Introduction to Potts's Swedenborg Concordance

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this Concordance is to make the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg more accessible in all their fulness to every reader and student of them, whether learned or unlearned.

At present no one can feel sure that he knows or can find everything that is contained in the Writings on any given subject. And even when we are sure of the existence of some passage that we desire to find, how often, having none but the existing works of reference to aid us, are we overwhelmed and deterred from making an investigation by the dreary prospect of a search through from forty to fifty volumes of compact matter! A reader's attention may also be arrested by some statement which appears to be at variance with one or more other statements he has met with elsewhere in the Writings. Yet he has frequently no means of referring back; and even if he should find the passage or passages he remembers to have read, the apparent discrepancy may after all be explicable only by reference to another passage, which forms the connecting link, but on which he cannot lay his hands, and of the very existence of which he may indeed be ignorant.

The Concordance to Swedenborg now offered to the Church is the result of between thirteen and fourteen years of labour, ¹ and claims to be exhaustive and complete. Every theological work of Swedenborg has been gone over twice, word by word. The works not published by Swedenborg himself, such as the Apocalypse Explained, the Spiritual Diary, and the Adversaria, as well as the shorter treatises, have all been included within the scope of the Concordance. So have the small treatises and fragments of a theological nature of which Swedenborg was the author, and which have recently been published in the work entitled Documents concerning Swedenborg, by Professor R. L. Tafel, M.A.

A new translation has been made of the whole of the matter in the Concordance. Unity of style and system is thus maintained throughout. In making this translation two principal objects have been kept steadily in view. The first is reverent fidelity to the original. The second is the Queen's English. In all cases, however, the articles in the Concordance have been based upon the original Latin words, so that no changes in the translation would affect the matter they contain. For example, all passages containing in the original the word coelestis have been arranged in regular and consecutive order under one heading, whether that word in the passages placed under that general head be translated celestial or heavenly. And so, on the other hand, in cases where one English word has to do duty for two or more Latin ones, as in the case of the word man, the passages have been distributed into two articles, Man-homo, and Man-vir, according to the occurrence of the two Latin words in question. Therefore, while the Concordance is all in English, it is at the same time based upon the Latin of the original Writings.

The passages of the Word quoted in the extracts consist strictly of translations from the Latin of Swedenborg. The original Hebrew and Greek of the Scriptures have not been regarded, except to determine the precise sense in which Swedenborg has used his Latin terms. It has been considered to be no part of the business of this Work to furnish any translations of passages from the Word, except those made by Swedenborg himself rendered literally into English. The English Versions of the Scriptures have therefore been disregarded whenever they could not be used as a translation of the Latin, but they have always been preferred to any other rendering when, as a translation of the Latin of Swedenborg, they were as good as any other. In relation to passages quoted from the Word, as in relation to all the rest of the Writings, fidelity to the Latin Originals of Swedenborg has been the paramount law of translation.

At the time when the Concordance was commenced, nearly the whole of the translations of the Writings into English were too imperfect for use. This rendered a new translation necessary. Since that time, however, a number of excellent translations have appeared, some in America and others in Great Britain; and in making the clean and revised copy for the press, these new translations have been introduced, so far as could be done without interfering with the unity of the Work.

Cross references are made use of whenever necessary. The reader, for instance, who turns to the word Heavenly, will find there a reference to Celestial.

In view of this system of cross references, it has been the constant aim to give as great a variety as possible of good translations of the Latin words which form the basis of the articles. A reader might think of one such translation and not of another; but whichever he thought of, he would always find either a reference or a cross reference under that heading. Take such a word as Inescare. This word has been translated in various passages quoted in the Concordance, addicted to, saturated with, given up to, made habitual, all of which are good translations in the places where they are used. The reader, therefore, will find a reference under Addict to all the passages where Inescare occurs in the original. But if he should not happen to think of the word addict, and instead there should occur to him any one of the expressions, saturated, given up to, or habitual, on turning to the particular expression he thought of, he would find there a cross reference to Addict.

A complete Vocabulary and Index of all the Latin words that occur in the headings of the various articles will be given at the end of the Work.

