to be the only God of heaven and earth." Thus he lived and died in the faith. The writer of this account had many proofs of his firm attachment to the writings of the Hon. E. Swedenborg, and has heard several with whom he had much dealing in worldly business, and who were entirely opposed to his religious principles, say of him, that he was a good and just man. He was led to enquire into the New Church doctrines through the instrumentality of a Mr. Davis, who about 20 or 25 years ago, used to travel from town to town in the neighbourhood, selling books or tracts in relation to the New Jerusalem Church. T.B. Agreeably to a request in the American Magazine, we insert the following: DIED of the dropsy at Frankford, near Philadelphia, on Sunday evening, a few minutes before 8 o'clock, June 12, 1842, at the residence of her brother, James Seddon, pastor of the New Jerusalem Society at Frankford, Miss MARY SEDDON, aged 37. The deceased was the daughter of the late Thomas Seddon, minister of the New Jerusalem Church, Lancashire, England; and of course she was born and educated in the doctrines. Her zeal and activity whilst with us cannot be surpassed. As a sister, she was the most affectionate, always studying to promote the happiness of her relatives; as a neighbour, she was kind and obliging; and as a friend the most sincere. She was possessed of a truly amiable disposition; self with her was entirely dis pensed with, and the happiness of others was her happiness. She was remarkable for her disposition to obey, having formed a resolution whilst young to obey her parents; nor did she deviate, but kept her resolution with firmness. She was beloved by a large circle of friends, and highly esteemed by all who knew her. She was one of those, "Known but to love, Ne'er mentioned but to praise." She was afflicted with her disorder four years, yet she never repined; her prayer was "thy will be done." She loved to attend public worship, nor would she be absent unless her sufferings were such as to render it impossible; she was only absent three Sabbaths immediately previous to her decease. Her life was one of piety and usefulness, and she bore her sickness with a spirit and fortitude, that is seldom if ever witnessed; her death she looked upon with composure, viewing it as a continuation of her life in a happier sphere. The church to which she was attached has lost one of her brightest ornaments; and to us who have been acquainted with her, there seems to be a loss that can never be repaired; but we may rest assured, as she would often say, that after her decease, she would still be present with us, her mode of existence only being changed, and to those whose state is congenial with hers, she is more than ever present. She has only left us, of this lower sphere, to take her part in the formation of the New Heavens. THE INTELLECTUAL REPOSITORY AND New Jerusalem Magazine. N° 34.-OCTOBER, 1842. ON COLOURS AND THEIR SYMBOLICAL MEANING. In the writings of Swedenborg we learn that colours, as well as all other objects and phenomena in nature are symbolical, that is, are representative of spiritual things, of states of affection and thought existing in the minds of spirits and of men. Nature is thus, as it were, a theatre, on which the objects and phenomena of the Lord's kingdom, as it exists in the spiritual world, are represented; so much so, that there is not a single particular in nature, that does not symbolize and represent something spiritual and divine, or their opposites. Now as colours are phenomena, which universally appear in nature, and as they are often mentioned in the Word of God, it becomes a subject of great importance and utility to study their symbolical or spiritual meaning; since such knowledge tends to elevate the mind to a perception of the real nature of things, and greatly to edify it in the rational discernment of what is spiritual and divine in God's Holy Word. Hence Swedenborg says, that most beautiful colours appear in the other life (A. C. 1053); that colours in the other life are from the modification of light and shade there, and the variegation thereof in things white and black (4. C. 3993); and that they are modifications of intelligence and wisdom (A. C. 4530, 4922). He also shews their origin and their correspondence. It would appear, that mankind, in every age, have had some perception of the symbolical meaning of colours; but in the primeval ages these perceptions were luminous and elevating; in later ages, however, very indistinct and obscure. The time has now come when these perceptions can be again restored, since the genuine theology and sacred philosophy of the New Church have shewn, from the science of correspondences, the symbolical or spiritual meaning of these interesting phenomena. We have been led to these remarks by an able work, which has lately come to hand, entitled Des Couleurs Symboliques," by the learned * Des Couleurs Symboliques dans l'Antiquité, le Moyen-age, et les Temps Modernes; par Frédéric Portal. Paris. Treuttel et Würtz. NEW SERIES. NO. 34.-VOL. 3. 3 A M. Frederic Portal, who, after having given an historical sketch of the symbolical meaning of colours, together with the principles on which that meaning is founded, proceeds to develop the symbolical signification of white, of yellow, of red, blue, black, green, &c., from three points of view; first, from the employment of these colours in the divine language, or in relation to the deity; secondly, in the use of them in what he calls the sacred language, or in relation to the religious rites and ceremonies, and to the costumes of the priesthood; and thirdly, in the profane language, or as the symbolical meaning may be traced in the mythologies of the ancient world, and in the customs and expressions of various nations and languages of the present day. The work is extremely interesting and useful, and is a valuable addition to those means by which the cause of genuine truth can be promoted in the world; and we doubt not, that ere long, some literary friend will present a translation of it entire to the English reader. Meanwhile, we shall take the liberty to present certain portions of it in our periodical; and first, from the historical sketch with which the work commences. "The history, says M. Portal, of symbolical colours, which is still unknown, and of which I only offer a few fragments, may probably serve to decypher the hieroglyphics of Egypt, and to unveil a part of the mysteries of antiquity. I do not flatter myself to have obtained the object in these researches; my only ambition has been