4. SOME MODERN IDEAS
ifthe
NATDRE of the UNIVERSE
Compared with
Swedenborg's
Phtlosophical Conceptions
Address given by
HAROLD GARDINER, M.S., F.R.C.S.,
President of the Swedenborg Society,
At the ANNUAL MEETING, 1935
SWEDENBORG SOCIETY (INcoRPoRATED)
SWEDENBORG HOUSE
HART STREET, LONDON, W.C. 1
1936

6. Some Modern 1deas of the Nature
of the Universe compared with
Swedenborg's Phtlosophical
Conceptions
·WEDENBüRG'S works cover such a vast field
Sthat it would be difficult to find a subject they
would not cover. Theology, Art, and Science,
in all their branches, did not provide too large an
arena in which to exercise his intellectual powers.
1 was tempted to choose the poetry of his writings
as a subject for my address. The wonderful imagery
of his language and descriptions has a truly poetic
mind behind it, and the doctrine of correspondences
is a covering of the very soul of poetry. But my
second thoughts led me to the harder and drier
volumes of the Principia, and 1 propose to compare
sorne modern ideas of the nature of the universe
with Swedenborg's philosophical conceptions.
3

7. The Prineipia is one of a number of scientific
and philosophical works written by Swedenborg
before his spiritual illumination, and it is to be read
and understood exactly as any other scientific or
philosophical work. The inspiration in these works
is not spiritual, but is ·that of a human mind of
exceptional powers of intuition and philosophical
insight, and it is a severe test to expose these
works to the searching light of modern scientific
thought-a light which has been penetrating into
the secrets of nature for two hundred years since
Swedenborg's time, aided by methods and instruments
of precision unknown and inconceivable to his
generation.
The methods and instruments of Science are
essentially those of analysis, and their results depend
entire1y on the accuracy of the instruments and
apparatus available for experiment. In Swedenborg's
days they were crude, and even the ordinary chemical
e1ements had only in part been identified. As
experiment succeeded experiment, and instrumental
accuracy increased, the analyses proceeded more
rapidly, until, at the end of the nineteenth century,
4

8. matter had been resolved into its constituent elements
and the atomic theory of its constitution was regarded
as the last word of science.
This theory explained the structure of matter on
the basis of the atom which was indivisible and
different for each element. The philosophical result
of this theory was represented by the mechanistic
view of the nature of the universe and aU that is in
it, inc1uding man. As everything had been analysed
and reduced to its simplest components, and it was
known how these could be combined to form any
material substance except the most complicated living
forms, it was an easy assumption that it would be
only a question of time before the citadel of life
itself would be stormed, and scientists flattered them-
selves that the time was not far distant when their
analyses and syntheses would cover the whole of
creation. Those were the days when Huxley and
Haeckel thundered forth their mechanistic and
materialistic theories, and refused to listen to any
opposing evidence that could not be measured and
weighed in the laboratory. 1t appeared to be the
triumph of the scales and the measuring-rod. It is
5

9. _easy to criticise these men and to condemn scientists
for refusing to admit any evidence that cannot be
tested by their own apparatus, but it must be
remembered that natural science is essentially the
study of those things that can be measured and tested
in the laboratory, and it is only natural that men
engaged in such work should push these methods
to their limit. Therein lies their strength and their
weakness. Strength in their determined pursuit of
scientific facts, and weakness in their inability to
admit the validity or even existence of realities outside
the boundaries of the laboratory.
But there have always been men of science-­
and Swedenborg was one of them-who recognise
that there is a wider field of investigation than that
bounded by mechanical apparatus.
The man whose brain takes no cognizance of
things other than those that can be demonstrated
and analysed by mechanical means, becomes as lifeless
as the instruments he uses. Swedenborg's brain
was not one of those. -Throughout his scientific
writings the spirit of life can be seen inspirlng aH
his-thoughts and" theories. He never shirkeëf a fact:""
----.- -- - - --~--
6

