gave a new and more wonderful description of man's mental organization admirably adapted to the ends and objects of his creation-and that this system in itself contained a union of parts, so fitting and harmonious to each other, as to form a complete and perfect whole. I was astonished at the regular agreement of one thing with another in the economy of the Lord's providence-at the views which were opened to me of the divine operation on the minds of men-at the kind and beneficent effects which were constantly flowing from the divine love and wisdom in all parts of the universe. These were feelings and impressions that were as gratifying to my intellect as they were grateful and consoling to my heart. But I was still more affected as I continued to read, by the statement which Swedenborg gives of the plan of redemption, and especially by his description of what constitutes a life of charity. In every part of this description I seemed to discover a response to my own feelings on that important subject. I was rejoiced to find that he regarded this as the vivifying power of the church-as the universal principle of all true religion -as the celestial ground from which alone seed could spring forth and bear. I rejoiced in this, because it seemed to restore again to my anxious vision the lost image of God. I felt as if it would be no longer necessary for me to be wandering in the shadowy courts of a bewildered church, eagerly and solemnly inquiring the road to heaven, with a thousand officious guides ready to offer their services, but scarcely one who could furnish me with an intelligible description of the I had long desired to free myself from the annoyance of presumptuous and contradictory advisers, many of whom could not agree on the subject of the funda mental conditions of salvation, and all of whom involved these conditions in terms that were painful and repugnant to my intellect and affections. I had endeavored indeed to quiet my mind on these perplexing subjects of doubt and inquiry, and thought I had succeeded in doing so, but I now began to perceive that my doubts had been lulled, but not satisfied. I was truly glad when I thought I saw a plainer and a better way."

way.

The work is ascribed by the tenor of the title-page to John A. Little, but this is doubtless a nom de plume, and the book may be said to be virtually anonymous. We have, at any rate, never been informed of the authorship, and therefore should violate no secret, even should we chance to hit upon it by a happy guess. We do not know that we should succeed in this, but still we have been tempted to try our ingenuity upon the name as an anagram, and we find that by a slight version of the English Little into the German Klein, and an equally slight inversion of John Andrew into Andrew John, we bring out a name very near to that which we strongly incline to believe the genuine one in the premises. But whether this be so or not is of comparatively little consequence to the work itself, which is one that will be read with lively interest, as it has the faculty of beguiling attention very much like the conversation of an extremely agreeable, though not highly gifted or brilliant companion.

EDITORIAL ITEMS.

It is no doubt becoming more and more common to meet with confirmations, drawn from a thousand sources, of the truth of the great theological and moral maxims of Swedenborg. The experience of the world is gradually working itself up to the measure of his truths, even when those truths have been in the first instance questioned or denied. Thus, for instance, his doctrine of Charity has sometimes been accounted narrow and illiberal, because in some respects restrictive and discriminative. His significant aphor ism, "That doing good to the evil is doing evil to the good," has been charged with breathing an uncatholic spirit, and calculated to shut up the bowels of compassion to wards the unfortunate and distressed. But the ollowing remarks from a late number of the London Examiner, in speaking of the evils of mendicancy, come very decidedly, as

will be seen, upon New Church ground. "A person who gives alms at random may be compared to one who fires a shot at random among a crowd. There is a seed of social mischief in every ill-bestowed bounty, though the eye does not see what the heart rues. How many a criminal has to curse the careless hand that first encouraged him in a life of idleness, imposture, and vagrancy." Upon this remark the Editor of the N. Y. Daily Times comments as follows, after speaking of the extent to which begging prevails in this city: "It may seem hard and heartless to refuse, even to such persons, the poor boon of cold victuals. But a little reflection will show that it is a wrong and an evil practice to do otherwise. A very little inquiry will bring to the knowledge of every housekeeper some persons who, from illness, poverty, or other causes, are in positive want of the necessaries of life, to whom such donations would be of decided service. They ought, therefore, to be reserved for them; and no benevolent person should begrudge the slight trouble it might require to find them out and afford them aid. Giving to the strolling beggars who call at your door, even the refuse fragments of your table, is robbing those who have fair claims upon your charity and care, besides encouraging a horde of lazy, shiftless, worthless creatures, in their effort to obtain a living without work."

Compare this now with the tenor of what our enlightened author says on the subject in the following paragraphs:

"It is believed in the world that charity towards the neighbor consists in giving to the poor, in relieving the indigent, and in doing good to every one; nevertheless, genuine charity consists in acting prudently, and for the sake of an end to promote good. He who relieves a poor or indigent villain does evil to his neighbor through him, for by the relief which he affords, he confirms him in evil, and supplies him with the opportunity of doing evil to others; it is otherwise with him who gives support to the good."—A, C. 8120.

