Of late years it has become common to talk of Swedenborg as a clairvoyant, to associate him with mesmeric subjects, and make him a kinsman of French and American spiritualists, such as Cahagnet, and Andrew Jackson Davis. This mistake is made through ignorance. It is a law of the spiritual world that every man is associated with his like. Supposing, therefore, that any man’s spiritual sight were opened, he would come into conjunction only with spirits like himself; that is, with those who would echo his own ideas and opinions, and repeat his own feelings. It is evident, then, that in such a case the nature of the revelations are entirely dependent upon the character of the revelator, and in all cases must be suspiciously received by the lover of truth. Now Swedenborg claims to have been under the special protection of the Lord, and to have received the doctrines he promulgated directly from Him, and not in any case from spirits. Of course, every one will decide for himself as to how far he can receive this assertion; but it is well that all should be informed of the precise character of Swedenborg’s claim, and of his own testimony as to the source of his information. In his Diary, written about this time, he says, that “spirits narrate things wholly false, and lie. When spirits begin to speak with man, care should be taken not to believe them; for almost everything they say is made up by them, and they lie; so that if it were permitted them to relate what heaven is, and how things are in heaven, they would tell so many falsehoods, and with such strong assertion, that man would be astonished; wherefore it was not permitted me, when spirits were speaking, to have any belief in what they stated. They love to feign. Whatever may be the topic spoken of, they think they know it, and form different opinions about it, altogether as if they knew; and if man then listens and believes, they insist, and in various ways deceive and seduce.” Any one who has paid attention to the phenomena of spirit-rapping, and to the communications received through clairvoyants from the world of spirits, and has observed the very Babel of contradictions uttered by these “mediums,” will be able to appreciate the truth of the passage we have quoted, as well as our desire to draw a broad and distinct line between such and Swedenborg.