10. but his originality lay in his interpretation of them
and in his wonderful power of induction, so that
he was for ever seeking the cause, and always a
living cause, of the facts he observed and knew.
This is shown in a very marked way in his Principia.
This work was written in 1734. It was an
ambitious work-aiming at a philosophical inter­
pretation of the origin and structure of the material
universe. The method employed was that of pure
induction and reasoning, and the result cannot be
described as "light reading," but is remarkable
enough to repay close study by any who are interested
in the mysteries of the natural world into which we
are born and in which we have to live. What, then,
do we find in the Principia? We find, first of
aIl, that Swedenborg's mind was working in a
geometrical groove. He starts with the premise
that geometry is the fundamental science. His next
assumption is that change cannot occur without
movement. As movement is therefore the under­
lying cause of aIl change, in tracing back the world's
history to its origins we must determine w.haL.i§
~he pure~t and simplest f_orm _of mov~ment or ~o~ion.
7

11. Swedenborg arrives at the conc1usion that this purest
motion is that of a spiral. This has no beginning
and no end, and inc1udes aIl other movements in
itse1f. So far, so good-but the next step is to
determine the nature of the primary and most elemental
thing that is moved or moves in this way. The
difficulty we are up against is that what we are
considering is the first e1emental form in which
matter is produced. It therefore cannot have any
dimensions such as we associate with a material
partic1e, for otherwise, however smaIl, it would be
divisible into something smaller. Swedenborg gets
over the difficulty by assuming that it is a point.
Now a point is that which has position but no
magnitude. 1t therefore occupies no space. It cal?­
only occupy space by moving. We are therefore
a~ke~·Cto imagine something- which has no size but
moves and so occupies or circumscribes space. At
first such a conception seems an impossible one,
but we are on the horns of a dilemma, because any
other conception is apparently equally impossible
and fulfils even less adequate1y the requirements of
logical thought.
8

12. -- -----
Let us accept this conception and follow it
logically. In the first place, movement of any kind
implies force. So we are led to conceive of a force
causing motion in something which has position but
no magnitude. It looks, therefore, as though we
have to conceive of force or motion as being the sole
primary entity, and to dissociate it in our minds
from any material particle in the ordinary sense of
the word. Swedenborg describes this primary
elemental force as a " conatus," or as we might say,
an urge to motion and, as has been seen, to motion
in _a pure spiral form.
Swedenborg's next step is to trace the effects of
such pure motion, and he argues that if the centre
of gravity of his moving spiral is not absolutely
central the whole spiral will tend to describe a further
spiral, and in this way will impinge upon other
(' similar spirals. He thetefore conceives of sorne of
these spirals being forced together in sorne places
)
'-- and being perfectly free to move in others. He
thus gets two conditions of spirals, one where they
are compressed and closely packed, and others, where
they are free to move. The former he caUs finites,
9

13. 1
and the latter actives. He then works through four
or five successive similar changes, calling the products
of the changes second, third, fourth and fifth finites
-each of which has its corresponding active which
moulds and fashions it. It is impossible to go into
any detail in a short address, but the ultimate result
is that matter as we know it in aU its forms is traced
by these various stages of finites and actives back
to the original pure spiral motion.
Other philosophers such as Leibnitz and Descartes
had conceived similar ideas before Swedenborg, but
the records 1 have been able to trace show that aU
philosophers other than Swedenborg conceived of
sorne primaI physical particle which was moved by
) sorne external force, and that Swedenborg was the
first to conceive of the particle itself as containing
within it pure motion, and in fact consisting of pure
(
, motion or force. Swedenborg's theory, therefore,
describes the origin of matter as force, and he describes- -~. __-./
how, if points of force move with sufficient rapidity
they will produce aU the qualities of what we know
as _solid -ma~ter. - Such a theory is as far removèd
from the mechanistic theories of the late nineteenth
10