"The kind of neighbor is according to the kind of good in the man; or, that the neighbor is such as the man is. That all men are not alike the neighbor, is taught in the Lord's parable of the man that was wounded by robbers, where, it is said, that he was the neighbor' who showed mercy on him.' Whoever does not distinguish the neighbor according to the kind of good and truth in the man, may be deceived in a thousand instances, and his charity become confounded, and at length annulled. A man-devil may exclaim, ‘I am the neighbor; do good to me;' and if you do good to him, he may kill you or some other person; for you are placing a knife or sword into his hand. Simpletons act thus. They say that every man is equally the neighbor, and that, therefore, it is of no great importance to examine into the qualities of men. But God regards this as bestowing aid upon evil as a neighbor; and there is no love of the neighbor in acting thus. He who loves the neighbor from genuine charity, inquires what the man is, and at the same time, with the more discreetness, what kind of good will be beneficial to him. Charity, really genuine, is prudent and wise. Other charity is spurious, because it is merely voluntary, or of good, and not, at the same time, intellectual, or of truth."-Doct. of Charity, 21.

Who can fail to perceive the superlative wisdom of these remarks, and who should not draw from them the practical inference that the exercise of true charity to the neighbor is not the easy, off-hand, perfunctory duty that we are often disposed to regard it? It is something more than the mere casual tossing of a sixpence, an old hat, or a loaf of bread to the chance applicant; it is a work that involves self-denial; it is a "labor of love;" it is something that requires a searching out of the true character of the claims presented. By giving indiscriminately to the objects of apparent or even real distress, we may sometimes be in danger of going counter to the purposes of the Divine Providence, and nullifying that stern discipline which the vicious, reckless, and improvident career of many men may have rendered necessary to their reformation. Those who have sown the wind must often be left to reap the whirlwind, as a prelude to the gathering in of an after harvest of peace, joy, and happiness. The spirit of this teaching is not hardness of heart towards our suffering fellow-creatures, but the necessity of scrutiny into causes, and the providing of appropriate remedies.

Although the N. C. Tract and Missionary Society has made no report for the present year, yet its Board of Managers has been by no means idle. A large amount of tracts and pamphlets has been put in circulation during the year past, and scarce a day passes but the mail is freighted more or less with the missives sent abroad by its instrumentality. Its treasury is not yet empty, but still needs replenishing, and as $1 per annum is due from members, we would respectfully suggest to such as are in arrears, that they make their remittances either to the Treasurer, Lyman S. Burnham, Esq., Brooklyn, or The new postto the Editor of the Repository, by whom it will be paid over to Mr. B. age law will be of great advantage to the operations of the Society, as the reduction of rates will have the effect to make the amount contributed go much farther than it would otherwise in accomplishing the ends and uses of the Society.

We are happy to announce that the much-desired and long-expected translation of Swedenborg's Treatise," De Generatione," has been published and received in this country. The translation has been executed by Mr. Wilkinson, whose name alone is a guarantee for the most masterly performance of the task. It is an octavo of 326 pages, and comes at about $2,00. Orders may be addressed to Mr. Clapp or Mr. Allen.

A new and elegant edition of the "Apocalypse Revealed " has recently been issued by the London Printing Society, in two vols., Svo. No copies have as yet, we believe, been received in this country. The same Society has begun, we believe, the printing of the Index to the Arcana as enlarged and improved by Mr. Rich's elaborate revision. We trust the time may come when all the rest of Swedenborg's works shall be furnished with an index on a similar plan. No greater service could be performed for the church.

We learn that M. Le Boys des Guays has been applied to by the American Bible Union to co-operate with them in the preparation of a new English version of the New Testa.. ment, to which, we understand, he has consented. The avails of this undertaking he proposes to devote to the publication of his French translation of the Arcana. From his ripe schol. arship and his prior labors in collecting improved readings and renderings of the Sacred Scripture, we may presume upon a very valuable accession from his pen to the materiel for a new Version.

"The National Magazine, devoted to Literature, Art, Religion," is the title of a new monthly, under the editorial charge of Rev. Abe! Stevens, of the Methodist Connexion, of the plan and execution of which we think so highly, that we have been prompted to vol unteer a laudatory notice without the least communication with editor or publisher. The selections thus far have been truly admirable, the articles being of moderate length, various, and pithy. The disproportionate space given up in Harper to profitless fiction finds no countenance from the example of the National, which manages with singular tact to occupy its pages with matter of equal interest but of more value. And then the illustra tions, executed in beautiful style, and copiously interspersed though every No., contribute Price $2,00 per annum, or 18 3-4 cts. per to give the world assurance of a Magazine.

