idday, evening, and night. Some
of them also have satellites, which perform their revolutions about
their globes, as the moon does about ours. The planet Saturn, as being
farthest from the sun, has besides an immense luminous ring, which
supplies that earth with much, though reflected, light. How is it
possible for anyone acquainted with these facts, and who thinks from
reason, to assert that such bodies are uninhabited?'

Remembering that this reasoning was urged by the spirits, and that
during twelve years Swedenborg's interiors had been opened in such sort
that he could converse with spirits from other worlds, it is surprising
that he should have heard nothing about Uranus or Neptune, to say
nothing of the zone of asteroids, or again, of planets as yet unknown
which may exist outside the path of Neptune. He definitely commits
himself, it will be observed, to the statement that Saturn is the planet
farthest from the sun. And elsewhere, in stating where in these
spiritual communications the 'idea' of each planet was conceived to be
situated, he leaves no room whatever for Uranus and Neptune, and makes
no mention of other bodies in the solar system than those known in his
day. This cannot have been because the spirits from then unknown planets
did not feel themselves called upon to communicate with the spirit of
one who knew nothing of their home, for he received visitors from worlds
in the starry heavens far beyond human ken. It would almost seem, though
to the faithful Swedenborgian the thought will doubtless appear very
wicked, that the system of Swedenborg gave no place to Uranus and
Neptune, simply because he knew nothing about those planets. Otherwise,
what a noble opportunity there would have been for establishing the
truth of Swedenborgian doctrines by revealing to the world the existence
of planets hitherto unknown. Before the reader pronounces this a task
beneath the dignity of the spirits and angels who taught Swedenborg it
will be well for him to examine the news which they actually imparted.

I may as well premise, however, that it does not seem to me worth while
to enter here at any length into Swedenborg's descriptions of the
inhabitants of other worlds, because what he has to say on this subject
is entirely imaginative. There is a real interest for us in his ideas
respecting the condition of the planets, because those ideas were based
(though unconsciously) upon the science of his day, in which he was no