can only believe in the teachings of the Word as matters of faith. By receiving this evidence they become things of experience; the blind sees; the believer knows; doubt is swallowed up in certainty. Just as consciousness is the only and sufficient proof that we exist, so this new consciousness is the sure testimony that God is, and that the Word is true, and that regeneration is a fact as glorious as it is necessary. The child lives a new life from the Lord, and the joy of the mother is full. J. H. (To be continued.) MEMOIR OF M. LE BOYS DES GUAYS.* BY M. HARLE'. (TRANSLATION.) "J. F. Etienne Le Boys des Guays was born at Chatillon-sur-Loing (Loiret), on the 18th of October, 1794. His family had for a long period belonged to the magistracy. His grandfather, special Lieutenant to the Bailiwick and Court of Appeal of Montargis, was Deputy from that town at the National Assembly of 1789, and discharged under the Empire the functions of Procurator-General. His father had served in the Body Guard of Louis XVI. "After having served in the last campaigns of the Empire, M. Le Boys des Guays studied law at Paris, and entered himself, in 1823, on the roll of the Advocates of the Court Royal. He devoted himself specially to the study of Roman law; and published in 1826, in the second part of the Themis, a dessertation on the Furtum Prohibitum, according to the law of the Twelve Tables. In 1827 he was appointed Judge to the Civil Tribunal of Saint Amand (Cher); but retired from * A letter from M. Harlé, announcing the sudden death of this devoted and eminent labourer in the cause of the Lord's New Church, at Saint Amand, on the 18th December, was printed on a slip, and circulated with our last number, the commnnication having been received too late for insertion in the body of the Magazine. Knowing M. Harlé to be the intimate friend and collaborateur of M. Le Boys, we requested him to write a memoir of him for the Repository. This he kindly undertook to do, and the present communication is the first instalment of his article. In an accompanying note, M. Harlé mentions that the leading subject of the next part will be the state of the work published and unpublished by our friend. He adds, in reference to a letter we had sent him, "I translated to Madame Le Boys your message, and the expressions of sympathy from the President of the Conference." 82 MEMOIR OF M. LE BOYS DES GUAYS. the magistracy some years after. From the year 1838 he devoted himself entirely to the propagation of the doctrines of the New Jerusalem, or New Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, by translating from the Latin into French, and publishing at his own expense, and with the aid of some generous friends, the writings of Swedenborg." Such are the summary indications of his personal history, supplied by Le Boys des Guays himself to a Biographical Collection, in which this short notice appears as an introduction to the list of his publications concerning the New Jerusalem up to 1859. In supplying this information, our friend had particularly in view the rectification of several inaccurate statements respecting himself which appeared in another biographical work. Having lost his mother in his infancy, he was brought up under the care of his grandmother. Although he was then feeble in constitution, he soon gave signs of moral energy. When, at the end of the Empire, the great levies of men were made, a means of ameliorating the conditions of the military service was to anticipate the call. It was with this view that, just come from college, the young Le Boys des Guays entered the cavalry as a volunteer, and went through the campaign of Leipzig, taking part in a series of cavalry charges which occupied a whole day in the great battle that terminated on the 18th October, 1814; the very day on which he completed his eighteenth year. He was there wounded in the wrist. The following year, attached as secretary to a young colonel, he was present at and witnessed the battle of Waterloo. From his military experience, he retained a feeling of indignation against the abuses of power exercised upon defenceless populations, and of astonishment at having seen certain men of exemplary bravery appear to forget every other moral quality. After the study of the law and his call to the bar, M. Le Boys des Guays was appointed judge at Saint Amand, and there married Mdlle. Clothilde Rollet, granddaughter of a judge, M. Tabouet, whose seat in the tribunal, now vacant by his resignation, was the very one which the new and youthful magistrate was about to occupy. Subsequently to the revolution of 1830, at the request of his fellowcitizens of Saint Amand, M. Le Boys des Guays was appointed subpréfet of the arrondissement of which that is the chief town; but when ministerial orders arrived, tending to impose on him an intervention in the elections, which was contrary to his opinions, he tendered his resignation, and returned definitively into private life, giving play to his activity by editing a work on law hitherto unpublished. MEMOIR OF M. LE BOYS DES GUAYS. 83 It was under these circumstances that his attention was called to an order of facts of which until then he had had no opportunity of acquiring a knowledge. Strange things were related of a little herd boy, a deserted child, who was employed to take care of the swine upon a farm belonging to the Rollet family-facts indicating vision independent of material obstacles—in a word, perceptions of the same kind as the adepts in magnetism, according to their writings, professed to elicit by their operations. Astonished by those facts, M. Le Boys des Guays took the child, procured for himself the most celebrated works upon magnetism, experimented on his subject, and obtained results not only confirmatory of the facts advanced by the magnetisers at that time, but even surpassing them. Thereupon, disposed to enter with ardour into the contest in favour of the progress of light, he went to Paris with Madame Le Boys and the child, whom he proposed to present to the learned bodies. At Paris, M. and Mdme. Le Boys made the acquaintance