Typed letter from N.D. Pendleton to Rev. Theodore Pitcairn in Chateau de la Motte, Thoury-Ferrottes, Seine-et-Marne, France. Pendleton has received Pitcairn’s letter of April 14th, and he remarks that it “raises questions which will take time to settle.” Pendleton has granted Pfeiffer permission to circulate excerpts from his magazine, De Hemelsche Leer, to the ministers and lay people of the Church. In a recent letter to Pendleton, Pfeiffer argued that the principles for interpreting the internal sense of the Word can be applied to Swedenborg’s Writings themselves “without any reserve or difference.” Pendleton responded, stating his belief that “our approach to and interpretation of the successive revelations should be qualified by a recognition of the different planes of the mind to which these revelations are addressed.” With reference to Pitcairn’s suggestion that they undertake a “seriatim attempt to interpret the Writings correspondentially,” Pendleton does not anticipate they will discover any new truths in this way. He writes, “Of course, as you have shown, we can transpose statements concerning government, giving them an internal in place of an external application, that is, we can interpret the teaching concerning external government in the terms of that which goes on in the human mind. Indeed we may go further and interpret them in the terms of the Lord’s glorification. But for the sake of definitely advancing our understanding of the truths revealed in the Writings, I believe in the rational mode, i. e. by a comparison of doctrinal passages.” Names mentioned: Mr. (Ernst) Pfeiffer