14. century as could weIl be imagined, and stood no
chance of gaining a sympathetic hearing from the
scientists of those days. But in 19II a discovery
was made which completely revolutionised scientific
thought and opened up lines of research which have
continued with increasing range ever since.. This
was the discovery by Lord Rutherford that atoms
were not the solid and indivisible entities· imagined,
but consisted of electrically- charged-particles.-PiO­
fessor Eddington describes it as the most far-reaching
discovery since the days of Democritus. It was
found that atoms consisted of two forms of such
particles, one a positively charged particle called a
proton, and the other a negatively charged particle
called an electron. The differences in the properties
of the atoms are due to the varying number of
protons and electrons forming them. The electrons
are found'to revolve r<:.und· the protons very much
as the planets revolve round the sun. These particles .
are so small that if the atom were the size of the
earth the electrons might be represented by half a
dozen tennis balls travelling with an unimaginable
velocity within its boundaries. This discovery has
II

15. replaced the old idea of atomic soliditYby a conception
of particles of electrical charges of the most minute
size travelling at enormous speed with comparatively
vast distances separating them. It is difficult, at
first, to c0!.lceive_ how matter com~o~ed in this way
can give the sense of soliditY commonly associated
with it, but soliditYis after all only a sense of resistance,
and if the points of force move with sufficient speed,
as they are known to do, they will be felt as a uniform
and continuous resistance and so give the feeling
of soliditY. Very little of the nature of these electrons
and protons has as yet been discovered, but nothing
other than an electrical charge has been found in
them. They seem, therefore, to_sonsist solely~f
poin!s <:?f Jo!ce-electrical force.
No conception more at variance with the old
materialistic atomic theory could well be imagined.
Matter has definitely been dethroned and force
recognised as the ultimate reality. Just as Science,
using its own methods, arrived at an analysis of
matter into force, so did Swedenborg two hundred
years ago, by using his methods of pure reasoning
a;:d induction arrive at the conclusion, not, as other
12

16. - -- - - -
philosophers, that matter was composed of sorne
primaI particle moved by an external force, but that
this ens or beginning of things was force itself.
Moreover, Swedenborg saw the necessity for two
forms of this-he called them actives and finîtes.
Do not modern scientists calI them protons and
( electrons ?
Modern methods led scientists .to adopt the
. conception that these revolve about each other as
the planets revolve round ·thê- sun:-aficr,-altIiough
sorne doubt has been cast on the validityof this
conception, no other has supplanted it. One of
Swedenborg's boldest generalisations is that Nature
is similarin large things as in small, and, therefore,
that the motions of the smallest particles are.~similar
to those of the planetary systems.
But it will be remembered that Swedenborg's
theory as expounded in the Principia, involves
a whole series of these finites and actives,""=""each
bec<2ming p~!~r and, as it were,_ more refined until
the first finite is reached.
Where exactly in his series the proton and electron
stage lies is, as yet, impossible to determine;-but
13

17. it must be very late-possibly the fourth~ fif.th
finite and active._.'
Now these, according to his theory, are composed
of and derived from the pre-existing and even more
minute actives and finites of the preceding orders.
What has science to say that has any bearing on this ?
Very little, but in a work by Frank A~en it is stated
that "mass, i.e., of the eleciron, is made up of
1 exceedingly small particles, all of the same kind and
very sIp.~ll_ compared with even_ an electron, and that1 _ _ _
these particles move with the velocity of light, and
that when these particles are so moving they might
be thrown into loops, i.e., into closed cü~ves without
beginning or end." Whether or not these closed
curves without beginning or end are spiral is not
stated, but it is difficuit to imagine what other form
such a curve can take.
To go now a step further, let us consider the
space, which 1 have already described as being
enormous cornpared with the size of the electrons,
that lies between these. Swed~nborg describes t~e
whole of space as being ~lled with finites and actives
of sorne deg:ee _or other. Thài-between the firth
14

