Well, then, might Swedenborg disclaim the authorship of the ideas in the Apocalypse Revealed, and ask: “What man can draw such things from himself?” Those who tell us that Swedenborg was self-deceived, must either know very little of what they speak about, or must be quite as ignorant of the capacity of the human mind and its powers of invention. For ourselves, we could as readily believe that Swedenborg created the world, as we could believe that the spiritual sense of the Apocalypse, and of the whole Word, was a fiction of his brain. Were the spiritual sense of the Word such a fiction, then it must be said that there lived a man in the last century, with an intellect and creative faculty, compared with which those of all the philosophers and poets of past and present time combined, were as nothing. We leave revilers of Swedenborg to make their choice; either to admit the existence of the spiritual sense of the Word; or, denying its existence, and pronouncing Swedenborg’s discovery either a delusion or an imposture, to admit that Swedenborg was a man wholly unique—a genius infinitely surpassing any which the world has ever known, and endowed with a power of invention which the mind of a nation incarnate in one man could never hope to rival. But it will never come to such a pass. Anyone who will take the trouble candidly to examine the subject, will become convinced of the spiritual sense of the Word, and of the truth of Swedenborg’s revelations regarding it. The denial and mockery of them can only coexist with an ignorance, more or less profound, of their nature; or, worse still, from a hatred of the truth, grounded in the life and love of evil. The spiritual sense of the Word is no invention. It is a discovery,—accomplished by Divine means, however,—just as the finding of Australia was a discovery; and we shall believe in its existence if we become _practically_ acquainted with it through reverent thought and study; even as We should know Australia best, did we go there.