All who have written on this subject are agreed on one point, namely, that those only whose habitual feelings and ideas are elevated above the standard of ordinary intellectual life, come under its influence. At the same time, they are able to concentrate their thoughts to a high degree, and are consequently in a painful state of mind and body. An exception must, however, be made with respect to religious habits and mental alienation. The influence which they exercise on the organization, occasions ecstatic crises in persons of very ordinary intellect. The most celebrated subjects of ecstasy are inflamed with the love of religion, of morality, of poetry, of the fine arts, of the sciences, of philosophy; they are devoted to the contemplation of the Divinity, and of nature. Such a state of mind is eminently favorable for the production of hallucinations, which are very common among such persons.

Case XCV

The famous Count Emmanuel Swedenborg believed that he had the privilege of enjoying interviews with the world of spirits. In his letters, he has given descriptions of the places that he visited, and the conversations he heard. "The Lord himself," he says, in a letter prefixed to his theological dissertations, " has deigned to show himself to his unworthy servant; he has revealed to me the spiritual world, permitted me to converse with spiritual powers, which indulgence has been continued to me unto this day."*

* See Arnold, Observations on the Nature, Kinds, Causes, and Prevention of Insanity, 2 vols, in 8vo., London, 1806; the Monthly Review for June, 1770, vol. lxii. p. 455, and for November, 1778, vol. lix. p. 365; and especially The Wonders of Heaven and Hell, by Emmanuel Swedenborg, translated from the Latin, by A. J. P., 2 vols, in 8vo., p. 85, Berlin, 1782. We subjoin a note on the doctrine by this leader of the Illuminati.

" The transmission of the mysteries of ancient religions, and principally of the Kabbala, mixed with the dogmas of revealed religion, constitutes Illuminism.

"Jacob Boebm, a poor German shoemaker, who lived in the seventeenth century, was one of the most ardent propagators of the illuminism of the three principles; but to Swedenborg its developments are due. In London, in 1788, more than 6000 persons embraced the religious opinions of this theosophist."

In his treatise on Heaven and Hell, he declares that he saw the Lord, that he spoke with angels and spirits as with men, during twenty-eight years. His first interview with God, as stated in his letter to M. Roboam, was in the year 1745.

"God revealed to him that he should make known to the world the new church of which John speaks in the Apocalypse, under the name of the New Jerusalem. He adds: 'It is probable I may not be believed; I can-not place others where God has placed me.' "

In considering Swedenborg as an ecstatic, none can refuse him credit 'or an enthusiasm full of faith, and a great elevation of thought.

It is impossible here to give any idea of his system; but we may say, hat he bases his most exalted principles on Holy Writ and the Gospels. 'It is perhaps," says M. Ferd. Denis, "the most poetical and religious transport that has been manifested by a soul initiated into the mysteries of the Kabbala. A proof of the intimate relations which exist between lis system and the ancient Kabbala, is, that the object to which he pur-x>ses to lead us, is the science of correspondences known to the ancients, which is no other than the connection of men with spirits. According to him, the book of Job is full of correspondences, the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians. The ancient fables are only a disguised expression of these cor-espondences, of which we have lost the key" (See the article Illuminisme, by Ferdinand Denis, op. cit., p. 186, and le Livre des Merreilles du del et de 'Enfer, by Swedenborg.) We have related, in l' Union Medicale, September, 1851, a most curious hallucination of Swedenborg relative to spiritualism and materialism.