18. finites and actives is occupied by those of the fourth
degree and between these those of the third and so.
on until we arrive back at ~he all pervading first
point of f~rce-.~Scienc-e has been trying to -explore
, thls region and, as it -;as r~cognised that sorne
. ~-.---.
( medium was necessary in order to carry the electncal
-~
, forces through space so that they cotild react on one
another, an ether was postulated. The idea of such
an ether that was completely elastic and very dense
held the field until recent years, when a great contro-
versy arose as to its real existence. Doubts as to
the validity of the conception of such an ether arose
when Einstein developed his Theory of Relativity
and fourth dimensional ~space "was seriously studied.
Researchers into this advanced mathematical realm
proposed what they called the fourth dimensional
. continuum as a substitute for the ether, but th_e
difference is largely~~~of t~~ms, and Swedenborg's
! explanation of this intervening space has yet to be
i disproved. Modern science talks of electrical force
and does not know what it is. An atom or unit of- - - _._--
matter has been proved to consist of centres of
electrical force and nothing more. Is it not possible
15

19. that these units of electrical force may themselves
be formed as the result of interactions of an even
" more refined force, and may be points of interaction
) or condensation, as it were, in a sphere composed
1 of potencies which are undetectable by present
laboratory instruments ?
If, therefore, the fift~ and sixt~nites and actives
of S'Yed~I)!>~rg are the protons and electrons, may
not his third and fourth be the ether? 1t is interesting
to note that Swedenborg emphasizes perfect elasticity
as being the property of these finites.
What else has science to say as to the nature of
these electrons and protons? They are generally
11
regarded as behaving sometimes like particles and
J sometimes like waves, and are accompanied and
surrounded by an electro-magnetic field of force.
This suggests that magnetic force is the first of aIl
forces acting on material substance and that other
forces are modifications of this. Swedenborg, in
the second part of the Principia, concentrates on
this magnetic prop~rty of matter and regards it as
the primary result of the interaction of the _~ctives
and finites. He therefore argued that in a mag!J.éc
16

20. field lay the inception of aIl other forces known
to science-a view that has smce been proved
correct.
Professor J. J. Thomson states that the mass
of an electron is entirely electric, and that the electric
mass .is considered to be diffused throughout the
sp~ surrounding the electron with a concentration
which increases toward its centres, becoming very
great close up to it. This electric force shows itself
as an el~ctro-magnetic fie~d, and the description 1
have just quoted coincides very closely with Sweden­
borg's theory of the relation of the magnetic fields
to the finites from which they are derived.
A more exhaustive comparison between the con­
( ceptions of modern science and those of Swedenborg
J with regard to the structure of the atom cannot be
made, chiefly because there are insufficien~ata
provided by scie~ce.
With regard to the latter parts of the Principia,
which deal with the birth of the solar systems, 1
have come across no _~ore modern theory t~an_ .the
nebular hypothesis which Swedenborg was the first
to propound. But if we study modern conceptions
17

21. - -------
of the universe as a whole, i.e., proceed in the opposite
direction from the study of the minute to the study
of the gigantic, we come at once to Einstein's
Theory of Relativity. 1 do not propose to try to
explain this to you, but there are one or two points
in this theory of very great interest to students of
Swedenborg.
In the first place we have to realise that modern
conceptions of the universe are entire1y mathematical.
In the old days it seemed quite easy to imagine the
solar system as a number of planets revolving round
the sun and to expand this to a conception of our
local universe revolving round a fixed point like the
Polar star, and to continue this conception in a rather
vague way until 1 suppose most of us imagined the
whole created universe as a system of whee1s within
whee1s, as it were, rotating round themse1ves and
round each other. The difficulty is, however, that~- - -. - - _._- -­this involves sorne fixed point relative to which such
moti~ cap. be_d~~~rmi~ed and apparently th~~
no sQch fixed point, so that we are left literally and
fi~rative1y verymuch in the air. It is the old story
of the man travelling by express train to Edinburgh.
18

