Page:Emanuel Swedenborg, Scientist and Mystic.djvu/118

102, as Ramström had said, being one of his modern titles to fame) that no little doll chick existed in the germ and simply grew larger, but that there was in it "a certain formative substance or force which caused the various parts of the embryo to develop in an orderly fashion, one after the other." 18

"However obscure our idea may be, yet we shall clearly perceive by a little attention, that the stupendous machine of the animal body could by no means have come together without a positive directing force . . ." and that "such a directive or formative force is not without but within the chick or embryo." Furthermore, "it must exist within that substance that was first in the ovum and that has life or soul within it. Now, if we consult the anatomy of bodies, particularly those of early fœtuses or those that are still in the egg, we shall meet with a certain most fluid matter that from the first stamen by a wonderful determination successively projects, delineates and descries the entire image of the future body. Surely then we must grant that this directive force is seated in this fluid, and, if so, we must conclude from the infinite variety of particular effects that it involves a certain wonderful form in the whole and in all its parts, for if not mighty miracles of formation would result from mere chance." 19

He could not help concluding that "this substance or force represents to itself the state about to be formed, just as if it were a state already formed . . ." What had seemed "a miniature chaos" in the egg, "a blank, undigested mass, is now seen to involve the most perfect order and accurate discrimination." 20

What would be the effect, he asked, of "the very least irregularity"? "It would be as if an arrow or ball were shot at some distant mark with an error of only two or three minutes of a degree in the aim, in which case the farther the ball or arrow had to fly the farther it would be at last from the target." 21

Not less important was Swedenborg's conclusion that this formative force "is identical with that principle which repairs the dilapidations of the body, and when contingencies arise renovates and perfects the system." 22

He was loath to describe it in words, although of course he did, but groaning that all words must be inadequate. Words give rise to "a thousand sleights of language by means of which books are