"When I think of what I am to write," says Swedenborg, "and while I am writing, I am gifted with a perfect inspiration-so that I know for certain that what I write is the living truth of God." From this it is very evident that Swedenborg's internal inspiration became external when he was in the act of writing. Again, there is no doubt that internal inspiration on becoming external passed through Swedenborg's natural mind, where it clothed itself with the words of natural language which it found there, and brought into requisition such natural scientifics as could "present representatively" the things of heaven, and likewise the things of the spiritual sense, according to the following teaching : "The things of the spiritual world are presented representatively; and unless spiritual things were thus representatively present in the natural [plane], and hence by means of such things as are in the world, they could by no means be comprehended." (A. C. 5373.) "The spiritual sense cannot be perceived by man except in proportion as it may be presented and expounded by such things as belong to the world and nature." (A. C. 6996.) From these passages appears the use which the natural scientifics of Swedenborg's mind served in the production of those writings, in and by which the Lord effected His Second Coming. They served in the place of a natural clothing to the spiritual truths contained in the spiritual sense of the Word. They therefore were means, and not ends; for the object of Swedenborg's mission was the revelation of the spiritual sense of the Word, and not a revelation of the natural things of this world. And still, as spiritual truths can be "presented representatively" only in natural truths, and not in natural fallacies, it follows, again, that the revelation of the spiritual sense on passing through Swedenborg's natural mind clothed itself there only with such natural scientifics as were really true and not fallacious. As Swedenborg, however, declared especially to Librarian Gjörwell that he "did not know the future" (see Document 251), and to Count Tessin that “future things have been reserved to the Lord alone" (see Document 250), it follows thence that the Lord, on revealing the doctrines of the internal sense through the instrumentality of Swedenborg, could make use only of such natural truths and facts as were stored up in Swedenborg's mind, and, consequently, as were known at his time; wherefore I quite agree with the writer where he says, "I think it not too much to say that as science advances it will afford a more perfect basis for some truths than that of Swedenborg's own day supplied." (P. 518.) Yet from this it does not follow that some of Swedenborg's scientifics furnished a wrong basis for the spiritual truths which the Lord revealed through him; for from this it would follow, again, that the Lord effected His Second Coming not in truths but in fallacies. Still this idea the writer seems to encourage, to judge from the list of alleged errors in Swedenborg's natural science which he collects on p. 518, and which will be discussed in my next paper. R. L. TAFEL. SPAIN. NO. III. CORDOVA-MOORISH REMAINS-SEVILLA. Oct. 20.-Arrived at Cordova. The Moorish aspect of the town was soon manifest. I had ridden by rail from Madrid through a fertile and beautiful country for a day and a half, broken by a night at a poor posada, or tavern, at Baeza. The traveller enters from the station by a good wide road, and passes on the left the arena for bull-fights, which, with a grand Casino, are said to be the most notable buildings of modern Cordova. Cordova was a distinguished city in the times of the Roman empire. Hosius, the president of the famous Council of Nice, 324, was bishop of Cordova. It was afterwards an important city under the Goths, and was called "holy and learned," and in 711 the Moors took it and made it the centre of Mohammedan power in Spain. It was for a considerable time a dependency of Damascus, but in 756 it declared itself independent, and during three hundred years increased in greatness until it was said in the twelfth century to contain 1,000,000 of inhabitants, 300 mosques, 900 baths, and 600 inns; now its population is only 55,000. I took up my quarters at the Hôtel Suisse, and found it quite worthy of the recommendation I had previously received. On going about the town I observed the streets narrow and crooked, by far the greater portion too narrow for a cart, and, indeed, I did not see a cart in Cordova. Mules, with pack-saddles and large panniers at each side, were the usual means of carriage and conveyance. Even the sweepings of the roads were removed by these panniers. The houses had blank walls to the street, with a central passage leading into a small garden, or court-yard, ornamented with cypress or other trees, and bringing the visitor to the