ON TREMULATION

An engaging work in which Swedenborg discusses the importance that vibrations (or tremulations) play in the world, from earthquakes to music. Swedenborg places particular emphasis on the role of tremulations in our biological make-up (the beating of our hearts and pulsing of our nerves) and upon our sense perception (sound waves, light waves). He goes on to posit that ‘as to what it is that really makes us living…this cause is motion…if common sense is followed, we will inevitably find that Rest can never have any part in that which is called Life; for rest and life are two contrary things, just as a dead state and a living state’. In this early work we can see Swedenborg broaching themes that would resurface in his later cosmology (The Principia), metaphysics (The Infinite) and theology (his doctrine of uses). This book brings together an article Swedenborg first published in his scientific journal Daedalus Hyperboreus in 1718 and the extant portions of a longer paper on the same subject that he handed to the Board of Health, Stockholm in 1719. This edition comes with a Preface from the translator and an Index.

Additional Information

Translations of Bewis at wårt lefwande wesende består merendels i små darringar thet är tremulationer (1718) and Anatomi af vår aldrafinaste natur, wisande att wart rörande och lefwande wäsende består af contremiscentier (1719).