band."

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The leading theological works of Swedenborg are, the _Heavenly Arcana_, in
twelve octavo volumes, giving an explanation of the books of Genesis and
Exodus, being a key to what he calls the internal or spiritual sense of
the sacred Scriptures. The next in importance is the _Apocalypse
Explained_, in six octavo volumes, containing a full explanation of that
book.

From his last work, _The True Christian Religion_, we make the following
extracts, to show some of his peculiar views and style of writing:--

"Concerning the Spiritual World.

"The spiritual world has been treated of in a particular work concerning
HEAVEN AND HELL, in which many things of that world are described; and,
because every man, after death, comes into that world, the state of men
there is also described. Who does not know, or may not know, that man
lives after death? both because he is born a man, created an image of God,
and because the Lord teaches it in his word. But what life he is to live,
has been hitherto unknown. It has been believed that then he would be a
soul, of which they entertained no other idea than as of ether, or air;
thus that it is breath, or spirit, such as man breathes out of his mouth
when he dies, in which, nevertheless, his vitality resides; but that it is
without sight, such as is of the eye, without hearing, such as is of the
ear, and without speech, such as is of the mouth; when yet, man, after
death, is equally a man, and such a man, that he does not know but that he
is still in the former world. He walks, runs, and sits, as in the former
world; he lies down, sleeps, and wakes up, as in the former world; he eats
and drinks, as in the former world; he enjoys conjugial delight, as in the
former world; in a word, he is a man as to all and every particular;
whence it is manifest, that death is not an extinction, but a
continuation, of life, and that it is only a transition.

"That man is equally a man after death, although he does not then appear
to the eyes of the material body, may be evident from the angels seen by
Abraham, Hagar, Gideon, Daniel, and some of the prophets,--from the angels
seen in the Lord's sepulchre, and afterwards, many times, by John,
concerning whom in the Revelation,--and especially from the Lord himself,
who showed that he was a man by the touch and by eating, and yet he became
invisible to their eyes. Who can be so delirious, as no