The Concordance contains nearly eight thousand articles arranged in the English alphabetical order, and ranging in length from a single line to many pages.

In order to render the work of reference to the Writings themselves easy for the reader, it has been found necessary to sub-divide all the longer sections of the original works. This has been done on one uniform plan throughout. The subdivisions have been made according to the sense, and have been indicated by the figures 2, 3, 4, and so on, placed at the upper right hand corner of the reference numerals. The reference is made thus, E. 701³, which means that the passage thus marked will be found in the Apocalypse Explained, No. 701, subdivision 3. No. 701 of the Apocalypse Explained fills thirteen octavo pages, and reference to it without subdivision would probably involve much wearisome and vexatious searching. In order to make these subdivisions available to all, it is intended to give a complete list of them at the end of the Concordance, so that those who wish to do so can copy them into their own volumes. The Swedenborg Society has already adopted the subdivisions in the new translation of The Intercourse of the Soul and the Body, and it is hoped that they will be gradually introduced into the new editions of the Writings.

Several of the posthumous works of Swedenborg have never been published in English; as De Domino, De Athanasii Symbolo, De Ultimo Judicio, De Verbo, De Conjugio. The paragraphs of these works were either not numbered in a regular manner, or were not numbered at all, by Swedenborg; nor were they numbered by Dr Immanuel Tafel in his editions. It was therefore necessary to number the paragraphs of these works for the sake of reference in the Concordance. It is hoped that all these important works may soon be published in English, and that the numbering of the paragraphs made for the Concordance may be introduced, bracketed, into them. The Doctrine of Charity stands in a similar category. This Work has indeed been translated, in both America and England, but in both cases the paragraphs have been numbered in an irregular manner, according to the judgment of the translators. These numberings, therefore, neither agree with the actual paragraphs of the original, nor with each other. In these circumstances it has seemed best to number this work on the same system as the other unnumbered posthumous works; and, at the same time, to furnish a Key between all these numberings of the Doctrine of Charity, which will be found at the end of each volume of the Concordance.

The arrangement of the passages under one heading is consecutive, beginning with the Arcana Coelestia, and running in chronological order through all the works quoted. As a general rule, each article in the Concordance is separated into two divisions, the first of which contains all quotations from the works published by Swedenborg himself, and the second, quotations from the works which have been published from the MSS. since the decease of Swedenborg. Each division is arranged in chronological order. The article Swedenborg, however, for obvious reasons, is arranged in absolute chronological order throughout, without respect to the fact of the quotations being from works that were published by Swedenborg himself, or otherwise. The inducement has been great to arrange all the articles in this order; but the consideration of the importance of the fact that Swedenborg did not himself publish certain of his works, has been held sufficient to entitle the works which were published by him to precedence of quotation in all cases except the one just referred to.

Capital Letters have been used at the beginning of words to mark a distinction in the sense. Thus, when the word 'Celestial' is used as a substantive in the singular, it is always so distinguished. In this way, 'the Celestial (principle)' is discriminated from 'the celestial (persons).' So with all other Latin neuter adjectives used as substantives, except those of which English equivalents have already become naturalized in our vernacular. By the use of a capital initial also, 'Heaven,' the abode of the Angels, is distinguished from 'heaven,' the sky; and 'Spirit,' a man after death, from 'spirit,' a man's mind. These two instances carry with them the correlatives 'Hell,' and 'Angel,' and render it necessary, on the ground of consistency, to distinguish these also with initial capitals. Other instances of the same kind will be easily understood. It may be useful, however, to explain a few instances of a different kind. When the word 'Own' stands for the Latin word proprius, it is printed with a capital in order to indicate that fact. A very important case is that of the word 'Knowledge,' which, thus printed, stands for cognitio; whereas, without the capital, it stands for scientia. A similar instance to this is 'Gentiles,' which, with the capital, is the representative of Gentiles; but without it, of gentes. 'Earth,' again, with the capital, indicates tellus; without it, terra. Finally, to this class belongs 'Power,' which, when printed with the capital, stands for potestas; but, when printed without it, for potentia.