of a gentleman with whom they had engaged in conversation upon the subject of their visit. This gentleman showed himself to be quite familiar with phenomena of the same kind, and mentioned that he would make them acquainted with works in which they would find these facts explained, with many other things still more surprising. He gave them, in fact, the treatise on Heaven and Hell, and some other works of Swedenborg's. M. Le Boys devoured these books, charmed with the light and with the explanations which he found in them. He hastened to procure the whole collection of them, such as it then existed; but judging that those explanations which he obtained would not be to the taste of the learned bodies, he returned to Saint Amand with his subject, on whom he at first pursued his confirmatory experiments, whilst he gave himself up to the study of his new treasure. Very soon, however, enlightened by experience, and above all, by the valuable instruction of Swedenborg as to the dangers of calling forth spiritual communications, he relinquished this pursuit entirely, and devoted himself exclusively to the rational study of the doctrines of Swedenborg. (To be continued.) 82 MEMOIR OF M. LE BOYS DES GUAYS. the magistracy some years after. From the year 1838 he devoted himself entirely to the propagation of the doctrines of the New Jerusalem, or New Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, by translating from the Latin into French, and publishing at his own expense, and with the aid of some generous friends, the writings of Swedenborg." Such are the summary indications of his personal history, supplied by Le Boys des Guays himself to a Biographical Collection, in which this short notice appears as an introduction to the list of his publications concerning the New Jerusalem up to 1859. In supplying this information, our friend had particularly in view the rectification of several inaccurate statements respecting himself which appeared in another biographical work. Having lost his mother in his infancy, he was brought up under the care of his grandmother. Although he was then feeble in constitution, he soon gave signs of moral energy. When, at the end of the Empire, the great levies of men were made, a means of ameliorating the conditions of the military service was to anticipate the call. It was with this view that, just come from college, the young Le Boys des Guays entered the cavalry as a volunteer, and went through the campaign of Leipzig, taking part in a series of cavalry charges which occupied a whole day in the great battle that terminated on the 18th October, 1814; the very day on which he completed his eighteenth year. He was there wounded in the wrist. The following year, attached as secretary to a young colonel, he was present at and witnessed the battle of Waterloo. From his military experience, he retained a feeling of indignation against the abuses of power exercised upon defenceless populations, and of astonishment at having seen certain men of exemplary bravery appear to forget every other moral quality. After the study of the law and his call to the bar, M. Le Boys des Guays was appointed judge at Saint Amand, and there married Mdlle. Clothilde Rollet, granddaughter of a judge, M. Tabouet, whose seat in the tribunal, now vacant by his resignation, was the very one which the new and youthful magistrate was about to occupy. Subsequently to the revolution of 1830, at the request of his fellowcitizens of Saint Amand, M. Le Boys des Guays was appointed subpréfet of the arrondissement of which that is the chief town; but when ministerial orders arrived, tending to impose on him an intervention in the elections, which was contrary to his opinions, he tendered his resignation, and returned definitively into private life, giving play to his activity by editing a work on law hitherto unpublished. MEMOIR OF M. LE BOYS DES GUAYS. 83 It was under these circumstances that his attention was called to an order of facts of which until then he had had no opportunity of acquiring a knowledge. Strange things were related of a little herd boy, a deserted child, who was employed to take care of the swine upon a farm belonging to the Rollet family-facts indicating vision independent of material obstacles—in a word, perceptions of the same kind as the adepts in magnetism, according to their writings, professed to elicit by their operations. Astonished by those facts, M. Le Boys des Guays took the child, procured for himself the most celebrated works upon magnetism, experimented on his subject, and obtained results not only confirmatory of the facts advanced by the magnetisers at that time, but even surpassing them. Thereupon, disposed to enter with ardour into the contest in favour of the progress of light, he went to Paris with Madame Le Boys and the child, whom he proposed to present to the learned bodies. At Paris, M. and Mdme. Le Boys made the acquaintance of a gentleman with whom they had engaged in conversation upon the subject of their visit. This gentleman showed himself to be quite familiar with phenomena of the same kind, and mentioned that he would make them acquainted with works in which they would find these facts explained, with many other things still more surprising. He gave them, in fact, the treatise on Heaven and Hell, and some other works of Swedenborg's. M. Le Boys devoured these books, charmed with the light and with the explanations which he found in them. He hastened to procure the whole collection of them, such as it then existed; but judging that those explanations which he obtained would not be to the taste of the learned bodies, he returned to Saint Amand with his subject, on whom he at first pursued his confirmatory experiments, whilst he gave himself up to the study of his new treasure. Very soon, however, enlightened by experience, and above all, by the valuable instruction of Swedenborg as to the dangers of calling forth spiritual communications, he relinquished this pursuit entirely, and devoted himself exclusively to the rational study of the doctrines of Swedenborg. (To be continued.) |