TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

From the author’s statement in his preface to the treatise on the Soul, as well as from the general character of his scientific and philosophical writings, it is unmistakably clear that the search for the soul was the real goal and inspiring motive of all his labors.

The passion with which he sought this precious knowledge is shown by the frequent early drafts and preliminary essays scattered through his writings. In these, he records his partial glimpses of the subject and pursues, as it were, the fleeting vision of a sublime figure that always seemed to elude his grasp.

For example, in his prologue to the work titled The Animal Kingdom original: Regnum Animale; Swedenborg's anatomical study of the "kingdom" of the soul, the body, the author publishes a "Summary of his intended work." In this outline, after a series of anatomical studies, he places an "Introduction to Rational Psychology." He remarks that this section consists of "new doctrines through which we may be led from the material organism of the body to a knowledge of the soul, which is immaterial." These are: the doctrine of Forms, the doctrine of Order and Degrees, the doctrine of Series and Society, the doctrine of Inflow original: "Influx"; the way spiritual forces act upon the physical, the doctrine of Correspondence and Representation, and lastly, the doctrine of Modification.

The author had actually already provided this "Introduction to Rational Psychology" in the first part (chapter 8) of the Economy of the Animal Kingdom original: Oeconomia Regni Animalis, published several years earlier. In the proposed summary, the introduction was to be followed immediately by the Rational Psychology itself. This work was meant to cover "the subjects of Action, of the external and internal senses, of Imagination and Memory; also of the emotions original: "affections" of the lower mind original: "animus"; the seat of worldly passions and sensory perception, of the intellect (that is, of thought and will), and of the emotions of the rational mind, as well as instinct. Finally, it would cover the Soul—its state in the body, its interactions, emotions, and immortality—and its state when the body dies. The work was to conclude with a Comparison original: "Concordance" of Systems."

In the series as it was actually published, however, we find the "Introduction to Rational Psychology" followed by chapters 1 and 2 of the second part of the Economy. These chapters treat the motion of the brain and its cortical substance the gray matter or outer layer of the brain. These are then abruptly followed by a chapter on the human soul. At the start of that chapter, the author refers to his previous effort "to explain a doctrine of Series and Degrees as a way of introducing a knowledge of the—"