front door of the house. These passages were often paved with marble, and closed at the end by handsome gates of polished brass. If any windows were visible in the street wall they were covered with lattice-work. I traversed the city in all directions, and came to the river Guadalquiver (Gu dál ke veer) at the side opposite to the railway station, and here a fine stream, crossed by an ancient bridge of sixteen arches, built by the Moors. Here all is Moorish; some mills at the opposite side of the river from the town, the walls and towers, the roads, and narrow complicated passages and streets. This used to be the leading entrance into the city, the road from Madrid. A very short distance from the inside end of the bridge is the Mezquita, or Grand Mosque, now the Cathedral. This is the great and unique object of interest in Cordova. It was built, like St. Peter's at Rome, on the site of a temple of Janus. Outside you observe a large, lofty, square, battlemented wall, nearly a third of a mile each side. There are some square buttress towers, and there are said to have been formerly nineteen entrances. Now the entrance is through a large gateway at the central, the belfry tower, a very lofty one. The space inside is half court-yard, half cathedral; on three sides of the court-yard are cloisters for walking along, and the court itself is divided into two squares, well furnished with good-bearing orange-trees, furnishing fruit to the passers-by, who were few, but some of whom seemed to have no timidity in helping themselves. All this was curious and interesting to observe, but the scene of wonder is when the traveller enters the Mezquita itself. On closing the inner door behind me, and glancing before and around, all I could do in admiration and amazement was quietly to exclaim, "Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!" There are pillars, apparently countless, arched over with triple arches like inverted horse-shoes, one over the other, from pillar to pillar, and chequered with black and white marble. The pillars are said to be eight hundred and fifty in number. They make aisles in all directions, forward, across, diagonal. There are windows facing the court, filled with coloured glass, permitting light through reds, blues, and orange colour, the whole very rich. There are also lights in the roof. The pillars were about 15 inches in diameter, and rose, without visible base to rest upon, straight out of the floor. Every ninth pillar was very much stronger than the rest, some like heavy buttresses. In the centre there is a coro, or choir, where mass is celebrated, which was formed when the building passed into Christian hands. This breaks the peculiar character of the place, but perhaps was to be expected. Over the entrance to the choir is a statue of a Pope; and pictures of the Virgin are very frequent. There are many side-chapels, and in one there is a very gross conception of Tritheism. God the Father is handling a globe with compasses in hand, and explaining to God the Son the course of things, while the Holy Spirit like a dove is streaming light over the scene. After several visits the extraordinary and peculiar character of this wonderful building remained impressively, and the thought would come, What could originate in the architect's mind so very strange an idea of a place of worship, a place crowded with pillars? On continuing my journey south, I passed through extensive fertile plains, with immense olive-yards of thousands of well-grown olive-trees. They have been planted in rows, and are about the height and thickness of the pillars in the Mosque, springing out of the ground like the pillars, and the likeness is indeed striking. Here, I thought, is the solution. The Mezquita was intended to represent an olive-grove, and to lead the worshippers to adore the Giver of all good, as if they were doing it from a forest of the most valued fruit-trees,-His gift. In various parts of Scripture we read of the groves dedicated to idolatrous worship being set up, and taken away, and many of the learned have suggested that these were artificial groves (2 Kings xviii. 4 and Micah v. 14), and probably the Mosque at Cordova was an immense artificial grove. We must not quit Cordova without noticing that the only wide street or place in the city is the street of the Great Captain, so named from Gonzalo Fernandez de Aguilar, who was born at Montilla, near Cordova, in 1453, and was indeed a marvel of military talent and devotion to duty in the days of Ferdinand and Isabella. He was a sort of Wellington of those days, and by far the greatest Spanish soldier of any age. His exploits are admirably related by Prescott in his History of Ferdinand and Isabella. He died in Granada, and the house, poor as a poor farm-house, in which he had resided in his later years, and in which he breathed his last, I saw in a back street in Granada, a very homely place; it has a tablet on the wall with the inscription in Spanish, which I here translate : In this house lived, and in this house died, Decr. 2nd, 1515, the Cordova claims not to be the wealthiest city in Spain, but to be the most aristocratic, to have the best blood in it; and the Grand Captain is reported to have declared that it was not the best city to live in, but the best to be born in, of the whole land. Oct. 21 (Saturday).