22. rIt seems perfectly clear to him that Edinburgh stays
where it is and he moves toward it, but when
absolute motion is considered it is just as possible
" that he is stationary and Edinburgh is moving to
! him. In order, therefore, to get as absolute a con­
ception of the universe as possible, it is necessary
---.to take aU this into consideration. The elementary
mathematics that are sufficient to explain our own
little domestic planetary system fail when we go out
into the world. The mathematics necessary to get
our bearings in that adventure are very complicated
but it is not difficult to understand that such a form
of mathematics is necessary. Swedenborg came to
the conclusion that the science of geometry was
the basis on which aH others were built, and it is
clear that geometry can only be understood and
explained by mathematics-a rather wonderful
example of Swedenborg's inductive powers. But
where does this higher mathematics try to lead us ?
The answer is, to fourth dimensional space. 1 am
not going to attempt to explain this here but it
involves the amalgamation of space as we know it
with time.
19

23. l t is clear that our conception of time must
disappear when considering the universe as a whole.
Time and motion are inextricably mingled, and we
have s~en -that -motion -IS -entirely relative - we
know nothing of absolute- motion and so we can have
no means of estimating absolute time. Time, as we
know it, is purely a local matter, or at least its
measurement is.
Now it has been shown that if, as we have been
trying to do, weget away from the local manifestation
of time in our solar system and see how it behaves,
as it were, when applied to the whole universe, we
find that ~e and space ~?_~cg~~ in~x!ricab!y_~er­
~!ngl~~, and it is the addition of time as anotner
dimension to our three dimensional world that takes
us into fourth dimensional space.
l t is this world that Einstein and other mathe­
maticians have been exploring, and one iilteresting
result has been that whereas this abstract conception
of time cannot be measured by docks and watches,
it can be measured, or at any rate indicated, by
studying the changes that take place in the behaviour
of the electrical forces of which the universe is
20

24. --
i
composed. In other words, this involves measurement
not by days, weeks, or years, but by changes of state.
Another result of the study of fourth dimensional
space is that events and objects in our three dimensional
world are regarded as the manifestation of changes
of entities in the fourth dimensional world.
By this brief examination of modern physical
and mathematical science l have tried to show what
a remarkable change has been wrought during the
last twenty odd years, and how these changes, founded
. on accurate scientific observation, confirmin many
! ways the philosophy contained in Swedenborg's
( Principia. We are accustomed to regard Swedenborg's
inspired works as unique because they were written
( after his spiritual sight had been opened. His
scientitic_woxks w~re WJittep. È~fore this Jl~E~ned,
..., an,! Y'e!-we J!ng th!l!.._.they__show an)n~jght int~t~e
realm of natural philosophy that stamps his mind
1 with th~ origi~ality~true genius. Evffiin those
~ days he would not ~l1ow hisinductions to be influenced
by the theories of others. He h3:~ the ~trength of
purpose to 'put in writi~g the__r:esults of his own
reasoning powers, and how great these were I have
~
21

25. ---- -- - - -
tried to show. That any man in those days couid
have evolved a conception of the universe and its
origins ~y pure induction, so clo~ely_~esemblin~_~he
re~ults of mod~r!l .scientific invest~~~!i.?n, is a proof,
if any were needed, of his outstanding genius.
Swedenborg has nothing to say in the Principia
of the fourth dimension. But it is a truly remarkable
result of modern thought that Science to-day, in
(trying to reach the absolute, ha~ arrived at the
conclusion that time can only be r~~k~nedas a
change of state, and that the three - diniensionai
world is only a man:ifestation of activityin another
, - -- --- - - - ­
i world which they _c~lljourth dimensional. 1t appears
1 that scientists are now discarding the dead matter
of which the world is composed as the ultimate
reality-showing that it is only a manifestation of
force, and the further they advance the more potent
and abstract does this force become.
Lord Rutherford gave scientists the key to this
world-the world which was described by Swedenborg,
and who knows but that the time will come when
----- -_.
~l!ey will realise that Swedenborg two hundred years
ag~ ga~tÈem the other key, that ofthe-science of
22

26. correspondences which will open the last door leading
to an- under~tanding of--ihe- spirliuàî ~rigin-5>f the
uni:ver~e-aknowledge which- will -êorrelate the results
of his spiritual inspiration with those of their natural
philosophy.
23

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