XLI. Swedenhorg. " Who denies, or can deny,

that all the good of love, and all the truth of wisdom, arc solely from God ; and that, as far as man receives them from God, so far he lives from God, and is said
Ch. XII.] A HERMETIC PHILOSOPHER. 311
to be bom of God, that is, regenerated. And, on the other hand, as far as any does not receive love and wis- dom, or, what is similar, charity and faith, so far he does not receive life, which in itself is life, from God, but from hell, which is no other life than inverted life, which is called spiritual death." T. G. B. 335, 6.
Spinoza's language wholly differs from this, but nevertheless the idea conveyed above corresponds to the doctrine of the Ethics, as far as I can make out what was intended, and it may be stated something after this manner : God is the sole absolutely Infinite Being, with attributes, as before stated (No. XV.) ; not absolutely infinite, but infinite in their own kind. Of these attributes man is acquainted with but two, thought and extension ; and this for the reason, that he is composed of these. Thought and extension are both infinite, but man is not thought and extension itself, or in himself; but he is a modification of these attributes, and may conceive himself in two ways, as nature active and nature passive. In the first case, man conceives himself as existing in God, " in whom are all things," and in so far as he does this, and acts from this idea (reason), he is nature active ; he is ^omQihing positive and free. But man does not stand alone in the world ; he is surrounded by infinite other things, every one of which has, as well as himself, a nature active; and now, in so far as man loses sight of the idea of God, as He " in whom are all things," and is acted upon by outward things, he represents nature passive ; i. e. he does not act, but receives an action, and in so far as he does this, he is a slave and not a free man. When man is thus overcome by outward things, and is swept along
312 8WEDENB0RO, [Ch. XII.
the tide of time without carrying witli liiin the idea of God, the man is blind, and a slave, and it may answer, as a figure, to say, as Swcdenborg does, that he then acts from hell, and the idea of God being lost, he may be said to be spiritually dead. He can only be brought out of this state by recovering the idea of God, &c. See XXXIII.