‘THE Heat, Light, and Atmospheres of the Natural World only open Seeds; and this not by Powers derived from their own Sun, but by Powers from the spiritual Sun … for the Image of Creation is Spiritual; nevertheless, that it may appear, and furnish use in the natural world … it must be clothed in Matter.’—SWEDENBORG, Wisdom of Angels Concerning Divine Love and Divine Wisdom: quoted in Blake’s Marginalia.
‘Often before dawn’, said Goethe, ‘I am awake, and lie down by the open window to enjoy the splendour of the three planets at present visible together, and to refresh myself with the increasing brilliance of the morning-red. I then pass almost the whole day in the open air, and hold spiritual communion with the tendrils of the vine, which say good things to me, and of which I could tell you wonders.’—Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann.
‘When I see where the east is greater than the west … or a father is more needful than a mother to produce me — then I guess I shall see how spirit is greater than matter.’—WHITMAN, Notebooks.
‘The soul or spirit transcends itself into all matter, — into rocks, and can live the life of a rock — into the sea, and can feel itself the sea … into the earth — into the motions of the suns and stars.
‘Never speak of the soul as anything but intrinsically great. The effusion or corporation of the soul is always under the beautiful laws of physiology.’—Ibid.