[From Dadalus Hyperboreus, No. VI., October, 1718.]
ARGUMENTS SHOWING THAT OUR VITAL FORCE CONSISTS MOSTLY OF LITTLE VIBRATIONS, THAT IS, TREMULATIONS.
BY ASSESSOR EMAN. SWEDBORG.

Before what is unusual and unknown cap be made credible, it is necessary to establish some fixed and in dubitable rules, according to which the theory may be proved.

THE FIRST RULE OF TREMULATION.
Anything of a firm end hard nature, such as wood, stone, rock, metal, etc., is subjected to great tremulations even by a slight touch.

This is evident from buildings and cities: houses and streets are known to tremble and reverberate from a wagon passing by; a whole rock trembles at the knock of a hammer; a bell vibrates and even produces sound from the touch of a small needle; a person at one end of a long pole or mast may know what another person is writing or drawing on the other end; if poles were joined one with the other to the length of a mile, or in the tube of a draught-engine, a blow would be noticed
from one end to the other; nay, even if only one end should touch a stringed instrument, the vibration would at once be communicated to the other end; a cannon-shot, a mountain-slide, a subterranean cave-in may be heard twenty to thirty miles round about, causing houses and cities to tremble and shake. From this it may be concluded that a small cause is able to effect a great vibration.

THE SECOND RULE.

An expanded membrane is the best medium of tremulation.

It is known that a membranous string is the best medium of sound, that is, of tremulation. By a membrane is meant anything most external or the surface of a solid substance, which surface receives the tremulation before it is received in the body itself, which consists of continuous membranes and surfaces; and this in the same ratio as that of the square to the cube.

THE THIRD RULE.

Next to membranes, the best media of tremulation are such bodies as are hard and elastic; softer bodies,are less suitable.

The most brittle and hard metals, such as iron and steel, or copper and tin together, are the ones that give a ringing sound; the more plastic metals, such as gold and lead, give less sound; softer substances, such as sand, clay, or feathers, give no sound whatever.

THE FOURTH RULE.

7he tremulation of a string will canse a synthetic vioration in another string; a membrane similarly affects another membrane; that is, if both are tuned in the same key.

If the string of a lute is touched, it will cause a vibration in the other strings which are tuned in the same key. An outside sound will often cause a vibration in a whole musical instrument, as also a whole gallery will vibrate from the sound in the pipe of an organ, that is, if they are in the same key or tune. A glass may break from its own sound.

THE FIFTH RULE.
Tremulations in the air make rings and circles, and are heard on all sides round the center of the motion; that is, if the vahole mass is not being moved.

If a stone is thrown into the water, it will make rings round about. So also, in the air, a cry or sound is heard on all sides round about.

THE SIXTH RULE.
The heavier the atmosphere, the slower is the tremulation, but the lighter the air, the swifter is the motion.

The tremulatory circle moves slowly in the water; in the air it moves more quickly; in the finer air, which, is called the ether, it is still swifter; in the solar substance it moves from the sun to us in an instant; in the very finest atmosphere there is probably no time which can correspond to the undulation. non-Einsteinian


THE SEVENTH RULE.

One tremulation does not interfere with another, simultaneous one.

This may be best tried in water, where ten or twenty circles may oscillate the one within the other, without interfering with one another, but each one proceeds on its way without obstruction. Similarly in the air: the sound of one string of an instrument does not interfere with the sound of another string, nor one word with another. The reason of this will be shown separately.

THE EIGHTH RULE.

In all tremulations the angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence.

The oscillating circles in the water are reflected according to the angles of incidence. In a round vessel full of water they return to the center; in an oblong channel they go forward and backward; a rope, hanging in a mining-shaft, moves itself up and down in serpentine coils; the same takes place in a musical chord; an echo propels the sound forward and backward; thus also does the substance of the sun move the particles of our sight.

non-Newtonian, non-Helmholthian

THE NINTH RULE.