While this Concordance claims to be complete, the fact must not be overlooked that it is a selection. A Concordance to Swedenborg cannot be anything more than that. In the first place, the words themselves have to be selected. It is evident that, in such a work, regular references to conjunctions, prepositions, and pronouns would be worse than useless. Yet, in some instances, references to even these classes of words are useful and necessary. While, for example, it would be absurd to refer regularly to the conjunction 'and,' there are still a few cases in which this word demands a reference; and if the reader will turn to the article And, he will find there five references which could not have been omitted from the Work. Out of tens of thousands of passages in which the word 'and' occurs, these five had to be selected. This is an extreme case, but the same rule is of universal application. The most important article in the Concordance is Lord; but even this word cannot be referred to in every instance. To do that, and give the extracts, would be to make the article Lord fill a volume; while to give the references without the extracts, would be to produce whole pages of mere figures that would be of no practical use to anyone. Every passage, therefore, nay, every word, has had to pass under judgment; and each reference or extract in the Work has had to be considered individually. This was inevitable, unless the Concordance were to fill forty volumes instead of four. The disadvantage is, that the Concordance, being the result of the judgment of one man, cannot be expected to satisfy the judgment of every other man; but the Compiler has always worked on this principle: to insert not only those references which he himself considered to be of consequence, but also to insert those which he thought it possible for anyone else to consider of consequence. In doubtful cases, the rule has been to give the reference. Still, with the most patient care, it cannot but be that in such a work many imperfections must exist. Omissions are inevitable. It is therefore intended to form an Appendix of any such omissions as may be discovered, and to print it at the end of the fourth volume; and all friends of the Work, who may notice anything of the kind, are kindly requested to make note of the same, and to forward all their notes to the Compiler in time for insertion in the Appendix.

While, however, it seems fair and necessary to say as much as this in regard to the inevitable imperfection of the Work, an imperfection which is a necessary characteristic of all human productions, it is by no means intended to convey the impression that the Concordance is, after all, an incomplete and unsatisfactory work of reference. The Work aims at being really complete, without being at the same time overloaded with matter which would be of no practical use to anyone. To make perfectly clear what is meant by useless matter, let us take the most familiar and best known passage in the Writings 'All religion has relation to life, and the life of religion is to do good.' This passage contains twelve different words; but out of these twelve, only four are referred to in the Concordance. These are 'religion,' 'life,' and the words 'do good', which are treated under one heading. The other eight words are not referred to at all. It could serve no useful purpose to refer to the word 'all' in this passage; the word 'relation,' although in itself an important word, does not occur in the original, being an invention of the translators; and the remaining words in the passage are mere particles. In a Concordance to the Word even particles ought to be referred to, because in that verbally inspired Work every jot and tittle are Divine. But that is not the case with the Writings. A mere mechanical construction of a Swedenborg Concordance would therefore result in the production of a work, which, from its very inception, would be doomed to be superseded. Probably three quarters of it would be absolutely useless, and would therefore, by their very presence, tend to defeat the purpose of the Work.

The paramount consideration which confronts anyone who undertakes a Work like this, remains, therefore, precisely that which ought to be the paramount consideration in everything: the consideration of use. 'What use can it be to insert this reference?' is the question which must be incessantly asked. Use must be the judge and the jury. In some cases, however, it may be of use to insert references which are intrinsically worthless, because they may be useful to the linguists, the critics, the translators of the New Church. In such cases, the word in question may occur only a very few times in all the Writings. It is clear, therefore, that every one of these occurrences must be faithfully recorded. Whereas, should a word of this order be of very frequent occurrence, being in itself a word of no significance in relation to its sense or meaning, it is sufficient to give a few specimens of its occurrence selected from various parts of the Writings.

Parallel with the consideration of use, and involved in it, is the consideration of honesty. Any dereliction in this respect would be simply infamous. The Works to which the Concordance is a humble handmaid are really Works of the Lord written through Swedenborg, as Swedenborg himself has said. Every statement in them is therefore of the highest consequence, and no one ought to be defrauded of access to it. No matter against whose opinions it may militate, the statement must be faithfully recorded. Even should one statement seem to contradict another, still, the dominant consideration must be perfect honesty. There is no use apart from this. And the same rule must apply also to those statements, so numerous in the Writings, which are likely to give offence by their plain outspokenness upon subjects which are usually avoided in works intended for general circulation. If it has pleased the Lord to speak to us on these subjects, that is a sufficient reason for making reference to everything He has been pleased to say, or to cause to be said. In this Concordance therefore nothing has been shirked, of any kind; nothing has been intentionally kept back. In a few cases the quotations have been made in the original Latin, but, either in the one language or the other, everything has been recorded.

