Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/855

* SWEDENBORGIANS. 747 SWEDISH LANGUAGE. the writings of Swcdenborg. Tins grew into a soi-iuty for worsliip ;uul lueacliing. Public scr- viits were first held in 17SS. The General Con- ference of the A'ew Jirusaleni Church in that c<iuiilrv began its sessions in ITS!), and since 1815 has met annually. In l!t02 the Conference con- sisted of 73 societies, with an aggregate mem- bership of G337. There were twelve societies, with a membership of 193, which do not belong to the Conference, ami also DOU believers not connected with any society, enrolled as "isolated receivers,' making a grand total of 7520 enrolled Sweden- borgians in Great Britain. On the Continent of Europe there is a society of Swedenborgians in each of the cities of Paris, Zurich. Florence, Budapest, Vienna, Stuttgart, Copetihagen. Stock- holm, and Gothenburg. In the United States the first society of Swedenborgians was organized in Baltimore in 1792. The General Convention of the New Jerusalem in the United Slates and Canada held its first meeting in Philadelphia in 1817. With little interruption this body has held annual sessions ever since. In this country the Swedenborgian societies are grouped into State organizations, called associations. The CJeneral Convention is com])osed of twelve of these associations, and of nine separate societies. The individual membership of the bodies coni- posing the Convention as repiu'ted in 1902 was 6812. There is a smaller organization of the Swedenborgians called The Ociural Church of the Xcic Jerusalem. Its headquarters are in the United States, though it has members in other countries. It is an offshoot from the Conven- tion, having withdrawn from that body in 1801. It re])orts a membership of GOO. In Australia there are four societies of .Swedenborgians. with an aggregate membership of about 350; and there is a society in New Zealand; one on the island of llauritius. in the Indian Ocean ; and. one at Durban, South Africa. There are also circles of readers and students of Swedenborg of sufficient importance to be reported in the journals of the organization in British India, China. .Japan, and South America. Taken all together theie are not far from Ifi.OOO registered adult members of the Swedenborgian faith in the world. The ministry of the Swedenborgians is pat- terned after the Episcopal order. In the General Conference of Great Britain there are 7 ordain- ing ministers, 35 ordained ministers, and 12 recognized leaders and missionaries, making a total ministerial force of 54. In the General Convention of the United States there are 6 general pastors. 102 pastors and ministers, and IG authorized candidates and preachers, making a total of 124 in its ministerial force. The Gen- eral Church of the Xew .Jerusalem repiuts one bishop, 16 pastors. 4 ministers, and 2 candid.ates, making a ministerial force of 2.3. The pastors and ministers of the societies scattered through- out the world for the most part act under the authority of some one of these three general bodies, and their ministerial force of about 200 as reported above may be considered as constitxit- ing the entire clergy of the Swedenborgians in the world. In this classification the ordaining ministers of the General Conference, the general pastors of the General Convention, and the bish- op of the General Church hold among Sweden- borgians a position similar to that of a bishop Vol. XVIII.— 18. of the Episcopal Church, though with the ex- ception of the bishop of the (iencral Church they do not exercise such autliorily. A number of Swe(leid)orgian societies in Eng- land conduct secular schools in connection with their religious societies. There are ten .such institutions, with an aggregate enrollment (in 1902) of 4375 scholars. There is also a New Church College, Uond(m, concerned for the most part in preparing young men for the ministry. In the United Stales there are The Wall ham Xew Church School, at Waltham, Mass.; The Urbana University, at Urbana, Ohio; The N"cw Church Theological School, at Cambridge, .Mass.; and The Academy of the Xew Church, at I'.ryn .thyn, Pa., conducted by the General Church, which has also several parochial schools in the United States and Canada. The sect publishes many journals. SWEDISH LANGUAGE AND LITERA- TURE. Swedish belon;;s to the northern bruneli of the Germanic family, within which it is an eastern development of the old dnusL- iunya, or Danish tongue, a name anciently applied to the language spoken not in Dt'umark only, but in the rest of Scandinavia as well. It was very much the same in the entire Northland down to about A.n. 900, or a little later, when it began to dif- ferentiate into an eastern type, ramifying into Danish an<l Swedish, and a western tvpe, giving rise to Norwegian and Icelandic. From 900 to 1500 the Swedish branch is called Old Swedish. Until after 1200 the only records are runic in- scriptions, cut for the most ])art on gravestones. The use of the Latin alphaliet began in the thir- teenth century. In the fourteenth century, when a literary language began to develop out of the SiJdernianland dialect, the dill'erentiation from Danish proceeded slowly; after this came a peri<id of extensive approximation to Danish, to be fol- lowed in time I»y an archaizing period, which restored original forms. Aside from divergencies of vocabulary. Swedish now differs from Danish especially in its retention, after a vowel, of the old voiceless consonants, U, I, p, which in Danish changed to </, d, h, and in its retention of the vowels a. and o in unstressed syllables, where Danish has e or no vowel at all; thus Swedish hole, "book," mat, 'meat.' apa, 'ape,' are in Danish ho(], mad, ahc. Swedish talar ni svenska 'do you speak Swedish?' is in Danish taler de srensk ; and Swedish flichait likuar xiii mor. 'the girl resembles her mother,' is in Danish pi(icn lifiner modrren. Under this head it may be added that Swedish has not the 'glottal catch' of Danish, and that Danish has not the delicately modulated musical accent of Swedish. The main body of the Swedish vocabulary is old Germanic stock, the principal foreign in- gi-edients being (1) Latin and Greek words that came in with Christianity or with the growth of scholarship; (2) Low German words dating from the time of the Ilanseatic League, as arbela. 'to work,' stovel. 'boot,' sriinka. 'taste;' f3) Ger- man words from the time of the Thirty Years' War, as lapprr, 'brave.' prakf. 'splendor;' (4) French words borrowed in the seventeenth and ei^hteentb centuries, as nffiir. 'business.' tnlnnq. 'talent.' charmant. 'charming.' Like the other North-Germanic tongues. Swedish has the post- positive definite article (originally a pronominal