to fix the attention of the learned on this point, which has been the most neglected, although one of the most curious in archæology, or the science of antiquities. Colours had the same signification amongst all the people of high antiquity: this conformity indicates a common origin, which attaches itself to the cradle of the human race, and finds its greatest energy, or active life, in the religion of Persia; the dualism of light and darkness offers, indeed, the two types of the colours, which became the symbols of the two principles, the benevolent and malevolent. The ancients only admitted two primitive colours-white and black, from which all others were derived; in like manner, the divinities of paganism were the emanations from the good and the evil principle. The language of colours, which is intimately connected with religion, passed from India, China, Egypt, and Greece to Rome; it was again revived in the middle ages; and the painted windows of the Gothic cathedrals find their explication in the books of the Zend, the Vedas, and the paintings in Egyptian temples. The identity of the symbols supposes the identity of the primitive creeds. In proportion as a religion is removed from its principle, it degrades and materializes itself; it forgets the signification of colours, and this mysterious language reappears with the restoration of religious truth. The higher we ascend towards the origin of religious dispensations, truth appears more divested of the impure dross of human superstitions; it shines with a more brilliant splendour in Iran [or the eastern part of Persia], the country of the first men. "The Iranians, according to Mohsen Fany, firmly believed that one supreme God had created the world by an act of his power, and that his providence continually governed it. They professed to believe in him, to love him, and piously to worship him; to honour their parents and aged persons. They had a fraternal affection for the whole human race, and even for animals they cherished a compassionate tenderness.* The worship of the heavenly host (the luminaries of heaven), sabeism, gradually obscured these sublime doctrines without annihilating them; and they were preserved in the Desatir and the Zent Avesta ; and if the truth was hidden from the eyes of the profane, it is again found under the symbols of these sacred books. The older a religion becomes, the more it materializes itself; it becomes gradually worse until it arrives at feticism; the religion of the negroes is the last expression of the dogmas of Ethiopia and Egypt.† Already in the times of Moses the Egyptian religion shewed all the elements of decay and dissolution: the symbol had become God; the truth, forgotten by the people, was banished into the sanctuaries, and soon the priests themselves were to lose the signification of their sacred language. These principles may be applied to India and to its degenerate brahmins, to China and to its disgraceful priests, to all the various kinds of perverted worship, and to those Jews who sacrificed to the idols of strange gods. This fatal law of humanity (the tendency to degradation and ruin) explains the necessity of successive revelations; the Mosaic dispensation and Christianity are divine by the single fact that the intervention of the Deity was necessary and indispensable. How indeed shall we reconcile this tendency in every people to materialize its worship with the progressive march of human nature in religious spiritualism (or, in becoming spiritually minded)? * Dabiston et les Recherches Asiatiques: Traduction, Tom. 2, p. 98. The gods of the Egyptians, of the Phenicians, of the Canaanites, &c. were, like those of the negroes, small idols, called Ptha, Phetic, Phateiq, of which the Greeks made the name of pataiques, and which are preserved without alteration amongst the negroes, and are the same exactly as their word fetique, or fetich (Cours de Gebelin, Monde primitif, tom. 8). The ancient religion of Iran was forgotten; its sacred symbols, the light, the sun, the planets were deified. It was at this epoch when this revolution was accomplished, that Abraham left Chaldea and restored the truth which was ready to expire. The priesthood still preserved the depository of divine knowledges in Egypt and in India ; but the people remained in ignorance; polytheism enveloped the earth in dismal shades, and God then revealed himself in the vocation of the patriarch, and commenced the popularity of religion (or the spreading of it among the people) by the social element, and from family to family. This irresistible tendency in human nature brought the Jews, captive in Egypt, to idolatry. Moses appeared, and the truth was spread among the people; and the chosen people, scarcely delivered from vain superstitions, fell back into its lethargy, and in the desert sacrificed to the calf Apis. In the land of Israel the people trampled under foot the holy law, became divided, and invoked the bloody deities of the barbarians. But the Eternal will not abandon the work of regeneration; the prophetic (or typical) people had accomplished its mission, the era of humanity commenced, and the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, called all the nations to the banquet of life. In this manner the fall of the first man is reflected in the history of every people; this fatal consequence establishes the universal doctrine of the fall, as well as the restoration of mankind by divine intervention. The first chapters of Genesis consecrate this truth, and the voice of the prophets proclaimed it in Israel. But it was not the Hebrew people alone who raised their prayers and their hopes towards the Eternal; Persia, India, China, Egypt, Greece, and Rome expected the Saviour of the world. Do not call me the Saint, said Confucius to his disciples; the Saint is in the west; and it was from the east that the Magi, and those messengers of the emperor Ming Ti came, who carried back from India the worship of the god Fo.* Now Dupuis and Volney mention these oriental traditions and attribute them to the worship of the sun, forgetting, no doubt, that this luminary rises in the east, and that the Saint should appear in the west. The incarnation of the Indian divinity was borrowed from Christianity. I admit it; but if it were true, as science has established, that the sacred books of India are anterior to our era, would not the mythos, or the allegory, of Krichna be one of the most astonishing prophecies? Egypt claimed the same dogmas and engraved them on the temples *See Memoirs concerning the Chinese, tom. 5, p. 59. |