On the Honorable Emanuel Swedenborg's UNIVERSAL THEOLOGY

In this choice work the curious eye may find The noblest system to reform mankind, Old truths confirm'd, that sceptics have deny'd, By most perverted, and which some deride.

Here, truths divine in heavenly visions grow From the vast influx on our world below; Here, like the blaze of our material sun, Enlighten'd reason proves, that GOD IS ONE—. As that, concenter'd in itself, a sphere, Illumes all nature with it's radiance here, Bids tow'rd itself all trees and plants aspire, Awakes the winds, impells the seeds of fire, And, still subservient to th' almighty plan, Warms into life the changeful race of man: So, like that sun, in heaven's bright realms we trace One power of LOVE, that fills unbounded space, Existing always by no borrow'd aid, Before all worlds, eternal, and not made;— To that indebted, stars and comets burn, Owe their first movement, and to that return: Prime source of wisdom, all contriving mind, First spring of reason, that this globe design'd, Parent of ORDER, whose unwearied hand Upholds the fabric that his wisdom plann'd, And it's due course assign'd to every sphere, Revolves the seasons, and sustains the year; Pure light of TRUTH! where'er thy rays combine Thou art the substance of the power divine! Nought else on earth that full resemblance bears, No sun, that lights us thro' our circling years, No stars, that thro' yon heavenly mansions stray, No moon, that glads us with her evening ray, No seas, that o'er their gloomy mansions flow, No forms beyond us, and no shapes below.

Then slight, ah! slight not this instructive page For the low follies of a thoughtless age; Here, to the truth, by reason's aid asspire, Here, the gay visions of the blest admire; Behold that heaven in these neglected lines, In whose vast space perpetual day-light shines, Where streams of joy thro' plains of pleasure run, And night is banish'd from so bright a sun.

Plung'd in that gulph, whose dark unfathom'd wave All tongues and nations to destruction gave,— Here, man no more disgrac'd by death appears, Lost in dull slumbers thro' a waste of years— No empty dream, or still more empty shade; Remains the substance, but the form decay'd: Sees what he saw, knows what before was known, The same ideas, but more perfect grown.

Where parted souls with kindred spirits meet, Rapt to the bloom of beauty, all complete, In that celestial, vast, unbounded sphere, Nought there exists but has it's image here! All there is MIND!—that intellectual flame, From whose vast depth Platonic visions came, In which creation ended and began— Flows to this abject world, and beams on man.