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Essay on William James (1842-1910)
William James was born in New York City, January 11th, 1842. He was the eldest son of the Rev. Henry James of Boston, famous both as theologian and as writer. In outward appearance he bore a striking resemblance to his father. The Rev. Henry James exhibited a curious combination of gaiety and gravity, keen thought and great depth of feeling, with a turn for quip and jest. These traits were found in equal measure in his son William. The interests of the Rev. Henry James were principally confined to religious questions. In these matters, he was an ardent disciple of the great Swedish savant, Swedenborg.
The point of departure for these famous doctrines which held so much interest for Kant was the conviction a conviction which Swedenborg had reached from a study of the animal kingdom of the existence of a constant mutual influence between the mental and the material, between the spiritual and the natural. From that point, Swedenborg, by the study of religion as described in the Scriptures, had risen to the idea of a relation between terrestrial beings and the beings of the spiritual world, with the resultant possibility of knowing directly religious truths, and from this knowledge deriving a purified Christianity as a foundation for the New Jerusalem. (Linda Simon, 1996)
During his early years William James was deeply impressed by his father's teachings. Not only did he acquire a remarkable aptitude for analysis, but he saturated himself so thoroughly with the Swedenborgian spirit that he seems to have preserved throughout his life a secret predilection for the doctrines of the great mystic. William James's course of studies was not a very methodical one. His father having gone to live for a time in Europe, William James early familiarized himself with European languages and culture. He received instruction from special tutors in London and Paris....