—I left Cordova at 3.10 A.M., and, after a fine ride through a rich and beautiful country, arrived at Seville, or Sevilla, at 9, and breakfasted at the Hôtel de Paris. The Guadalquiver descends from Cordova to Seville, and might easily be made navigable, and would constitute a grand highway, which it was in the time of the Moors, and even before, but for want of public spirit it remains an unused solitary stream. The Spaniards are said for 300 years to have been proposing to improve it, but, like vast numbers of good intentions, this remains without having been carried out. The sights of the country through which you pass between Cordova and Seville are very picturesque and curious. You see thousands upon thousands of olive-trees all ranged with the greatest regularity. One farm will sometimes contain 20,000 trees. You see hedges of cactuses, and fields of sugarcane and Indian corn, and immense numbers of orange-trees. You stop at almost every station about a quarter of an hour, and you then see beggars in plenty, and hear every form of craving and whining for alms. When the traveller reaches Seville he sees at once it is a noble and im. portant city. It contains nearly 120,000 inhabitants. It was the capital of Spain for five hundred years, and is the centre of the orange and olive district. The streets are broader than elsewhere, and there are many large squares, though, on the whole, you still find the narrow streets and Moorish style of house prevailing. It has still its Moorish wall of 5 miles round, 66 towers, and 16 gates. It has the Alcazar or Moorish Palace remaining, and still used, and a large number of Moorish houses and courts in perfect condition, and inhabited. The Cathedral is the glory of the city, and certainly the finest in Spain. On the same site was formerly a Mezquita or Mosque like that of Cordova, but when the city was taken from the Moors in 1248 by King Ferdinand, afterwards sainted, it became a Christian church. In 1480 it was determined to destroy the Mosque all but the lofty tower, called the Giralda, and build the present grand structure. It is immense and magnificent. It may be compared to York Minster, but of course with a style and variety of its own. It is lofty, sombre, with a great number of chapels, pictures, and every kind of ecclesiastical ornamentation. It has 93 windows, the painted ones the finest in Spain. The Giralda can be mounted even on a horse, by an inclined road without stairs. It formerly possessed the largest portion of the pictures of Murillo and others of the chief Spanish masters, but the French, under Soult, carried off a large number, so that now there are comparatively few either in the Cathedral or the city. I was astonished to find the Art Museum so poor. The more I see, and the more I reflect, the more plainly appears the uselessness of these large churches. This one at Seville had in former days a crowd of clergy; now the number is not so large. They inhabited a street named Calle de los Abades (Abbot's Street). The clergy being forbidden to marry, by good rights there should have been no children; but it was said of this street, and of suchlike, "The Pope might deny his clergy wives and children, but the devil provided them with housekeepers and nephews." "In this street all the children had uncles, but none had fathers." The luxurious, sensual, and selfish habits of these men are expressed in the sarcastic rules ascribed in Spain to St. James, which I give with a translation: Regla de Santiago. El primero-Es amar á Don Dinero. El secundo-Es amolar á todo el mundo. El tercero-Buen vaca y carnero. El cuarto-Ayunar despues de harto. El quinto-Buen blanco y tinto. Y estos cinco mandamientos se encierran en dos, Todo para mi, y nada para vos. (Translation.) The first is-To love the Lord Money. The second is-To grind all the world. The third is-Good beef and mutton. The fourth is-To fast when you can eat no more. The fifth is-Good wine, white and red. And these five commandments may be summed up in two, Everything for me, and nothing for you. Seville was the headquarters of the Inquisition in Spain. That horrible institution, instituted by Dominic, the Spanish monk, first at Toulouse in France, and sanctioned by swarms of Popes, those infallible men, is declared, according to the best authorities, to have caused, in Spain, from 1481 to |