SOURCE: A review of The Secret of Swedenborg, in The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XXIV, No. 6, December, 1869, pp. 762-63.

In the following unsigned review, the critic provides a favorable overview of James's treatise The Secret of Swedenborg. The critic predicts, however, that the work will disturb some readers who might oppose James's belief that humans are creatures of God and that their existence depends entirely on Him.

[In The Secret of Swedenborg] Mr. James rejects the idea of a Supreme Being, who, having created the heavens and the earth, and set life in operation according to certain universal laws, has ever since been resting and enjoying himself. Our author aims to show, from what he believes about the inspired philosophy of Swedenborg, that God is now and ever was the striving, self-devoted Christ, loving his creatures supremely, and living for them; and he teaches that the creature exists only...