It is but just to state that Swedenborg speaks of Saturn as the outermost planet of the solar system, he not being permitted to anticipate Herschel or Neptune. An opponent might make merry over this, and say: “Don’t you see that Swedenborg was but a dreamer? How could he know aught of the inhabitants of other earths when he did not even know that beyond Saturn rolled two immense worlds?” We reply, that it would have been disorderly for him to have become possessed of such knowledge by spiritual means. “But how so?” Because it would have compelled belief in the spiritual doctrines he taught, without due thought and examination, as soon as science had established the existence of these orbs; because miracles and prophecy are not permitted in these times, for they force and destroy man’s freedom. How easy it would be for the Lord to witness to the truth of His Word by supernatural signs in the natural world! Yet he does not, although belief in his Word, and life according to it, is essential to man’s highest happiness. Belief so induced would be worthless, because compelled. It may be said that this is mere special pleading; but it is not so. The laws laid down in a later work of Swedenborg’s, on the “Divine Providence,” fortify, in a most rational manner, the truth as we have endeavoured to set it forth. It is also to be remarked that natural truth must be discovered by its appropriate means,—natural investigation. It was necessary that Swedenborg should be skilled in all natural science previous to his illumination, so that he might possess a basis for many spiritual facts which could neither have been expressed nor made intelligible without at the same time giving their correspondence in nature. It would have been altogether contrary to the Divine order to have taken Swedenborg in his early youth and ignorance, and, making him a seer, have communicated natural truth to him in a supernatural manner. 3. “The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine” is a brief exposition of the leading truths of the New Church. After each of its chapters follow references, (in some cases more extensive than the chapter itself,) to the “Arcana Cœlestia.” These references, so numerous in Swedenborg’s writings, do not form a dry and unreadable index, but may be looked on as a series of precepts pertaining to moral and spiritual life. Were we gathering a volume of gems of thought, we should find an abundance to suit our purposes in these references. This work has been printed as a cheap pamphlet. We know of no other work which could more appropriately be placed in the hands of a stranger desiring to know, without much reading, the nature of those doctrines which Swedenborg was commissioned to reveal to the world. CHAPTER XV. _Anecdotes._