give you a general notion of what correspondence means. I cannot give you any other than a very general notion, at present. But I intend in future lessons to give particular instances, and afterwards we will consider the subject of correspondence again, and you will be better able to understand it.

There are many different kinds of correspondence, and different meanings of the word, some of which are very simple and low. Perhaps I had better begin with them.

When one thing corresponds with or to another, it is like it in some respects, though correspondence is a very different thing from resemblance. If you take a card, and cut it through the middle, there will be two halves, and one of them will correspond to the other. If you open a book in the middle, the half of it which lies on one side corresponds with the half which lies on the other. Your right hand corresponds with your left hand; your right foot with your left foot; your right ear with your left ear. In all these cases you will observe that the two things which correspond togeth

er are equal; neither is greater nor less, higher nor lower, than the other. But it is not always so.

If a king, who has a large kingdom containing many provinces, appoints officers to govern the separate provinces, the office and duty of the king in his kingdom corresponds with the office and duty of each officer in his province; although the office of the king is much higher and greater than that of his officer.

The office of a king in his kingdom is to govern the whole; to see that no harm happens to it; to take notice of whatever occurs, and to make provision for whatever may be expected. Now the head of every man governs the whole body; it sees for the body, and takes care for it. Therefore the office and use of a king as to his kingdom corresponds with the office and use of the head as to the body; and because of this correspondence, the king is called the head of his kingdom. In the same way, whoever is chief of any thing is said to be head of it; thus one of you may be at the head of your class, and another of you at the foot of it.

But there are higher kinds of correspondence.

Thus, if, when you have done a wrong thing, you repent of it, and promise your parents that you will not do it again, then, if you never do it again, your conduct will correspond with your promise. So, if you have certain opportunities of knowing what it is right for you to do, and if you acknowledge that it is right, and if you intend to do it because it is right, then, if you do what is right, your actions correspond with your opportunities, with your acknowledgment, and with your intentions. Now, in this last case, your intentions are things of your own mind; but your actions belong to your body and limbs. So you see here is a correspondence between what belongs to the mind, and what belongs to the body. So, if you feel either kind or glad, or cross and sullen, your face and eyes shew your feelings, and a person who looks upon you, sees either a smile which tells of your gentleness and happiness, or a frown which betrays your anger. Here, the state of the mind is shown by a correspondent aspect or look of the counte

nance.

In the same case, you can understand that the

things of the thought and mind are within, but the conduct or actions are without; so that you see here a correspondence between things within, or internal things, and things without, or external things.

I have spoken of these various kinds of correspondence, chiefly to let you understand some of the more common meanings of the word. I thought this might lead your mind to the understanding of the higher and much more important kind of correspondence, of which I intend to speak in this book. This is, the correspondence between natural things and spiritual things. And in my next lesson, I will endeavor to tell you something about this, before I proceed to speak of particular instances and examples of correspondence. But before I leave this lesson, I would say one thing to prevent your falling into an error. The instances I spoke of first in this lesson, as the card, the book, the hands, &c., are not instances of correspondence in the highest and proper sense of the Word; but the corespondence between thoughts or intentions, and conduct or

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actions, is of the highest kind. Because the one thing which you must learn, and remember all the way through, is, that the correspondence we are speaking of exists only between internal things and external things. And thoughts or intentions are internal things, and conduct or actions are external things; for thoughts or intentions belong to the mind or the soul, and conduct or actions belong to the body. As the soul is within the body, therefore all things of the soul are internal, and all things of the body are external.