On Fri, 25 Dec 1998 19:29:01 -0700 Charles Miller <bautiste at uswest.net>
writes:
>I probably do not need to note that Swedenborg was the intellectual
>hero
>of several major literary and philosophy talents. Goethe, Emerson and
>Blake to name just a few. Milosz also in this century. Then there's
>Yeats...
>
As the piece that Lou posted, Henry James, Sr. was a Swedenborgian. He hobnobbed with many of the leading New England Transcendentalists. Emerson, for instance was a frequent dinner guest at the James home when the young William and Henry Jr. were growing up. I am not sure what impact if any all this had on Henry James' novels but it clearly did have a palpable influence on William James, most notably in his _The Varieities of Religious Experience_.
>As far as the spiritualism of the last century is concerned, there's a
>lot of evidence to show that Whitman's background in this _science_
>was
>quite extensive, and he saw poetry as an embodiment of the
>transformations supposedly brought on by various brands of this
>science.
>Finally, I have heard that Einstein used to read Blavatsky--some
>people
>say for fun, others are not exactly sure why. Anyone ever come across
>this?
I have heard of this too. It is unimaginable that he could have taken her writings very seriously. Einstein sometimes said that he liked to read Schopenhauer and Nietzsche for "edification" but when he needed to hardheaded philosophical analysis he turned to the writings of Hume, Kant, and Mach. Also, growing up he had been strongly influenced by Ludwig Buchner's materialist tract, _Force and Matter_.
Jim Farmelant
>
>chuck miller
>
>> The synthesis of Swedenborgianism, mesmerism and spiritualism seemed
>to
>> pave the way to a spiritual science that would in time provide a key
>not
>> only to the mysteries of life after death but to the meaning of
>everything.
>> It was this expectation that provided an impetus for new brands of
>> 'scientific' Christianity
>>
>
>
>
___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]