The words which are to be referred to having been selected, there still remains to be made the selection of the quotations themselves. In a Concordance to the Word the making of this selection is easy, because the immediate context is all that is required. Very different, however, is the case with a Swedenborg Concordance. In some instances the immediate context is indeed all that is required, but this is far from being the general rule. What is required is the immediate sense. It is the ideas, not the mere words, which are of consequence. This is especially the case with the longer articles. As an example of this, take the article Angel, in which the word 'Angel' is referred to 1916 times. But if this article were constructed by means of an accumulation of short quotations such as are given in a Biblical Concordance, it would be of comparatively little use. The reader would have to refer to the Original Works so frequently that the use of the Concordance in saving time and labour would be to a great extent destroyed. It would take him many days to go through this single article. If he where studying the subject of the Angels, he would have to go through the Writings and make the extracts which are already made for him in this Concordance; whereas, with the help of the Work as it stands, he will be spared the impossible part of this labour. The extracts are sufficiently long and complete to indicate to him the nature of the statements in each case, and he will therefore only have to supplement the materials thus placed ready to his hand, by actual reference to those portions of the Writings which he sees from the Concordance to be necessary for his purpose. This has been the consideration kept in view during the making of the extracts. To quote all that would be useful, and no more, has been the guiding principle.

As a general rule, the extracts thus made for the Concordance have been given in Swedenborg's own words, translated into English, and have not been condensed by the use of any other words. In some places, labour and space could indeed have been saved by condensation; but any advantage thus gained would have been more than counterbalanced by the elements of uncertainty and untrustworthiness which would necessarily have been introduced. Where, however, the extract, if made in the very words of Swedenborg, would be extremely long, and at the same time would be of very little use in relation to the subject of the article, a brief description of what Swedenborg says has been given, but all such matter has been enclosed within curved brackets.

The following is a complete list of the works of Swedenborg referred to in the Concordance, including their Latin titles, and the dates of their composition. Reference to this list will enable the reader to place the extracts given in the second division of the Concordance articles in their right position relatively to those given in the first division.

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'History of the Creation.' Historia Creationis a Mose tradita. The first treatise written by Swedenborg after the full opening of his spiritual sight, which took place in the middle of April, 1745. This work has never been translated, but it will be found in the original Latin at the beginning of the 'Adversaria,' in which work it occupies the first twenty-five pages.

1745 and 1746.

'Adversaria.' Explicatio in Verbum Historicum Veteris Testamenti. There are three MS. volumes of this work, in each of which the paragraphs are numbered independently, that is to say, each volume commences with the numeral 1. There are therefore three separate series of numbers in the 'Adversaria,' which have been indicated in the Concordance by the figures 1, 2, 3, prefixed to the ordinary numerals.

1746 and 1747.

'Adversaria.' Esajas et Jeremias explicati. As this work was printed by Dr Im. Tafel as 'Adversaria, Part iv.,' it is distinguished in the Concordance by the figure 4 prefixed to the ordinary numerals. Swedenborg did not number the paragraphs of this MS., but it is not very frequently quoted in the Concordance, and the pages of the Latin edition are therefore given in place of the usual paragraph numbers, in the same way as is done in the 'Index General' of Le Boys des Guays.

1747 to 1765.

'Spiritual Diary.' The title given by Swedenborg is Memorabilia.

1747 to 1758.

'Arcana Coelestia.' Arcana Coelestia quae in Scriptura Sacra sen Verbo Domini sunt, detecta.

1750 and 1751.