No. Carlton & Phillips, Publishers, N. Y.

The first No. of the "Journal of Human Nature," edited by the venerable John Isaac Hawkins, has just made its appearance. To be had of New Church booksellers in Boston, New-York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati, and also of the Editor at Rahway, N. J.

Ir may not be at once obvious with what propriety our present 'heading is retained after the concessions we have already made as to the reality and the spiritual origin of the phenomena in question. Pseudo-Spiritualism denotes a spiritualism that is false, and it may be asked how this epithet can apply to an order of occurrences admitted to be from a veritable spiritual source. It would doubtless be less easy to show the congruity of the appellation with the facts on any other ground than on that of the New Church. Guided by the light of that church, we learn that true spiritualism does not consist in dealing with spiritual things as contradistinguished from natural or physical, but in the opening of the spiritual degree of the mind, and in a course of life, thought, and affection accordant with its principles and dictates It is indeed to be admitted that the term spiritual not unfrequently occurs in the former sense, especially when used interchangeably with substantial as distinguished from material. In this sense a man after death is not a natural, but a spiritual man, though still perfectly organized, and having a marked resemblance to the natural man of the flesh. But with men in the natural world translated spirits have no open or sensible communication. They see no longer those of the natural, but those of the spiritual world; and "the reason," says our illumined author, "why they now see the latter, and not the former, is, because they are no longer natural men, but spiritual or substantial; and a spiritual or substantial man sees a spiritual or substantial man, as a natural or material man sees a natural or material man, but not vice versa, on account of the difference

between what is substantial and what is material."-C. L. 31. In another connexion he makes the following distinction: "The reason why such representatives exist in the spiritual world, is because in that world there are spiritual things interior and exterior; interior spiritual things are those that relate to affection, and to thought thence derived, or to the intelligence of truth and the wisdom of good; and exterior spiritual things are so created by the Lord, that they may clothe or invest interior spiritual things, and when these are clothed or invested, then there exists such forms as are in the natu ral world, in which, therefore, interior spiritual things ultimately terminate, and in which they ultimately exist."-A. E. 582. Here it is clear that the term spiritual is applied to denote the substances existing in the spiritual world, in and through which, as representatives and correspondences, interior spiritual principles of thought and affection manifest themselves. This exterior spirituality is of course of a much lower grade than the interior with which it is contrasted.

Now it is in the latter sense--the sense of interior-that the term is dominantly used in the writings of our author; and as our aim is to present a New Church estimate of the general subject, we shall not scruple to quote freely whatever may subserve that end. Nothing is more obvious than that the devotees of these manifestations claim to be spiritualists par excellence, and our purpose is to submit these claims to the test. We shall perhaps find reason in the end to doubt whether those pretensions have any adequate ground to rest upon; which is but saying, in other words, that the application of the term pseudo, false, in this connection, will fully justify itself in the result. The following paragraphs will be seen to be to the point.

"What the spiritual is in respect to the natural, is further to be told in a few words, because the most of those who are in the Christian world, are ignorant what the spiritual is, insomuch that when they hear the expression, they hesitate, and say with themselves that no one knows what spiritual means. The spiritual with man is, in its essence, the very affection of good and truth for the sake of good and truth, and not for the sake of self; also the affection of what is just and equitable for the sake of what is just and equitable, and not for the sake of self; when man from these feels in himself delight and pleasantness, and still more if he feels satisfaction and blessedness, this with him is spiritual, which does not come from the natural world, but from the spiritual, or from heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord. This then, is the spiritual which, when it reigns with man, affects, and, as it were, tinges everything which he thinks, which he wills and which he acts, and causes that the things thought, and from the will acted, partake of the spiritual, until they also at length become spiritual with him, when he passes out of the natural world into the spiritual. In a word, the affection of charity and faith, that is, of good and truth, with the delight and pleasantness, and still more the satisfaction and blessedness thence, which are felt interiorly with man, and make him a truly Christian man, is the spiritual. That most people in the Christian world are ignorant what is meant by the spiritual, is because they make faith the essential of the church, and not charity hence, inasmuch as those few, who are solicitous about faith, think little, if anything, concerning charity, and know little, if anything, what charity is, there is no knowledge, neither is there perception of the affection which is of charity, and he he who is not in the affection of charity, cannot in any wise know what is spiritual; so it is especially at this day, when scarcely any one has charity, because it is the last time of the church. But it is to be known, that the spiritual in the common [or general] sense, signifies the affection both of good and of truth whence heaven is called the spiritual world, and the internal sense of the Word the spiritual sense; but spe