In tremulations there are millions of variations.

How many different sounds are not produced by a well-tuned piano? how many are not still lacking within an octave ? One sound is different from the other, is more flowing, broader, duller, or harsher. The sound and pronunciation of men differ like their faces. Every vowel has its own separate sound. If these variations are duplicated, it will be seen that there are millions of different kinds of tremulations.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS THAT MUCH OF OUR VITAL FORCE CONSISTS IN TREMULATIONS.

From the above rules it can be shown that our mobile life sensation, or our nature, consists in little vibrations, that is, tremulations. From the first rule it may be seen that a most minute particle is able to communicate its motion to all other things in the whole body, is able to bring a certain membrane and sinew, the blood the life, and the/spirit into the same motion with itself, and thereby: all contiguous membranes, fibres, and nerves. Speech is nothing but tremulation, like the sound in a strinHearing is only a concentrated collection of such tremulations, flowing in through turbinated membranes, and propelling themselves over hammers and anvils up to the dura and pia mater, which are similarly vibrating; so that all fibres, nerves, animal spirits, and the blood, thus touched, will come into a motion according to the preceding rules. If the same tremulation is caught by the membrane by means of the sympathetic vibration of the teeth or the bones of the head, the sensation of hearing may be effected independently of the mechanism of the ear. Smelling and taste are similarly produced by contact with various kinds of particles round, angular, or sharpby which the fibres and nerves are pulled or drawn, carrying the tremulations to the aura and pia mater. Similarly with the Sight, which is the most delicate of our senses; the least of color or light strikes against the minute fibres, and the distended optic nerves communicate it to the coats of the brain, eEecting sensation and tremulation round about. It is the same with the motions of the temper,which are derived from a stinging or biting of the bile in the internal organ; similarly in the case of all external feelings or sensations, because all things are so connected by threads and sinews, that what is touched in one place is felt in another, and especially in the membrane of the brain, for all the threads and nerves terminate there, and into it is collected whatever belongs to the whole body; if, therefore, the tremulation is first felt in that membrane, it will at once find space and matter by means of which to communicate itself over the whole body. If now this membrane becomes slack, or is deprived of its heat, its blood, or its animal spirits, then the whole man becomes dull, heavy, and dead. Further)
when a relaxation takes place in the nerves of the five senses, after having been in a state of tension during the entire day, then sleep sets in; and yet, during the sleep, we have something similar to sight and hearing, etc., which things go to prove that all the external senses are still kept in internal tremulations. It also frequently happens that a person falls into the thought of anothet person, that he perceives what another is doing and thinking, that is, that his membrane trembles from the tremulation of the other person's cerebral membranes, just as one string is affected by another, if they are tuned in the same key. It may not be presumptuous to conclude that the thoughts of the unreasoning animals are tremulations, proceeding from the internal and external sensations of the body and its senses; so that experience has' taught them what is meant by one kind of tremulation and what by another, just as we recognize the words, and their meanings by the different
kind of tremula tion in each sound. That no part of the body can be touched without communicating the touch to the dura and pia mater, that is, the membrane of the brain, and that nothing can be touched in this membrane, without communicating it to the whole bodymay be seen from all those threads which are joined to the sinews, outwardly; as also from those twenty to thirty nerves which terminate in the cerebral membrane, and which all are clothed by it. If said membrane is injured, a person is at once deprived of a sensation; he fails, swoons, loses his thought and his reason. If the fibres or nerves become slack, a person is similarly deprived of sensation, as takes place in colds, congestion of the blood, or in sleep. lf the animal spirits are overflowing, as in intoxication or in anger. then the membrane becomes too much heated and distended, so that it makes a manifold and wild tremulation instead of the proper and usual one. From all this it follows, that, by means of so many contacts or impressions, there is in us a continually moving, tremulatory, and living force, in the feasts as in the greatest, according to the preceding rules.