'Diarium Minus.' Not translated. This work is really a portion of the 'Spiritual Diary.' During Swedenborg's journal to Sweden in 1750, he seems to have kept the record of his spiritual experiences in a little pocket volume which was published by Dr Im. Tafel under the name of 'Diarium Minus;' this little pocket volume he used until the close of November, 1751.' ² While using this little volume, Swedenborg suspended the use of the larger one, and when he returned to it, he continued the numbering of the paragraphs therein just as if he had never written the little volume at all. The consequence is that this little work has been crowded out of its right place. It really comes in after No. 4544 of the 'Spiritual Diary,' as is shown by the fact that the little volume commences with the number 4545, and it is called 'Diarium Minus' merely because it happens to have been written in a smaller book than the rest of the work.

1757 and 1758.

'Heaven and Hell.' De Coelo et ejus Mirabilibus, et de Inferno, ex auditis et visis.

'On the White Horse.' De Equo Albo, de quo in Apocalypsi, Cap. xix.; et dein de Verbo et ejus sensus spirituali seu interno, ex Arcanis Coelestibus.

'On the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine.' De Nova Hierosolyma et ejus Doctrina Coelesti. : ex auditis e Coelo.

'The Last Judgment, and the Destruction of Babylon.' De Ultimo Judicio, et de Babylonia Destructa : ita quod omnia, quae in Apocalypsi praedicta sunt, hodie impleta sunt: ex auditis et visis.

1756 and 1758. 'The Earths in the Universe.' De Telluribus in Mundo nostro Solari, quae vocantur Planetae : et de Tellurians in Coelo Astrifero: deque illarum Incolis; tum de Spiritibus et Angelis ibi; ex auditis et visis.

1757 to 1759.

'The Apocalypse Explained.' Apocalypsis Explicate. secundum sensum spiritualem, ubi revelantur Arcana, quae ibi praedicta, et hactenus recondita fuerunt.

'De Athanasii Symbolo.' Not now accessible in English. ³ The work printed in English under the title of 'The Athanasian Creed' is a mere collection of extracts from the 'Apocalypse Explained,' where it will all be found, commencing in No. 1091. Being really a part of the 'Apocalypse Explained,' it is of course referred to as such in the Concordance.

1759 and 1760.

'Summary Exposition of the Prophets and Psalms.' No title given by Swedenborg.

'De Ultimo Judicio.' Not translated. ⁴ Referred to in the Concordance as J. (Post.) The short treatise 'De Mundo Spirituali' has been numbered for the Concordance consecutively with the 'De Ultimo Judicio,' in the same way as was done by Swedenborg with the 'Continuation concerning the Spiritual World,' which he published as a continuation of the work entitled 'Continuation concerning the Last Judgment.'

'De Verbo;' the full title of which is 'De Scriptura Sacra, seu Verbo Domini, ab Experientia.' Not translated. ⁴

1761 to 1763.

'The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem respecting the Lord.' Doctrina Novae Hierosolymae de Domino.

'The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture.' Doctrina Novae Hierosolymae de Scriptura Sacra.

'The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem.' Doctrina Vitae pro Nova Hierosolyma ex Praeceptis Decalogi.

'The Doctrine of Faith of the New Jerusalem.' Doctrina Novae Hierosolymae de Fide.

'A Continuation concerning the Last Judgment.' Continuatio de Ultimo Judicio : et de Mundo Spirituali.

1762 and 1763.

'On the Divine Love.' (Posthumous.) De Divino Amore.

'On the Divine Wisdom.' (Posthumous.) De Divina Sapientia.

'Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and concerning the Divine Wisdom.' Sapientia Angelica de Divino Amove et de Divina Sapientia.

1763 and 1764.

'Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Providence.' Sapientia Angelica de Divina Providentia.

'The Doctrine of Charity.' De Charitate.

1764 to 1766.

'The Apocalypse Revealed.' Apocalypsis Revelata, in qua deteguntur Arcana quae ibi praedicta sunt, et hactenus recondita latuerunt.

'Five Memorable Relations.' No Latin Title. These Relations will be found in the original Latin printed by Dr Im. Tafel at the end of his edition of the 'De Ultimo Judicio' (Post.), where they occupy pp. 124 to 133.

