine Providence, n. 6.44 They are the Infinites
40 Infinite, Chap. I. sec. X. 3, 4.
41 Ibid.
42 T. C. R. 29.
43 D. L. W. 163-166.
44 See also Infinite. Chap. I. sec. IV. 8, 49; E. A. K. part I. 612. 618. 622. part II. 242.
SWEDENBORG'S COSMOLOGY.
of