PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 71, 23 February 1932, Page 9

PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY

PALMERSTON NORTH CLUB. At the Y.W.C.A. rooms on Friday evening last an address of absorbing interest on '‘Swedenborg, the Aristotle of the North,” was delivered by Mr J. L. Harwood. The president, Mr Eagle, was in the chair. Emmanuel Swedenborg, the speaker said, was one of those men whose fame increased with time. Born in Sweden in 1688 he died in London 84 years later. Ihiring his long career he wore untarnished the white flower ot a blameless life. As a student he was nothing less than a marvel. He learned the classio languages and knew most of the moderns. He made himself proficient in many different sciences, including mathematics, physics, astronomy, mineralogy, anatomy, engineering, physioligy, geology, chemistry and natural history. Besides this, he was a politician, an economist and a practical student of currency and finance. As a philosopher he wrote seventy-nine separate works on different branches of science. In addition he possessed remarkable inventive powers. He mastered bookbinding, and could bind his own books; he was a skilful engraver; and could also manufacture lenses. He designed a very successful ear trumpet; invented a new stove and worked out plans for the heating of rooms. Then he invented an incipient steam engine and a magazine air gun. Another discovery was-spoken of as a machine by which anyone who did not know music and had the notes could play. What was that but a pianola. He invented a submarine by. which ships could be attacked under water. He made a machine for the manufacture of salt and introduced methods of forking salt springs, the most practical in use. Some idea of the kind of man Swedenborg was could be gathered from the following extracts from Hubbard, Mr Harwood added. “Swedenborg climbed, the mountains with his father, fished in the fiords, collected the mosses on the rocks, and wrote out at length all their amateur discoveries. The boy grew strong in body, lithe of limb, clear of eye, noble and manly. His affection for his parents was perfect. His purity of purpose was sublime and the jewel of lus soul was integrity: At college he stood easily at the head of his class. He reduced calculus to its simplest forms and , made abstractions plain. Even his tutors could not follow him. Once the King’s Actuary was called upon to verify some of his calculations. This brought him to the notice of the King, who was also a mathematician, ana thereafter he was always on easy and familiar terms with. Royalty. The college grind with bulging forehead and small physique is well known in most colleges and serves as the butt of many practical jokes; but no one took liberties with Swedenborg, either m his boyhood or in after life. His countenance was stern, yet not forbidding; his form tall, manly, and muscular; lie was grave, earnest dignified and rebukingly handsome. Thus we find him walking with stately tread through college taking all the honours, looked upon by teachers and professors with a sort of awe, ana pointed out by his fellow students in subdued wonder. His physical strength became a by-word. Yet we do not find he ever exercised it in contests. He was unspoiled by fame. The favour of kings and princes never impaired his modesty., and the recognition of his splendid achievements never excited his vanity.” At the International Swedenborg Congress held in London in 1910 were representatives of all branches of science from every part of the civilised world who vied with one another in extolling Swedenborg as a pioneer in the most heterogeneous spheres, in proving the wonderful accord of his doctrines with the principles and achievements of modern science, the speaker continued. There .were those who regarded him as an illustrious and far-seeing man of science; others who honoured him as a luminous and original philosopher; and others again who looked to him as an enlightened seer and a Heavendirected theologian ; but all agreed that he was a many-sided man and one of the greatest geniuses of all time. It was pointed out that Swedenborg was far ahead of his time and it has remained for our own day to do justice to his memory as one of the greatest among the sons of men. About the year 1734 Swedenborg published a great philosophic work. It is the first volume known as the Principia, which throws most light on the philosophy of Swedenborg whose Instruction is scarcely rivalled in philosophical literature. He tells us that we may have' all that experience and geometry. will tell us without reaching true wisdom. We must have reason- ■ ing. He defines enlightened reason- | ing and tells us to what higher ranges of thought man may sear by its aid. But a man may know all that the world can tell him through his experience, through his intellect, and through his reason, and yet if he does not see that the duty of man is to learn to venerate his Creator he will not be a true philosopher. In masterly language he shows what the end and aim of the philosopher should be and how a man is nothing if he does not recognise and obey the law which commands him to love his neighbour; and that his love of God should be displayed in his desire to benefit his fellow creatures. In other respects the Introduction is a wonderful monument of reverence and .intellectual power. The Principia greatly extended Swedenborg’s fame, for the work was an attempt to explain the occult mysteries of creation. He grappled with the mystery of the making of the visible universe out of the invisible. He anticipated Kant and Laplace in setting forth the nebular theory. The nature of the elements, their different movements and figures and the law of magnetism are successfully described. It is not surprising that Emerson said : ‘You want a colony of, men to understand the Principia,’ which, moreover, was recognised in Swedenborg’s own time as one of the greatest scientific works 1 ever published. It was of the Principia that the Marquis de Thome said : j ‘ln this great work there are more additions to our knowledge of physics, mathematics, astronomy, mechanics, mineralogy, and chemistry than would have sufficed to make tne reputation of more than a few men.’ Wonderful as the Principia is .yet Swedenborg’s ‘Animal Kingdom,’ published ten yeans later, is more wonderful still. In this great work Swedenborg anticipated scientific discoveries in anatomy by more than 170 years. The “Animal Kingdom” would be dealt with later and from it would be deduced Swedenborg’s contributions to psychology, concluded Mr Harwood.