Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/44

xxxvi "That formula was no other than the simple analytical expression of what is now generally called the law of the conservation of energy, which has since revolutionized science in nearly all its branches, and which at that time was but little developed or accepted. It is believed that this was not only the first, but that it even still is the only treatise on Analytical Mechanics in which all the phenomena are presented as mere consequences of that single law." The same law of Action and Reaction, as applied to the moral forces, was stated by Swedenborg more than a century ago, giving us a striking illustration of the universality and simplicity of the law govering both worlds. In its later phase it is an essential part of what the disciples of Swedenborg regard as the most conclusive argument that has yet been made in favor of the freedom of the Will. Among all the men who rose to eminence in any of the departments of Natural Science during his time, it would be difficult to name one whose labors in the different departments of applied science it would be more interesting or more profitable to dwell upon. They suggest to the most careless reader, what a more careful examination would demonstrate, that the most striking feature of unity that characterizes them all, from the beginning to the end, and towards which every thing he did, studied or wrote seemed to tend, was to find the ultimate or final source of power; that force which, both as a philosopher and as an officer of the state, he had been engaged from his youth upward in trying to reduce to the service of