'Conversation with Angels.' Colloquia cum Angelis. Not translated; but will be found immediately after the preceding 'Five Memorable Relations' at the end of the 'De Ultimo Judicio.'

'De Conjugio.' Not translated; but printed in the Latin by Dr Im. Tafel.

1767 and 1768.

'Conjugial Love.' Delitiae Sapientiae de Amove Conjugiali; post quas sequuntur Voluptates Insaniae de Amove Scortatorio, ab Emanuele Swedenborg, Sueco.

'De Justificatione; Colloquia cum Calvino et 50 ejus Asseclis de Trinitate, de Persona Christi, et de Justificatione.' Not translated; but published in the original by Dr Im. Tafel.

'Sciagraphia Doctrinae Novae Ecclesiae.' Not translated; but printed by Dr Im. Tafel at the end of the 'De Justificatione.'

1768 and 1769.

'Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church.' Summaria Expositio Doctrinae Novae Ecclesiae, quae per Novam Hierosolymam in Apocalypsi intelligitur, ab Emanuele Swedenborg, Sueco.

'The Intercourse of the Soul and the Body.' De Commercio Animae et Corporis, quod creditur fieri vel pr Influxum physicum, vel per Influxum spiritualem, vel per Harmoniam praestabilitam, ab Emanuele Swedenborg.

'Letter to Hartley.'

'Nine Questions.' Swedenborg's replies to the nine questions addressed to him by the Rev. Thomas Hartley. Usually printed at the end of the 'Doctrine of the Lord.'

'Canons of the New Church.' Canones Novae Ecclesiae seu Integrae Theologiae Novae Ecclesiae. As the original MS. of this work is lost, it is doubtful whether this title was given to it by Swedenborg.

1771.

'The True Christian Religion.' Vera Christiana Religio, continents Universam Theologiam Novae Ecclesiae a Domino apud Danielem Cap. vii. 13, 14, et in Apocalypsi Cap. xxi. 1, 2, praedictae, ab Emanuele Swedenborg, Domini Jesu Christi servo.

'An Ecclesiastical History of the New Church.' Historia Ecclesiastica Novae Ecclesiae. This little sketch constitutes Document 301 in the 'Documents concerning Swedenborg.'

'Invitation to the New Church.' Invitatio ad Novam Ecclesiam. Published in the original by Dr Im. Tafel, at pp. 142-160 of the 'Appendix' to the Diarium Spirituale; and since republished in America. Constitutes Section i. of the work entitled 'The Consummation of the Age; the Lord's Second Coming; and the New Church,' just published in London.

'Abominatio Desolationis.' This document occupies pp. 137-142 of the 'Appendix' to the Diarium Spirituale; and constitutes Section ii. of 'The Consummation of the Age.'

'Summary of the Coronis.' This document fills pp. 163-169 of Dr Im. Tafel's 'Appendix,' and is also printed at the beginning of the new American edition of the 'Coronis.' In English, it constitutes Section iii. of 'The Consummation of the Age;' but it is not treated in the Concordance as a separate work from the 'Coronis' itself, being distinguished by Roman numerals; thus, Coro. i, ii, iii, and so on.

'The Coronis.' Coronis, seu Appendix ad Ver. Christ. Religionem.

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It is due to one of the most faithful and laborious workers in the New Church to say that the completeness of the Concordance has been considerably increased by means of the admirable Index Rerum to the Apocalypsis Explicata, recently issued by the American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society, and the Compiler of which is Dr Samuel H. Worcester.

Many others have contributed either directly or indirectly to the perfection of the Work, and among these it is impossible to pass over without special mention the name of the Rev. Dr R. L. Tafel, to whom, in many ways, the Concordance owes a heavy debt of gratitude. The late Mr Frederic Pitman also, during the last few months of his life on earth, rendered invaluable assistance in connection with the seeing of the Work through the press. Lastly, the Committee of the Swedenborg Society, of London, have nobly undertaken the publication, and have assisted and supported the Work in every possible way; while the General Convention of the New Jerusalem in the United States of America have manifested the kind interest taken in the Work in that country by appointing a Committee to give the most practical aid in their power towards the successful completion of the Concordance.

Glasgow, 4th May, 1888.

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