Page:Swedenborg, Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church.djvu/98

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

"The First Part treats of the origin and laws of motion, and is mostly devoted to the consideration of its first principles; which are investigated philosophically, then geometrically, their existence being traced from a first natural point down to the formation of a solar vortex, and afterwards from the solar vortex to the successive constitution of the elements and of the three kingdoms of nature. From the first element to the last compound, it is the author's object to show that effort or conatus to motion tends to a spiral figure; and that there is an actual motion of particles constituting a solar chaos, which is spiral and consequently vortical.

"In the Second Part the author applies this theory of vortical motion to the phenomena of magnetism, by which on the one hand he endeavors to test the truth of his principles, and on the other by application of the principles to explain the phenomena of magnetism; the motion of the magnetical effluvia being as in the former case considered to be vortical.

"In the Third Part the author applies the same principles of motion to Cosmogony, including the origination of the planetary bodies from the sun,

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