Green Tea; Mr. Justice Harbottle | Page 5

this perfectly silent room, of a very silent house, with a
peculiar foreboding; and its darkness, and solemn clothing of books, for
except where two narrow looking-glasses were set in the wall, they
were everywhere, helped this somber feeling.
While awaiting Mr. Jennings' arrival, I amused myself by looking into
some of the books with which his shelves were laden. Not among these,
but immediately under them, with their backs upward, on the floor, I
lighted upon a complete set of Swedenborg's "Arcana Caelestia," in the
original Latin, a very fine folio set, bound in the natty livery which
theology affects, pure vellum, namely, gold letters, and carmine edges.
There were paper markers in several of these volumes, I raised and

placed them, one after the other, upon the table, and opening where
these papers were placed, I read in the solemn Latin phraseology, a
series of sentences indicated by a pencilled line at the margin. Of these
I copy here a few, translating them into English.
"When man's interior sight is opened, which is that of his spirit, then
there appear the things of another life, which cannot possibly be made
visible to the bodily sight."...
"By the internal sight it has been granted me to see the things that are in
the other life, more clearly than I see those that are in the world. From
these considerations, it is evident that external vision exists from
interior vision, and this from a vision still more interior, and so on."...
"There are with every man at least two evil spirits."...
"With wicked genii there is also a fluent speech, but harsh and grating.
There is also among them a speech which is not fluent, wherein the
dissent of the thoughts is perceived as something secretly creeping
along within it."
"The evil spirits associated with man are, indeed from the hells, but
when with man they are not then in hell, but are taken out thence. The
place where they then are, is in the midst between heaven and hell, and
is called the world of spirits--when the evil spirits who are with man,
are in that world, they are not in any infernal torment, but in every
thought and affection of man, and so, in all that the man himself enjoys.
But when they are remitted into their hell, they return to their former
state."...
"If evil spirits could perceive that they were associated with man, and
yet that they were spirits separate from him, and if they could flow in
into the things of his body, they would attempt by a thousand means to
destroy him; for they hate man with a deadly hatred."...
"Knowing, therefore, that I was a man in the body, they were
continually striving to destroy me, not as to the body only, but
especially as to the soul; for to destroy any man or spirit is the very

delight of the life of all who are in hell; but I have been continually
protected by the Lord. Hence it appears how dangerous it is for man to
be in a living consort with spirits, unless he be in the good of faith."...
"Nothing is more carefully guarded from the knowledge of associate
spirits than their being thus conjoint with a man, for if they knew it
they would speak to him, with the intention to destroy him."...
"The delight of hell is to do evil to man, and to hasten his eternal ruin."
A long note, written with a very sharp and fine pencil, in Mr. Jennings'
neat hand, at the foot of the page, caught my eye. Expecting his
criticism upon the text, I read a word or two, and stopped, for it was
something quite different, and began with these words, Deus
misereatur mei--"May God compassionate me." Thus warned of its
private nature, I averted my eyes, and shut the book, replacing all the
volumes as I had found them, except one which interested me, and in
which, as men studious and solitary in their habits will do, I grew so
absorbed as to take no cognisance of the outer world, nor to remember
where I was.
I was reading some pages which refer to "representatives" and
"correspondents," in the technical language of Swedenborg, and had
arrived at a passage, the substance of which is, that evil spirits, when
seen by other eyes than those of their infernal associates, present
themselves, by "correspondence," in the shape of the beast (fera) which
represents their particular lust and life, in aspect direful and atrocious.
This is a long passage, and particularises a number of those bestial
forms.
CHAPTER IV
Four Eyes Were Reading the Passage
I was running the head of my pencil-case along the line as I read it, and
something caused me to